#me about every arc: oh this ones my favorite. crystal kingdom is my favorite. no eleventh hour. no wait rockport ltd

[crimsongrimoire]

#sits here. #crow.txt #not writing #like there is some legitimately beautiful stuff in balance #its unreal #and un FAIR when theres also like the whole first arc is hard to get through on the first listen sometimes but then it gets SO good #me about every arc: oh this ones my favorite. crystal kingdom is my favorite. no eleventh hour. no wait rockport ltd #like they all just fucking go OFF the suffering game gives me so much stress but also holy SHIT ITS SO GOOD #THIS PODCAST PRODUCES BEAUTIFUL QUOTES SOMETIMES AND THEN ALSO IT HAS A WIZARD NAMED TAAKO THAT AT ONE POINT TURNS INTO A T REX?

[ffamranxii]

Sailor Stars thoughts:

1. The anime does its absolute best to make the Starlights unlikable. Taiki is a fucking asshole (he won’t even give a dying girl, who he explicitly was taken to visit, an autograph, and tells a bunch of children that their grandfather’s theory about souls becoming stars is dead wrong), Seiya is a Nice Guy who hits on Usagi constantly despite being told multiple times she has a boyfriend, and Yaten is a mildly sarcastic cardboard cutout. I know the manga doesn’t expand on them much but the anime is supposed to help make these people real. Counterexample is Chibi-Chibi, who hardly speaks in the manga and relies on her cuteness alone to be likable. They gave her a very cute voice because it was literally all they had to work with, given how often Chibi-Chibi actually appears

2. The dub cast for the Starlights is frankly awful. As civilians, Taiki alternates between a woman trying too hard to make her voice deep and having a bad cold, Seiya sounds like a prepubescent boy, and Yaten sounds like a woman (which they’re not, as civilians); as Starlights their voices are VERY high pitched, especially Yaten’s. Their sub voices just sound like woman talking a bit deeply and then normal women.

3. Why the FUCK did Toei think literally changing sex was less controversial than crossdressing? The Starlights are women and have always been women. Plus, them being male civilians in the anime creates a paradox, because if they’re men with sailor crystals who can become senshi, why can’t Mamoru - who is confirmed multiple times throughout the series as carrying the earth’s star seed and thus being Sailor Earth - do the same? Naoko said Mamoru can’t be a sailor senshi because he’s a man, but the Starlights don’t abide by this rule, they change their fucking biological sex

4. Why is absolutely no one concerned that Chibi-Chibi, a THREE YEAR OLD, just goes off on her own and has her own little adventures? She wanders into some strange old man’s house and they’re all “oh that’s just Chibi-Chibi,” and no one is worried that a literal stranger invites a three year old into his house where he gives her toys and candy? The 90s were WILD, man

5. Why does Chibi-Chibi, again who is THREE YEARS OLD, have a thigh gap?

6. This one’s on Naoko because it’s like this in the manga, but the anime is supposed to expand on the universe so I blame them too: Why does literally nobody question Chibi-Chibi’s motives? Some strange pink haired child who fucking falls out of the sky one day up and brainwashes Usagi’s mom into thinking she’s her second daughter, and nobody bats an eye at this? That’s sus as fuck and literally the only question anyone has is “is she your kid or Chibiusa’s?” She doesn’t even have a NAME, “chibi” is just a random word she says!

7. I am DIGGING the mobster feel of the Animamates’ civilian forms. Especially Iron Mouse and Tin Nyanko, who clearly launder money through a shady car dealership.

8. The Starlights’ only redeeming qualities are their snazzy entrance music and Seiya’s red suit

9. Why is Aluminum Siren the only Animamate who understands that a senshi has a pure star seeds? Like, y’all killed the senshi of your home planets to take their star seeds so YOU could be senshi (which is presumably why Galaxia wants more seeds, to make more Animamates with them), shouldn’t you know that?

10. Aluminum Siren/Lead Crow are trying their damn hardest to give Harumichi a run for their money in the quest to become the Best Space Lesbians.

11. So the Moon Kingdom fosters loyalty through child soldiers. I’m assuming Queen Serenity has her own senshi in the form of our senshi’s mothers, etc. (Which begs the question of if the Asteroid Senshi are supposed to be the future kids of our senshi or if they too are child soldiers from the asteroids they’re named after.) Kinmoku seems to foster loyalty by having the Kakyuu’s senshi fall in unrequited love with her. (In the manga it’s stated Kakyuu has a husband who died when their planet was destroyed.) I mean, whatever works, right?

12. I LOVE Tin Nyanko’s dub voice. She’s only around Usagi’s age and she sounds it

13. The dub actress for Lead Crow seems like she’s half assing it. Her voice doesn’t raise properly when she yells, she never sounds really angry, and it’s just so odd. I find a lot of dub voices do this, while the original Japanese VAs will scream their lungs out into the mic

14. On the reverse, Galaxia’s voice actress is a badass. She’s supposed to have a deep menacing voice but I like the one they gave her in the dub. She’s quiet, and sounds almost kind, and that’s a fucking TERRIFYING sort of villain we don’t see a lot of. Even when she’s pissed she doesn’t raise her voice.

15. Why are Lead Crow and Tim Nyanko the same height? Lead Crow is like 5’10 and Tin Nyanko is 4’11 like Sailor Moon

16. As an aside, Tin Nyanko and Lead Crow don’t like each other, which reminds me of the cats vs crows trash can showdown in Haikyuu lol

17. Haruka’s hate boner for Seiya gives me life

18. FINALLY someone calls the Starlights out on being assholes but it’s only after Makoto sees them harassing a THREE YEAR OLD (Chibi-Chibi). Literally everyone BUT Usagi thinks they’re assholes. “They sing such beautiful songs!” Bro. You can sing pretty and still be a fucking dick.

19. Lead Crow goes after Sailor Moon only after reading Siren’s notebook. Ditzy SIREN is the smartest Animamate, lord help them

20. Kakyuu’s dub voice is SO GOOD. She’s my favorite minor character, I’m still bitter they didn’t show Sailor Kakyuu

21. Seiya’s crush on Usagi was so awkwardly shoehorned in. I hate it. Jesus fucking Christ Usagi is sobbing in the goddamn rain about how much she misses Mamoru and Seiya is STILL coming onto her.

22. It is literally so fucking funny to me that Mamoru spends all of Stars fucking dead. He’s just a perpetual damsel in distress.

23. Rei literally lectures Usagi about leading Seiya on and how “you need to do the right thing and tell him you already have someone,” AS IF USAGI HASN’T BEEN DOING THAT AT EVERY AVAILABLE OPPORTUNITY. THE FIRST TIME THEY MET SHE SAID SHE HAD A BOYFRIEND, SHE’S TOLD SEIYA OVER AND OVER THAT SHE ISN’T INTERESTED IN HIM, THAT SHE’S GOT A BOYFRIEND, THAT SHE LOVES HER BOYFRIEND. The fucking MISOGYNY here, like it’s Usagi leading Seiya on instead of Seiya being a fucking Nice Guy who can’t take no for a goddamn answer. Shut the fuck up, Rei.

24. Pretty sure under Kakyuu’s headdress is a pair of odango

25. The fact that Iron Mouse and Aluminum Siren both die when their bracelets are removed yet Tin Nyanko doesn’t implies that Tin Nyanko was the original Sailor Mau. Mouse and Siren dying implies that forcing senshi powers on a civilian is dangerous and that Galaxia’s bracelets are the only thing keeping them alive (albeit brainwashed). Yet Tin Nyanko seems to revert to “good” when one of her bracelets is destroyed. Galaxia has to intervene and kill her personally. Tin Nyanko may have offered her senshi powers to spare Mau (this applies only in the anime; in the manga she’s explicitly said to have killed Sailor Mau)

26. Oooh Galaxia’s angry voice is so commanding and sexy

27. Don’t gimme that “we love Usagi but we love you Starlights just as much.” No you fucking don’t. The whole death scene in the anime is just so... ugh. Bad.

28. The Outers fighting Galaxia is hilarious. They’re supposed to be stronger than the Inners yet Galaxia never even has to get out of her chair to kick their asses. The writers were trying real hard to make us fear the worst and back the senshi into a corner but literally they’ve made this an impossible battle to win that only becomes winnable due to plot armor.

29. Rewatching Stars and classic after Eternal and Crystal makes me miss the battle damage the fuku took. The new series always has them looking pristine, but in classic they actually get roughed up and battle scarred. It makes it more real.

30. Aww how come Uranus and Neptune got to keep their names when they joined Galaxia? I wanna know what whack ass Animamate name they would’ve gotten. (Also Galaxia literally just sent them out like Pokémon, wtf)

31. I feel like Saturn dying shouldn’t be possible since she’s literally a senshi of death but... whatever, go off I guess.

32. So.... Uranus and Neptune joining Galaxia to try and take her star seed is a cool idea that absolutely did not happen in the manga, and needed more than half an episode of development. Would’ve been a cool plot if it wasn’t so rushed.

33. So much of this season was rushed so they could tie the series up at a beat 200 episodes. If they really didn’t want to go over 200, they should’ve cut the Nehelennia arc (which isn’t in the manga anyway) and and focused on developing the Animamates, this sweet Harumichi betrayal plot, and explaining Chibi-Chibi??? Her existence makes no sense without Sailor Cosmos, and they just... didn’t include her??? Wtf

#sailor moon #ffamran watches anime

[annabethlestrange]

RANKED: STUDIO GHIBLI MOVIES (rating from highest to lowest)

Check caption on every photo to check synopsis and review. 📷 I'm so happy! I've managed to finish 24 Ghibli Movies. Yay! Achievement unlock! I want to rewatch some of their movies. Every movie feels nostalgic, with good vibes, and a whimsical story! Highly recommended! (my highest rating is 5 stars and the lowest would be 1 star)

(set1 10photos)

PONYO 2008 ⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆ 𝄢 One of my top Ghibli favorite movies of all time.ü 📷 Simple, adorable, and very charming characters.📷📷 • WELCOME TO A WORLD WHERE ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. The son of a sailor, 5-year old Sosuke lives a quiet life on an oceanside cliff with his mother Lisa. One fateful day, he finds a beautiful goldfish trapped in a bottle on the beach and upon rescuing her, names her Ponyo. But she is no ordinary goldfish. The daughter of a masterful wizard and a sea goddess, Ponyo uses her father’s magic to transform herself into a young girl and quickly falls in love with Sosuke, but the use of such powerful sorcery causes a dangerous imbalance in the world. As the moon steadily draws nearer to the earth and Ponyo’s father sends the ocean’s mighty waves to find his daughter, the two children embark on an adventure of a lifetime to save the world and fulfill Ponyo’s dreams of becoming human.

Added another movie poster. Coz why not? 📷

Spirited Away 2001 ⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆ 𝄢 One of the best-animated films. I can't explain how I feel. It seems dramatic AF, but damnnnn... I wish that there's a second part. It's a bittersweet ending. I love it. One of the best movies I've watched this year. WHY THE HELL DID I WAIT FOR TOO LONG?! 📷📷📷 Highly recommended! 📷 • A young girl, Chihiro, becomes trapped in a strange new world of spirits. When her parents undergo a mysterious transformation, she must call upon the courage she never knew she had to free her family.

The Cat Returns 2002 ⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆ 𝄢 "Always believe in yourself." -Baron Humbert Von Gikkingen One of my favorites! 📷📷 I love the characters! Specially Muta and The Baron. I enjoyed this so much. To be honest I'm not a cat person. I'm more of a dog person. But I find it entertaining. Who doesn't want to marry The Baron?! 📷📷 As always, magical and enjoyable watch. Highly recommended! • IT’S NOT SO BAD BEING A CAT, NOW IS IT? Haru, a schoolgirl bored by her ordinary routine, saves the life of an unusual cat and suddenly her world is transformed beyond anything she ever imagined. The Cat King rewards her good deed with a flurry of presents, including a very shocking proposal of marriage to his son! Haru embarks on an unexpected journey to the Kingdom of Cats where her eyes are opened to a whole other world.

My Neighbor Totoro 1988 4.5 ★ 𝄢 Sana all may kaybigan like Totoro.ü 📷📷 • Two sisters move to the country with their father in order to be closer to their hospitalized mother and discover the surrounding trees are inhabited by Totoros, magical spirits of the forest. When the youngest runs away from home, the older sister seeks help from the spirits to find her.

When Marnie Was There 2014 4.5 ★ 𝄢 This is a slow burn for me. First 45 mins. of the film was dragging. I almost give up. But I'm glad I didn't. It was beautifully made. Well-crafted characters. And OH WHAT A F*UCKING TWIST!!! That ending! 📷 OMG! I DIDN'T SEE IT COMING... I was so surprised, that I cried. I love the storyline and the plot. I hope that everyone can watch this at least once in their lifetime. 📷 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. • PROMISE WE’LL REMAIN A SECRET, FOREVER. Upon being sent to live with relatives in the countryside due to an illness, an emotionally distant adolescent girl becomes obsessed with an abandoned mansion and infatuated with a girl who lives there—a girl who may or may not be real.

Castle in the sky 1986 ★★★★ 𝄢 Very pure. Enjoyable. Just like my best friend told me for every Ghibli movie, IT'S MAGICAL AND WHIMSICAL. 📷 The characters are unforgettable. Love the ending when the pirates helped Pazu and Sheeta. 📷📷 • HAUNTING AND BRILLIANT! A young boy and a girl with a magic crystal must race against pirates and foreign agents in a search for a legendary floating castle.

Howl’s Moving Castle 2004 ★★★★ 𝄢 TIMELESS.ü I love TURNIP, Markl and Calcifer! 📷 • THE TWO LIVED THERE When Sophie, a shy young woman, is cursed with an old body by a spiteful witch, her only chance of breaking the spell lies with a self-indulgent yet insecure young wizard and his companions in his legged, walking castle.

From Up on Poppy Hill 2011 ★★★★ 𝄢 Beautifully created. Poetic. The characters are well developed. I love it. Quite anxious about where the story will go. I'm happy with the ending.ü 📷📷 • I LOOK UP AS I WALK… A group of Yokohama students fights to save their school’s clubhouse from the wrecking ball during preparations for the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games. While working there, Umi and Shun gradually attract each other but face a sudden trial. Even so, they keep going without fleeing the difficulties of reality.

Only Yesterday 1991 ★★★★ 𝄢 "If today's no good, you'll have tomorrow. If tomorrow's no good, you'll have the next day." Memories of my own childhood flood back while watching this. It reflects on our own youthful days. I love it. I personally love Toshio's character. And omg that ending, my heart! 📷 📷 • I’M GOING ON A TRIP WITH ME It’s 1982, and Taeko is 27 years old, unmarried, and has lived her whole life in Tokyo. She decides to visit her family in the countryside, and as the train travels through the night, memories flood back of her younger years: the first immature stirrings of romance, the onset of puberty, and the frustrations of math and boys. At the station, she is met by young farmer Toshio, and the encounters with him begin to reconnect her to forgotten longings. In lyrical switches between the present and the past, Taeko contemplates the arc of her life, and wonders if she has been true to the dreams of her childhood self.

#studio ghibli #ghibli animation #film review #ranked

[three-moons-watching]

The Dangerous Gift Reaction

Just all of my reactions to the dangerous gift upon my first reading

AKA the dangerous gift with ZERO context have fun

SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

-THE PROLOGUE IS SWORDTAIL’S POV I’M LIVING FOR THIS

-oh yeah the villain this arc is a plant.

-haha

-lame

-alright moving on

-the prologue was basically just catching up on what happened last book rather than an actual prologue about swordtail so that was sad

-half a page into the first chapter and i already love snowfall with my whole soul

-yeah okay i actually really really love snowfall this is going to be an entertaining book

(she’s kinda like peril? except an icewing and a lot less murder)

-okay the ice wall every night seems a bit extra

-me, reading the name crystal: oooo secret gay crush???

-snowfall, two lines later: she was still a princess

-me, immediately: oh. sisters. nevermind. definitely not secret gay crush

-every time snowfall insists she’s okay i get the feeling she’s not very okay

-I LIKE LYNX A LOT

-also am i looking at an enemies to lovers (or possibly tsundere) dynamic with these two cause i’m down

-okay since when does snowfall have sisters

-awww baby miiiink

-also crystal out here wearin the dragon version of a plague mask what a mood

-Lynx stared at her, blinking fast for a long moment, “well,” she said finally, “no one said it had to be a leisurely swim--” (askdjfkasdjlf i love her)

-hey have i mentioned yet that i LOVE LYNX

-The Forbidden Treasury is possibly the coolest name for a treasury i am excited to see what’s in it

-also who gave snowfall permission to access anything with magic, this sounds like a bad plan

-i really like mink’s description!! i’m glad icewings can be more colors than just shades of white

-who gave the icewings permission to name things

-also the ice kingdom has villages? i thought it was just the castle

-oh my heck that’s horrible snowfall sweetheart i’m so sorry

-snowfall NO

-also wow tsunami u need to CHILL

-it’s a friggin PLANT who decided this was a good idea for a villain

-i mean it’s kinda cool but also feels way over powered?? what are you supposed to do????? eat all of it like a salad? feed it to whales??? you can’t burn it so what’s the next step? poison?

-oh goodie one of my least favorite dragons in the series

-also jerboa’s first impression wasn’t great

-YOOOOOOOO IS THAT THE RING’S POWER??? THAT’S SO COOL

-lynx 🤝 qibli (🤝 = having that Bisexual Energy and annoying the flip out of royal icewings just cause they can)

-In this house we support Intertribe Flirting

-luna’s helping all of them cut off their bands! the ones! from the first book in this arc! wow i’m slow. that’s so cool. they’re slowly breaking free from hivewing control

-LEAFWINGS CAN BE PINK??????????? (unless this one is a hybrid but PINK LEAFWING)

-oh wait it’s cobra lily. am i supposed to remember who she is?

-when was the last time i read sundew’s book

-THE HYBRIDS!! IN SANCTUARY!!! I’m actually living for the hybrids in sanctuary guys oh my heck

(It was at this point that I had to put tumblr away for the night so some of these might be a little out of order or just word mess)

-CRYSTAL AND WHATS HIS FACE THE MUDWING WITH THE COOL NAME YES VERY GOOD LOVE THEM

-WREN AND SKYYYYYYY

-wait how big are humans compared to dragons Daffodil had Bumblebee sit on her shoulders that doesn’t...that doesn’t match up with what I have in my head hecking heck now I have to figure out sizes again I thought I had it down and now grrrrrr

-there are less queens than I thought there were

-also THOOOOOORN love her

-Oh Snowfall :((

-Winter is annoying

-blue’s lil pov for a second made me cry :((

-also WOW wasp’s pov that gives a really cool perspective on her character

-there’s more stuff that happens, lots of characters need to friggin CHILL I’m living for the Snowfall/Lynx interactions

-HECK YEAH BREAK DOWN THE ICE WALL

-J-Jerboa don’t...don’t do that that’s...

-Wow. Okay. Jerboa and Boa. Don’t wanna know what happened to Jerboa the second

-except I also kinda DO- what if she came out half baked, like a dragon bird thing? I’m sure that’d be horrifying but it also might be kinda cool

-yeah no Jerboa’s pov was scary. I understand her a little better now tho

-also thanks for breaking animus magic the world is better off this way

-also GLACIER

-new love for queen glacier I love her so much

-I’ve only had Mink for a day and a half but if anything happened to her I’d kill everyone in this room and then myself

-heck yeah snowfall own it

-the way Mink described the wall “I’m better than this dragon and this dragon and this dragon,” etc even though she was only up there because she was a princess? this wall is an awful idea

-SHE BROKE THE WALL

-power move: moving Tundra’s name to the very bottom of the list and then when she protests, destroy the wall (this didn’t happen and it would be a Bad Idea but can you imagine?)

-Opal was cool. Also the Forbidden Treasury was REALLY COOL gotta be one of my new favorite places in the series

-hnnnnng I love queen glacier.....

Okay final thoughts

-really loved Snowfall and her development! The opal ring was an interesting idea and a really cool way to show what was happening on Pantala

-the icewings will hopefully become a cooler (haha) tribe now that Snowfall isn’t afraid to destroy tradition that isn’t making anything better

-more schools?? Like jade mountain??

-this book totally destroyed my headcanons for sanctuary so that qinter oneshot will be fun to write oh boy

-the snowfall and hazel friendship!!

-I need to read the other books again I don’t really remember any of the leafwings lol

-lynx is kind of a combo of qibli and jambu and swordtail and I LOVE HER

I think that’s all my thoughts about it for now

Also I totally forgot about it but when Snowfall gets back from Blue’s pov and she’s like “cricket’s a little more her type” that made me happy. I dunno if she’s bi or a lesbian or aro/ace or whatever but she’s definitely not straight and that’s CANON

#the dangerous gift #do spoilers without context count as spoilers? #hmmm

[jcmorrigan]

blakeworther- I personally I love your hc’s so much- any au’s or anything ya got for them? I really wanna know more about what goes on.

This was once again a BAD QUESTION TO ASK

Aside from the Skyward Sword AU, which I never went back to again, there’s only one AU that I like for Blakeworther, which is the AU that I like for everything ever. I’m not even sure I consider it a true AU, even though it absolutely is. So, okay, I have this thing called the WHAM ARMY, which is a massive crossover group of my favorite villains (led by the eight who make up the acronym but this ain’t about them). Obviously, because Victor, Vincent, and Albert are all pretty firmly villains (even if they lean “those weird morally bereft people we end up being friends with somehow”), I want them to join the WHAM ARMY. So my thoughts for them here are pretty much how they’d react in a multicrossover setting, which of my other villain loves they’d get along with, and what the intro arc is for them. Keep in mind I haven’t gotten here in the fanfic yet, so some of this could change in practice, but here are my plans right now.

Cringe ahead.

-They aren’t the originals. I want to make something that doesn’t trip over canon’s current trajectory, even though I don’t know exactly where canon is going, so what happens is that Vexen (Kingdom Hearts) is going to rebuild the three of them as replicas, since he can easily find memory cores for Victor and Vincent in Myers’ storage rooms and there’s just going to be an Albert core there for no reason.

-Vexen then pulls some Chain of Memories magic and restricts the memories they have access to. They will only remember things we have literally seen in VTSOM/TWDAK, and then I can have him release more of their memory banks to them as we get more chapters. (Even if they all three get redemption arcs, my replica versions can stay little shits!)

-He DOES NOT tell them that they’re not the originals! For all they know, they fell asleep at the last day they remember and woke up here. But they figure it out on their own despite his best efforts. They still want to get their memories back anyway so they know what the people they were replicated from were like and have a framework to build their personalities from.

-Yes, of course they’re cyborgs! Cyborg replicas. Since they’re operating by KH rules, they prooooobably don’t need to eat human meat? But also I like when villains do fucked-up things and I have jokes about the others packaging “cyborg chow” to embarrass them so maybe they still do engage in a little cannibalism, as a treat

-Each was engineered with a different specialty. Vincent’s is raw physical strength; he can walk into a gunfight without even needing a weapon and still have a chance of winning. Victor’s arms have been upgraded to hold a variety of cannons; he’s the team sniper. Albert is the team “mage”; he can conjure Dream Eaters. In this AU, TWDAK Dream Eaters and KH Dream Eaters are basically the same thing. Albert has mastered a strange art of being able to draw Dream Pieces out of the Realm of Sleep and implant them in physical forms of creatures in the waking world, creating his army. They look like they do because he hates the pastel aesthetic of KH Dream Eaters and redesigned his personal ones to look more fitting with his aesthetic. He’s also a speedster.

-The intro mission involves Vexen attempting to track down a newly-rebuilt Xion (this AU is divergent from KHIII) in Radiant Garden so he can bring her back under his control with some brainwashing. I’m also bringing in the Tsviets as past experiments of Vexen’s, so he’s basically pitting his newer models of experiment against his old ones.

-The party he already has built by this point is going to be Demyx, Simon Laurent (Infinity Train), Tsumugi Shirogane (DanganRonpa), skekSil (The Dark Crystal), and a couple other people I haven’t hinted at instory yet and don’t quite want to spoil. But Simon, Tsumugi, and skekSil will all also be Vexen’s creations - Simon and skekSil are replicas and Tsumugi is an android.

-Vincent, Victor, and Albert wake up for the first time, and while Vincent and Victor remember each other as friends, they’re just like “And why is our nemesis from RMU also here?”

-Albert probably fights with Vincent for dominance of the trio and I’m not sure which one of them is the trio leader at this point.

-I moved Nine Bean Hill from World of Final Fantasy to Radiant Garden because Radiant Garden needs a coffee shop and first of all, thanks to Hunger Games Simulator fuckery, my friends and I have an in-joke about Vincent Edgeworth having an eternal grudge against Dunkacino, so I’m going to use the coffee shop to reference this somehow without having to put actual Corporate Brainwashed Al Pacino in this ‘verse

-But also I like to think Lann and Reynn play a lot of bubblegum pop, so catch Victor and Albert dancing to the PA like idiots and then getting Demyx, skekSil, and Simon in on it while Vincent and Vexen are like “Oh God why are these our friends”

-(There are reasons this particular Demyx goes by a different name instory and it’s weirding me out to type “Demyx” for this post)

-Without spoiling too much of the arc, there IS a part where Blakeworther beats up the Tsviets, there IS a part where they battle the Anima summon from FFX and win, and there IS a part where despite all of this, Xion kicks their asses across the city

-They go through this mission seeing each other as partners and friends (though Vincent and Albert are reluctant to use the “friend” word at first), but after they all get back to base, they’re just...suddenly overwhelmed with the fact that they’re strangers in a strange land missing half their memories.

-They room together, and they end up crawling into the same bed for solidarity reasons. This is actually where I first envisioned the “rough day” sleeping position - Vincent and Victor are chest-to-chest, then Albert just snuggles in behind Victor and the other two are like “Okay, we’re gonna just let this happen” and Vincent and Albert touch at one tangent point where their arms cross.

-The days might get a little rougher after they realize they aren’t even the originals.

-Eventually they assimilate into the chaos house with no problem.

-Vincent tends to hang out with the party poopers of the house. Especially Mozenrath (Aladdin: The Animated Series). (P.S. If there are any VTSOM fans out there who also know the 90s Aladdin TV series...I CAN’T be the only one who noticed the surface similarities here, right?)

-Victor Blake and Roman Torchwick (RWBY). Oh, God, this is the hell duo. They’re party animals who love to dance and drink and dance drunk. It was not a good idea to let these two redheads meet.

-Albert and Neopolitan (RWBY)! They both love stabbing people and Victorian button boots! I actually kinda have this idea that they would pick up more fucked-up serial killer types to hang out with them - Mad Madam Mim (The Sword in the Stone) is their patron despite being a much tamer example, but Albert also decides he really likes Scaramouche (Samurai Jack), Junko Enoshima (DanganRonpa), and Jerome Valeska (Gotham).

-For a real deep cut, Albert also opens up a joint Dream Therapy office with Dr. Cheshire Broach (Crypt TV). It’s either called “Krueger & Broach” or “Broach & Krueger” depending on how long it takes either to notice that the other moved his name to the front of the sign again. You should ABSOLUTELY not trust either of these men to give you legitimate therapy (though if you’re good friends with them, they can and will use their dreamon powers to help you best your nightmares in a bloody fashion).

-Actually this ‘verse is the entire reason I thought of them doing drag karaoke to “United We Stand” by Amberian Dawn because the WHAM ARMY is all about karaoke, drag, and any combination of the two

-I haven’t decided yet if their romance will be a slow burn or a faster affair. I’m expecting them to tell me as I write out the fic. But I think in a lot of respects, it’s going to be more of a friends-to-lovers story than their original forms had. The three of them are forced to become an elite cyborg warrior unit created by the same mad scientist, they had a big bonding mission together where they became ride or die (whether or not they want to admit it), and eventually...we can start revealing that they’re CATCHING FEELINGS.

-The WHAM ARMY has many, many power couples and ships of various numbers of people but Blakeworther ends up becoming yet another POWER THROUPLE around base, and it’s understood that messing with one of them will earn the wrath of the other two

-They go on to assist in many, many missions with the purpose of taking over various worlds and kingdoms and just fucking them up

-Vincent Edgeworth will kill the TBTC equivalent of Dunkacino

You have to understand that TBTC is my hyperfixation to end all hyperfixations. Every piece of fiction I touch ends up related to it in some way. At some point the majority of how I interact with Blakeworther is going to be through this AU. I’m just a sucker for crossovers and villains having a place to be bros and party.

#vincent edgeworth #victor blake #albert krueger #blakeworther #friendly reminder that i do also take headcanon requests about the wham army! #just saying! #ASK ME ABOUT MY CROSSOVER UNIVERSE!

[j4gm]

Ted Anderson’s Adventure Time Season 11 AMA.

So Ted Anderson, writer of Adventure Time Season 11, unexpectedly hopped onto the Adventure Time Discord yesterday for an impromptu AMA. He talked a lot about what his plans were for the rest of Season 11 and beyond, and also talked about his other work including Beginning of the End, My Little Pony, Moth & Whisper, and Orphan Age. Here's most of his answers. I’ve rearranged them to be in a more coherent order.

You can read the full AMA on the r/adventuretime Discord.

Mordo: Before the cancellation, was the stuff with Finn and the humans going to be longer than 2 issues?

Ted: That particular story was always planned to be 2 issues.

The way S11 was going to work is, it would be broken into 3 chunks of 4 issues apiece. The first story was the Empress Marceline 4-issue story. The second chunk would be the 2-issue Humantown story, followed by two single-issue stories. Then there would be one big 4-issue finale story.

Also I should clarify the breakdown of the first arc: Sonny Liew wrote the story, but that was just a summary of events. I wrote the actual script and laid out the events and so forth. I think technically he's credited for Plot and I'm credited for Script?

The first single-issue story was already sort of revealed—that's the one about Jake and Jermaine. The second one would have been about Finn deciding he wants to make something, and going on a big adventure to make a new, handmade sword. And the 4-issue finale would have followed off of the Humantown story and wrapped up more of that.

I was actually already starting issue 8 before I heard it was canceled. Issue 7 is done, but unfortunately it can't see the light of day. It's the property of BOOM and Cartoon Network, not me.

[Issue #7] was a very standalone kind of issue: Jermaine is a successful painter and gets invited to a big fancy party, and Jake invites himself along. Jake ostensibly came to invite Jermaine to the family reunion [in the finale arc], but he knows that Jermaine doesn't like to travel. So he actually came to do a big mystery adventure. One of Jermaine's paintings gets stolen, so the two of them investigate to find out the truth. In the end it's revealed that the whole thing is a big setup by Jake, who wanted to give his brother a fun bonding experience, Mostly I wanted to write some done-in-one stories and get some Jermaine in there, because I like him.

Issue 8 would have been about Finn, who's feeling restless after making the cabin, and deciding he wants to make more stuff, so he decides to make his own sword. He meets various characters traveling around Ooo, checking in with them and talking about what he's doing now. I wanted to focus on Finn feeling adrift now that the biggest adventure of them all has happened, and he's kind of without a purpose.

Boulder/Stert: What would the comic's finale have looked like? What would the end of S11 have looked like had you made it there?

Ted: So thematically, I wanted to get to the idea that Finn was feeling useless as an adventurer. The world was getting more saved, things were getting rebuilt, people don't need a "kid with a sword" any more. But Finn would've realized that it's not about him as a lone adventurer—he's part of a community, a whole bunch of people who are working to make the world a better place.

The finale story would have revealed that Dr. Gross had been offered amnesty and was secretly working in Humantown, plotting a takeover of all of Ooo. Dr. Gross would've created a plague to affect the candy people and something called "GO Juice" [Genetic Optimizer Juice], which was just Finn's DNA injected into the humans to make them into adventurers too. But, crucially, it wouldn't have made them teammates—they would've just been a bunch of lone wolves. So when Jake and Lady and PB and Marceline and all the rest work together, they defeat the humans easily. Rather than fight Dr. Gross, [Finn] escapes and helps his friends, who are fighting everyone else.

There's a little bit of that story still in issue 5: Finn gets a scratch fighting the robot and Minerva patches it up, and that's how they would've gotten his DNA.

I was going to bring back Samantha the dog as a side villain. She would've taken over the Candy Kingdom with a dog army, in order to plunder their technology and lead a dog revolution in the Crystal Dimension, but really she was just being used by Dr. Gross.

Also Jake would've had a family reunion, because I really wanted to write all his kids. Originally it was going to be him and Lady finally getting married. [Cartoon Network] specifically said that Jake and Lady couldn't get married, because they were, and I quote, a "modern couple". I still have no idea exactly what that means, haha.

I had some thoughts about how I wanted to handle the humans. I didn't want them to immediately integrate into Ooo, but I didn't want them to be completely standoffish and weird, either. Issue 12 would've ended with them more or less being led by Minerva, and slowly putting themselves out there.

Something else I should make clear: I had absolutely no contact with the AT people, so I don't know if any of my ideas fit with what they wanted to do. All of this stuff is just out of my head.

Stert: Yeah I feel like you would've been good as long as you didn't straight up contradict the show.

Ted: Oh, speaking of contradicting the show, I got a funny note about the Empress Marceline story. Originally, in Sonny Liew's notes and my script, it actually took place 10,000 years in the future, not 1,000. But for some reason CN changed it to 1000. And I have no idea why, because all that does is mess with the timeline more. Like, if it's 1000 years in the future, it should have Shermy and Beth and look like that setting. But by the time CN changed it, it was too late for me to add in any of that stuff. So if you think it's weird that Shermy and Beth didn't show up, and Marceline wasn't trying to rescue Bubblegum from an ice prison: that's why!

SpaceGiraffe/Owlz: Were there any plans for Simon to meet with the humans and/or Minerva? I wanted to know if you had any plans for Ice King or if that was just Olivia's job?

Ted: Once I heard that Olivia was doing the Simon & Marcy series, I deliberately kept my hands off of Simon, just in case. I didn't quite know what I would want to do with him, either. He could play an interesting role in post-finale Ooo, but ... idk, he's been defined so much by tragedy and loss, it would've taken a while to build him back up again.

Stert: Do you know if Gross and Minerva would have interacted in these new comics?

Ted: I hadn't planned for Gross and Minerva to interact too much? Minerva would've come along with Finn when he infiltrated Humantown to find out what happened. Actually, my idea was that Minerva uses her "Mini-form," which is literally a six-inch-tall action figure of her that would ride on Finn's shoulder as he snuck through the vents, haha.

Stert: The final issue ends on a pretty negative note for Finn and humanity. He's very angry at Malloy lying to him and storms off not wanting to have anything to do with Humantown. Looking back do you think it's a good idea to end Finn's arc in these comics with the humans on a pretty downer note?

Ted: I don't think it's the best way to end S11, no. It makes sense because it's a natural story break, but it also leaves Finn angry and resentful, and deliberately separating himself from other communities. I do love those last two pages, because Mar Julia did some amazing art on them, but emotionally it leaves Finn kind of out in the cold. I did tweak issue 6 a little by adding the HW scene. Originally Finn went to see Aunt Lolly to see if she made the robot monsters. Frankly, the HW scene is better in every way, haha.

Owlz: Did you have ideas for Finn's closure with Huntress?

I like [Finntress]! I like a lot of Finn relationships. But I also like how it's very casual and not labeled. I should be clear: I really didn't change anything based on people's feedback from here. But the [Discord] server and poking around Tumblr reminded me that I needed to include some HW. I feel like their relationship has always been ambiguous, so I liked them not getting a super specific ending.

Boulder: Did you have anything in S11 for Mars?

Ted: I didn't have anything for Mars, actually! I should've! I like Mars a lot, mostly because we see so little of it and it's so dang weird.

Boulder/StephanFS: What plans did you have after S11, with or without a cancellation? If BOOM announced S12 with you as the main writer, what would you write?

Ted: I didn't have anything specific for after S11, since I already knew that it was probably going to be the last time I was going to write AT. I had some vague ideas of trying to bring back Fern, but like ... that's a very fanservice type of thing to do, haha. I probably would've brought him back just to let him die again, but this time with a little more closure. Also I might have done more stuff with magic? I love the weird elements of magic they've got set up in the show. Maybe doing something with four new elements of magic, one of which would have been grass. But that was just very vague thoughts.

Stert: Who did you like writing for most/have the most trouble with? Between Beginning of the End and the S11 issues you mostly handled Finn with a touch of Jake and the rest in smaller amounts, interested in if you were happy with that or wanted to play with other folks.

Ted: Jake was definitely the most fun to write, just because of his way of speaking. Whenever I did a line of his dialogue, I ran it through John DiMaggio's voice first to see if it sounded right. As for favorite in general, that's a tough one. I was told to try and keep the focus on Finn and Jake rather than the side characters, just because they're the main characters. But that suited me just fine. And yeah, for BotE I was also told to keep the focus on Finn and Jake. But that's what I was planning to do anyway. (And yes, I still plan to finish the annotations for BotE! One of these days! Promise!)

Stert: How well did you know the show before you started work on the comics?

Ted: So, total honesty: I loved AT and stuck with it until about season 5. Which, not coincidentally, is when Steven Universe started. I didn't ever stop loving AT, I just fell off the wagon for a while.

Stert: Tale as old as time 🤣

Ted: So once I got the news about BotE, I binged everything from the start. I didn't actually get to see the finale until after I'd started writing S11. CN was being very careful about leaks, so they wouldn't actually let their comics people watch upcoming episodes. But Whitney, my editor, had seen it, so she described it to me over the phone. Very weird experience.

Mordo: What is your view on Come Along With Me?

Ted: I feel like it was as good as it could be, under the circumstances. After hearing about their plans and how they thought they'd have another season, it made more sense. Like, if they'd had a bunch more episodes, they could've set up Gumbald and used the Candy Kingdom Haters some more (remember them???) The finale had a tough job to do: they wanted to give a satisfactory ending to as many of the threads in the series as they could, and yeah, some people didn't get as much as others. Again, I really wish they'd had another season.

Owlz: What do you think of characters like Martin or Ice King?

Ted: I would've LOVED to bring Martin in somehow. He never really got his comeuppance. I don't think I could've put him in S11, but if there had been a S12 or a miniseries or something, that would've been ideal. He's such a ****ty dad, haha. I hate him as a person but love him as a character. I probably would've brought him back by saying, like, "Oh yeah, I hung out with that transcendent being from beyond space, but she got sick of me after a week and dropped me off on an asteroid."

Stert: Were there any characters you were very intimidated to write for, like you thought you would screw them up?

Ted: Oh that's a great question. Honestly, I was a little worried about writing Marceline, because I feel like she's very specifically tied to the experience of being a teenage girl. Which I've never been. Like, the best stuff with Marceline is by Olivia Olson, or Meredith Gran, or Kate Leth, who have written about (and actually been) a teenage girl dealing with Feelings. So getting her right was a challenge.

Owlz: Who’s your favorite AT character?

Ted: Oh man, favorite? That's an impossible question, haha. I have a lot of fondness for Susan Strong. I like her as a kind-of counterpart to Finn, as well as a more driven and adventurous type. She also got to have a really neat arc that ended well, but also left open the door for future adventures. Her design is also great, and her backstory is really cool.

Stert: The stuff you did with her, Billy, and Fern to show off different avenues of heroism and stuff with Finn was very cool.

Ted: Yeah, that was super fun. I think I mentioned this in the annotations: originally it was just going to be Finn meeting a bunch of his alternate versions, like Farmworld Finn. But then I realized, wait, there are characters who are way more interesting than that. (Not to hate on Farmworld Finn! But he's no Susan Strong)

Owlz: What are your thoughts on Betty Grof? The show didn’t reveal much about her.

Ted: Oof. She deserved better. I wanted her to be developed more, frankly. But I sympathize with the creators. I don't think they had the time they needed to flesh her out. I wanted, like, an entire spin-off series about her learning the secrets of magic.

Stert: So to ask another possible impossible question, what's your favorite episode (or multiples)?

Ted: I really do like "Mama Said". It's maybe my favorite one-off episode, just for how surreal it is. Plot-relevant episodes ... I liked the one about Finn building a tower to tear off his dad's arm, haha. I have a real fondness for the wacky one-off episodes, like anything about Jake's kids. The Card Wars tournament episode, or the one about Bronwyn.

Owlz: What if AT got rebooted and you got to be a writer?

Ted: On the one hand, I would've liked creating a more coherent mythology, like exactly how this or that happened. On the other hand, the weird inconsistencies are what make this show so fun.

[While talking about some of the Easter eggs included in Ted’s comics, somebody posted this panel from BotE]

Ted: Part of that panel is actually a quote from Guillermo del Toro. The line about "animated by incredible humanism" is from the introduction he wrote to the Art of Ooo book. I love dropping in weird easter eggs. So when I started writing BotE, I caught up on the entire show, but I also tried to catch up on all the supplementary materials, too. That's why I slipped in that thing about Hunson's nickname of "Johnny Corndog," for example.

Owlz: You should also check out the AT official cookbook. It’s adorable.

Ted: I have! In fact, there's an easter egg from that in there! In issue 6, Minerva mentions something about making Finn her special macaroni and cheese, I think? That's her recipe in the book.

CharlesOberonn: I have a question regarding pacing in comic books. Specifically, how stretched out and slow pacing is in comic books today compared to comic books in the past. A story that would take 1 issue in the 1960s-80s could take 3 or 4 or even 5-8 issues today. What do you say about that?

Ted: Ah, pacing in comics. An old nemesis, haha. I like both the issue format and the book format for comics. You can do very different things with them, just like the difference between movies and TV. If you are writing something with issues, then I feel like every issue needs to give you a complete story, or at least a complete slice of a story. I definitely feel like attitudes have changed regarding how much story you fit into an issue of comics, but that can be both good and bad. A little while ago I reread the original Iron Man story where he confronts his alcoholism, and he goes through withdrawal in literally one page.

Stert: I know this kinda stuff is usually not answered straight up, but how much do you make writing for comics?

Ted: I'm not yet at the point where it's my main job. Right now I'm getting my teaching license so I can be a school librarian. And with licensed comics, I don't get any royalties, just a flat fee for writing the script. But it's a good gig regardless. I get to sit around and tell other people how to draw cartoons. I would absolutely love to write full time, and I'm in the process of getting together more projects to make that happen? But not quite yet. Which reminds me: I am currently trying to put together a pitch with Mar Julia, artist for both BotE and S11! But very different from AT.

Owlz: How long have you worked on comics?

Ted: I've been working on comics for ... something like 6 years? I think? My first professional comic was MLP, actually, which is not at all normal, haha. I was a big fan of the show, and I knew I wanted to write comics. I'm also friends with Zander Cannon, who's been a professional creator for decades and is a super cool guy. He knew someone who worked at IDW, who put me in touch with the MLP editor. I sent them some samples, I sent them some pitches, and bada bing bada boom, they let me write a story about Pinkie Pie. It's all about networking, baby.

Mordo: What’s your favorite TV series of all time?

Ted: Oh jeeze, that's a question. There are TV series that I love in different ways and for different reasons. AT is definitely one of my favorites, but I also love The X-Files, but for completely different reasons. Star Trek the Next Generation is also pretty high up there. Futurama is another one that I'm a big fan of. I should've included a reference to John DiMaggio from that, come to think of it. Showed Jake with a cigar and a beer, or something. Now there's a crossover I'd love to see. Oh, Gravity Falls is definitely up there too. Regular Show is another fun one. I pitched a couple RS ideas around the same time as BotE, but they were already transitioning to the Twenty-Five Years Later series.

Mordo: Not sure if this was answered earlier, but why was AT season 11 the one that had to kick the bucket when it was doing better than the other comics?

Ted: I really have no idea. It was a money thing, to the best of my knowledge—they expected the comics to sell X copies, and they didn't quite make it, so that was that. In the email they sent me, they emphasized that it was not a question of the quality of my writing, or how they were being received. I don't really know any more than that, unfortunately. Yeah, I have no idea how they calculate anticipated sales or anything. But I guess S11 just didn't hit the expected targets.

Mordo/StephanFS: What else do you write Ted? If you were to work on something original, what would it be?

Ted: I still do write for MLP, actually. I've got a three-issue miniseries starting next month. Plus I've got a couple creator-owned series: Moth & Whisper and Orphan Age. The trade collection of M&W comes out next week, and the first issue of Orphan Age came out this week. I have a lot more original stuff in the works, too. Not a lot of it is like AT, to be honest. I don't tend to write stories that are so .... weird? Nothing against weird! Obviously! But it's just not the kind of stories I tend to come up with. M&W is a cyberpunk heist thriller thing, and Orphan Age is a post-apocalyptic western.

That’s all for now. If you like Ted Anderson’s work, be sure to check out Moth & Whisper and Orphan Age. Catch them on ComiXology or wherever you get your comics.

Farewell for now!

#adventure time #adventure time season 11 #at

[pinestripes]

Favorite Moments from TAZ: Balance, in No Particular Order

(I’ve been wallowing in my grief over finishing Balance for a bit now, and I thought I could make a tribute by listing some of my favorite moments from the campaign! It should be noted that there will be SPOILERS AHEAD and that some quotes might be paraphrased slightly. Also, I haven’t listened to the liveshows yet.)

The guys’ delighted laughter as Griffin reveals that Barry’s back.

Actually, every time they have big reactions to his reveals. The sheer dumb confusion and then the whooping and clapping when the first loop in the Eleventh Hour happens. Justin’s quietly horrified reaction to finding out Lup made the Umbra Staff. Clint’s confused laughter and incredulous “Anyone?” when Griffin asks who he summons from the bond engine. 

“I, and a team of other people, created this world.” “Gary Gygax?”

The guys tormenting Jenkins in Murder on the Rockport Limited, after which we find out the guy is a literal murderer (and not, in fact, a “sh*tty wizard”).

The entire exchange at the bottom of the well in the Gerblins arc. “Can anybody levitate?” “I think we just live at the bottom of this well now.”

“No dogs on the moon. They just run right off the damn thing.” "Should you say it, or should I? ...No dogs on the moon!”

“[Stephen] swims around in his tiny bowl. And he loves me.” 

The sheer comedic gold that is the scene where Taako convinces Garfield to give him the sword--the perfect buildup, Griffin’s soul leaving his body as he realizes what’s happening, the other guys losing their minds as they too realize it.

Arms Outstretched, of course. And the sort of reprise of it in the finale. 

Speaking of the finale--I’m a massive sucker for “Hey, the gang’s all here!”-type finales, where everyone we’ve ever met in a series shows up in the end and pays a role. And the TAZ finale does this SO WELL, with the music, and how it always makes sense in what’s happening in the scene. It’s so satisfying. 

“You know we’re going to have to talk about your sister being a lich, right?”

Lup’s introduction. 

Lup’s return, from the long pause, to Justin snapping the staff, to Clint’s “Attaboy!” to “YOU’RE DATING THE GRIM REAPER?”

When the guys all simultaneously respond to the question “What’s the best type of advertising?” with “Word of mouth” in Wonderland after episode after episode of them asking people to and thanking people for telling others about the podcast. 

Killian reacting to Magnus cutting off Merle’s arm.

Magnus eating the Philosopher’s Stone, and Griffin subsequently being adamant that Travis deal with the consequences of his actions.  

The guys starting their second loop in Refuge and immediately messing up so badly that Justin almost has Taako shoot them all and end the loop right there. 

Magnus’s. Pep. Talk.

Lucretia in the Candlenights episode. “Hot diggity sh*t, this is a baller cookie.” “Magnus, this is the nightmare scenario.” “Booyah.”

Taako suddenly deciding stealing is wrong in the Goldcliff Trust. “This isn’t a dungeon; people do business here!”

Merle’s bit about the traveling forward/backward in time 9 seconds in the finale had me laughing so hard I was wheezing and crying. My roommate had to check on me and make sure I was okay.

I love Davenport and his sheer delight at piloting the Starblaster again. “Dance for me, buddy.”

The guys coming up with silly and perfect reporter names and newspaper titles to ask questions at the beginning of The Stolen Century. 

The big, triumphant way Griffin goes “Let’s roll initiative!” in the finale, followed immediately by Mort Garson’s incredible music. 

Everything Angus does ever. 

The scene with Taako teaching Angus magic. “Can--can I get tickets?” “Why don’t you conjure them yourself, Mr. Wizard?”

When, in Reunion Tour, Angus says something about his books and Travis says he loves Angus and Justin says “Precious” in his Taako voice which means IT WAS IN CHARACTER AND CANONICAL. 

Lup freaking apologizing for destroying the macaroons Angus made. 

The Tom Bodett thing is just. So dumb. But so funny. I love it. 

Taako calling Barry “Barrold.” 

Fisher loving the carved wooden ducks is SO CUTE. 

“Griffin, can we please deal with the Fullmetal Alchemist situation I currently find myself in?”

“Who?” goiehioewgasd;

The Junebug scene, with the music, gives me chills. 

“Those are the arms that have held my wife!” 

Merle choosing Lucretia to go with him to the spa in that lunar interlude because it’s so good for character stuff but also is unintentionally heartbreaking when you think about it much later??

Cassidy becoming mayor of Refuge. 

Magnus deciding to break into the BOB’s prison. I’ve never been a DM, but I could feel Griffin’s sheer frustration and exasperation in my very soul.

Okay, no, I actually need to talk about Arms Outstretched. I usually don’t feel much dread or fear when watching/reading/listening to things because I’m like “it’s fictional, no one’s in any actual danger, there’s more books/episodes after this, it’s going to be fine” but this scene made me feel absolutely horrified dread the instant the Animus Bell rang anyway. 

“Taako’s rushing in!” “Magnus follows him?” “Merle’s good out here.” “What’s going on?!”

“Hello, my name is Elder Merle!” THUNK

Magic Brian’s death. “I cast magic missile on him again.”

“Between the fan and the fancy umbrella, I’m one seventeen-inch waist away from being Scarlett O’Hara.”

The tantrum Taako throws when asked to get on the Elevator of Tomorrow in Crystal Kingdom, and of course his subsequent GLEE when Magnus and Merle get attacked after using it. “Taako--that’’s me, hi--I’m done with elevators. Never again! ...Don’t do it, I swear to god. You will not like how this ends. I will burn a spell slot on you. I give no sh*ts.”

Lucas, sadly: “My lab!”

The endless tormenting of Leon. “Yeah, he is no longer functioning. You have thoroughly broken this man.” “I win!”

Justin finding out about Lup’s existence and immediately having Taako call her Lulu. 

“That’s real low [max HP]!” “Is it? Is it, Griffin?”

“See, there’s magic in a bard’s song. They call it inspiration, and it tells the listener what they need to hear right when they need to hear it. And right now, you hear it too. The message in the music heard round the world. You hear Johann’s voice, telling you, ‘You’re going to have to fight. And...you’re gonna win!’”

“Hear that babe? We’re legends.”

“This should go without saying at this point--Taako is DELIGHTED.”

“My name is Magnus Burnsides.” “Marchis Burchsins.” “Yep, nailed it. Got it in one.” 

When Merle has the choice to sacrifice his memories of his kids’ births in Wonderland and immediately decides to take the penalty.

The bit in the second Story and Song where the guys keep putting off getting in the Starblaster and keep having little moments with all the other characters, and Griffin gets so annoyed that he tries to get them to move along using the NPCs. “No, totally. Let’s save the world, then 420 blaze it. Can we gooooo?”

Lucas, also sadly: “I got a splinter.”

“Our capacity for love increases with each person we cross paths with throughout our lives, and with each moment we spend with those people. But, too often we neglect that part of ourselves in favor of others. And by the time we realize just how important it is, we find ourselves with fewer folks around to practice with.”

“Did you enjoy the adventure?” “Of course!”

“Oh, yes, small prophecy is easy. I burp and a small prophecy happen.”

“Let me tell you a story about the time we fought three ogres, and I got punched so hard I almost died. You remember? You were up in some kind of weird laser firing potions willy-nilly, Magnus was pulling the arms off a robot, and I got punched so hard I almost died! I’m not about to throw down with a giant crab while you’re armed with just a terrible Scottish accent, and Travis doesn’t even have his shield! I’m out!” 

“It all started when I met the most beautiful elf, and the bravest cleric...”

“Not all exits are made equal. Some are beautiful, and poetic, and satisfying. Others are abrupt and unfair. But most are unremarkable, unintentional, clumsy.”

“I’ll be having my body back, you undead f***.”

“We’ve chosen the perfect person for this. It’s like sending a mildly eloquent piñata in!”

“Let ‘em know, kid.” 

“The late Merle Highchurch rolled a five.”

“You’re going to be amazing.”

...And every single moment that demonstrates what phenomenal entertainers and storytellers the McElroys are. Thank you, guys, for an experience unlike any other. 

#the adventure zone #taz #the adventure zone balance #tazb #i took like four days writing this because #i kept coming up with new ones #i know i have more i could add #but it'd eventually just be a transcript of the entire series #pinestripes babbles #edited because i forgot lucas from story and song #and that needed to be in here #edited again because i love magnus's epilogue

[imbeccablee]

for ship ask: 5, 13, 32!

5. Do you have any poly ships?

Oh, tons! 

My biggest one would probably be sorikai—Sora, Kairi, and Riku—from kingdom hearts. They’ve been besties for years in game and each of their goals in game is to, basically, return home and make sure the other two are safe. They’re best friends and i love them!!

There’s also Jlaireby, which is Jim, Claire, and Toby from Trollhunters. I ship them for the same reasons as stated above. These three have such good chemistry and they love each other so much!!!

There are various poly ships in MHA that are pretty cute too, like izuku, ochako and iida, or those three and todoroki, or kirishima, bakugou and kaminari, but I don’t actively ship these as much.

13. Has a ship ever broken your heart?

I don’t think so. I tend to ship the characters most likely to get together, so there’s normally no like “too bad these characters won’t ever get together”, and most of the time the shows I watch have happy endings. Also when it comes to romance, I normally respect whatever the writers choose to make canon, even if I didn’t really ship it (see allur//ance from vol//tron)

32. Share five must-read fics

Yesterday Upon the Stair by pitviperofdoom

Midoriya Izuku has always been written off as weird. As if it's not bad enough to be the quirkless weakling, he has to be the weird quirkless weakling on top of it.

But truthfully, the "weird" part is the only part that's accurate. He's determined not to be a weakling, and in spite of what it says on paper, he's not actually quirkless. Even before meeting All-Might and taking on the power of One For All, Izuku isn't quirkless.

Not that anyone would believe it if he told them.

I am absolutely in love with this fic!!! it’s an au where Izuku has a quirk that allows him to see ghosts and it follows all the way to the Eri arc. It’s so so sooooo good and i HIGHLY recommend it.

Occurrences in the Lives of a Couple of Hopelessly Oblivious Dorks series by Cipher032

A series on the roller coaster that is high school relationships, platonic and otherwise, as Deku and Ochako proceed through their high school careers.

Includes New Horizons and Roads Well Traveled.

Yes this is a series and not a specific fic, but both New Horizons and Roads Well Traveled are really good!!! Either fic is from the point of view of Ochako and Izuku respectively and are about how the two of them navigate their second year while dealing with the ups and downs of their friendship and also as they figure out exactly how they feel for each other. It’s incredibly in character and I absolutely love how Cipher is writing it!!

Catching Up by EchoFour

After a couple of rogue gems put her life at risk, Connie questions everything. She's loved being a Crystal Gem for four years. Training and fighting at Steven's side give her whole life meaning. But as Steven has learned more about the power he possesses and grasped more of it for his own, she's worried she can't keep up.

But Connie Maheswaran has never been the kind of person to give up just because of a little thing like human limits. Whatever it takes, whatever she has to risk, she will find a way to catch up.

This was an incredibly interesting take on best girl Connie Maheswaran and also just a really cool idea in general. It’s now part of a series that has a sequel in the works, and it has some of that adorable Connverse, as well as one of my FAVORITE stevonnie scenes I’ve ever read in one of the later chapters sooooo yeah. FANTASTIC FIC.

The Third Option by Uncertainty_Principle

Homecoming A/U.

Ben and May divorced before Peter’s parents died, so when Ben is murdered Peter goes into foster care. It takes just a tiny taste of superpowers for Peter to decide he doesn’t want to put up with his horrible foster father anymore—the streets are infinitely more appealing. All he wants is to be Spider-Man anyway.

So he leaves.

Simple.

Simple, that is, until Iron Man needs Spider-Man’s help. Peter isn’t about to turn down an opportunity to fight alongside Tony Freaking Stark, but he also isn’t going to let his hero know that his recruit is a fifteen-year-old homeless dropout. So they strike a deal. Peter will help Tony. In return, the mask stays on.

And that’s when things get complicated.

This fic, man........................ this fic.................... fucking heartbreaking. it’s written so god damn well. it has such DELECTABLE iron dad................ it is Not a happy fic but it’s so so so so so GOOD................................................... im love

 and finally

Kingdom Hearts Ψ by HouseofSannae

An alternate take on what Could Have Been

yes this is another series. yes it is Incredibly Long. yes it is REALLY. FUCKING. GOOD.

it was plotted and started pre-kh3 and it’s incredibly intriguing!!! very wonderful character development and realistic relationships, both good and bad, between different characters. No seriously though, this characterization is So Good. I only have two complaints, one of which is serious and the other of which is just bc im me lol.

1. Recently it’s been a little on the nose about its Life Lessons, if you will. It has good messages and stuff, but sometimes it feels kind of forced. Do Not Let This Stop You From Reading Though. It’s So Good.

2. Sora is in nearly every fic but rarely has an essential part to it and It’s Blasphemy. not really, but i love sora, he’s my son, and the fact he’s kinda been pushed to the backburner the whole time. it make SENSE why bc he doesn’t exactly need the development BUUUUUUUT i love him and want more of him.

well, there you go! a couple of fics that i absolute adore!! thanks for asking rex!!

[youhearstatic]

Top 5 favourite characters: lup, barry, taako, magnus, and merle

Other characters you like: magic brian, klaarg, lucretia, angus, roswell, tom bodett, ah so many

Least favourite character: Lucas (sorry, like i *get* him but someone has to be least favorite)

Otps: lup and barry, taako and kravitz

Notps: magnus and anyone but julia (sorry), lup and anyone but barry (sorry but barry is why i first fell in love with lup before we even met her!)

Favourite friendship: taako and magnus - like the moments in suffering game where it was just !!!! like taako casting soul jar or magnus telling taako he’d take another turn on the wheel so taako didn’t have to give up his looks. not just the actions but that both of them just DID it like it was not even a question. also taako and angus or taako and barry. taako caring for people is great because of how taako is.

Favourite family: tres horny boys, the seven birds

Favourite episode: single episode? oof… episode 66 maybe? That scene where Taako confronts Lucretia like… ooooooh gosh, kills me every time.

Favourite season/book/movie: since im just doing balance i’ll pick miniarc in which case stolen century simply for most lup! if only going by mini arc story then probably… hmm… 11th hour? really hard to say between 11th hour and suffering game though because there’s some really solid developments in suffering game.

Favourite quote: oh how to ever pick just one? okay how about “You’re my oldest and dearest friends. You threw my dog in a goddamned fire.” also when lup says “One small criticism- um, I think you may have forgotten to make it taste good.” or for a short quote I’m a big fan of the nice and simple “I’m so proud of zem.” from magic brian.

Moment that made you fangirl/boy the hardest: oh man, anytime the red robe dropped his character i was just HOOOOKED SO HARD

When it really disappointed you: when it ended :(

Saddest moment: ohhh man. i cried pretty much constantly the last eight or so episodes i think. also like for complete emotional 180? when Taako confronts Lucretia and he’s so angry and also kind of … numb? Like I’m RIGHT there with him, angry and kind of shellshocked after coming off stolen century (i marathoned the last twelve episodes or so) and then magnus (well travis i guess) says he raises the FRPSoD and he kind of chokes up as he says it? BOOM just typing that i get teary eyed! from zero to about to cry in 0.2 seconds. 

Most well done character death: okay… there weren’t REALLY that many but i guess we all know it has to be… magnus :( 

Favourite guest star: brad bradson i guess? he’s the only canon guest star for balance? right?

Favourite cast member: okay this is weird for this fandom so i guess i’ll say griffin because he does so many of the characters… the other three just get one each :-/

Character you wish was still alive: um… gosh, again, weird question for this fandom! okay i guess i’d say… lup and barry? because while it’s great they didn’t get technically reaped but it’s like… they never got to just have their life? i mean they never got to decide if they wanted to have a family or raise alpacas or what the fuck ever… i mean they’re probably plenty happy it just seems like they deserved to make that choice.  …. oh fuck okay i guess really i should have said johann… i wish johann had gotten to be happy :(

One thing you hope really happens: more lup and also some barry please in the live shows

Most shocking twist: lup? barry? davenport?

When did you start watching/reading: like… a month or so ago. haha. devoured it in a week and then did it all again a week later i think.

Trope you wish they would stop using: like the worst one was the kill your gays but they fixed that. the other is fridging i guess but … like… i dunno. i get where travis was coming from? i think there’s also maybe like…. a forgivable amount of death for a character’s backstory for these sorts of genre characters where you need them to like… be solo otherwise why are they off being adventurers? like the alternative is merle was a deadbeat dad who ran out on his family and that says things about a character too, you know? it’s complicated is what i’m saying. 

One thing this show/book/film does better than others: okay i think that the mcelroys have really really tried to fix things they’ve fucked up. like the sloane and hurley thing and the taco thing - they are willing to say ‘we should have handled this better’ even if they didn’t intend it badly. it makes me appreciate them all the more, you know?

Funniest moments: okay for balance like… for an extended bit? magic brian’s death. magic brian was just a treat all around imo. oh or the whole thing about breaking into the sharks base. barbara taking little jerry to the bathroom just tickled me.

Couple you would like to see: avi and johann maybe?

Actor/Actress you want to join the cast: none. but i wouldn’t mind some cross over from other arc characters showing up somehow in live shows i guess? especially duck or errol or agustus or aubrey (i feel like i’m being mean to clint!) …or gandy or ned.

Most boring plotline: i don’t know! like every time i was kinda meh about something in theory it was actually really good. like in general racing movies aren’t my thing but petals to the metal was fantastic. westerns aren’t my cup of tea but the 11th hour was fucking terrific. maaayyyyyybe the plot arc of crystal kingdom wasn’t my fave i guess? there was a lot to be accomplished there, though, so i think it’s story maybe suffered a little to achieve so many other goals for the overall arc

Best flashback/flashfoward if any: stolen century. i mean… that feels like cheating but come on it was fucking amazing. if you don’t want to count a whole arc then i guess barry’s flashback of his decade while everyone was voidfished.

Most layered character: hmmm…. my impulse here is to say a toss up between taako and lucretia

Scariest moment: the judges! fuck, that cycle was scary even knowing it obviously turned out okay!

Grossest moment: oh god, so many merle moments were just right at that edge of skeevy ickness

Best looking male: taako (this is cheating)

Best looking female: lup (but how can i not pick them?)

Who you’re crushing on (if any): lup, look, i just fucking love lup, okay? LUUUUUUUP

Most beautiful scene (scenery/shot wise): hmm… like i don’t really know how to answer this one. sometimes i had a hard time picturing things. other times i pictured things really clearly. but i’m not sure those were particularly beautiful? if i go by things i pictured that if they were real shots i would say had beautiful cinematography? then… probably anything with the void fish because they are beautiful and… probably any of the scenes in the ruins of the capital city with the robots during stolen century.

Unanswered question/continuity issue/plot error that bugs you: liches/touching stuff. how does barry always have his glasses especially after phandolin? how many times did barry go to the BoB? 

At what point did you fall in love with this show/book: i’m gonna say a few: klaarg and then magic brian were both like… okay i’m in, this is great. but the point when it DEVOURED MY BRAIN and i was completely sunk into the fandom? when red robe barry said “lup, they don’t trust me” oh god, seriously. if you’d told me okay that’s it, you can’t listen to any more ever and you’ll never get the answers to what was going on there i’d have like… bartered suffering game style, given a pinky finger or memories or something. that’s why i can’t go for any ship that’s lup and not-barry. barry’s love for lup is why i first fell in love with lup, why i first fell in love with barry, and why i first fell in obsession/love with taz: balance. 

#this is supposed to be one of those things where someone asks you a thing and you do it #but a.) no one was gonna ask me this one because no one who follows my main blog has listened to taz #and b.) i just wanted to do it anyway #in depth fandom ask meme #(i started to spell fandom as phandom hahaha) #taz balance #mystuff

[aurelxi]

1 and 3 and 4 : ^ )

Aaaa thank you so much for this I just wanted an excuse to talk about TAZ

1 - favorite player character

I went into the series only hearing about Taako so I automatically assumed he’d be my favorite. But I was so wrong because Magnus absolutely won me over in every possible way. Of course, all three of the boys are great but he’s the one that made me cry the most.

3 - favorite arc

I want to say Suffering Game purely for Arms Outstretched being the most absolutely baller thing to happen in the series but I think Crystal Kingdom is my favorite purely because it was the moment I realized TAZ meant way more to me than just background noise for me to put on during math class. There was just something about that arc that clicked with me.

4 - favorite ship

Oh my god I love Lup and Barry more than anything those two are so cute. Everything in the Stolen Century completely cemented them into my heart.

#taz #owlwolfpossum

[cromulentbookreview]

Ziziphus obtusifolia!

Ah, yes, Ziziphus obtusifolia, native to the Southwestern and South central United States and Northern Mexico, this shrub has many branches, forming a giant cluster of thorns that can reach up to 13 feet (4 meters) in height. This shrub does best in USDA Hardiness Zone 7, has a high heat tolerance, low water usage, and only requires partial shade and dry soils! It has deciduous leaves that aren’t really around for most of the year, showing off the shrub’s light gray-colored bark. It has an inflorescence (a cluster of flowers arranged on a stem) of little, inconspicuous blooms. It bears a small fleshy black drupe with only a single seed. The fruit is technically edible, but not at all tasty, so maybe leave that for the wildlife.

Isn’t that pretty?

So why the hell am I talking about this weird desert shrub? This is a book review blog, not a botany blog, right? Right? Well, good ol’ Ziziphus obtusifolia has many names:

Lotebush.

Gumdrop tree.

Texas buckthorn

Graythorn...

Wait. Graythorn. Gray. Thorn. Those two words mean something, I can’t quite put my finger on it....

Wait.

Oh. Shit.

GREYTHORNE!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! *More incomprehensible fangirlish screaming*.

Bet you wish this were just a plant blog after all, eh?

There will be some minor spoilers ahead. Keep your hats on, people. You’ve been warned.

So. Greythrone by Crystal Smith! 

Greythorne is the sequel to Bloodleaf, a book I absolutely loved beyond all logical reason. Sometimes I enjoy a book so much that it becomes physically impossible to review it objectively. However, fortunately for me, this is a cromulent book review blog - I offer perfectly cromulent reviews, not objective ones. If you wanted objective reviews, I suggest you look for somewhere a little less cromulent.

Before I start my incomprehensible fangirlish squealing, I suggest you take a look at the synopsis. Here’s what the writers at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers say about the sequel: 

In Bloodleaf’s highly anticipated sequel, Princess Aurelia’s life is turned upside down when the kingdom she thought she saved turns to ruin, a loved one is tragically killed in a shipwreck, and her home country refuses to respect her brother’s legitimate claim to the throne. With no place left to call her own, Aurelia returns to Greythorne Manor—her best friend’s family mansion—only to get swept up in a coup d'état on the night of her brother’s coronation. With everyone turned against her and enemies closing in on all sides, Aurelia has nothing left to lose in a mad fight to protect the only people she has left—her family. But in her darkest moments when all seems grim, will Aurelia find a spark of hope from a love she thought long lost? A read bursting with romance, magic, and ghostly intrigue, Greythorne will not disappoint.

OK, that seems like your standard summary except...

Wait. A loved one is tragically killed in a shipwreck? Huh, I guess they changed the summary to be far less spoilerific because before it specified that it was Aurelia’s fiance that was killed in the shipwreck. And when I read that my poor, YA fangirl heart just about burst out of my chest because WHAT THE HELL, ZAN DIES?!? Aurelia’s Zan?! The Zan she was betrothed to as a baby but they met without knowing who the other was and they fell in love anyway because sometimes arranged marriages work out and it’s romantic as hell only now apparently he dies in a shipwreck AND THEY SPOILED IT IN THE SYNOPSIS?!?!

Heh, some poor writer for HMH got yelled at for that one.

Anyway, since I spent pretty much the whole of the first book shipping Aurelia/Zan like...well, like a crazed fangirl. Hey, when I like something, I really like it. Anyway, faced with the prospect of having to wait until next June (NEXT. JUNE!) for answers, you can imagine my amazement when the digital ARC of Greythorne hit NetGalley back in September. 

My reaction, an approximation:

I did exercise some restraint and waited to read Greythorne until later in October because a) my TBR pile is roughly as tall as Mt. Kanchenjunga and b) I was somewhat paralyzed by the knowledge that, if I read it immediately, not only would I have to wait til next June for the finished copy, it’d be at least another year and a half AFTER next June before the third book comes out.

And then I waited until mid-November to write a review because I’m lazy.

I’m not sure if I’ve established this well enough yet, but I don’t like waiting. Waiting is the worst. 

The wait for the third book is going to be agony, but oh well. Best get comfortable.

So! How to review without being spoilery? That’s the dilemma with reviewing sequels. Inevitably, something gets spoiled. Anyway, our favorite Bloodwitch Aurelia is back in Renault, keeping a low profile and avoiding being burned as a witch by living in a whorehouse and plotting to infiltrate the party barge of one of her many enemies, Dominic Castillion. Castillion is some kind of tyrant from the north who has been swooping in and taking over various nations, and he has eyes on Achleva. Aurelia encouraged her fiance Zan to go and parlay with Castillion...only his ship got caught in a storm and Zan drowned. 

OR DID HE?

Find out next June, because I refuse to spoil that. You don’t have to wait long to find out and it’s worth it. 

Anyway, Castillion is only one of Aurelia’s many enemies - she’s got more than a few in Renault, including the Tribunal, which is determined to have her burned as a witch. Her little brother Conrad is about to be crowned King, but his situation is precarious, at best. I mean, his sister is a known witch, and the Tribunal really, really hates witches, especially its leader, Isobel Arceneaux. She’s really not that big on witches.

Anyway, Arceneaux and the Tribunal interrupt Conrad’s coronation just to be dicks and undermine the young king before the crown is on his head longer than thirty seconds. They deliberately provoke Aurelia into a public demonstration of her magical blood powers, forcing her to flee, yet again, with her loyal guard Kellan and her old nurse/teacher/friend, Onal. They venture into the Ebonwilde forest, where there are rumors of witches capable of old magic and a dead/immortal horseman who enjoys chopping off heads...

And that’s about as much as I can say without giving the whole book away. Did I explain it well at all? Nope. Did I finish the book weeks ago and have been putting off writing an actual, semi-intelligent cromulent review because all I can do when I think about this book is make a long series of unintelligible fangirlish screeches? Yes, absolutely. This book was an absolute blast to read, and a worthy followup to Bloodleaf. There’s action! Romance! Magic! Card playing! Shapeshifters! Somberly sweet hallucinogenic wine! Zombie wolves! Witches that live in the woods! Ruined cities! A party barge! What more could you possibly need?

I do have one complaint, which is there is an instance of the Bury Your Gays trope. I’m not really even all that mad about it - I thought this particular character’s death was handled well, but I’m an idiot fangirl with a tumblr blog, so I’ll leave it to you to read the book and form your own opinion. 

Another kind-of-sort-of complaint: the covers changed. It’s another one of those Rebel of the Sands situations, someone in the marketing department decided to change things up. it means my hardcovers won’t match but...I guess that’s OK. I mean, it’s not like my eye doesn’t twitch every time I see my Harry Potters go from being paperbacks to hardcovers starting with Order of the Phoenix. I mean, I don’t panic a little every time I see that my first two books of the Ember in the Ashes series don’t match A Reaper at the Gates. It’s fine. It’s fine. It’s totally fine.

Anyway, here’s the original cover that would match the first book. It’s lovely! But I’m not in charge of marketing at HMH and the new cover is gorgeous as well.

Honestly, though, so long as I have the books and the spines are intact, I don’t give much of a shit whether or not my editions match. Of course, I’d prefer them to match, but ultimately, it doesn’t matter. I just want the book. Change the cover to whatever you want, just please be sure to give me the words inside, please. The cover is just packaging - if all you do is look at a book’s cover, you’re not reading properly. Just learn to live with that eye twitch.

(Me, when stuff doesn’t match).

RECOMMENDED FOR:  Fellow Bloodleaf fangirls, fans of YA fantasy with a strong female lead, magic, romance, etc.

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR: Anyone who didn’t like Bloodleaf, anyone who came here legitimately thinking I was going to write a blog post about Ziziphus obtusifolia, non-YA fans, people who can’t stand the idea of a kickass female protagonist.

RATING: 5/5

TOTALLY UNBIASED FANGIRL RATING: 5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000/5

RELEASE DATE: June 2, 2020

ANTICIPATION LEVEL FOR SEQUEL: Olympus Mons

SHRUB RATING: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

SIMPSONS GIFS THAT VERY ACCURATELY SUM UP MY REACTION TO THIS BOOK:

#greythorne #bloodleaf #bloodleaf book 2 #bloodleaf sequel #crystal smith #Ziziphus obtusifolia #renault #achelva #aurelia #zan #aurelia/zan forever #ya fantasy #young adult #young adult fantasy #book review #ya review #ya reads #ya recs #can't wait #need more #blood magic #i will go down with this ship #fangirl screaming

[piefanart]

The Tales of a Teenage Time Traveler: Chapter Thirteen

please, suffer though this badly written chapter with me. i needed to get the story from the beginning of everything to the beginning of the first arc and i didnt want to write out pages and pages of jedi training, especially since my extended universe knowledge is rather rusty to say the least. i still cant beleive i remembered what a ysalmiri was. were those mentioned in this chapter or the last one? i dont remember..... anyways, enjoy. leave a comment if you want!!

Chapter Thirteen

A few months passed. Luke agreed to train me. Every night I would go back to the ship, where somehow Hannah had managed to conjure up a whole room for me. It was about twice the size of my bedroom from Earth, with a bed in the center of the far wall. The walls were painted a matte black, my favorite color. During the day, Hannah would leave in the ship. Sometimes I wondered how long she was gone each time, since she always seemed different when she came back. I wondered what she was doing, but I never asked.

We continued to be as good of friends as ever, still having sleepovers (in my room) and having all-night movie marathons. It turns out Hannah had a huge collection of movies. Every so often, we would watch Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and eat blackberry cobbler, just like we used to back on Earth every Friday in the summer. I watched that movie so much I knew it word-for-word.

I made the cobbler in the kitchen, while Hannah watched. I never asked where the food came from, I figured I was better not knowing. We always ate the cobbler so hot that it burnt your tongue, since that's the only way to eat it. If it gets cold it becomes slimy and gross.

But for me, daytime meant training. It turned out that I was much more Force-sensitive then I ever imagined I could be, which was a dream come true. On Earth Star Wars was the love of my life. Everything was Star Wars related. All of my t-shirts had Star Wars characters on them. Some of them were pretty old, since I got them all at the thrift store, which just made it cooler. But becoming an actual Jedi? I couldn't believe it half the time.

A couple months in Luke helped me construct my lightsaber. I used the jewel from a ring my biological father had given me, coupled with a few clear crystals since mine was so small. This gave my blade a pale lavender tone, something I had never seen in any of my books. I suppose this was because in the movies, the Jedi only used Kaiber crystals, but they were destroyed or used up by the Empire. Luke was a lot more lenient about the crystals used, as long as he inspected them first. This rule came after Jacen used a sub-par one in his lightsaber and accidentally severed Tenal Ka's arm. Fortunately mine passed the test.

Luke knew a lot, but he said I would be better training with the Jedi of the Old Republic, if it was possible. Whenever I asked him why, he just smiled in a knowing way.

That is, until this morning.

I walked into the mess hall dressed in the same clothes that I bought on Tatooine. They held up to my training amazingly, and I only had to patch a couple holes. My red cape became my signature; everyone who saw it knew it was me.

I sat down at the table where Luke and Jacen were sitting. I was early to breakfast, so they were the only two in the room.

“Good morning, Master Luke,” I greeted him.

“Good morning, Mcefi,” he replied, cheerfully as always.

“Hey, Mcefi!” Jacen said, barely pausing to speak before continuing to shovel food into his mouth. Jacen was always early to breakfast, and if he wasn't then something was wrong.

“Hey!” I replied.

“Jacen, are you almost finished eating?” Luke asked, raising an eyebrow at his nephew. Jacen shoved the last bit of food in his mouth and nodded. “Since I can't have seconds until everyone else has firsts, yeah, I'm done. For now,” he clarified.

“Mcefi, there's something I want to discuss with you. Jacen, do you mind going and checking on your sister? She might need help on her project,” Luke said. Jacen stared at him, confused.

“Jaina never wants my help with her stuff though!” he protested.

Luke raised his eyebrows and Jacen got the meaning.

“oh, OH! You're right! Cya later, Uncle Luke!” he said, jumping up and leaving the mess hall. Luke waited until we could no longer hear Jacen's heavy footfalls before he turned his attention back to me.

“Mcefi, you know how I've spoken to you about training in the Old Republic?” Luke began. I nodded, taking a bite of the granola bar I brought with me from the ship.

“Well, I can't help but keep remembering something old Ben used to tell me.” “Obi-Wan?” I asked. Luke nodded.

“Yes, Obi-Wan. Anyways, he said that when he was younger, during the height of the clone wars, he had a padawan for a short time. Not Anakin, you see, someone else. He never named them, he always said that I would know their name one day. Point is, I think that padawan was you.”

I swallowed my bite, my throat going dry.

“M-me?” I echoed. “How?”

“You have a time machine, right? I think you are supposed to go back to the Clone Wars to further your training. Ben said that this padawan had been trained by someone before, someone close to him. But he never said who that was either. The thing that reminds me most of that story is your cape, Mcefi. He said that this padawan sported a bright red cape.” Luke leaned forward, eager to hear my reply.

I opened and closed my mouth repeatedly, struggling to find words.

“Did… did Obi-Wan ever talk about time travel?” I asked. Luke's expression clouded.

“I'm not sure. I didn't know old Ben very long, before he was slain at the hand of Vader. But during the time I did know him I was only focused on myself. I was very vain, and I didn't care to listen to his stories. When you first mentioned time travel, I had a pang of memory, but it went away before I could realize what it was. I wish I had paid more attention, but I was a lot younger and more naive back then,” Luke said wishfully.

“I…. see. I suppose I need to go to the Clone Wars, then,” I agreed.

I stood up to leave.

“You're going now?” Luke asked, also standing up. I looked away.

“I'll come back, someday soon. Expect it!” I promised, before running out of the room to hide the tears that were falling down my cheeks. I was never very good at goodbyes.

#ttt #ttt chapter thirteen #mcefi

[ghosty-schnibibit]

live blogged taz thoughts under the cut, it’s becoming a new tradition for me to do this every new episode lol

i am already super fucking worried about this episode just based on the narrator and the description

travis already layin on the sex jokes

well this is creepy as shit

cap’n port not taking a scorched earth approach for once lol

OH NO HOLY SHIT

what the fuck is this crucible bs

MAGNUS YOU SHIT HEAD DON'T ANTAGONIZE THE DUDE

NOT MY BABY NO NO NO NO NO GRIFFIN YOU BETTER NOT HURT LUCRETIA FUCK NO

i know this is a serious ass scene but the link in my mind between the seven deadly sins and fma is making me laugh

okay that little thirty second top of the head speech right there is why magnus is my favorite, holy shit that was amazing

that was a funky ass way to pronounce bluejeans... and then like two seconds later clint comments on the same thing lol

barry you done fucked up

OF COURSE MERLE GETS LUST, I'M FUCKING DYING

“ARBOR ARDOR” M E R L E

i'm beginning to legit worry that only magnus is making it out of this alive

lup my baby i love you but omg this is not the time

"wrath? don't forget wrath" "oh hella, hella wrath" THESE TWO OMG

LUP WHAT THE FUCK, Y'ALL DUMB ASSES STOP PLEADING GUILTY

i could have called wrath for davenport tbh :/

TAAKO OH MY FUCKING GOD YOU FUCKING IDIOT I LOVE YOU

i'm drawing them all as homunculi later, mark my words

i'm really glad that they’re being honest about the situation with the weird god judge thingies, hopefully this will help earn them some credit for the main trial

HE NICKNAMED THE VOIDFISH FISHER I'M DYING

i was most worried about taako and he ended up being the best off lol

TRAVIS HOW DID YOU FUCK UP THAT BAD, CLINT ROLLED BETTER THAN YOU

aaand magnus is dead crystal kingdom style, wonderful :T

oh this is creepy as shit

"THERE WILL BE A NECESSARY BETRAYAL" LUCRETIA

i'm trying to write out all the things griffin is saying overlaid with the other voices and wow there is so much shit, i might post what i get later just so others can have the transcript if no one else has done it already

OH MY GOD ITS ALL THE BAD SHIT THE BOYS DID

THE LINE ABOUT ANGUS I'M... I'M CRYING, MY POOR BABY ; n ;

WAIT SO... LUCRETIA WAS THE ONLY ONE LEFT ALIVE, LEFT ALONE FOR A WHOLE YEAR BY HERSELF? OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD GRIFFIN WHY MUST YOU DO THIS TO MY DAUGHTER HOLY FUCKING SHIT

"this is when lucretia became madam director" I AM DEAD INSIDE

"that's alright old man, just take every bit of joy i have" travis plz

thank you trav for the extra development, i love the idea of papa magnus and his wee voidfish baby ^u^

oh holy shit what is this new development

i feel like this may be where we get lich barry and possibly lich lup

yay, taako centric arc :D

travis what the fuck is going on with your voice r/n

this is one cool setting omg

okay now i really wanna know why justin hates nathaniel hawthorne and james fenimore cooper

DAVENPORT CREATED THE OCULUS, CONFIRMED

well now i know the difference between an autobiography and a memoir, thank you travis

"i've learned from taako to build my brand" merle omg

damn clint, bangin out the good roles this arc

"it really focuses on my teen years, cause i went through a lot of shit" merle with that relatable feel

EXTREME TEEN MERLE

THIS IS THE PROTECTION SPELL FROM REUNION TOUR AAAAA

every interaction between merle and lucretia make everything in the main story so fuckin sad and i just... kill me griffin, just kill me

CRAVABILITY

taako what the actual fuck, fucking voice acting

I'M CALLING IT RIGHT NOW, THIS IS WHERE LUP TURNS INTO A LICH, THIS IS WHERE SHE GETS A POSITIVE MEMORY THAT FUELS HER LICH FORM AND ALLOWS HER TO POSSESS THE UMBRA STAFF LATER ON

FUCKING CALLED IT

i really want to know what this song is called, can't wait for it to go up on soundcloud

is it bad i am like... LEGIT worried that taako will fuck this up somehow even though i know that griffin has a narrative he wants to create and probs won’t let that happen?

"oh shit, is it today?" so can we assume taako just cooks huge ass breakfast spreads of insanely high quality on the reg then

"there are people who are enjoying the day-" "there's nobody alive on this planet but the seven of you." "... well, we're the people" PFFF

are they going to fuck with davenport??? justin what the fuck have you got in mind for this

"ILLUSIONS" I'M FUCKING DYING OH MY GOD

TAAKO WHAT THE FLYING FUCK

lup my beautiful destructive daughter i love you so so so much

AAAW TAAKO OH MY FUCKING GOD YOU SWEET, SWEET BABY BOY I LOVE YOU SO MUCH

“you are my heart“ I  A M  D E S T R O Y E D

“his legs are trembling in absolute panic“ T A A K O

“yeah, i got this“ yeeeah gimme that good blupjeans shit

LUP FUCKIN DABBED OH MY GOD

YEEEAH BABY, YOU LIGHT UP THOSE NIHILISM DEMONS!!!

“we’re real fucking close” *cries*

so that was a really damn intense episode full of moments that made me want to cry a lot, and i loved it. can’t wait for two weeks from now when we get to see the shit that went down to create the BoB and cry some more :’)

#taz #the adventure zone #taz spoilers #all under the cut #as per usual