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writersblog20 · 3 years

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Everybody has a hard time, from time to time

Tom Hiddleston x Freader

Warnings: reader being drunk, little bit of anxiety but disguised as nervousness.Angst but not too much. Language. And feeling worthless. Readers boss gaslighting her but it’s not much. age-gap reader is 25. Implied smut sort of? But also not really

Words: 3470

Summary: The reader meets Tom Hiddleston and he asked her out on a date. But on the date she gets a call from her extremely drunken best friend….

A/N: I just went with it and I don’t even know what it turned out hahaha I'm also sorry for the spelling mistakes and stuff

Everybody has a hard time from time to time

Y/N was walking down the streets. Headphones in and 4 coffees on a tray. She sighed and started walking faster back to her stupid job. Her boss gave her a really hard time but lately it had gotten worse. She tried to calm down and take a minute but balancing lunch and coffee was definitely not on her resume. She was so lost in her thought that she got back to it until her butt hit the pavement pretty hard.

Everything went so fast and she felt the very hot coffee on her chest soaking her blouse. “Fuck!” she cursed out. “oh my god I’m so sorry” the man said who was kneeling besides her now trying to help her. “it’s fine. Just going to get fired now. but honestly it’s fine” you said in anger.

You looked up and to your surprise you saw it was your favorite actor Tom Hiddleston. Worry filled his pool blue eyes. you wanted to freak out but honestly you were more freaking out about your boss right now. “God I really am sorry ma’am. Let me pay for some new coffee!” he told you kindly. You carefully tried to dry your blouse. Tom got a dry sweater from his bag.

“please take it, god I’m so sorry” He told you with actual more worry in his eyes. “is there anything I can do for you? I can walk with you to your boss to explain what happened” he told you a little panicked. You chuckled at the sweet gesture and started to feel sorry for him because how bad he felt.

“It’s okay. I doubt that would change much.” He nodded. “are you hurt?” he asked you helping you up. “eh no I’m fine I think.” You told him. “I’m really sorry please take my jumper. I know it isn’t much but at least it’s dry” he told you and almost shove it in your hands. “thank you!” you told him and he looked a little more relaxed that he at least could do something for you.

“well I should go now.” you told him. “I do need that jumper back” he told you with a grin and you started to feel flustered. “right I’m sorry I….” he cut you off before you could finish that sentence. “I ehm never really do this but how about you give it back on our date? If you would gladly accept of course. My treat for what happened.” You were starstruck but you thought he wanted to take you on a date out of pity. “ you don’t have to do that Tom, you don’t have to take me on a date because you feel bad. Gives off the wrong signals.” You told him while cleaning your pants from the dirt on the ground.

“I’m eh Tom” he told you. You chuckled “yeah I know. Big fan” you said still chuckling and he giggled a little. He waited for you to say your name but you were lost in thoughts again. “oh I’m sorry I’m Y/N” he giggled and gently took your hand and placed a kiss on the top of it. “it’s really nice to meet you. And again I’m very sorry how we met” he said scratching his head. “it’s not all your fault. I was very lost in thought so I should've looked where i was walking” you told him.

“I want to take you out on a date because you are magnificently beautiful and now I have more of a reason to make it up to you. That’s why I want to take you out.” He told you with a gentle smile. “oh ehm well then I would love to go on a date with you” you told him flustered feeling extremely dumb at the moment. “Are you free this Saturday evening?” he asked you. “yeah absolutely” you told him. he gave you his phone and you put your number in it. “I’ll text you.” He said with a wink. “okay” was all you could say. You stood there for a minute before going back.

On your way you changed into Tom’s jumper and got new coffee and lunch. You made your way back to your job. You obvious got shit from your boss and you told her what happened but she wasn’t taking it. “you are absolutely worthless! You can’t even get some fucking coffee! I don’t even know why I hired you in the first place. You can go and you don’t have to come back” she told you

It made you furies. There was no way she would take you back and honestly you wouldn’t even want that. “That’s fine cause I wanted to quit either way. You are one horrible person and treat people like shit but honestly you are the biggest piece of shit in this whole building. Probably even in this whole city. So I don’t mind. Bye!!!” you told her and she looked dumbfounded by your sudden outburst.

You walked out of the building with your head up high and a big smile on your face. You really felt more alive at this moment. You got back home and that’s when it hit you that you still had to pay your rent. You started cursing and kicked a chair. You called one of your friends and he came right away to you. “Girl! You got some bad bitch energy! How you stood up against her… I mean damn. That and you have a date with The hot Tom Fucking Hiddleston! Girl you’re so lucky!” he told you while shaking a cocktail for you both.

You chuckled “I’m not gonna drink right now” you told him. “Girl you have better plans? You just got fired and you have nowhere to be right now so just take that drink and live a little! You’re 25 for god’s sake!” You chuckled again and took the drink from him. “you know what you should do? Sell your art! Finish that book that you were writing! I mean I’ve seen your work and it’s absolutely amazing! And since I’m in the art business I might be able to help you out in that and give you an exposition! ” He told you. “let me think about it okay?” you told him a little sad.

“babe you’ve got to stop being scared! You are absolutely amazing on every front! Everyone can see that except for you. So please let me do this for you” He told you. “I just don’t want to get my hopes up and be declined like almost always. I don’t feel good enough and I don’t think I can take another rejection again” you told him honestly.

“it’s life babes…. There will be times where you’re still going to get rejected but don’t let that bring you down. You have to keep fighting for it. And your art is worth fighting for. Believe me! I’m your most honest friend and I’m telling you this from the bottom of my heart. You are good enough! Hell you are more than that! You just have to believe in yourself!” you smiled at his kindness and thought about it. “you know what? Fuck it! Let’s do it!” you told him feeling strong! “yes queen! that’s my girl! Bad bitch energy!” you giggled and got immensely drunk to celebrate it.

~time skip~

The week got by pretty quick and as Luke told you, you got accepted and they were more excited to give you an exposition. You started to search for jobs that you would actually like and started writing again. Life was going good again and you felt so strong and confident until you had the date which would be tomorrow.

You were so nervous. Tom didn’t text you yet and you didn’t have his phone number so it was hard to get in touch with him. Anxiety got the best of you. What if he forgot? What if he forgot about you or changed his mind? Just when your mind got into overdrive you heard your phone pinged. You quickly got it and saw an unknown number. You felt your heart pound in your chest. You opened the text.

“Hello Love, It’s Tom. Are you still up for tomorrow? I’m sorry I didn’t get in touch sooner, it was a chaotic week.” It felt like you could breathe again and texted him back immediately. “Hey Tom, Yes I’m still up for tomorrow. Can’t wait!” You send the message and immediately thought you should texted him a different message. Your phone went off again. But this time he called you. You drowned your wine for some confident.

“Hey Tom.” You said a little nervous. He chuckled. “hello darling” your heart skipped a beat at the nickname and you felt butterflies I mean it was Tom Hiddleston for god’s sake! “I’ll pick you up around 5. Is that okay?” he asked you. “eh yeah of course sure! I ehm am looking forward to it!” you told him honestly. “me too darling” he told you with a chuckle. You both said your goodbyes and you put your phone down.

You tried to watch a movie to get your mind of off your anxiety. When the movie was over you tried to go to bed but you kept staring at your ceiling. I’m not like the other girls he dated. You thought to yourself. But then tried to set it straight by saying maybe that’s the point but then other thoughts consumed you. You tried to fight all the thought by positives one until the early hours of the morning. You finally fell asleep around 5 AM.

Once you woke up you got very excited. It was already 2 in the afternoon since you slept so crappy. You texted your Luke but got no response. You figured he was still asleep. You picked your clothes and 5 PM got around faster then you thought it would. You heard your doorbell and opened up. There he was standing Tom Hiddleston. Alongside with some flowers. No other date had given you flowers. He checked you out with his lips slightly parted. He chuckled: “wow you look amazing!” he said with a small blush creeping up on his cheeks. You giggled. “you too mister Hiddleston” you said boldly which made him chuckle again. He really did look great. He wore a small blouse and a blue blazer over it and jeans. “oh eh these are for you” he told you. You could tell he was nervous as hell which made you feel a little bit more at peace knowing that you weren’t the only one.

“come inside. I’m just going to put these in some water.” You told him and he followed you inside. He loved your apartment. It gave off such a warm cozy vibe. It felt like home. He looked at your art work on the wall. “I adore your apartment.” He told you which made you smile. “thank you” you told him kindly. “I’m ready to go” you told him with a chuckle. You got your coat of the hanger. “Here let me, please.” He told you and got the coat out of your hands and helped you in your coat. It made you flustered and swoon. God you were already falling head over heels for this men.

You both walked into a restaurant but it wasn’t a fancy one but more cozy. You loved it. You talked for hours and both drank some red wine. You both hit it off so well and you were absolutely smitten. And he was too if not more. You both were so much on one line it was amazing. You knew you would never find this again and it kind of scared you. You told him about your boss since he asked if you got trouble that day you first met him and you told the story until you got a call from Luke.

You frowned a little. He knew you were on a date and he would never interrupt you unless it was an emergency. “everything okay?” Tom asked you. “Yeah I just have to take this. I am so sorry!” He chuckled it’s fine” he told you reassuring. You nodded and walked off to the bathroom and picked up. “Luke? What’s wrong?” you asked when you heard him sobbing on the phone. You could tell he was absolutely smashed. “Can you please come to my place? I really need you right now. you can even take Tom with you but please” He begged you with an obvious slur. You felt your heart break for him. You sighed. “alright I’m on my way. Can you hang on?” you asked him. “yeah” he told you still crying. “Thank you so much Y/N I’m so sorry” he told you. “I know it’s okay. I’m on my way okay?”

You hang up the phone and went back to Tom. “everything alright?” he asked you and you felt so guilty. “I eh my friend he needs me right now. he is absolutely smashed and crying and I don’t know what is wrong but he asked me to come to him.” Tom looked at the table “I’m so sorry! I had a lovely time and I would love to do this some time again! If you still want to of course…” You said the last part a little softer. He smiled at you. “I eh could go with you if you’d like and if it’s okay with your friend.” Tom told you. “Are you sure? You really don’t have to” you told him. “I’m going to be honest with you. I really like you and I don’t want this evening to stop…. So if that means taking care of your drunken friend to be with you, I will. But I understand if you feel different.” This time Tom said the last part a little softer. You chuckled and felt your body filling up with love. “I really like you too Tom and in that case… Let’s go” you chuckled. He looked a little surprised but happy.

Tom paid the bill even when you tried to intervene but he wasn’t having it. “next time you can pay” he told you with a wink. You were flustered. He helped you to get your coat on and you both made your way. You slightly touched his hand and put yours in his. He looked a little surprised down at you. “I eh is this okay?” you asked him a little nervous. “it is, love.” You looked down a little with a smile. His thumb caressing the back of your hand softly. “I’m really sorry about this.” You told him honestly. “really it’s okay. I totally understand!” he told you truthfully.

You got to Luke’s house and you used your keys. “Luke? It’s me, where are you?” you asked him. you heard Abba blasting through the speakers. You immediately turned it down a bit. Empty bottles were laying everywhere. “Y/N?” Luke called out to you. You followed the sound and saw him laying by the toilet. You took of your coat and walked over to him and sat him down by the toilet. “What happened?” you asked him. he sniffled a little. “Cooper broke up with me and even over a text message” you looked at him a little sad for him. you went with your hands through his hair. Tom stood behind you but Luke didn’t notice yet. Luke started to laugh. Great mood swings you thought. Tom gave you a glass of water and you smiled a little at him. You gave the water to Luke. He looked up and saw Tom. Tom waved at him a little. “oh he’s so cute and hot!” he told you like Tom wouldn’t hear it. You started to laugh. You looked at Tom and he chuckled.

“I’m sorry I ruined your date” he looked at you and Tom. “we’ll there’s going to be a second so don’t worry too much about it” you told him and you looked at Tom who winked at you. Luke started to throw up and you both looked away. You softly touched Luke’s back to let him know you weren’t going anywhere. “you okay?” you asked after he was done. “yeah I think I can get up now.” he told you. “okay good let’s get you upstairs then.” You helped Luke up which was a challenge on its own. “here let me” Tom said and took Luke over from you. He put Luke’s arm over his shoulders and helped him upstairs. Luke started to stare at Tom.

“Luke…. You’re staring.” You told him. “I know.” Luke told you serious and furrowed his eyebrows at Tom. “Look. I’m thankful you help me but you better take care of my best friend alright! She’s an angel and don’t you dare to hurt her!” he slurred at Tom while you were already in Luke’s bedroom. “I’m not planning on it mate. I promise.” He told Luke. He narrowed his eyebrows. “yeah I believe that. Finally a good guy Y/N!” he yelled happy at you. You flustered again. You mouthed: “I’m sorry” at Tom and he just gave you a reassuring smile. You both put Luke into bed. You put an extra pillow under his head for the nausea. You put down a bucket and a glass of water beside him.

“please stay the night. I don’t want to be alone and your boyfriend can stay too” you were both flustered at the last part Luke said. “I’ll stay don’t worry. But you need some sleep now.” Luke nodded and turned around. “I love you” Luke told you sleepy. “I love you too” you told him and closed the door and leaned against it. “I’m really sorry about this. Normally it doesn’t happen” you told Tom a little embarrassed. He put a hand on your cheek “it’s okay love. Really we all have moments like this” you nodded. “well I need a drink now…. You want one?” you asked and chuckled. “yeah sounds good” he said and chuckled as well.

You both went downstairs and took out the empty bottles and after that made you both a drink. You sat down on the couch and Tom next to you. You both talked into the late hours and started to get drunk. You were leaning against Tom by now. you looked up at him and he looked down at you with love and adoration in his eyes. “please stay tonight.” You kind of asked him. “only if you want me to” he told you. “yeah I do. But just to clarify I never took a guy back home (or well my friends house) to stay the night” You told him with a chuckle. He laughed as well. When it got silence you just stared at each other.

His face ,slowly, started to get closer to you giving you enough time to pull away but instead you softly put your lips on his. His hand caressing your cheek and your hand in his hair slightly pulling at it as the kiss started to get heated. He pulled you on his lap, both of your legs on either side of him. His hands going under your shirt and stayed on your back. He slowly got up and laid you down on the couch with your legs around his waist. You broke from the kiss and put your hand on his chest. “Tom…. I don’t want to do it on the first date and definitely not here” you chuckled which made him giggle as well. “totally understandable!” He told you.

“I can go I you want me to” he told you. “no, please stay.” He gave you a warm smile that made your heart melt. You made some space so Tom could lay down as well. You laid your head on his chest and he went with his hands through your hair. Well this was definitely not the perfect date…. But luckily it was with the perfect guy.

#tom hiddleston fanfiction #tom hiddleston #tom hiddelston x reader #tom hiddleston one shot #tom hiddleston fic #tom hiddleston fanfic #tom hiddleston fluff #fanfiction #fanfic #marvel fanfic #loki fanfic

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vivithefolle · 3 years

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I'm a bit confused. You said in one post that you thoroughly dislike Hermione and that you had no respect for her at all. Yet ... you like Romione? idk, it seems contradictory tbh. I like when Romione shippers acknowledge her flaws and messed up moments but when someone that dislike and even hate her character that much ships Romione and I see them posting about them and calling them "cute" just seems weird

I’ll share with you my whole thought process so you can understand where I’m coming from:

Itty-bitty Vivi who read Harry Potter for the first time (at 13/14, so not so itty-bitty I guess, oops): Woaaah Hermione and Ron yaay!!! They're awesome I love them! They're my OTP always and forever!! Best thing to happen in Harry Potter!! JKR is a genius!

Slightly less itty-bitty Vivi discovering the Harry Potter fandom online (thankfully years after the ship wars, else I probably wouldn't have survived): Why is there so much hate towards Ron? And why are people so opposed to Romione?? It was meant to be since the first book! Or, okay, the second book is when I realized it was gonna happen, but still! Oh well, here is a fic where Hermione berates Ron for everything and he is the only one actually working for their relationship. Cool, more Romione!

Even less itty-bitty Vivi starting her own Tumblr and going around, adding her grain of salt to debates and talking about stuff: Yeah! Ron is great! He's done bad things of course but Hermione has done her fair share of bad things too! Actually, now that I'm rereading the books, I'm reminded of this person I used to call a friend, who was quite smart and cultured but would often be very harsh to me because they claimed it was “for your own good" and “because I'm more mature than you"… I still wanted to be around them, because they were just so smart and passionate, but we often rowed and eventually they really just went too far and tried to make ME out to be the bad guy and most people believed them because they had a reputation as someone cool and logical while I was known for being emotional… wait, what the fuck, that's… that's exactly what happens in the fandom with Ron and Hermione! What the fuck, was I Ron? Admired their intelligence, praised and supported them, fell in love even but was met with scorn and open disdain?!… no, no, come on. Hermione wasn't that bad.

Vivi rereading Half-Blood Prince (and no, this wasn't about the canaries, but about what Hermione was doing after): Oh my god she was that bad.

Vivi as she ponders alternately: Wait, what about JK Rowling? What does she think about all that? What was her intention, what did she want to accomplish with the characters? I know books belong to their readers but if I want as objective an analysis as possible I must try to understand her thought process while she wrote.

Vivi learning about a staple of British literature called “literary alchemy”: The quarreling couple!! Sulfur and Mercury, the Red King and the White Queen, who must marry for the story to end happily!! And their union is represented by… a rose!! Oh my god, that is brilliant, that is so cool! Romione was ALWAYS going to happen, I knew it! Ha!

Vivi discovering the “[Ron] needed to make himself worthy of Hermione” quote: Wha… but… what? Worthy? As if Hermione was some sort of precious trophy or whatever? What the hell? Wait, Ron had to make himself worthy of her but Hermione didn't have to make herself worthy of him? Is it because Ron is the boy or some shit like that??

Vivi going through JK Rowling's interviews and finding sexism and double-standards galore: Yep, it's because he's the boy. And that bit about Hermione being based off herself when she was younger… ouch. And to top it off the scriptwriter pretty much worshipped Hermione…

Vivi rereading the books again: Is it just me, or does Ron hardly ever get any praise or acknowledgement from the adult characters? Meanwhile Harry and Hermione get stuff like “as good as Charlie Weasley" or “brightest witch of her age"! And, damn, I used to side with Hermione because I love cats, but she was completely awful in POA! She apologized but then the plot made her out to be right even then?? And I always thought her Yule Ball entrance was kinda over-the-top, but damn if that's not compensating for something! Also what the hell, I get that Harry is suffering and all but will someone PLEASE pay attention to the fact that Ron is being bullied BY A FOURTH OF THE STUDENT BODY AND NOBODY SEEMS EVEN REMOTELY CONCERNED????? Also what the hell is wrong with the sixth book, I never liked it much but it's like it's trying to make every character look bad, wtf?? And, and, holy shit I never noticed but Ron was asking legit questions during the Horcrux Hunt debate but Harry kept deflecting or mocking him but it's still Ron who had to apologize in the end??? And I've read a whole post about how Hermione punching Ron is the appropriate reaction for a very small child and not a supposedly “mature" character, and that Harry had to SHIELD RON FROM HER, oh my god?? It's… oh my god, what the fuck is wrong with JK Rowling?

Vivi, in denial: Well, Harry Potter is decidedly not a romance. It's about love, but romantic love is quite far down the priority list when it comes to it. JKR has herself confessed that she wasn't too good at writing romance, and I don't blame her because writing romance is hard. But I did enjoy Romione! When I was little I saw it coming from a mile away, granted I was already savvy in literature but that must have been because she was doing something right! And then the sixth book happened… the sixth book which… which was released after the Harry Potter movies were being filmed, wasn't it?

Vivi looking up the timelines: Oh my god. Oh my god it's even worse, the movies were being discussed before Goblet of Fire came out. Come to think of it, I always found that the Trio felt… different, after Prisoner of Azkaban. Harry and Ron especially felt like they had gotten dumber? And Hermione was suddenly explaining everything when exposition used to be split between her and Ron…

Vivi, in mourning: So that's what happened. Ron ended up being shortchanged to make Hermione look better, because Rowling was fonder of Hermione than she was of Ron, and the scriptwriter too come to think of it. Curse you, Steve Kloves!!!

Vivi, who is nothing if not what Pokémon fans call a nostalgiafag: But… but… yeah, it sucks that Ron was shortchanged, and actually yeah it's a freaking travesty and I WILL freaking spread the world about this, mark my words, but, but I still… I can't help it, when Hermione “looked up at Ron and her frostiness seemed to melt" I melt too. When Ron compliments Hermione or tries to take care of her as much as he can I… it still does something to me, I still find myself rooting for them even if I know there's the awful sixth book and the stupid post-Locket beatdown. Their kiss, for God's sake, I've just realized that Ron may have swept Hermione off her feet physically, but it's Hermione who jumped him, you could say Hermione metaphorically swept Ron off his feet!! God damn it, that's good, that's so good!

Vivi, at war with herself: No, I can't let myself be blinded by nostalgia!! The facts are that Hermione shows borderline abusive - even actually abusive - behaviour, this can't be denied! I don't want to root for an abusive relationship! I don't want to root for a relationship that relies on my favourite character being dumbed down to work!!!

Vivi, about to uncover the secrets of the universe: … wait a second. I don't have to.

Vivi, having an epiphany: Reading Solstice Muse's Romione fanfics gives me such happiness because she just gets the characters! She doesn't portray Hermione as perfect and never fucking up, and she always treats what happens to Ron with respect… Well, especially since she can't play them off as a joke since she often makes Ron the POV character. But, yeah! I can still like Romione… if it's well-written. Which, well, isn't the case in the original books… at least, isn't the case anymore after Rowling's bias got the best of her. Even though they do have their great moments.

Vivi, finding purpose in her life: I am going to spread awareness. I am going to tell the world. Fuck, just rereading the books, I've noticed how blatant the favouritism is and how unbalanced it can be. No wonder the fandom seems to collectively scoff at Ron - the books themselves do whenever it's convenient for them! The fandom plays favourites, because the author herself played favourites, and the worst part is that she didn't even realize it! Imagine you spend your life getting into traumatic situations out of love for your friends who always receive compassion and validation for their feelings about said traumas, but YOUR trauma is hardly touched upon and in the rare case it is, it's only to be mocked or used against you… Fuck! You're a piece of work, JKR! And the fandom just swallows it whole like a bunch of lobotomized snakes! Screw it! Screw it, I'm going to say it like it is, and I'm going to say it LOUDLY! People are going to hear about what Ron goes through and we'll see if Harry and Hermione look like the only ones worthy of therapy then!!

Present day Vivi, as she scrolls through the (heavily filtered) Romione tag on AO3: Ugh, another Drarry… and another… and another… oh, a Hinny-centric fic for a change, cool but I'm looking for more Romione than that, sorry. Gah, why is it that Romione appears as a secondary ship everywhere but they can't get their own stories? I've just seen a Snupin come up for God's sake! Oh, finally, a full Romione!! *clicks* … … … awww that was so sweet. Kudos! Okay back to the search… oh, another one!! *clicks* … … … it's Ron-bashing. It's Ron-bashing and it's not tagged Ron-bashing and that's why it showed up in my search AND I'M GOING TO FREAKING RIOT-

#vivi answers #ask #romione #ron weasley #hermione granger #ron weasley defense squad #ron weasley defence squad #ron x hermione #harry potter series #anti jk rowling

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soyouareandrewdobson · 4 years

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Alex ze Pirate Mini Review 4: The EED: Emotional Exposition Dump. Or why THIS is not friendship

So here we are. The last part of this 45 page three parter, meant to be about what Sam really means to the crew. And what have we seen so far in the previous parts? That Sam is not just their underappreciated, but downright exploited slave (yeah, did you know that in ancient Greece slaves supposedly had more rights than Sam in this one? At least they could buy out their freedom one day), that Dobson has no idea how to genuinely pace a story, turning what could have been a decent 100 page story if planned out and presented with more care into a 45 page short snore fest and that Hat Andy’s idea for jokes are either based on abusing token buttmonkeys, turning annoying memes into even more unfunny jokes or making dark comedy with dead orphans.

At least when South Park makes jokes about children dying, they are appropriate in that dark setting and the death is still in some way handled or refered to as a horrific event. In Dobson’s case however, it just leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth.

Sorry, I just can’t get over the orphanage thing. If Dobson wanted the reason for Sam leaving be that he finds out someone he cared about from his old life is dead, that is one thing. But did this asshole have to destroy an entire building with countless victims to do it? Couldn’t he just have one person die and the rest be still at that place? Honestly, I think it would have been funnier and more meaningful emotionally, if Alex and Co actually interacted with people from Sam’s past and in doing so learn more about him as a person, by genuinely visiting a still standing orphanage. Give the comic some meat on the bones and in doing so actually create the impression this comic is truly about Sam and not just about characters doing random stuff in relation to finding him. Instead Dobson goes for a literal overkill, which he then does not even treat as a tragedy but as a joke.

Dobson, THIS is a better and more dignified joke about orphans than the shit you did.

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You got outclassed by Chuck Lorree of all people on this planet, you disgrace of a storyteller. A storyteller who can’t even keep his own barely existing continuity in the Alex-verse straight, now that I think of it. After all, according to Legends, the orphanage was closed and all the orphans were sold out to others, with Sam being the last of the litter

Which again is just unintentionally more horrific than Dobson likely intented. But you know, dumb people don’t know when they do dumb shit.

But I digress Let us just get into the last part. In which we finally see the “emotional” pay off of everything that happened so far.

Spoilers, this is my reaction to that pay off.

And here is what everything led up to now.

Sam ran away, because he wants to say his final farewell to his sister figure, we never knew about at all and about whom we do not learn one single thing really.

Where do I begin with how this revelation fails?

Let’s start with the fact that this in execution does not have the emotional impact that was intended. And why is that? Because Dobson doesn’t bother to actually introduce us to the sister as a character.

If I may digress a bit to talk about One Piece here: In the manga, oftentimes Oda will “interrupt” an ongoing story arc to feature flashback chapters, through which he tells about past events referenced in the “present” chapters prior. Through those flashbacks he further gives meaning to why in present time the characters facing certain foes or having to win in their current situation, is so important, even on an emotional level. In short, those flashbacks are no interruptions, they are integral in giving those story arcs emotional weight.

Because now we are not just “told” why we should care about things and people, we have been shown why we should care. The old rule of “show, don’t tell” being followed on.

A good example from a more “recent” storyline I can think of, is through the flashback chapters of the Dress Rosa story arc, where we are not only being shown how De Flamingo took over the kingdom of Dress Rosa and brought pain and misery over its people for years to come, but also the past of characters such as the gladiator Rebecca and Mr. Soldier, her father figure that raised her up from the time she was 10 and De Flamingo took over… only for the flashbacks to also reveal properly how Mr Soldier is not just a father figure for her that took her in, but her biological father Kyros, who had been turned into a toy by one of De Flamingo’s henchmen via a power, that also took Rebecca’s memories of her dad away so she never identified the toy as her dad.

This way Oda achieves multiple things at once; Among other things, he establishes how evil De Flamingo is, how tragic Mr Soldier and Rebecca’s lives really are, adding to us the readers wanting to see them and Luffy beat De Flamingo into a pulp and it makes the later “present day” moment when Mr. Soldier and many other victims turn back to normal and Rebecca regains her memories and is reunited with her dad so much more sweeter. Cause now we care.

Truth be told, I myself believe that Oda is one of few storytellers on this planet, who truly has “mastered” the technique of emotional flashback storytelling.

A technique Dobson could have used in this part of the story, but didn’t. Cause honestly, the way he tells how Sam’s sister was “important” to our poor cabin boy is not emotionally engaging from a storytelling perspective. We are told she is important, but we learn genuinely nothing about her, not even what her name was and what she looked like except from that one picture in the locket from over 15 pages ago. Nothing about how “close” she and Sam truly were is revealed through showing, only telling and as such we don’t even begin to care for her relationship with Sam and how her loss is genuinely important to him. So the main goal of this story, to make us the readers feel something for Sam aside of pity for how he is treated by his supposed friends, has not been achieved.

… Dobson, you are a hack. You can’t even use flashbacks, a basic technique in the realm of storytelling, to show us why we should “care” more, heck, even at all, about Sam and his loss.

If you just had adjusted a few things, you could have had something good here.

By adjustments I mean the following: Take the first page of this chapter as well as the first panel of the second page, and combine them into the final page of the previous chapter. In doing so creating a proper cliffhanger for part two. Then start chapter 3 of with a few pages (lets say 6 or so) showing young Sam and his sister interacting in the orphanage in doing so turning her from a nameless plotdevice into a genuine person to care about. And then use content of page 2 and 3 of this chapter, to elaborate on their relationship, potentially with small cuts always between present day Sam at the grave explaining himself and saying his farewells, with pictures of the past showing what they meant to each other.

But nope. This very basic idea a fanfic writer now has come up with, a fanfic writer who never studied literature or took writing classes by the way, something I doubt you did at college the more I read your work, has never crossed your “superior” mind.

Also, I find Sam’s text on page 3 really, really backwards in a way. Like, I get that we are meant to consider it a good thing Sam is this way. You know, being genuinely selfless and wanting to make others happy. And don’t get me wrong, generosity and selflessness are virtues I hold in high regard. But the way Sam talks about how he just wanted her to be happy while sacrificing any fulfillment of basic needs for himself feels more like a pathological disorder in that case than something to reach for. In fact, psychology speaks from different forms of generosity and the thing Sam describes here is likely “compulsive giving” or “unrelenting generosity”, a pathological variant that can be highly toxic for all people affected by it.

Funny how Dobson, a person who wants to claim he is all for mental healthcare, is essentially “promoting” the positivity of a psychological disorder via Sam.

Then again, this also feels more like Dobson putting words into Sam’s mouth (in a literal sense) to retroactively make Sam’s treatment look less horrid. Cause now Sam doesn’t just do all the work because he is ordered around, he deep down is “happy” doing all of the work and gain not even some basic respect in return, because he cares so deeply for his friends.

… I feel myself get livid again here.

And the next few pages don’t really help me “calm down”.

Cause now the “justifications” just go on. The thing that is meant to be a heartfelt farewell turning into Sam “justifying” that hey, it must be good that he ended up with Alex and her crew. Cause after all, by being abducted years ago and being treated as a slave who in the ginger’s eyes is worth less than lint, he likely avoided dying of shitting his pants and a crushing roof. Ignoring the fact that he was going to be sold out anyway back then and would have potentially ended up with a more generous master than the crew of non Captain Syrup.

Also, just all of the shit going on in page 6. Sam asking his “sister” to be at peace, when likely, if the girl could still talk, she may even just ask Sam the following: Who the heck are you. Cause really, if you think about it, if Sam did all the nice things for her in secret, did the girl even realize she had a “big brother” figure to watch over her? Also, him saying he is happy and he is doing quite alright for himself?

All the pictures of him sighing and looking in misery in this story alone, plus the cavalry of strips I posted about how Sam is abused in the first part of this post series tells me another story.

Finally, Sam’s message “At least now, we are both free”? Sam, she is dead, likely having died in pain when a house crushed on her, weakened by a deadly disease and traumatized by other children around her dying of said disease. And you are stuck with a bunch of people that haven’t shown to care for you up until this story and the only reason they may even care for you now is out of “sympathy” because you lost your sister figure, not because they genuinely love and care for you as a person. As far as I am concerned, you would be better off being the slaveboy of some nymphomanic pirate princess in the world of Berserk than you are on this plane of existence.

And now that the “emotional” farewell is out of the way, Dobson can go back to focus on the characters he really cares about in this shit anyway: Little Bitch Annie, lesbian chocolate rain Miroku and Deadpool’s pubes.

Oh Alex, you are such a rascal. You really make me want to shoot you with a crossbow, stab you in the eye, hurl you out a window and shove explosives where the sun won’t shine.

Yeah yeah, you are a pirate, but that doesn’t mean you need to be that awful as a person or even protagonist.

Christ. For someone who complains how toxic Walter White is to the point he believes “sympathizing” with the character turns you into a nazi, Dobson certainly is blind to how awful Alex really is, particularly as protagonist in a comic series intented for little kids. Compared to her, I can think of freaking slasher movie villains with more of a moral compass. Like say what you want about Jigsaw, at least he never victimized genuine children or teenagers.

And Talus, thanks for ruining the “emotional” moment Sam “earned” by pointing out how weird it is he kissed a gravestone. Also, I am glad I know what happens in the next pages or else I would assume Alex’s great idea includes to dig up his sister and turn her into a life sized doll for Sam to cuddle.

No, their ideas to assure he is emotionally save and to redeem themselves for years of taking him for granted/hurting him, is to throw him a surprise party.

… you know, I think you may be the only individuals in fiction, that Pinkie Pie would think do not deserve to throw a party or get one thrown for.

But I guess Sam is just so nice, he even throws you a party for no apparent reason.

Either that or now that his “sister” is dead he will overcompensate even more and this is the next destructive stage of his compulsive generosity.

… Sam, I am sorry for your loss. But you need to get help. Once by the authorities who will hopefully get rid of Alex and then by some psychologist who helps you redefine your own self worth.

By the way, I find it funny that the banner he made also actually only mentions Talus, Atea and Captain Daphne with a bad hair day. It just confirms that Peggy either never bothered to join the others or that Dobson developed an early onset of dementia and totally forgot about the fact that the midget is a genuine character in this trainwrack. And I am convinced the later is the case, which really just makes me wonder how someone is able to do that. To forget a major character of the thing they create and want to turn into a money making franchise. Imagine if Disney did e.g. a sequel to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, only to forget about the god damn dwarves themselves.

At least Talus finally realizes he is unworthy to get a party thrown or be Sam’s friends. Good. Now jump into a wood chipper and free ourselves from your existence you dog beaver thing.

Content of the next page in a just alternate universe… Alex: You are a better human being than I could ever be and this is all because my creator is a hack who does not know how to create genuinely likable personalities.

The reality:

FUCK YOU, ALEX! FUCK YOU AND THE BIKE PUMP YOU FLEW IN ON! Atea and Talus have learnt more than you about what it means to be a friend and they don’t even bother to punch you in the face for still being the biggest red haired raging cunt since Asuka from Neon Genesis Evangelion.

If this is how Dobson thinks “friends” should treat each other, it is no wonder he has a friendless background. Hey, Hat Andy, if you want to emulate manga, may I suggest you just become even more blatantly about it and simply copy paste One Piece? Cause Luffy at least knows how to be a friend. How much does he care for his friends, strangers and even at times former enemies of his?

He cares so much, that e.g. when a special military force that beat the crap out of him got hands on his crewmate Nico Robin, he did THIS:

youtube

He declared war on the world government. Fuck, even Jack Sparrow, who is an opportunistic jackass, in a movie where everyone stabs the others at least three times in the back, was less selffish than Alex, when he gave up his chance on immortality as Captain of the Flying Dutchman, just so Will would live in some form.

Metalbeard from the Lego Movie cared more about doing the right thing than anyone in Alex the pirate did. You created the worst friends and “heroes” I have ever seen in a webcomic since the entirety of sinfest. Congratulations for that accomplishment, Dobson. It really takes a special kind of anti-talent to show such level of not understanding the power of friendship as one of the most basic tropes in storytelling, to the point a show about pastel colored equines managed to profit of it for nine years.

WOOOOO! We are the worst, we are the worst!

And look, Uncle Pennywise’s scrotum is back.

Anyway, here are the last two pages of this thing, to end on what is meant to be a whimsical note because Sam actually gets something from Alex that is not a beating or verbal abuse.

Too bad anything that would feel heartwarming about this is drowned by a) me actually remembering all the shit Alex, the crew and the writer pull to get to this point (from abusive neglect of the characters to pathetic emotional manipulation on a narrative level) and b) the weird rapey face Uncle Peggy makes in the picture. Like Jesus, did Dobson try to emulate the Burger King here?

But hey, this story is over. And who knows, perhaps from this moment on, Sam will actually be treated better overall in the comic and Dobson will spend time actually developing an overall plot and the world of this com-

Tom Kenny: ONE COMIC STRIP LATER

And it is back to business as usual.

... How much would I need to pay for someone on the internet to write an alternate ending to the story where it turns out Sam actually poisoned the food at the party and while Alex is slowly dying, a now evil Sam who has finally broke under years of abuse, is going to become a genuine threatening pirat? that is after he villain monologues to Alex how much she sucks before scalping her?

Wow, I am entering a dark place right now. I think I need to take a break.

So I am going to give my final verdict on this story with the next post around the weekend most likely. Cause that is how much time I will now spend rereading One Piece and watching the Pirates of the Carribean movies in addition to playing the Pirates level of Kingdom Hearts 3, in order to forget this shit and remind myself why I think pirates are cool.

#andrew dobson #alex ze pirate #fuck you #hat andy #tom preston #so you are a cartoonist #syac #comic #webcomic #pirates #sam the cabin boy #atea #talus #one piece #magic of friendship this is not

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sssn-neptune-vasilias · 4 years

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A while ago I asked about how you would've handled stuff like Aura, Dust, Grimm, the Kingdoms, etc. and you said you were busy watching the video. I was wondering if you could give it a swing now? Not asking for major plot shit, just how you would've built the world.

You’re absolutely right, I totally forgot. My b!

So Aura should’ve been explained in a classroom setting. Even if “Aura” is something that is second nature to kids by the time they reach “high school” level like Beacon, HOW often in high school did we go over shit we learned in middle school?! It wouldn’t be weird for teachers to give a refresher course, especially in a “we’re going to work on strengthening your Aura beyond just forcefields” context. Pyrrha’s explanation was weird and wonky and poorly timed and not even the full story. It was season one so I’m not in any way upset about it, but Glynda Goodwitch- Mistress of Magic, Kicker of Ass- should’ve been the one to explain Aura. The whole story. In a classroom setting. BEFORE the Emerald Forest arc. They literally set these kids to go off in a Grimm infested forest without even knowing if they were aware their most basic tool in combat. That way we could properly understand the stakes! “Are Grimm actually lethal, or are they like angry chihuahuas biting your ankles?” “Can they hurt our MCs, or are they already too powerful for average Grimm?” “What happens if/when your Aura breaks?” “Are you completely invulnerable while you have even 1% Aura, or can someone at 100% still get OHKO’d by a well-timed slingshot to the forehead?” “Can you use your Semblance at 0% Aura?” “How would passive Semblances affect one’s Aura?” All of these questions and more should’ve been answered either BEFORE the first battle arc through exposition, or DURING the first battle arc through application. To this DAY they’re still flip-flopping on certain aspects of Aura because they were never officially discussed in the show (and some aspects that WERE discussed, but that’s another issue about retconning I don’t feel like getting into).

We run into the same issue with Dust. It’s such an important, integral part of the WORLD- not even just combat- that this should’ve been explained already. Even if they wanted to keep its origins a mystery- which is FINE! That specific aspect isn’t necessary to understand!- we STILL should’ve been given a rundown on Dust and it’s applications before the first fight, and Weiss’ little rant was NOT adequate. The same with Aura, we still don’t know a lot about Dust. The WoR said that Dust could literally be absorbed into the body (in a sinister tone which implied it was “bad” or “difficult”) and it’s been 7 seasons and the only application of this we’ve seen was Hazel shoving rocks up his ass. We still don’t know if Dust is a finite resource, exactly how valuable Dust is, and we had to learn from the companion book exactly what kinds of Dust actually exist (yet again, more homework). We don’t know why some people don’t use Dust when it’s such an obvious plus in battle, we don’t know why Weiss is able to use so MUCH Dust even after being cut off from her father’s wealth, we don’t know if Dust RUNS OUT or if once you have a crystal you’re good forever, etc. Personally I would’ve explained this during a trip to some natural Dust formation similar to how the Clone Wars series explained Kyber Crystals during that Youngling episode. Instead of “random forest to get tree sap” during V1, I would’ve made that entire arc a trip to get Dust.

It’s 7 seasons in and so far the MOST we’ve learned about our most basic grunt level bad guys is from a video game that most members of the fndm haven’t even played. Grimm Eclipse was the one piece of the show that actually TRIED to give an in depth explanation into Grimm, how they work, what they do, how they exist, etc, and most of it has been retconned or never even happened as far as RT is concerned. They literally just retconned that “Grimm can sense Aura AS WELL AS emotions” in the most recent book which literally makes Ren’s Semblance as it’s been explained completely fucking USELESS to hide themselves the way they’ve been doing. They built up the Grimm as “generic bad monsters” but even Generator Rex was able to explain how their “generic bad monsters” operate. This show just goes “alright. There’re monsters. You know what to do” which isn’t entirely incorrect but the issue lies that there are so many types of Grimm and they all(?) work for Salem so HOW? Even if Salem was to remain in the shadows up to v3, they still could’ve explained that there were dragons that leaked Grimm juice everywhere before it actually happened.

The Kingdoms should’ve been explained by just basic conversation. Sun’s from Vacuo and moved to Mistral for school. Weiss is from Atlas and moved to Vale. Blake is from Menagerie and traveled for years. Pyrrha’s from Mistral and moved to Vale. Ruby and Yang were born and raised on Patch. Jaune’s sister lives in Argus. Ren was from the outer kingdoms. Nora was orphaned as a little baby. We already had people from ALL OVER by season ONE. We could’ve learned about all these different places through basic interaction with the main cast. Blake could’ve said “wow, it’s way less crowded in your cities” at any point. Weiss could’ve scoffed at the architecture or complained about the heat. Pyrrha or Neptune could’ve talked about how different Vale was from Mistral. Sun could’ve said how stuffy the city felt compared to Vacuo or complained about how chilly it was because he wants to have his titties out. Instead of focusing on meaningful interaction between the main cast to assist in world building, they focus on… Jaune’s one-sides crush. For a season and a half. And I can’t stress enough how well this plot could’ve worked if they’d explored it ANY other way- I’ve said a bunch that Jaune/Weiss could’ve been CUTE if they’d executed this plot differently. “Dumb, loyal boy who just likes a pretty girl and doesn’t even know that the other pretty girl standing in front of him is the girl on the cereal box he used to eat for breakfast every day, let alone realize that the girl he’s flirting with is the SDC HEIRESS” could’ve been A D O R A B L E paired with “tsundere heiress who’s guarded because she’s tired of people using her for her name and status.” Jaune’s stupidness wasn’t the issue. It was how Jaune’s stupidness distracted from the ENTIRETY of the plot and world building that needed to be happening during the early volumes to the point that we’re STILL hopelessly lost OFTEN on key elements of the story that we should’ve known from DAY ONE.

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doopcafe · 3 years

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Attack on Titan (進撃の巨人): Assassin’s Bullet (S04E08)

Summary: The Paradis Island crew leaves the city and Gabi kills a minor character (spoilers).

Comments: Right, so we open on Mikasa watching a fist fight between Reinar and Eren. Eren punches half of Reinar’s face off but Reinar manages to procure a used tampon from the ground, so he’s got that going for him at least.

Eren decides he’s done fighting for today so Mikasa carries him like a sack of dirty laundry back to their super-slow ass blimp where they meet up with Armin, Levi, and the rest of the crew (one of whom kicks Eren in the face). Jean, Sasha, and Connie are here (at least for now) and are busy extracting their troops.

Meanwhile, on the other racist, genocidal side of things, Magath is grateful the Eldians are finally leaving because he’s unsure how much more pounding his defiled ass can take. However, mini-Eren (Gabi) is pissed, picks up a rifle, and gives chase to Hanji’s super-slow ass blimp.

There’s a shot here of Gabi standing there with her rifle, just this enormous instrument of death in comparison to her tiny little body and it’s just... something that I’m sure has a real-world analog, but I’m gonna take a moment here and appreciate that “little girl holds gun” is not commonly a part of my daily reality.

Gabi explains to Falco that she’s had a shitty life (as an Eldian) and has tried so hard to show people that Eldians can be “good people.” So she’s pissed that Eren came into her city and murdered everyone made Eldians look bad.

In response, Falco thinks back to what Eren had told Reinar about Eren’s mum: Eren’s mum was eaten in front of him by a giant the Marleys created and unleashed on her. And Falco thinks that maybe they’re the baddies?

But Gabi does some next-level Fox News shit, asking if Falco actually saw (first hand) Eren’s mom get eaten by giants. Of course he says no and so Gabi declares that it must not be true. That’s so dumb I spent five minutes without success trying to find the name of the logical fallacy, but couldn’t, suggesting no one bothered to give that one a name?

Anyways, let’s talk about that ODM gear cable!

Right, so the plot here is that Gabi catches up to the super-slow ass blimp and encounters a single Eldian acting as a guard. This guy’s name is Lobov and he’s apparently a new recruit in the Recon Corps. Lobov chooses not to shoot a small child, costing him his life. Idiot! In AoT, you shoot children first and ask questions never.

Lobov’s corpse falls to the ground, trailing an ODM cable back to the blimp, like a Golden Shiny Wire of Hope for Gabi to climb towards her dreams of assassination.

In the scene where Gabi’s bullet kills Lobov and his body drops to the ground, we can estimate the approximate distance from the blimp to the ground from the height of the buildings and from Hanji’s previous comment about “flying low” over the city. Assuming Marleyan building standards can be approximated by our own, a building story is approximately 4.3 m in height. The buildings on either side of the street are five stories (including the roof elements), or 21.5 m in height. Assuming the blimp is flying twice that distance above the ground, the blimp is approximately 43 m above Gabi.

However, the super-slow ass blimp is also moving away from Gabi. Using the scene of the blimp flying over the city (in the previous episode), I would estimate an approximate speed of maybe like, 15 kph? Since the maximum running speed of a human is something like 45 kph (much less for a child), and Gabi catches up to the airship, this is probably a reasonable guess.

But Gabi spends approximately one minute speaking with Falco between the time she sends a bullet through the important bits of Lobov’s skull to the time she pulls the ODM gear trigger to begin her ascent. Therefore, in one minute, the airship would have travelled about 250 m. To this distance I’ll add, say, 100 m to account for the fact that, when Gabi shot Lobov, the airship was not directly overhead, but a little bit in the distance [Edit: I realized I could get a better estimate from the scene where Lobov’s corpse drops, but whatever]. The point is that the straight-line distance between one end of the cable to the other is approximately 350 m.

Let’s try to put that number into perspective.

We get a few close-up shots of the cable both with Lobov’s chubby hand holding the trigger as well as Gabi’s hand in comparison, so we can estimate a cable diameter of about 10 mm from these shots. The volume of the cable is then 0.027 m^3.

Assuming those cables are made out of steel (like their swords), we can use a material density for a standard steel, say, 8000 kg/m3 to calculate the weight (mass) of the cable: approximately 220 kg.

Which is about 485 pounds.

Uh...

Wait, I was talking about this show? You know, with a title like “Assassin’s Bullet” there’s not really any dramatic moment here. You’re just waiting to find out who it’s gonna be. Since Gabi and Sasha shared a “look” an episode back after Sasha sent bullets into the heads of Gabi’s friends, my easy money’s on Sasha. Honestly, I’m surprised her and Connie have survived this long.

After assassinating Sasha, you may be wondering how many rounds can be loaded into a standard-issue Marley rifle. Well, the commercial-break exposition is here to help! They’ve got five rounds. They hold five rounds and Gabi’s gone two-for-two so far. Returning from break, Gabi immediately reloads (nice) but Falco comes aboard and stops her.

There’s some dramatic moment here of Sasha bleeding to death surrounded by friends who are desperately wrapping her abdomen with bandages, but they must not have watched the previous episodes because they forgot to bandage her forehead. Without bandages around her head, Sasha soon dies.

We return to Pieck, possibly dying (?), explaining to Magath that the blonde-haired soldier with a beard that led her and Porco into the well was one of the soldiers aboard the first scout ship sent to Paradis after Reinar got back. And then... wHAT.

That’s how I originally typed “what” in my notes upon the reveal that Zeke defected, so I’m leaving it to better convey the type of delightfully surprised “what” that I felt at the time. But no seriously, hold up.

So the fake-beard person is named “Yelena,” who is loyal to Zeke, right? And Zeke has defected to Paradis Island? (Personally, after witnessing Mikasa and Levi fight I would have defected so I don’t blame the guy). And this was all a part of Zeke’s plan? To restore the Eldian Empire I guess? Anyways, it was well executed by the show.

Roll call!

Beast (Zeke) -> In good shape, defected to Eldians

Cart (Pieck) -> Serious injuries, unknown prognosis

Armor (Reinar) -> A bad case of the sads

Female (Annie) -> Cocooned

Attack, Founder, War Hammer (Eren) -> Once again rescued by his friends

Colossus (Armin) -> A bad case of the sads (over Sasha)

Jaw (Falco) -> Undoubtedly being wrung out into a bucket of bleach

No but seriously, how many people have died rescuing Eren over the course of this show?

In conclusion, Sasha’s dead and Zeke has defected.

Okay Zeke, I think we’ll take you, but you’re not allowed to do the “inject people with blood and transform them into giants” move anymore. We don’t do that type of twisted shit over here on Paradis Island.

My enjoyment: 4/5

#pie211-aot #aot #attack on titan #anime

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arlingtonpark · 4 years

Text

SNK 127 Review

0/10 This chapter sucks. Continuity is dead.

In my last post I said if we got flashbacks, it’d be damage control for the last chapter. I was right.

The first couple of scenes in this chapter are clear attempts to clean up the last one’s mess. We never saw Jean and Mikasa make contact with Hange, and here, we do.

Honestly, I think this could’ve been handled better.

Jean had something of an arc in chapter 126, where it seemed like he genuinely had chosen to follow Floch, only it turns out he was working with Hange all along. So I get why these scenes are presented out of order. It’s an attempt at dramatic tension.

It fails, though, because not enough time was devoted to showing Jean working with Floch. Jean stood next to Floch in some scenes. That’s it.

Let this be a lesson to aspiring writers everywhere. If you want to do a story arc, or even just a mini-arc, make sure you have the time for it. If you can’t spare the time to do it justice, it’s better to just cut it completely.

Hange’s character is much better served this chapter. I forgot to mention this last time, but Hange’s character was screwed over pretty hard last time.

Her arc has been about growing into her new role as commander. She failed to constrain Eren, and Floch, and everything’s gone to shit in general, and she doubts her own leadership.

Then, after escaping the Yeagerists with Levi, Hange considers just walking away and living out in the woods.

They chose not to.

This is a major turning point for her character. She’s beaten down and has a chance to walk away, but she gets back up.

This major plot beat has maybe a few panels devoted to it. At most.

We don’t see the choice get made. In fact, it’s kind of implied that Hange didn’t consciously make that choice at all. Hange is building a cart to lug Levi around, and he notes that Hange’s doing that because they can’t stay on the sidelines.

Was Hange building the cart because they’d already decided they weren’t quitting?

Or were they going to use that cart to carry Levi to the eventual site of their woodland hut?

Was Levi just pointing out that Hange is doing what they’ve always done?

Or did what he say convince them in some way?

Who knows, because chapter 126 is still a rushed mess on every level.

Whatever Hange’s motivations or line of thinking, it should have been shown during the scene in the woods, when it happened, not in this flashback to a completely different scene.

Character development happens when characters make revealing choices. Showing the character’s motivation separately from the resultant action dilutes the poignancy of that character development.

It’s actually worse than that because not only was Hange’s thought process shown after the fact for no reason, the moment the choice itself was made is not shown at all.

The moment where Hange is surrounded by the ghosts of her fallen comrades would’ve been sooooo much better if it had been in the forest with Levi. It should have been in the forest with Levi.

Hange already chose what they were going to do, so there is no gravitas to this moment. It’s just exposition. This could have been a powerful moment. Instead, it’s just Hange monologuing about their motivation.

When the same happened with Erwin, we saw his struggle as it was happening. We were in the moment, so we felt the weight of Erwin’s struggle. He was bearing out his feelings, agonizing over having to throw his life away unfulfilled.

In 127, Hange is sitting in a chair, explaining her thinking, agonizing over nothing because she’s already decided to throw her life away, and is apparently already at peace with it.

This is what damage control looks like. Isayama fucked up and he’s trying to make up for it.

And even then, we still don’t have the explanations we badly need.

Why did Annie choose to help? She’s not doing this because it’s the right thing to do, she just wants to see her father again.

How did they convince her that they could deliver on that?

It’s the same with Pieck and Magath. They didn’t want to just do nothing, but what convinced them that this was better than doing nothing?

Mikasa asked Hange what the plan was, and their response was basically, “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

So in other words, they have no plan!

Jean raises a good point about stopping Eren: it’s a death sentence for them. Hange’s only retort is that it’s the right thing to do, so they have to do it. This is great.

Genocide is inherently wrong, thus the answer to genocide is not more genocide. With this many lives involved, tit-for-tat is not acceptable.

In some cases, there may have to be retaliation, but there are always limits. These moral limits have a general applicability to them. Of course there are exceptions, but they apply in almost all cases.

I love how Hange explicitly rejects Eren’s dumbass egoist worldview.

“‘Just bringing freedom to this island is enough for me’ Do you think a single one of them would be so narrow-minded as to say that?”

Eren doesn’t just care about Paradis. He doesn’t care about the outside world.

He seemed torn about whether to rumble the world. And he did cry over having to potentially rumble the refuge camp.

Gather around, children, because I have some very mean things to say about Eren here: let me tell you something about crocodile tears.

Crocodile tears are when you feel sad for something, except it’s fake, because deep down, you don’t care. The expression comes from an ancient legend that crocodiles cry for their prey while eating them.

Eren agonized a lot in the lead up to making his decision.

-rolls eyes-

What a drama queen!

Rumble the world, or not? If you have to take time to decide which is right, you’ve already failed.

Eren never truly cared about the outside world. He’s just doing this to bring freedom to Paradis; the lives of everyone else is a nonfactor.

It’s great to see Eren finally getting the dragging he deserves. He is, in fact, a narrow-minded ass.

Jean’s point still stands, though. And even though Eren is obviously indefensible, people still keep making excuses for him.

Hange says their “cowardly idealism” is what pushed Eren to do this. Note that this is the second time they’ve said this.

Uh, what?

Was making reasonable overtures of peace to the outside world cowardly?

Obviously not.

Establishing relations with other countries? That sounds reasonable.

Making contact with pro-Eldian advocacy groups? That sounds reasonable.

What about this is cowardly?

And what’s so idealistic about hoping for peace when there are possible paths to it?

Hange did nothing wrong. Eren is the one who did everything wrong.

Eren’s friends were actually working on a solution. They were trying to make a lasting peace between the Eldians and the world.

Meanwhile Eren was just bumming around not doing anything!

Could there have been a peaceful solution?

Beats me, but I’m not going to spend any thought on coming up with one.

By now, I think it’s clear that the point is that there is no peaceful solution. We saw Paradis try and fail repeatedly. The story in general has not even entertained a possible, peaceful solution.

Creating a Wall Titan “nuclear umbrella” over Paradis won’t work. Eren will be dead in a few years, and they don’t want to continue the Reiss’s gruesome traditions.

Armin’s idea of a targeted rumbling won’t work either because it’ll only increase the world’s resentment towards Paradis.

The point is that sometimes peace isn’t possible, but also that excessive violence isn’t justified. I don’t know how the story will end, but I don’t think it’ll be a happy one.

It’s always uncomfortable whenever the series talks about history and playing the victim. It’s such an obvious commentary on Japanese politics, I cringe every time.

Past Japanese war crimes are a very big factor in Japan’s relations with its neighbors. China and the Koreas are still indignant over the crimes Japan committed, and they feel the Japanese haven’t been apologetic enough.

Paradis is obviously a mirror of Japan.

Island nation with a sordid past that leads to rocky international relations even today. That’s Paradis and Japan.

The series’ stance is that these past events should not be such an issue anymore.

That’s not wrong…but I have a reservation.

The biggest flaw with the Paradis-Japan connection is that the Eldian Empire ended thousands of years ago.

The Japanese Empire ended 75 years ago. That’s not much.

China does overplay the war crimes issue, but there are still real issues with how the Japanese have responded. Many Japanese people are still taught a cleaned up version of what happened.

If anything, China should be called out on abusing the issue of war crimes for political reasons. Their government uses it as propaganda to rally popular support and distract from domestic issues.

In Attack on Titan, the Marleyans are not called out for that. They’re called out for playing victim over something that happened 2000 years ago.

The Marleyans, used by the story as a clear parallel to Japan’s neighbors, are portrayed as in the wrong because “it was a long time ago.”

Let me tell ya, that’s not a good look. What we see in the story is just close enough to reality to draw comparisons, but just different enough to be arguably offensive.

I will say it’s nice to know what Isayama thinks on a given issue. Annie calls out Mikasa and Armin on not being prepared to kill Eren if they have to. She aks how they know he’ll even listen to them.

Armin: we won’t know until we try.

Brilliant.

You can tell who’s side Isayama is on whenever the characters argue because the side he’s against will be the one with the dumb platitudes.

Mikasa: How are you going to stop Eren?

Hange: We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Annie: How do you know talking will work?

Armin: We won’t know until we try.

Then…stuff happens.

Annie claims Mikasa will fight her if Annie tries to kill Eren, even if Annie’s just trying to defend her homeland.

Then Mikasa draws her swords for no reason, and Annie looks like she’s about to titan shift for no reason, then…Annie backs off for no reason.

There were definitely some plot beats missing here. Annie instantly goes from getting ready to shift to backing off. What happened?

And why did she back off? Her point still stands. She said Mikasa would fight her if she tried to kill Eren and Mikasa did not deny it.

The only plans of attack discussed have been (1) talking Eren down, and (2) killing him. It looks like they’re going with plan (1) now, but Mikasa is clearly not going to let Annie go through with plan (2) if (1) fails.

That’s a pretty important issue. And Annie raised it herself, only to just drop it for no reason.

Why does Annie think her time is better spent here than on a boat heading to the mainland?

Getting to her father in time to die with him sounds a lot likelier than stopping Eren, especially when killing him isn’t an option.

And then we come to Yelena.

You know, actually, this chapter has a lot of the same problems the last one did. Lots and lots of rushed plot beats that should have been fleshed out more.

One of the dumbest tropes in fiction is when a character looks into another character’s past off screen, learns sordid things about them, then exposition dumps about it.

Oh, look, this chapter exists.

This is lazy, lazy writing. Instead of a flashback montage with narration, we get some word balloons.

Why is this happening? Anything would have been better than this. There could have been a few more pages devoted to this. He at least could have come up with a better way to deliver this information.

Is Isayama just that dead set on finishing this manga before 2021?

Then Yelena delivers a monologue of her own. I can only assume that it is stupid on purpose.

Speeches like this have been given before in Attack on Titan. Annie gave one in her arc.

“You think you’re better than me?! Well you’re not! You’re a shithead just like me!”

-Annie, basically.

Kenny gave a similar one too. He said that everyone is a slave to something, even mother’s to their children. Then he asked Levi if he really thinks he’s so virtuous and then he died.

I mean, I don’t know what you’d call someone who, all else being equal, fought for the sake of their children if not a “hero”.

Yelena’s speech is dumb and that’s the point. It’s drivel that sounds smart, but is really just edgelord crap.

“You give yourselves to the sublime excitement that is the idea of saving hundreds of millions of lives.”

Christ, not this again!

Claiming good deeds aren’t really good because people do them to feel better about themselves is very common on the internet. You see it all the time on Reddit.

In fact, Yelena even says it like she’s trying to sound smart.

“The sublime excitement.”

-SIGH-

The problem with this reasoning is that it’s moving the goalposts. Yelena is redefining altruism and selfishness to get the result she wants.

You could think of many examples of people doing things that are obviously selfless.

Take a soldier. Let’s say their platoon is on patrol, and then the enemy tosses a grenade at them. The soldier dives on top of the grenade and shields his platoon from the explosion. But obviously, he dies.

That was selfless.

-puts on crazy, blonde, mop-top-

HOWEVER!

WHAT IF SHE SACRIFICED HERSELF BECAUSE SHE WANTED TO BE REMEMBERED AS A HERO?

DID YOU EVER THINK OF THAT!?

Shut up I know this actually did happen in this manga that’s not the point.

Yelena has redefined selfishness to cover everything people do, and at that point, the word becomes useless. She’s wrong because when you think about it, “selfish” is a meaningless word in her worldview.

Yelena then proceeds to list off all the bad things everyone’s done, as if they’re all to blame for it.

Annie did awful things, I won’t argue against that. And she doesn’t seem very apologetic about it, so Yelena actually has a point there.

She also has a good point with Armin. Destroying the port was excessive, especially since it never ended up helping in the end. The port was destroyed to delay a Marleyan attack. Too bad the Marleyans just attacked via airship instead.

Reiner broke the wall, but despite what the man himself says, he was still just a brainwashed kid at the time. I don’t think it’s entirely right to blame him. He’s very apologetic about it, either way.

The Battle of Liberio never should have happened, but the Survey Corps was forced into it by Eren and they did what they could to limit civilian casualties.

It’s the same with Jean and Falco. Jean almost killed Falco, but only because Falco got in the way. That’s on him. Not. Jean.

Gabi killed Sasha, but it was a battle! Wars are ultimately fought to the death. If you go into the military and don’t expect to die, you’re clueless. There was no foul play with how Gabi killed Sasha. She boarded their airship, and shot her. That’s war.

She wants to believe that these people are just as bad as she is. Because if everyone is a piece of shit, then she isn’t so bad in comparison. It’s a common tactic people use to rationalize their own shitty behavior.

But she’s wrong, and they all prove her wrong. Jean can’t forgive Reiner, but he doesn’t let that get in the way of stopping Eren.

And no matter what Yelena says, it’s selfless what the 104th and Hange are doing. Long term, stopping Eren is a death sentence for them. They don’t care.

Leave it to Reiner to give the most Reiner response to Jean possible.

“I felt really bad about it afterwards.”

“Don’t forgive me. I don’t deserve it.”

“I’m sorry.”

That was the cringiest thing in the whole chapter. Good on you, Jean, for beating him for it.

(Not really)

This chapter was about everyone coming to terms with working together, but I feel it was half-baked.

Magath and Jean’s fight wasn’t really resolved, just dropped.

Annie and Mikasa’s fight was also just dropped.

None of the bad things Yelena brought up was commented on or dealt with. They weren’t dropped; they weren’t even taken up!

Reiner and Jean’s fight was properly dealt with, but that was it.

Now we’re heading into a fight with Floch and……I guess the emotional processing is over?

You know, I take it back, this chapter was better than the last one, but it still had a lot of the same blatant issues.

Rushed plot beats, unwieldy dialogue, and undercooked plot developments.

So.

On to the next chapter?

#shingeki no kyojin #attack on titan #snk 127 #snk chapter 127 #spoilers

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mysticalcrusadeobject · 3 years

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An entirely objective rewiew of episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker

Legend: red is bad (or rather: dumb shit I can't ignore), blue is objective good, black is neutral and orange is random shit I love (aka subjective good).

Okay, the exposition following the title crawl just makes me feel like I've somehow missed a movie, or two. All of this happened in the span of, what? A couple months? A year? We aren't told.

I was going to ask why Kylo Ren was even looking for Palpatine in the first place, but you know what? I don't really care. I won't complain about Ben in this movie.

Palpatine can see the future, right? That's the only way this makes sense. I mean, he's telling Kylo to "kill the girl" (and presumably become Emperor of the Galaxy?) but... why? Later, he'll want Rey to kill him and become Empress, but then he'll just want to kill her, too. Is Palpatine an idiot, or is he just insane?

"She's not who you think she is." Honey, she's not who the screenwriters thought she'd be.

I genuinely love the Finn/Poe/Chewy/Rey dinamic in this movie. They don't feel like friends yet (which they shouldn't), but there's still a camaraderie and genuine caring for one another there. It's great.

"How do we thank you?" - "Win the war."

Rey is a badass, as per usual. Also, I love how Kylo's just fucking with her here. That girl could cut him in half.

"Somehow Palpatine returned." The 'somehow' is a key word there.

Oh, good, Rose is a non-character now.

While I adore the actors' chemistry, Rey doesn't really need this big of a party to come with her. Chewy's the co-pilot, so his presence is justified, then Finn could come as well and use the blasters, Poe too, because him and Finn didn't get enough screentime in the last movie, but the droids? No. Have them stay with Leia. We don't need C-3PO explaining everything to us, thank you very much.

Oh, yeah. That reminds me.

C-3PO.

They're foreshadowing C-3PO and Leia's deaths so hard here.

The mother-daughter dinamic between Leia and Rey is good. That's all.

That mask was left in pieces. Is it even possible to fix at this point?

Oh, cool, the Knights of Ren exist. For about three minutes of screentime.

The humor in this movie works pretty well for me. Hux's assurance that Kylo looks, in fact, great, is gold.

The New Guy.

"Serving another master?" - "No." Um, yeah? Yeah, you are. What is your plan, Kylo Ren? Because, to me, it see that y- Oh, yeah, I've promised to leave him be. Shit.

A simple conversation would have made this movie so much shorter and so, so much better. "Oh, hey, Rey. Where you off to?" - "Yo, Ben. Oh, you know, looking for Palpatine so that I can kill him." - "Oh, cool. That was my plan, too. Wanna come with?" - "Sure." - "He's your grandfather, btw." - "Cool. Wanna rule the Galaxy?" - "Sure.

Rey's over here casually cutting ships into pieces.

Also, I love how people complain that Rey is OP in this scene, while Kylo just strolls away from a burning husk of a ship, unscathed.

"The inscription that was on the dagger is in your memory?" Yeah, that's how computers works, Poe.

Also, I love how no one cares about shat C-3PO thinks/wants. These characters and this script dislike him as much as I do.

The No-Thank-You droid is adorable.

"You were a spice runner?" - "Were you a Stormtrooper?"

Babu Frik. Baby Yoda ain't got nothing on this guy.

Daisy Ridley is sooo so good in this movie.

"Does she do that to us?"

"I pushed you in the desert-" Baby, you struggled in the desert.

The directing of this scene is so good!

"I'm the spy." (I love it 'cause it makes me laugh. Hux is such a petty little shit that he'll join the Resistance just to see Kylo lose. I appreciate that."

Rey being a Palpatine bothers me about as much as the CGI Carrie Fisher, which is to say: a little bit.

"People keep telling me they know me; I'm afraid no-one does" with Kylo Ren's leitmotif playing in the background. *chef's kiss*

That blade is the most plastic-looking thing I've ever seen. (The Wayfinder)

"Babu Frik! He's one of my oldest friends." Alright, 3PO, that was pretty funny.

I have literally nothing to say about the next fifteen minutes, or so. I feel bad for these actors. Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver have gorgeous chemistry, and though they're trying their damndest, you can kind of tell that they're weary of these movies by now.

Two words: Harrison fucking Ford.

This scene.

"I know what I have to do, but I don't know if I have the strength to do it."

Good job, honey. Now you have no weapon for the final battle. Takes after Anakin, this one.

Every ship is a Star Destroyer.

"A Jedi's weapon deserves more respect."

The reverse Kylo Ren leitmotif that's within Rey's theme playing while Rey is wondering why everyone trusts her despite her being a Palpatine is kind of cute.

As I watch the Resistance/First Order battle unfold, I can't help but wonder why they can't just- sign a peace treaty. How long has this war been going on for? Surely, they must've gotten bored of fighting.

Oh, but I do love the design of Palpatine's throne.

"I never wanted you dead. I wanted you here." I feel like you don't really know what you want, sir.

I love how confused Rey looks while Palpatine talks about how much she apparently hates him.

Ben's just been chillin' for the past 20-ish minutes. I like the redeemed theme they've made for him, though.

Why are the Knights of Ren here? They should be loyal to their Master, no? Also, Ben, honey, you have the Force. You've used it in the first movie to stop a blaster shot mid-air. Surely, levitating six people way up in the air, then letting them fall into the chasm below can't be much more difficult.

This battle. Also, I love how the Knights back the fuck up when Rey sends Ben the saber.

And now he wants to be the Emperor. WHAT DO YOU WANT?!

Ow. That's- that's a broken spine right there. Good thing our dude's indestructable.

I realize I'm quoting Sideways here, but seriously, why don't they play the Force Theme when Rey communicates with every Jedi ever?

The final scene between Ben and Rey (minus the kiss - y'all know how I feel about shoehorned romance). It's still so, so beautiful. This scene is more beautiful than this movie - nay, this franchise - deserves.

Oh, is the Stormtrooper lady Lando's daughter? That's... You know what, actually? I don't care.

The ending is so damned strange. She just returned to Jakku, disposes of Leia's and the Skywalker lightsabers (rude!), steals BB-8 and just- nothing.

I do like her new lightsaber, though. It suits her.

Yeah, there's one Skywalker missing next to Luke and Leia. I guess that Rey just didn't give a shit about him, huh? Oh, well.

This movie is odd to me. Many people hate it, some like it, but I'm in this in-betweeny stage. I like it more than The Last Jedi, but only because I don't observe these two movies as agregates, but more as collections of good and bad scenes (since they both feel scrapped together), and thus, RoS just has more elements which I like, though it's objectively the worst movie of this trilogy. Rey is the best she's ever been, Ben Solo is *chef's kiss*, Poe is awesome, Finn is... there (the underdevelopment of this character is still the worst thing they've done), but he does have some good moments, some of the side characters are pretty great (the long helmet lady and Babu Frik come to mind immediately), the music is always a highlight and... yeah.

As for the negatives, Palpatine is right up there. His plan is stupid. That's all I'm gonna say about that. Other than that and the demolition of Rose Tico, everything else are nitpicks for me. This movie could have been great only if they'd scrapped this story entirely and either:

a) made an entirely new movie and utilized some of the original concepts they had, or

b) made at least two new movies with the ideas presented here.

Overall, I've enjoyed this movie. It's one of those movies which I can watch after a long day of studying to relax my brain a bit, one that is supposed to be thought about as much as the scriptwriters have done - which is to say, a bit.

#sw #star wars episode ix #rise of skywalker

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wordsinwinters · 5 years

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Then Again, Part 24 (Peter Parker x Reader)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19, Part 20, Part 21, Part 22, Part 23, Part 25,

Summary: After an intense argument and a forced-to-share-the-bed situation during their junior year decathlon trip, Peter and the Reader examine their faults and failings. As they attempt to fix their mistakes and improve their friendship, that friendship quickly begins to evolve into something else.

Slow burn fic in which all characters are included and their dynamics explored; multiple character POVs.

Total word count: 43,528

Betas: @girl-tips-from-satan and @fanboyswhereare-you

Masterlist (with AO3 links)

Without further ado,

Then Again Part 24:

(Words: 3,391)

After clarifying to Flash that it was not like that, I return to my and Michelle’s room, ice bucket in hand.

It’s brighter now. The light on the nightstand is on and Michelle’s sitting up, eating Twizzlers from a bag she keeps upright with her feet. Her hair is tied back too. On screen, Bella analyzes her bruises and Edward starts an argument.

“Holding out on me, huh?” I ask, gesturing to the candy.

She shrugs and smirks. Another good sign. A great one even, after a long day like today.

“I planned on bartering for some ice, but I waited for forever and there was no one to trade with. What was the hold up?”

I make a pretend distressed face and blow out a long breath as if the story physically pains me. Walking over, I put the ice on the nightstand between our beds and sit on the edge of mine. Peter and Ned’s side of the wall still hasn’t settled: the t.v. noise continues flickering, now at a faster pace. One of them is undoubtedly trying to annoy the other into picking something to watch, and the exchange of incoherent voices seems to support that assumption.

Part of me wants to check in on them and hang out for a bit, but I need to focus on my current task: explain things clearly to Michelle and give her Flash’s apology. Plus, I’m pretty sure she’s too tired to stay up much longer and I doubt she’d want to be left alone (even if she assures me otherwise).

Either way, it’s time to tell her about my conversation with Flash.

“You know how, um--” I pause, wondering where the best place to start is. She knows what Flash did, there’s no need for extensive exposition. She raises a curious eyebrow at my hesitation and glances pointedly from the bag between her feet to me as if to say, You can have a Twizzler once you spill. A fair and simple trade. Better to dive right in, then. “You know how Flash blackmailed me this morning? To give up my spot?”

Michelle’s head tilts to the right.

“No?” Her eyebrows scrunch and her lips press together. “I think you forgot to mention that.”

We stare at one another, mutually perplexed and frozen.

Huh. I was certain she had put it together.

Behind us, Ned shouts muffled words and laughs loudly while his and Peter’s t.v. volume begins to increase.

“I, uh,” I start, tilting my head too. “I thought you knew.”

“Yeah, I got that from the, ‘You know how’ part of your sentence.”

A beat of silence passes between us; I can tell that’s not the end of her sentence, so I wait. If she had more energy, maybe she would be frustrated with me. Right now though, all she can muster is a look of stunted disbelief, an emotion I’d label the tame, languid cousin of scandal and outrage: a gentle but honest really?, with the edge of a potential eye roll. She plops two ice cubes in her water, takes a sip, then continues.

“How would I know something like that when you never said anything to me?”

The wall gets louder behind us. The boys have resumed their argument it seems. It’s playful, probably, but the t.v. volume is increasing at the same rate as their voices so I can’t distinguish any words to really tell. Michelle notices my distraction. She gives an abrupt smack to the wall as a warning to them.

Her eyes remain level with mine, though, questioning.

“Because,” I say, “you always notice things without people telling you.”

She pauses again, looking thoughtful. Unable to deny it, she makes an eh sound which translates to true enough, I’ll give you that and her shoulders relax as her eyebrows smooth back into their usual place. She reaches over and extends a Twizzler like an official olive branch. To complete our silent agreement, I move on to exchange my end of the bargain: I tell her the rest of my story.

The sound behind us stagnates right around my second or third sentence, which is an unexpected relief, seeing the boys rarely halt their ridiculousness when they make up their minds to annoy one another. While trying to ignore them and stay on track, my phone buzzes a couple times. Probably Flash, now that we’re on better terms. It’s probably a meme. Unimportant.

Quickly rambling on with only a couple short moments of respite for chewing or sipping water, I go over the rest of the incident. I explain how I ran into Flash, everything we said to each other, his apologies (one for her, one for me) and, of course, how unsettling it was to see him in such casual wear as pajamas. As I talk, tracing back once or twice to recount my version of what happened -- or what I thought had happened -- this morning (and shooting my phone annoyed looks when it buzzes again since it must be him), Michelle eats her licorice as if on autopilot, keeping her face deliberately blank even though I can tell she’s picking through the strings of her old assumptions and matching them up to my own version to compare narrative split ends.

“You know,” she says after I finish, a half eaten Twizzler dangling from her hand as she waves it to gesture. “You could have double-checked with me this morning, to make sure I actually knew. You would’ve been on that stage with us today if you had. I would’ve confronted him and gotten to the bottom of it all. I would never have just let it happen.”

Fortunately (or unfortunately, I haven’t decided which), I’ve already come to terms with this fact. It was an incredibly stupid mistake to have made -- to have misread both Flash and Michelle -- but it happened and the consequences are over. Today has been irreversibly stamped into the short timeline of my high school career and nothing will change it now. The opportunity was missed. And at least there’s next year. The less I think about it, the better. It’s done.

“True,” I shrug. “But who knows if I would’ve gotten all those questions Flash answered right. Maybe the way it played out was for the best.”

That might as well be true, why not? I offer a devil’s advocate smile and she shakes her head, finally giving into a full eye roll.

“Don’t remind me. But really, I doubt that. He was good today, but you would’ve been better.”

Would I have been? After all those… distractions from the previous 24 hours, I have no idea if my concentration would have been up to par. All the same, it doesn’t matter anymore. The two of us are on the same page at last and that’s all I have room to care about tonight. We can relax completely. No more tension, no more unanswered questions. No secrets. Well, aside from my teeny tiny stupid one.

I start to move backward, further onto the bed. Then I stop.

Just because it did work out though, that never really had anything to do with my behavior or the choices I made. I had no idea what would happen. There were multiple reasons I let Flash take my spot this morning, apart from the real fear of nonexistent blackmail, but I still shouldn’t have given up so easily.

I turn and look at her.

“Really though,” I say, realizing the truth of it, “I’m sorry for bailing. If Flash hadn’t come through, if he froze up like last year, I know it could’ve been... things might not have ended up as well as they did. I hate flaking on you, especially when you worked crazy hard this year. I promise, next time I’ll come to you first.” Michelle’s posture stiffens and she has her subtle, trademark backed into an emotional corner face, the one she makes when someone unexpectedly gets too sincere. Try to make it a little funny, at least. “And, naturally,” I add, leaning back, “I’ll never trust your infinite wisdom and analytical skills again.”

Michelle smiles then. Whether it’s from relief or amusement, I can’t tell, but it’s still the lopsided one I know is genuine. Infectious, I can’t help but return it like a reflex. The final drops of my own relief rush through my veins, rivers of warm comfort settling under my skin.

“First,” she says, holding up a finger, “there’s no need to doubt me. Technically you were never blackmailed which is why I didn’t catch on, so you can keep faith in my deductive skills. Two,” another finger goes up, “I highly doubt this scenario will happen a second time. Third,” and another, “don’t sweat it.” She waves her hand away.

“But what if it does?”

Egging each other on is vital to our friendship. Previously unsure if we’d get back to that level of normalcy by tonight, I’m practically perfectly happy knowing we actually have.

“I’ll kick your ass. Naturally.”

Yet again, she offers a Twizzler, this time with a promissory bow.

Now less hungry and far more relaxed than before I left, we both shuffle back against our headboards and turn our attention to the movie. Leah tells Jacob to get over Bella, and he angstily rants to the younger boys about how relationships are all but prisons. I try to get more comfortable, sliding an extra pillow up behind my back. After a few minutes, my phone vibrates. Oh yeah. I’d almost forgot to check it. I reach over, surprised to find that it hasn’t been Flash.

Peter, 11:03 p.m.:

“Hey. Update: still alive.”

Peter, 11:04 p.m.:

“You?”

Peter, 11:10 p.m.:

“shit... are you dead? have you been kidnapped??”

Peter, 11:12 p.m.:

“:(”

Peter, 11:17 p.m.:

“If you don’t reply soon, beware. Ned is being dumb and annoying. the worst.”

As I read, another pops up:

“You know. like always.”

I hear Ned shout a complaint a second later, though it’s too blurred from the t.v.’s interference to hear his exact words. My lips tug upward a bit.

The housekeeper interrupts Edward and Bella’s makeout session, staring at him with a mixture of fear and hatred, and they breathe-laugh until she leaves.

I type back: Alive, safe and sound. I consider writing, But barely. I ran into Flash a few minutes ago. I don’t though, knowing it would only aggravate him without purpose. Plus I don’t want to go over it again, especially the particulars. It’s boring at this point. It was boring to begin with, and now after verbalizing it once, it would be exhausting. Instead, I type: It sounds loud over there. How come?

His bubbles spring up immediately.

“See above.”

“Ned = annoying.”

There’s a small crunch from their room, like a water half empty bottle hitting someone.

Knowing those two, Peter probably read the insult aloud to Ned as payback for their t.v. argument, if Ned wasn’t already reading over his shoulder.

I reply: “Ned? Never. He’s an angel and we’re thrilled to have him.”

As expected, a few seconds later I hear a distant whooping sound and the shadow of Ned shouting something grateful and co-conspiratorial to me.

In reply, Peter sends back three eye rolling emojis.

At the same second I send a shrug, his bubbles turn into: “btw I have a really great idea”

An idea? For what? Even though the wording is positive, it makes me nervous.

“?”

Four messages follow, one after the other, as quickly as he can type them.

“Okay so hear me out”

“I know you don’t like Freud…”

“BUT”

“Operant. Conditioning.”

The bubbles disappear.

What?

This makes no sense to me. Is it supposed to? We haven’t discussed operant conditioning in Psych for months. And, now might not be the time for me to point it out, but he’s mixed up in the first place.

Unable to resist and not knowing what else to say, I send back: “You mean Skinner?”

The bubbles start up, then stop. Twenty-ish seconds later:

“You got me there. +3 points! but what do you think?”

Despite the background noise of Bella vomiting peanut butter chicken legs into a toilet, the “+3 points” nearly makes me laugh. We haven’t played that game (if you could even call it a game) in months.

“Peter,” I type. “Context is important, remember? No clue what you mean”

Figuring said context will take a few minutes, I put my phone back down and look up at the movie. Maybe I imagine it, but Michelle’s head seems to twitch when I do. It might’ve been a small jump from seeing the kick in Bella’s stomach matched with the suspenseful music.

Buzz. Pause. Buzz. Longer pause…. Buzz.

Three is usually Peter’s go-to, so I check it.

Peter:

“I know you’re going to say you’re not mad at me anymore, but you deserve to be and probably are a little bit subconsciously or unconsciously (idk which is which so +2 to you before you correct me)”

“so in order to get our friendship back to normal I think we should try operant conditioning”

“Like me doing nice stuff when I see you so you think ‘oh wow I get to see peter today! how cool! love that guy, he’s the best!’ when really it’s just me pyshcologically tricking you into positive associate by giving you snacks when you come by my locker”

Another pops up: “Psychologically* Im dumb”

And another: “I’m*** smh”

I stare.

That’s possibly the worst idea I’ve ever heard. The last thing I need are more reasons to look forward to seeing Peter. I mean, the part he quoted isn’t all that far off from how my brain usually reacts when I see him. Simplified, for sure, but a similar sentiment nonetheless.

I wrack my brain for a response, trying to block out Edward’s shaky Portuguese begging. “Sure, you can try your best.” No. Sarcastic and challenging is definitely the wrong approach here. “Maybe. Talk about it later?” That could work. It might also mean he brings it up on the bus tomorrow, potentially resulting in unpredictable reactions from anyone who overhears. I’d rather people not know so much about our personal post-fight dynamics. “I’ll think about it.” That one’s neutral enough.

Still... it’s basically a promise to talk about it soon, which means I have to think about it now and knowing myself, I’ll likely try to puzzle out his plans, imagining dozens of scenarios before I can sleep tonight, allowing his general plan to start working before it even begins, given that I’m fully aware of how considerate and generous he can be when he decides to make an effort. If I spend tonight creating stupid Peter clumsily attempting to display kindness and affection scenes in my head, it’ll just end up… being overwhelming. It’ll worsen this inconvenient, impossible crush.

Or, maybe my expectations will simply go too far and that’s how I’ll ruin it. I’ll agree to this idea now, and by the end of the week or month or whatever the timeframe is, I’ll be disappointed at the reality. Yes, that’s most likely. I’ll read too much into it, as always, and my brain will make it all more painful than necessary.

So instead, I type:

“Subconscious. Unconscious would be trauma related, memories your brain hides from you and whatnot. You weren’t *that* awful. And I think you mean classical conditioning?”

Sent.

I’m the worst, sometimes.

I wait for his response with a taste of guilt. His bubbles appear immediately, then evaporate. Again, Ned and Peter’s voices mingle with the t.v. flipping sounds, trampling heavily over the somber music and hum of Jacob’s motorcycle coming from ours.

Just say you agree, part of my brain argues. It’s not that hard. Or say no flat out. Explain yourself to some degree, otherwise you’re an avoidant coward.

I lift my phone, about to type.

Then, a plastic crunch hits behind my head. Either Peter or Ned definitely just threw a water bottle at my side of the wall.

Michelle turns to look at me, left eyebrow raised in amusement. Her eyes flit from me to my phone to the headboard.

“What’d you do?” she asks.

Before I can open my mouth to speak, music blasts at a deafening volume behind us: someBODY ONCE TOLD ME, THE WORLD IS GONNA ROLL ME. I half jump from shock, phone flying out of my grasp, and Michelle immediately hits the wall with her open hand. I AIN’T THE SHARPEST TOOL IN THE SHED. Ned’s laughter is the only thing I can hear besides the Shrek soundtrack. SHE WAS LOOKING KIND OF DUMB WITH HER FINGER AND HER THUMB--

As I hop off the bed and retrieve my phone from the floor, Michelle speedily unlocks hers.

The song continues pounding for about eight seconds. Thankfully, however, by the grace of god (or Michelle, I suppose), it lowers. I’m about to text Peter when Ned appears on her phone directly across from her face, his own face turned, half out of frame.

“Come on, Peter!” he shouts, head shaking in melodramatic pity. “Turn it down, seriously! You’re so obnoxious!”

Peter makes an indignant noise.

“That was all you!” he protests, his voice more distant in the background. “You’re the obnoxious one!”

Ned rolls his eyes and turns back to face the camera.

“Anyway,” he says with his usual grin and cheerful charm, “hi MJ. How’s it going? We’re just--”

“Guys,” calls Peter’s voice, “I swear I tried to take the remote from him!”

“-- hanging out,” Ned continues, bulldozing on, “you know, over here. Chilling, one might say. Celebrating.”

Michelle squints at him as if mentally weighing the value of continuing this conversation.

“What if,” she suggests, “you did that in a way that doesn’t tempt me to report you two to Mr. Harrington?”

Ned starts to respond in a fake scandalized tone, but Peter jumps into frame and shoves him to the side for a chance to speak, the camera shaking as he fumbles and grabs it.

“Again, just to restate, I didn’t do anything-- Ned was the one messing with the t.v. the whole time.”

Ned pushes Peter’s face with one hand and yanks his phone back with the other, Peter disappearing momentarily before popping right back up behind him just as the camera steadies.

“You can ask your roommate,” Peter says to Michelle with his arms open wide in surrender. “I’ve been texting her for the last ten minutes. I couldn’t have been messing with the t.v. at the same time.”

The mention of our conversation jolts my pulse a smidge.

Michelle looks my way.

“It’s true,” I say. “But I don’t know if it irrefutably proves he didn’t do it, seeing as he has two hands and all.”

She nods and looks back at them. Her face, only minutes ago full of sly joy (and the rollercoaster of emotions with which she reacted to the Flash story) remains unamused.

“Overruled.”

Ned ha!’s in his face, but Peter barely seems to notice aside from a distracted shoulder shove.

“Actually, can you point me in her direction?”

Michelle does, and I sit up a bit straighter, feeling strangely unprepared.

He inhales as if he’s about to say something longer and more serious, but instead, after a short pause, all he says is: “You suck. Minus ten points.”

The screen goes black. Whether he or Ned ended the call is hard to tell.

Knowing exactly what he means though, I reach for my phone to text him a real answer to his question, hoping to minimize my guilt and satiate his curiosity.

“Should I ask?” Michelle tosses her phone onto her bed.

Might as well explain it now rather than later.

“It’s not a big deal,” I say, partially to convince myself that it isn’t. “Peter pitched an idea to help fix our friendship. He wants to psychologically condition me to look forward to being around him. Snacks or something.”

Her eyes widen slightly before rolling. I realize my word choice is poor (though accurate).

“And?”

I lean my head back against the headboard.

“It’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

Part 25

Next update: ... next Friday? Let’s hope.

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#peter parker x reader #tom holland x reader #peter parker imagine #tom holland imagine #peter parker x you #tom holland x you #spiderman x reader #spider-man x reader #avengers imagines #spiderman imagine #spider-man imagine #peter parker #tom holland

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timelordthirteen · 5 years

Text

Killing Time 11/?

Detective Weaver/Belle French, Explicit

Summary: A Woven Beauty Law & Order-ish AU. Written for Writer’s Month 2019.

Chapter Summary: After taking the newly discovered poetry book to the station, Weaver and Belle have a heart to heart.

Notes: FEELINGS. I actually started to cry while I was writing this. I'm sorry. There's a lot of exposition in the beginning, but I didn't want it to get too unwieldy. Enjoy a little bit of Nick and Jack's backstory as I attempt to setup some more plot. For the Writer's Month prompt #21: hope.

Warnings: Please see AO3 for complete warnings and tags. No additional warnings for this chapter.

[AO3] Previous: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

It was another two hours spent at the station after they brought in the poetry book.

Rogers and Humbert were too shocked to chastise them for going back to Belle’s apartment, but that was the only small blessing. Belle explained her theory, that Jack left the book at some point while he was in her apartment. Everyone agreed that the highlighted phrases were disturbing when put in that context, especially given the strange nature of Jack and Nick’s relationship, as well as the bits and pieces they’d been able to pull together of their background.

They boys were brothers, four years apart, with Jack being the oldest. Their father, Edgar Branson, was assumed to have been abusive, though there was little actual evidence of it beyond one trip to the emergency room for a broken arm when Jack was eight. It was a spiral fracture, but in reality it could have come from any number of possible incidents. Their father died of lung cancer a few years ago, while living in a care home, and it appeared that at no point after high school did either son have any contact with the man.

In general, there was very little paper trail on their family, and no evidence of a sister as one of the poetry selections seemed to reference. Weaver had been unable to find anything on their mother beyond her name on their birth certificates, Ellen Branson. She didn’t have any employment or tax record, and tracking down the marriage certificate had taken six calls to three different states and the better part of an afternoon.

Rogers made reviewing records for any indication of a sister his first priority for the morning, and Belle agreed to come back in the afternoon to file an amendment to her statement, covering the return trip to her apartment. After that, Humbert all but kicked Weaver and Belle out of the station and forbade them entry with the only exception being official business.

They returned to Weaver’s apartment some time later, after a brief trip to the nearby market. Belle insisted she wasn’t hungry, but Weaver knew that once he got into cooking she would likely come around. Fortunately, he was right, and after a steaming hot shower, she came wandering back into the kitchen, sniffing loudly, just as he was pouring the noodles into the strainer.

He smirked as he slid onto one of the stools at the island. “I see someone is still a sucker for garlic butter sauce.”

“Shut up,” she replied around a mouthful of noodles, and he laughed.

The rest of the evening consisted of Belle at one end of the sofa, reading a book, and Weaver flipping channels back and forth between a football match and The Maltese Falcon. He didn’t really care about either, he was just trying to keep his mind occupied instead of wondering what would happen when it got late enough to go to bed. Part of him was all too happy to curl up with her again and spend the night beside her, while another part desperately wanted to protect his heart until he knew where he stood.

He’d been a little too ready to throw himself at her before, to take every moment she would give him, and give her everything she wanted. It stung when she pretended their first encounter in her office never happened, and it was even worse after the second time. He felt like he’d taken advantage of the situation, in spite of the marks she’d left on his back when she came.

Belle yawned, and he glanced at his phone. It was after nine, and given everything she’d been through that day, it was no wonder she was worn out.

“You should rest,” he said, turning down the volume on the television.

She sighed, but didn’t look up from her book. “Yeah.”

“You can have the bed again.”

She marked her spot in the book, and looked up at him. “And you’re going to sleep out here?”

He swallowed and nodded. “I think that’s probably best.”

“Is it?” She bit her lip, and then shook her head as she pushed up off the couch. “Sorry. I’ll just go. Good night.”

Weaver caught her hand as she walked by him, and her fingers reflexively curled around his. “Belle.” She stopped, and he stood up. “Do you want me to stay with you?”

She looked down and watched their joined hands swinging slowly back and forth by her hip. She knew they couldn’t keep going this way, but the thought of Ian sharing the bed with her was immediately calming.

“Yes,” she said softly, her eyes closing as he turned and put a hand on her shoulder.

“I’ll clean up out here and come in, okay?”

She nodded, and gave his hand a squeeze in thanks.

Weaver sighed as he slid between the cool sheets. The bed had been their most expensive purchase as a couple, and while he’d initially balked at paying so much for a mattress, it was definitely the best possible thing they could have done. Coming home to a comfortable bed was an amazing feeling, no matter how long or shitty the day was. That Belle had been in it as well made it as near to heaven as he imagined he’d ever get.

The intervening years after the divorce had found him sleeping in the chair or on the sofa more nights than in the bedroom. It had done his back no favors, but it was too hard to be in a space that had been such a refuge and was now full of bitter memories.

Belle was laying on her side, facing him, so he stayed on his back. He hoped she’d fall asleep quickly, for both their sakes, but that didn’t seem to be likely.

“How do you do it?” she asked.

He frowned up at the ceiling. “Do what?”

“How do you keep all this shit from affecting you?”

He exhaled and rolled onto his side, facing her. “I don’t. I just...ignore it.” He shifted and tucked one arm under the pillow to prop his head up. “I keep moving on, until eventually it catches up with me, and I do dumb shite like punch a wall or shove some arsehole’s head in a barrel of water.”

Her lips curved and she let out a snorting laugh. “Right.”

He gave her a half smile that he hoped she could see in the dark. “The only way I can deal with the things we see is to go out and keep trying to stop it from happening.” Then he sighed heavily. “Failing that, I try to find the prick who did it.”

“And shove their head in a barrel?” she asked, though he could hear the grin in her voice.

He chuckled softly. “If they deserve it.”

She was quiet for a long moment, and he nearly rolled over again.

“I just...” She paused and swallowed. “I don’t know what to do. Like..I know how to deal with victims, how to talk to them about the trial, about what to expect, about how it will be like it’s happening all over again. But...I don’t - I don’t know how to be a victim, you know?”

Her wobbly voice made his throat tight with emotion. “I’m so sorry, Belle. None of this should have happened.”

She sniffled and pushed a strand of her hair back. “It’s not your fault. We kicked the hornet’s nest together. If we had thought that Jack would come after either of us...”

Weaver let out a ragged, shaky breath and closed his eyes. Every time he thought about walking into the emergency room, about seeing Belle covered in blood, he was filled with a nearly blinding rage. The hand under his pillow curled into a fist.

“I wanna kill him...” he muttered.

She reached for his free hand where it lay on the bed between them. “I know. But you’re better than that.”

He opened his eyes. “Am I?”

“Yes.”

Her voice was so emphatic, and he shook his head. “You always want to see the good in people.” Then he brought her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “Even when it’s not there.”

“Stop.” She squeezed his fingers. “You know you’re a good man.”

He let out a short, humorless laugh. “Some days maybe.”

She gave him a look and tugged at his hand. “No, every day. I wouldn’t have married you if you weren’t.”

“Yeah, well,” he sighed, “we know how that ended.”

She pushed up on her elbow. “Hey.” She pulled on their joined hands, drawing them across to settle them under her chin, against the bare skin of her collarbone and chest. “Don’t - don’t do that.”

Her body was so warm and soft and he wanted to savor every second of it. “Sorry,” he managed. “I’m - I’m sorry. For what I said earlier, I shouldn’t have put that on you.”

Belle frowned. “No. No, you didn’t. You were being honest, and that’s - that’s all I ever wanted you to do. To trust me and talk to me.”

He shrugged one shoulder. “Better than never, eh?”

“I think so,” she replied, shifting her body closer until their hands between them were the only thing keeping them apart. She leaned in and kissed him softly. “Thank you. For everything.”

His jaw clenched as he swallowed hard.The lump in his throat felt like a rock. “Aye.”

She sniffed again and closed her eyes, feeling a tickle against her cheek as a tear loosed itself. “Fuck, I’m such a mess.”

“Hey,” he pulled his hand free from hers and reached up, brushing the wet trails from her face. When she opened her eyes, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to her forehead. “You’re a bloody gorgeous mess.”

She pushed herself up to sit, her tears coming faster now. Her hands swiped at her cheeks and then pushed her hair back as her shoulders started to shake. Weaver sat up with her, scooting back against the pillows, and stretched his arm around her, letting her fall against him as she cried quietly. “Sweetheart, it’s okay. Let it out.”

Belle began to sob, her tears falling on his chest and soaking into his t-shirt. His chest ached and he closed his eyes, dropping his head to rest his cheek against her. “None of it’s your fault, okay? All right?”

She shifted back and looked up at him. His eyes were shining in the faint glow from the street lights outside, and she managed a small nod.

“I’ve never - never been mad at you for any of it,” he said. “Not - not this, not the divorce, not - not our baby...” His voice broke on the word, sending his own tears tumbling free. “Not any of it. Do you understand?”

She reached up and laid her palm against his cheek. “Why? Why did - why did you do it?”

He shook his head. “What?”

Her bottom lip wobbled, and her body shook as she tried to get the words out, her voice barely more than a whisper. “Why did - why did you sign the papers?”

“You left,” he said. Confusion and surprise at her question made him feel dizzy. “It’s - it’s what you wanted.”

Belle sniffed loudly and rubbed at her nose with the back of her hand before she leaned in and rested her forehead against his. Everything was a mess and she didn’t know how to fix it. There was so much that needed to get out, that she’d kept to herself because she’d thought it was for the best. Except she didn’t know that it was anymore.

“I don’t know what I wanted.”

He didn’t know what to say to that, but it didn’t seem to matter as she collapsed against him, sobs shaking her body. He held her tight until she got everything out, her body giving up out of pure exhaustion and finally letting her fall asleep. The feeling of her in his arms was like nothing else. It gave him hope that maybe things could be better after all of this, but he’d thought that before and it ended worse than he could have ever imagined. He wanted to soak up as much of Belle as he could while she was here, but he knew that when things finally went back to normal it would wreck him all over again to see her go.

#rumbelle #rumbelle fic #woven beauty #woven beauty fic #my woven beauty fic #fic #killing time #lemon fic

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blackasteriia · 4 years

Text

Xion in Re:Mind

So, today I’m going to go through all scenes that are Xion relevant and do some basic analysis. I’ll also talk about her data fight.

Spoilers under cut, obviously.

Keyblade Graveyard-- Counting with Saïx

In this scene, Saïx, Xigbar, and Xehanort, gather together to learn how to count-- AKA they’re filling out the ranks of the Organization. They come-up two short. Xehanort reveals that Terra-Nort is still up his sleeve. I don’t understand, and don’t ask me. Alright, lets get onto Xion:

Vexen creates 20 original puppets. The first twelve were the original set of the Replica Program from CO. It is of these twelve that the Organization is pulling from to put people into. They get-up to Ansem, Xemnas, Vanitas, Repliku, and Young Xehanort, to make five, and then + Xion.

Repliku is referred to as the ‘prototype,’ and then Xion is of course, No. i.

“The plan for the last replica is to give it a heart that is connected to Sora.”

Cool. Cool. Cool. Why not Roxas? Literally, why not Roxas?

Xion doesn’t have a heart. That is the entire point of Days, if Xion had a heart, then why did she die? How does she have a heart Nomura, you’re skipping right over the question I want answered.

FURTHERMORE, the only memory that exists of Xion is of the No. i, notes. Xion as in the girl that is in Sora’s heart, is not No. i. They don’t know about Xion because they can’t remember her. So why would Saïx mention ‘someone connected to Sora?’ As far as Vexen is concerned, his creation never attained sentience. Vexen was dead before Sora’s memories were put into Xion. Sora had not lost his memories until the end of Chain of Memories, so it’s just-- very confusing.

This throws such a gear in the machine because Saïx doesn’t remember Xion. Why would they bother to resurrect a dead replica that was obviously an abject failure, instead of Roxas, the nobody of Sora? How do they know about Xion?

“No. i, an imaginary number, how fitting.” Thank you for the exposition Xigbar.

Then Saïx goes and gets Vexen.

No one should give a shit about No. i, because No. i was just an empty, insentient replica that followed orders. Xion was the person that formed from No. i. There’s an argument that Vexen would return for Repliku, but as far as he’s aware, No. i was a shell.

AKA this entire thing threw a wrench in character motivations, raises more questions, failed to answer old questions, and tells me nothing new about Xion. All of the information in this scene is in supplemental material, now it’s just in the main game.

Cool.

The return of my Salt.

This is the Seasalt trio reunion with some extra pizz-zazz and playable Roxas. We get a little more exposition on No. i and Xion. Kairi is also here.

Reunion of the old Organization members with Axel, Xemnas, and Saïx + No. i. Axel asks who Xion is.

“This ‘guest’ of ours has an old score to settle with you.”

Okay, Xemnas, you said you can’t remember Xion. First, of all, you don’t know that Axel and Xion ever fought. You don’t know that they were friends. You don’t know anything about Xion beyond the notes Vexen left of No. i. What are you talking about?

Literally five seconds later: “It is a being of whom we have no memory.”

Still misgendering Xion, nice.

“A true nobody, hailing from the edge of oblivion.”

This means nothing and is just a cool line, but you know I’m going to run with it.

So, if No. i, was recreated from the notes left by Vexen, then it is not Xion. That is not Xion. Xion is still inside Sora. No. i is a completely different thing than Xion. Xion developed a personality, memories, and ‘heart,’ supposedly over time. So Xemnas alluding to ‘it has no memories of what it truly is,’ is bogus and dumb. Never mind that Xemnas wouldn’t know that.

He can’t even remember why Xion was destroyed in the first place and even why he has no memory of it.

Saïx is acting like he knows something when it comes to Xion and even encourages her to remember Axel and Roxas-- for no apparent reason.

Because he doesn’t remember the friendship between Axel, Roxas, and Xion, why would he even think to prompt her on this.

Xion remembers Axel and immediately goes for Lea’s throat-- this is canon and valid.

Okay then we get the usual scene with Xion getting.... her memory back? More on this in a bit.

This is also good and valid.

E N R A G E D S C R E A M I N G

The only assumption I have is that Xion begins to remember Axel and Roxas. Then that starts to return pieces of memory to Xemnas. This is not at all implied in the text but it’s the only rational explanation for his behavior in this scene.

I wanna use a few more images for this because it’s all visual through this part.

Sora’s Station of Awakening peels back to reveal Roxas’. Roxas’ station now has an image of Xion in it.

Then, these leaflets type thing start to float away and Sora calls them, ‘the memories.’ So, my previous theory that Xemnas was beginning to remember is dashed out of the water because, according to this scenes the memories had not been released yet. After this, Axel remember Xion.

(This would be a great time to reveal Xion’s station of awakening and cement her as a unique person, even have her interact with Sora-- but no that would be too much to ask from Nomura).

This scene is also really dumb because it basically just stops the original scene, has Sora make an obvious statement to explain what’s going on, and then continues the original scene. Roxas’ returns, with a brief break into the void for exposition, and lets get into the meat of this.

Roxas and Xion fight Xemnas. So on and so forth--

This crap.

What is this.

Where did it come from? Why is it important? Axel says, ‘get what’s ours,’ and they get this. Which is the recusant symbol that is in all of their names. That’s, easy to figure out. It is then implied that this is the... symbol of their connection. AKA, the symbol of their membership in the Organization is also the symbol of their connection. Okay. Except, Xemnas was the character who brainwashed and assaulted Xion; The character that lead to Roxas and Axel’s death. The Organization is why their friendship fell apart in the first place. I could get deep into like, the psychological implications of the symbol it’s just--

Why use it for this reading. In this way.

Ugh.

Whatever. Kairi gets kidnapped and the scene continues as usual. Xion has no new dialogue. We learn nothing about her character. She just has the blank, default female character. The sole personality that Nomura can write for women.

Xion is shown fighting wth the keyblade wielders. Nothing, really, to see here. She’s just in the climax, she doesn’t do anything unique. Heck, Roxas even has to save her at one point. So, lets move onto her data fight.

Xion’s Data Fight

When I heard Xion was going to get a data fight I was very excited for the potential of that fight. Perusing the internet netted potential fights pulling on her replica abilities or the final forms from 358/2 Days. Imagine fighting a boss that can pull at least one move from all other bosses previously fought. Which was my first hope. My second hope was for the form changes from her previous final battle, different movesets, different abilities and powers. A wide challenge.

My worst fear was that she would be a copy of Roxas’ fight from KH2.

Well, never underestimate Nomua’s ability to disappoint because that is exactly what we got. I suppose, looking at the previous content of Re:Mind I could have seen this coming. Xion did not receive any new dialogue. We did not learn anything about her character. All we learned was a few chunks of lore information that... we basically already knew. Anything new was confusing, useless, and irrelevant. I knew that Xion’s power mimicked Roxas’, that’s obvious.

The addition of her using Saïx claymore in the graveyard was interesting because it implied something new about her powers. She could copy someone other than Sora or Roxas. In Re:Mind however, Xion shows-up in the graveyard without ever encountering Sora or Roxas, with the kingdom key. There is no, from a story or lore standpoint, for her to have that. She has had no chance to copy it. The keyblade is not inherent to Xion. So, really, we fight Roxas in Re:Mind, dressed-up as Xion.

Nomura isn’t creative enough, or cares enough, to take Xion’s character in any new direction. He brings her back in KH3 not because he has a character arc for her, or anything to do for her. But only for fanservice, for Roxas’ and Axel’ character arcs. He won’t give her a unique moveset because he doesn’t consider her a unique enough character to warrant one. Light is Roxas’ element, not Xion’s, she doesn’t have an element. She doesn’t have a keyblade. Her face is Kairi’s face. Her value is rooted in her connection to Sora.

On the other hand, she has, what I’ve seen and been told, is one of the hardest fights in the game. She will wood chipper Sora if the player is not on their toes. Through her teleportation trick she’s fast and has extended invincibility frames. Unlike Saïx, she is pointed and aggressive, with seconds between assaults. I will gladly keep the headcanon that Xion is an aggressive, hard-hitting, and fast fighter.

#✰*✦ This is the idiot speaking ⎧OOC⎫#Re:Mind Spoilers #salt ahoy

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sailor-cresselia · 5 years

Text

Zi-O Ep 46: (silent shock)

Okay, so… last week was… oh, right!

Everything is painful and nothing is okay!

This week?

THINGS CONTINUE TO HAPPEN AND NOT BE OKAY!

Liveblog under the cut, because there was no good early spot to break it off!

––––

So yeah, Swartz summoned Hat Woz, because of course he did. Just, you know, the ultimate insult to injury. I always wonder if Watanabe likes playing this version of Woz, because Hat Woz is just such a smug little bastard in a completely different way from Scarf Woz.

And oh look, surprising none of us, Swartz is going to try and kill Tsukuyomi, because there’s no room for her in the future he’s going to write.

Hat Woz has his Future Note again – which is odd.

See, Tsukasa had theorized that the Dark Riders were being summoned from timelines where they won, but that didn’t sit right with me. Eternal was surprised to be alive again. He wouldn’t have said anything like that if he’d won, because he’d definitely have survived his fight. You know, for the certain value of surviving he can have. Not being any more dead than he already was.

And this Hat Woz knows Tsukuyomi, says that it’s been a long time… but Daiki stole the Future Note the first time we saw him, when he may or may not have been ‘helping’ Oma Zi-O, so he shouldn’t be able to have it now.

So when is this Woz from?

Anyway, Eternal gets some good hits in on Aqua while Swartz is being distracting by way of how much of a tool he is. Swartz advances on Tsukuyomi…

And is blocked by a shoulder check from Scarf Woz Ginga.

…Ah, man, the Woz V Woz fight is gonna be hard to write, isn’t it?

Scarf Woz summons a minature star to blind the opponents, because of COURSE his Sun form can do that, why NOT! Then… okay, hang on, this one has to be in script form.

Woz: (summons a mini sun)

Woz: (turns to the camera) According to this book-

Woz: (focuses back on the scene and increases the intensity of the light)

Then when the light fades, he, Tsukuyomi, and Aqua are all gone – and we head into the recap vault, where he’s got a model of Another Decade.

Woz. Woz what are you?! What is the purpose of the recaps?! Where is this vault?! Please explain!

Anyway, the recap is basically him saying that Swartz is Another Decade, that he’s trapped Geiz in one of his Another Worlds, a brief clip of Heure being stabbed and dying in Sougo’s arms, and apparently, we’re going to finally find out what Swartz’s plan is!

––––

The current team at 9 to 5 consists of Sougo (still pretty beaten up), Woz (sulking against the wall, as usual), Tsukuyomi (depressed and blaming herself), and Miharu (less depressed but also kinda dumb). Sougo summarizes one of the current issues: Geiz is stuck in an Another World. Woz mentions that Decade or Diend might be able to get them there, not that they’d be much assistance.

Yeah, I still don’t think they’re actually de-powered the way you think they are, but sure, let’s run with it.

Sougo lets everyone know that one fo the other things Tsukasa had said was that the only way to get people out of an Another World is to destroy it… which is a problem, since that’s not a thing anyone here can do. I’m not entirely sure Tsukasa actually can, either, since I’m pretty sure they fixed that little ‘problem’ of his back in his portion of the W & Decade movie. …But only pretty sure, because the season never bothered to explain what was going on with that in the first place, or what was actually causing it, because literally the only person with answers was Narutaki. And Narutaki’s not exactly known for giving details. Though, if he shows up in the last episode of Zi-O to give exposition on this season, and still blames Tsukasa for everying… I don’t know if it’d be frustrating or hilarious.

…I kind of want that to happen, now.

OKAY, RIGHT, THE SHOW IS STILL A THING.

Tsukuyomi blames herself for falling into Swartz’s trap – which. Uh. Sweetie. You didn’t. Technically, you set a trap for him. It didn’t work, but that’s because he’s incredibly overpowered.

Same goes for you, Miharu. Don’t you go blaming yourself, either! Especailly by saying it’s because you weren’t ‘brave enough’! You’re plenty brave, you did great, buddy! Again, Swartz and Eternal are both super-overpowered. None of this is either of your faults.

Enter Junichiro for the distraction! This time, he’s got salads with white truffle oil, to bring out the flavor.

Something about the ‘white truffles’ makes Woz realize something. I don’t know if he’s got an idea, if he’s fanboying over how good of a cook Junichiro is, or both – I kind of think it’s both.

(At this point, if either of them wanted to change career paths, I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if they became chefs.)

There’s also a nice little aside where Woz comments that Junichiro is such a hot hand with cooking, taking Junichiro’s hand sin his own – to which Uncle mentions that Woz has really hot hands. Meaning at least one of them is probably still hot from that little stunt he pulled with a miniature sun earlier.

––––

Aw, this is actually kind of sad – Hat Woz went to the overlook where he was un-realitied during Another Blade.

Sougo & Co. show up – and they’re asking for his help. Which is a: really kind of depressing, because last time he was around they hated each other, and b: really kind of sweet, because Sougo and Woz, at least, are willing to work with him.

Of course, Hat Woz has zero reason to listen, and asks what they’re going to do if he says no.

Woz, Sougo, and a hesitant Miharu hold up their belts.

Hat Woz, probably scoffing internally, says that’s not a threat that’s going to work on him… and holds up his belt. Of course he has it back, Scarf Woz. Another Worlds are made of lost opportunities, aren’t they?

I love how he’s just… everyone else is holding their belts, ready to put them on at a moments notice, and he’s just dangling his by the watch holder. Not even with all fingers, just with one finger and a thumb. Let it never be said that Hat Woz will miss out on a chance to be incredibly Extra.

He doesn’t really want to help them, in particular, but… well, he does want to rescue His Savior.

Riiiight, Geiz Revive was, in his timeline, supposed to be the one who stopped Oma Zi-O on Oma’s Day – which I’ve doubted for some time, since Hat Woz is made of smugness and deceit, but I’ll allow it.

We cut to… oh, noooo, it’s the guy who was Victim of the Day #2 from the Den-O Arc, the one who made a contract – Takuya – reminiscing at Sayuri’s grave. Then here comes Swartz, saying that he’ll make him his own world.

Takuya is pulled into an Another World, one where ‘Sayuri’ never died.

Hat Woz starts to narrate.

Basically, Swartz is using his powers as Another Decade to place people in Another Worlds, where they relive one moment, over and over again, for eternity. We see the runner from the last episode, winning his race, before time resets, and he wins again. We see Owada winning the match, before time resets, and he wins again.

By sending people into the Another Worlds, Swartz is able to summon Dark Riders – in Takuya’s case, Kamen Rider Yuuki, from the Saraba Den-O film.

Looks like Hat Woz counts himself among the Dark Riders… which. Uh. Is a good point. Most Dark Riders are movie exclusives, usually being mirrors of the lead. Hat Woz doesn’t mirror Sougo, but he is a reflection of Scarf Woz. So… yeah, he would count.

He tells the group that in order to save his Savior from the Another World, they’re going ot have to ‘cross a dangerous bridge’ – and everyone is willing to do so.

So then. Shall they begin?

––––

Cut to a beach, with Miharu watching the ocean. Hat Woz ‘narrates’ via his book, giving an ‘instruction’ for Kamen Riders Aqua and Eternal to fight.

And so, they do – Eternal shows up, Miharu transforms, and they start exchanging blows. Sougo runs up, and joins in the fight as Zi-O.

(Sougo, please don’t use your base form for this! At least use Zi-O II! I get that the appearance of the fight is way better this way, but still. Katsumi Daido is not a Movie Rider to be trifled with!)

––––

Somehow, Swartz knows that Zi-O and Eternal are fighting. He doesn’t much seem to care about Aqua, though.

He also knows that Hora’s here, and that she’s alone.

He asks where Heure is.

She holds up his feather decoration, saying that he’s ‘right here.’ Now, give her her powers back.

Swartz smirks.

I don’t know if he believed she’d actually go so far as to kill Heure, but either way, I think he’s impressed.

Probably not in the way she wants him to be, but…

––––

On the beach, Aqua and Zi-O are fighting Eternal, up until Yuuki draws Zi-O out into a fight of their own.

Hat Woz watches, flouncy and smug as always, when Scarf Woz comes up.

Hat Woz makes a comment about how he wishes that they’d take he and his fellow Dark Riders seriously – and Scarf Woz says that he’ll be his opponent in the long-awaited Woz-on-Woz fight.

(PIC OF WOZ HENSHIN HERE)

This is a really cool transformation! I don’t think we’ve gotten a good veiw of Ginga’s transformation, so this is as good as any!

They exchange a few punches, and then go into their Rider Kicks…

And holy shit I can’t believe Hat Woz is fucking dead. He got demolished by the Ginga finisher, like, he didn’t stand a chance.

––––

…

Ah. We briefly flash back to the canyon… and he told Scarf Woz to kill him. Mercilessly.

They can’t let on that it’s an act, after all.

They’ll get their real fight later.

––––

Back on the beach, Swartz appears, clapping. That sure was a fancy display. Why not do it again? He opens a wall, and Hat Woz steps out, flouncy as ever, saying it’s time for round two.

Tsukuyomi steps out, trying to pause him, saying that won’t happen – but she’s only got some of her power back, not enough to actually stop Hat Woz.

In retaliation, he takes the wall that he’d come through, and. Uh. Whips it over to Scarf Woz and Tsukuyomi, spinning it around them until it – and they – disappear, and tells Swartz that he’s sent them off to an Another World for him.

Sougo shouts, breaking off from his engagement with Yuuki, and tries to attack Swartz, but is blocked by Eternal.

Swartz tells him to give up, he’s not going to see them again. They’re going to be there for the rest of eternity.

Kamen Rider Eternal says that he likes the sound of that word – ‘Eien’. Eternity.

He pulls out his Gaia Memory, and inserts it into his knife’s finisher slot.

Eternal! Maximum Drive!

To which I, a Double fan, have a general reaction of NOPE NO NUH-UH I AM NOT OKAY WITH THIS!!

For those who didn’t watch Double, or didn’t watch it’s summer movie, “Kamen Rider W Forever: A to Z/The Gaia Memories of Fate”, That is a very bad thing to hear. In the movie, using just that one Memory for a finisher disabled all the Gaia Memories in the city, except for the type he was using.

I mean, it’s not like it would effect the watches, but it still brings up SOME BAD TIMES.

Case in point; here he uses it to ‘conjure’ what is basically a blade of blue fire, and proceeds to slash said blade towards Sougo – AND A WALL OF FIRE EXPLODES AROUND HIM.

Zi-O’s left on the ground, in pain, but still transformed, so good for him for absolutely tanking that hit.

Aqua rushes to his defense, and is intercepted by Yuuki, as Eternal re-engages Zi-O.

Hat Woz, sighing dramatically, starts up his transformation.

––––

Tsukuyomi and Woz are in the Another World that Geiz is in.

So, before I continue actually watching the scene, I want to say what I’ve been thinking Geiz’s World might be. It’s supposed to be a moment of ‘lost possibilities’, a moment the captive regrets, and wants to take back.

So… what could Geiz’s be?

I figure… I’ve been figuring it might be related to his defeating or not defeating Sougo – or rather, Zi-O. Either way… I don’t think it could be some triumphant moment. Geiz is pretty much never in a good place emotionally, because he has seen some shit, and he doesn’t really know what his goal is anymore.

Starting back up, and…

Oh.

It’s the confrontation by the river the other day.

Where he pointed out that Sougo became Oma Zi-O, and ruined the future.

In the original moment, he and Sougo fought, yelling at each other, and Geiz took off.

Here?

He stops himself after saying Oma Zi-O created the terrible timeline he’s from. He catches himself, backing off, getting quieter.

Saying that he… he fled from there, coming back to the current time. He looks so sad. He knows he has to go back, but he doesn’t want to. He wants to stay here, to keep living in 2019, to create a new future with Sougo.

Tsukuyomi and Woz watch, stunned, as time rewinds, and Geiz starts over.

This is the moment Geiz wanted to retry.

Not a battle, not the fight against Oma Zi-O in the first episode, not any of the times he could have finished Sougo off.

It’s his not saying that he trusts Sougo.

Oh, Geiz…

––––

Zi-O and Eternal have managed to change locations, and Sougo thinks of something. It was Double who defeated Eternal before, right? So that’s who he’s going to use.

Armor Time! DOUBLE!

It’s not just the reused sound effects from Double’s transformation this time. It’s actual music during the fight. One of the more hard-boiled fight tracks, the one usually used during the final confrontation against an opponent. And I love it. We won’t get a proper Double arc, or a Kuuga one – I know that by now. There’s not enough time left in the season. And that’s killing me.

But using the fight music? That’s… that’ll have to do.

Of course, in keeping with his whole thing, Daido says that he didn’t lose, it was just that the wind changed! He activates his other Gaia Memory, Zone.

This is the one that was super destructive. The one that summons 26 Gaia Memories to him, to let him use a supercharged version of the Eternal Maximum Drive. The finisher we saw him starting to use in the preview.

A nice note: Of the memories we hear the system announce, there are Accel, Cyclone, Fang, Heat, Joker, Metal, Luna, Trigger, and Xtreme.

There are a few others mixed in that seem mostly random, except perhaps Weather, who was one of the main enemies for a time, but these nine?

These are the ones that Shotaro, Philip, and Ryu used.

…Thank you.

Sougo stands firm against the Maximum Drive, and inserts a different Ridewatch into his belt.

Zi-O! Geiz!

A beam of yellow light shoots down onto the looping, trapped Geiz, transforming him into his armor, and then into a watch.

Woz!

A beam of blue light shoots down onto Woz, transforming him into his armor, and then into a watch.

We flash to Hat Woz’s plan. The Eternal Maximum Drive can destroy a world, forever. But to use it to clear out the Another Worlds, they have to get him into one.

And we’ve already seen, during the Kabuto arc, that it doesn’t matter how far away they are – Trinity can pull Geiz and Woz from anywhere, even from Earth into space.

So, it may be a gamble, but it just might be able to cross between worlds.

It’s a solid idea, and it makes sense that Hat Woz is the one to think of it. They got the Trinity watch from him, after all.

In the present, a veil of red light surrounds Zi-O and Eternal, who is still powering through his kick. They disappear-

-and reappear in ‘Geiz’s World’.

Trinity probably either takes the path of least resistance, or follows Sougo’s will. The only other time we’ve seen it used at a great distance was the incident in Kabuto, where Sougo and Woz were both in orbit, and Geiz was drawn from Earth to them.

Here, Geiz and Woz are both in the Another World, so Sougo’s pulled to them… and so is the guy he’s in contact with.

As the Trinity transformation finishes, Zi-O steps aside, letting Eternal’s kick collide with… what might be a sort of barrier point in the world. Regardless of how, it starts cracking the fabric of reality, starting right at the illusory Sougo.

Owada’s world starts to crack, and then shatters.

The runner’s world cracks, and then shatters.

Takuya’s world cracks, and then shatters.

In reality, a dimensional wall appears, cracks, and shatters, to reveal Tsukuyomi and all of the people who had been trapped – or, well, six people. Hard to say how many more there could have been… except that we can count, can’t we?

Four Dark Riders were summoned in episode 44, so that’s four of the victims accounted for. There’s Owada, who was used for Eternal, and Takuya, who was used for Yuuki. Geiz was used for Hat Woz, so that’s technically seven people rescued.

The Trinity transformation ends, Geiz seeming surprised, like he’s just waking up. Sougo tells Tsukuyomi to get everyone out of there, and she herds the civilians away.

Katsumi ends his transformation, going back to his normal form, saying that an interesting wind sure blew through here.

Casual note from the Double Fan to those who may not have watched: He’s a native of Fuuto, just like Shotaro, so the wind metaphors and comments are incredibly appropriate. Fuuto is the ‘windy city,’ so it basically goes without saying that it’s important to them.

Sougo steps forward. He tells Katsumi he took advantage of his powers, and that he’s sorry about that.

(Sougo never wanted to erase anyone.)

But… it’s okay. Thanks to Sougo, a world where only Katsumi was revived was destroyed. Now, he can go to where his comrades are.

His team from the film. Hanehara Reika, the Heat Dopant. Izumi Kyosui, the Luna Dopant. Domoto Gozo, the Metal Dopant. Ashihara Ken, the Trigger Dopant. Maria S. Cranberry, the Cyclone Dopant, and his mother.

They all died in the movie, as did he. And he was callous then, because he had lost control, but before the events of his V-Cinema… he truly did care about them. He was slowly losing touch with his humanity, but before then… they were a team; a family, almost.

And in the Another World that Swartz created, he was the only one brought back. Now? He’ll get to be with them again.

He holds out his hand, his thumb to the side. One of his standard pre- and post-battle tics is a harsh thumbs down, signalling his opponents defeat.

This time? It’s a thumbs up.

Katsumi Daido fades back out of existence, going out with a smile.

Behind them, Hat Woz laughs. He thought they’d be able to do it, he was counting on it.

Scarf Woz… wants to know why hat Woz would make a plan that would cause himself to disappear.

It’s simple, really. He wanted to save his Savior. That was his lost possibility. His old timeline.

Sauntering up, glitching, he approaches Geiz, telling him to listen carefully. From the start, Swartz has been after-

A bolt of purple energy strikes him, cutting him off mid-sentence.

Hat Woz glitches out of existence, stuck in pain as he disappears.

As Swartz lowers his hand, Kamen Rider Yuuki shudders, fading back out of existence.

Swartz is impressed, really. They all had him fooled. But it’s foolish of them to think there weren’t any more of his Another Worlds.

To prove his point, the four Dark Riders from the end of episode 44 show back up; Fuuma, Dark Ghost, Rey, and G4.

…So… Who were the runner and the other three nameless victims for?

Woz and Geiz go to fight them. Now, Sougo and Swartz are alone. Shall they settle this?

Sougo doesn’t flinch. He’s not alone, after all.

Aqua appears behind Swartz, jumping to punch him – and time freezes for Aqua and Sougo.

Swartz isn’t alone, either. Hora is behind Sougo, lowering her hand from her customary flip of her feather.

––––

Swartz circles the frozen Sougo, giving a very… ‘familiar’ speech. Sougo really was born to be a king. He will become a king, and have the duty to save the world from annihilation.

Sougo finally realizes what we’ve known for some time now – that Swartz was the one in his dream… his memory.

Swartz continues circling, until he stopps behind Sougo’s back. He’s always been watching Sougo, and now… Now Sougo’s completed the development fitting of a king. He’s collected the powers of so many Kamen Riders, and now Swartz will be taking them off his hands.

So that Swartz can become king.

The Time Jackers have always said that they were looking for a candidate for king, and it’s been clear that he’s had his candidate all along.

At first, it was implied to be Hiryuu. Then Sougo. But no.

He’s been his own choice the entire time.

He freezes.

Hora’s not impressed. That’s what he’s been trying to do, all this time? As her hand glows red, forming a blade around it, she says that she’s going to do what Heure couldn’t, and kill him.

She stabs forward, into his chest.

He starts to move again, and looks… smug. Did she really think he wouldn’t know what she was doing?

She didn’t stab him. Her hand-blade is caught in a tiny little dimensional wall – which spreads, holding her in place as Swartz becomes Another Decade, and round-house kicks her in the face, sending her flying.

He makes a quip about how he hopes she and Heure enjoy their ‘lives’ together, as she struggles to get up for a few moments…

And then stops moving.

Time resumes for the others.

Sougo turns, and sees Hora a distance away. Coldly, he tells Swartz that he’s not fit to be king.

Swartz’s reply? Why not? He’s certainly powerful enough.

Sougo’s mad. A king is supposed to make the world better. That is what power is supposed to be for!

An enraged Grand Zi-O begins to fight Another Decade.

––––

In a dark warehouse, Geiz Revive Fury and Woz Ginga Sun fight the four Dark Riders, quickly finishing them off with a pair of final attacks.

Also, Woz’s burned through some of the columns. Maybe don’t use that one indoors again?! We’ve already seen that Sun Form can, given the right amount of time, destroy asteroids, so I’m just saying that it might be a little too powerful for inside use!

Ginga being incredibly dangerous aside, Tsukuyomi runs up.

Geiz goes to her first, with an admission. Turns out he wants to stay here, in this time period. It’s where they belong. Not just him, but the three of them. He’s saying this to Tsukuyomi, and using ‘ore-tachi.’ ‘We.’ The group. And he thanks Woz, because he really does owe him that.

Woz comments that the other him would have loved to hear that.

Of course, as Geiz says, there’s still the question of what Hat Woz was trying to say at the end. What is Swartz really after?

The orchestral version of Toki no Ouja starts playing.

The discussion they have points out that all of his timing is strange. Why wait until now to take Tsukuyomi’s power? Why not when she first found out about it, confirming that she was his sister? Why attack his Time Jackers now, of all times, when he could have dropped them at any point? Why create the Another Worlds?

Woz mentions that it all seems random, but Geiz realizes – what if it’s not? What if there’s something connecting all of this?

Woz picks up the train of thought. The targets… Heure was starting to bond with Sougo. Owada and the runner were his classmates. Tsukuyomi had long since gotten close to him.

Geiz continues. He was targeted, too.

Tsukuyomi brings up a point – that Swartz only started finally putting his plans in motion once Sougo obtained Grand Zi-O.

Geiz turns, realizing. Swartz has only had one actual target.

Zi-O.

––––

(deep inhale)

(sharp exhale)

HOLY SHIT.

Grand Zi-O and Another Decade are at that power plant location.

Swartz… oh.

He flat out tells Sougo that if he wants to stop his plans, then go ahead and defeat him. But there’s a catch to it. If Swartz is stopped, then his time axis will disappear. Swartz will disappear… and so will Tsukuyomi.

The two of them – Swartz and Kamen Rider Zi-O – can’t both continue to exist, and as such, neither can Tsukuyomi and Tokiwa Sougo.

There is one other path, though…

Aqua interuppts, running up, shouting for Sougo not to listen, Swartz is just trying to trick him! He tries to use a Rider Kick, dropping down towards Another Decade…

Who simply opens a wall that moves Aqua from in front of him to behind, before using another to move himself to face Aqua.

Swartz says that it’s a shame… as his ‘belt’ glows, jagged red rectangles of light circling the center. He swings a roundhouse kick right at Aqua, in a corrupted version of Decade’s Rider Kick, complete with scattered images of cards mixed in among the explosion, some of which hit Aqua, and some which go outward along the ground to strike Sougo, knocking the both of them out of their transformations.

A thunderstorm starts, as Aqua rolls along the ground, sparking painfully, before his transformation breaks, and he’s laying on the ground, gasping in pain, with a large burn mark on his shirt.

Sougo runs over to him, the storm already approaching full swing. Miharu struggles to breath, one hand holding tight to the pair of underwear that Eiji gave him years ago.

In accordance with the OOO rule of three.

He manages to say just a little.

“For Tsukuyomi… for Alpina… and tomorrow…”

Minato Miharu, Kamen Rider Aqua, the young man from the future who was so, so afraid of his own power, but managed to over come it and become a hero… lays on the ground, in a storm… and stops moving.

Sougo kneels beside him.

Swartz, in his normal appearance once again, starts talking as Sougo glares. He’s got three paths available to him…

One for Tsukuyomi, one for himself… and the one where he becomes Oma Zi-O.

Sougo looks down, soaked, disbeleiving. “The path of Oma Zi-O…?”

The sound of the rain trails off, leaving nothing but the sound of Sougo breathing heavily, before he yells Swartz’s name in rage.

The endscreen is silent.

––––

The preview opens with Woz and Geiz fighting Dustards and a Smash. It cuts to the quartet in the lobby of 9 to 5, with Swartz saying that ‘the destruction of worlds has begun’ - transitioning into a shot of the Gaim and Double watches, in their place on the tower, lighting up and then going dark, their color gone, but the images still there.

There’s a shot of the Orion Zodiarts and the Shika Inves (Deer Inves), accompanied by a group of Masquerade Mooks, Yummies, Dustards, and Elementary Inves.

A shot of Another Zi-O II, with someone saying they will take the last treasure – but it sure doesn’t sound like Daiki, who was the last person seen with the Another Zi-O watch. That audio clip overlaps with a shot I definitely do not like, of Tsukuyomi bent over Tsukasa, who does not look to be getting up any time soon! (Please just be passed out, PLEASE just be passed out!)

Sougo says something about ‘other worlds meeting their end’, which is played over… that is Mondo! That’s Quiz, in his civilian form! There’s also a serious-expression Sougo.

Then, a shot of… Uh.

That. Is Another Zi-O II… being fought by. Uh. Grand Zi-O… and Zi-O. Regular, base-form Zi-O.

Sougo are you going to summon yourself, somehow?!

The voice clip playing over that is a deep voice. “I am the Grim Reaper – I will surpass the Kamen Riders!”

oh no.

The next fight has Geiz Revive fighting a figure in black, silver, and purple, with a distinct engine motif.

Oh no.

Then a shot of Chase.

Then Machin Chaser, with blank versions of the three basic types of Roidmude.

OH NO.

––––

Zi-O. Toei. This is NOT what we meant when we said we wanted a Drive Arc. This is definitely not what we meant when we asked for Chase to return.

TOEI NO.

#kamen rider zi o #sailorcressy says #kamen rider w #kamen rider double #w/double tags are here because i go into a LOT of stuff about Eternal

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tearlessrain · 5 years

Text

time to subject myself to Dracula: The Dark Prince, aka another bad movie starring another dude from black sails. this time with 100% less horny on main because my only real motivation for watching it is it truly looks to be a whole new caliber of horrible and I have to see it.

witness my standards for incomprehensibly bad movies being raised prohibitively high in every way imaginable under the cut

I seriously doubt that.

this was made in 2013 by the way, not 1994 as the graphic design of that logo might suggest

oh good, once again we’re opening with an exposition narrator. except this time it’s a woman and she has less vocal inflection and emotional investment than an amazon echo.

I feel like she’s gonna tell me to turn left in 800ft

it feels like a dragon age epilogue, but just. worse.

WE ARE WATCHING A TRULY HIGH QUALITY MOVIE TONIGHT MY FRIENDS

I can’t even describe how bad this is, you really need the sound. that’s where the true lack of quality shines through. siri’s depressed sister is talking about pre-vampire dracula’s epic feats in battle to more weird sepia dioramas and the dying soldiers sound like they hired muppets to voice them

HOLY WIG BATMAN

also this dude is obnoxiously jovial considering he’s supposed to be dracula, even if this is pre-vampire

oh no dracula’s advisors, who all wear black hooded robes and scowl ominously, have betrayed him and killed his wife, how unexpected

someone drew these, looked at them, and thought “yeah that’s good enough to go in the final movie”

the characters are speaking both english and what I assume is... romanian or something? transylvanian? it’s not spanish or welsh I can tell you that much. anyway there are no subtitles and also no rhyme or reason to which they’re speaking at any given time so I hope I’m not missing anything important. probably not.

so like... they killed his wife, yes. and he went on a murderfest in what appears to be a church in revenge, makes sense. now a dude who... I think maybe he’s supposed to be a priest or something? but he wasn’t speaking english so I can’t be sure, then a voice over said “I have killed for god, the hand that fought for him will now be turned against him” but I’m unclear on who was speaking. this movie is an absolute clusterfuck and we aren’t even five minutes in yet. this is still the prologue.

now zombie alexa claims dracula was cursed with immortality “in punishment for his defiance” but I’m still not sure... what defiance. he killed the dudes who murdered his wife and that’s somehow not okay despite his apparent status as a war hero, a designation that implies a LOT of killing has already happened?

fucking finally, the title screen. usually a prologue clarifies what a movie is about but I went in thinking I knew and now have absolutely no idea what I’m watching.

a carriage drawn by friesians is rolling through a misty forest with wolf howling sound bites playing at random in the background to vaguely urgent music, now this is what I’m here to see.

nevermind the carriage is too slow so they’re leaving it because that’s a thing people do (?????)

“Lady Arwen, we cannot delay”

seriously though everyone’s mumbling so much I can’t understand them much better than when they were speaking whatever the other language was

BOOTLEG XENA RIDES AGAIN

but this time she’s accompanied by esme. we don’t know who esme is yet either.

there she goes

and now the knights are being attacked by hilarious squeaky goblin things? who I guess are led by this power rangers villain with, again, an unintentionally hilarious voice. it’s like a bad batman impression.

with every minute that passes I become less certain of what I’m actually watching.

they’re looking for the “light bringer” and telepathically overseen by the world’s most halfassed lestat dracula

they’ve also got some random prisoners in a cage wagon

okay the prisoners are being taken to dracula’s castle and I’m sorry for such an image-heavy post but I NEED you to understand the community theater level of set design/quality we’re dealing with here

“what is that?” cardboard and mod podge is my guess

so far the only thing esme has done is fall off her horse and be knocked unconscious, and now a Roving Band of Misogynists has appeared to harass Bootleg Xena 3.0 in the most generic way possible (the words “what ‘ave we got ‘ere” accompanied by a chorus of malicious cackling and some whistles have been spoken)

oooh no the ringleader of the Roving Misogynists has been given a name, and it’s ~Lucien~. I have a horrible feeling that I’m about to bear witness to the worst romantic subplot in the history of cinema.

oh for... I thought at least bootleg xena 3.0 would be a Strong Female Character and fight them off, but she just rapped lucien on the head with her sword and then they stole her very important box and left as obnoxiously as they came

OH NO SHE’S ASKING TO GO WITH THEM, SOMEHOW THAT’S HER PLAN I THINK I’M RIGHT SHE’S GONNA HOOK UP WITH LUCIEN AND IT’S GOING TO BE HORRIBLE.

“trust me” she says to esme, who, wisely, obviously does not.

I appreciate the timely thunderclap every single time the castle comes on screen

who the fuck are you, did you wander onto the wrong movie set

nope okay they’re not gonna explain that shot at all we’re just moving on to a shot of a weird angel shadow doing slow flamenco moves on the ceiling while ominously gurgling, and the prisoners being led into the throne room

“what’s happening to us?” I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW THE SAME THING, PRISONER #3

oh never mind that guy from before wasn’t a priest, he is remfield, chancellor of this kingdom, which means the last scene he was in makes even less sense

AKSLDGHJFGAKDLFJGHKAJGHFDKLFDS;GJokay so. remfield introduced himself then said “I will see that your needs are tended to.” then dracula in his new white contacts gets up from his shadowy throne, circumnavigates the cluster of prisoners, sniffs them dramatically, and walks back to his throne. remfield then says, “come, I will see that your needs are tended to” because proofreading is for COWARDS

now remfield is... literally giving the prisoners a tour of the castle and going on the “oh you’re our guests and many pleasures and adventures await you” speech and somehow the prisoners are accepting this despite the fact that they were just carted in on a barred wagon in shackles and got sniffed by a bad alucard cosplayer. they have a fucking harpist.

seriously, who the fuck are you

she’s just been twirling around in the background of this entire scene for no discernible reason no matter what rooms they go into

what the hell am I watching

yeah they’re just going for that incredibly suspicious food and also seem weirdly okay with the ambient clusters of scantily clad lesbians no one will explain okay they deserve whatever happens to them

WHOA TITS apparently this movie is a different rating than I thought

remfield: the newcomers have settled in

dracula: I d o n ‘ t l i k e s t r a n g e r s

then why pray tell have you brought them directly into your home in chains. I cannot stress enough how avoidable this situation was for you my dude

“just think sire, once the light bringer is in your possession no one need die again” “except those who defy me” [ominous chime as the angel shadow on the ceiling continues its sensuous flamenco dance]

meanwhile in the misty blue filter forest of eternal night, some guy in a tricorn finds a gold amulet that I think bootleg xena 3.0 dropped, and the power ranger villain rides menacingly in a random direction for a few seconds

I’m still waiting on whether this masterful display of cinematic calvinball has any cohesive story to it.

ah joy and we’re back to The Non-Adventures of Xena 3.0, Esme, and the Roving Misogynists

as an aside, I’m not calling her that just to be dumb, I’m calling her that because they still haven’t given her a name even though her sidekick got one in the first five minutes

they’ve opened the box and revealed... the light bringer, which is a wooden staff. because it is not shiny gold, the roving misogynists regard it with confounded disgrunglement and scoff at xena 3.0′s insistence that it can defeat dracula

these guys sound like what an eleven year old thinks gangs of ne’er-do-wells sound like. like cartoon weasels, if the weasels were also mediocre pirates who have heard of women, conceptually, but never seen one. like goblins in a pre-written D&D campaign run by a slightly overwhelmed first time DM.

HUR DUR WALKING STICK NOT TREASURE, WOMAN DUMB

it’s what cain used to slay abel, apparently. given that zombie alexa mentioned that dracula is the descendent of abel, this leaves us with the terrifying implication that someone did put at least some vestige of effort into writing this movie.

oh good she’s finally gonna fight lucien

no she failed again. please someone just punch the shit out of lucien so he’ll stop.

NO WHY ARE YOU MAKING OUT STOP IT GOD HAVE SOME STANDARDS WOMAN. STOP PLAYING FLOATY ROMANTIC MUSIC IN THE BACKGROUND THEY ARE LITERALLY STILL STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ENTIRE BAND OF ROVING MISOGYNISTS

I thought it might at least be a trick but no she is actually, genuinely starstruck over this profoundly mediocre olde-timey frat boy who called her “sweetheart” while she was trying to explain to him why the ancient dracula-defeating relic was important.

this guy.

we did it boys, we found a worse love story than twilight

also I just. I wish I could convey with words the way the roving misogynists react to every single thing lucien and sometimes xena 3.0 says like the world’s worst greek chorus in a literally neverending stream

lucien (post makeout and xena 3.0 explaining again that the relic is ancient and powerful and they’ve searched for ages to find it): well we may not be knights but we can respect that

[cacophony of rowdy but understated agreement]

lucien: what do you think boys, should we give it back?

[assorted grumbles of assent]

xena 3.0: hm, a thief with a conscience

[gruff mercenary-esque chuckling]

lucien: maybe even a heart

[chorus of “ooooooOOOooh”s and some whistles]

it just goes on like that in every scene they happen to be physically adjacent to, they never shut up but also never actually contribute or say anything meaningful

ah, the mysterious leonardo has appeared. I think he was the one they were trying to take the light bringer to so that’s handy

“what is happening here? what is this flirtation?? is this the people to share your sacred secrets with???” - leonardo, the only remotely rational person in the entire movie

oh he is schooling these idiots, finally someone with sense. it’s bouncing right off of lucien, but at least he’s saying it.

“the scourge” - leonardo

“scourge!” “scourge!?” “scourge?” “hrgghhg??” “hrrm...” - the roving misogynists

power ranger villain and his squeaking goblins vs leonardo, the most useless female leads of all time, and the roving misogynists. who will win.

not the people watching this movie, I can tell you that much.

oh no, the lightbringer isn’t working. this will do nothing to convince the roving misogynists that it isn’t a walking stick

oop, wilhelm scream

oh no lucien has picked up the light bringer

goddamn it he’s the chosen one isn’t he

yep he activated the stick and now we all have to suffer

oh xena 3.0′s coming for power ranger villain maybe she’ll actually do something

nope she bounced off him and now he’s grabbed her and hauled her onto his horse

“you’re coming with me” he says in his weird batman voice, to make sure the audience can tell that he is in fact taking her with him

and esme has yelled “no” to make sure we remember that she’s in the movie

wait what the. did lucien just yell “xena” is that her actual name what the fuck. what the fuck. I had to have misheard that. okay I can’t tell what he’s saying for sure but someone’s bound to say her name again at some point in the movie so I’ll revisit that.

and on that note, I think I’ll end here, because there ended up being a LOT more to unpack in this movie than I expected, it’s after midnight, and I’m tired.

tomorrow, we follow lucien as he presumably goes to save some lady he wildly disrespected and then made out with one time whose name may or may not actually be xena, and hopefully figure out what the hell is even going on with dracula, remfield, and their castle full of artfully strewn half naked harpist lesbians and dancing ceiling shadows. because right now I really don’t have time to unpack all that, and I have a feeling it will only get worse.

#this is #a masterpiece #no description of mine can hope to do it justice #hypnotically incomprehensible #tearless liveblogs

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akatokuro · 5 years

Text

The Inevitable StS Rewatch, Episode 36

One of the most truly pressing issues in Saint Seiya canon: why the fuck is Milo like this?

- I SEE THAT SAGA SENSED THAT AIOLOS WAS TAKING A BATH, SO HE FELT THE NEED TO JUMP IN TOO! and thus a meme was born

- Uhhhh, Saga? I know you probably had a crush on Aiolos at all, but... really, dude? ????????

- AND HEEEERE HEEEEE ISSSSSSSS

- Milo's ridiculous ego is on full display the second he opens his fucking mouth. No "what's going on, Pope?" or "How may I serve you?" but "WOW, POPE, FOR YOU TO SUMMON A GOLD SAINT! (DID I MENTION I'M A GOLD SAINT, BECAUSE I AM.)

- MILO. ALL HE FUCKING DID WAS ASK IF YOU KNEW ABOUT THE SITUATION. What is the need for you to add "heh, not that I care, since I'm so awesome, just so you know!" Yes, a lot of Gold Saints have pretty overinflated egos - yume and I actually thought about it, and we're pretty sure Camus is just about the ONLY one who doesn't pull some form of smug "heh, a Bronze trying to fight a Gold? lmao, and also, rofl" but Scorpio Milo is... something else.

- Ikki working for Sanctuary at first still feels really weird and ill-fitting. Well, fortunately, it's not really dwelled on that much, so it's easily ignored! That's one of the good things about there being no real Saint Seiya canon... <_<

- In a way, though, it is certainly fitting that Milo's scene here is our first proper introduction to a "Gold Saint", because Milo certainly thinks he is THE Gold Saint in a lot of ways. It drips from the way he responds to everything. "Measly Bronze Saints, they must be crazy, lol!" It's actually really interesting to think he was originally planned to be Hyouga's master. Like, in some ways that really fits - Smugswan had to get the smug and the overinflated sense of ego from somewhere, and it sure as hell wasn't Camus!

- It's also sort of interesting because Kurumada pulled the switcheroo on the basis of "oooh, ice/water themed signs, oooh!" But even at this stage, Milo definitely has a very, very different personality than Marshmallow Saint Camus. What would he and Hyouga's hypothetical encounter have looked like, really...?

- I'm not trying to imply, by the way, that Milo's sense of egotism is solely about straightforwardly boosting himself up - because it's not. It's intertwined with his perception of Saint honor and what it means to him to embody that, which becomes clear in how he deals with Camus, Hyouga, and Kanon respectively later on. It's also intertwined with a negative five thousand debuff to his intelligence stat, but, you know.

- I love Saga just sort of ignoring Milo going WHAT? A BRONZE BEATING A SILVER? RIDICULOUS, I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF SUCH A THING! and continuing to exposit. Saga, why the fuck did you summon Milo of all people here to deal with this in the first place? I mean, not only would leaning on Aphrodite, Deathmask, or even Shura make infinitely more sense, but... it's fucking Milo. Did your bath-bonding with Aiolos rattle your judgment temporarily?

- And right back at him, Milo basically brushes aside poor Saga's exposition to go "ARE YOU SERIOUSLY BOTHERING THE GREAT KONO MILO WITH THIS BULLSHIT, POPE? REALLY??? KONO MILO, THE GOLD SAINT???"

- Saga begins to realize his terrible, terrible mistake and cuts off Milo in the middle of his bitching, but Milo ignores him to continue whining.

- See, it'd be one thing if Milo suggested that the situation bore more investigation, or perhaps these Bronze Saints were being misled so they shouldn't be so fast to jump to the execution option, but no. It's all about his fucking pride.

- Saga is getting so edgy and short at this point and oh my god I cannot believe Milo is still fucking trying to argue with him THIS IS THE FUCKING POPE WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU

- Like, yume and I utterly lost our fucking minds at Milo blowing off Athena to haze Kanon when we were re-watching the Hades OAVs, but oh god it is extremely fucking consistent with this characterization here

- Poor Saga. "LOOK, THEY HAVE A FUCKING GOLD CLOTH, OKAY!?!? JESUS CHRIST WHY THE FUCK DID I NOT GET APHRODITE TO DO THIS"

- okay okay i know it's because lol seat of the pants kurumada making shit up as he went along and was promptly retconned out because it makes no sense but i will never stop laughing at milo being shocked that there are twelve gold saints. WHAT??? NOT JUST SCORPIO AND SAGITTARIUS???? WHO WOULD HAVE EVER GUESSED???? THEY COME IN, LIKE, A SET????

- Kanon pretending he's Sea Dragon is the funniest moment in Saint Seiya, but Milo's spectacular intelligence debuff is also a consistent point of hilarity.

- Shaina's crush on Seiya might be, like, one of my least favorite things in StS seriously. It's so unnecessary and it IS basically a pitch-perfect example of that "behind the ruthless, frightening female warrior lies ~the soft heart of a woman~ that only the dreamy male protagonist can truly uncover!" trope that I fucking despise with all my being.

- yume and I were cracking the fuck up to discover that the Tencent version of this sequence has Seiya bringing up the Saintias when Shaina explains the mask issue. Like, my issues with Saintia Sho as a series aside, that's just really adorable.

- The mask issue in general... there are really interesting things that you could do with it, both for Sainthood in general and for Shaina as an individual (the vibe I get is that Shaina takes it unusually seriously, even though it is accepted as a general rule) since it feels like sort of a mark of sexism that would be a part of an old, traditional, religious order - but I can't say I'm a fan of any attempts so far in the series to "address" it. Omega was a thing, and that thing was Bad.

- "Kill or love" is pretty bullshit, though. How about "kill or be expelled from Sanctuary"? I also don't really like Seiya being all "what, is that the only reason?" when he thinks it's about humiliation/pride - like, what's wrong with that? It makes sense with how Shaina has been characterized...

- this flashback is so fucking stupid

- OH NO, SEIYA, YOU SAW ME PET A RABBIT WHEN YOU WERE A LITTLE KID AND I WAS A TEENAGER AND THUS YOU HAVE UNLOCKED MY SOFT WOMAN'S HEART! I bet Seiya fucking tried to jump a high bar, too, as every single woman from the Fate franchise happened to be strolling by?

- Like, Shaina, did you fall in love with this little kid who talked down to you then or... because uhhh...

- Also, like, yeah, it's Saint Seiya, and "pulled things out of my ass" and "retconned" are the name of the game, but come on, there was no indication of this kind of past in all the screentime Shaina has had up until this point. Wasn't her grudge against him regarding Marin and Cassios and being defeated by him in battle enough? Do we really have to enforce her ~femininity~ that Seiya ~exposed~ too? Ugh ugh ugh.

- Whatever, I really do like Shaina, this garbage aside. It's just a shame we fell back on this dumb trope of all things to justify her transition into one of the good guys when it was wholly unneeded.

- Aaaand we're back to Milo and Saga. I love how the framing of this episode implies that Saga has been sitting there having to explain things very slowly to Milo all fucking day. Gonna need another bath to unwind after this shit, Gemini.

- HAVE I MENTIONED, POPE, THAT I AM A GOLD SAINT, AND THUS I AM AMAZING? I'M NOT SURE YOU KNEW. LET ME MENTION IT AGAIN. I'M A GOLD SAINT, BY THE WAY.

- And Lia enters the scene!

- Okada made this an explicit issue in Episode G, but the contrast between fully-decked-out-in-his-Cloth "have I mentioned in the last five minutes that I am a Gold Saint, preen preen" Milo and Lia--who strolls in WITHOUT his Cloth, just his regular training clothes - is really striking.

- Milo's face when Lia comes in... hmmm...

- I don't think Saga, like, actively made a point of or went out of his way to play ~mind games~ with Aiolia or anything, but this is definitely a deliberate passive-aggressive diss. The kind you would give when it's like, ah yes, I ruined this kid's life, let me just innocuously twist the knife a little here...

- You really can understand why Aiolia is as fucking mad and as fucking repressed as he is, from the dressed-up hostility coming from both sides in this whole amazing shitstorm.

- This is... an amazing moment. "What if I still wanted Milo to go?" "Eh, I'd kick his fucking ass." And Milo's EXCUSE ME!?!?! reaction lmfaooooo

- You can just sense the stony bitterness coming off of Lia here, though? This is a dangerous game to play, considering the whole rule about "no duels between Saints." Just the sheer dismissiveness of it, too. Just as Saga gets in his passive-aggressive digs against Aiolia, Lia gets his in against... Milo, lol?

- And Milo starts trying to argue with the Pope AGAIN and Saga finally just tells him to shut the hell up. Saga confirmed for legitimately impressive patience honestly.

- God, and Lia just leaves once he gets the confirmation. I LOVE that Aiolia went through this whole thing since coming in without saying a single fucking word to Milo or sparing him more than a glance. Please, just ask this man about his opinion of Scorpio Milo, I’m begging you.

- MILO FOR FUCK'S SAKE.

- And Saga is the one who points out that, BECAUSE of his history and his relation to Aiolos, he has a compelling reason to work on this case in particular. Milo just stops at HOW COULD YOU RELY ON HIM HE HAS TRAITOR'S BLOOD. The intelligence debuff is real.

- But, yeah, you can tell Lia has cause to be as cold, dismissive, and passive-aggressive towards Milo as he was. They... they do not have a good relationship.

- It legitimately boggles my mind how there is a weird semi-common fanon about Milo and Lia being close friends, or Milo being this great guy who was so supportive of him. I've run across it multiple times in my hunts for cute fanart or interesting discussion, and I feel like I'm staring at an incomprehensible alien entity every time. Like. Where did you get that. How did. The characterization we get from both of them indicates the exact opposite. I would not be remotely surprised if Aiolia, as bitter and angry as he truly is, is going to hold a grudge against Milo until the end of time, long after Milo has forgotten about it.

- Rather than being his friend, Milo is literally the ONLY Gold Saint we see actually giving Aiolia shit for being a traitor's brother. Like I mentioned back in the Silver Saint scene with Aiolia, yume and I actually talked about this - since she is a raving Aiolia fan and all - about the possible sources of Lia's torment from his peers. The shitty Silver Saints, yes, and Deathmask, yes, because he's actively malicious in general, but he wouldn't be rubbing it in because he actually cares or thinks Lia having "traitor blood" actually means something. MILO sure does, though!

- Milo is prideful, often in shallow ways, and incredibly overbearing about that pride, thinking he has the right to lecture and judge and override others, including Athena herself. There is like literally no question in my mind that he is friends with Camus because Camus is basically the only person who knows him who will actually tolerate him.

- Milo: "Hmm, lots of people don't trust the Pope, and no one has seen his face. WHAT COULD IT MEAN??? welp back to my temple wonder what camus is up to"

- "Brother, I will make up for your sin, even if I have to sacrifice my life!" with a thousand-yard stare. Aiolia, you really, really need some therapy, badly...

- Man, I was gonna cover more episodes with this writeup, but it ends up I had a lot of ranting bottled up about GOD MILO WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU. Oh well. Next time, Aiolia continues to have serious, serious psychological problems! A good time is had by all!

#rewatching sts #aquarius camus did nothing wrong

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fool-moon830 · 5 years

Text

The Grand Legend of Alex Eywrm

My Mentor is a Omnipotent Powerful Dragon... And also a Pothead.

Eterna seoule Eterna vulvis Fatus

May my Fate be as eternal as my soul and my love

I froze, chills went down my spine, a frozen breath found its way onto the nape of my neck. I couldn't move, couldn't blink, couldn't breath.

"H u m a n . . . T u r n a r o u n d a n d F a c e m e. . . "

I slowly turned around, eyes open wide in fear. A pair of eyes catch my gaze, round lapis lazulis with slits in the middle, a cloudy mist fills the air as this hidden atrocity lights a blunt, takes a puff, and breaths mist into my face. I immediately start coughing badly, the smoke having a menthol-like effect, a frozen feeling straight down my throat. God its feels like a cough drop just got shoved down my throat.

“N o t u s e d t o i t , I s u p o s e . . . ”

Still coughing from the cough drop second hand smoke, i look at this...thing with watery eyes and ask something quite stupid.

“w-what the hell are you?”

Let me explain why this was stupid. What this thing is, is a mother loving, omnipotent Grand Elder Dragon, straight outta the underworld. How do I know this? Eyes the color of unnatural ice, the stupid elongated tone of voice, the cough drop second hand smoke, which by the way is created by a cigar made from the menthollyptus plant, a bit of sliver dust, a bit of crushed Golden Shabaath, and the ashes of the Eboreal Ash, . And how do i know it's this specific combination of plants and metal dust? Because the burn in my throat and the dizziness of my eyes feels the same way as when i have to go to my pothead boss whose name I will not mention, who also is a dragon(a lesser dragon i believe). Not a stupidly powerful dragon as this one in front of me-

“W i l l Y o u N o t A d r e s s M e B y M y

T i t l e ? ”

… did this dragon just read my-

“ y e s . . . i d i d . ”

… this mother lovin dragon. His Name is Sytar, the Province of all that is Time. This is a Timelord, someone who could manipulate time at will, and is able to go back into the past and future at will. However, only those who can set in motion the future are Prophets, those who divine prophecies among Heroes.

“H e r o e s-

“Can you just shut up with that stupid tone?”

“...and why should I, Mere mortal?”

“uhh...Because you came here to tell me something?”

“... that is true. Ahem. Allow me to propose some…Exposition.”

...what?

“What the genuine fuck are you talking about?” I ask in an actual concerned voice.

“...i'm just gonna give some exposition. Explain about heros.. Y'know, basic hero talk.”

“...why though? I already know about heroes and their grand and glorious exploits. I don’t need the exposition Sytar.”

“ its for the audience, idiot.”

“The what? What audience?” I look around for any signs of fades or missing bits of my apartment. Usually, grand dragons want to play around and recreate the rooms of their victims through illusionary magic. Also, they set up wireless connections and broadcast their mischief to major television channels. It's also one of Mia’s favorite shows, called The Fool’s Cage with NICK JOOOONES! Or something like that. I don’t watch much television. Just the forecast. Hopefully this isn’t that show.

“I’m not doing that Alex. Im too sophisicated for that dumb soap oprea. Also, who’s Mia?”

“None of your fucking business.”

“Chill dude. I'm not gonna hurt her-”

“Just shut up.” I rub my head and sit down. This is just stupid. Why is this dragon in my room, why can’t I just sleep, and why is there still some delicious musty tea on my mug. Although it's cold now, so its just now mediocre musty tea. Taking a sip of my mediocre musty tea, I ponder the reasons of this dragon being in my already cramped room.

“If you would stop explaining stuff, i would tell you why.”

“Can you shut up?”

“Can you explain why you're being so rude mortal?” This thirteen foot monster with a sixteen foot tail, scales as pale as moonstones, with just a tinge of blue, and nails...or should I say claws, as black as coal, all wrapped up in a bathrobe lined with alpaca fur, and flip flops with small bunny ears...Mia would like these… and a long, girthy, absolutely unnecessary cigar, lit with a teal flame. Wow.. You must really have some worn out lungs huh Sytar?

“ as a matter of fact, my lungs are perfectly fine, thank you very much.” Just as the omnipotent dragon starts coughing like a 40 year old smoker. Don’t Smoke kiddos.

“...anyway, as I was saying… Heroes are given a Prophecy by a Prophet to fulfill, as it is their purpose as a sworn and pledged Hero, and by receiving this blessing, they are given eternal life. That is, they stop aging at a certain age, and can choose how old they look...occasionally. Most heroes either look 20 or 30 years old. It is uncertain. However, a Hero can be slain, and its soul shall remain here. Until it has completed its prophecy, or has it’s soul devoured by a Devil, Or it is destroyed by some other manner, a Hero cannot rest. A Hero can only wait for its opportunity to arrive, or live out its days in misery...such is the tragedy of a hero..” The dragon wipes a petty tear of his cheeks with such unnecessary flair. I wasn’t paying attention though. While this high-of-his-rockers dragon blabbered on about what i already knew about Heros(they teach you this in middle school history, along with the history of this nation’s government, The Federal Foundation of Terrana) I texted Mia. I asked whether or not she wanted hotdogs or ramen hotpot with some delicious musty tea. She wanted the hotdogs and some actual tea. But I reminded her that delicious musty tea was actual tea. Then she sent me a gif with a Gonodorf wizard rolling its eyes and some text on top saying ‘when your roommate is a dad-joke loving dork but you be wanting some actual food’. Kids these days with their memes and what not. Though...Mia isn’t actually a child, she’s old enough to drive around the pier and order her favorite milk tea with boba. Although, she still wakes up early to watch her morning ‘anime’ instead of doing her online college work, and still asks for some SourPatch Dwarves, and still cuddles up to me when she has nightmares...Anyway, she then tells me that she’s bringing one of her friends back home, and she’ll come home in about 20 minutes. Shit! I face the high-as-a-skyscraper dragon and tell him to…

“Leave. Now.”

The dragon, whom took another puff of his cigar, which was now half the length before he arrived, responded in a rather concerning manner…

“Can I at least say that your a hero and explain that…” he takes a moment to recollect his thoughts… “to the audience?”

“N-no!” I manage to say before I start coughing again, accidentally breathing in the cough drop second hand smoke.

“Dude ...it's not that bad….” He really was lost now, gone beyond all hope.

“Look, Wannabe Sytar, Two people live in this household and one of them is not used to the smell of smoke at all, and you won’t shut up about all this hero nonsense, and look-” and another coughing fit ensued from all the cough drop second hand smoke. “J-just go. Come back when your not a bloody stoner” for fucks sakes...Alex rushes around the apartment, opening every window they had. The dragon chuckled and recited a familiar phrase.

“There are Three curses a hero must avoid, lest they shall lose their lives. A Hero must always beware of a Dragon’s Wrath, A Madman’s Oath, and a False God’s Promise. You do know this, don’t you Alex?”

“Y-yes i know” said Alex with a sore throat. The second hand smoke was getting to him pretty badly. “Why bother telling me this?” the dragon sighed and went for another puff of his blunt, decided against it, and place it away in a pocket dimension.

“Alex...i am a tempermental dragon, cursed with Devil’s Scawl. I cannot prevent a berserk state this late into my life. The scawl is as painful as a parasitic cancer can be. Therefore, I use medicinal herbs to ease my pain away. It just so happens to be in the form of a cigar. I know of the conditions in this household, and I’ll try not to overstay this welcome.”

The air froze, particles of dust and smoke slowed to a stop, creating an interstellar, ethereal effect. It suddenly got a lot...colder...what the…

“Alex. there is something I must tell you. We do not have much time…”

“... i'm listening.” I grab the chair to my desk and sit down, wondering at what will the dragon say.

“Alex Ewyrm, You are a Hero who has not taken the Pledge. You will be entangled in the strings of Fate, You will be enwrapped in a story much, Much more grand than you could ever imagine. You will lose, You will gain, and your actions as a Hero shall decide the Destiny of the whole Universe. Alex Ewyrm, Son of Eris and Terrice Ewyrm, and grandchild to a knight of the 13th Order to Maxwell’s Commandment Squadron, Warus Garne Ewyrm, Known as the Hero who drew the cursed blade-

“Exodus. . .”Alex sat there in shock… So this dragon was legitimate. No other dragon could have found out either his parent’s name, or the commandment in which his grandfather served. There was also the fact that Sytar knew about his inheritance, what was passed down, generation to generation.

“Yes. Exodus… the cursed sword Exodus. You see now, that i am Sytar, Providence to all that is Time. I came here to warn you. I shall lead your way, be your guidance, and provided mentorship when you need it most. That is my Pledge I will take as Sytar, Providence to all that is Time!”

...wait. Wait wait wait hold the hot pipe up! Is he suggesting..?!

“..are you saying… you want to be my mentor..?”

“Yes! That is what I pledge and that is what I shall do with pride and dignity!”

I groan and put my weary head on my hands. Why...do i have to be with this pothead…

“H-hey, i'm a nice guy, there’s no need-”

“JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP WILL YA?”

...then there’s silence...the smoke has long left the room. The dust has settled… on the entrance, a small but audible knock can be heard. Then, a voice.

“uhh...Alex...Are you Ok?”

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thesffcorner · 5 years

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John Wick: Chapter 2

John Wick: Chapter 2, is as the title suggests the follow up to the surprisingly successful 2014 John Wick. It’s an action film starring Keanu Reeves in the titular role, as a former enforcer for the Russian mafia. Following the events of the first film, Wick is forced back out of retirement by Santino D’Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio), who gives him a marker to kill his sister, Gianna D’Antonio (Claudia Gerini).

I really like the first John Wick film; it’s a stylized and relentless action film, with some impressive action scenes and Reeves playing what he’s become known for; a sad, martial artist master on a path of vengeance. What intrigued a lot of people, me included were the hints of the wider world: the Continental, the High Table, the medallions. John Wick effectively set up this world of shadowy mafia and assassins in the background of a simple revenge story, and it was inevitable that we’d get a sequel that would expand on it.

Chapter 2, does exactly that: after being more or less blackmailed by D’Antonio to leave retirement once again, John travels to Rome, where we get to see their version of the Continental, this one complete with a tailor, a ‘sommelier’ and a ‘historian’, all of which help John plan the hit on Gianna. I liked that though the background world is more prominent here, and we get to see more of how things function, it was still firmly part of the setting. There are no long expository scenes where we are sat down and told what markers are, how the High Table works, who runs what part of New York, or even who the main players are; we are simply shown things and left to derive our conclusions based on that.

The closest thing we get to exposition is actually a really dumb scene where Winston reminds John that the High Table has 2 rules: never do business of Continental grounds, and each marker must be respected, which was just bizarre to me that he needed to say that to John at all. John lived in this life for years before he got married; surely he would already know this?

The wider world did have a few scenes where I was just scratching my head in how all this worked. There’s a scene where Winston shows John how powerful he is by giving him 1 hour before he’s declared excommunicado, and literary EVERY PERSON in Central Park is in on it. What kind of world is this? Is everyone an assassin? Who pays for this shit?

The other thing that I just didn’t understand was why D’Antonio specifically wanted Wick to kill Gianna? John explains that no one can get near her, but it’s actually incredibly easy to get to her? Like no one notices John, no one gets close to him, he has no issues getting close to Gianna at all. Anyone could’ve done that hit, hell I’ve had more difficult missions in Hitman! Santino would have fared easier if he’d just paid any random schmuck 20$, and that kid would’ve probably had an easier time going in and out, seeing as the only reason John gets caught in the first place, is because he’s literally THE MOST RECOGNIZABLE ASSASSIN EVER.

Like the first film, the action scenes here are brutal, well choreographed and shot, and very fun. The filmmakers have a lot of creative ways for John to kill his opponents, and especially the opening chase/fight scene where he goes after his car was very cool. There’s also a fight with Cassian (Common) on the C train which was very fun, and if you are in this film just for the action, it delivers.

In terms of acting, there are a lot of recognizable faces in the film, but I find the characters were all less developed and less interesting than the first film. I think David Leitch’s departure is felt here most acutely in this department, because the first film succeeded in characterizing and hinting at interesting characters with very little dialogue and screen time.

In the first film, I had a very good grip on all the characters and their personalities; even the really minor supporting cast like Charon, or Winston, or Aurelio had something to do, and something that made them feel distinct.

Here, not so much. The returning cast is mostly wasted; Winston, Charon, and Aurelio have nothing to do, and mostly return to remind us that this is indeed, set in the same universe. Common is good as Cassian, and he even manages to score some points by selling the brief scenes he has with John and Gianna, especially as he manages to hint at a more personal reason for wanting to kill John, not just because Gianna was his boss.

Gianna and Santino fare less well; Gianna has one scene, that does manage to characterize her as a bitch, so that was nice I guess, but her decision to go out the way she choses was kind of ridiculous.

Santino was appropriately hateful, though he brings the homoerotic tension to full blast here, especially in a really weird scene where he asks John how John fantasizes about killing him. Like Alfie Allen’s Iosef, he ends up being wasted, the film hinting at more, but never delivering with his character.

Ruby Rose gets the worst end of the stick. Not only is her character mute for no reason, she spends the whole film stalking John and doing absolutely nothing. She gets a single fight scene at the end, and it’s very short and underwhelming; I really hoped she’d be a bigger threat to John, but instead she’s taken out in a single stab, which makes me wonder why the movie spent so much time establishing her presence.

The only character who escapes this is Laurence Fishburne. The scene between him and John was hilarious, and I felt like I was watching Neo and Morpheus reconvene 10 years after the Matrix.

Overall, some aspects of the film I liked more, and some less. While the action was appropriately bigger and more creative, the characters left a lot to be desired, and the really dumb decision making on the villains’ part to get John involved was more than a little irritating. I still think it’s worth watching, but it’s not a classic like the first for a reason.

#john wick chapter 2 #john wick chapter 2 review #john wick #moni talks #film review

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