#the song is called ''alone together''. hence the title lol

[reinabeestudio]

To celebrate Valentine’s Day, I wrote a humble one-shot featuring Phantom Thief Karamatsu and Detective Shinshia, inspired by the Phantom Thief set from Hesokuri Wars lol.

It is very simple, and I did it just to cater myself LMAO. But maybe some of you find it cute✨. As a small fact, I titled the story “Alone Together”.

Story under the cut!

Finally, February was here! Heart-shaped decorations in every store, roses of different colors were seen over different parts of the city, cute sweets… last but not least, there was the romance. For a long time, this was a sour month for the sextuplets. They were phantom thieves of renown, yet they never got a single chocolate in their whole lives by their fans! It was truly demoralizing, almost as bad as Christmas.

Tradition said that women were the ones that gifted chocolate for the men they had chosen. This year, however, the blue phantom thief had a mission. An important gift to give.

Karamatsu tried so many times in the past to convey his feelings to the new detective: Shinshia Doremi. She acted rough and distant at first. “We are enemies,” she declared coldly. But in the rare moments they could spent together, her behaviour softened and the real Shinshia Doremi was exposed: a warm, yet shy girl. Sadly, everytime he tried to tell her about what he felt, someone or something would interrupt their moment together. Often their separate duties, as detective and phantom thief. 

Oh, Cupid, how cruel was he! Keeping the hearts of this couple in the scale of Lady Justice, its pans so close but never together! Such a tragic fate!

Well, perhaps the vision he had of their love inside his head had evolved into something more dramatic than what it actually was in real life. But it added some excitement to whatever their situation was.

Karamatsu was no fool, either. He knew there were others interested in the girl… Mostly, his boisterous, shitty eldest. He noticed the way that idiot looked at her, and it wasn’t love. At least, not the the type of love he felt inside. The blue thief decided it was time to strike while he still had the chance, and ask her out. Subtly.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♡ ⋅.} ───── ⊰

Once more the young detective ended up being one of the few remaining people in the department. Rookies got so much paperwork, it was just ridiculous. She had to keep a dictionary close to her, too. Some of these characters looked like an amalgamation made of nightmares.

To keep boredom away, Shinshia started singing, the words echoing throughout the empty office. A soft duet, the name of which she could not call to mind at the moment. However, she did remember that it was a popular love song. It was one of the first songs she heard when she first arrived to Japan.

The sun goes to sleep once more

In this lonely time, I wonder

Is your heart dreaming of me?

The detective finished with the paper she had in front of her, and grabbed the next one in the pile. “How tedious,” she thought. She kept singing to herself.

Stars twinkle above our heads

And the moon gives us her best glowing smile

But tonight, I’ll be yours...

“... And yours alone.” 

Another voice joined in with her song, singing along. Shinshia went silent and turned around, but she saw nothing besides empty desks. She went back to her paperwork, along with her song.

However, before she could sing another word, Shinshia stopped entirely when suddenly a pair of hands covered her eyes. “Who is it?” a familiar male voice asked in a sing-song tone.

“The sweet release of death, I hope.”

She resumed her work when she regained her sight as the infamous phantom thief, Karamatsu, casually leant against her desk with a subtle smile. “Long day, I presume.”

“You have no idea,” she sighed and tucked her hair behind her ears . “You should leave before someone sees you. Unless you want me to handcuff you.”

Karamatsu laughed quietly. “Heh, being helpless at your mercy sounds like a very tempting offer, darling. ” Shinshia’s face immediately flushed and he laughed again, genuinely. “But I am here to steal you away.”

“Steal me away?” Shinshia asked, not even looking away from the papers. She put some loose locks of hair behind her ear again. She was often pulling hair away from her face lately. “Sorry Karamatsu, but I have a ton of paperwork left to do. I can’t be stolen right now.”

“C’mon, Shia-chan! It won’t be for long. I’m just asking you to take a break.”

“I told you, I’m busy right n-”

The phantom thief put a hand over the paper she was writing on, and the scowling detective finally looked up at him. It was in that moment when she noticed that he was wearing casual clothes, and not his usual garish outfit filled with blue glitter. The only part that did stand out was, perhaps, the black eyepatch on his left eye. He felt triumphant over this, how she looked at him.

“Tonight, be mine alone ♪.”

After a minute of silence and a staring competition that was perhaps getting a bit too intense for the situation, Shinshia got up from her desk grumbling. “Fine. A short break.”

With a triumphant spring in his step, he suddenly scooped her up in his arms effortlessly and left the office. His plan was working so far.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♡ ⋅.} ───── ⊰

Now this was strange.

Karamatsu dragged Shinshia out of the office. That was not the strange part, but instead of avoiding crowded places like he always did, they just… kept walking. Out in the open. Walking didn’t bother her, it was just unusual. He was a famous criminal, after all. It was a miracle they left the building so easily. Or maybe the author was just too lazy to think of something smart.

Wait, author? What author? That makes no sense. Just ignore it.

It was snowing outside. Snow wasn’t common where she was from, so she still marvelled at the sight of it everytime. Despite how much she enjoyed watching the snow fall, it was still cold in the streets. So smart was she, that she forgot to grab her jacket before they left, and now she was constantly rubbing her hands together.

Karamatsu laughed. “You’ll end up setting them on fire, Shia-chan.”

Shinshia snorted. The comment was lame, yet she snorted, like the fool she was. Karamatsu took her hand on his own and blew on it, before he decided to put both of their hands inside his coat pocket. She glanced at him, noticing that he was actually doing the same at her. However, as soon as he noticed her eyes on him, Karamatsu quickly looked away and instead focused on the cars that passed by.

After spending their evening with an impromptu stroll, they finally headed back to the building. Karamatsu spent most of the time silent, which was even more unusual that this whole situation. Usually, he loved doing long monologues filled with inscrutable flowery words that probably sounded cool only in his mind. But during that evening, Karamatsu seemed focused in whatever was going through his head at the moment. Then again, Shinshia didn’t talk much herself.

The poor detective couldn’t help it! He was a man that had to be put behind bars for his crimes, she knew this. However, everytime they were together, her mind just stopped working properly. This had been happening since she actually caught him once: Karamatsu, one of the six-colored phantom thieves that stole valuable pieces of art all around the city. He was pretty popular among the youngest members of her department, some of them even called themselves his fans. That was done in secret, of course.

Shinshia knew little about the man next to her. Truth be told, she wanted to unveil that air of mystery around him by herself. Not as a detective, but as… something else. Maybe as a friend. Or maybe as something deeper. Only the author knew.

Hold on, what-- you know what, nevermind that.

First she thought, maybe she was just starstruck. After all, as soon as she arrived to that building, she was assigned to the case of the phantom thieves. Shinshia was in a country that was so different  to her native Spain, and she knew no one, besides this guy. A criminal. But he kept coming back when she was alone, giving her advice and listening to her troubles… And then a bond bloomed between them. So sudden, yet so natural, as if it was destined to happen.

“Shinshia,” Karamatsu called to her softly, pulling her from her thoughts, “I have a little present for you.”

“A present? Why?”

“Just a little something I got for you! It’s fine, I promise.”

Shinshia sighed. “Well, fine.”

His eye glittered as he clasped his hands happily. Gosh, what a big baby. “Good! Close your eyes, and don’t open them until I say you can, understand?” He said that last part in English, for some reason.

Strange request, but Shinshia did what he told her anyway, and closed her eyes. She could hear Karamatsu fumbling with something- not sure with what, but it was small, she supposed. He did say it was a little something, after all. Suddenly, she felt his hands on the sides of her head, playing with the locks of her hair. He put them back, and then she felt those same hair locks being slightly pulled back by something. She feels his warm hand linger on her chin, delicately caressing along her jawline before pulling away.

“Open your eyes.”

Shinshia opened her eyes, feeling really curious about what Karamatsu did. He took out a round pocket mirror and then he showed her: a blue hair bow was holding back her hair.

Karamatsu smiled at her softly. “Your hair is growing long, Shia-chan. It keeps getting in front of your eyes, doesn’t it?” She nodded, impressed. When did he notice her annoyance at her hair? It was such an insignificant detail. “Now I can see your cute face again.”

Shinshia looked down, feeling her face warm up. “T-Thanks.”

After he put the small mirror back in its place, he took an envelope out of the same pocket. He gave it to her. It would have looked like a normal letter, if it wasn’t for the small heart on the back… And the blue glitter. So painful.

“What is this?” Shinshia took the envelope and opened it. Inside there was a single piece of black paper with text in gold letters. “An invitation?”

“Observant as always! It’d make me very happy to see you there.”

“I’m not sure, Karamatsu… this is very sudden.”

“But, Shia-chan! It will be so much fun!” Karamatsu looked at her with puppy eyes. Uh, eye. “Do it for me. Please?” 

How was that working so well, what the hell. Shinshia sighed in defeat. “I will think about it.”

Feeling victorious yet again, Karamatsu took her hand and kissed her knuckles. “Good night, Shia-chan. I hope to see you there.” Those were his last words before he turned around and walked away, quickly melting into the crowd. Now Shinshia Doremi was left alone at the doors of her workplace with her heart beating incredibly fast.

The detective looked down at the sparkly envelope. This thing was so shiny that it hurted to look at it for too long. It was so painful! It was so tacky!

“You're so troublesome.” she said to no one. She released a deep sigh.

She was in love with the blue phantom thief called Karamatsu.

Shinshia decided to attend to the party, after all.

She didn’t go to parties often… mostly because she wasn’t invited to any of them. But, if she was being honest with herself, the promise of meeting him again was too tempting to resist. Also, free food and drinks.

Woah. She really had to have a deep crush on the man of strange monologues, if she was going to ignore her insecurity just for him. What a guy, he was making miracles happen even when he wasn’t present.

So she got ready, donning the prettiest dress she could find inside her closet. She wore the blue bow he gifted her, and after checking herself in the mirror, she grabbed her clutch purse and left to the party.

“Even if Karamatsu isn’t there, it’s better than to be alone during Valentine’s day,” she thought as she locked the door of her house behind her.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♡ ⋅.} ───── ⊰

It was a Valentine’s dance party. It should have been obvious, considering the day it took place. But she wasn’t aware that Valentine’s Day parties existed at all. Of course they do, why wouldn’t they? Maybe the host was single as hell, and this was their attempt in trying to find a partner. Or maybe it was a Jay Gatsby trying to find their Daisy Buchanan. Yikes, hopefully not. 

Also, every celebration needs a party, obviously.

Somewhere, someone in the world will throw a party for Cat Day. Maybe they will put a silly little hat on top of their cat’s head, followed by the confused pet trying to swat it away with its little paws and failing as the owner was in the floor laughing to tears.

That turned to be a very amusing thought, after all. It’d be so funny if someone celebrated Cat Day like that. She didn’t even know if Cat Day existed at all, but now she really hoped that it did.

Back to reality, Shinshia grabbed a glass from the nearest table as she looked around, moving between the many guests that were having fun together. Where in the world was Karamatsu? How could a single man wearing a black eyepatch be so difficult to find among so many colorful outfits? Pretty sure his full name was Karamatsu Sandiego. A famous thief whose signature look features a blue, glittery matching top hat and long cape. Of course, it all checked out, she just solved the case.

The detective was so into her own dumb line of thought that she didn’t notice the carpet, and her shoe caught. There was barely time to react; carpet veered up, her drink tipped forward, and suddenly the floor was very close. Extremely close. However, she hadn’t bit it, and that didn’t quite make sense. Gravity existed, and through gravity, she should have hit the floor.

There was something holding her up. A hand, which connected to an arm, which led all the way to a well-tailored suit. A delicious, familiar fragrance reached her nose.

“Well now,” a voice purred so slowly, and hands turned her to face upwards. Karamatsu’s face slowly turned into a tender smile. “I see you decided to come after all, darling.”

“Ah, well…” Shinshia really couldn’t say much with her waist held so enticingly by those hands, as warm hands brushed up against her skin and tickled. “I... I had to make sure that you didn’t steal anything! There are many people here wearing valuable jewelry, I’m sure you’d manage to steal something.”

“Heh, it seems my plans were ruined by the great Shinshia once more!” Karamatsu continued onwards with that smile just deepening at her sight, and somehow, he seemed to be leaning a bit closer. The room rang with cheery laughter, and the party carried onwards without a single glance towards the thief and the detective.

“You always seem to be,” one hand caressed its fine way up to her shoulder, “Stumbling around me. I’m starting to wonder if you are tripping on purpose now, hmmm?”

He knew well she wasn’t doing it on purpose. But before she could complain about that, he pressed a finger to her lips, silencing her completely. The hand on her waist pulled her just a little closer that she could feel the warmth radiating from him. He laced his fingers with hers. “I enjoy our moments together, darling.”

The orchestra struck up a mesmerizing waltz, and Karamatsu’s eye perked up enough that Shinshia could practically see the lightbulb above his head.

“Let’s dance!” he invited her without a second thought, and Shinshia stumbled as Karamatsu guided her to the dance floor. A violin hummed and a key plucked, and then his hands were on her waist, a smile beaming away. 

Unexpectedly, he was good at the waltz. What the hell, that was not fair. Shinshia found herself tripping quite a lot, and the phantom thief just chuckled everytime she crashed into his body. It didn’t seem to phase him either, he just grinned all the wider and adjusted until she fell back into rhythm. 

Finally, somehow the rhythm came to Shinshia. Maybe it was the guiding steps of Karamatsu. Maybe it was the smile he gave her as she fumbled along. Or, perhaps, it was the hand he still had on her waist, caring as it kindly led her along despite her inexperience. Whatever it was, it had her steps synchronize with Karamatsu’s, and suddenly she started noticing other things: how his rings glistened in the light as Karamatsu led both of them through the swarm of couples, or how his brown eye never looked away from her face. Small details, yet they were such lovely little things that made her heart beat wildly inside the detective’s chest.

“Say, Shinshia.”

“Yes?”

“You said you came here to make sure I didn’t steal anything, right?”

Shinshia raised an eyebrow in confusion, but she nodded. Where was he going on with this? Was he actually going to do that? She told it as a joke, she didn’t want to work tonight.

“Heh, well, my beloved Shinshia... ” Karamatsu leaned down slightly and whispered. “I believe I already stole something.”

Shinshia didn’t really notice the song grew faster until a violin screeched in delight and suddenly Karamatsu was really close. When the song was over, he had dipped her just as the last violin ended with an exaggerated flourish. 

Karamatsu leaned forward, his lips brushing hers, and perhaps it hadn’t been such a bad thing, tripping over her own shoe. Not when she could feel him gaze at her in rapt adoration. Not when Karamatsu had her so lovingly wrapped in his hands, and clutching as if she was the most fragile, most precious thing in the world that had happened to him.

No, perhaps it was for the best.

#Self Insert #Shinshia Doremi #Karamatsu #osomatsu san #My writing #my art #HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!! HAVE SOME CRINGE <3 #the lyrics song she's singing to herself was written by me!!! #the song is called ''alone together''. hence the title lol #also yeah shia gets distracted easily by her own thoughts (bc shes me AKLSDMA) #i have no idea if valentine parties exist actually. they prolly do tho #btw if you wonder: ''Also every celebration needs a party obviously'' part?? yes it was sarcasm LMAO #more or less what you can expect in Nil Admirari #albeit the romance wouldnt happen so fast AJKSFNAJKS this is a oneshot after all

[oikeiji]

call you mine | akaashi keiji

summary: you and akaashi spent the day with each other as friends. or that’s what the both of you thought. towards the end of the day, he brings up a sudden question.

pairing: akaashi x f!reader

word count: 1610

content: fluff!!! :,( akaashi ily

warnings: nothing besides mentions of food, also not proofread

(this entire scenario was based off this song, hence the title, so feel free to listen to it while reading :) hope u enjoy!!)

akaashi’s eyes fluttered open as he woke up from his slumber. his eyes shifted to the alarm clock beside his bed. it was 7 in the morning. he yawned, rolling over onto his back and stared at the ceiling. memories of yesterday’s practice replayed in his mind. him and bokuto got into a petty argument that left bokuto angry with him. akaashi frowned thinking about it, bringing his mood down a bit. it was normal but it still kind of bothered him that it happened often.

figuring bokuto was still mad at him, he decided to call you. he grabbed his phone off the nightstand and clicked on your contact. you were surprised that he was calling you so early in the morning, but it was akaashi so you didn’t mind. he ranted about what happened with bokuto and you gave him some advice. afterwards the both of you talked about random things and made each other laugh.

you looked at the time and it had already been two hours since you answered his call. there was now a comfortable silence between the two of you. “hey keiji?” you called out to him and he hummed in response. “wanna meet up and get something to eat? since i know you won’t be hanging with bokuto today.” he got too excited and eager, quickly accepting your proposal. 

the two of you are quite close and akaashi won’t deny the fact he has a crush on you. how could he not? you were so funny, understanding, talented, pretty… the list could go on. he knew he was falling when you unexpectedly made him a bento with his favorite food. the two of you rarely hang out outside of school due to him being busy with volleyball and you had other things to do as well. of course he took this opportunity right away.

akaashi got up from his bed to get dressed. he wanted to impress you since you always see him in his uniform, but he tried not to overdress. you guys planned to meet up at the train station and walk to the restaurant together. he left as soon as he was ready, trying not to make you wait up.

the train ride wasn’t too long and he arrived at the agreed time. he looked around the station trying to find you. he spotted you waiting near the exit of the station. god she looks so good, he thought to himself. his heart rate picked up a bit and he gulped before approaching you.

“hey y/n!” akaashi called as he started getting closer. you looked over to his direction, a smile immediately appeared on your face. wow he looked even better in casual clothing, you thought.

“keiji!” you greeted him back. you hoped you didn’t come off too excited. the two of you exchanged a little side hug. it was a bit odd since you guys weren’t touchy due to being surrounded by classmates almost all of the time.

“you look.. very pretty.”

“thank you. you look very handsome yourself,” his little compliment made your heart skip a beat. was this really happening? your face started to heat up. oh god, you really hoped he didn’t notice the blush forming on your face. you didn’t want him to see the effect he had on you.

during the walk to the restaurant you two talked about what food you were going to order. it also consisted of you guys getting sort of lost since the maps app was being stupid and giving you the wrong directions. akaashi was the one pointing out that you were heading towards sketchy places. eventually you guys arrived at your destination, which was a cute little conveyor sushi belt restaurant. 

being the gentleman he was, akaashi let you in first and followed after you. the two of you were sat down by the host. when akaashi sat in front of you, that’s when you realized. you were really alone with him. just him. no classmates or people you knew around. it was just the two of you together. is this technically a date? no... neither of us said it was, you got lost in your thoughts. you tried your best to hide your nerves so he wouldn’t notice anything off. 

“ready to order?” akaashi interrupted your thoughts.

“oh yeah! you can put yours in first.”

he quietly agreed. little did you know that akaashi himself was yelling on the inside. he tried thinking of it as if you guys were in class just talking. except this was nothing like class! you guys weren’t talking about the assignments or what your plans are for the school day. he shouldn’t be acting like this though.. you guys were good friends. he blamed it on the fact he was romantically interested in you.

once the both of your orders came in, you guys started eating. thankfully it was just like your regular old conversations. nothing awkward or uncomfortable, just two good friends having a chat over some good food. you guys shared some good laughs and you took pictures of akaashi claiming that ‘he looked like a squirrel’ with his cheeks stuffed. he got revenge by taking some of you unexpectedly. secretly, both of you were happy you got pictures of one another.

after your delicious meal, you dragged akaashi to an arcade nearby. the two of you played a bunch of games and competed against each other. some games he let you win on purpose, but some games just sparked his competitiveness and showed you no mercy.

you guys played games for about an hour before deciding to leave. that place was really eating your money up. akaashi was surprisingly good at the claw games. he let you keep some of the plushies he won even though you protested against it. it was unintentional, but you guys ended up with matching plushies. he just really wanted you to keep something that reminded you of him.

on the way out you noticed that there was a photobooth. you suggested taking pictures for memories. the pictures came out super cute and you guys had a copy each. akaashi was definitely going to cherish this and place it somewhere nice in his room.

it had gotten dark outside very quickly. after doing other random activities like window shopping, you guys came across a park. there were surprisingly a bunch of people despite it being dark out. all of the benches were occupied so the two of you sat under a tree.

“wow, the sky looks so beautiful tonight.”

“yeah you can see the stars very clearly,” akaashi turned to look at you. you were staring up at the sky in awe. he quickly turned away before you could catch him staring.

the two of you were in the same comfortable silence from earlier. you guys gazed at the stars together and enjoyed each other's presence. however, both of you were not calm on the inside. you became hyper aware of how close akaashi was to you and debated whether to scoot closer or not. on the other hand, he was fighting with himself if now was the right to confess. there wouldn’t be any other perfect time than this. 

akaashi looked over at you again. he admired how the moonlight shone down on you. butterflies began to fill his stomach. you looked so beautiful to him, the stars were literally in your eyes. he couldn’t take his eyes off you and wished he could capture this moment to have forever.

“y/n?” he tried to gain your attention.

“hm what’s up?”

“no, look at me.”

you were startled by his words and turned towards him. he was staring at you with such a serious look on his face. his gaze alone made you nervous again and you froze in place.

“please just listen and don’t say anything until after,” he spoke. “i really like you, y/n. i’ve liked you for a long time now. ever since that day you randomly put that bento box on my desk. you’re so nice to me and always listen to my problems. i couldn’t help but fall in love with you. seeing you look at the stars next to me makes me fall in love with you more. there isn’t any other perfect time for me to confess to you… can i call you mine?”

you teared up at his confession. he looked at you worriedly but before he could say anything you hugged him tightly. he slowly wrapped his arms around you, kind of confused.

“keiji, you idiot,” you mumbled into his chest, letting a few tears out. “of course i’ll be yours. i did that all for you because i like you. it’s about time you finally knew about it.”

“i’m so glad, i really thought you were going to reject me,” akaashi slowly rubbed your back.

“you’re dumb. you’re so dumb, keiji. why else would i go out of my way to make you lunch?”

you cuddled up into his chest, watching the stars together. eventually you guys had to separate ways since it was starting to get really late. trying to leave each other at the train station was hard, but you hugged each other tightly before separating.

once akaashi got home, he flopped right onto his bed. he couldn’t believe that actually happened. he brought his blanket up to his face and started smiling hard. memories from tonight replayed in his mind. his phone buzzed beside him, snapping him out of his thoughts. he quickly grabbed it.

goodnight cutie :)

you were really going to be the death of him.

HELP IT’S ALMOST 7AM AND I STAYED UP WRITING THIS. hope you guys liked this one as much as i did!! sorry if the end seems a bit rushed i’m very tired lol. aaaaah akaashi T__T the things i do for u.

#haikyuu x reader #haikyuu imagines #haikyuu scenarios #akaashi keiji x reader #akaashi x reader #akaashi imagine #akaashi oneshot #haikyuu fluff #haikyuu!! #hq akaashi

[cafedanslanuit]

Sweet Creature || Jumin x MC  -Oneshot

sweet creature, wherever I go, you bring me home

genre; fluff. so much fluff.

summary; Jumin gets stuck in another country away from his wife. He’s been having trouble falling asleep, so MC decides to tell him a bedtime story. A simple request ends up making Jumin open up about a small insecurity he had over is wife and his best friend.

notes; I said Jumin is in Peru because the law is very strict here: flights are not allowed and we’re under mandatory quarantine. Also because the time difference was a nice touch for this lol. Oh! This idea came up while listening to this song, hence the title~

-----------------

“Isn't it dangerous to travel these days? :(“

Jumin read that text over and over, as if, somehow, he could go back to the moment where he read it for the first time. He should have postponed his business travel, but due to his father giving him more responsibilities at C&R and himself thinking nothing wrong could happen, he was now trapped in Peru, kilometers away from his wife.

He turned around on his hotel bed, dreading the soft aroma of whatever detergent they used for the sheets. It wasn't unpleasant itself, but it wasn't the smell of your shampoo that always lingered on the pillowcases. 

It had been more than fifty days already. All he wanted was to return home, but flights were prohibited and he had no way to return home to you. Jumin checked his dual clock on his phone and decided it was okay to call you. It should be 5pm in Korea. It went unanswered, making him furrow his eyebrows. Surely nothing bad had happened, since you were under lockdown as well. 

He was letting his mind go to dangerous places when he received a call from you. He picked up, your face appearing on the screen with a smile.

"Sorry! I was at the bathroom. I thought you were already asleep, isn't it... like, 3 am there?" you asked, putting a strand of your hair behind your ear.

"Couldn't sleep" Jumin replied. He put his phone against a pillow, just where you would be lying if you were actually by his side. Picking the cue, you did the same, laying on the bed and looking at your husband through the screen.

"What's on your mind?" you asked.

"How long am I supposed to wait to be able to embrace my wife" he sighed.

"Probably a while more. When you come here, I think you'll have to go under quarantine yourself. Just in case" you answered, with a small pout. "I know it’s been already fifty-six days apart, and that those other forty when you get back aren't ideal for our first year as a married couple, but... we'll survive".

"You sound so collected. I thought I was supposed to be the businessman and you were the dedicated piano teacher" he teased. His smile grew as he watched you laugh.

"I may have learnt a thing or two from you. But honestly..." you let out a big sigh "I miss you too. Whenever anyone from the RFA checks on me I'm always sulking about how I can't see my husband".

Jumin's smile faded a little, watching you lose focus a little, your eyes lost somewhere in your bedroom.

"I'm sorry. I should have listened to you, I-- I thought it would be safe. Sorry for not being there for you".

"But you are" you assured him, your eyes on him again. "You are here for me. I'm in one of the safest buildings in town, there's plenty of food and I don't need to go outside for anything since you set up a delivery for me and Elizabeth be 3rd. You are still protecting me from so far away".

"We're missing so many celebrations. I was planning to take you out each month on our anniversary date for our first year as a married couple".

"I know, but you'll definitely be here for our anniversary! And we'll get to celebrate together, have a nice and romantic dinner at home and then fall asleep next to each other". 

Jumin smiled at your promise of a future where he wouldn't sleep on a empty bed anymore. He had got used to sleeping next to you so quickly, he didn't understand how was he able to sleep alone for so long.

"I am worried about something, though" you admitted. Jumin immediately scrunched his face, concerned.

"What is it?"

"I'm worried it's 3 am there and you can't seem to fall asleep" you said, concerned.

"I miss you"

"I miss you too. How about I tell you a story?"

"A story?"

"You know, a bedtime story. Maybe it can help?" you offered, shifting on the bed.

"I've never listened to a bedtime story. Wouldn't it be rude to fall asleep while you're talking?"

"No" you chuckled "That's the point. Let me try, okay? I'm going to tell you the story about... Mia. Mia was a girl who loved playing the piano. She loved it so much, sometimes she would cancel plans with her friends to stay home and play. She studied at a Music School to be a teacher and got pretty good grades".

"The piano?" Jumin asked, with a small smile. He then closed his eyes.

"Yes, this new and exciting character loved the piano. Anyway, one day she decided to download an app she didn't know, thinking it was a game she could play while on the bus. There she met these incredible people who ended up being a big part in her life. Even if things got… complicated surrounding lost brothers and surprisingly, cults, everything worked out in the end. She ended up falling for one of them, you know?”

“I always thought you would fall for Jihyun” Jumin commented, his eyes still closed.

“What?” you shifted on the bed, supporting yourself on your elbow.

“Mia. I always thought she would fall for Jihyun because they're so alike” he opened his eyes and put a hand through his hair. “They are very emotionally intelligent and always want the best for everyone around them. Natural caretakers. And also inclined to an artistic career”

You stayed in silence for a minute, not knowing if your husband was trying to make a joke you couldn’t understand or if he was being serious. You took a deep breath before talking.

“Hmmm, she liked him, yes. Jihyun was kind but she saw him the same way she saw Hyun or any of the others. He was a friend she could trust and a friend who would easily understand her when she was having a problem”.

“But if he could understand what she was feeling with a glance why did she…”

“She felt protected” you interrupted him “and loved by everyone at the RFA. But there was this man, the oldest of them all, who at first seemed cold and detached, but soon revealed his true self. You won't believe this, but he would send tons of photos of his cat to Mia!" Jumin chuckled. "But it was a beautiful cat and he was a beautiful man, so Mia liked it. He was fun, even if it was in an unconventional way. He went through a rough time when his cat got lost, but thankfully Mis was there for him. She got to know him a lot more on those days. For example, she found out he had trouble dealing with his feelings”.

“Not like Jihyun”

You sighed. “You think he was jealous of Jihyun?”

“I think so, yes. At least because of how easy it was for him to show emotion to his old girlfriend. How it was easy for him to express himself”

“Mmmm... Well, Mia didn't think the same. See, some people say music is a language itself. So she learnt from a young age words are not only the only way to express oneself. And there are a lot of ways for that. Some people say they love you, some people bring you presents, others spend quality time with you… there are a lot of ways, seriously. So when this young, cat-loving man asked Mia to stay for longer at his apartment, she understood he meant he wasn't feeling okay and that her presence, somehow, was helping her deal with everything. So she stayed. And... if you insist on Jihyun, I don't think he and Mia would have made a good couple" you say, tapping your chin with your index finger. "I think whenever one of those would have had a discrepancy, the other one would have made a drama out of it. I think they were so alike they wouldn't have let the other one grow. But whenever Mia talked with this guy I’ve been telling you about, she would always learn a thing or two. She would see a problem from another perspective and actually understand it better. Also, let's face it: she was melting whenever those dark eyes landed on her. Boy, did she feel like a teenager whenever he said something kind to her! It was embarrassing honestly” you laughed, hiding your face with your hands.

“Like a teenager?” Jumin asked with a soft smile, raising his eyebrow.

“Yes! One of those days she stayed at his place, he asked her to dine together, so she went to ‘refresh herself’ to the bathroom, okay? Actually, she was having a meltdown, fixing her makeup the best she could and thinking about interesting topics she could talk about with him”.

“Really?”

“I'm not joking. Jumin, she would get up earlier than him, brush her teeth, comb her hair and lay on her bed again so she would look somewhat good when he came to see her in the morning. It was pathetic. That's how smitten she was with him. Thank God I've never acted that way" you scoffed. Both you and Jumin looked at each other and smiled. “Not a long time went by before she ended up marrying him, can you believe it?” you asked, feigning surprise. Jumin chuckled.

“Sounds unreal” he admitted.

“I know, right?” you asked, laughing softly. “But she did, she actually married this guy in a beautiful church surrounded by the people she loved. It was a wonderful day. She couldn’t believe she could love someone that much”.

You stayed silent for a while, just looking at each other's face, remembering just how much in love they had been from the moment they saw each other.

“I'm sorry my story didn't help you sleep” you apologized in a soft voice.

“I do feel more relaxed now. I'm going to try and get some sleep now” Jumin said, stretching his neck.

“Please call if you can't. I'm always here for you, Mr. Han.” you teased him with a grin.

“Thank you, Mrs. Han. Have a nice evening. Please remember how deeply grateful I am that you chose me” he said in a soft voice. You smiled and blew out a kiss for him.

“As I am. Goodnight, my love”

#mystic messenger #jumin han #mysme #mysme jumin #mystic messenger imagines #mysme jumin han #mm jumin

[targsdaenerys]

Jon’s wolf is white, like the Targaryen’s hair. Was it a sign? Were they hinting that since season 1? 🤔

there’s no way they wouldn’t be.

their stories are both parallel to each other, along with Jon’s parentage, and yall know how I’m a slut for it. I’m going to use this ask as an excuse to assess the Pilot. This mainly turned into a Jonerys Parallel Meta, sorry about that - but what comes with Jonerys parallels IS his parentage. Let’s start off with some basics:

A Song of Ice and Fire.

If you don’t follow, read the title again. Here, I’ll give you a hint: A Song of Ice and Fire.

If you still don’t understand, i translated it for you: The Story of a Stark and Targaryen. OR: The Story Of How The North’s Bastard Journeyed And United Those Beyond the Wall and The Girl with Blood Of Fire And Dragon Conquered Essos Managing To Find Each Other. The whole series is just how two halves that find themselves as physical and locational polar opposites join together.

To answer your question: in no way a coincidence. The Targaryen’s honestly identify as what we would say, Albino. White hair, pale skin, and the real characteristic of red/pink/violet eyes. This Albino model is a beautiful example of Targaryen characteristics:

As we all know, Ghost is Albino. As well as the runt of the litter, or the outcast. Something both Jon and Dany are to their families. GRRM could have easily just given Jon another wolf that was a runt, but he also made it Albino. Not to mention Dany getting a white horse:

He basically gave Jon a hint of his parentage in the pilot. I forget where I saw it, but there is a wonderful Theory Video on Youtube that expresses the idea that Three-eyed Raven!Bran pointed Jon into the direction of finding Ghost since there was honestly no way Jon heard the rustling that told him Ghost was there. Much like when Bran called out to Young Ned and he turned around, although could not see him.

      3.  Their scenes

Believe it or not, their scenes even parallel to each other down to the order.

Jon’s first scene:

Introducing his personality + relationship with his family. The toxic relationship between him and Catelyn.

Dany’s first scene:

Introducing her personality + creepy relationship between her brother.

Both are the victims of the abuse.

The last pics i chose are VERY similar

Jon’s second scene:

Establishing his level of power/family’s level of power. A secondary character in the scene hence its Ned doing the execution and it highlights his honor. But still has (two) lines to his brother that could have very well be given to Robb. (almost word for word in the books, as well.)

Dany’s second scene:

She has her meeting with Khal Drogo and Viserys’s conversation about when the will be married. The meeting ceremony parallels the Stark’s execution ceremony. We then go on to the conversion, which establishes Dany’s place, her brother’s place, and family’s place. She is a secondary character in the scene that exchanges her only two lines with her brother.

Jon’s third scene:

Hunting with his family. They happen upon a gross dead Stag first. Then find the Direwolves. Most importantly, Ghost, the one white wolf out of all of them and his iconic sidekick. As I said before, albino. The Direwolves are considered extinct/north of the all, and yet they find them. He only finds Ghost after identifying his place in the family.

Dany’s third scene:

The Dothraki wedding. Surrounded by gross dead animal meat (I’m not vegan, it just looks gross lol). Accepts her place in the family, and is gifted her dragon eggs, aka iconic sidekicks. Considered extinct. Is then also gifted a white horse.

          4.  As we know, those are not all of Jon’s scenes. We also have the shaving scene, Royal arrival, and being outside during the feast and invited to join Nights Watch. Although not parallel to the order of the scenes, these all connect to what happens to Dany as well.

Shaving scene = Bathroom scene

Getting prettied up for royal arrival

Nudity

Personality: Dany being timid, Jon being teased for not liking girls more than his hair. Later translates to their traumas of being a bastard and the abuse of her brother.

Royal arrival = meeting ceremony

Kinda self-explanatory. Both Lannisters/Baratheon and Dothraki are to play a significant role in their families’ fates.

Outside the feast = Dothraki Wedding

Isolation; although a big family deal, Jon is not allowed inside, highlighting his place in the family of always being excluded. And although it is her wedding, Dany is the most alone shes ever been.

Tyrion’s conversation = Dany’s gifts

These feelings are both alleviated a bit when Tyrion finds Jon and empathizes with him and Dany is given her gifts. Both events establish their roles as characters; the Bastard of the North and Girl with/ Mother of Dragons.

Night Watch Invite = Marriage Consummation

These are both key scenes. It sets off the story we will see them in for the next 5-6 seasons before meeting each other. Jon is told the way to be treated like anything but a bastard in to join the Night’s Watch; Dany is told the only way to go ‘home’ is to marry Khal to get his armies. The invite starts Jon off on his journey in the Watch and North of the Wall while the Consummation officializes Dany’s marriage with Khal, hence her own journey across Essos. AKA embarking to the coldest and hottest places in the GOT/ASOIAF world.

I hope this was a satisfying answer! Again, GRRM had said the whole story is Jon and Dany. Jon’s parentage being half Targaryen mixes in with the parallel of their love story and how they are two people with similar abusive pasts, embark on a 6 season journey on the opposite ends of the world, only to grow as one and finally, against all odds including death, come together as one. Its why their parallels are so beautiful, and honestly, unbelievable to me. they told the same story while polar opposites. the cinematography used to show it really brings it out.

There are so many other scenes that definitely build to his parentage; the context of it all honestly blows my mind and the way they play it out is one of the main reasons i think GoT is so epic. i hope i  can find the patience to do it all one day.

#jonerys #jonerys meta #jon snow #jon snow meta #ask #anonymous #jon x dany #jon x daenerys #daenerys x jon #jon snow x daenerys targaryen #jon snow x daenerys

[spaceorphan18]

Finding Kurt Hummel: The Rise and Fall of Sue Sylvester

Masterpost

6x10: The Rise and Fall of Sue Sylvester

And here we are at the infamous Sue episode panned by fans everywhere.  Is it really that bad?  Well I did have it as my least favorite episode of the series, (though after careful inspection, that title truly goes to the hot mess that is I Kissed a Girl).  However, believe it or not, I don’t think this is the /worst/ Glee ever put out. I do, though, think the context is what makes it so frustrating.  

Child Star and Other Missed Opportunities

Here’s the thing - when you write out season 6 on paper, I think the structure of what the writers were going for makes a lot more sense.  The main story that they were telling was getting the Glee club back in order, to be, in a way, an echo of what season 1 was.  And for the most part, I do think that structure works.  You have Rachel in the ‘Will’ spot as teacher, trying to get her life together while trying to inspire these young kids to be awesome, and like the end of the Front 13 - the ending there is Sectionals.  

All the other plot lines are secondary, including Rachel’s triumphant return to New York, which is the b-story of the entire season.  Kurt (and Blaine)’s reunion arc might be, eh, a distant 3rd? Maybe 4th after Will’s.  But that’s what makes these final three episodes (before the final two that make up, essentially, the series finale) so jarring.   We’ve been used to strong focus on Kurt and Blaine as secondary characters, and the kids have been the main focus since season 3.  Shifting everything back so that Will and Sue are the main characters, with Rachel as a secondary lead feels... off.  

The thing is -- I see what they were trying to do here.  After wrapping up the Klaine (and Brittana) arc - the last arcs that the ‘kid’ characters get (besides Rachel) we essentially have three extra episodes left.  One will be the competition episode.  One was the episode about the New Newbies which I don’t think was a bad thing - even if I think introducing a new character five episodes before the end was a dumb move.  But like the original kids, I think these new kids rightfully deserved an episode of their own.  And thus leaves one episode where they needed to do, well, something.  

And hence - we get Sue.  

Yeah - It would have been nice if they had spent an episode exploring Kurt and Blaine’s now married life, or what the hell are Mercedes, Artie, Tina, Brittany, Santana, Mike, etc, etc, etc, etc, doing with their lives.  But - in the minds of the glee writers... they already did that in various capacities over the previous episodes.  

But even more than that - for reasons I’ll never fully understand, unless it’s about how much they love Jane Lynch, they decided to focus an episode on Sue.  And while the episode isn’t the utter worst thing Glee ever did (honestly, go back and watch IKAG again...), trying to make emotional sense of a character you’ve reduced to a cartoon character, who breaks the fourth wall just... doesn’t work.  And on top of that, they don’t resolve anything, nor is it that interesting to watch.  Sue remains, well, Sue and nothing remotely happens.  

So yeah, this ‘filler’ episode was a way to stall time before the obligatory ending Sectionals episode - and they filled it up with a lot of what no one wanted, especially the precious few who were still watching.  And thus, we have the most frustrating and least satisfying episode of the entire series.  Thankfully, Kurt is barely in it. 

Burn the House Down

So, we open with the New New New Directions in typical Glee fashion, doing the hot single of the moment - idk even know the name of the song, though - Rather Be? Idk.  Anyway, Kurt and Blaine come sombering in, cause, plot dictates they be there for exposition. 

And we find out that Dalton has burned to the ground.  

So.  

Here’s the thing - there could have been an interesting story here for Blaine -- matching Rachel’s story about having to grow up and move on.  I mean, it’s kind of subtly and subtextually there. It is (another) reason Blaine is forced to move on and grow up.  

But.  Do you know why they burned Dalton to the ground (other than doing it probably out of spite)? Not for some kind of deeper level of symbolism.  Nope.  They did it so New Directions can meet their quota of having 12 members.  That stupid, fucking rule.  I realize that it’s now become a joke (as mentioned earlier in the Hurt Locker episodes).  But c’mon Glee.  It’s like you’re not even trying now.  

But also, like after most big Klaine events - do Kurt and Blaine get a moment to reflect on their newly marriage life? Nope.  Other than talking about a piano exploding in the next episode, Kurt and Blaine won’t share dialogue again until the series finale.  On top of that -- instead of getting to be happy newlyweds, they have Blaine upset because his surrogate home has burned down.  Thanks writers.  Thanks. 

However - there are two things I do like about this little moment.  A) the fact that Kurt is being a very comforting husband.  B) the fact that they are wearing their proposal colors.  Nice touch costume dept.  You get the gold star.  

In the next scene - we get the indoctrination of the Warblers into the New Directions.  And Kurt just nods his head along in all the appropriate places.  Not a whole lot to talk about -- other than now that we’ve got Will back in charge, Rachel and Kurt have faded into the background.  Is Kurt even teaching anything any more? No, not really - despite all the ‘conversations’ Kurt, Rachel, Will, and Blaine have off screen.  

Anyway - you know another reason Dalton was burned to ground? To service the Sue plot.  Yup.  God.  Luckily, though, I don’t really have to go into it. 

The Way Too Long Geraldo Segment

So, long story short, Sue’s hurt locker was found out and then she’s exposed on Geraldo, which does go on way, way to long.  Look, there are some funny moments and callbacks, like the finding of Sue’s Penthouse magazine and the quick return of Joe.  But it just becomes stale as it continues after the commercial break.  Also, though, Sue’s not going to actually face ramifications. I mean, she should really be in jail just on the hurt locker alone.  But this is Glee, where Will, Sue, and Rachel never have to really deal with the actions they make.  

So - Kurt’s bit is about the elevator.  Which is... fine.  It kind of feels hollow since they’re going to thank her in the finale, and she just sent them on a week long honeymoon.  But yeah - don’t kidnap people, guys.  Bad.  The best part of this is the look on Blaine’s face.  

  Unity

This scene was almost impossible to get a good still.  Oh well.  Anyway, a good twenty minutes of the episode later...

So, I should mention in the previous scene, the gang is all trying to help Rachel through her issues and trying to get her back to New York (or whatever).   It’s a little weird that Kurt is not here since he’s spent so much of his screen time playing emotional prop to Rachel Berry. but I guess I’m not complaining even if I think it’s weird? But we do get Sam calling NYADA a scam school, and info that Blaine was kicked out by Carmen herself - to which I say, why does anyone care about this school??  Whatever.  It is a funny little scene though. 

Anyway, back to this scene -- where the Warblers and the New Directions are arguing over costumes.  And the only real thing I get out of it (Kurt-wise) is that Kurt really hated wearing that uniform when he went there, lol.  (He did, though, it’s in season 2.)  

And I know there was some grumbling of this scene - why is Kurt taking New Directions’s side? Why is he not supporting Blaine and the Warblers - to which I say... the writers didn’t give a shit about that.  Seriously.  This scene is a) about comedy and b) presenting this argument that will be compromised in about ten minutes anyway.  It’s not at all any kind of reflection on Kurt or Blaine or their relationship.  And actually, I’m of half mind that the writers completely forgot that Kurt even went to Dalton himself.  

In the large scheme of Kurt related things - this scene barely registers, tbh.  **shrugs**

Hey, but costumes wins again - Kurt and Blaine are wearing each other’s colors!

Final Countdown

So, Sue and Will duke it out through music - like it’s always done, and we get confirmation -- all those fantasy performances? Were just that -- fantasies.  I kinda do like when the kids come in and are like - wtf??!?  Kurt tells Rachel that he hopes that the’ll never become that.  Oh y’all won’t, promise ;) Anyway - I love that the show comments that Will and Sue have lost it - like we haven’t known that since the end of season 1.  

So, uh, the next day? Will apologizes for being an idiot.  Okay, fine.  And then Rachel says that now -- if the glee club doesn’t win, all fine arts will be cut.  Because that makes a load of sense, c’mon writers, c’mon....  

Anyway - the one redeeming thing for this otherwise ridiculous little scene, is that Kurt’s a ball of optimism -- he inwardly reflects on all the crap that’s happened in his life and he turns it around saying that they’ll never give up on anything (to which Blaine looks at him adoringly).  And, I mean, it’s a subtle thing -- but I kinda love this.  Because here’s a kid who has been through hell and back and a lot of shitty things (even recently) and you know what? He’s fine.  He’s in a good place, he’s happy, he’s loved, he’s got a great support system, and a good attitude about life.  And, he’s got a great motto to go along with it -- It’s Got Bette Midler.  (lol)  

But I mean, let’s take a second and think about the fact that Kurt started his journey being that kid who gets thrown in dumpsters for being weird and gay and now, you know what? He’s fine.  He’s really, really, really fine.  :) 

Rise

So - here at the end, we see Blaine solving the absolute crisis of the episode and somehow he’s managed to make, like, twenty unity blazers overnight, combining the Dalton tradition with the McKinley colors.  And did it without Kurt knowing what he was up to because Kurt was totally surprised.  But it’s in a good way, Kurt’s incredibly proud that Blaine managed to solve this epic dilemma.  (I joke, but really, it’s sweet that Kurt’s, again, proud of his new husband).  

Meanwhile, we get the song Rise, written by Darren Criss -- and I’m kind of impressed with this song -- it manages to reference birds, Dalton burning down, the kids rising to the top, and the fall of Sue Sylvester all in one go.  Color me impressed, too.   (Btw, this is such a Darren-esque song, I can hear this in his voice even if I’ve never heard him actually sing it.) 

I’ll leave you with the some lyrics, which I’m sure you can work out their meaning on your own ;) 

Have you ever felt like you woke up (On the wrong side of your heart) Has it ever felt like it's broken (Like the world tore it apart) Have you felt so weak, You could hardly stand Like if you ever fell You could never tell If you'd ever get back up again I know it's hard to do, But I think you can make it, Cause I know we can take it Baby we will... Rise We are young we are the dreamers we will fly When the world will not believe us, We will rise above the ashes Before this whole life passes us by You and I, we will rise

#finding kh #kurt hummel

[queen-of-hearts92]

Revue Starlight 5: Not That Girl.

Don’t wish, don’t start. Wishing only wounds the heart...

For the previous episode go here!

To go to the start of these posts, go to the Prelude!

Hey y’all! We’re back at it again with the duels and this, this was fun but also sweet and oh Mahiru! Poor baby. ;; Granted this duel ended up being much less dark than I thought it would be and that’s ok! Let’s get to discussing then!

-Note: The post title and the sad caption are lyrics from the song “I’m Not That Girl” from the musical Wicked! Wicked is my favorite musical btw....I’ve seen it 12 times lol.

-Missed note from episode four: The flashback of episode four with baby Karen and Hikari is a little different than episode one’s with baby Karen and Hikari. The two have swapped places! Interesting.

-Reminder: Claudine’s nickname is Kuro, I will be using it on and off so remember when I say Kuro I’m referring to her! Also I found out why that’s her nickname! Claudine’s name in Japanese Katakana is “Kurodinnu” hence Kuro which also means black so bam a pun. Knowledge has been leveled up aw yes!

>If I can’t have you! I don’t want no summary baby!

The episode starts with the Starlight play from the previous year again, we find a nervous Mahiru backstage. Karen goes to her and reassures her that it will be ok because they will be on stage together. Mahiru asks if she and Karen would be together forever and Karen, thinking she means everyone in their class, is like “sure!” and sparkles explode everywhere. In present time, Mahiru wakes up and sees Karen and Hikari had already left for school. This is a surprise to her to say the least. She gets ready and runs to school. Futaba and Kaoruko are already at school and going to the practice room, Kaoruko has draped herself on Futaba like a sleepy sloth as usual. Futaba is like “babe wake up please seriously” and Kaoruko complains about the legendary punishment from the previous episode. Meaning it took place off screen already. Then Mahiru runs to the room and finds Karen and Hikari warming up together in the dance room, just like how she and Karen did in episode one. Karen says good morning to the three of them.

Maya walks into the room saying good morning followed by Junna and Claudine. Karen personally says good morning to Maya and tells her that she WILL catch up to her. Maya is like cool awesome, taking Karen’s drive seriously. A dismayed Mahiru gets more sparkles from Karen flying to her. We then go to the opening.

KAREN GOT TO SECOND BAS-*shot*!

Next see that Karen has stepped up her game with practicing and not falling asleep at school, the other girls have taken notice and comment on her newfound drive. The other girls are conversing in the showers about it, Nana is pretty excited for Karen. Kaoruko is very surprised saying Karen being so driven was once as likely to happen as candy falling from the sky. Maya comments to Claudine that Karen could end up being a legit challenge to them, Claudine is like what. No way! Maya exits the shower with Claudine following close behind going HOLD ON, wait up! Mahiru, during all this, seems unhappy with Karen being less dependant on her and thinks something happened while Karen and Hikari were out and about in episode four. After her shower, Mahiru gets a care package from her family. Turns out she’s from the countryside, her family farms for a living. Mahiru is excited to make potato related things for her dorm mates as she did the previous year. Her package also came with a letter from her grandma and a dvd. She waits til after lights out to watch the dvd in the living room.

Mahiru’s real fantasy is double Karen and no Hikari.

Mahiru pops the dvd in and it’s a recording of a local newscast from two years ago. It’s about Mahiru being accepted into the academy and how jazzed everyone is that someone from their small town got into such a fancy school. We learn Mahiru is the oldest of six siblings and has been performing the musical arts and baton twirling for years. She’s won a ton of awards and is pretty much the star of her hometown. The reporter asks what type of star she wants to be but before past! Mahiru gives an answer, present! Mahiru turns the dvd off.

The next day we are in the acting class and Futaba and Claudine are acting out a scene from the Starlight play. Mahiru laments that compared to other girls at this school, she has no shine at all. Karen and Hikari act out a scene from the Starlight play, Mahiru remembers when she and Karen did the same scene together and becomes sad. The class takes a break and Mahiru takes a trip to the bathroom. After leaving the bathroom she overhears Nana talking with two other stage crew members.

Crew Member One says she thinks Karen and Hikari should be the leads in the Starlight play this year and Crew Member Two agrees. Nana on the other hand, doesn’t agree. She says she thinks Maya and Claudine should be the leads again. Crew Member Two points out that it would be kinda silly to have the exact same leads as they did the previous year. Nana starts to object but Crew Member Two cuts her off and says while she thought they did a good job with the play last year, they should do something different this year. Crew Member One agrees with her and says their job as the stage crew was to take care of the stage and develop it further and if Nana wants to be working backstage she needs to always strive to push forward. With that the two crew members leave and Crew Member Two expresses excitement about Karen and Hikari possibly being the leads. Nana, isn’t happy with this conversation. In fact her body language suggests she’s rather angry and frustrated. Mahiru isn’t happy either but for a different reason, she wanted to be the fated couple with Karen but now Hikari will likely be the couple with Karen instead of her. Mahiru feels very left behind to say the least.

When some chuckle fucks won’t let you recreate last years Starlight play.

We jump to the next day, Mahiru wakes up in her bed after dreaming of Hikari and Karen on stage as the Starlight play leads. Depressed, she takes Karen’s pillow and puts her face into it to pine over Karen. Hikari comes back in the room to get something she forgot and leaves. A flustered Mahiru throws the pillow to the camera. Later Karen practices a dance routine with Junna and Futaba and after they are done Mahiru runs up to Karen and gives her a towel. Karen thanks her and uses it before giving it back to her to go back to practice. Mahiru stares at the sweat covered towel, she’s tempted. But Hikari is right next to her drinking a water bottle and goes, “Huh..” and walks away. Mahiru throws the towel and it hits a passing Kaoruko in the face.

This is what happens when you kinkshame someone Hikari!

In the locker room at the end of the day, Mahiru waits for Karen to come in. Nana, Kaoruko, and Futaba pass by expressing excitement about eating the potatoes. Karen does indeed come to the locker room but only to get a drink from her water bottle. She tells Mahiru to leave without her since she’s going to practice more after school. Karen leaves and, also leaves her locker open. Mahiru checks to see if she is alone in the locker room before picking up Karen’s water bottle, she’s going in for an indirect kiss. But before she can get to indirect first base, Hikari is suddenly there getting something she forgot in her locker.

Fed up, Mahiru chucks the water bottle to the ground. She says she can’t take it anymore and tells Hikari that everything changed when she got to the school and she wants Hikari to give Karen back to her. Mahiru says Hikari is talented and therefore can shine on her own but she had nothing but Karen to be able to shine herself. She begs/demands Hikari not to “steal Karen from her”. Hikari is quiet for a moment before saying that the word steal shouldn’t be used lightly. But before shit gets anymore real their phones ring, It’s audition time!

Throw some glitter make it rain~

Going underground we see Giraffe drinking water while commenting about how jealousy takes joy away. We then go to the audition duel. Karen announces her presence then Mahiru does. Karen is surprised to see Mahiru there (does Karen not read who she’s fighting in the text she gets? It does tell them that right?), the duel is titled the Revue of Jealousy. We see cut out props waiting and ready to go and Mahiru jumps into her story reenactment on how she sees Karen. Basically she sees Karen as someone she’s devoted to since Karen was there to reassure her when she was nervous going on stage. Long story short, Mahiru is hardcore in love with Karen but also stakes all of her self worth on being able to take care of her. Mahiru throws sparkles onto Karen and Karen is all ???? through the whole thing. Mahiru refers to Karen as her light and wants to be with her forever like Karen said they would be back then. She won’t give up on Karen and she’ll crush anything that comes in the way, literally. She wants them to be on the eternal stage, together forever. 

The props get into position and the duel begins, the cat mascot Mahiru seems to really likes is all over the place so I will just call him Mr. Cat. Anyways, Mahiru opens the fight by showing off the power of her mace. She slams it into the ground creating a small crater in the stage. Karen, understandably, runs away to get out of her range.

DAMN MAHIRU, never fuck with a girl with a mace!

Mahiru runs after her giggling like a madman and the cute Mahiru and Karen cut out props follow them. Karen is stopped by Mr. Cat cut outs dressed as an empire and a catcher. Mahiru then swings her mace and hits Karen into the air and into a hole like a goddamn combo of baseball and golf. Karen rolls through an underground tube and pops up in, Maya and Futaba’s audition stage next door. They are understably confused seeing Karen popping up and running from a wild Mahiru while Mr. Cat goes ahead of them making a chalk divide on the stage. Maya and Futaba both make a what the fuck expression. Mahiru smacks Karen into a hole again and they go to a different stage.

Maya and Futaba are JUDGING YOU! Their seiyuu are too.

Karen and Mahiru then pop up in Junna and Kaoruko’s duel, Mr. Cat is right ahead of them with his chalk outline. Mahiru chases Karen across the stage. Junna is like “you guys what the fuck are you doing?!” but Kaoruko uses this moment to get the upper hand on her fight with Junna. Mahiru once again knocks Karen outta the stage and goes onto the next one. The next stage is in Hikari and Claudine’s duel, the two of them are on the roof of a building. Mr. Cat drives by with his chalk outline, Hikari sees Karen and Mahiru and is like “Karen?! What?!”. Mahiru looks up, smiles like this :) and skips off after Karen. Claudine meanwhile is like oh sweet a distraction and knocks Hikari off the roof. Both sets of duelist are now on opposite sides of the stage, Claudine is cornering a weakened Hikari and Karen finally has stopped running and tries talking to Mahiru. 

Mr. Cat stops and Mahiru asks Karen to go back to how she was before Hikari came to the school, sleeping in late and such. She wants to be useful to Karen again, Karen says she’s a Stage Girl because she wants to keep her promise with Hikari and therefore she can’t lose to anyone. The two girls drop under the stage one more time and pop back up on their original stage.

KASHIRA KASHIRA!

After getting back to their original stage, Karen and Mahiru start duking it out complete with comic book style sound effect props. They break behind one of the sets and a huge painting of cut out Karen and Mahiru is on the wall. The two end up locking weapons and Mahiru asks if Karen doesn’t need her anymore, if Karen doesn’t need her then she has nothing. No talent, no shine. Karen disagrees, she says that Mahiru already shines on her own! She compliments Mahiru on her music and dancing skills and loves how kind she is and how she performs. Karen says she doesn’t have nothing and Mahiru really does shine on her own, she’s at the school and in the audition duels because she has that shine. Karen breaks the weapon deadlock and knocks a basket of sparkles onto Mahiru saying she has starlight. Mahiru is surprised and touched. The scenery is lifted away and Karen goes to home plate which also happens to be position zero. She wordlessly challenges Mahiru to one last clash and Mahiru accepts. The two back up and charge at each other, Karen knocks Mahiru’s metal badge off and wins. The curtain falls onto Mahiru and we see the stage covered in red curtains like the past two times Karen won, the duel then ends. We see Karen has been bumped up to 7th place on the rankings board.

Wow sports anime these days have gotten really intense.

After the duel scene we go to Mahiru taking a nice depression bath, she comments that she lost the duel. Then we go to Nana taking food out of the oven, she sees Mahiru passing by and is like “heya the potatoes are ready!” Mahiru, to her surprise, sees all of her dorm mates chilling in the living room with lots of different potato related foods. They all thank her for the food and Nana says to eat as much as everyone wants to. Futaba comments the potatoes are just as tasty as last year’s potatoes. Claudine sees Maya really digging those potatoes and says “you really like potatoes don’t you?” Maya then responses the best way possible, saying This Is Potato in english and then starts waxing poetically about them to Claudine. Mahiru is happy everyone is enjoying the potatoes. We then see that Karen had turned on the dvd from earlier, much to Mahiru’s embarrassment, and we hear what Mahiru’s answer was. She says she wants to be a kind star that can make the important people in her life smile. Karen calls Mahiru cute and warm, Hikari says Mahiru is shining. Mahiru smiles, she looks at Karen and internally says I still love you. She internally agrees that she does indeed have her own shine and while still in love with Karen she will stand on her own not place her self worth onto taking care of her anymore. Sparkles fly everywhere, we see Mr. Cat chilling on Mahiru’s bed with her baton and the episode ends. Mahiru is also singing the ending theme this time!

This episode legit gave me a craving for baked potatoes so I made some that day. It was good.

>This episode’s discussion is sponsored by give Mahiru a girlfriend 2k18.

-We learned something important about the auditions, it’s how the stage is set up and that it is possible to crash into other duels going on. Just like the stage play!

--I’m thinking the stage works like the Carousel of Progress maybe? The Carousel of Progress is a ride at Disney World, You sit in the audience and watch a family deal with technology throughout the decades, the audience rotates into different sections for each scene. Hence I think the stage here is also split up into sections. I’m thinking the central point of the whole entire stage is the dead center of Tokyo Tower, the tiara/star tower is smack in the middle. So you could say it’s center stage aka position zero! Ohoho! Also it looks like the tower is in the water itself so maybe the stages are floating platforms? That’s possible I think!

It’s possible the stage, or the audience, can rotate but I think the stage is stationary just sectioned off into four sections. A big stage broken up into four stages basically, I drew two rough pictures (1,2) of what I think the stage layout would look like from a bird’s eye point of view. Here’s two versions with the running route I think Karen and Mahiru took (1,2). Here’s a map key for all the layouts I drew!

Hope it makes sense, I’m not the best artist in the world but I spent three hours on these. Yeah I know I’m a nerd. -w-

Now, the stage is very much magic in nature and therefore doesn’t need to follow reality but it does show layout and structure continuity. The tiara and its tower are always seen in the middle and the arches of the Tokyo tower are also always seen around the stage. The stage likely takes up the width of the base of the tower with room for the orchestra pit lake to surround the stage and the audience is either outside of the tower or is just within the tower at the edge surrounding the whole thing.

The size of the stage section itself well, your size may vary. It is still a magical fucking stage under a whole ass tower that’s hidden below an entire school, it can grow and shrink and adjust anyway it needs to. That’s why when we see a zoom out or audience pov shot of the stage we don’t see other stage sections, we are only seeing the chunk of the stage our focus characters are fighting on and it can be as big or as small as it needs to be. The other sections of the stage is hidden by crazy underground stage magic. However we know if one goes directly under the stage you can end up at different sections hence we know it’s not four separate stages and instead one huge stage split up into four sections.

Another thing I’ve noticed is there seems to be like, water surrounding the stage. It’s in where an orchestra pit normally is, I call it the orchestra pit lake. I’m not sure why the stage is in the middle of a lake, reference to Swan Lake maybe? To Venus again considering water is associated with her? I think that’s where Karen jumped into during episode one? It’s very interesting, lets hope anyone who falls in it can swim lol.

-The other match ups for this episode were, Futaba vs Maya, Hikari vs Claudine, and Karouko vs Junna. The only person not fighting was Nana. This makes sense cause we have an odd number of girls and the writers have been keeping Nana’s fighting abilities a secret. Will talk more about Nana later.

-Karen got bumped up to rank 7. We don’t see the names in the rankings above or below her, I’ll talk about my guesses for the ranks as they are now in the speculation section.

-In episode one we are told Hikari is great at all the things, but both times we've seen her fighting in the duels she's getting her ass kicked, and she is ranked 8 outta 9 slots. Like during her fight with Junna, Hikari was going to lose if Karen hadn’t stepped in. Junna had her pinned to the star via the cape so Hikari couldn’t have slipped out of it cause she’d lose and there wasn’t enough time for her to pull the arrow out because it was embedded in the wood. During her fight with Kuro she has a bit more of an excuse since Karen and Mahiru randomly popped up but, she forgot she was fighting Kuro, the 2nd highest in the ranks. So Kuro just kicks/knocks her off of the roof and she didn’t look so good after that happened. Is it odd I find it funny that Hikari sucks at the duels even though she’s supposedly amazing at stage stuff? Like Hikari, Karen is doing fine! You should worry about yourself my dude. Maybe it’s because she’s fighting with a fucking small ass knife like Hikari why? Don’t bring a knife to a sword fight kids.

-Speaking of episode one, I’m still wondering what Maya meant when she said that she couldn’t see Hikari’s heart? She has a surprised expression when doing a scene with Hikari and seems to be deep in thought about Hikari in the showers later. Then she says that comment about Hikari. Funny, back to contrast this episode to the first one, Maya is quite interested in Karen possibly being a challenge to her but she didn’t react the same way to Hikari possibly being a challenge. What did ya see when you looked at her Maya? What was on your mind? So many questions about like two moments in episode one man.

-The Starlight play’s scenery is also covered in a cloth like at the end of the duels Karen wins except its white instead of red. Related maybe?

-The Legendary punishment occurred off screen, oh. Alrighty then. No fighty greek chorus hell pit for now lol.

-Karen straight up tells Maya she will catch up to her and Maya is like “cool awesome”. Maya really does respect anyone who has passion and drive doesn’t she?

-When talking about about how hard Karen is working Nana is in the same pose that Karen was when talking about Hikari in episode one. Thought that was nifty!

-In Mahiru’s video we see the calendar saying its March 3rd 2016. So this anime for sure takes place in 2018! Probably not super relevant but interesting anyways.

--In episode one the calendar says its May 14th, so assuming each episode takes place during one day then five days have passed since then. In this episode we get two days so now six days have passed. So it’s the 19th as of episode five, and it’s a Friday…or a Saturday. I could be off on my time passing math here, I’m really bad at math honestly. Anyways, that’s a lot of crazy shit to happen in so few days and we aren’t even done yet lol. Once again I don’t think this will be relevant I just find it very interesting.

-Mahiru’s family is cute! In the prequel manga her family is very cute too. Also no wonder Mahiru can weld a mace, all farm kids are very buff after all. And I’m sure her baton twirling only added to that.

--When I was a kid and going to summer camp my mom would send snacks for me to share with everyone in my cabin. So I relate to Mahiru being excited to share food with her dorm mates, I still find that fun to do! It makes me feel happy.

-Mahiru is from a small town so coming to the academy was quite a change I imagine. She went from a big fish in a small pond to a tiny fish in a very big lake. Mahiru attaching her self worth to Karen to give herself some importance in life is due to feeling small and useless in such a big environment. So, when Karen doesn’t depend on her as much anymore she freaks out because without that all her self worth goes out the window she feels like she has nothing. Nothing to stand out or shine for. Karen complimenting her is important to make her see she doesn’t need Karen depending on her to shine. At the end of the day, this duel isn’t really about Mahiru’s romantic feelings for Karen (though that is a factor) but on how much of her self worth was built on taking care of Karen. Now, while still being in love with Karen mind, she decides not to have her self worth be dependent on someone else. Good for her!

-We get more info about the Starlight play! For starters we now know which role is which, Claire is the one Hikari and Maya have played, and Flora is the one Karen and Claudine have played. Considering we’ve seen Karen get shot down from the sky we now know Claire is the one who lives. I was right! We also received more of the lines. Very interesting lines. The scene we see Futaba and Claudine act out has Futaba saying coming to the tower was a mistake and that the light is cruel and “everything you desire will be swept away”. Claudine asks “what will happen to my memories of you?” and if said memories will be lost forever. This gives more evidence that the tiara/star isn’t very benevolent and it’s probably evil.

-The scene Karen and Hikari do is a meeting between Claire and Flora. During Karen and Hikari’s line readings for the Starlight play a star festival is mentioned. This reminds me strongly of the Tanabata Festival. Honestly the Starlight play reminded of the Tanabata Festival since episode one. Tanabata is a summer festival in Japan that celebrates the meeting of star-crossed lovers Orihime and Hikoboshi. Normally the Milky Way separates them but once a year they are able to meet.

The short version of the story is Orihime and Hikoboshi fell in love and married, Orihime was a weaver and Hikoboshi was a cow herder. Orihime’s father loved his daughter’s weaving but after she got married she stopped doing it all the time and he got mad. So because her dad is an asshole, he separated the two lovers via a river of stars aka the Milky Way. Orihime was so upset that her dad was like “fine, you can meet once a year” and magpies make a bridge for them to meet and ta dah the festival is a thing. So basically like in the Starlight play two lovers were separated by selfish forces. Maybe we’ll see magpies around soon considering the connection here.

-Revue Starlight’s animation team has been struggling with a lack of animators but they are still trying their damndest to get this show to us! Here’s an article that talks about that, let’s make sure we support them you guys! An anime this special doesn’t come around everyday after all!

-Mahiru was really aiming for that first base cause she was gonna do indirect kissing. Ya wild Mahiru but don’t worry I still love and support you. uwu

-The girl’s work out sweat jackets all have circles on them. Interesting design choice. I wonder if it’s related to the symbol on the costumes in the Starlight play? Speaking of which!

-I noticed recently the symbol on the Starlight costumes is on the giraffe logo too! Gdi now I really wanna know what it is and what it means even more now! My best guess is still what I said in episode 3’s write up, it’s a combo of a sun and moon symbol. Suns are stars after all so there has to be some sort of connection here. 

The sun seems like it’s rising out of the moon crescent or it’s descending. Maybe it’s, an eclipse? During a partial solar eclipse, it looks similar to the symbol. The eclipse can also turn the sun into an orange color like the symbol, and solar eclipses have a long history of being associated with the supernatural. The word eclipse is greek and it means things like the abandonment, the downfall, or the darkening of a heavenly body. The downfall catches my attention cause of what happens to Flora in the play. Hmmm, need more info about the Starlight Play for sure.

-The visual with Karen, Hikari, and Mahiru is amazing! Karen’s light was coming down on Mahiru but then Hikari came which threw a net over Mahiru so now Hikari gets all the light and Mahiru gets nothing. It was very pretty and good metaphor and symbolism mmm yes.

-The Revue theme this time isn’t related to Karen at all, no it’s all Mahiru. It’s her stage and only her stage. The duels with Junna and Maya all had meaning for both Karen and the person she was fighting. Junna’s theme was longing, both Junna and Karen long for something just out of reach. Junna wants to be up with the big leagues while Karen wants to reach out to Hikari. Maya’s theme was pride, Maya is a very prideful person even though her pride leads to being alone at the top while Karen is overly confident in dueling Maya so it leads to her downfall and losing. Mahiru’s theme was jealousy, she’s jealous of Hikari getting all of Karen’s affection and attention and jealous of the shine everyone has that she feels doesn’t have.

-When giraffes drink water it’s always funny looking and it’s still funny in animated form lol.

-There was no transformation scene this episode. Ok, that’s cool. I wonder if it will look different when we see it again?

-In my last post I was confused about the white thing next to Mahiru and it turns out it was a prop! It was just her weird cat mascot she likes. Works for me lol.

-Now one has to wonder, why the baseball theme for this duel? I’m thinking it represents how Mahiru sees her current situation, it’s a competition of which she is losing. She feels she doesn’t shine enough to compete with the others and she feels she’s now competing for Karen’s attention and love. ALSO in the revue song, it’s involves some baseball too. Nice.

-Despite Mahiru’s stage looking kinda silly, her feelings were taken very seriously. It’s fairy tale like or really it’s an idealized view of Mahiru’s world. Everything looked like it could go into a pop up book and the bright colors and the flowers made me think fairy tale. It shows that Mahiru has a very idealized view of Karen and wants to keep it that way. She wants her and Karen’s relationship to be just as she imagines it and be the same forever. But, that’s not how life works.

People change, people can come along and change you. You can’t really stop that, this duel made Mahiru see how much she built her existence around being useful to her crush. Karen didn’t ask her to devote herself like that of course, it’s just what Mahiru latched onto. She believed that Karen would always need her to look after her but that ended up not being true at all. Karen wasn’t that devoted to her in return anyways, she saw Mahiru as a friend and already had someone she was in love with, even when Hikari wasn’t around just yet. All this kicked off her breakdown. It’s really neat to see how much the stage tells us about a person, like in persona 4 with the shadow selves and with the black rose duels in Utena.

-I loveee how jazzy the duel song was this episode! It really stands out from the previous ones! Makes me look forward to what other songs await us and to when this song comes out on CD. Maya’s is still my favorite though.

-When Karen and Mahiru crash into Maya and Futaba’s duel, the cat mascot (who I’ve been calling Mr. Cat) makes a chalk baseball line between the two duels and he does it for the other two as well. Mr. Cat also stops when Mahiru pauses to talk to Karen in Claudine and Hikari’s stage. I find this a great little detail! It shows that even with Mahiru invading other stages, there are still other duels happening so a line is drawn to keep too much clashing from occurring. The show must go on after all!

-I love the reactions of the other girls seeing Karen and Mahiru crashing into their duels Hikari gets distracted, Junna stops to be like “the hell are you guys doing?!”, but both Claudine and Kaoruko just ignore them and use that moment to attack who they are fighting. Then there’s Maya and Futaba, who BOTH stop to be like “What. What the fuck”. I love they all had different reactions it was great.

-Hikari protected her Mr. White plush from Kuro’s sword while dueling, that’s pretty adorable.

-Mahiru has a symbol in her jewel! What is it? Uhhh. I have some guesses. Will put in the speculation section.

-Karen struggling to pronounce a word, so fucking relatable. Irl I have trouble with pronouncing words too. It was really bad when I was a kid so, I dunno I was excited to see that Karen had this problem too sometimes.

-Home base was position zero! Ha, I get it. Cause, it’s the goal of both a baseball game and the duels. Right on.

-Giraffe saying it’s the fourth audition day so that tells us for sure that no one dueled at all in episode 4. It was obvious anyways but it’s nice to get a verbal confirmation.

-Mahiru’s depression bath made me think of the bathtub scene in Perfect Blue, if the camera was zoomed in while she had her face in the water then I’d call it a shout out.

-I love that the dorm floor has a kitchen. I wonder if the fire alarm is set off a lot cause teenagers cooking doesn’t always go that great lol.

-Karen winning the audition duel had the tower covered in red curtains again, and the curtain was dropped on the person who lost. When Karen was beaten by Maya that didn’t happen so I assume when someone loses, something different happens at the end of the duel depending on who wins. So Karen drops whole ass curtains everywhere and Maya wrecks people on stairs, as it goes sometimes.

-Mahiru’s weapon is interesting, a mace is very powerful. If hit with it packs a huge punch, but it’s slower and less versatile than other weapons are. It also makes her quite a threat, cause there isn’t really a safe way for her to knock someone’s cape or badge off and she has the dexterity to use it well. I do wonder if the girls have any choice in their weapons cause if so, Mahiru omg. She’s like, I’ll take the one that looks like a baton. Amazing.

-Oh Nana, where do I even start with Nana? I thought Mahiru’s breakdown would be super sad and while it was I think Nana’s is going to be the real heartbreaker. It seems like she’s really aiming to recreate the musical as it was in their first year. Paired with her taking photos all the time, Nana strikes me as someone who is very nostalgic. She probably recalls their time as first years as something very fun and peaceful, but now as second years they were chosen to do the audition duels where they fight and it causes conflict between everyone. So I'm thinking Nana wants to go back to that time where that wasn't happening hence she's trying to recreate the past as she remembers it just to get back the happiness she felt a year ago. Nana rather deal with what's known than unknown and the future is very much the unknown.

For Nana, the Starlight play of their first year is representative of that simpler time hence she is resistant to any changes to the play at all. Her body language via her clenched fist shows she’s pissed that the crew members shot down her suggestion for example. Nana doesn't want to accept that times have changed and they can't go back to the past ever again, it scares her and she wants her friends to stay happy and safe like they were back then. So her duel will be quite an intense one I imagine, cause like Claudine and Maya she will resist changing anything like Karen wants to do. Not for the sake of the system per say, but to preserve what she has left of the past. And if the stage play is any indication, Nana doesn’t fuck around when she fights. The show hiding her abilities says to me they are hiding them so we the viewer will be surprised to know how strong, or even brutal, she is. Remember, she’s ranked in third for a reason. Ah, poor Nana. This is gonna be rough. ono

-Mahiru was in the bath after the duel, not waking up in bed like we’ve seen with Karen. Interesting. Did. Did she fall asleep in the bathtub? Gdi I’m dying to know how the revue works oh man.

-While Karen and Mahiru were sprinting through the other duels we see the stages of previous two fights are the same as last time, Junna had her weird glasses buildings and Maya had the huge staircase. So this makes me think that Hikari’s is the stars one we saw in the first episode, even if Hikari wasn’t controlling it. Odd right? But I think I figured it out! Here's how I think the stage design and control works. A Stage Girl can get control of the stage she fights on, whoever is considered stronger, or if no assertion is made by the one of the girls, is the one who shapes the stage’s design. But, the Stage Girl’s opponent can take control of the stage from the one who created it. That’s what Junna did in episode one then, Hikari designed the stage but Junna took control of it. And the jewels on the weapons is the remote controller of the stage.

We get to see a little of Claudine’s stage design too, it seemed pretty European I think. I’m gonna assume French because of Kuro’s heritage. Took a look at the end of Kuro and Maya’s fight and considering all the greek looking columns I’m gonna say Maya had control over that stage. I’m also gonna note that Karen still hasn’t ever asserted control over a stage. It makes sense with her character yes but I do wonder if a time will come when she does use the stage like that.

-So! It looks like Karen decided to be more ambitious. That’s neat, especially since it looks like she’ll keep it up. I’m very curious to see how this plays out.

-THIS. IS. POTATO! It was cute that Maya was so excited about potatoes. Her eating that many also makes sense, she dances and that takes A LOT of energy. I’ve seen ppl who do sports have pasta parties before an event to fuel up so to speak. Also wow Maya just fucking, started monologging about potatoes to Claudine. What a dork, I adore her. Futaba and Kaoruko chanting about potatoes and the scene where Futaba is feeding her girlfriend was also really cute. And all the girls are right, potatoes are the fucking best.

-Does Kuro regularly or often run after Maya shouting at her about something right after they shower while fuckin naked? Cause it seems like that’s the case considering how chill Maya is about it lol.

-Next episode, judging by the preview summary for it, we hear Kuro and Futaba have been hanging out a lot lately apparently. Futaba has a girlfriend and Kuro has her overly complicated lesbian mating dance with Maya, so I guess we will find out if Kaoruko and Maya are the jealous type. It seems to me like Kaoruko is. Maya also strikes me as for sure the jealous type, and this isn’t based off of what she said in episode 4. No, it’s very obvious that Maya is just as obsessed with Kuro as Kuro is obsessed with her. Maya is just more subtle about it. Off the stage Maya only has eyes for Kuro, that is shown with her doing things like turning on the lights for her in episode one and praising her during her fight with Karen in episode 3 and always seeking her out and looking very happy when she’s with her. She wants Kuro’s attention too, Kuro challenges her like no one else does and so she wants all of Kuro’s passion to go towards her even if it’s negative. 

So, what happens if Kuro starts paying attention to someone else? And I don’t just mean interacting or being friends with other girls I mean practicing extensively with someone else. Like what Kuro and Futaba is doing right now. Will Maya start to get jealous over that? Or will she be thinking nah there’s no issue cause ofc Kuro will prefer her over anyone else? I’m very curious to see what the answer is here.

>I wonder I wonder oh I do wonder? Speculation time!

-Karen got a new rank this episode which means the other ones had to have shifted too. Here are my guesses for what the placements are now. First let’s look at episode three’s placements as a reminder: 1: Maya 2: Claudine 3: Nana 4: Kaoruko 5: Futaba 6: Mahiru 7: Junna 8: Hikari 9: Karen

We know Karen’s is now 7th and I think it’s safe to assume the top three are the same so that covers Maya, Claudine, and Nana (who didn’t duel this episode anyways so her rank wouldn’t change). So that leaves numbers 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9 a mystery. The challenge here is we don’t know how many wins or loses it takes to rise or fall in the ranks. However considering what we’ve seen I’m thinking you either get more chances the higher you rank cause Kuro lost her fight against Maya but she’s still ranked second or it’s a two strikes you’re out kind of deal. So with that in mind, let’s start guessing.

Karen jumped from 9th to 7th so I assume Mahiru also dropped the same amount which places her in 8th place. 7th place was Junna’s but since Mahiru lost taking 8th place and Karen taking 7th then that means Junna must have won. If Junna lost then it would be odd that Karen only gets to 7th place since Mahiru was 6th so Junna had to have won putting Karen in 7th so she, being higher ranked than Karen in the first place, took 6th. And Junna losing would’ve cause someone to bottom outright and it’s a bit too soon for that sort of thing to happen. 

However it is likely that Junna could’ve risen a little higher than 6th because of Futaba and Kaoruko. If we assume Junna won then Kaoruko would’ve lost therefore dropping her down in rank from 4th place. Futaba likely lost against Maya, like come on if she lost against Kuro than she stood little chance beating Maya, so she drops from 5th place. The drop would likely place Futaba in 6th and Kaoruko into 5th. This would launch Junna into 4th place. Hikari very likely lost her duel, she didn’t look like she was doing so hot fighting Kuro and I legit can’t see her winning against her judging by her track record. Also if Hikari won she’d either magically jump super duper hi or she’d bottomed out and that doesn’t make very much sense to me to happen at this point in the show. SO considering all these factors this is my prediction/educated guess for what the rankings are as of episode 5: 1: Maya 2: Claudine 3: Nana 4: Junna 5: Kaoruko 6: Futaba 7: Karen 8: Mahiru 9: Hikari

I hope I explained it in a way that makes sense. Here’s my uh, work (1,2) so to speak for how I got to the conclusion that I did. I spent 20 minutes thinking of this LOL.

-I’m wondering what is the symbol in Mahiru’s jewel? Still don’t know what Junna’s is for sure, leaning towards a butterfly or a flower but idk. Anyways, for Mahiru’s it looks to me like it’s an eye. The very first thing that came to mind was an amulet my grandma gave me that was a blue eye, she told me it warded off evil. I looked it up and what my grandma gave me is a Turkish symbol called a Nazar. It’s an amulet that wards off the evil eye, like my grandma told me it wards off evil and bad luck. Ironic for Mahiru who is unlucky in love. There is also the Eye of Horus but the eye in Mahiru’s jewel looks too vertically narrow to be that. If not an eye, it also looks kinda like a bullseye. Poked around Japanese Mythology but not much to be found that’s relevant. Two things I found was that two gods, Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi, were born from Izanagi’s eyes and there's a youkai with an eye in it’s ass…..Yup.

-There’s a joke tweet about Maya using her duel with Karen to vent about her relationship issues she has with Kuro but ya know, I’m thinking the venting via these duels is exactly where the show is going towards. I’ve seen a theory floating around that a way Karen could use the audition duels for good is using them to sort out all the girls personal issues and I’d have to agree. The past two fights we’ve seen Karen win has had a positive effect on her opponent. Both Junna and Mahiru basically got to vent both verbally and physically. Karen empathized and talked them through their issues, and fought through them of course. Also the stages themselves are very much influenced by the mental state of the Stage Girl who created it so that probably helps Karen, and us the viewer, understand them.

I think Karen is surprisingly a good listener and it helps she understands where they are coming from. She relates to Junna’s struggles and she’s able to lift Mahiru up because she knows her very well. I think Karen is just the kind of person that’s easy to talk to. So that begs the question now, well what issues do the remaining girls have? My guess is the following!

Futaba and Kaoruko don’t need Karen really, they will probably run into relationship issues so they will fight each other to work that out. As you do. I’ll keep Nana’s short cause I’ve talked about her a lot already. Right now Nana will enforce the system because then nothing will change and she doesn’t want to go into an unknown future. Nana’s will be about her finally letting go of the past, accepting they can’t go back but they can still move forward and be happy.

Claudine is kind of a hard one to figure out but I think it will be about her feelings for Maya, not just romantic ones mind but also her desire to be number one. Before coming to the academy she was probably number one in everything she did, and then she came there and met Maya. Maya’s presences dropped her to being number two instead. Kuro doesn’t like being the second best, she wants to be THE best. But one, she hasn’t been able to beat Maya still and that’s frustrating her to hell and back. And two, well she’s gotten attached to Maya. If she does beat her, then what? Has she even thought that far ahead? I think a possible solution to this is for Kuro to start seeing her relationship with Maya differently, both romantically and as a rival. And ofc realizing she doesn’t really hate Tendou Maya, no she’s in love.

In France (Paris specifically) there is a bridge called Pont des Arts but it’s most well known for being the love lock bridge. Many couples have locked a padlock on the bridge and threw the key into the river as a symbol of their eternal love. While in real life the locks were eventually removed because there was so many of them the bridge started collapsing (well damn man), this bridge has become a romantic symbol and location in pop culture. So what I’m saying is if Kuro’s stage is France themed then this bridge could totally be used here! That would be cool.

As for Maya, while yes her relationship with and romantic feelings for Kuro will be a factor, I think her struggle is with loneliness. During her duel with Karen she said more than once in spoken words and in song that being Top Star meant being alone, and while Maya does hang out with the other girls she doesn’t do so individually besides with Kuro. She’s part of the group yes but she is less their equal peer and more of an unapproachable figure. Maya has said that she’s accepted that she’ll be alone as Top Star, but I’m thinking that’s not entirely true. It’s her frequently seeking out Kuro that makes me think that. In her mind, Kuro is her only real equal. The only one who can challenge her, or even understand her. If Maya is ready to throw away all relationships to be at the top then why keep seeking Kuro out? Why spend time at all with her floormates? This includes when she took part in covering for Hikari and Karen in episode four, why help out others if she’ll be alone anyways?

What also makes me think it isn’t true Maya is fine with being alone is that Maya has a habit of not always really meaning what she says, for example she says to Kuro in episode 4 that she competes for Top Star out of jealousy but her body language and facial expression says that isn’t the real reason why she competes. Instead it looks like a non answer and that had she said that just to fire her crush up because she loves it when Kuro is passionate and driven. Hell Maya likes to see that kind of thing in anyone, you can see that in her reaction to Karen in this episode.

So that begs the question, why does she want this mysterious Top Star? I think the answer is, because she’s grown up to believe she always always must seek the top, the highest place possible. Remember Maya is the child of famous stage actors, regardless of how her parents treated her she likely still grew up under tons of pressure and expectations to be the best. And things like failure or not reaching the top was something that wasn’t an option. In her official bio both for the anime and the manga Maya is even described as “a thoroughbred in the world of theater”, which last I checked you don’t normally call people something like a thoroughbred. You call prized animals who have been shaped and groomed to win races thoroughbreds.

What I’m getting at is, I think Maya is going for the Top Star because she’s been taught to always go for the highest and best position possible so of course she’ll try for this crazy possibly magical Top Star thing. It’s what she’s supposed to do right? She has pride and ambitions for sure but as Kuro pointed out in episode four, Maya doesn’t really need the audition duels to get to the top. But here she is, because she’s Tendou Maya who has to be on the top no matter what and no matter what that means. If she isn’t, then what does she have? What is she? She can’t be a failure, she can’t faulture. All other desires must be put aside for this, even though she enjoys the craft there is still that push she learned from childhood, keep going keep climbing and push down whatever and whoever you need to to get to the top.

Because she believes that she has to get to the top all the time she has resigned herself to being alone, forever apart from others. But that isn’t what she wants. I think that will be the armor piercing question for Maya, what do you really want? If Karen is indeed the one who fights her, then Karen’s big challenge is convincing Maya that it doesn’t have to be this way. She doesn’t have to resign to jack shit, she doesn’t have to be alone. Karen has to get to her to believe that the system can change cause right now Maya probably doesn’t think it can be. Maya thinks it is what it is and she’ll follow whatever the system says, she is a symbol of the system because she was bred to be one. And when you are bred for the theater and grow up in the system the idea of change seems impossible and it will be hard for Maya to believe in that. So that’s my guesses for future duel stuff!

-I have a theory that what is lost from being booted from the duels is memories of the passion of the theater but I’m gonna expand on this theory in a different post or in episode 6’s write up cause this post is getting pretty damn long as it is. So instead I’m just writing it down here to keep in mind.

>THIS IS A MUSICAL, SUBTITLE THE SONGS GOD DAMMIT!

-The first subs I found didn’t have the song translated like, you guys this is a musical series! YOU NEED TO TRANSLATE THE SONGS! It’s very annoying that there are subs for this show that keep doing this. TRANSLATE THE SONGS!

-Speaking of subbing issues, Mahiru says at the end of the episode “I still love you” towards Karen but in some subs its been translated as “I love this”. Oh god, don’t. No. Fucking christ. Listen, I appreciate fansubs and subs in general. It’s a lot of hard work and for fansubs it’s for free on top of it. But y’all need to consider things like context! This, isn’t cool. Why does this series have so many subbing issues? Combined with the production issues it makes me wonder how did this show become such an underdog? Like wow man.

>Hello from the other sideeee! The post is really long tonighttt!

The more the anime goes on, the more fascinating it gets. I love it a lot! I can’t believe only 5 (soon to be 6) episodes have aired! It feels like so much has happened already. Next time, the local gay couple have a bit of a fight so they gonna use the magic giraffe stage to sort that shit out. I hope it’s not too sad, stay strong Futaba and Kaoruko! ;w;

See ya next time on the stage for episode 6!

#revue starlight #shojo kageki revue starlight #moo watches revue starlight #sorry this is a bit late but I ended up writing 20 pages whoops #shoujo kageki revue starlight

[gizkasparadise]

Crossroads, obvs! :D

LOL oh boy well. 

the death of kylo ren, aka it was only a prompt fill how did it end up like this:

the death of kylo ren was originally going to be like. 10 chapters max, and had a toooootally different plotline: aalto ren was going to be a plant by snoke and die within a chapter or two of his introduction (lol), rey was going to have to use the bond to kill kylo (hence the title, @ignitesthestars convinced me to make it more figurative), and it was going to end with rey being a sort of exile 2.0 from the kotor games (a wound in the force, essentially) following an ambiguously romantic chaste love story (i was trying to do something along the lines of V and Evey from the movie version of V for Vendetta)

i also…didnt think anyone would read it??? like, it was going to be my ~trippy, ~experimental art fic that would maybe get 100 hits and my itch would be scratched but then i was like oh fuck people are reading this and rooting for them lmfao iiiiiiiiiiiiii better change it

that’s why there’s kind of a big style shift from chapters ¾ to 5/6ish if you were wondering (esp re: aalto’s characterization)

so i was like okay this is going to actually have them live. UM. and from there i started kind of sketching out this trajectory of what was going to happen. i drew a lot of inspiration from the kotor games (obviously), but i also wanted to be clear that i wasn’t going for bastila/revan 2.0 (because i don’t like that ship, oops). so rey kind of became a revan/exile/bastila hybrid figure in terms of narrative, and kylo had revan elements mixed with malak

i also was kind of dying to do something with a tripped out timeline, so i made aalto an expy of leoben conoy from battlestar galactica and i added some KOTOR framing and the narrative just sort of took itself where it needed to go

UNTIL CHAPTER 12. when i was finishing chapter 11 i was like hmmmm there could be more to this if i wanted. so i asked some friends, and they were like duh do it, so i started laying out the groundwork for a sequel. i knew i wanted to continue with the flowwalking/time travel plotline, so i laid down some key foreshadowing moments in chapters 12 + 13 (the warehouse scene from stars don’t come down, the inclusion of the revan force vision, aalto telling rey the order of planets she’d visit/the order of the planets as they appear in the series, aalto’s death scene, etc.). 

chapter 13 was also luke’s death, and i debated having him die for real (so i could write some force ghost luke because hell yeah) or not. i Thought about it, and decided it would be cool if his soul, for lack of a better word, got taken out of the regular timeline and hidden somewhere else. i then drafted some bits, not really knowing where they were going, and i got stuck on the imagery of the lightsaber colors– silver, red, green. and i was kind of like WHAT IF I MADE THIS A TWIST, so that’s when i outlined in rey’s duo-colored lightsaber and her eventual time travel back to this scene. i remember getting a lot of WAIT HOW DID LUKE DIE comments and i was like :B the whole time 

i am a fan of parallels/bookends, so the story ends where it started in a couple ways. the last “before” story is what leads to the first “now” story, and ben is waiting for something/looking at engine lights just like rey was in the beginning– i liked the engine lights theme and decided the origin of it was rey watching her parents fly away – something i eventually got around to writing in…uh…the second to last chapter of the whole damn series WELP

stars don’t come down aka this isn’t kill bill but it is a little

i knew from the get-go that i wanted this to have a cast of knights of ren. most of my prelim outlining was pulling my favorite kotor villains (the sith lords of kotor 2 ft. malak) and figuring out how to translate them into new people. i developed janara and soran, and then @ignitesthestars and i developed dolari and orin together (fei actually wrote dolari first in her story making waves in the sand)

i also knew that i didnt want snoke in it that much. he kind of had to be in it, but i dont like him as a character / don’t find him interesting, so i wrote the plot around him but not with him

i knew i wanted kylo to be on a team with kes (because i wanted to play on chapter 12 of TDoKR, when he calls out ‘dameron’) and finn, because finn’s the best. initial outlines of the fic had wedge and maz playing way larger roles than what they ended up doing, but oh well

initial outlines of the fic also had rey and kylo leaving the war for a looong time (like, a couple years) and coming back at the end, but i decided that it fit better as the ending to the series (i like open endings, oops)

i wanted this fic to be about meeting in the middle, thematically. that’s why i ended up going with the two POVs this round instead of the before/now split. also as i was writing it, i realized this fic was about intersecting moments where TDoKR was about being separated. i decided to make that the Big Theme Arc of the series, with a planned final installment about them being together/united. 

meeting in the middle also had to do with kylo + rey’s character development. kylo is ben, and becomes a little bit more Light side throughout his travels. meanwhile, rey’s alone and she gets more and more like Aalto the more she chases after him / uses flow walking 

i also really wanted to practice fight scenes, so i took liberties there. obviously this is the fic with just. all the fight scenes

i wanted to use this fic to build on kylo’s relationships outside of rey / the relationships he lost when he turned on luke and the temple

i knew the ending of this fic around chapter 8 and wanted to get to it so bad but the middle parts ended up taking longer than i thought lol (it was supposed to be about the same length as TDoKR)

and i’m here aka all the foreshadowing shows up

because i had the fic outlined as much as i did / because i had set up the conclusion with all the time travel stuff, the actual plot for this was pretty much insta-written by the time i finished SDCD. which is why it got completed in like, a month lol

these were all the scenes i had wanted to write since like, midway through TDoKR but had to hold out on doing so

writing time travel fics sucks for this specific reason. I WAITED FOREVER TO WRITE REY SLICING A DESTROYER OPEN WITH A LIGHTSABER AND KYLO RIPPING IT IN HALF FROM THE GROUND

continuing the homage to KOTOR, this fic is basically a mashup of The Leviathan and Rakata Prime stages from the first game

the chapter “fire, fire” was my favorite chapter ever to write out of all the fic i’ve ever written

“and i’m here, home with you” is probably the best chapter in the series imo

all the chapter titles are song lyrics from playlist songs for the series

i really, really enjoyed getting to write out the full circle stuff i set up from the first fic – rey’s memories of engine lights and counting stars one by one by one, kylo’s are you it/ are you?, it’s just another step, etc. i wanted the fic to feel like lots of echoes to kind of riff on kotor 2′s premise 

the ending is left open for Reasons. one day i hope to get to write them :’D

#long post #asks! #fanfic #series: crossroads #crossroads #cataclyzmic #meme

[soul-maps]

My long rambling feelings

Ok, it took my forever. Here is my track by track ramble. Cut for the safety of your dash.

1. Singularity - This song is just so V. It has a similar vibe to Stigma (being neo-soul), but it's amped up and a much better quality song in terms of production and melody. There is a wispy, delicateness to it that is so audibly pleasing. And it offsets so well with the melody lingering longer on the lower parts of Tae's range. It makes those moments when he just tosses his voice up into falsetto feel just that much lighter. RM's lyrics here are interesting and complicated. And a perfect set up for the theme of this album. I remember talking about Her and how the end of the album focused on masks/hiding. This album pays off that Outro. Also, THE MV! Aesthetically pleasing. Inventive choreo. Tae absolutely slayed it. It's soooooooooo sultry. I'm a singer. So, this song and the Aoki track are the ones I plaintively and over emotionally sing alone in my room. My one music theory note is that Rolling Stone said this song was in 6/8, and I disagree. I think it's a slow 12/8. It's definitely in 8 because you hear the subdivision of three, but the line of the song goes in sections of 4 and not 2. So, I say 12/8. I'm curious what the right answer is, but I feel right. lol

2. FAKE LOVE - I think BST is still my favorite title track based solely on initial impact, but I think this is a better produced song with better vocal writing. The synth tones with slightly ambiguous pitch (used again by JK in Magic Shop) are so reminiscent of RM to me and Reflection which seems appropriate given the content. The prechorus/chorus of this has such a great impact, and the visuals of the explosions the first time we get to the chorus set it up perfectly. This song uses a lot of vocal doubling. As in, voices singing in octaves which I really like. It's most obvious with the vmin bit at the end, but it happens throughout. It adds a lot of texture and depth in a song that has a pretty highly pitched beat (and twangy guitar) which is nice and balanced. I love RM's verse in this. Particularly the one beginning with 'why you sad?' I CANNOT wait to see the full choreo for this. The bits we do see are really intricate, and I love all the mirroring.

3. The Truth Untold - Let me tell you. I cried the first time I heard this song. Vocal line sings this with such sincerity. I like how Tae trails off and almost breaks at the end of his first line. All four of them sound so beautiful on this. So unexpected. Again, this song utilizes the lower register more than usual which I think is necessary to offset the delicate high parts. I love the bit that begins with Jin singing much lower than I'm used to hearing bleeding into Jimin's light, plaintive tenor. Leading then into Tae's part. That "I'm so afraid" gets me every time. "But I still want you...." starts letting a beat actually bleed in after all this just quiet instrumentation. And then we build with drums. Such an UNEXPECTED song not only from Bangtan but from Steve Aoki. I love when the voices finally all come together here. It's all been one vocal line divided between the four of them. Then it swells to a mix. That playout of "but I still want you..." honestly makes me emotional every time I hear it. Jimin ending it is so appropriate to me, too because he has the lightest voice. It makes the plea that much sadder.

4. 134340 - I LOVE EVERYTHING. This is some kinda bossa nova/Serge Gainsbourg 60s shit, and I am 100% here for it. I joked when Serendipity came out that RM is a metaphysical poet because he likes using the stars and galaxies to express things, and this is such a great culmination of that lmao. I love the vibe of this so much. The rap verses are so even, sulty, and speech-like (hence my Serge Gainsbourg comparison). We get a whispered "suga" and a squeaky solchiki from Yoongi which killed me. His verse is my favorite if only for the conversational bit. "ah ah ... annyeong?" I live. Also, j-hope king of taking on the beat switch up section with aplomb and making it work.

5. Paradise - Another track I adore. The lyrics to this one are so, so important. I remember being so moved when Yoongi made the comment over New Year's about how it's ok not to have a dream you're chasing. It's ok to take a break and walk instead of run. Focus on you and being happy. That can be your dream. Happiness. I like this beat a lot. It has a sexy vibe to it (particularly the switch up that happens when Jimin first comes in). another whispered 'Suga' in this one. The transition between yoongi and jhope's verses is so nice here. I almost didn't even notice it happened other than punctuating the split with a jhope sound effect. I like the unison playout which then has a layered Jimin harmony a top of it.

6. Love Maze - I like all the tracks on this album, but Love Maze is the first of the ones that didn't end my life but just thoroughly pleased me. lol. RM's verse is so great in this, tho. It's so quick and dissolves into some vocal mon. "Let them be them. Let us be us." I love it. I like the usage of Vocal line to do a verse on this track too and not just pre-chorus/chorus connecting the rap verses. Ah the beginning of main vocal min yoongi on this album. HE DID SO MUCH SINGING THIS ALBUM. I like that his verse has a similar vibe to RM's but in reverse. It starts with him singing then ends with a punctuated, quick rap verse. Then we get jhope doing something completely different. It's a sing-song patter. Love it.

7. Magic Shop - JUNGKOOK!!!!!! I'm so happy to see him get his first production credit since Love is Not Over. The lyrics to this song are so, so sweet. What a kind fan song. =( This isn't my favorite genre of music so it doesn't grab me the same as the others, but I like the synth style he went with here. Like I mentioned in Fake Love, there are some nice ambiguously pitched/pitch bending synth parts here. RM bringing back that tweet "I do believe in your galaxy" got me right in the heart. J-hope sang the bridge between the chorus and yoongi's verse I believe. Then whispered "suga" and his verse. Yoongi's flow here was so unexpected. He really switched things up more than I've heard him on any album. It feels so playful. And I think it's j-hope singing the outro of yoongi's verse again. Main vocal j-hope, too since he has no rap bits just that singing wow weird, but I'm into it.

8. Airplane Pt. 2 - Talk about unexpected... this latin track WHAT. First of all the part of j-hope's verse from his mixtape was my favorite part of that song, and Airplane is my fav track on the mixtape. So, A+++ lol. I like the shady ass lyrics in this song, too. lol. More yoongi singing! What is happening on this album. He's singing with himself. Like his own voice is layered in octaves singing?? I live.

9. Anpanman - Listen I love the shit out of this song. This feels like old bangtan like in the ilk of Boyz with Fun or Rise of Bangtan. Any time a song name drops "bangtan" it's an auto-fav. This song is so fun, and I am incapable of not bopping when I hear it. I love that V always does atypical vocalizations when they need a vocal affectation. Like in Go Go he again does that type of vocal here.

10. So What - This is a good song, but it's not my genre at all. But it's an A+ dancing in the club type of bop. More octaves. Sounds like yoongi singing again in the low octave, then someone in a middle octave (jhope?), and another above of a high voiced jimin. Whispered "suga" for his verse, and a squawk. I'm kinda living for the return of all the "suga"s on this album ngl lol. I love how clear it is that ADORA loves House music and EDM tho lol. This is her just like Outro: Wings was. Long may ADORA reign! Also, Jimin's vocal outro "somebody call me right now.." was weirdly sensual.

11. Outro: Tear - Outro: Her was my favorite song on Love Yourself: Her, and the same may end up being true for Love Yourself: Tear. This is an outstanding track. Using the highlight reels score is inventive and dramatic. There is a theatrical aspect to the track because that music was cinematic on purpose (as a score to the visuals), and it recalls memories of the highlight reels while listening. RM spits all over the beat. Then steps on it and kicks it for good measure. Good lord he went hard. It offsets the 'you're my tear' chorus. Yoonseok vocal pre-chorus?! What. I love this. So much versatility. Another tiny whispered 'suga'. The autotune pre-verse bit of yoongi's is so effectively done. Again, I'm shocked at the amount of singing he does in this. The "this is the real you. this is the real me" part took me 100% surprise. I LOVE that switch up and his loooooooow voice. Other people have said he went full 21 savage on that part, and they're not wrong lmao. Then a sugamon sung pre-chorus! My vocal kings. lol. Yoongi vocals again?? To intro j-hope? Then j-hope just drives it home. I adore the aggressive repetition of the syllable 'geol geol geol'. Anyway, this song ended my existence.

#bangtan #bts #love yourself tear

[musicmapglobal]

Fortune Shumba

Recently we premiered a track from a devilishly good digital dub EP entitled Dubokaj Meets Fortune Shumba, and immediately we wanted to know more about the singer adding his honeyed vocals to the Swiss producer’s ‘Alpine Dub’. As the title suggests, that singer is Fortune Shumba, a Joburg artist originally from the township of Mpumalanga.

After discovering music while cleaning his father’s taxi cabs, Fortune Shumba determinedly set out on a creative path that was not without its pitfalls. From being ripped off by unscrupulous promoters to getting accidentally stranded in Texas, it’s fair to say the smooth-voiced singer hasn’t had it all his own way. However, aided by a diverse range of influences and his irrepressible artistic energy, Fortune Shumba is showing that there are few barriers to self-expression that can’t be overcome. Read on to learn the rest of his compelling story…

MusicMap: We recently premiered a track from your EP with Dubokaj – what were your favourite moments from those recording sessions?

Fortune Shumba: Hard to pick! I could say the lunch breaks? But then you’ll say I eat too much hahaha so… it has to be when I was first being introduced to the instrumentals with no words and I had to come up with melodies that would perhaps enhance the songs (cause honestly they were already dope without my vocal!). Also cause this was new territory I was branching into, as far as the genre. I’d never really made dub before this.

How did recording with Dubokaj differ from your usual studio experiences?

He really lets you be as weird as you wanne be without giving you the eye LOL! He pays fine attention to fine detail, if a recording take has one tiny thing bothering him he will not be afraid to tell you to do another one. He also has a no rules policy, he makes music that feels good but there is no specific formulae. Anything goes!

Where would be the ideal place to listen to the EP, in your opinion?

With friends once everyone is super baked or alone in bed and in your feels (and/or baked). Bottom line is, it’s even nicer when you are baked. Promise you.

You’ve previously said your music is inspired by dreams – what’s the strangest dream you’ve had recently?

I keep dreaming of my late grandmother, and her house, it’s a recurring dream. But in these dreams there is a huge flood headed our way (My mom, younger brother and I keep driving to escape by driving away). She most probably misses me as much as I miss her. We used to visit her place every holiday and spend some time together. She was a poet and a school teacher so we’d spend most of our time writing or painting or something creative. I guess I also miss that life, hence these never ending dreams about that and tons of flashbacks from my childhood, suddenly.

You’re originally from Mpumalanga. How would you desribe it, and how does it compare to living in Johannesburg?

Mpumalanga is very quiet and reserved. I grew up in a simple, small township and not much really goes on that side. As a kid I was really errm.mo different (or weird depending how you look at it really…). So, as you can imagine – I did not have that many friends, hardly ever went out.

But I have some great memories of my time there. I know we had loads of trees at home so that meant we never had to buy Mangoes or Avos or Bananas. Some great weather too. I realise now how lucky I was because I moved to Joburg and had to pay a fortune for a tiny avo and it’s usually really cold. Nelspruit is generally relaxed.

Loads of WTF moments about Joburg however! Like, the fact that everyone is minding their own business and always on a rush to somewhere. No friendly hellos and smiles from strangers like back at home here. Everyone is on their daily hustle and no one trusts anyone or feels the need to get to know anyone. But also this is an exciting thrill, this pushes you to push yourself! I am still trying to get used to this rush and just being here and I moved here like a year ago already.

Can you send us a photo of the view from your window?

What sort of music were you exposed to when you were growing up?

Kwaito first, my father was a taxi driver who later went on to start his own taxi business. Before he and my mother divorced I was exposed to the taxi life almost everyday. My dad played a lot of Brenda Fassie, Soul Brothers and Yvonne Chaka Chaka in his cars.

When he expanded his business there were more taxi drivers involved, each one had their own different taste in music and since it was my duty to clean the “mini-bus” taxis upon their return every night, I’d go through each driver’s music catalog and sing my heart out while doing my “chore”. You’d get guys that would play Brandy or Whitney or Destiny’s Child or Luther or Celine or whatever, the more younger drivers would have more edgier Kwaito and House stuff like Boom Shaka or Arthur Mafokate or Mandoza or Brenda Fassie or even Oskido. Then you had those drivers that liked American rap, your Ja Rule and DMX and Jay Z or Biggy or Pac. I played everything!

My gran played a lot of Dolly Parton so I was exposed to that too. She’d cry over it or dance or whatever cause it reminded her of a friend that had passed on. My grandfather from my dad’s side was from Zimbabwe, he ran a drinking shebeen for the villagers to drink at and he normally played a lot of Zimbabwean records, really loud. We’d normally dance to that and the people who were there to drink would form part of our audience and would sometimes throw some money at us.

I then grew a little older and went through my little gothic phase (picture this, a township kid in a public school who is goth and queer). I was listening to 5FM which was considered a “white station”. Radio introduced me to bands like BLK JKS, Panic at the Disco, Freshly Ground (first live show I saw and to this day I aspire to be as liberated as Zolani was on that day) and so forth. I was also listening to Evanescence, Paramore, Green Day, The Killers, Daughtry, Queen, Adam Lambert and 30 Seconds To Mars.

Then I kinda outgrew that and started listening to a lot of world music, loads of Busi Mhlongo and Jabu Khanyile and Bholoja and Dobet Gnahorè, some Sade too.

When I was in high school I began dating a guy who was older than me and was a die hard Bjork fan. I jumped on that too, became super obsessed. Oh I loved Beyonce (still do), my playlist had some Rihanna, and some Missy Elliot, some Pink, some Madge, Bowie, Grace Jones. I liked the pop artists who were super visual and were pushing boundaries.

And then when I would still go to church one of the American missionaries who’d visit our house regularly told me about Florence and The Machine and Kate Nash and a bunch of very quirky and alternative Brit acts he liked. I was genre hopping a lot growing up.

When did you start making your own music and what was it like?

First time recording, I was in 10th grade and it was a hook [by] a guy called Pressure, a rapper neighbour of mine at the time. Never got to hear that mess after recording it and also, I was glad cause I hated it so much OMG I thought I had a really annoying voice!

Since I spent a lot of time with my writer gran, I became a writer and poet first before even deciding to sing my own songs. In 2013 when I went to University I was yearning to record music suddenly. I’d skip some classes and link up with some guy in the city who had promised to make me a star. I paid him for studio time from my own savings without telling my mom and he got these two guys to produce a house song for me and it was not as bad as my first attempt with the rap hook.

The two guys disappeared with the song and my damn money. The other guy who’d said he’d make me famous vanished too. So I never got to hear that song too, post- studio session.

Later on during the June school holidays in that 2013 whilst visiting a friend of mine from back home who had his little backyard studio set up, just a mic and mixer – nothing fancy but heeeeyyy. He played me a tribal house beat and I started free styling over it, he lost his mind completely. See, I was not that confident in my singing, he kinda hyped me up and talked me into recording that song the next day. We ended up doing an entire mixtape and I was like “I love this shit!”. I realised I really enjoyed singing more than anything.

I went back to University and wrote more music while other kids were studying hard for exams, it was an otherworldly experience honestly and I had been sucked into this fantasy land where I could be anything or anyone I wanna be through song. I ended up dropping out of University where I was studying Accounting and pursued the music thing full time. And yes my parents were disappointed in me, severely… but I could care less. I felt free through making music.

Does your local area influence the music you make?

Definitely! I mean… as a writer you find inspiration in almost anything and Jozi is like a melting pot of cultures so inspiration finds you all the time. I started being more outgoing, braver and edgier when I moved here. I grew into my own, away from all I knew back at home. The people I hang around with now, the spots I go to, just my general view of the big city and its impact in my way of living and thinking has definitely influenced my sound somehow.

Who’s your biggest South African musical influence, past and/or present?

Present: Die Antwoord, Black Coffee, Thandiswa Mazwai. Past: Brenda Fassie, Boom Shaka/Lebo Mathosa, Busi Mhlongo, Jabu Khanyile.

What one place should music fans visiting South Africa see or do?

Definitely Maboneng. Very artsy vibe. Real African experience. There’s usually shows happening and there’s a back packer too, loads of places to get wasted at and buy some trees. Really tourist friendly and all the cool kids hang out there so there is some great company too.

What’s the biggest challenge facing musicians in South Africa right now?

People do not wanna pay for our stuff out here ’cause the respect for our craft is not really there. Though you do get lucky sometimes.

Promoters also do not pay artists and if they do it’s not what they are worth. And you get festivals that will book the same acts every year and shut other kids out. I could go on cause there’s a lot but that is up there in my top three… oooh also, no radio or tv air play for the kids who try to bring something fresh and original.

Where in the world would you most like to perform?

Does “All over the world” count as a valid answer? Lol Would really love to play a huge stage at a European festival. I really love Europe. I think I was meant to stay in Europe?

What’s your favourite album of all time?

This is so difficult. I will go with Bjork’s Vespertine.

What’s your favourite track of 2017 so far?

Besides my own of course! I really like Sevdaliza’s ‘Bluecid’.

Finally, Fortune Shumba, what are the luckiest and unluckiest things to happen to you in life so far?

Unlucky: Losing both my maternal and paternal grandmothers around the same time. My messed up relationship with my father. My parents divorcing when I was a kid… getting lost at night in Johannesburg on my first week of being here… what else? I got drunk at SxSW last year and got on the wrong bus back to the hotel, ended up stranded in the middle of nowhere in America and I had a flight to catch the next day. Also being molested at a young age changed my entire life and not being able to talk about it. And recently I was supposed to go to Switzerland for three months and my Visa got declined. Too many things to mention really… LOL

Lucky cause I am still alive and able to create music. Lucky to have a loving and supportive mother and siblings. Lucky to be free. Freedom is not known to others.

#black coffee #afro #Bjork #Boom Shaka #Brenda Fassie #Busi Mhlongo #Die Antwoord #dub #Dubokaj #Fortune Shumba #Jabu Khanyile #johannesburg #Kwaito #Lebo Mathosa #Maboneng #Mpumalanga #queer #Sevdaliza #south africa #Thandiswa Mazwai

[furederiko]

The 89th Academy Award will held its celebration and crown new winners in around 24 hours from now (PST time). Here's my thoughts on who I want to see win, and who would likely end up getting the gold instead...

Before I proceed, a quick disclaimer notice. This printable Oscar® ballot was taken from Fandango, so clearly the credit goes to them. It's an annual thing they do, so I don't think any of you would be surprised. Also... last year, I was able to see some of the nominees for "Best Picture", hence i could give a valid opinion for them. This year however, I have only been able to see ONE of them... *sigh*. Thus I honestly don't think I'm even qualified to voice my prediction. LOL. But screw that, I'm going with my guts instinct instead! And yes, that means I'm listing ALL categories now (in bottom-up order). Here goes nothing...

Best Sound Editing

Who I want to see win: Perhaps, "La La Land" because it's a musical? Really, it's the first category and I'm already clueless with it. Who would likely win instead: I believe aside from "Deepwater Horizon" and "Sully", the remaining titles are top contenders. I can even dare say they have an equal chance of winning. But I'm choosing "Hacksaw Ridge", because it's a war movie, and we all know that sounds play a crucial factor in enhancing the look and feel. I mean, just imagine a war movie without any appropriate sound effects. Yep...

Best Short Film - Live Action

Who I want to see win: I can't actually voice my opinion for this one, because I don't think I'll be able to see any of them anyway... Who would likely win instead: I really shouldn't give my pick on this one, due to the exact same condition. But to not go empty handed, I'll go with "Ennemis Interierus" after reading opinions from various critics. It seems they are favoring this title for valid reasons.

Best Short Film - Animated

Who I want to see win: Can I just say 'PASS' now? XD Who would likely win instead: Look, I'm a fan of animated movies. That's a FACT. But I've only seen one title in the list, and eventhough it's sweet, adorable, and genuinely cute, I doubt "Piper" would win. Not to mention, "Sanjay's Super Team" didn't win last year, so Pixar's not exactly a sure bet anymore. Which one should I choose, then? After reading various reviews, I think I'll go with "Pearl" then...

Best Sound Mixing

Who I want to see win: I think it's between "La La Land" and "Arrival". Who would likely win instead: Well, my vote goes to "La La Land", due to a ridiculous reason that it's a musical. Hey, sound mixing is crucially important for the genre, right? It's the make or break element. Let's just see whether the Academy members are on the same page with me or not on this. But it seems they always DID choose musical for this category. LOL.

Best Makeup & Hairstyling

Who I want to see win: You know what? I'm going to go ahead and choose A Man Called Ove for this one. Why? It has won the same category before at the Guldbagge Awards! Beside, it's the fairest choice considering the other blockbuster titles competing with it. Who would likely win instead: Its anyone's guess, really. Because "A Man Called Ove" might not get a huge buzz because it's a foreign movie, "Suicide Squad" was forgettable pop-corn flick at best and that might play an effect to voters, and "Star Trek Beyond" wasn't too successful. Judging from the tendency though, I think that last one has the highest chance of nabbing the prize. After all, "Star Trek Beyond" was critically praised, and it was meant as the 50th Anniversary movie of the franchise. That must've played a factor in the voters mind. Besides, we're getting lots of aliens in it, right? And that requires extensive make up. Then again... even "Guardians of the Galaxy" didn't win this category back in 2015... *sigh*.

Best Visual Effects

Who I want to see win: Well this one's VERY easy. The easiest answer I could give. And that is? Either "The Jungle Book" or "Doctor Strange", because both were visual effects masterpiece that brought audience to surreal worlds they have never been before. The former was plain old movie magic, while the latter dazzled and enchanted through its magical sequences. I recall, we have had a double winner before, right? I hope that's the case with this category this year. If it's not happening, then at least "Kubo and the Two Strings" should be given a consideration. Who would likely win instead: This is also easy. "The Jungle Book" all the way. I'd be surprised if it doesn't win. And would be VERY suprised if "Deepwater Horizon" does!

Best Original Song

Who I want to see win: Obviously the one that resonated to me the most... "How Far I'll Go" from "Moana". It's an inspiring song, and one that would get stuck in your head fairly easily. Lest we forget, it was sung by a teenager when the movie was produced! Who would likely win instead: "The Empty Chair" from "Jim: The James Foley Story" might pull off a surprise win here, but I'm betting my pick on "Audition (The Fools Who Dream)" from "La La Land". Sure, "City of Stars" by the same movie is having a much higher chance to win, but I personally liked Emma Stone's solo better (I haven't seen the movie, but I have heard its soundtrack). It's a slow ballad that's sweet, hopeful, but also poignant at the same time. And usually, melancholic songs tend to win more attention. At least, I'm sure it'll move many voters' emotion to give their voice.

Best Original Score

Who I want to see win: Duh? Of course it's the musical one. Who would likely win instead: Yes, rhyming well with my desire, I'm giving my pick to "La La Land" as well, because it IS a musical. And yes, I do think it would win as well. Because... yes, it IS a musical. Duh! Hold on, why am I repeating my words in a loop? Hmmm... like a song? LOL

Best Costume Design

Who I want to see win: Judging from the trailer and clips, "La La Land" looks stunning with its colorful costumes and designs. Who would likely win instead: Unfortunately, I don't think those fancy vibrant colors would win over audience, as much as the other movies. I'm not too keen of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them", I mean, I need to check whether any "Harry Potter" titles had won this category before. But it DOES have a higher chance of winning. The same goes to the other titles, because the costumes are important elements to their time setting. With that reason in mind, I'll give my voice to "Jackie" then! The figure has an iconic fashion style, and it would break its actress performance if it wasn't done appropriately.

Best Production Design

Who I want to see win: I usually couldn't care less about this category, but there is a particular title I want to see win, and it's "Hail, Caesar!". Yes, for a movie about Hollywood, and considering the directors and talents behind it, it's really quite surprising that it only scored one nomination in the Oscars. Just this one! So yeah, this is my way to honor the fun and meaningful movie. Who would likely win instead: "Hail, Caesar!" and "La La Land" are pretty much similar in this category, so I doubt neither would get the gold. "Passengers"? Wasn't that all relying to CG? Meh. I'd love to use the same reason to denounce "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them", but for some reasons, somehow I can see it winning over voters. In fact, it might actually get the first place. The same sentiment goes to "Arrival". Judging from the Academy members' tendency, I'm going to go ahead and choose "Arrival" though. After all, the Academy members tend to go with lower budget movies that utilizes more practical production, rather than big-budgeted box office types. Still, I could be very wrong about this....

Best Film Editing

Who I want to see win: I'll pass... because I think any of them should win. Who would likely win instead: Editing is a crucial aspect of film's post production. We all have seen examples of how poorly edited process affected the overall reception of a movie. Example? The two latest DC Films. And nope, not event a 'Make Up Oscar nod' is valid as an excuse. Things need to flow together nicely, and scenes need to be cut and shaped without breaking the narratives and goals of the movie. This works for all the names on this list, because if it's not a tight-cut war sequence like "Hacksaw Ridge", or rhythm-paced musical of "La La Land", it's a slow moment that captures thrills like "Arrival" or emotions like "Moonlight". I'm going to go ahead with the safest choice once more, which is... the most nominated title of the bunch.

Best Cinematography

Who I want to see win: This one's a little... hard. In fact, I'd go ahead and choose the simplest answer once again: Any of them. This sentiment is based on the trailers alone, of course. Who would likely win instead: Once again, I don't know for sure. I think this is the category where every nominees have a fair chance. Since I can only choose one title, I'm going to go ahead and choose "Arrival". Though I can't seem to hide the feeling that "La La Land" will come on top instead.

Best Documentary Short Subject

Who I want to see win: ...any of them too? The wisest answer for me is to pass on this one, really. No... really, because I don't even have access to see them. Not now, not in the near future. Who would likely win instead: Many are saying that the award would likely be given to "Joe's Violin", due to its emotional theme. But I'll go with "Extremis" for this one. And no, not because it sounds like a plot point from "Iron Man 3", but because it sounds like a serious title about... something serious? Ahahaha... (don't worry, I'm ready to lose point in this, and I think I will)

Best Documentary Feature

Who I want to see win: ...likewise with the previous category. Who would likely win instead: I want to go with "I Am Not Your Negro", because it 'sounds' like something relevant to a discrimination theme, but I have a strong feeling people are going to vote for "O.J.: Made in America" instead. Yes, due to that popular TV shows that has been winning Emmys. So I'll go ahead with that one.

Best Foreign Language Film

Who I want to see win: The Iranian movie, "The Salesman". I know I shouldn't relate this with politics, but seriously, its win would serve as such a huge slap to the current leader of US Government a.k.a 'He Who Should Not Be Named', and his despicable discriminative ban on a certain religion believers. Say what you will, but I will NEVER approve a bully, no matter what or who he is. Who would likely win instead: Yes, I'm giving my vote to the same title, and apparently "Toni Erdmann" is likely tailing behind it. It's hard to properly judge foreign movies though, because I don't even know how to gain access to these movies. They say that movies, just like music should've been universal, and that IS indeed the case. Distribution-wise however? NOT the case.

Best Animated Feature

Who I want to see win: Should I go with a Studio Ghibli co-produced title "The Red Turtle"? Or the child drama of being an outcast in "My Life as a Zucchini"? Perhaps the Polynesian coming-of-age Disney Princess movie of "Moana"? Nope... I think I'll go with a title that I placed on my Top 10 Movies of 2016: "Kubo and the Two Strings"! I'd genuinely be happy if ANY of the nominees wins though, because seriously they are all great... Who would likely win instead: There is one title that have been a standout, defeating every competition in previous award shows. It's none other than Disney's Animation second title, "Zootopia". Which is why I'm giving my vote to it too. It's also one of my Top 10 Movies of 2016, although it ranked a little lower than Kubo's. But I can see the appeal to why Academy members would go with this title instead.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Who I want to see win: I have to give this one a pass too, because I would need to know the actual source materials to properly give a valid opinion. Who would likely win instead: I feel it's going to be a race between "Arrival" and "Moonlight". Not saying that the other three titles are not good, but my gut is telling me that way. I'm going with the latter here...

Best Original Screenplay

Who I want to see win: Hmmm... I can't say who I want to see win, but I know which one would be unlikely to. But I'll just stay silent and choose abstain here. Otherwise I might sound rude to a title or two. Who would likely win instead: If you ask me, it's highly likely that "La La Land" and "Manchester by the Sea" are the two possible winners. Which is why I'm going with the former, because writing a musical isn't a easy feat. Especially one that blends the bright Hollywood dream and its dark and crushing reality.

Best Supporting Actress

Who I want to see win: Hmmm... I really don't know. I like all names in this list on the same level, so I don't think I can favor one. Who would likely win instead: If there's a category that proves that we're not having an #OscarsSoWhite year, it's this one. Three of the nominees are African-Americans! And all of them have the highest chance to nab the big prize, especially when compared to the two white Oscar darlings Nicole Kidman, and Michelle Williams (who has a higher opportunity to win among the two, mind you). Before you get me wrong, I'm not going to compare about race here, but I do feel we might see Viola Davis actually winning this year. She has been nominated several times already, and it's high time that she's getting the accolade she truly deserves.

Best Supporting Actor

Who I want to see win: I'm 100% Asian, so obviously I'll go with Dev Patel. Okay, I'm kidding, because that's not the main reason. But it's certainly one of it. LOL Who would likely win instead: The only one I've seen in this list is Jeff Bridges, and while he was good in "Hell or High Water", I honestly didn't think he offered anything new in his role. Thus the likelihood of him winning is well... a little low. Similar to Michael Shannon IMHO, whose inclusion felt like a big surprise, considering it was his co-star Aaron Taylor-Johnson in "Nocturnal Animals" who were nominated for Golden Globes. Who won too! With that said, I'm gonna go for Mahershala Ali with this one, although both Patel and Lucas Hedges have strong chances too. In fact, I won't be surprised if Hedges comes out on top!

Best Actress

Who I want to see win: Ruth Negga! Yep, ever since she gave a layered and stellar performance, albeit being wasted as an antagonist character in the first two seasons of Marvel's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", I've known for sure that Negga is going to go big. Her being 'not white' might sort of prevented this from happening much sooner, but here's hoping her Oscar nomination will pave way for a brighter success in the future. It also helps that just like Mahershala Ali, she's a Marvel alumn. LOL. Who would likely win instead: Unfortunately, the chance for Negga to win is rather... slim. That's because the buzz has mostly gone to either Natalie Portman and Emma Stone for their performances. The latter in particular. Which is why, I'm giving my vote for Portman, due to several reasons. Her movie "Jackie" IS a biopic. It's a political theme one. And Portman is an Oscar darling. Those three might easily affected the Academy members in giving her a 2nd Oscar. Stone comes next because she fits the 3rd category as well, and the same goes for Meryl Streep who has always been a frequent in the Oscar race.

Best Actor

Who I want to see win: Casey Affleck, if only to prove to the world that he IS a solid talent on his own. As in, not just an actor who should always be associated with a more popular brother. To be honest, his acting skill are beyond Ben's, but he has been the joke of the town just because his last name, right? That's unfair. Who would likely win instead: This is rather difficult. If there's one name I could easily cross from the list, it's Andrew Garfield. I haven't seen "Hacksaw Ridge" myself, but I don't think he's a contender to win when we have Viggo Mortensen who bared it all physically and emotionally in "Captain Fantastic", Ryan Gosling who danced and sang it all in "La La Land", and Denzel Washington who both directed and acted in "Fences". And then there was Affleck, whose performance many critics have been wholeheartedly praising. So far, I believe the true competition would be between Affleck and Washington, and so I'm going with my gut instinct and choose Washington... with the same reasonings to my vote for Natalie Portman.

Best Director

Who I want to see win: Either Denis Villeneuve and Damien Chazelle would be great! Who would likely win instead: I have a strong inkling feeling that Chazelle will take the big prize. After all, he's been scoring wins in other award shows, and might very well continue a winning streak. But I do believe Villeneuve, Barry Jenkins, and Kenneth Lonergan also have high probability to win. The one I honestly doubt would win would be Mel Gibson. Not saying that he's a bad director though, but I don't think he has as much positive buzz as the other nominees.

Best Picture

Which one I want to see win: I got it right last year when I chose "Spotlight", but I honestly can't tell with this year's set. As I said above, I haven't even seen half of the titles on the list! That's saying much. So I guess I'm okay with any title that'll win. Everyone's a fair game. Who would likely win instead: Being the movie with the most nominations, "La La Land" obviously has been the frontrunner for this category. Especially if voters lean towards the happy poignant Hollywood flare rather than heart gutting dramas about social issues. Hollywood folks love to praise themselves, and it has been proven several times in the Oscar's "Best Picture" wins. But "Moonlight", "Arrival", and "Manchester by the Sea" are tailing behind, stalking the musical in every corner, so they have a high chance too. I'll say it again, I have only seen one title (and without discrediting the title, I doubt "Hell or High Water" would win), so I can't really say much about which one would likely win gold. Thus I'll go with the popular consensus and go with "La La Land". Taking the easy road, eh?

As you could see, this was NOT a credible prediction. At all. LOL. I mean, I mostly relied on personal guesses judging from the Academy's tendency, while some categories were picked from popular predictions posted on various sites (like Collider, Forbes, Social Media, and so on). So that's just the way it is. One thing for sure, I won't be surprised if my Result Score would end up being much lower than last year. LOL. Then again, things can always go sideways, and might not play well to anyone's prediction. Considering the Academy has 6700 active members now, and every single one of them are a unique soul. I guess we'll just have to see how it goes, when the grand celebration starts on February 26, 2017, on 04:00 PM PST. Which is only around 24 hours away (if my calculation is correct, it should be February 25, 04:00PM PST when this post goes up). I'll return with the 'Result' version of this post, as soon as I get information on all the winners. Till then, go watch the Best Pictures nominees and wish the best for the ones you want to see win! See you soon...

#random thoughts #Just for Fun #movie #Academy Awards #Oscars #animation