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sometipsygnostalgic · 3 years

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adventure time wizard city liveblog

well here we go

my last adventure time liveblog, i havent actually done one of these in MANY years... probably not since 2014

this takes place at the same time as obsidian?

DID-- DID CHOOSE GOOSE JUST DIE

DID BUFO JUST KILL CHOOSE GOOSE

yeah i know that’s bufo, they only made it enormously obvious, tsk tsk

@spaceacepearl joked about us seeing choose goose get sent to hell but i diDNT EXPECT IT TO HAPPEN

This music is i assume by one of the many musical artists Adam Muto listed on twitter, it rocks. It’s not as hardcore as Obsidian’s intro, but it’s suitably chill for the scene.

“get offa my bus kid”

Those wizards in the left and far right groups appear to be new!

OH MY GOD--

HELP?????? NEW PROFILE PIC TIME

HAHAHAHAH

THE MUSICAL CON DID ME GOOD, I DID REALLY LOUD AUDIBLE LAUGHTER

i bet hanna and co had fun making these signs

my favourite is the cat with “FAMILIARS HAVE RIGHTS”

cadorka..... wow

We’re not even four minutes into the ep and peppermint butler has already killed someone in front of a large group of witnesses

“this smells of DARK MAGIC” “yall kids know thats illegal right” peps watches the other kids nod before later joining in, LOL

i cant believe pep started the great gum wars and got killed by golb

SOMEONE has been playing Overwatch...

i-- i still cant believe choose goose is fucking dead

how long was he stuck in hell for, or was that recent to together again after new death showed up

i have to admit im not a big fan of spader, too perfect, and not in that funny way either. i hope they give him some characteristics that make him stand out.

im getting flashbacks to OK KO and Owl House here...

Cadebra using music is a reference to Abracadaniel’s love of interpretetive dance in Play Date.

“they only laugh because youre different” “i know” “SO STOP BEING DIFFERENT” oh my god it’s like talking to my own parents cadebra is actually... a LOT like me, less in her hyperactivity but more in her nonchalant enthusiasm and almost acceptance of the inevitable bullying because it means more time in people’s consciousness

ahhh - it’s quietly revealed here that she is responsible and a skilled magician, she is just bored of magic! i like that she parents abracadaniel instead of being downtrodden by his ramblings.

PEP NO--- oh i see the problem, he hasn’t got his Bug Milk... sorry Martin Olsen fans, no Hunson today. At least we get one more Phil Face for the road!

candy people in their natural habitat

Ahhh that’s Doctor Calidoneus! The voice actor was at the recent Distant Lands panel alongside Pep and Blaine’s actors.

“pretty sure hes just trashcandy” - i like you, sassy antler lady

the mystery of how he gets clothes

and once again spader is proving to be the most irritating distant lands character of the lot, there is no subversion here. where is the subversion?

NANI

what is going on here? are pep and peppermint the same person or not? im sure they must be, but there is something going on here with peppermint butler’s soul being trapped in the body of his child self who hasn’t got the same memories.

OH, HYNDEN WALCH DID A NEW LINE yes this is what im here for, special over

peppermint butler cursed himself... of course he did - Shado was correct!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WHAT THE FUCK

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

ROCK STUDENT, BLESSED ROCK STUDENT, WAS THAT POOR GUY WHO LOOKS LIKE A JAWBREAKER

love the reference to astral plane, of course pep cant astrally project because cursed pep is still inside of him

wow, blaine, wow

they have a crush

LITTLE DUDE! COLE SANCHEZ!

i love the dynamic between cadebra and abracadaniel, imo so far it’s the heart of the special. im not really gripped by peppermint butler’s school troubles. i imagine someone else probably will be but i want to run past that shit as far as possible.

TRDGFYGHJH

WE MADE A PREDICTION THAT WAS JUST LIKE THIS

PEPPERMINT BUTLER GETTING TURNED INTO THE FOUR COMPONENTS OF PEPPER MINT BUTT LURE WAS IN THE WIZARD CITY PREDICTIONS ART DRAW THAT HASNT BEEN POSTED YET

ILL SHOW YOU WHEN NICK POSTS THE VIDEO and then ill tell you who made the prediction because i... think it was nick himself, insanity

who plagiarized finn’s signature???

turns out pep really DID take over wizard city!!!!

i love this band

i understand your pain peps

you probably have a bit too much in common with your mother, and i imagine it isn’t easy being turned into a kid and not being able to do stuff that came so easy. you’re disappointing yourself! (he’s literally disappointing himself)

I’m less than halfway through the special, what the fuck. I wasn’t wrong when I said Wizard City had a lot on its plate. It’s noit that I’ve been particularly gripped up to this point, though to be fair I didn’t pause at all during the other specials barring Obsidian.

that... that poor kid is still a rock

and then the preview happened and bufo casually revealed to the audience that, yes, he killed choose goose

i dont know whats happening with pep but it seems he needs to be exorcised of... pep. which is a shame. i hope they learn to coexist.

i have to say the background work in this special is really good! like, really damn good.

WHAT

DID SPADER JUST DIE

IS THIS WHY PEOPLE THINK PEPBUT KILLED HIM

oh thats right - abracadaniel is cadebra’s uncle! this must be abracadniels sister. sorry, folks, he doesn’t fuck.

Where are they? Is this anywhere near Wizard City? It’s an unpopulated prewar wasteland.

THESE ARE JUST HUMANS

OF COURSE SHE WANTS TO PERFORM TO MILQUETOAST HUMANS

my child

is this an art style choice or did they get the people from that one studio to make this

HANNA FINALLY GETS TO FULFIL HER DREAM OF INSERTING KANEDA INTO ADVENTURE TIME

the red jacket he wears and his head pill shape is a big kaneda reference actually, which i suppose makes sense considering he’s a rival to our protagonist, but it’s a bit on the nose

bufo killed one of his own students? but why????

“MY UNCLE’S A COP”

“no one likes a rat”

i actually really like blaine, though im confused. did their VA change halfway through the special?

HOW NATURAL, NO WASTE, IT IS AN ENDLESS CHAIN

did doctor caledonius steal the trophy,,,?

EVIL SNAIL EVIL SNAIL

MONMSTER HUNJTER DISCOVERY NOISE, this time it’s a tetsucabra

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I HAVE QUESTIONS

god i wish this is what this special was about, i miss adventure time

these remind me of the comics with their art style :) i wonder who designed them? the one on the right with pb and pep, in particular, very comics-y.

fdgfhgf because he’s like 500

“pep can be kind of a jerk but he wouldn’t kill anyone”

sorry, cadebra, i have news for you

is doctor calednoius the true villain? if bufo’s out of the picture, she MUST be,

ANTS

oh no, he might gbe stuck in wizard city :(

HELP

the writing on the wall...

SPADER LITERALLY FUCKING DIED OH YM JESUS CHRIST

PEPPERMINT BUTLER’S OWN CULT????

THIS IS JUST OK KO NOW

okay im not surprised all the teachers at wizard city are cultists in worship of peps, maybe they killed spader and bufo because they bullied peps T_T

wait no, they thought spader had the potential, but sadly not

HE FUCKING KILLED HIMSELF

sorry, i was distracted by the pretty dope fight sequence and now the special is over????

fucking jesse, hes probably at least partly responsible for the cult nonsense

This credits art is by Maya Petersen!!!! Holy shit it’s adorable!

LRETGFDRGTFGMHGFHFG

LEAF MAN

DO YOU THINK THEY PUT HIM IN RETROSPECTIVELY

DO YOU THINK MAYA PETERSEN DREW THIS AND ADAM PUT IT IN THE EP RETROSPECTIVELY

HE LIVES

MAYBE THIS IS WHY CHOOSE GOOSE WENT TO HELL

okay, it’s over :)

first thoughts out of the way: not a big fan of this special. it’s like watching a completely different show. it’s not got the PZSHAHH of the normal wizard city stuff and there weren’t a lot of funny jokes or even hearty moments in the thing.

it suffers from a lack of invested character interactions, much like BMO did. there was not a single main cast member in the whole thing! and like i said before, much of peppermint butler’s character in the show is based on his very sweet relationship to his mother, princess bubblegum, so when they showed a single (hilarious) photo of them together it made me sad we didn’t get any scenes with them together. it would have STOLEN this episode. and they teased the hunson golf photo, and death!!! and jake appeared in a photo T_T last jake appearance.

it also suffers because Peppermint Butler is clearly not himself, imo he was way more entertaining in the Together Again special, where we seem him back to his “normal” self.

i dont think peps being a dark wizard was something to “kill off” exactly. i wonder what was going on there? was that actually peps, or was that a spirit he cursed himself with based on himself? we at least know in the future he does become a dark wizard again, and even princess :) this special didn’t answer those questions but lol.

THE GOOD STUFF, because yes, there was a lot of good stuff!

God, I’m with Aracle and Maya on this - I LOVE Cadebra and her relationship to Pep. I wish she was even in more of this - I would love to watch the adventures of Cadebra and Pepbut in their first year of school, like in the end credits.

That, imo, is where the heart of the special lay - Peppermint Butler’s attempts to impress himself, versus Cadebra’s self acceptance and desire to follow her dreams of being a goofy goober, no matter what other people thought of her.

It turned out that Cadebra is a responsible student and family member. I really liked that. Her scenes with Abracadaniel were, somehow, my favourite in the entire special!

I like that theres a lot of cool magic towards the end of this special, and a lot of HORRIFYING DEATH. It wouldn’t be adventure time if you didn’t randomly kill off child characters. Poor Spader, I hated you but damn, what a grim fate.

I like that Bufo and Caledonius had this crush/hatred thing going on, but they were part of the same cult in the end.

I didn’t like the giant peps scene at the end, the monster was extremely milquetoast compared to the madness we usually get in AT. Obsidian, for example, had the awesome Larvo design. Nemesis had some INSANE dark magic!!!! I wish they drew more from that episode.

Considering how much Steve Little appears in this special, I do feel bad for Mace (little Peps). He said he would have really benefitted from coaching, but recieved none. He had to re-record his lines 3 times! Judging from his description of events, Wizard City was a hard time for him.

The wizard school did remind me, heavily, of both The Owl House and OK KO. Personally I was hoping AT would offer me something more insane, but I do love both of those shows, and I know Wizard City was on a really tight schedule.

I think they should have spent less time on the school bullying plot, and skipped straight to MURDER.

We did have a cold opening, not on par with Together Again’s at all, but damn!

I am wondering where I would put this in the watch list? I do think it should sit after Obsidian as the third special. The intro scene makes it clear this takes place at the same time as Obsidian!!!

Well, that was it, the last ep of AT for the next few years at least T_T

i think together again was the better finale, definitely. but wizard city feels pretty detached from AT for me, despite the familiar characters it tonally isn’t like the show other than the awesome brutal death scenes. I thought the last 11 minutes was easily the best in the special! Which, honestly, is how it should be, though I do wish it gripped me more. Maybe I’m just not the target audience for Wizard City? It feels like something I would find very compelling if I was a bit younger!

#adventure time #wizard city #atimers

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serenedash · 3 years

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I started rambling about my experience with kh and then it turned into khux and then it just turned into me rambling about Ryou and my art journey????? enjoy I guess,

it’s very long but there’s art in there :)

It’s funny to think about my kh journey as a whole tbh, I grew up watching my mom play video games, which included kh1 and 2. I wasn’t allowed to play the playstation2 we owned BUT I did have a gameboy so the first game I played was CoM (after my mom finished it ofc,) so I guess you could say I’ve always been passionate about kh “””side games””” lmao but I did fall off of kh very quickly bc again, I wasn’t allowed to play our PS2 and also I Am A Terrible Gamer I’ve Never Finished CoM I’m sorry you all had to find out like this, but then 358/2 came out when I was in middle school and!!! I didn’t care and I didn’t play idk why lol

Anyway, fast forward to high school I’m like 15 and my older sister, who HAS been keeping up with kh, has a wallpaper on her phone of roxas and ventus. And bc I haven’t kept up I say “nice roxas wallpaper” and she says “thanks but it’s roxas and ventus” and I proceeded to get so mad that I was determined to prove to her that her wallpaper was just roxas twice and then I fell down the BBS rabbit hole and suddenly I was reading about vanitas and then I’m reading the fan translations of the BBS novel and I’m crying??? I am sobbing???? and that’s how I actually got into kh for real lol we are vanitas stans before we are people,

It’s so funny how I thought I was some kh super fan, knowing all this stuff that I spent so long reading and rewatching cutscene movies, but I never once, SOMEHOW NEVER ever came across khx. It’s so absurd and bizarre I seriously have no idea how I never once encountered khx prior to khux. I suppose that has to do with the fact I wasn’t involved in the fandom? In early high school I had stepped away from fandoms as a whole and I didn’t have any interest in really posting content or interacting with fans anymore bc of how burnt out I was from a previous fandom,

but khux released! and I was so hype and excited for it! on launch day I was a senior in high school, I had ran around to every “nerd” and weeb I could find in school to ask them to join my party and fun fact about me is I have crippling social anxiety I literally refuse to start conversations irl so holy shit I was OUT HERE doing the MOST

My player just originally had my name (Matt) but everyone in my party had fun names so Ryou was born! High school was one big yugioh phase for me and ryou bakura is one of my favorite characters ever so it was just the logical name choice lol I quickly started creating Ryou, the character, as well. I was also leaving my homestuck phase and that + vanitas obsession made This character design (art circa 2016)

If y’all are familiar with my kh oc’s you might notice that keyblade now belongs to my kid Monty LOL

Anyway that got scrapped quickly for the chip and dale outfit (which is where Ryou’s trademark goggles are from <3) Goggles have been a staple of my character designs for a LONG TIME so like, it had to be done, (that’s a separate ramble about a separate oc tho)

OG Ryou was an interesting guy; he was a young party leader with this overwhelming responsibility on his shoulders bc of his status as a party leader. In his original story, he also struggled heavily with darkness, much like Terra but for Ryou it was more that the darkness was controlling him and not like a source of power like it was for Terra

A big part of early Ryou I kept, however, was the crushing awareness of loss. One of my party members (the strongest one at the time,) had left without saying a word and I was very confused and hurt. This was around the time the ephemera plot was happening so I decided to incorporate it into Ryou’s story; having him experience losing a friend to darkness since it’s so normal for wielders in Daybreak Town to just disappear, and this would unintentionally become a theme for both me and Ryou as khux friends would just randomly disappear.

I was desperate for khux at this point and I decided to watch the fan translations for khx and GOD, god, was I obsessed. I couldn’t stop thinking about the foretellers. And I’m not going off about that here bc I already did that, but I actually started entering fandom again! I did it slowly, I started on tumblr before this blog was made altho it was me sending anons to the few khux related blogs I could have lol a friend convinced me to get twitter where I got involved with the ffxv fandom, which led me to the kh fandom and eventually the khux fandom there which is what REALLY got me going on khux.

I joined discord servers, most of the servers I’m in are khux related, and from there I joined the khux oc rp (shout out to anyone there who might be reading this lol here’s some art from the beginning of the rp,)

It’s SO FUNNY how the RP influenced me so heavily. I hadn’t RP’d in YEARS, I used to have a strict no oc rp policy, but here I was? And the funny part is, I had barely developed Ryou. I had scrapped his original story and all I had was POST WAR Ryou so I literally had to reverse write him; I had only ever written him as a depressed, guilt ridden adult, but it was a fucking blast and I have such fond memories of this rp when it was active,

But anyway, this encouraged me to get more serious about art! I started drawing, writing, cosplaying, and roleplaying when I hadn’t done any of that stuff in a very long time. The first time I ever drew a background was for a deviant art khux competition actually LOL

also! I always think extremely fondly of the drawing I did of Aced in the keyblade war. It was also one of the first backgrounds I ever drew and it felt like my real starting point in the khux fandom. It got a ton of notes on here and someone wrote a tiny fic in a reblog which just made me SO HAPPY like it really felt like people were noticing me :) I was going to draw a matching Ira but!! I just never did!! One day tho, it’s on my art bucket list to redraw this along with Ira,

Aside from my personal growth, khux was great for my social life ngl, I made SO MANY friends online and got to meet a ton of people irl over the years! It’s crazy to think about all the people I now know and talk to? It honestly makes me really emotional. I’ll never forget taking the train into NYC and meeting up with discord friends. Going to conventions and talking with people about the latest khux update? Absolutely insane and those were some GOOD TIMES, if I thanked every khux friend or even just person who made an impact on me then we’d be here for a LONG TIME,

Fun fact, for my Lauriam cosplay all I needed to buy was the wig I just owned his outfit LOL also? Probably retiring that cosplay ngl people treated me like absolute garbage when I wore him and it led to a lot of confidence issues for awhile ngl. That’s probably one of the only memorable negative experiences I have with khux; it was great when khux people recognized me but for kh fans that weren’t in khux? They were FUCKING MEAN??? fuck kh fandom at large, I only care about khux fandom,

This leads me to another huge part of my experience in khux fandom: THEORIES!! I used to write SO MANY and oh my god my brain was so full all the time. It was a huge appeal for me in the fandom; I had been previously writing theory posts in the RWBY fandom and it just migrated over to khux for me lol I had done a ton of theorizing around Lauriam tbh, it was really the only reason I liked his character at all bc initially I did not care about the dandelions, anyone who wasn’t Skuld I was like “please leave Now thanks”

A funny part of khux fandom I never intended to be apart of is the MEMES, I really only started doing memes as stress relief bc college had me so busy all I had time/energy for was these quick little shit post drawings.

The first meme I made, file name “invi despair” LOL we need to get her a girlfriend smh anyway, I think in my senior year of college I did a bunch of rapid fire memes all in one month bc the stress of finals was getting so bad afdgfhdgf as far as I know my impact on this fandom will be my memes bc all I do now is enter a kh/khux server and introduce myself and I go “yeah I draw art. here’s a meme” and everyone goes OH YOU, honestly I am nothing if not a clown

I’ve talked so much idk where I’m going with this. Khux is just a good game even if the gameplay actually kind of really sucks yknow lol but it was the first game I played where I like, REALLY got into the meta and the mechanics. I used to read so much on the mechanics and watch youtube videos on which medals were worth pulling for. I was never a whale or a top player exactly, but I could rank well if I tried lol I’ve made it to the top 100 for solo rankings, my party has made it to top 10, and in pvp I’ve made top 300. I’m not the highest level in my party but FUCK do I know how to manipulate this game LOL

And with all that hard work, the strategies, the theorizing, the content I’ve made-- it’s been my life for 5 years. I’ve logged into khux almost every single day. At the end, I have logged 1820 days in khux out of 1910 days. Kinda crazy. Crazier I’ve never spent money on khux either lol the only “money” gone into it was one time my mom gave me a google play store gift card and I used it on my birthday for a VIP xemnas medal which eventually made it to regular pulls anyway but it was nice and a little treat :)

I’m not a gacha fan, I don’t care for it, so I don’t think I’ll be touching another gacha again. But for kh? This was pretty fucking awesome, even if it sucked a lot sometimes LOL It was worth it for the people I’ve met most of all I think. I would honestly be a completely different person without khux and that’s REALLY insane to think about.

#the khux hyperfixation is REAL #but yall knew this about me #there's so much more I could say but it's 2am and this is long enough already #im rambling

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chessdaze · 4 years

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OKAY SO TODAY-

I’m going to ramble about chess symbolism - specifically with the Savanaclaw trio but also a couple of other characters (mostly pomefiore characters in detail but I list some others out aswell) I made the mistake of mentioning it on twitter and it got attention so now I’m posting it here because it’s way too long to post in a twitter thread.

It’s also going under readmore for that reason too:

For those unaware, the black and white on the chessboard have a meaning as well. Not so much ‘good’ and ‘evil’, though that’s one interpretation - White is normally associated with good and Black with evil. And that’s a valid conclusion! But another symbolism having to do with the board is the war between the inner and outer self. Between Ego and Values. Pretty much the chessboard can represent any kind of eternal struggle. A struggle that continues and doesn’t particularly have an ‘ending’ as chess is a game that can be played more than once, the struggle will always come back eventually.

Relating this to Night Raven in general- of course the struggle with overblot can be related to chess as well. Because it’s a constant struggle, one that most aren’t even aware of as there’s clearly ways to prevent it (resting, de-stressing, etc), but still a constant problem people of this world have to face.

Now moving onto the characters I want to speak about. Starting with Ruggie cause he’s my favorite.

Ruggie: The Bishop

The Bishop traditionally represents the church and religion, and in Medieval Europe the bishop was second in line to the king and queen. Now going back to how the chessboard could represent an internal struggle - the bishop can also represent a belief structure of some kind. The morals, the thought process. This is said to be why the bishop starts and stays on the same colored square (white for white and black for black), moving diagonally but never cross over another color. They move as far as they want, under the limits of their ‘belief’. They must rely on others to protect them or stay out of anything that could threaten them on the board.

NOW WILL SMITH ARMS TO ALL OF THAT ????

Ruggie doesn’t have ‘good’ morals. He only thinks about survival of the fittest, he believes that a strategy that you can win is worth it no matter the methods, he doesn’t pick fights he can’t win –

BUT his morals and methods align with Leona’s, who’s objectively the ‘king’ in this situation. He stands next to the ‘king’, (Like the bishop is next to the royalty on the chessboard) Leona, he moves according to his wishes but doesn’t sacrifice his own beliefs and methods in the process. He relies on Leona for protection and guidance, but will run away if he feels like he must (the chase scene with ace and deuce comes to mind. they didn’t have any proof but to keep himself safe 100% he left anyways).

Not to mention ‘second in line to the king and queen’ - Ruggie is the vice leader of Savanaclaw - Leona’s own little ‘kingdom’ as it were, so he already fills the role of second in command in canon.

He also could be considered an ‘overseer’. He watches over the dorm, does basic chores and errands for Leona, is someone leona trusts to carry out certain jobs - not to mention a good spy in general.

I suppose one could argue that Ruggie is a pawn aswell. Besides the obvious ‘oh he’s considered a pawn to leona lol’, people forget that the pawn is the only piece who can turn into a Queen - aka the most powerful piece on the board. And Ruggie had that quote during the commercials that ‘even a hyena can become king at this school’. But that’s just it - he specifically says King. The Bishop is second in line to the throne behind the king / queen. So, if anything happened to Leona then he would be the dorm leader / the king. I just feel as if Ruggie doesn’t fit the Queen symbolism at all.

Not that I doubt Ruggie’s abilities or anything. His powerful will to survive above all else, his magical ability, and his sly nature definitely make him a powerful force - but I still don’t think it fits.

I also like the idea of Ruggie being a kind of ‘adviser’ to Leona. Hear me out. In Leona’s SSR he’s the one to stop Leona from going all out during the fight against his own dorm leaders, he offers legitimate advice to Leona at some parts of the main story and the SSR, and is able to sway his decisions and offer legitimate solutions to problems (for example, convincing Leona to let the MC and Grim stay at the dorm during Episode 3 - it wasn’t a solution they liked but it was still one they could all agree on).

Ruggie to me just embodies the bishop so perfectly.

Leona: The King

OBVIOUSLY so I still want to go into this even tho the King is probably the most obvious choice for Leona.

Going back to the chessboard as a whole- the white king is meant to represent a person’s being while the black king can represent the ‘beast’ within us all. The beast is said to represent the intelligence hidden inside of all of us. Now willsmith arms to Leona. This guy is smart, it’s almost scary. Scar was practically considered a tactician and Leona is the same. He comes off as lazy and uncaring but he has a deep understanding of how things work and uses the smallest of details to work things to his advantage. 90% of the time, Leona is the smartest guy in the room - but you wouldn’t think he is at first.

Now, the king is often referred to as the weakest piece- if only for the poor movement of it being that of a pawn (and even then the pawn can move two spaces on its first turn - giving it advantage over the king in that sense). But it’s also the most important piece. The one that the entire game is fought for. The king can make or break the game - but it barely moves.

Even a real king isn’t seen much by their subjects. They stay stay and wait for something to become important enough for them to leave their kingdom - and until then a king relies on those around him (in this case, the other pieces on the board) to fulfill his orders. He’s far too important and that’s why he barely moves from the back row on the chessboard.

If you think about it - Leona doesn’t do much for his own plan in chapter 2. He relies on the magift team (mostly Ruggie) to execute the plan. The only time he really had a hand in what was going on was during the dorm leader meeting when he convinced the headmaster to keep Malleus on the field because it was essential to the plan with Ruggie causing the stampede- Malleus needed to be there to get caught up in it all. But that was something only he could have done, no one else could have filled that role for him. So again - the King doesn’t step out of the back row unless absolutely necessary.

Before anyone argues about Leona’s SSR and him stepping in then - I’ll take more of that into account during Jack’s section. But keep in mind he also mostly did that to have Jack indebted to him so my point still stands that the king doesn’t move unless he needs to.

And no, despite his power level I don’t believe he’s ‘queen’ material. If only because he holds himself back so much (with his laziness, lack of ambition, etc). It’s his lack of drive but also his reliance on others that has him leaning more towards the King rather than the Queen.

Jack: The Rook

Onto Jack - I struggled for a bit nailing down if he was the knight or the rook, if I am honest. His morals of fair fights and not owing people could definitely fall in line with a knight - but in the end I decided to go with Rook. For a number of reasons.

In Leona’s SSR story, he specifically calls Jack a ‘pup who charges ahead without thinking’ - similar to how a Rook can only move forward or to the side. It can go until something stops it - much like Jack was willing to keep fighting in the SSR story until Leona physically stopped him and stepped in himself.

Now the rook is also called the tower or the castle - and it traditionally represents the castle walls - the things that protect royalty and others. The rook is supposed to protect those on the inside of the board (as it is placed on both edges of the board) and protect those instead. The rook could also represent observation - watching the whole board and taking the best course of action to protect those it can. There are two kinds of observation, if we relate it back to the chessboard representing the inside and outside self. These are self reflection, orientated towards the interior / when the rook moves further into the board or side ways, and then moving forward as a kind of outward observation. Now Leona SPECIFICALLY mentions that Jack seems like he’s good at self reflection - that’s what really had me start thinking of Jack as the rook.

Jack is reckless and stands up for what he believes in no matter what, but also knows when he can’t handle a situation. He is good at observing a situation and making an honest call - even if it makes him sound blunt and rude. He knows exactly what he’s capable of, likely after a lot of his own self reflection, and is able to observe other’s skills in a similar fashion (as he calls out his seniors during leona’s ssr as being lesser magift players, clearly stating he’s superior than them when it comes to the game).

The rook is also the only one who can preform a move with the king called ‘castling’ - meaning the rook can switch places with the king in order to help the king move further away from danger or just to get more space into a move. This is also a type of observation where the rook is moving inwards and switching places with the overall being, the ultimate self reflection and cooperation with oneself.

^^^ THIS is the part I mentioned in Leona’s section. The king and rook are the only pieces that can preform the castling move. This is EXACTLY what happened in Leona’s SSR. He switched places with Jack. While in chess this is normally done to move the king out of danger - this is an exception considering Leona is....Leona. But I can see this as a way for their relationship to grow over the course of the story. Jack still obviously has an admiration for Leona even after the events of Chapter 2. And Jack definitely has the means to help Leona when it comes to fights, and in other capacities, so he is becoming very much a ‘castle’ around savanaclaw. Someone who can be trusted to observe, to protect, to fight.

He’s quick to protect others - as he is protective of ruggie during the main story and even his own SSR. He struggles a lot trying to win Ruggie and Leona over during his personal SSR and goes through ALOT of trouble to help Ruggie stay out of trouble with Leona. He didn’t have to do this, but he saw it as beneficial to the greater good, to help one of high standing, to protect him from a possible rage from their ‘king’.

Now for some reason i really thought into pomefiore too so here’s there analysis-

Rook: The knight

I definitely didn’t want to fall into the trap of thinking he was the rook just because of his name. But thinking on it, he definitely fits a knight - at least from what we know of him so far.

For overall Knight symbolism: The knight represents the professional soldier of medieval times whose job it was to protect persons of rank, and there are two of them per each side in a game of chess. Knights in a game of chess are more important than pawns, but less important than bishops, kings, or queens. Their purpose in the game of chess is to protect the more important pieces, and they can be sacrificed to save those pieces just as pawns can.

The Knight might not be the most powerful or most willing to follow his leader around, but its skillset makes it unique. Their eccentricities allow them to succeed, often passing over much more talented Bishops.

The knight can also represent Divine Law, which everyone has to take in account for their actions.

NOW WILL SMITH ARMS TO ROOK HIMSELF.

I can definitely see him as being a knightly figure not just because of how he acts on his own but how he acts with Vil specifically. He’s not an adviser of any kind like Ruggie, Vil even states in Jade’s SSR that Rook could be a better Vice Leader. But he’s also not like Jack and rushes ahead without thinking. out of the three pieces in the back row that aren’t the royalty, he fits the knight the best.

Not to mention I feel like the ‘protect the more important pieces’ fits Rook aswell as he proves to be very loyal to Vil and very proud of being a pomefiore dorm member - he would do anything for this dorm.

The knights of society are also people who are only really good at one thing - and Rook has a specialty for hunting. Even to the point of kind of being stalkerish, as seen in his Lab Coat SR and Jade’s PE uniform R. Also “ Their eccentricities allow them to succeed, often passing over much more talented Bishops. “ Him getting the jump on Ruggie a lot of the time would like literally translate to this and I didn’t mean for that to happen but it did.

When it comes to ‘divine law’ I’m just kind of connecting that to Rook being a hunter aswell. He knows the boundaries / laws of hunting and while he sometimes pushes those boundaries (like with Malleus and insulting him during Rooks PE uniform story) he doesn’t cross them because he knows the chain of command / circle of life if you will - laugh track -

With the above point, the knight’s overall moveset is fitting to Rook as well. The knight moves in an L shaped patter and is able to easily skip over lines of defense / offense to get where it needs to go. The knight is the ONLY PIECE that can actually jump over other pieces.

Rook is good at figuring out strategies, getting around rules and just barely touching the lines of being too invasive. Rook is a hunter, clever and patient, and with a knight’s moveset he can go back and forth between enemy lines and not - planning an angle and slipping in when he sees an opportunity.

Vil: The Queen

AGAIN ANOTHER OBVIOUS ONE- and this one will be kind of short as we don’t know a lot on Vil just yet (or at least I don’t, I haven’t read much of his card stories).

Vil obviously has status and power. The way he’s able to get the monstro lounge tons of customers without even knowing it - all by posting one picture with a hashtag? He becomes ambassadors for certain fashion brands, he keeps up with being a dorm leader, and giving practically his entire dorm etiquette lessons? Like shit this dude never slows down.

The Queens of society are often the closest to being in command, and arguably work the hardest. Considering Pomefiore was specifically advertised as a dorm that’s very foundation is ‘hard work’, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Vil is the queen in this situation.

and cracks knuckles theory time - if Vil overblots it’s gonna be BAD cause i mean - what happens when you lose your queen in a chess match?? You lose the most powerful piece on the board and a lot of your other pieces are sitting ducks. So yeah Vil overblotting is gonna be TERRIFYING that’s all I can say.

Epel: The pawn

Another small blurb but I just wanna say that being the pawn isn’t a bad thing!!

The pawn can represent a few different things - from everyday workers and laborers to simply how we are everyday - our attitudes and how we present ourselves. Both of these things are present within Epel, him coming from the countryside and mentioning farming and not to mention that he puts on a bit of a mask infront of everyone else.

The pawn has the ability to become another piece on the board and I think that there’s that kind of potential for Epel too. He is struggling a bit with self image (which could be represented by the board itself as well - inner and outer self), but I think he has room to grow and I’m honestly pretty excited to see what the pomefiore chapter does with his character tbh.

OKAY I’LL STOP WITH THE EXPLANATIONS THERE BUT HERE’S A LIST OF WHAT CHARACTERS FROM OTHER DORMS I THINK FIT WHAT PIECE AND IF SOMEONE WANTS ME TO GO INTO DETAIL ON THEM I CAN LATER-

Heartslabyul:

Riddle: Queen / King kind of a toss up Trey: Bishop Cater: Knight Deuce: Rook Ace: Pawn

Ocatvinelle:

Azul: King Jade: Knight or Bishop Floyd: Rook

Scarabia:

Kalim: King Jamil: Knight

Ignihyde:

Idia: King Ortho: Pawn

Diasomnia:

Mal: Queen / King toss up again Lilia: Leaning towards Knight Silver: Pawn or Knight Sebek: Rook

#ryrypost #twisted wonderland #savanaclaw #pomefiore #scarabia #heartslabyul #ignihyde #octavinelle #diasomnia #wheezes i had to stop myself from writing an essay here

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benichi · 4 years

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please tell the story of what happened with BMP back then 😳 I’m shook

I shall! Gather around, today I‘ll tell you the story of the first big battle us overseas Otoge fans had to win.

[For those who don’t know what this is about or want to see more screenshots here’s the short version on my Twitter]

A little bit of background info before we start. Back in 2011 Voltage released „Pirates in Love“ which was pretty much the first English Otome game we ever got (before that was a release of Yo–Jin–Bo, which unfortunately flopped however). For a long while it was also the ONLY Otoge we had, with routes being released up to months apart. Funnily enough the first PIL release we got had also been edited, however since the internet and Otome games in general wasn‘t as much of a thing yet most people were unaware. Plus they actually made the characters whose appearance they changed appealing and it matched the overall style.

So BMP actually wasn‘t the first time they changed things to “appeal” the overseas market - but simply the most noticeable.

Slowly (very slowly lol) more Otome games would be released in english. Especially back in the day Voltage was one of our main content providers. After PIL which was released as a standalone app Voltage decided to try out a new medium here - GREE. Basically it‘s worked similar to how Cybird games are now. It didn‘t host Voltage games only however, but a bunch of different games from different companies. Voltage would only release 2 of their games on there before they got shut down: Be My Princess and Celebrity Darling (in that respective order.)

Small rant I actually liked GREE BMP more than the other version because MC had a job as a designer so this whole „you have to design/wear outfits to progress“ actually fit really well. Like I love BMP, it’s one of my comfort games. But GREE version was simply more interesting than “Oh I ran into these Princes on the street and now one of them has to randomly take me in” imo. Rant over lol.

BMP was actually up on GREE for a while, I managed to finish 3 routes while it was available (I‘m actually not completely sure if that‘s all they released before they decided to move on from GREE or if I was slow) but either way, shortly after Celebrity Darling got an English release Voltage decided to stop putting their games on GREE altogether. That’s when this whole mess went down.

People were obviously upset about losing all of their progress and content on GREE. Especially because it seemed like BMP was rather popular. Which is why Voltage decided to release the standalone app for it.

...

Just not in the way we wanted:

I’m still unsure exactly what compelled them to ever think this would go over well. Maybe the fact that they had edited some of PIL and no one ever really said anything about that played into it. Maybe they thought because Twilight was a big thing back then that girls would surely be into sparkly pale faced individuals with creepy smiles. We will probably never know just what went into the making of... THAT.

(No he doesn’t.)

But either way and as you can imagine people were m a d. It hit even harder because these were character we were familiar with. One moment we were dating charming 2D Princes - and the next we would be faced with these weird photoshopped/drawn pale dudes that just looked unsettling with their dead fish eyes. Plus despite the fact that all of these characters would be part of the same game they didn’t look like it. The princes (and art) had varying grades of horror - some of it didn’t look that bad but some was nightmare fuel.

(Not only Wilfred’s face, all of their faces were expressionless. Or creepy.)

So before the game was even released they got major backlash. Considering how incredibly niche Otoge were over here back then this incident actually got a lot of attention. Here’s an article that was published by Kotaku back in the day. However Voltage still went for it and despite everything released two routes (Wilfred & Keith) with their own... rendition. We can assume it didn’t sell well, plus even if our fandom was rather small back then we were incredibly vocal about our displeasure.

I mean we basically had nothing to lose. Releases were far and inbetween anyways - and if this would be the future of overseas Otome Games then we’d rather not have any at all. Luckily the nightmare ended eventually and Voltage released the standalone app of BMP as we know it. (They were actually planning to release an “international” version of LLFTX as well, but it never went beyond the planning stage.)

In retrospect this is a pretty funny incident now. It might have even helped Otoge get more attention because again, a lot of people became suddenly aware of this niche market. I guess we were fortunate that Voltage decided to pull this stunt AFTER they released the BMP GREE version. I’m not sure what would have happened if their own rendition would have been the second overseas release after PIL. Maybe Otoge would have simply been written off as weird and the market would have died before it even got a chance to grow. Or maybe people wouldn’t have found the art as “weird” since there wasn’t much to compare it to and there would have been an era of “Twilight aesthetic” Otoge made by Voltage for the overseas fandom lol.

Either way it did end well and those of us who went through this experience can laugh about it now. I actually used to have more posts of Twilight BMP on my blog but deleted most of them since Voltage had a time when they were going after tumblr blogs and I was scared they’d be displeased by those reminders of their early days by me haha.

As you can seen, right from the start things have never been easy for us. But we have always been resilient and we’ve got a great sense of humor that has gotten us through a lot. I hope you enjoyed this piece of Otome Game history!

#be my princess #bmp #voltage inc #voltage romance sims #otome game #otoge

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antimatterpod · 4 years

Text

Transcript - 48. A 100% Patient Fatality Rate

Click here to listen to the original episode.

Anika: Welcome to Antimatter Pod, a Star Trek podcast where we discuss fashion, feminism, subtext and subspace, hosted by Anika and Liz. Today we're talking about medicine and medical practitioners in Star Trek.

Liz: Which turned out to be a really popular topic when you posted about it on Instagram [Liz means Twitter]. We had a lot of discussion.

Anika: Yes, I'm excited that people were interested and wanted to pick their favourite doctors.

Liz: Medicine is very much on people's mind, and it plays a very big part in Star Trek.

Anika: I have seen a lot of, you know, "which Starfleet doctor would you want to deal with the pandemic, or who's most likely to come up with the vaccine?" and stuff like that.

Liz: I'm gonna say, all of them, because we want to throw as much brain power as we can at this problem.

Anika: I mean, I think that's why I was interested in doing it. You can't avoid it, so you might as well look at it from an interesting Star Trek perspective.

Liz: Yeah! And I had proposed that we do this episode as a deep dive into the character of Christine Chapel, which I still think we should do one day, but Women at Warp did the same thing very recently. So I can have my nursing in Star Trek rant in this episode instead.

Anika: That's right.

Liz: You've set out a very nice list of doctors, the doctors from each series: McCoy, Boyce, M'Benga, Crusher, Pulaska, Selar, Bashir, the EMH, Phlox, Culber, Pollard, the--

Anika: The Rios EMH.

Liz: The Rios EMH and Agnes Jurati. And it's sort of interesting how, in modern 21st century Trek, the role of the doctor seems to have declined.

Anika: Yes! In Discovery, we still don't know who the chief medical officer is on that ship.

Liz: I thought it was Tracy Pollard.

Anika: I thought so, too, but then other people came and said that she wasn't the CMO, she was just another doctor.

Liz: Oh.

Anika: So I don't really know. But if she is, she's not a regular. Culber wasn't even a regular in the first season.

Liz: And none of his arcs are really about him as a doctor.

Anika: Medicine at all, no.

Liz: Which is not a criticism! But it would be cool to have more of his profession in the third season, and more of Dr Pollard. And the CMO, if that's a different character.

Anika: It makes sense for both Deep Space 9 and Voyager for there to be only one doctor--

Liz: Does it make sense for Deep Space 9?

Anika: Well -- okay, it makes sense for there to be only one Starfleet doctor on Deep Space 9. Because it's a Starfleet outpost on another station, a Bajoran station. It's not a Starfleet thing. And, Voyager, they all died. So those make sense. And Enterprise, they didn't even have a doctor. Phlox isn't even really a part of Starfleet. He randomly joined the crew. It's very strange.

Liz: Is he even qualified to treat humans?

Anika: Is he even a doctor?

Liz: [laughs]

Anika: As far as I can tell, he could have easily been, like, a PhD in biochemistry or something, and got on board and was like, "I wanna do research on you guys."

Liz: Yeah, "This is totes ethical, by the way."

Anika: And they were like, "Okay, sure. Here, have our sickbay."

Liz: I have a theory about the decline of the doctor as a presence in Star Trek. Because this is almost the only franchise where we can trace this development down the decades. So you start with McCoy, and Crusher, and these are sort of the eras when Americans had a family doctor, and had better access to healthcare. So as your healthcare system evolved, and changed, and became more difficult to access, the doctors reduce in numbers on the ship, and become less accessible. Medicine is less accessible to the crew, except through emergency things like holograms.

Anika: Yeah, and you have to -- so the EMHs are the only doctors we have in the most future Star Treks, right? So it's like, they've actually been replaced by holographic doctors. And this is where I bring up that, in Star Wars -- which is not -- it's futuristic, but also not futuristic, but I've always found it really interesting and odd that there are no doctors in Star Wars, they are all droids.

Liz: Yeah!

Anika: Every medic is a droid. It's like they just stopped having human contact for practitioners.

Liz: Wasn't there a doctor played by Harriet Walter in The Force Awakens, who's sort of flirting with Chewy?

Anika: Yes, but I think that's a cut scene. I don't think that scene's actually in the movie. Or, if it is, it's only a couple of lines, and the full scene is in the--

Liz: It's very brief.

Anika: There is a larger scene. But that's the Resistance, and certainly, by -- once you get to The Last Jedi, they have no--

Liz: Resources.

Anika: Nothing, they have literally nothing. So in The Force Awakens, it's like, they had -- so she's like an old school actual human doctor that they convinced to join their ragtag group, that's what I get out of it. It's just interesting. I'm not saying that -- it's this weird, "In the future, we won't have doctors, we'll just have holograms or droids." And it's sort of like, now that we're in this pandemic, where you can't go see your doctor unless it's an emergency, and you just see them over the internet, I can see how teledoc is going to become droids and holograms.

Liz: I can see that!

Anika: It makes sense. Not in a good way. I think that we need to keep the human parts of doctoring. But I get it, I get why science fiction is sort of playing with that reality.

Liz: And it's in even a thing in The Expanse, where there's no doctor on the Rocinante, there's a computer system which can do surgery and dispense medicine, and then, on bases and so forth--

Anika: And WebMD is taking over.

Liz: Yeah! And so human doctors are a supplement. Anyway, that's my grand theory about the decline of the role of the doctor in Star Trek.

And you also see, kind of, the way our conception of the doctor changes, from the doctor as bartender with Boyce, and the friendly neighbourhood gruff old man of McCoy, to the much more nurturing figure of Crusher, and then sort of the male ego with Bashir and the EMH.

And then Phlox -- I love Phlox, he's actually one of my favourite characters on Enterprise, but I have so much trouble fitting him into the role of doctor. And I think it's like you said, I don't know that he is a doctor. [laughs]

Anika: I don't think he's a doctor! I think he has a PhD. And he's a research scientist. I really see Phlox as more of a research scientist than an actual medical practitioner. Which is interesting, and I agree that he's a great character, but I wouldn't want him treating me.

Liz: I think this was part of the discussion on Twitter, that a lot of these characters are wonderful, wonderful characters, but would you want them to be treating you at all? And, uh, yeah, I have a list of Star Trek doctors who I would as my doctor. And in order, it goes, Crusher, Pulaski, Culber, McCoy, Bashir, the holographic doctor, Phlox. And I didn't -- I completely forgot about the EMH on La Sirena and Agnes, because Agnes doesn't practise medicine. She has a medical degree, but she doesn't practise.

Anika: It's sort of like, she is the doctor on that show? She doesn't actually do doctoring, but--

Liz: She has a 100% fatality rate with her patients!

Anika: [laughs] So my notes for -- I wrote out the list for us, and then I put in a little bit for each person, and my note for Jurati is just, "Jurati -- LOL".

Liz: [laughs]

Anika: That's it!

Liz: It sort of annoys me that she has a medical degree, because I think Alison Pill is too young to play a character with two doctorates. But--

Anika: It could be an MD-PhD, where you get them at the same time.

Liz: No! Because she already has her medical degree when she hooks up with what's his face as his grad student.

Anika: Well, then, I agree with you, it's stupid. [laughs] It's also, like, in the future, apparently, everyone gets their college degrees when they're twelve, or whatever, and then they join -- whatever, it's fine.

Liz: I'm going to assume -- I'm going to headcanon that she finished high school at 16, went straight to the Academy, and only -- and did the whole medical thing, and then belatedly realised she did not want to be in space. And I still wonder why they let her in, but uhhhhh, I guess it's like the Sorting Hat, and people's psychology changes as they grow up?

Anika: Who knows?

Liz: Who even knows?

Anika: Imagine Jurati taking her no-win scenario test to get into the Academy. It would be a mess.

Liz: I thought that one was to graduate?

Anika: Well, no, because in -- Wesley takes that one to get into Starfleet Academy--

Liz: Oh yeah! The psychological test.

Anika: --and he has to prove that he can make a decision and choose someone who has to die. Which is like -- apparently, that is the number one way to test someone? Because that happens to Troi, it happens to Wesley, it happens to everybody in the actual no-win scenario Kobayashi Maru test. It's like, whatever!

Liz: I feel like that particular test was tailored for Wesley, like, it's different for everyone, and with the way Wesley's father died, that's what he needed.

Anika: Yes, that's what it said, but it's just interesting to me that the Star Trek writers think that that's the biggest test.

Liz: I kind of think the Federation, as a culture, values life so highly that it really must be very difficult for the average citizen, if they are faced with a scenario where they effectively have to triage -- so yeah, I can see that being a real point of division between people who are suitable for Starfleet and everyone else. I don't think I could do it.

Anika: I don't know. I would have to take the test. I can't imagine it. My existence is such that I would never be in that position.

Liz: Yeah, I don't even like killing my squad in video games. I feel bad about it. And they're pixels! And not very well animated pixels at the best of times!

Anika: Aw!

Liz: So do you have a favourite doctor?

Anika: [sighs] It's hard. It's hard because -- I think I've told this story, where I told Alexander Siddig that I loved all the doctors, and so that's why he was going to be my favourite character.

Liz: Yes, you have.

Anika: So in my head, I have this idea that I love the doctors most? But then, when I actually write down my favourite characters, they don't make it onto the list? So it's this weird -- like, medical, Starfleet Medical track is my favourite of all. I like them more than Command, I like them more than Engineering, and Ops, or whatever that one is. But the individual characters, I love them all, but I don't know. It's weird. So I guess Dr Crusher is my nostalgic heart's favourite.

Liz: Yes.

Anika: Because I loved her so much when I was a kid watching The Next Generation. I just was so drawn to her as a character. She was the first character in The Next Generation that I really connected with.

Liz: Same, yes.

Anika: So I would say that that's -- like, Dr Crusher is going to be my favourite. I have a lot of affection for Dr Bashir, because I -- [laughs] I love trash boys.

Liz: [giggles]

Anika: I just do! I have this problem!

Liz: No, no!

Anika: And I really -- he reminds me a lot of Tom Paris, in that he starts out as a really terrible person who you can't root for because he's horrible and creepy towards all women, and treats people in a very elitist "you're my property" weird way. Like, he's entitled, or something? But he grows into someone who decides not to be that. Both Tom Paris and Dr Bashir do this in this interesting arc where -- I don't know, I wrote here, "He's creepy about women and becomes a much better character when they stop doing that, it's almost like you shouldn't prioritise having a 'ladies man' in your cast".

Liz: I couldn't agree more.

Anika: All of them, they tried to do this with these characters, and it's awful and doesn't work. No one likes it. Not just me, not just women, but no one likes it, because they stop doing it and then the characters become better, you know?

Liz: Yeah, yeah!

Anika: Riker, Paris, Bashir, all go through this. It's like, maybe don't have that be important to your cast? Just a suggestion?

Liz: I've been listening to the podcast Delta Flyers, with Garrett Wang and Robert Duncan McNeill -- it's rather good, everyone should give it a go (if they like Voyager) -- but he is saying, in the first couple of episodes, he wishes that he hadn't played Paris as such an aggressive sleaze, because it's unpleasant to watch, and it's so far removed from what the character eventually becomes, which is, like, suburban space dad.

Anika: Exactly. And I see Bashir in the same way. He doesn't become the same type of character, but he does start out as a person that I don't really want to win, but in the end, I really love him.

Liz: Yeah.

Anika: He never quite grows out of "trash boy", but he's not like an Archer, he's not a complete trash boy.

Liz: I think the thing is that he learns better. He stops being a creep about women, he stops being incredibly colonialist about Bajor and "the frontier". And he loses his ego.

Like, "The Quickening" is a really great episode because initially he fails, and a lot of people die, and he keeps going, and he leaves Deep Space 9 for months -- or a couple of months, at least, to leave with these people in relative poverty and cure their disease. And, in the end, all he can do is ensure that it's not passed on to the next generation. The work of curing it for this living, dying generation has to go to other people. That's an outstanding episode, and I think a lot of Bashir-as-doctor -- if I think of him in that role, I think ego. And that's sort of a story about breaking his ego.

Anika: Yes. And he comes out better for it.

Liz: Yeah, like, he was already a good character, but after that, I would trust him as a good doctor. As opposed to, like, a Dr House type, who is absolutely brilliant at medicine, but would you actually want to be treated by him?

Anika: Right. Exactly. You don't. I'm in the middle of a House rewatch right now--

Liz: Oh my God.

Anika: --and you absolutely do not. You also don't want to spend any time with him.

Both: [laugh]

Liz: My confession is that I wrote a fair -- like, not a lot, but a little bit of House fic, back in the day. It was a whole thing.

Anika: I have House fic. We can compare notes. Mine's all about Cameron, I'll be honest.

Liz: I really detested Cameron as a character--

Anika: I love her! She's one of my favourite fictional characters!

Liz: I think if I went back now, ten, fifteen years -- oh my God, how long as it been? I think if I went back now, I would really appreciate her more, but back then I found her annoying, and I wanted more Cuddy. And now I'm much older and wiser, and we can have both! But House is the origin of my great love for Lisa Edelstein.

Anika: That's fair.

Liz: Anyway! Back on topic…

Anika: So Crusher, Bashir, and I will say that I really like Culber, but I have yet to see him as a doctor at all. I don't even count him as a favourite doctor. I like his character, such as it is. I like the character that I think he is, I'll say that.

Liz: I feel like I would enjoy being treated by him because, like the women, he has a very gentle manner, and he doesn't seem to let his ego get in the way of much. And I think those are good traits to have in a personal physician. I would be open to being treated by Hugh, I think -- he's gentle. I think I like my male doctors [as characters, not as real doctors treating me] to be gentle and my female doctors to be spiky.

Because I watched "The Child", the episode of TNG that introduces Pulaski, the other day, and I'm like, (a) this is truly terrible television; (b) I kind of feel like, aside from all the reasons that Pulaski doesn't work, like, her relationship with Data is off-putting, and all of that -- I think she was just too outspoken and too ahead of her time as a character. I look at Pulaski, and I see a woman who can tell a bunch of men to cut the manlier-than-thou bullshit. And Star Trek wasn't ready for that.

Anika: Star Trek was not ready for that. And it's also -- even with the stuff with Data, I think they were trying -- she has a lot in common with McCoy. And McCoy is beloved--

Liz: Absolutely.

Anika: --and Pulaski is not. She's sort of having maybe a renaissance now. I see more Pulaski fans than I had. But she's never going to be on McCoy level of belovedness. But they have a lot in common.

Liz: She was an explicit attempt to bring in an older, female McCoy type to the show. And to bring a bit more conflict without breaking Roddenberry's rules. And I just -- the problem is that she goes after Data. And to me, watching "The Child"--

Anika: And Data's not Spock.

Liz: Yeah, Data can't fight back the way Spock does. So to me, she meets Data, and it's like me if Siri started expressing preferences, I'd be like, "That's hilarious! Who programmed that?" Like when Siri makes Skynet jokes! But the audience has known Data for a season, and knows that Data is a person. So they just cannot see it from her perspective. And so she comes in like this complete bully.

Anika: Right.

Liz: And she does get over it, to her credit, but I think it was a bad note to start off on--

Anika: Yeah, it was a terrible note to start off.

Liz: --and a lot of people -- yeah. It's like watching an adult bully a child.

Anika: And also that Picard really disrespects her a lot in that episode. He's just, like, "I'm so annoyed that you're a part of my crew, now, that I'm just going to treat you terribly." It's like, wow.

Liz: He's kind of the audience stand-in for the Beverly fans going, "Wait, what?"

Anika: Right! So, yeah. Pulaski's just never going to be my favourite because I loved Crusher so much. And it's all wrapped up in my mother, and my mother's death, which all happened at the same time. So it's like, no.

Liz: No, I understand!

Anika: I cannot. But I understand why people like her, and I think she is or could have been a good character.

Liz: I really wish Diana Muldaur had been able to stick around as a recurring character at some point, or come in on her own ship once a season, or something. Because I do think Pulaski could have been a character as popular and interesting as Ensign Ro, and I think the series would have really benefited from having that sort of strong, no-bullshit female force. But my heart belongs to Beverly.

Anika: Right. Exactly.

Liz: And Selar -- season 2 of Next Gen is like the season of missed opportunities with female doctors, because Selar only appears in one episode, and she's still being namechecked as late as First Contact. Go Suzie Plakson!

Anika: Yeah, and she's very memorable. And she also brought Suzie Plakson in. Because she's such a presence throughout Star Trek now, it's like she elevates Selar, because she played her. But I do think that just the idea of a Vulcan doctor is fun and interesting, and I want more of that.

Liz: It's also that she only appeared in one truly terrible episode, but she had so much presence.

Anika: Exactly.

Liz: And I think, to be successful as an actor playing a Vulcan, you need to have a lot going on behind your eyes. And she did that. She was brilliant. And I love Robin Curtis, but I think Selar was, like, Kirstie Alley level good. So it's a real shame that we never see her again.

Do you think, like, in terms of really obscure characters we can bring back for Picard, we could bring back Selar?

Anika: Oh my gosh, that would be amazing. They do need a doctor! Like we said!

Liz: They do!

Anika: They need a doctor!

Liz: I think that, with all of these Romulans running around, we need a Vulcan for comedy alone.

Anika: [laughing] So good! I love this idea.

Liz: But I also want Suzie Plakson to play L'Rell's mother in Strange New Worlds. Because we know she can do a Klingon, we know she can handle make-up, and she is actually taller than Mary Chieffo.

Anika: Amazing. It's so good. So good! Okay, let's make that happen. Make it happen!

Liz: Because we've established that CBS is paying so much attention to our ideas.

Anika: Obviously, they listen to us all the time.

Liz: [laughs] So do you think it would be weird to be treated by an emergency medical hologram that looks exactly like you?

Anika: Uh, yes! Yes, it would. However, this is -- okay, so it's been established that you don't have to have them all look like you. That you can buy this program, and you can choose whatever you want them all to look like. And he chose to keep it himself.

Liz: [giggling]

Anika: Which is a whole layer of interesting on Mr Rios. But I would hate to be treated or joined in -- like, okay, that's not true, I think that, for the navigation -- if I wanted to have a bridge crew, I can imagine a bridge crew of just me. And that would be kind of cool, I'll be honest.

Liz: [laughs]

Anika: As I was saying it, I was like, wait, no, actually, I would like that. But for doctoring, it's like I want to trust that they are going to be able to figure it out and take care of me and stuff. And I don't. Because I have some medical training, I am certified in CPR and first aid, I have enough healthcare training to work with developmentally disabled populations in their home. So I'm a -- I forget what I'm called. Oh, I'm a nurse delegate, I'm a nurse delegate.

Liz: Oh, nice! What a good title!

Anika: That doesn't mean I have any nursing. And it certainly doesn't mean I have any medical training, actual, you know, take-care-of-a-person training. That's twelve years. So I wouldn't want the person to look like me, I wouldn't want my doctor to look like me, even if it was a computer. I would want it to look like Dr House. You know, someone I can trust to take care of me.

Liz: Yeah, I was thinking -- because I sprained my wrist on Sunday, and on Thursday, I finally went, "Hey, this really hurts, maybe I should see someone about it?" So I had to go to an actual doctor's surgery, and it occurred to me as I was walking in that I kind of have an idea of what's wrong, and I really just want someone with training and authority to say, "Yes, this is wrong, and you are doing the right thing." And that's what I want from a doctor, and I don't want the doctor to look like me, because then I won't trust them.

Anika: Exactly. That's just crazy, Mr Rios.

Liz: But I think, also, as a character note, it kind of suggests that he trusts himself more than--

Anika: Only himself. Only himself.

Liz: Yeah!

Anika: And I absolutely believe that, I absolutely believe it. I absolutely believe that he only trusts himself. He's a Gryffindor. It's very much his trait, I get it.

Liz: Yes.

Anika: I am not a Gryffindor, so--

Liz: [laughs]

Anika: --therefore--

Liz: I am a very sensible Hufflepuff, and I believe in trusting people with proper training.

So after the list of doctors, we have a list of nurses. And it's a lot shorter. It's Chapel, Ogawa, Kes, Paris.

Anika: Okay, so can we start with Paris? Because I had to include him, because I find it hilarious that he is the closest thing that Voyager has to a nurse once Kes leaves.

Liz: And we never see him going through any training to improve his skills.

Anika: Yeah, there's like three episodes where he even does anything in sickbay. But the conceit, if I recall correctly, is that he got a B+ in biochemistry at the Academy, and therefore he can be the nurse.

Liz: Yyyyyyeah.

Anika: That is terrible on every level.

Liz: So this is my whole nursing rant, that nursing is not treated as a profession that requires training and qualifications. Like, Kes is being trained to be a doctor, Chapel was studying to be a doctor and then left to become a nurse and run off after her fiance, and Ogawa's professional arc is actually where Beverly goes, "Oh yeah, you're doing great, let's talk about boys."

And I think one thing that the whole Covid thing has really brought home is how much we need nurses. It's all very well that all your doctors are holograms or droids or whatever, but who is changing the bedpans and giving the sponge baths, and -- you know, even if your biobed puts out the vital signs on a little screen, who is there to read and understand them?

Anika: Right.

Liz: And I guess Star Trek takes this [attitude] of, "Oh, the doctors will do it!" But we know that that's not how real life works, and it really troubles me that we see so few nurses, and they're so relatively disregarded. And it's a joke that Paris is a man, and a ladies man, and a nurse. And Kes and Chapel are "failed doctors" or "doctors-to-be".

Nursing gets a lot of disrespect.

Anika: It's terrible.

Liz: I would like to see better depictions of nurses in Star Trek.

Anika: So I love medical dramas. I love to watch them. And my favourite is ER. So this comes up in ER, because -- so my favourite in ER is Carol Hawaway (Juliana Margulies), and she is a nurse. And she is the heart, you know, at the beginning of that series. And it's very clear that, as much as the doctors work hard and care about their patients, and take care of them, it's the nurses who really take care of their patients. They're the face of the ER. They're the people who you're going to see over and over again, the three hours that you're there. They're doing all the -- like, the doctor says, "Do this thing," and then the nurse does it.

Liz: Yes!

Anika: So Carol has this arc where she decides that she wants to be a doctor, because she never thought she could. Like, she wasn't good enough to be a doctor, so she became a nurse, but now she realises that she is good enough to be a doctor, so she takes the MCATs and she's going to become a doctor.

And then, after passing, and Kerry starts treating her like a med student, and starts respecting her in a way that she had never respected her as the chief nurse, even though she was the most senior nurse, and she was there before Kerry even began -- she realises that she wants to have that patient interaction, she wants to be the face of the ER, she wants to be the heart of everything, she wants to actually take care of people, and not be a doctor. So she decides to stay a nurse.

And then she gives up her career to go join Doug in Seattle. And, obviously, she doesn't give up her career, she just moves it to Seattle, but that's what she's remembered for? She went after her boyfriend.

Liz: [laughs]

Anika: And then Abby Lockhart, who is introduced in Carol's last season, has the same progression.

Liz: Oh my God.

Anika: She is a nurse who wanted to be a doctor, but gave it up and decided to become a nurse, but she really wants to be a doctor. And she has this whole thing where she's like, no, nursing is great, and she has a whole speech about it, how it's really wonderful and important, and it's valid, and just as important as being a doctor. But then she becomes a doctor. And is a doctor for the rest of the series, and that's what she's best remembered for, as the nurse who became a doctor.

And it's like, that progression, those two storylines, the way they echo each other, and the way that Carol is remembered for her relationship with Doug, but Abby is remembered for being a nurse who became a doctor -- it just upsets me, because nothing against those characters, and nothing against a nurse who wants to become a doctor, like, sure, great. But there are plenty of people who actually wanted to be nurses. Who chose to be a nurse. And they do have that patient interaction, and they do matter as much as a doctor. And it's just sort of threatening to have this idea that (a) nurse can just become a doctor if they take a couple more years, or whatever.

Liz: If they want it enough.

Anika: Yeah, if they want it enough. And that just being a nurse isn't a good enough end goal. Like, of course it is.

Liz: Right, there's this idea that professional success for a nurse is becoming a doctor.

Anika: Exactly.

Liz: We even see it a bit in Doctor Who, with Rory -- and I love Rory, and it is so rare to see a male nurse in media, but even in "Amy's Choice", that sort of wish-fulfilment universe, he's … a doctor! And, granted, he's a gerontologist, which is, like, one of the hardest forms of medicine around, and one that requires the most care, but … you know. A nurse is a not a failed doctor.

Anika: No, it's a completely separate job. They work together as a team to take care of people. If there were only doctors, a lot of stuff wouldn't get done. Because the doctors don't even know how to do that.

Liz: Exactly. Right.

Anika: Because it's not their job. The things that the nurses do are real skills, they have real significance, and it's mindboggling. And, you know, we were saying that you could replace the doctors with the holograms, or with a droid, and it would be harder to replace the nurse.

Liz: Yeah. I know Deep Space 9 had a rotating cast of Bajoran nurses -- and that's the other thing, you know, the Bajorans aren't doctors, they're nurses. But we rarely see nurses as characters, save for Ogawa and Chapel.

Anika: And, as you said, both of their characterisations are much more about their personal lives than their nursing.

Liz: Yeah. And it's just frustrating! I would like to see more!

What I would actually like -- I was thinking, in the wake of the Strange New Worlds announcement, which we will discuss in detail at a future time -- but what I would be doing, if I was in charge of Star Trek (still waiting for that phone call), I would be looking at about two short series a year. Three to six episodes, just doing a deep dive into an aspect of the Star Trek universe. And one of them would be, like, Star Trek: Pasteur, starring Gates McFadden as the captain of a medical ship, and basically doing a medical drama in space.

Anika: That would be great.

Liz: I knew you would love the idea.

Anika: They would go to planets that were having an outbreak, and they would have to take care of them, and it would just be amazing.

Liz: Yeah! 'Cos I watched -- as research for this episode, I watched "The Child" and I watched "Ethics", so two Next Generation episodes, and both involved the Enterprise dealing with a medical emergency outside of itself. You know, there's a spaceship crash and a plague. And it would be cool to see those stories stretched out over several episodes.

Anika: I would love that.

Liz: And I don't think this concept would sustain a full 13-episode series, but I think three to six episodes, and the sort of thing where you can reuse a lot of sets for the next one, and … yeah. Again, CBS, why do you not have me on speed dial? My lack of experience is no impediment whatsoever!

Anika: We would definitely give the nurses their due!

Liz: We would! And I think it would be really cool to see, you know, are there doctors who specialise in a particular race, or a particular type of race? And what if it's the 2390s and you're a Romulan and you're serving on a Starfleet medical ship? How does Beverly adjust from being a chief medical officer to a captain?

Anika: And in "Ethics", it's almost a throwaway line, but it's really kind of incredible to me that they have this conversation about how, "Oh well, I called the Klingons to get their opinions, since Worf is a Klingon," and they were like, "Well, we would let him die." And it's just -- wow, okay! Cool medicine there, Klingons!

Liz: [giggles]

Anika: Yikes!

Liz: Yeah. My favourite fact about "Ethics" was that one wheelchair-using writer was so incensed by this depiction of Klingon ableism that he wrote the Deep Space 9 episode "Melora" because he wanted to depict a character whose use of a wheelchair wasn't something to be pitied.

Anika: Right, because it also happens with Captain Pike.

Liz: Right! Right. And I think what this guy was saying was really interesting, that it is a reasonable point of worldbuilding and detail for the Klingon culture, but at the same time, this attitude that the severely disabled deserve to die is present among humans, so it's not nice to see it in fiction.

Anika: And we talked last week about how the Romulan was like, "Oh well, you know…"

Liz: Yeah.

Anika: "...you're blind, so we'd kill you, too." And it's just, like, okay, I understand that they're trying to make a line between the humans, who are good, and believe in medicine, or something, I guess, and then these other races. But if these races are supposed to be our equals, and we have a treaty with them, and they're on par with us, and that's their attitude? It's a little -- okay, maybe we need to -- it's another one of those things where we're like, "Star Trek, you need to explore that a little bit more."

Liz: Right, it's an interesting and complicated issue, but you need to do more. And I think it's touched on in Star Trek VI, in the wonderful dinner party scene where -- I think it's Chekov who asks about the human rights violations in the Klingon Empire. And Azetbur deflects it by pointing out that the very term is racist -- which it is, in this context, and I love her for that, but the question is never answered.

"Ethics" was a really interesting episode for me to watch as an adult because, um, this is embarrassing to admit, but before she retired, my mother was a professional pro-life lobbyist?

Anika: Okay…

Liz: But this whole end-of-life, assisted suicide thing, you know, really got her fired up. So it was quite interesting to come back and watch it as an adult and go, "Okay, yes, this is not really an episode -- air quotes-- 'about assisted suicide', it's more like the clash between culturally appropriate medicine versus … not. Because -- I think this is one of the criticisms someone had on Twitter, of Beverly, that she is very paternalistic in her approach to patients from other cultures.

Anika: Which is true.

Liz: And Worf often bears the brunt of it, like that terrible episode where she's pressuring him into donating blood to a Romulan, and he straight up doesn't consent. Which is his right. So "Ethics" was a really -- I really enjoyed watching it, actually! Partially because, like Dr Toby Russell is a woman, and you so rarely see women as unrepentantly amoral scientists in Star Trek. Also, the actress bears an uncanny resemblance to Hillary Clinton in that era, and I just found that slightly funny.

Anika: She totally does!

Liz: No one talks about that time Hillary Clinton was in Star Trek!

Anika: I spent the entire episode going, "Why do I know you? Where do I know you from?" But you're right, that's absolutely true, she was very Hillary Clinton-esque.

Liz: I went so far as to look up the actress's IMDB to see what else she'd been in, and I couldn't place her after that, and then she just hit the right angle. And the way her hair sat, and everything, I was like, ohhhh, that's the first lady.

Anika: I like it. And I kind of -- she was totally a Hillary Clinton type character, too!

Liz: Right!

Anika: So I'm into this! It works!

Liz: Particularly that very '90s idea of her as this terrible woman who puts her profession above humanity. And we can talk about whether or not that's fair to Clinton, but I think it makes for a really interesting character, and a really interesting foil for Beverly. And, yeah, we rarely see that type as a woman in Star Trek.

Anika: Yeah. The story that's told in "Ethics" is similar to the one that's told in "Nothing Human" in Voyager. And what's interesting about it is that the character that she is an analogue for in "Nothing Human" is a genocidal maniac Nazi doctor. That's what he is. So it's really kind of terrible to say those are the same. Because they're not. She is not a Nazi, she is not prioritising medicine over people as a whole. There are layers to her.

Liz: She's not doing it on an industrial scale. But at the same time, she has looked at this severely disabled and deeply depressed man and gone, "Yes, that is the guy, the perfect target for my unethical experiment."

Anika: For my experimental … yeah.

Liz: Spine replicator.

Anika: It's interesting.

Liz: Yeah.

Anika: And then I also mentioned "Miri", which -- I don't know if you've seen "Miri" lately…

Liz: I have not seen "Miri" for quite a few years.

Anika: It's a bad episode! I don't suggest you--

Liz: I remember it being a bit creepy.

Anika: Don't watch it on purpose.

Liz: Is that the episode where a teenage girl falls in love with Kirk?

Anika: Yes.

Liz: And he handles it about as well as you could in the 1960s?

Anika: It's bad on every level. But it's an episode where there's a disease that only attacks adults. So Miri, towards the end of the episode, starts showing episodes of this disease because she's gone through puberty. So it's kind of terrifying that a girl who has not yet gone through puberty is flirting with Captain Kirk. But.

Liz: It was the '60s! [cry-laughing]

Anika: And everything about -- yeah, it's a bad episode. It's a very bad episode. But the idea is that there's this disease, and McCoy is trying to come up with a cure and vaccine. I mean, this happens a lot in Star Trek, this whole, "We're gonna come up with this cure and this vaccine for this disease, and it's gonna happen in this 45-minute episode. It's gonna be great, and it's gonna work by the end." That is not how that works. Even with time jumps, like in "The Quickening", where it's a month, it's still -- no. It takes over a year for this to actually happen. But that's fine.

Liz: And we have all become experts in the timeline of vaccine development.

Anika: Right. McCoy successfully comes up with his hypospray of magic that is going to fix it, and he injects it into himself. Because that's what you do when you're McCoy.

Liz: [literally does a spittake??? Apparently I found this really funny!]

Anika: It's like, he refuses to inject it in anyone else, because it's untested, because he has some semblance of, you know, understanding of reality, and knows that it couldn't possibly actually be the cure. But he injects it into himself. So I like to look at these three episodes, and they bring up these questions of medical ethics and how you address -- and the idea of experimentation on willing or unwilling participants. It's interesting! As a little -- like, these are the different ways that we look at it. And it's interesting that, in all three cases, they end up doing it, because they decide that the risk is worth it.

Liz: I feel like going, "Oh, we found a potential cure, but we're not going to test it because that would be really dangerous--" it just makes for a very unsatisfying story. And I don't think anyone except possibly you or me would be entertained by "The Federation Ethics Board" and "This is the paper I wrote to substantiate my research" and "Here are my test subjects".

Anika: You're right, I would be interested in that. I would be more interested in that than an argument between Beverly and -- I forget her name.

Liz: Toby Russell.

Anika: Toby Russell. Like, in the hallway of the Enterprise, you know, for, like, back and forth for three lines, and then Beverly's like, "You're fired." It's interesting for the characters, but there's a better story somewhere.

Liz: Right.

Anika: There's more to that, I want to see more of it. And, of course, I hate -- sorry to Worf, but I hate the ending, where Worf dies but doesn't die. That is-- [laughs]

Liz: I like it better now that we know just how stupidly redundant Klingon systems are, thanks to Discovery, and showing us more of them. But I do have to wonder when Klingon medicine regressed from, "Hey, we can turn this guy into a human" in the 23rd century to "Just let him die."

Anika: Yeah.

Liz: "We don't want him."

Anika: That's the other thing, like, Klingon physiology and Klingon medicine do not make sense together. It does not make sense. How can you have--

Liz: They're bodies are so sophisticated--

Anika: Right.

Liz: --that they should have much more sophisticated medicine to deal with them.

Anika: And they have less, they have more primitive medicine. It's very strange. And this is another thing, I really wish that, in all of the many, many Klingon episodes -- there are so many Klingon episodes!

Liz: There are a lot.

Anika: I wish that any of them dealt with these questions of Klingons who are not warriors, Klingons who are scientists and want to be scientists, Klingons who are engineers and want to be engineers, and how they are looked down upon in their society. Klingon society is so strange, the way that it has been presented, and this idea that only a warrior -- only a soldier has value, when--

Liz: I think we sort of see that now, where -- you know, people like grocery workers and delivery drivers, and nurses and teachers, are just completely devalued until suddenly they're "essential". And people who have spent their lives stocking up on guns, or whatever, to "protect their families" can't cope with protecting their families by staying in and wearing a mask.

So I can sort of see that, but there's also an episode of Enterprise which, I think, touches on it. I'm blanking on the title, but it's the second season episode where Archer and … someone or other … are put on trial, and it's all a big knock-off of the trial scene in Star Trek VI.

Anika: Right, yes.

Liz: But J G Hertzler plays the Klingon lawyer, and he has this speech about how the Klingon Empire is in decline because they have over-valued their warriors, and one day this is going to come back and bite them. And I think, 200 years later, that is still the problem that they're facing.

Anika: It's definitely the problem. And there are great tie-in novels about Klingons who are not warriors, that I love, and I wish that was represented. Because the Klingons that I'm interested in are the ones who poke at Klingon culture, and say, why is this like this?

Liz: Yeah! Which I think is the case with any story. And maybe Strange New Worlds will give us a bit of that?

Anika: Maybe.

Liz: I'm trying to be optimistic, because my initial reaction to its announcement was so negative. But we can talk about that next time. You have a list of counsellors here.

Anika: Yes! I like to remind everyone that counsellors are part of the medical system.

Liz: They are, and we have two psychiatrists in Dr Elizabeth Dehner and Admiral Katrina Cornwell, and two psychologists in Troi and Ezri. What do you think happened to psychiatry after the 23rd century?

Anika: [laughs] That's a good question. I guess -- I mean, it might be as simple as saying -- as you said with the doctors -- as society changed, so did Star Trek. Because I would say that, certainly in this day and age, the people that you go to see in therapy tend to not be the people who give you the medication.

Liz: Yeah, the psychiatrists dispense and the psychologists counsel.

Anika: Exactly. So I think that it's -- it used to be, it was the psychiatrist. And it was very clinical. And it's become much more about therapy, and talk therapy, and cognitive -- like, all of this stuff, cognitive behavioural therapy. It's become more than just fixing your biochemistry.

Liz: Right.

Anika: And I think that shift is the same.

Liz: I suspect there's also a reluctance to get into too much detail with the nitty gritty of futuristic psychopharmaceuticals. Because, for one thing, if someone's problem can be fixed by manually adjusting their brain chemistry, that's a very short story. But then there's things like Lorca's trauma, or Lorca's so-called PTSD, which should have been detectable -- like, it would be detectable in an MRI now.

Anika: Absolutely. Well, this is super interesting to me, as you might suggest.

Liz: I believe you literally did a thesis on it.

Anika: Yes. I did. So it's interesting to me as a student, as an academic, and it's also interesting to me as a person, like, on a personal level, as someone who was sort of raised to be -- my family wasn't really into therapy. I should -- my father wasn't into therapy. He thought that was not a thing. And I really, really needed therapy! And so did he. [laughs]

And I didn't get any until I became an adult and could get it for myself. And then I had a whole decade-long awakening, or whatever, I worked really hard to become comfortable with my mental stability, to figure out how to live in my brain for the rest of my life. Because I can't change my brain.

Yes, medication stabilises, medication can address issues that are actually chemical, which are very, very prevalent, and which anybody who has any kind of trauma, it's a part of it. Because trauma changes your brain, that's what happens. And so the medication adjusts that. But the medication doesn't help you address the trauma itself. What happens to you. You need both.

Liz: It's not a band-aid, but you need to learn new ways of thinking as well.

Anika: So I like that Troi and Ezri are talk therapists. I think that that is hugely important and vital, and we need as many representations of that as we can get in any media. Not just Star Trek, not just sci-fi. Anything. All of it. Before all conventions were cancelled this year, I was shopping around a panel that I entitled Saving The World Isn't Therapy.

Liz: [laughs]

Anika: And the idea was that, if you look at -- I was focusing on young adults. Because, you know, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, look at them and they're like, these are 17-year-old people who are expected to save everything. Even Star Wars, they're all 19. It's just crazy.

Liz: Right! I'm watching The Clone Wars, and I'm going, Ahsoka is 14 years old, she should not be doing this!

Anika: It's like, what is going on?! And anime -- oh my gosh. They're all 13 through 17 years old in all of these things, and they are expected to be acting as superheroes. And even adults who are superheroes desperately need therapy. That's what Iron Man 3 is all about, which is great. I love that they're starting to realise that these things are important.

But I think that it's definitely true in Starfleet, like, you need a counsellor. And that's why I love the fact that Elizabeth Dehner exists, because at least saying, like, in the pilot of this series, we are saying we need someone who cares about mental health. Because going out to explore strange new worlds, where no man has gone before? You need someone to help you deal with what you find.

Liz: Right! And it makes sense that it would be a psychiatrist at this stage, because they can sort of do the empirical stuff and set up a baseline, and build the map on which the psychologists can travel.

Anika: I love that. I love that she exists. And I love -- I've said many times that Ezri is the character where I sat up and said, "I want to be here!" And I love that she is a counsellor. I get annoyed with people who say she only became interesting when she started caring about command, because--

Liz: No! No!

Anika: --much like the nurses, it's like, counselling is vital and important and needed.

Liz: Yes!

Anika: It's great that Counsellor Troi becomes a commander, and takes the test, and does all of that, and deals with it, and proves that she can do it, but she didn't need to. She was still super important and necessary to the show and to the ship before she did that.

Liz: Right. And I was also going to say, with the echo of the nurses thing, I love that Beverly becomes a captain in "All Good Things…", but that is not what she has to do to be successful in her career, and you don't have to go to Command. And with Ezri and Kat, it's not that they went to command instead of mental health, it's that they brought their mental health skills into Command.

Anika: Exactly. And they would be so good at it. It's like, of course you went into Command, because you had the skills, you had so much better skills than someone like -- oh, let's talk about Archer! My favourite trash captain has none of those interpersonal skills. He's super charming, but he is not good with people.

Liz: Noooooo.

Anika: So the idea that he would be valued over a Cornwell is ridiculous to me.

Liz: One of the things that made me sit up and take notice of Cornwell in "Choose Your Pain" is the way she is speaking about Starfleet morale, and the needs of the fleet -- the people within the fleet, and also about Michael, and how she draws the distinction between Michael being scapegoated for the war and Michael being actually responsible for it. And that clearly comes from her background in psychiatry and mental healthcare, and it really sets her apart from all the other admirals we've ever seen.

Anika: Right. Right. It's amazing, and I love it.

Liz: Yeah.

Anika: Kat, I just--

Liz: I mean, spoilers, we love Kat a lot.

Anika: I love every counsellor. I love Troi, I love Ezri, I love Kat. I even love Elizabeth Dehner, and I get upset that her only episode is, again, all about a man that she happened to fall in love with, and it destroyed her life.

Liz: Maybe she can be a regular in Strange New Worlds. Seems like a good role for Anna Torv.

Anika: Oh my gosh. I would love -- I would love -- I was really mad when Carol Marcus ended up in Into Darkness instead of Elizabeth Dehner. Because she had the haircut, and so everyone was saying that she was going to be Elizabeth Dehner, and I was like, oh my God. All I want is for Elizabeth Dehner to be a big thing.

Liz: There was a rumour going around before Into Darkness came out that the whole Khan thing was a fake-out, and that Benedict Cumberbatch was actually playing Gary Mitchell--

Anika: Gary Mitchell, right.

Liz: And I really liked the idea that Kirk's all-American best friend was now this weedy Englishman. And I really -- I don't like Into Darkness, and I really wish we'd gotten that movie instead. Once again, I like the Star Trek in my head better than canon.

Anika: Alice Eve would have been a great Elizabeth Dehner. And, honestly, I like her Carol Marcus. But it would have been so much more interesting if it was Gary Mitchell and Elizabeth Dehner than--

Liz: Right. Because, if nothing else, Khan is just done to death.

Anika: I'm tired and I don't care.

Liz: Do we want to talk about medtech? That's the final point on our list that we haven't covered.

Anika: I just think it's amazing that Star Trek has really -- there are biobeds, there are people who are working on tricorders, there are people who are working on hyposprays. All of these things, they're trying to create.

Liz: It's amazing, yeah.

Anika: That's true across all of Star Trek, but the medical technology that they are -- I have a friend who is literally working on a project that is basically a biobed. He is trying to make biobeds.

Liz: That's amazing.

Anika: It's incredible to me! Can you imagine how helpful it would be to have a biobed right now? To have someone -- you lie down, and it takes your temperature, and it tells you your vitals, without hooking anything up, and it says, you know, "These are the four diseases that are probable." It would be so incredible to have even a tenth of that technology.

So the fact that people are inspired by Star Trek to try to create it -- Gates McFadden has talked about how she is kept in the loop about medical tricorders. People just send her emails, like, "Here's the quarterly report on our research into a medical tricorder." And she's like, "I don't understand any of this, but it's amazing that you are doing it, and that they -- it's inspiring that they have been inspired by the work that I've done." It's incredible.

So I love that, and I just -- as much as I have been saying that I worry that technology is encroaching on human interaction in medicine, I think that if used -- instead of as a replacement, but as something to make doctors better at their job, to make it easier to be a doctor, easier to have the human interactions -- we should support that in every way.

Liz: Absolutely. I went to my local hospital a month or so ago, to drop off some masks we had accidentally stockpiled after the bushfires. And they just waved a thing and took my temperature from centimetres away. And it was amazing! And I was like, oh, this is so futuristic! And then, you know, you apply the hand sanitiser, and you mask up, and -- yeah.

[This is where I seamlessly cut about nine minutes of talking about Covid]

Anyway, we've gone very far off-topic, and probably I'm about to cut all of this Covid stuff [See? Seamless!] because it'll probably bring people down a bit. But! [laughs] "I signed up for a Star Trek podcast! About medicine in Star Trek! Why are they talking about a terrible disease?

Anika: This is what our life is right now, and I think it's valid. That's just my opinion.

Liz: I think it is, too.

Anika: I will say that I watched "Critical Care" for this episode.

Liz: Oh yes!

Anika: And that's an episode -- and this is true of all my -- I said that I love watching medical dramas, right? So ER is old, now, okay? And yet, in the first season, they had storylines that dealt with how terrible healthcare insurance is, and how awful the idea of some people getting better healthcare because they can afford it is.

Liz: Yeah.

Anika: And that's true in every medical drama. And it's usually in the first season. These are things that, if you're writing a medical drama, if you're writing about anything that has to do with it--

Liz: It's the cliche you need to get out of the way.

Anika: Yeah, you have to acknowledge the fact that our healthcare system is horrible. And "Critical Care" is literally about deciding, this person is more useful to society, and so, therefore, they will get better care.

Liz: And the thing is, it seems like a very uncontroversial thing to say, but then you have the current state of American politics with regards to public healthcare?

Anika: And it's literally happening right now. There are plenty of people who are publishing their personal stories about, "I'm a doctor in Minnesota, and I'm dealing with Covid patients, and we are deciding which ones get the ICU beds and which ones don't." Based on who they are, and what they can afford, where they are in their life -- and it's horrible to think that -- but it's also, like, I feel for these people who are in the hospital, who have to make those decisions because they don't have enough space. Because no one cared to fix it before the fact.

Liz: Yeah, or, "That hospital wasn't making a profit, so that's closed down, so all the patients in this town have to go to this other hospital, further away, that's overwhelmed because suddenly it's dealing with two populations instead of one."

Anika: And also there's the 36 million people, or whatever, who filed for unemployment. Which means that they don't have a job, which means they don't have healthcare.

Liz: Right!

Anika: It is the worst possible scenario for so many people.

Liz: No, it's terrible.

Anika: And I want to be like the -- you know, I'm not the EMH, but I can be the little guy who's in the ward, who's doing his best with no equipment and no medication, and barely minimum training to try to do the best he can do. And it's just, like, ooh. That episode was really hard to watch in the current environment. It was hard to watch back in 1998, or whatever, and it was super hard to watch today.

Liz: It's not as if anything's gotten better.

Anika: No, it's gotten much worse. And it's upsetting. And the fact that it's still controversial to say that healthcare is a right?

Liz: Yeah. And that's controversial here, too! We have a really good public healthcare system, but our government thinks we would be much better off with an American style one.

Anika: Remember earlier in this conversation, I said that I didn't get mental healthcare until I was an adult and could ask for it. I also was no longer on my father's insurance, and I was on public insurance at that point. Because I didn't have a job. And I got it. And it covered everything. That one moment in time -- and I don't think it's true of -- I think that the Connecticut Husky plan has changed since I was on it. And the fact that I was in this golden age of healthcare for two years, the one time that I desperately needed it, this is why I want to be Ezri, and I want to be a counsellor, and I want to help people, it's because I know that it's so hard to get the help you need.

Liz: And it is here, too, it is actually harder to access mental healthcare in Australia than America. Which is not usually the way we expect it to go. Anyway…

Anika: Yeah, so, sorry to get super political, but healthcare is a right, it should be free, people are terrible, especially right now, in the middle of a pandemic. You should just get to be taken care of, the end.

Liz: Star Trek is optimistic! Which is the sort of attitude that I usually rant about, but I'll let it stand for now. It's 45 minutes and we've cured a disease.

Anika: In "Critical Care", it ends with the terrible jerk doctor and the overworked, undertrained doctor working together to take down the administrator. And it's like, well, that wouldn't happen! But it's a nice story. But, of course, at the end of the episode, Voyager leaves, the Doctor leaves, what happens on that planet? Probably those three people lose their job, and then everything is status quo and it's horrible.

Liz: [heavy sigh]

Anika: I wish I was optimistic!

Liz: [laughs] Yeah.

Anika: But I'm an idealist, I'm not optimistic. There's a very big difference. There's a big difference between idealism and optimism.

Liz: That is the rant that I've been trying to articulate!

Anika: I say I'm a Slytherin, which is an idealist, I am not an optimist.

Liz: [laughs] Okay. Thank you for listening to Antimatter Pod.

You can find our show notes at antimatterpod.tumblr.com, including links to our social media and credits for our theme music.

You can also follow us on Twitter at @antimatterpod. Sometimes we post cat pictures, and questions for our audience.

If you like us, leave a review on apple podcasts or wherever you consume your podcasts -- the more reviews, the easier it is for new listeners to find us.

And join us in two weeks when we’ll be discussing the newly announced Strange New Worlds.

Anika: Woooo!

Liz: Is it? Is it really?

Anika: [laughs] Look, Number One and Spock are gonna make out. It's gonna happen.

Liz: If they're going for an episodic, old series sort of vibe, then sooner or later there'll be sex pollen. That's the rules.

Anika: Exactly. There will be a reason.

Liz: And an episode where someone gets turned into a lizard. REAL STAR TREK.

Anika: REAL STAR TREK!

[end]

#star trek #antimatter pod #podcast transcripts

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asherlockstudy · 5 years

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I get that interview was HBO forced but it sounds insane when last season, he was saying Jaime needed to get away from her for good. I mean no nice post about Gwen after the last ep. I dont believe it was about not wanting to stir the hornet's nest if him and B didnt get together as he posted a huge loving one about Lena and that was a very controversial part of the plot. If hed know posted a gwen one saying"sorry JB didnt get a happy ending but here's me and Gwen in happier times" i dont get it

I think it’s very weird too…Imma analyze it. Not that I’m gonna reach any solid conclusion but I will just lay out all my thoughts.

Whatever the reason Nik doesn’t post or reply publicly to Gwen is, it has nothing to do with his personal preference for Braime or Jaime x Cersei. Even if we make the insane assumption that Nik appreciated that Jaime dumped Brienne to return to murderous Cersei and die with her without serving any purpose in the main plot (what lead actor of 8+ years would ever like being unimportant in the ending plot) and saw “pOeTRy” in it, it still doesn’t explain why he should prefer posting about Lena over Gwen. We would be naive to think he made a post about Lena and not Gwen because he prefers Cersei to Brienne. So, we still have no clear evidence of what Nik’s private thoughts and feelings are for his character after the ending.

Here’s what we have:

We have two interviews: one with HBO rofl and one with that journalist who collaborates with HBO and was an insider (I’m not gonna search his name) in which he stans Jaime’s choices, his love for Cersei and the tragic poetry in it all. Then we have him promoting the episodes and the documentary in his instagram and twitter, however he is entirely emotionally detached from his character and his fate. I would say he lowkey looks entertained in his weird af episode promo videos and secretly amused while filming the “thank you” video after the last episode where he says “Come on, it was great” and suggests a petition for an Arya (huh?) sequel.

We have two videos uploaded on yt with him: one is a video of a stalker in which Nik looks uncomfortable and passes the question to the random guy next to him who apparently happens to be a GOT fan, have an elaborate opinion on the last season, hate D&D and think they threw away Jaime’s beautiful character arc. What are the odds…The second is a skit in Jimmy Kimmel in which Nik drags his own character by making him stupid and clumsy, a sad little being because of his maiming and, most importantly, an unrepentant sister fucker. All of Jaime’s worst qualities displayed for laughs, plus that he’s actually a likeable but very stupid person. The skit ends with a dragon randomly burning him and his family alive and those credits

So, we have straightforward criticism towards D&D by Kimmel and NCW actually participates in it. This is what this skit means - that this level of writing, this kind of lame character and that ludicrous death is something that only Benioff and Weiss would like to produce. And, well, the Olsen sisters (although I think they’re cleverer than that).

So, we have two videos where NCW’s intentions are dubious AT BEST.

Then we have all the promos. When left to speak on his own, Nikolaj would say how the ending was beautiful and made sense and he once mentioned he sent a letter to thank them for this genius plot…Right. But then when asked or caught off guard (1:04):

youtube

Nobody tries to sugarcoat it, look at the title of the video: … NCW is ‘happy’. Then of course we have our Lady and Saviour Gwen who tries not to laugh as Nik struggles to find what to say and not just stand up and flee.

Also, this one. The best one:

youtube

I could make a thousand gifs for this but just watch again the entire video:

0:07 - Gwen’s face when Nik says he thought the script was fantastic

1:13 - “N-no..NO!!!” when asked if he would change something in the ending and Gwen’s reaction to that. Then, our leader Gwen proceeds to mock him: “So, it’s an immaculate- It’s immaculate?” to which Nik impulsively replies: “NO!” and goes on “do you ever read a book and think you want to rewrite this?” which implies, that yes he would want to rewrite it but knows he can’t.

(3:03 - 3:06) - VERY IMPORTANT ONE. When Gwen wondered who was closer to predicting the actual ending, Nik says “I was, yeah” and OMG look at Gwen’s face. It’s very subtle but she’s trying to communicate with her eyes a “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT” to him without being seen by the interviewer. It’s kind of a wife done with her husband’s shit look tbh, that level of subtlety. And Nik answers back with his eyes in equal subtlety and it’s like he says a “What? I truly was right lol….”. To me, this seems to mean that Nik always knew or feared that D&D would eventually destroy all his work and was eventually proven right. Unless this all is about Dany being killed by Jon but I doubt at this point Nik and Gwen cared enough to go all cryptic and eye communicating for this. No, it was about them.

3:09 - Nik is surprised and then clearly amused at the information by the interviewer that Kit was the one who came closer with his prediction. He can’t hide his smile and says an ironic “good for him” while looking knowingly at Gwen who then says this must be a lie. This shows that it is known amongst the actors that most of them are disappointed and Kit was one of them. Both Nik and Gwen apparently knew Kit hated his ending too and would never expect this to be how the show would wrap up. BTW that writing and that backlash really got to Kit, I hope he recovers soon. But think about this, Kit went into rehab for stress and alcohol, Emilia was devastated and gave a somewhat concerning interview and Nik’s public behaviour regarding GOT is inconsistent and unpredictable. I am thus assuming the writing of the final season and the backlash fucked them up way more than they let on.

This interview is a gem but here’s the most important part, perhaps the core of what baffles us:

1:32 - After all the miserable no-nos poor Nik mumbles, Gwen tells Nik what we all think: “I think it’s just a question, you know? Maybe you want to answer it?”

Of course he’s in a total loss for words. Literally, he doesn’t make any sense. Some incoherent sounds come out of his mouth and that’s it. This can mean two things: either he truly thinks the ending is perfect or the ending made him such a mess that he can’t even process it verbally two years later.

Either Gwen is much braver and Nik is extemely paranoid or Nik actually has many more restrictions in what he is allowed to say. I believe Gwen wanted Nikolaj to be as open as her about it and she still tries to make him open up but he doesn’t. In all the promos without exception, Gwen looks as if she knows Nik is full of shit and secretly agrees with her. If Gwen knows that for a fact, then we can’t argue and it’s actually what makes sense anyway. Nikolaj agrees with Gwen but is not eager to discuss it openly yet, or ever. This could be because he is very professional or because he doesn’t want to get a bad name as a “backstabber” of his projects or it might be a situation of a more sensitive nature.

If those rumours that the S8 script was changed are true, then Nik and Lena might have had a serious breakdown with D&D and a negotiation might have taken place. For instance, Nik and Lena were really unnecessary in E6, Nik’s scene in E1 could have been eliminated as well and Lena does not appear in E3. Yes, they are big actors but paying them 1,2 million for every episode seems a tad excessive when Emilia and Kit are now famous too and have like 300% times more screentime. All this is wild speculation but maybe they stretched their appearance in the episodes as much as possible and gave them a good amount of money to agree on the butchering of their characters and their importance as former lead actors. I mean, especially Lena was downgraded to a secondary character in this season. Lena had to really fight to see her salary rise in the previous seasons. And now it’s a million for every episode? Wow. How many minutes was she staring out of the window in S8? Maybe they were silenced and payed a shitload of money to stop complaining and promote the show and praise the writing as what it was supposed to be. Maybe they payed them in order to promote Peter, Kit and Emilia for the Emmys instead, who knows. When so much money is involved, things can get frustrating in ways we don’t even fathom. This is wild and rough speculation but all I’m saying is there may be reasons Nik avoids talking freely about his character that we can’t know.

Besides, it’s not just a Gwen problem. It is not a Gwen problem. Gwen revealed she sent a “Jaime is a fuckboi” meme to Nik privately and he answered playfully as ever (but again as if he’s in denial). They posted a story together a couple of weeks ago. Nik did not just ignore Gwen’s instagram post. Daniel Portman posted the photo and tagged Nikolaj too. Nik ignored him as well. Bryan Cogman, who Nik and Gwen owe a lot to, commented under the photo in a very sweet and emotional way. Guess what, Nik ignored him too! It’s ridiculous to think Nikolaj has stopped communicating and caring about Gwen AND Daniel AND Bryan just because his character returned to Cersei. Furthermore, the fact that they all keep tagging him shows they don’t think their relationships with him have become tense.

That’s not it. It’s not about Gwen. The only way that Gwen is involved in all this is that she wants Nikolaj to open up so that he would give a little acknowledgement to her character and the relationship with Jaime because she feels very much for Brienne. I’m sad to say, however, that it seems to me that Nik did not take that blow more lightly than Gwen. In fact, his behaviour is more inconsistent and troubling whereas Gwen’s openness about it made her confront that sore subject more healthily after all. I start believing Nik was actually way more devastated than Gwen. At least Brienne remained a decent character, ever faithful to her ideals, ever innerly strong. Jaime was entirely trashed, let alone that he was supposed to be a main character. If Nik can’t even handle a photo that reminds him of his destroyed character arc, I wouldn’t be surprised. Maybe Gwen wants Nik to open up so much for his benefit as well - he keeps it bottled up and she might know first hand how that affects him.

Long story short, the reasons Nik doesn’t post anything about his feelings for Jaime’s character arc, his relationship with Brienne and his collaboration with Gwen probably are both professional, after begrudging deals and agreements and restrictions from HBO, and very personal, inner and private, as he’s still trying to cope with a disappointment that crushed down on him from what used to be his dream job and a role he hoped would be a (or the) peak of his career. I bet all these years Nik was hopeful Jaime would be extremely important and fully redeemed in the end but also extremely scared and anxious that the writers won’t give him what he hoped for and what made sense. Would I exaggerate if I said this should be the biggest professional disappointment he ever experienced, provided that he didn’t like the character’s ending?

From everything Gwen has said about him, I have surmised that Nik is very emotional and anxious but with a very blasé and superficially amiable attitude. He avoids expessing emotion in real life which is why he might be dissociating a lot lately. He tries to distance himself from that part of Jaime’s character that involved Bryan and Gwen because this is the part that he loved and lost. Honestly, I can’t think of any other logical reason he ignored Gwen, Dan and Bryan one after the other and never made a post about his own character specifically or his good times with Gwen. It’s obviously not that he suddenly hates all of them to the point of not even replying. Even if HBO restricts him on what he can say in interviews for a while, there is no other explanation for this other than that D&D’s genius writing fucked him up emotionally as much as Emilia and Kit and he does not want to deal with it even though Gwen probably thinks it would be for the best if he did.

Now after I wrote all this, imagine if Nikolaj actually doesn’t give a shit and is just happy going on with his life while I am here wasting time. But… I don’t think so. I will never not believe Nik didn’t love Jaime to pieces. He had big dreams for this role, I am sure of it.

#nikolaj coster waldau #jaime lannister #gwendoline christie #nik and gwen #jaime x brienne #braime #got negativity #more

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forgivven-minds · 5 years

Text

Thank You...방탄소년단

For BTS, Armys and My Best Friends.

I know BTS wont see this lmao or if anyone will even read this but here goes.

I dont know how much of this is going to make sense. Its just going to be another post of all my thoughts and feelings randomly mashed up in to one. But I will try my best to make sure it makes some sense for the non to few people that may read this lol.

November 30th 2019 marks two years since BTS bulldozed their way in to my life turning it upside down, sideways and launching it around but most imporantly making my it 1000000000000x better.

Never in a million years did I think by clicking on the DNA music video that came up on my twitter time line that day would lead me to a whole new world. I never imagined it would open so many doors for me, i never imagined it would lead to so many insane adventures, So many amazing memories and A world wide family. I had no idea it would lead to just a fraction of what BTS have brought in to my life.

The past two years have been the best two years of my entire life. Id be wrong if I said I found BTS, The facts are BTS found me. They found me when I needed something new and fresh. They found me when I was lost, when I needed Happiness, Light, Laughter and Love in my life the most. They found me and saved me!

BTS found me when I was going through some hardships in life. A few days before they found me I lost my grandad, during this time I was already dealing with an extrmely unhealthy and toxic friendship I was trapped in as well as battling my own personal demons. I was in a very dark place and I cant imagine how much darker it could of gotten if BTS hadnt of rescued me. They helped me through these hardships, they pulled me through to see the light. They helped me grieve my loss. They helped me make desicions that would change my life for the better. They simply Saved me.

Ever since BTS entered my life EVERYTHING has just gotten better. I went from being a very lost soul, not knowing what I wanted from life, Not knowing what I wanted to do with my life, Not knowing who I am or where I belonged to knowing exactly who I am, where I belonged, What I want to do with my life and what I want from life. They helped me create Dreams I never thought I would have, They helped me create small goals and life long goals, They opened up so many doors for me. They made my mental state a million times better and clearer. They Taught me how to Love myself, they made me apprecate the little things in life, They made me a better person to myself and to other people.They made me Happy, TRULY HAPPY!!!!!!

BTS gave me two of the greatest gifts of life:

HAPPINESS

MY FAMILY

Althought I already knew these wonderful people I call My Family before I even knew of BTS. BTS made them My Family, They brought us closer to each other individually and as a group, They showed us what a real family is like, They Showed me who my real Soul mates are, They showed me what real love feels like and They Gave me The Friendships I’ve always dreamt of having. They brought me closer to some of the most Important people in my life and I am forever gratful. They didnt just make me happy, They Made my family Happy too. BTS are a true gift that keeps on giving.

BTS opened the door to the world of Kpop for me, Throught this I’ve met so many amazing people, Its Brought people I already knew closer to me (you know who you are if you’re reading this) and given me so many amazing memories, adventures and brought so much laughter in to my life with them. But the most important people its made me closer to are my 2 Best Friends Leah and Kels. Its been a little over a year since they got in to Kpop .... I may or maynot of dragged them in to this dangerous world lol... you’re welcome ladies haha. But what a year its been, we have seen so many amazing bands and artist, we have traveled the country multiple times for Idols and we (me and leah) have even been to berlin twice for kpop shows (Got7 & Music Bank). We saw BTS’ first ever UK show together and recently went to Night 1 at Wembley god damn stadium. These are hands down the two of the most important shows Ive ever been to, Seeing the Biggest Band in the world with my Two favourite people was nothing but magical and perfect. These two girls have done nothing but bring happiness, light, love, peace, laughter and crack head ass antics in to my life, they might be crazy and we might share 1 Braincell between the 3 of us but i wouldnt change it for the world......just the distance haha. Thank you for being my rocks, my shoulder to cry on, my biggest supporters. Thank you for being my second star to the right, my home. Thank you for loving me for who i am and all my flaws. Thank you for being my serendipity. I love you endlessly. Heres to many more adventures and crying over BTS haha.

Since BTS came in to my life I had never felt or expressed love like this, from and to BTS, My Friends and life in general. They have given me an entirely different perspective of life, They have influence me so much, from the way i look at life and the way i see things, They taught me what positivity truly is, They taught me to always look for the positives even in the negatives, They taught me to live in the moment, To express myself fully, To not change for anybody, To accept and embrace myself to the fullest, They showed me there is clear blue skies after the storms, no matter what obstacle life gives me i can over come it.

BTS arent just 7 extremely handsome guys from South Korea who Sing, Dance and Rap, they are so much more than that, They are Teachers, Influencers, Lovers, Ambassadors, Healers, Therapists, Peace Makers and so on. They arent just guys that make music, They are people who make music with a meaning, a story and a lesson. They share their hardships, Their battles, Their recovery and their triumphs. Their stories and lyrics didnt just help me but millions across the world. They created a family through their battles, They taught millions how to love themselves, To put themselves first and To be Happy. They took adventage of knowing their music is an escape for people and used it to teach an important life lesson as well as creating the most amzing feel good music.

Thank you BTS for a wonderful 6 years of Builing this family and making the world a better place one step at a time. I might not of been in the family from day one but I can happily say the past two years have been the most imporant becuase of your infuence and and change upon me. thank you for all your hard work, Thank you for pushing yourselves, thank you for the sacrifices youve had to make, Thank you for sharing your battles and stories, Thank you for giving us your all even on your harder days. Happy 6 years, Heres to many many many more!!!!!!

THANK YOU KIM NAMJOON

THANK YOU KIM SEOK JIN

THANK YOU MIN YOON GI

THANK YOU JUNG HO SEOK

THANK YOU PARK JI MIN

THANK YOU KIM TAE HYUNG

THANK YOU JEON JEONG-GUK

We in this Bangtan Sonyeondan shit for life xox

Thanks for reading my unorganised, messy and repetitive thoughts hope it wasnt too painful to read lol.

I LOVE BTS!!!!!!

#bts #6yearswithbts #Bangtan #Jimin #V #RM #Jin #JK #JHope #Kpop #bts army

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jiminies-ahmee · 6 years

Text

CAR RIDES WITH BF!BTS

SEOKJIN

seokjin is the type to play power ballads in the car

maybe a bit of beyonce bc, y'all know our seokjinnie is diva

and at the traffic lights ppl will literally be able to HEAR the both of you busting your lungs singing

and you’ll have synchronised dance moves all down-packed to all the songs

but seokjin isn’t one for EXTREMELY late night drives, bc he likes his beauty sleep

however, he is definitely into fast food drive thrus

he’ll make those iconic ‘hmmm’ and ‘wahhh’ noises and soon, it’ll rub off on you too

it might be a good idea to let seokjin drive at all times bc you’ll be laughing way too hard at his attempts at jokes

OMG

YOU’D LAUGH SO HARD WHEN ITS RAINING AND SEOKJIN’S FORCED TO TURN THE WINDSHIELD WIPERS ON

it’d be silent in the car for a few moments

and then you’d break into a laugh

and then seokjin would laugh

and it’d just be a mess

y'all would be a mess

a hot ass, diva mess

YOONGI

oh it wouldn’t be silent all the time

but sometimes it would be

bc either you were having a nap

or yoongi was having a nap

and he napped in the backseat

it would warm your heart to hear his soft snores bc YES FINALLY your baby is getting his much-deserved sleep

yoongi would always wake up to the smell of food tho, bc you knew he’d be hungry when he woke up

and that sorta rubbed off on him

when you would wake up in the passenger seat after dozing off, yoongi would have brought you your absolute favourite foods

and even tho you didnt know it, yoongi had really gone out of his way to get it for you - just to see you smile

bc he had quite literally gone off course and done a u-turn just to get the food for ya

he a sweetie, not a meanie

and there’d sometimes be some RNB or trap music playing in the background

but it was almost always piano instrumentals

bc even tho he wouldnt admit it to you, that instrument truly was his first love

but it helped him find you <3

NAMJOON

now car time for namjoonie is inspiration time

actually no, all the time is inspiration time

when you’re behind the wheel, you’ll literally be having a convo with joon and he’d just be like ‘ooh’ or ‘yes’ out of nowhere

and you glance at him and he’s got his nose in his notebook, quickly scribbling lyrics in his secret book

(it isn’t secret to you tho bc he’s shared all the lyrics he’s ever written with you)

and then he’d realise he quite literally cut you off, so he’ll look up at you and apologise profusely

“i did it again, didn’t i?” “it’s okay joonie, you can take the man out of the studio but you can’t take the studio of the man”

he’d do that shy giggle he does with his hand over his mouth when you say that

but other times, when namjoon’s the one behind the wheel - mind you this does not happen regularly bc you aren't afraid to admit that you fear for you life when namjoon is the one driving

he’d play all of those amazing and beautiful songs he recommends through twitter and when he’d give you the aux cord

oh boy

“this song is so good! quick, tweet it, y/n!” “who sings this? this is littttttt”

y’all will just be singing in the strangest of tones but there’ll always be that one, heavenly moment when you’ll cut it out and literally harmonise by ACCIDENT

and joon will just stare at you and you’ll stare at him before realising

“JOON THE LIGHT’S GREEN, MOVE, OH MY GOD!”

HOSEOK

i think you already know where this is going

hoseok does not sit still in the car unless he is tired

and that is a rare event

he’s always groovin’ and moovin’

even if you accidentally switch the station to some random one that’s playing ethnic music

he’s poppin’ and lockin’ and no one can stop him someone stop me

but anyways, hoseok is the one who ultimately brought you out of your shell

his dancing and his aura of pure happiness has been passed onto you and so you’re always dancing in the car too

and you two are the type to take videos of it (obv the person in passenger seat is taking the video, don't snapchat and drive peeps xx) and post them to twitter and instagram and all that jazz

car time with hobi is forever and always a fun time

but honey, let’s not forget that as well as dancing and spitting fire, this sunshine can SING

if a ballad comes on, oh boy, you better make sure that seatbelt real tight or you’re going to fly out the window

he literally leaves you speechless sometimes with his vocals

and you don't tell him, but you always manage to record him when he's singing in the car

and you save them for when he’s away on tour that way you can keep hobi in your pocket and keep him close

JIMIN

this lil mochi, my peachy boy, is the dude that’ll look cool af in the car

even if you two are on your way late at night to get something to eat

you're out there wearing no paints, socks and slides and one of jimin’s shirts that are oversized for even him

whilst ya boy is out there wearing sweatpants and a random tee but still looking fine af

#thepowerofparkjimin

and you’d complain about it sometimes bc he’d want to go into the place to eat and you’re like

???? “do you see what i look like park jimin?”

and he’d be like “yes, you look ethereal, now let’s go”

he’d always hold your hand in the car

and when he needed to use two hands on the wheel he’d literally grab onto your hard -0.4 seconds after his hand was free

whenever you two would go driving together you’d always let jimin drive bc you knew he liked it and he didn’t get to do much of it during other times

omg you’d try to be sly and snap a few pics of him bc goddamn, but he’d realise and pull the silliest faces just to make you laugh

“yah, stop taking pictures, what are you? my personal paparazzi?” he’d tease

song wise, i feel like it’s either really soft music with jimin or like…. hardcore suggestive music

with soft music he’d be holding your hand and sing along quietly

but with the suggestive music well…. he’d just wriggle his eyebrows at you and smirk bc HA ITS SO FUNNY ISNT IT

“should i change the song, y/n? but i like it :(“

TAEHYUNG

oooft this boy

he’ll call you up randomly at the most ungodly of hours asking if you wanted to go for a drive

you’d always say yes bc why would you say no???

and so he’d pick you up and the two of you would just drive around the city

soft jazz music in the background bc taehyung has pretty cool and eccentric taste

and he’d just hum along

which would quite literally put you to sleep sometimes

and tae would just giggle bc wow you're so cute

but at other times - like when the rest of the world is awake - it’d be lively music

bc tae needs to wake up and so do you

it’d be so funny bc tae would play english songs and he wouldnt know some of the words

and he’d just start blabbering sounds that he thought sounded similar enough to the actual lyrics

(if this aint me with kpop tho)

and he’d just be such a great person to be in the car with

sometimes it’d be quiet between the two of you bc just being with one another was enough

or sometimes the two of you would just be laughing so hard at a story tae was telling

or sometimes it’d be a bit of a deep, emotional convo about the past or things that tae or even you just need to get off your chests

and you loved each and every one of those moments

bc tae made everything fun

even if you were both bawling your eyes out in a parking lot after getting a little carried away with your deep chats, he’d fail at cracking a joke and you’d both be a giggling, crying mess

but tae still thought you were the prettiest thing, so don't you worry a bit xx

JUNGKOOK

alright this boy

sometimes the two of you would spend more time arguing over who got to drive than actually sitting in the damn car

usually it’d be settled with an arm wrestle or whoever simply got to the driver’s seat first

you both have a few bumps and bruises bc of the second scenario

it’d be funny sometimes to watch kook drive tho bc he’d get a little rusty after tour and he’d just sit there in the driver’s seat completely zoned out

“kookie, you have to switch the ignition on, buddy. we’re losing daylight here.”

but the both of you would have this set playlist and set songs where the both of you would have individual parts

like you’d do duets together in the car

sometimes rap, sometimes pop, sometimes ballads

but y’all put your all in each and every song and the both of you would sometimes make it a competition to see who could sing better

jungkook would sing songs trot style lmao

and sometimes you’ll be out of breath by the time you reach your destination

but it’s all good

you’d also spend a lot of time in the parking lots of fast food restaurants bc foooooddd

and you’d always scold jungkook bc he’d always buy too much food but still manage to scoff it all down

“jeon jungkook, how the hell are we going to eat all of this?”

lol within 10 minutes the food’s all gone sis, you both scoffed it all

“i told you you’d eat it all”

roasting each other all the time

and then having to cheer up a butthurt jungkook bc he took it to heart just a lil bit

“jungkook, i’m joking”

oh and sometimes you’d grab his hand while he was driving and he’d get all startled

and you’d laugh at him

but he’d just grip onto your hand tighter till it hurt a little

“ow!”

“oh sorry, i just forget how strong i am sometimes”

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coffin-of-eternal-darkness · 5 years

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Thank you for over 3000 followers

I reached 3000 followers a while ago and even though I didn’t do anything for my other milestones, I thought I should make a post about this one (though I couldn’t think of anything special). After all, 3000 is most likely the highest I will get and it really is an amazing number, considering I’m not doing anything special XD Kinda fitting too. In NnT everything started 3000 years ago, and for my blog everything started 3000 followers ago XD I’m not sure how many people from the old days even follow me anymore, but, thank you all. It’s been some amazing years!

As for what I’ll do… Well, my friend @maybeishouldwait helped me with some question prompts, so it’ll sort of be like an interview? I hope at least some of you are interested. So, let’s start!

1. Let's start with an easy one: how did you discover NNT, and what drew you to it?

I’ve recently answered an ask with a similar question but here we go! It was a complete coincidence. I wasn’t necessarily searching for something. I randomly browsed a manga reading site, probably looking foe updates and the title somehow caught my attention so I clicked on it. I didn’t take it seriously at first, the first chapter really didn’t impress me at all, and I only continued because I thought it was funny. It’s no secret I fell in love with the series but it still baffled me how fast it went from “Lol, this is funny and stupid” to “BEIRHJ I LOVE THIS SO MUCH” in a matter of a only few chapters XD Everything was such a new experience to me. The characters weren’t the usual stereotypes, they were actually deep and interesting. The story took a while to become interesting, at first it was more about just… gathering these super powerful knights and it was so cool to see what kind of crazy character the next one would be. I also loved how I could never see anything coming. Even now that we know what kind of series this is, there are still plottwists like Hawk’s eyes being the portal to purgatory or Cath’s whole appearance that just… could not be predicted and I really love that surprise effect when something unbelievable happens. So I love the characters and the surprises but I also love the story, or rather how it’s told. For the first… 70 or so chapters to me it felt like with every chapter it just got even BETTER than before. I still had a few of those moments in the Commandment saga, just, scenes that blew me away and made me think “Wow, I wonder how much better this series can get”. I think it also was around chapter 70 that I created my blog. And more than anything I think I love the tragedies. It’s hearbreaking but heartwarming at the same time somehow. Not many of you probably know this but my first NnT OTP was actually Banlaine and I cried so much when I read their backstory. I loved how deeply in love they were to the point of sacrificing themselves for the other. Both had to deal with a large chunk of loneliness in their lives and for both of them the other was their salvation. Every time Ban was saying anything about Elaine in the main series I was both crying and cheering for him. By now everything is a tragedy and while I wish there were a few more lighthearted scenes for… personal salvation… I like that and crying about all those characters and CARING for their happiness really helped me get into this series I think.

2. How has your blog changed since it started?

Well, apart from the fact that is has grown popular… I actually think I’ve burned out a but. I write a lot less text posts than before. I had an awful amount of (stupid) theories back in the old days and also an awful amount of free time somehow. Now I feel like I don’t think about theories that often anymore, let alone post them. Part of that is that I’m busy with work and other hobbies, but partly that’s because the series has gotten so long and it’s becoming harder and harder to remember details, especially from the newer chapters. I really want to reread the series but I never get around to do that anymore. I also think that back in the days I more or less posted just anything I found or thought was cool, while nowadays I’m always wondering what I could do. I still try to keep it up but it’s becoming harder and harder. Oh, there’s also a lot more follower interaction too!

3. What are some of your favorite blogs or sites for NNT stuff?

As for sites, I usually only check the official ones, like the official HP or the official Twitter account. As for blogs… I don’t really follow a lot of people since I look through the tag almost on a daily basis anyway. Of course there’s @spoilerkingjuliane, she’s a must follow XD I can also highly recommend @maybeishouldwait since she’s an awesome writer. I always enjoy @nostalgicbookworms gifs a lot and @sdsmangacaps is my go-to account for manga caps. There are a lot more blogs that I really like, there are tons of really good artists on Tumblr and Twitter but since I’m not actually following a lot of them and I fear I’ll forget a few I’d rather not mention them directly and hope they know I appreciate them. The most obvious Twitter account is yuka_sai0127 btw, but there are a lot of others.

4. What advice would you give to someone wanting to make their blog as successful as yours?

Tbh I have no idea how I even got so popular in the first place XD I started on a whim and thought I’d lose motivation immediately and nobody would follow me anyway. But before I knew it I had almost 100 followers in a matter of a few days. Maybe it was my obsession? I also quickly befriended the other popular NnT blogs, that probably helped too. I think it depends on what kind of blog you have, but I think the most important thing is frequent updates and high quality. I also think blogs should have a good balance between your own content and reblogs. There are blogs that live only through reblogs and that’s fine but I think it’s harder to be “interesting” when you don’t have your own content. Try to find something only you can do and do it. @spoilerkingjuliane for example is good at finding info and she is immensely popular because of that. I will forever be slightly jealous of her because I will never reach that level XD”

5. What's the best part of running your blog? What's something you wish was different?

The best part without a doubt is how much it involves me into the fandom. I’m more or less forced to see all kinds of fandom posts and while that’s sometimes stressing me out, I also see a lot of amazing content and being able to share those posts with so many people makes me really happy. Running this blog also helped me boost my own confidence. As I mentioned earlier at the beginning I thought nobody would be interested in my blog anyway and I’d give up right away. But I gained followers quickly and it showed me that yes, I might not be as boring as always I think I am. It showed me that I can do things if I just try. On the downside though, running a popular blog puts a lot of pressure on you, and I constantly feel like I have to do something, have to go through the tag, have to make SOME content somehow. And even when you’re stressed you can’t just take it out on people after all so the stress piles up. That’s probably my own responsibility and not the blog itself that is doing that, but I still wish I could take it more easy.

6. How did you learn Japanese? Did you find it difficult?

Well, it wasn’t easy at least. I started learning Japanese twice, once I gave up quickly because the book I used was a horrible starter and after that I learned the basic grammar and a few words through a magazine crash course. Learning specific words was easier than to learn all hiragana and katakana on their own and since I also knew the basic grammar it made it easier to learn and understand whole sentences. Still, I’m an extremely lazy human being and even though I’ve been learning Japanese for almost half of my life now I very rarely actively studied. Most of the time I would try (and fail) to read manga in Japanese and pick up new words and grammar here and there. But through switching between actually learning and trying to read manga I got better. Once I was at a certain level I bothered a ton of random japanese people too in order to befriend and speak japanese with them, which also helped. I think the most major step in my learning career was getting obsessed with Tales of Vesperia a few years ago tho. I was at a comparatively high Japanese level back then already but playing a game of THAT length completely in japanese was a challenge. I learned a stupid amount of new words and grammar and ways of talking through that game and it probably helped that it was just an amazing game that remains to be my favorite. I’ve also translated a few manga chapters back then that really got me practicing and I also worked at an Udon restaurant with (except for me) 100% japanese staff. And as is the case with all languages… Talking with real people is always the best practice. Then of course my year working in japan gave me the final boost. I still have a ton to learn and I’m nowhere near really GOOD but I like to think my japanese is pretty decent at least.

7. What do you see for the future of your blog?

It won’t be all too long anymore til the manga ends and when that happens there won’t be any theories or reviews to write anymore… There will still be an S3 and possible an S4 and maybe more anime projects. But it will be harder to update the blog with original content. Eventually it will most likely turn into a reblog only blog. But I hope I will have some more time and motivation to actually reread the manga, complete my NnT encyclopedia and update the blog with interesting stuff I find in between. I really want to keep this blog up for a few more years!

No matter how it will turn out though, I’m happy I came so far. I made a whole bunch of good friends during this time and had a lot of fun. To my friends and followers (silent or not): Thank you so much for your support!

#personal #follower celebration #kinda #man i really hope someone is actually interested in this #i feel kinda bad not doing something more flashy #like drawing a huge picture #or doing requests or whatever

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nikatyler · 6 years

Photo

Starting a new legacy? Ending an old one? Where is the high school story that you’ve promised us Ronnie? Welcome to the next part of my never ending rambling.

New legacy...maybe. I’ve randomly started a BPR. Let me tell you, it was not love at first sight. I loved the sims I’d created, but when I played it for the first time, it was all a little too much and I kind of wanted to die. Yesterday I opened the save again and I wasn’t as bitter anymore. I actually kind of liked playing it, I did this storyline kinda thing I wanted to do, I have the first child of the next generation...and I’m an indecisive mess so am I going to continue? Am I going to abandon it? I DON’T KNOW AND I’D LIKE TO KNOW.

Ending an old legacy? Possibly. I can’t stand the lag. My game clearly doesn’t want me to play Ravens. I moved them to a new save and the lag is still awful. I’m not sure what the problem is here. My NSB save runs almost perfectly. So...yeah. I’m getting tired of that. I don’t want to end it just yet but really, it’s not fun at all. At least I finished gen 3, so it’s not like I would be ending it in the middle of a generation. It still sucks though and I think I’ll try one more time.

As for NSB and Roses, I haven’t actually played Roses at all since I finished gen 5, but I’m playing NSB a lot, I’m almost done with gen 2. But as for Roses, it’s all about planning. You know (or, well, twitter knows) that the high school means a lot to me. I really do love writing it, getting to know the characters again and giving them the story they deserve. Now if only I could be bothered to take the screenshots too. Welp.

TL;DR: I might be starting a rainbowcy. I might be ending Ravens. I’m playing a lot of NSB and planning a lot of Roses.

pxelatedtrash replied to your photo “It’s been a while since my last replies! Anyway, my summer holiday has...”

Love P!ATD

Aaaaaaa

Guess what I’m listening to now

(really, these days I’m only listening to P!ATD (and Heathers) and I can’t be bothered to switch it up with something new)

jackssims replied to your photoset “I never understood why, when your sim announces pregnancy, the other...”

I feel the same way tbh. It’s such a lackluster way to respond to something so big

elisabettasims replied to your photoset “I never understood why, when your sim announces pregnancy, the other...”

That was one of my biggest TS3 pet peeves.

melien replied to your photoset “I never understood why, when your sim announces pregnancy, the other...”

At least they look excited before they give a thumb up! I always try to capture this exact moment

I mean, yeah, everything before the thumbs up is perfect. Why end it with thumbs up though. Whyyyy

Dear diary: Whyyyyyyyyy

(told you guys it’s only P!ATD and Heathers these days for me)

amixofpixels replied to your photoset “Annabeth: “Hey Will, you have some classes with this guy…um…with...”

AHHHH! Not at all excited, nope!

I can’t wait to bring all the spouses you guys created for me into the story! It might take a while, but I’m sure it’ll be worth the wait. I have high hopes for gen 6.

pixelhart replied to your photoset “new challenge idea: stop me from starting a new legacy”

#relatable

*shrugs* Yesterday I would reply “I can’t get used to the berry aesthetic so I guess I’ll be the one stopping me” but...I am actually getting used to the aesthetic and it’s not as overwhelming as it was at first so...*shrugs again*

daybreaksims replied to your photoset “Happy Birthday @daybreaksims! Aurora, I can’t even explain how...”

Oh my, RONNIE!!! This is just so beautiful? Like how?! Thank you so much, I really don't deserve this! And what do you mean a second post? It's too much! But really, I could say the same about you, I'm so grateful to be able to call you my friend, this website wouldn't be the same without you, Ronnie! Thank you so much, Ronnie, for everything!

unrelated but seeing this gif made me realize I have to watch Sailor Moon again someday soon

You absolutely do deserve this and a lot more. *hugs*

daybreaksims replied to your photoset

Awww, you were finally able to capture their first kiss! I can't believe you did that, Ronnie!

There’s a “story” behind that...I noticed that for some reason, they had almost no relationship and weren’t even dating. I’m not sure what went wrong, but let’s say I took advantage of it and we finally have a picture of their first kiss! (even though technically it is not their first kiss, but that’s just a small insignificant detail, what matters is the first kiss animation :D)

melien replied to your photoset “No matter what he does, I can’t stop thinking about the fact that he...”

*the crying Doctor gif from Doomsday*

I didn’t even think about that D: Too busy searching for that “Rose Tyler, I-” gif.

melien replied to your photoset “new challenge idea: stop me from starting a new legacy”

This is exactly how I started my bpr - made some cute berry sims without laying any high hopes on them (or even planning to play them for long) and eventually they casually became my favourite legacy oops

My first thought when I created her was: “Well heck she’s cute. I can’t just abandon her. What do I do.” I rambled a lot about BPR already though so I’ll shut up.

cherishsims replied to your photoset “When the book is so good you can’t stop reading it and you just take...”

Me when I'm reading a really good fanfic

Haven’t read a fanfic in a while but still can relate

schmoozertrait replied to your photoset “if any of you says you ship it i’m going to block you”

Ship it

I mean it’s still a better lovestory than Twilight so maybe I’ll let it be this time

jackssims replied to your photoset “What December didn’t know is that apparently, this area really...”

That neighborhood really does bring out the vampires! I remember playing a save in that neighborhood and saw all of the vampires out at that time. It's like "guys... don't you have something else you could be doing?"

I thought that was just something random! Interesting. Well, I can’t really complain, in the end I actually loved the vampire invasion.

#replies #pxelatedtrash #jackssims #elisabettasims #melien #amixofpixels #pixelhart #daybreaksims #cherishsims #schmoozertrait

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jiminpoppins · 7 years

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Note: this is a continuation of a post // extremely long

101 reasons why Jikook/Kookmin is my ultimate OTP or 101 times Jikook made my heart flutter (Part 2)

PART 1

51) A jikook compilation wouldn’t be a compilation without THE back hugs.

Hands on waist...

Chin on shoulder...

52) Not long after Jimin tweeted a pic of ramen, Jungkook indirectly replied to him by posting FOUR selcas of him along with a message telling him his ramen looked bland. idk about you but i found this interaction cute.

53) The artistic couple.The muscle pig and manggaetteok drawings that were featured in Snow App. They even drew the chicken drawings on the menu at Isac. I can imagine them sitting and drawing random things together. ㅠㅠ

54) Jimin posted not one but three videos on Jungkook’s birthday, which means he wished Jungkook three times on SNS and made my head spin thrice.

55) Jimin and Jungkook took photos of each other sleeping.

56) When Jungkook thought there was no camera around when they were rounding the corner so he went up to Jimin and slid his hand around his waist. Little did he know they got caught on camera. I’d like to thank Yoongi’s vj for this awesome footage.

57) The many times Jimin has summoned Jungkook for Armys. In simpler words, Jungkook always tweets something after Jimin, and we all know how seldom he appears on Twitter.

58) “hyung has cute toes” Okay but like who lingers around his friend’s photo shoot and randomly blurts out that he has cute..toes????

59) The look! Jungkook’s expression when he’s feeding Jimin earns him a spot on this list haha. Tbh They’re kinda like eyefucking eo when jimin’s being fed. look at Jimin’s eyes. Apart from that I like how Jungkook fed him.

60) Their interactions the whole ISAC. Masterlist 👣

61) How can I miss this? Jikook in Japan..this one has a special place in my heart. Back in 2016, it had been just a casual discussion between me and my friends on kakao. Never thought jikook would continue displaying PDA every single time they go to Japan. What’s more when they have very strict no-camera policy during concerts.

62) The amount of heart eyes they shoot at each other.

63) When they had a dinner date in the dorm to promote Mala Hot Chicken. What baffled me was that Jungkook mentioned beforehand he wanted to sleep but he still accompanied Jimin. I’m soft.

64) Jimin has made it very apparent, truly obvious that he likes jungkook. Whether it’s liking him as a dongsaeng, or just someone he’s extremely comfortable with, Jimin always, without failing, reminds us who he dotes on. “Why do I like you so much?” Lately, I’ve been crazy because I like Jungkook so much. I think of this as a start of something beautiful, and I am so glad Jimin didn’t even hesitate in expressing his feelings towards the maknae. I think this might have helped jungkook unwind. Look at jungkook now. That’s some character development right there :)

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65) Massage. Quoted line from AHL mentor, Tony Jones “They are very touchy feely and to them, it’s nothing. I’d walk into the room and Suga’s massaging V’s neck or Jimin’s giving Jungkook an intimate back massage..”

66) When Jungkook bent down so he would get closer to Jimin and put the rein-kook headband on Jimin’s head. They’re separated a lot of times during fansigns but somehow they managed to get tgt at the end.

67) When Jungkook blows a kiss, then turns to Jimin whose lips are puckered and does the same to him, using the same fingers he used earlier. Okay I’ve been meaning to say this. Realistically speaking, if you pucker your lips and you put your fingers on them, wouldn’t your saliva stick to your fingers? I’m not trying to imply anything here, just genuinely asking haha. 140529 Ameba Studio

68) When a webtoon artist gave Jimin two dolls, but Jimin decided to give one to Jungkook. She even posted a webtoon of them. To be honest who wouldn’t?

69) *screams to the people in the back* ALL-NIGHTER FRIENDS!!! As written by the man himself, “ALL the time, it’s just the two of us doing something at night. I don’t know what we do”

70) Jungkook scribbling hearts all over Jimin’s birthday drawing. He’s one whipped man.

71) Just other instances Jungkook and Jimin flirting on stage.

//gif above isn’t mine//

72) When Jimin and Jungkook chose each other when asked “if you were a girl, who would you date?”

73) The shocking fact that Jungkook demanded an apartment from Jimin as a graduation gift. Like, apartment? of all things? What kind of domesticity is this?

74) The way Jungkook takes care of Jimin even though he’s the younger one, and how Jimin is there when he’s the one seeking comfort.

75) I will never forget the Gayo Back hug, ever. I’ve mentioned back hug somewhere above, but this is different.This deserves a point of its own.

76) When Jimin took off one of his rings at the airport and gave it to jungkook.

77) When Jungkook stopped in front of Jimin during his part in For You at Osaka concert, and kind of directed the lyrics for Jimin. Jimin just couldn’t stop smiling afterward :((( The lyrics are: It smells like you The road that I walk on I plug my earphone to my status My true feelings lie beyond there

78) When Jimin and Jungkook steered away from the bunch and instead opted for some alone on the cruise. people say you smile the brightest when you’re with someone you love, yes?

79) The fact that Jimin wanted to become napa cabbage after seeing Kook dressed up as a bunny, so he could eat him, albeit choosing to be cheese initially. What even is that statement lol 👣

80) The morph of their dynamic. I kind of miss their old moments, when Jimin was bolder, more carefree, and Jungkook seemed to be too shy to reciprocate. (on camera). Now they have matured. They have grown up well. A wave of nostalgia sweeps over me. The transition of their relationship is extremely beautiful.

81) When Jimin became Jungkook’s makeup artist for a day, hovering around the set, even drawing a pic of a bird that’s used as a prop later.

82) their size difference might be exaggerated at times, but you really can’t deny that it is cute, even if it’s not much.

83) When Jungkook changed the lyrics in Spring Day to Jimin. Like a small piece // Of Jimin // That floats in the air

84) When Jungkook showed to the world what a sweet boyfriend he is,making jimin laugh, sitting him on his lap, hugging him on his birthday. Sweet sweet jungkookie.

85) Let’s state the obvious- 21CG choreos!!! i love how they evolved, just like their remarkable, legendary nmd lift.

86) Their sensual dance covers.

87) When Jungkook guides and encourages Jimin during games/missions.

88) The many times Jimin has been spotted wearing Jungkook’s clothes, despite the well-known fact that Jungkook doesn’t share clothes. Newsflash: Jungkook wears Jimin’s too!

89) We know Jungkook knows Jimin like the back of his hand, but that doesn’t mean that Jimin knows any less. I think they spend time together way too much.👣

90) How often the word “JIMIN” trips off Jungkook’s tongue- this what fascinates me the most. At one time he even mistook Jin for Jimin.

91) Jimin’s eagerness to kiss Jungkook for his Coming of Age, being the first one to hold out a hand for a game of Rock Paper Scissors. Bon Voyage season 1

92) When Jimin waited over an hour for Kook to finish filming BTS Flower Boy mini drama, even though he’d finished his part. Jimin couldn’t even stay mad at him for not telling, like how fond is he?

youtube

93) The fact that Jungkook is more than comfortable speaking in banmal with Jimin.He once said in Idol Party that he prefers talking in jeondaetmal (polite language) with his hyungs but look at the amount of times he’s dropped the honorific and called Jimin by his name. uhm, let’s talk about treating the other as equals?

94) Jimin and Jungkook, the human embodiment of Piske Usagi.

95) When Jungkook’s bro drew Jungkook as Muzi and Jimin as Con, the inseparable duo on Kakao. Bro knows. 👣

96) In Kkul FM 2016, When Jungkook and Jimin nearly intertwined their fingers . Scoffs bh seemed to think it’s okay to abruptly cut off their scene. What intrigues me most is that they weren’t even looking but their hands still somehow managed to find their way around. Also other instances they hold hands. I love how Jungkook’s slightly bigger hands envelop Jimin’s smaller ones. *Jimin’s pinky tho!*

97) How they’re destined to meet. The fact that they’re both from Busan, have matching moles, Jungkook’s bro named Junghyun and Jimin’s bro named Jihyun..imagine what would’ve happened had Jimin not been the last one to enter Bangtan.

98) When Jimin said he'd be looking at the ocean with Jungkook but Jungkook straight up rejected him and chose to go on a trip with his bro instead. It was quite a strong statement but a moment later Jungkook proved it wrong by reaching out and squeezing Jimin’s hand underneath the table, kinda like a reassurance that it’s all part of a joke. He cares. He truly does.

99) During Jin’s birthday prank at MAMA, these two couldn’t keep their hands off each other. The moment they entered the bathroom, they almost shut everything out-talking to themselves, picking on the cake- until the members gave them the signal to stop w/e they’re doing. Months later Mama kindly revealed another footage, this time consisting of just them, in the bathroom, jungkook right in the middle of buttoning up his jacket, wearing nothing underneath. How was I supposed to sit still?

100) When Jungkook and Jimin take skinship to a whole new level, or simply put, the times Jikook makes us question the real intention behind their acts and excessive skinship.

101) Last but not least, Perhaps my all time favorite moment- When Jungkook was caught observing Jimin’s every move, literally had his eyes only on him.

(Mark 1:17 onward)

I super love this video bc the song chosen matched so well with the situation- like they wanted to reach out but couldn’t so they stayed put, could only observe the other from far...

youtube

and that’s it! thank you, you made it to the bottom of this post! In short, everything about jikook makes me feel content. I had thought of doing more but despite my brain literally screaming at me “Include this! You forgot this!”, I had to stick to 101. Anyway, I hope this mends your longing hearts. Have a lovely day! Thank you for reading!

Bonus because I have to:

when the members revealed on BTS KKul FM 2017 that Jungkook bought a birthday present only for Jimin. Am I your favorite hyung?

When Jungkook, the youngest in the group, called Jimin who is 2 years older than him a baby. 애기야가자 !

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bahamutgames · 3 years

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Afterthoughts S: Definitive Edition

Game: DRAGON QUEST XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age Definitive Edition (September 27, 2019)

Console: Xbox One (Via Xbox Game Pass)

Hey, it’s me again! It feels like it’s been forever since I last beat a big game with a lot of stuff to talk about. But the last time was actually only a month ago with New Super Lucky’s Tale. In the mean time I’ve been playing a couple of smaller games, tiny indie titles, a few fighting games. But nothing that I couldn’t summarize in a small twitter thread (which you can follow my twitter here if you want to see my art or just support me shilling my other accounts.)

Anyway! Just got done with another major RPG! After Nier Automata, I knew this was a game I really wanted to play before my Game Pass subscription expired. And after toiling away at it for the past month, I’m finally ready to give you all my thoughts on Dragon Quest 11! As always, this isn’t meant to be review. But just a general throw up of my thoughts and feelings after beating the game, because I love talking so much. As such, this shouldn’t be taken as a serious critique of the game, and shouldn’t be expected to be well written or thought out. Please do check out the game if it interests you at all!

SPOIL WARNING FOR DRAGON QUEST 11 AHEAD! GONNA TALK ABOUT THE WHOLE PACKAGE HERE, AS A FAIR WARNING

Opening

Prior to this, the only Dragon Quest game I had played was DQ 8: Journey of the Cursed King on Nintendo 3DS. I liked it, and thought it was pretty good. But wasn’t perfect and felt a little unnecessarily tedious to get through. But when 11 came out, I saw a ton of people saying it was an amazing RPG. People I followed who weren’t really into RPGs (as far as I knew) were raving about it. So I was really interested to give it a shot myself, but didn’t have the chance until I got game pass.

Stuff I liked

Where to begin? This is a 60 hour game so there’s a lot to talk about. I think first and foremost I just wanna gush about how pretty this game is! The graphics are amazing, I love how the environments are realistic but super brightly colored and saturated, making for ton of gorgeous areas that I couldn’t stop myself from taking pictures of. And Akira Toriyama’s just being placed in these beautiful worlds look so good and amazing. Without a doubt, especially considering its more on the realistic side, this is one of the nicest looking RPGs I’ve played.

Speaking of which, I really loved the character designs. Toriyama does fantastic work that I really like with pretty much everything, but his work on RPGs always tend to be my favorites. The designs for all the main teammates looked super good and all the monsters were really cool looking too. He really knows how to design cool looking dragons, this guy just gets it. On the same not of characters, the characters are fantastic. I really love everyone on the main team (my favorite was probably Serena.) They’re all super fun and I love the way they interact and really seem like a group of good friends. It was great to see how they all interact and work together. A scene that particularly sticks out is when they all forge a new sword of light together, which was fantastic.

I also thought the story and world was cool. Similar to my thoughts on DQ8, the story is pretty simple and easy to follow, but that doesn’t take away from it. It kind of feels like a fairy tale told on a grand scale. I love the idea of the Luminary, and Serenica being reborn into twins is awesome, Erdwin’s Lantern was a cool idea. And of course, Yggdrasil being a huge ass tree flying in the sky is absolutely the best thing ever, that’s so cool. ALSO, I have to give special shoutouts to Mordegon’s Sword of Darkness, coolest thing on the entire planet, I love swords with freaky giant eyes frantically looking around on them.

Lastly, I really liked the gameplay and combat of this game. I thought the way battles are set up as still being traditional turnbased combat but with the ability to freely walk around the field and look at the arenas was awesome. And getting to walk up to teammates to see their thoughts mid battle is super cool. Of course I loved all the different spells you can learn, and all the abilities you get through level ups. A new feature in this one (at least it’s new to me) is the Pep Up state, which is also cool. Particularly because it allows for Crossover Attacks between teammates, which is always the best thing an RPG can include, but most RPGs just choose not to. But DQ11 has it in spades and it ROCKS, there’s so much cool and genuinely useful crossover moves I didn’t even get to see all of them. And a final cool piece of the battle system was the ability to actually change equipment and teammates mid battle. I’m unsure if I’ve ever played a game that allowed for this (though I know they exist) but I thought it really made it feel like you could make use of your whole team and all your equipment. Being able to change teammates and what weapons they use for appropriate strategies was super fun.

Stuff I didn’t like

And, I did really like DQ11. I think I might even like it more than 8. There’s a ton of improvements. I feel like it’s less stingy with EXP, I feel like it was all around just easier to navigate and handle. But I still had a fair amount of issues with the game. Particularly in the- say it with me if you know what’s coming- post Yggdrasil content!! Prior to Yggdrasil, the game was buttery smooth. I flew through the whole thing and loved every second of it with minimal roadblocks (as opposed to DQ8 which roadblocked me at every boss.) And by the time I reached Yggdrasil, I realized I had been playing for 30 hours and didn’t even realize it! That’s awesome and pretty impressive considering I’ve played shorter games that felt like double that.

So, the game starts to crawl a little bit before Yggdrasil in my opinion. Once you have to start looking for the orbs, the game just kinda teeters for a bit there randomly. Like, the orbs are meant to be kind of a big deal, and yet the purple and whichever one you find in the bird dungeon thing (lol) basically get no fanfare. It felt like they were forgotten about and just had to be thrown in at the last second. Now, you could argue that the whole mural thing and the bird boss were those orbs’ fanfare. But it still felt so odd to me. Then, Yggdrasil falls.

I liked the post Yggdrasil stuff, I really did. I thought it was all pretty great from a story and character point of view. And getting to see the world that was so beautiful be corrupted and filled with powerful monsters was neat. I loved Sylvando’s whole parade thing, and every one else’s was cool too. But that’s kinda it. The whole section just drags along as you play with most of your team just gone and it goes so slow. And a lot of it really felt like it could have been condensed down a bit, I mean they don’t even show you what happened to Serena. Which I guess was because of what happened to Veronica but, still?

Again, it’s good story content and I don’t necessarily want any of it removed. But damn man, it really grinds to halt. And I also felt like it got really brutal during this part for no reason, kind of out of nowhere. The skeleton spectral sentinel, Gloomivore, and Booga were MASSIVE hurdles for me to get over randomly. And it got so bad I genuinely considered dropping the game because I just didn’t have the patience. It felt like an NES game again out of nowhere. Now, I do want to blame this on maybe not use the character builder right, or something. But still it was just so annoying out of nowhere. Thankfully I found the perfect strategy of Oomphle on Hendrick, Sap on the enemy, then have Hendrick spam Unbridled Blade, which was foolproof and beat every boss after that.

Thankfully once Serena joins your team again, and everyone is there (minus one aha) the game really picks up steam again. Everything after that was a breeze and went by without any issues. I think I hit one roadblock afterwards and it was pretty easy to just grind past. So I don’t know what happened there. The only other part I have a problem with is I do feel like the game ends rather abruptly. Like, not majorly. But I wouldn’t have minded seeing more about what happens between Eleven and Gemma or something. But that’s what the post game content is for I guess!

Some other nitpicks are that, I didn’t care about the music again. I think I liked more music in this one than DQ8, but still I’d be hard pressed to actually remember any songs from this game. I’m listening to the OST as we speak and other than the battle theme, I feel like I don’t remember what they sound like at all. And that’s probably cause I hate the composer but hey what can you do? I also wish it was easier to find Metal Slimes. I know they’re meant to be rare but I would’ve appreciated some appearing in the overworld just anywhere outside of the dragon chase scene? Weird to me you have randomly encounter them on the side of other enemeis.

Outside of that, uh. I think the Tockles were SUPER tick-tocked onto the game? It seemed like they were going to be massively important, but they just weren’t? I felt like you could’ve removed them and it would have made no change. I also thought there was gonna be WAY more time travel stuff. The scenes where you see the past are some of the best imo. Meeting Chalky from the past, playing as Rab in his kingdom, helping Eleven’s dad pass on. But these don’t feel enough to name the game “Echoes of an Illusive Age” if that makes sense? It just felt like there was supposed to be way more stuff with the Tockles and Time Travel stuff that just didn’t happen.

Now that I’m remembering it, it felt like there was TONS of stuff built up that just didn’t really go anywhere. Another big one is the whole deal with Erdwin’s lanter? Who was the guy who cut it in half? What was the deal with the lantern? Why did it fall? What was up with the dark Tockle? Wanna give any information on that? No? Okay. But if I had to guess, these all are explored heavily in the post game content, which is cool but sadly I did not have the time to play it. Maybe one day I’ll pick up a copy of the game and play through it fully.

Final Thoughts

Yeah it was good.

I am a huge fan of RPGs, but Dragon Quest just hadn’t fully clicked with me. I played 8 and liked it, but wasn’t blown away. I wouldn’t say I was blown away by this one either, but I am certainly very impressed and am eagerly anticipating whatever Dragon Quest 12 ends up being. This series is super founded in tradition (even if that tradition is detrimental to the gameplay imo?) but this game felt like a true evolution of that tradition while still holding onto it in the right ways. Are there ways to improve the game? Oh yeah, tons! But this is already a good step in the right direction. I will certainly be visiting the series more eventually (particularly 3, 4, and 5 are ones I’m curious about.) But I will probably emulate them to cheat when I run into roadblocks again.

After playing this, I also went back to play as Hero in Smash. They are still one of the best, if not my favorite character in the game. I think they are so fun and I love the randomness element that comes with them. Their stage is great too!

Also, seeing this gorgeous RPG with Akira Toriyama art in it made me REALLY want a new Blue Dragon. Like, REALLY bad. Please Microsoft if you’re listening PLEASE give us a new Blue Dragon. I don’t care what genre of RPG it is just give us a new one please I’m begging. Make it look like DQ11 and it will be the best game of all time.

Okay but enough of that. Thanks for skimming through or just letting me talk for a bit. For some reason the longer I held this one off, the less and less I felt like talking about it? Which is strange cause it’s a big game and I felt like I had tons to say during it. The only reason I even finished this and decided to post it was cause I already started it. Basically what I’m saying is that don’t be surprised if I just start making REALLY teeny tiny posts here instead of big rambles like this one.

But until then, I have work to do. I played through the Ty 2 HD remake on Switch recently and loved it all over again. I will maybe talk about that later. At the moment I’m playing Tales of Vesperia. Thanks again for putting up with me ramble about games, see you next time! Play something you love that puts you in an adventurous mood!

#2021 #Thoughts

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