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multeasers · 2 months

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okay i totally realized only now that some headcanons are in order for thatz so please look below here for some if ur interested

first off here's a full map of the ENTIRE world ( as of the original DK story ) of DK ; also these are in no particular order, sprinkles in some canon / the other Dragon Knights for context, and the format is likely gonna fuck up randomly so ignore that BUT

⚫ the bit on his info page about his being raised in an orphanage found in Draqueen's slums is a headcanon ; the group he was raised with is based on no canon characters in particular, but one member of this group is a canonical character named Kitchel ( link goes to a tag of what she looks like, as DK has no wiki page, though there is a wikipedia one that sums everyone up ) >> kitchel, canonically, is at one-time thatz's rival in thievery, but the two team up at the dragon lord's request to find 3 sacred treasures later in the story >> since my hc runs that they were raised in the same orphanage, though, kitchel is typically a sister-figure alongside being thatz's rival in my interpretation of him ⚫ the reason thatz is the only one of the Knights ( as of most of the manga's storyline ) who can communicate with his Duel Dragon is because he is canonically the only one who is a true Dragon Knight . rath and rune, the respective Fire and Water Dragon Knights for most of the story, were actually fill-in Knights >> canonically rath knew of his being a fill-in for the entirety of the story, but thatz and rune only find out about him and ( in rune's case ) himself later >> there are also technically meant to be 5 Dragon Knights total ; Light, Wind, Fire, Earth, and Water . rath became the Light Dragon Knight at his second creation ( long story ), but the Light Dragon died trying to protect him when he was young . the Demon King Nadil was the Wind Dragon Knight, but he killed Wind long before the story began ; it's in the Gaiden, though it only makes up like half of the third chapter iirc >> the way thatz and Earth can communicate is mainly telepathically, though this is mostly done on Earth's end ; if she ever has a dialogue part in one of the threads, it'll be conveyed as bolded green ; the reason the two of them can do this while the other two Knights can't is because their Duel Dragons aren't able to truly mesh their powers together . the manga isn't too in-depth w it from what i remember, but my explanation is that the bond extends to both the Life Forces of the Duel Dragons and their Knights ( will explain later ) . it's also an issue of Magical influence, since rath and rune are borrowing the Magic of these Duel Dragons whereas thatz is being given and supplied Earth Magic / Magical power as a whole by Earth herself through their bond >> also technically all the Dragons are male in the manga, but i refute that notion >> when Earth broke free of her seal and thatz became her Knight, some abilities he gained were being able to sense vibrations through the ground ( something he'd already been teaching himself to do since he was a kid, but now he isn't limited to being inside / needing to take his shoes off ) and the ability to sense what is within the earth ( actual space he can sense to be decided later, but immediate areas around him are a for-sure thing ) . Some more abilities could be added but for rn these are the ones I'm set for sure on ( if you saw the ability 2 control creatures thing you didn't thank you ) ⚫ thatz once had to cut his right arm off to save the Dragon Lord ( thatz got possessed by a demon and was choking him ) . the arm was re-attached, but the ordeal left him with some minor numbness and a gnarly scar running down from his shoulder cuff to his elbow . at the end of the first series, he loses his left one, but it's again re-attached . same deal as before, though, so he has another scar at his left shoulder . rune's the one to heal his arm this time, though, not just a Dragon Tribe healer, so he doesn't experience any loss of feeling or numbness

⚫ his hoarding tendencies did grow when he became a Knight, and he's arguably the worst of the three due to being the Earth Dragon Knight ; Earth has notoriously been known to be a hoarder of her own keepsakes herself ⚫ the fact that he's the only human Dragon Knight, even when the true Fire and Water Knights are found, doesn't give him any sort of insecurity or complex ( though he occasionally wishes he had some sort of mythical blood in him to fall back on, too ) ; this is because the Dragon Tribe is made up of mostly humans, for starters, and two, the King and Queen Consort, Lykouleon and Raseleane, are technically considered Dragons too, despite being humans as well ( the explanation for this is kinda wonky in the story, so we won't get into it too much ) ⚫ because thatz is the only true Knight, he gets no kind of push-back from Earth if he lets her stay out of her Dragon Sword . rath and rune get push-back from their Dragons should they do the same, but the push-back manifests as exhaustion ( extending the powers they're borrowing too much ), so rath typically can handle this just fine because of who he is as a whole being ; rune is the one who gets the real short end of the stick here >> this is canonically a no-no by the Dragon Tribe itself, though, unless they're training with the Dragons or letting them fly, so thatz will only ever let Earth chill outside of the sword for long periods of time if he's alone

okay other stuff :v these are ALL pure headcanons from here on . you can ask me about any of them :D

⚫ thatz being gay and genderfluid is all headcanon babey >> see fedelta here, see ruwalk here ; because rn they're the only two i ship thatz with >> not to spoil the endings here but canonically fedelta ends up w no one ( not gonna say why ) and ruwalk ends up with a character name cernozura ( who i adore i really do ) but i like to refute that thank you >> the reason i include this info at all ( i mention this on his page ofc ) is because thatz himself may mention his crush on one or the other or both of them, if he feels so inclined ; he might also not, though, so don't hold out

and now for au headcanons ( for the moment )

⚫ in his Fairy Tail verse, thatz isn't the only one capable of communicating with Earth because there's no "fake" Dragon Slayers ( that would match the reasons as to why rath and rune are "fake" Knights, at least ), and Telepathy Magic can be learned by anyone >> his childhood and origins are still the same, but there's a rumour started eventually that his parents actually were from Edolas . some versions of the rumour have him being born there, as well, or his parents finding some way out of the alternate universe and ending up in Earth Land to have him there some time around when Mystogan's father, Faust, began outlawing Magic usage . this rumour was started for reasons unknown to thatz >> he isn't in a Guild because he still is a Knight under the Dragon King and Queen Consort ⚫ in his Raised by Demons verse, there are actually a lot of ways this could go about, but i'll list some basic facts here >> in some way shape or form, thatz comes to be in the dimension of Kainaldia ( which is technically on the same continent as Dragoon, which is where the Dragon Clan is, but it's in another dimension ; link to a full map can be found way up the post ), which is home to a great number of demons ( and, as of the main story, was the only country home to demons ; there are fewer, i believe, in the sequel than there were in the main one ) . one such demon is the Demon Lord of Dusis, Nadil >> there is a version of this verse where thatz is actually nadil's son, but i highly doubt i'll use it here at all >> for one reason or another, nadil raises thatz ; either like a son, as his actual son, or purely as a soldier in his army . this latter version is typically raised by a different demon named Shyrendora >> in many versions of the verse, thatz is released into Dragoon / to Draqueen in his early life, unable to remember being raised by / around demons until he's much older >> if he's being used as if he's a soldier in nadil's army, though, thatz is only sent to Draqueen in his early twenties because, somehow, nadil discovered thatz was the Dragon Knight of Earth, and he wants him to go retrieve her and ( later, as canonically happens in the story ) wait until he can be revived before thatz can come home to kainaldia again . basically, he's just a spy on the inside ; because of the Dragon Clan's kindness, though, thatz finds himself a bit confused in this verse once nadil is returned to life

and, for now, that's it :v

#🐲🌊 ( headcanons )#this took . a long time wow !#but this is okay because i love thatz . i love him sm #like i love aq i do . she is forever my baby girl #but thatz is up there with her genuinely . babygirlify that man expeditiously

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usoftlabs · 11 months

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strand3602 · 1 year

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prestigesteelblog · 2 years

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topwordpressmaintenancepackages · 2 years

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rachetmath · 3 years

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Jaune’s Failure

WARNING: This. Will. Be. Long. I’m going to be doing this every time a post is too long of a read. If you want to read it then go on a head. This is analysis. With that out the way go wild.

Me: Hey man. How are you?

Jaune Fan: Fine man. How are you?

Me: I need to tell you something.

Jaune Fan: Okay, shoot.

Me: The Jaune and Penny scene made sense.

RWBY fan: *breaks in* Oh hell no! There is no way that scene made sense.

Jaune Fan: Yeah man, I-I love Jaune as a character but there is no way that scene could be justified.

Me: But let's talk about it. Um, Jaune's weapon is Crocea Mors, right?

RWBY Fan: Yeah, yellow death, what's the point?

Jaune Fan: Yeah. Just because Jaune's first name means the same as Crocea name doesn't justify the scene.

Me: Well, let’s talk about Jaune's sisters. Why is it out of all of them Jaune is wearing black?

Jaune Fan: Hm.

RWBY Fan: Yeah, that is weird and unlike all his sister, he's not even smiling at all.

Me: Let's even go further. Why did Crocea Mors break? After all the struggle it's gone through why did it break after Cinder displayed a very sloppy swing of her sword?

Jaune Fan: Because Jaune killed an innocent person. That's it.

Me: Yeah but... that's not all. Let's take Jaune's card info as an example. Amity Arena may not be canon but it's something to go on. It said:

"Jaune Arc was never going to be the warrior his forefathers were. Born into a family with a bunch of sisters tougher than him and growing up a gentle, kind, young lad away from the front lines weren't recipes to create a fighting genius. He never made his own weapon, and he snuck into Beacon with little to no skill or knowledge of the world of Huntsmen.

Surrounded by the likes of Pyrrha, a world-renowned fighter, Ren and Nora, frontier survivors of Kuroyuri, Ruby and Yang, the daughters of Beacon's Team STRQ, Blake, a former White Fang militant, and Weiss, the heiress of the Schnee, Jaune thought that he could not hold a candle to them.

But little did he know, Jaune also had a gift. A gift that allowed for him to take the hardest hits for his team, a gift that allowed him to heal the wounded, a gift that made everyone else around him stronger. Jaune was something the others were not. He was a leader. The kind with shaky legs, trembling hands, but with shield up, at the front.

Showing everyone that true courage... can only stem from a fearful heart."

Jaune Fan: Okay. And?

RWBY Fan: What does all this have to do with Jaune?

Me: Well, Crocea Mors was never Jaune's weapon. However, Jaune was emotionally attached to it. After all he wanted to be a hero like his father and grandfather. However, his sister had their own lives, their own talents and don't care much about being a hero or huntress. Meaning their stronger and more mature than their brother is.

RWBY Fan: Oh shoot. That's... true.

Jaune Fan: That means they are more deserving of the sword than Jaune was. Jaune is the black sheep of his family.

Me: Speaking of black, here's what it symbolizes.

"Black represents evil, darkness, night, and despair. It’s the color used to convey certainty and authority, and when used in opposition with white, it’s a symbol of the eternal struggle between day and night, good and evil, and right and wrong." (https://www.sensationalcolor.com/meaning-of-black/#:~:text=Symbolism%20And%20Meaning%20Of%20Black,evil%2C%20and%20right%20and%20wrong.)

RWBY Fan: Well Ruby has that too. So does Blake, Qrow and Raven. How does Jaune fit into this?

Jaune Fan: Yeah.

Me: Has Jaune done anything right?

Jaune Fan: … Oh shit.

Me: I mean Jaune cheated Beacon. What happened? Pyrrha died and Cinder got the maiden powers. He tried to fight Cinder. What happened? Weiss almost died. He tried to steal an Atlas airship. What happened? Ruby, Blake, and Yang almost died. Ruby's lies to James and Jaune said nothing about it. What happened? Penny died. And the man can take a hit from giants. So, what does that mean?

RWBY Fan: *laughs*

Jaune Fan: Oh shit. Volume 9 better focus on him because... Jaune is going to need it.

Me: For those you who might not know what I'm saying, I'll explain. The villian of volume nine, in theory, is going to be Neo and Jaune. Jaune isn't going to fight the team because he's gone crazy however, Neo can turn team RWBY against him. The only way for Jaune to defeat Neo is admitting he killed Penny, even if Penny asked him to do so. But Jaune fans let’s face the harsh facts. Jaune is self-fish, a hypocrite and more importantly irresponsible. Jaune let Ruby lie to James's face and he said nothing. This man had the nerve to talk down to James yet barely does anything to better the situation. Now we can say the same thing about Qrow and Yang but guess what we should never forget is Jaune is a leader. Basically, I'm saying everything from volume 7-8 was Jaune's fault.

Now, if Jaune wants to protect his friends, he needs to be more responsible. Crocea Mors was never his and he was never worthy to have it in the first place. He used Crocea Mors to kill an innocent person. Though Jaune's father and grandfather can be guilty of the same thing, they at least did for their kingdom and their follow soldiers. Jaune did it for well, no reason. Why? Because everything could've been avoided if Jaune done the right thing. However, Jaune made his own choices even against the Arc family. In honesty, I don’t blame him but still. Basically, Crocea Mors, who has been with the Arcs for generation, left Jaune because Jaune is growing up, and forged his own path that it can no longer follow. He needs to find his own strength. Jaune needs his own sword.

And guess what, volume 8 hinted at this with Jaune trying to be a leader and be responsible. Jaune trying to encourage the people in Mantle:

Jaune accepts Ren having a point about their actions but still cares about him. Even when Yang gave him praise, he didn't care. He knew Ren had a point. He never said he was wrong:

Persuading Winter and ready to risk his life to save Oscar:

Contributing to plans and leading them:

Even knowing when to ask for help and trying to be one step ahead.

However, volume 7 still happened. Ruby lied to James Yang and Blake betrayed James’s trust. And they got caught slipping:

James descended to madness. And Oscar got shot:

All of this could have been avoided if Jaune told James the truth himself. (Its as if Argus didn’t matter. Oh boy.) So, what better way for Jaune to pay the price for his sin than taking an innocent life in Ruby's place. Just like Cinder. And like Raven, James and Ozpin. You know, leaders:

Basically, despite all Jaune's power because of his foolishness and blind loyalty to Ruby he lost everything.

A potential friend:

His honor and connection with his family and Pyrrha:

The price Jaune has paid for team RWBY is too great to ignore. Now he needs to find or regain his strength, take responsibility for happened, and more importantly, finally call these four bitches out on their bull shit.

You know what I am hoping Neo, does not get redeemed too quickly or not at all. Because in all honesty, I want team RWBY to get bodied. Back to Jaune, he'll never get his revenge, protect his friends, or maybe stop Salem. But if you don't believe me, fine, I don't care.

In honesty, trust me I don’t really believe the scene with Jaune and Penny was necessary. I already knew Jaune was going to be the one to kill Penny but not like permit kill but kill and revive. You know Jaune having a lot of aura and all you think he could help Pietro revive her. So... Yeah.

#rwby #JNPR #Jaune Arc #ruby rose #yang xiao long #lie ren #winter schnee #nora valkyrie #oscar pines #penny polendina #crocea mors #arc family #saphron cotta-arc #Blake Belladonna #james ironwood #neopolitan #cinder fall

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caitlynlynch · 4 years

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The Mercenary Librarians are a team of three women, Nina, Dani and Maya, trying to hold together a small repository of information and help their community in a post-apocalyptic Atlanta some 60 years into the future, in a dystopian world where the BioTech giants have basically taken over everything. Approached by a team of ex-military mercenaries with a proposal to find a huge score of digitised information (the Rogue Library of Congress) Nina can’t resist, even though she knows there’s something shady about Captain Garrett Knox. Knox doesn’t want to sell the librarians out, but with his men’s biotech implants degrading by the day, he has no choice if he wants to save them all.

I really loved how badass Nina, Maya and Dani were. Genetically engineered and raised from birth to be weapons (in Nina and Dani’s case) and a living information repository (Maya) they were far more likely to ride to the rescue than need helping out themselves. Whereas Knox’s team were selected, enhanced and trained for their skills as adults (excluding tech geek Conall). Both teams have lost too many loved ones, suffered too much. None of them are prepared to give any quarter in the fight to save the rest… until they get to know each other and realise they’re more alike than they want to be.

The world is well realised - I understand it’s carried forward from a previous series which I haven’t read, but I had no problem understanding what was happening and the information was well conveyed, without info-dumping. There are a couple of very hot sex scenes, more than I’d really expect to find in a dystopian fantasy, but I don’t think it’s really a romance because while Knox and Nina are the primary two characters here, we spend a lot of time in the POV of everyone else… of all the characters featured, I think only the biohacker Luna, who spent most of the book off-screen as a hostage, didn’t get any POV chapters. There are a couple of other romantic pairings which look likely to be centred in the rest of this trilogy, although a couple of late-arriving characters might provide some curve balls in that respect. I’m very much looking forward to finding out, because I absolutely loved this. Five stars for a fantastic dystopian fantasy heavy on the romance.

Deal With The Devil is available now.

Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this title via NetGalley.

#5 star review #dystopian fantasy #urban fantasy #great read #highly recommended #kickass ladies #the grumpy one is soft for the sunshine one #Kit Rocha

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moonlightreal · 3 years

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Fate episode 5

Welcome back to Elemental Academy! When we left, the three adults had fallen prey to inescapable Plot of being adults in a YA franchise and decided “we must hide the truth and manipulate our students, for their own good.” Words cannot convey how sad this makes me. The three of them having their moments as competent, experienced residents of a magical world was the neatest thing in this show.

But first, we just got a backstory bomb courtesy of Beatrix! Let’s give it a closer look before we dive into episode 5.

So Beatrix’s story is that a peaceful town called Aster Dell was surrounded by Burned Ones and the powers that be decided to nuke the place, sacrificing the humans to take out the Burned Ones. And that decision was made by our three adults, Miss Dowling, Silva and Harvey, and Rosalind, and Queen Luna. But Rosalind had an attack of conscience and turned against the others, and managed to save two babies from the town, Bloom and Beatrix. She left Beatrix with a friend and dumped Bloom in the human world. The three Alfea adults captured Rosalind and stuck her under the school, and Queen Luna cast an illusion over the ruins of Aster Dell to… erase the event from history in a world where Instagram exists? How does THAT work? That was apparently the last stand of the Burned Ones because they all vanished until just now.

It certainly paints our adults in a bad light! But is it true? I mean we did hear it from Beatrix! She not only… is Beatrix… she wasn’t there at the time. Maybe the Burned Ones had already killed everyone before the town was nuked. Maybe the adults thought the townsfolk were already dead and nuked the place on bad intel. Maybe Queen Luna nuked the town and the three teachers were just helping clean up after. Maybe Luna ordered them to do it, she is QUEEN after all. Maybe the adults knew that nuking this one town would end the Burned One threat forever and were willing to sacrifice hundreds to save millions. I mean, there’s not really a GOOD excuse to nuke a town, but there’s better and worse reasons.

Gee, it’d help if we knew what Burned Ones actually were and where they come from!

...Hang on, how sure are we that Sky’s father is actually dead? Because he hung out with all these adults and he’s a “he.” And he’s in a photo therefor there’s an actor to play him. If he’s the friend who raised Beatrix then B would have grown up knowing only his and Rosalind’s side of the story, not any circumstances that might make the Alfea adults look non-awful. Then Beatrix wouldn’t even have to be lying. Of course that raises the question of why Andreas would be raising Beatrix instead of his actual son, a weird parenting choice. Maybe he just would’ve rather have a daughter! Sky seems to have turned out all right with Silva as foster-dad.

So, anybody wanna lay bets? Is reappearing dead dad more or less likely than a master Burned One hiding in a cave? (and yes I know most of you have already seen the last episode and are laughing at me trying to guess, and that makes me happy.)

Ok, let’s hit episode 5!

We open at night, some guards stand stoically outside while we torture Beatrix! She’s shrieking and rolling around with the antimagic cuffs biting into her wrists while Dowling tries to read her mind. Silva expresses worry that they’re hurting the girl and Dowling says, ‘I’m pushing through her mental defenses, it’s painless. This is an act.”

And it probably is, because Beatrix sits up and starts on, “Nobody will believe you, I have the better story. Everyone will whisper that you’re torturing poor fragile me.”

Dowling asks questions about where she went with Bloom, why kill Callan, is Bloom in on it with you, do you have anything to do with the Burned Ones… Dowling, you look a little pathetic not knowing all those things!

Beatrix is being creepy as blazes, 10/10 for her actress narrating the rumors that will spread about her own torture. ‘Her screams echoed through the school… then one day, they stopped. No one knows what happened to the poor girl, but everyone knows who did it.” this is marvelously delivered. I wonder if Beatrix is planning her own death to make it look like Dowling killed her. How obsessed with her idea of revenge is she?

And Beatrix wins! Her description drives Dowling from the room and Silva after an uncomfortable look back and forth, follows her out. The two specialists standing guard continue stoic. they’re outside the big doors from the last episode, inside is a big cage with a bed and stuff for keeping prisoners in semi-comfort. But the walls are paper thin and apparently this has been going on for a week! I think B just screamed a lot all week and only now spilled her plans.

Alfea has stone dungeons with thick walls, why aren’t we using one of those? Or why haven’t the police come take her away to charge her with murder? Are the Alfea teachers the entire justice system of Solaria? I think the teachers are going under the table and Beatrix played them.

With a week of torture added, we’re now 3-4 weeks into the school year.

Bloom is outside, hiding behind a car, watching the adults leave the cell. She starts texting when Dane comes up behind her. He says he knows what she’s doing and Bloom does the most badly-acted little grin when she says she’s not doing anything. But Dane says he’s on guard duty tomorrow night and he’ll help her get in to talk to Beatrix.

Interesting that it’s Dane and Bloom, not Dane and Riven, or just Riven.

Opening!

We jump to Bloom and Sky fighting a Burned One in a hedge maze! But it’s only an illusion training dummy, it turns into one of those big glass gemstones.

Sky has a little cut on his face and Bloom closes it with magic. Just cauterizes it I assume, unless she has healing magic and we weren’t told. Healing is usually under the water or earth element in these sorts of systems.

Bloom: “I just wish they’d tell us how to fight these things.”

Yes, fighting teachers should do that. Kind of the point of having teachers.

Everybody else is fighting too! The fairies seem to have joined the specialists on their mats. Another girl throws fire, so Bloom’s not the only fire fairy here. Riven shows off his stick-fighting skill. Dowling and Silva watch, with Aisha taking notes on a clipboard as Dowling’s new assistant. Terra shows off her vines grabbing… is that a new adult? We don’t get a good look but it looks like a man in specialist gear. Bloom and Sky’s voiceover says, “It’s like they’ve gone full wargames.” and “Well they were soldiers before they were teachers so it’s on-brand for Alfea faculty.”

Harvey arrives in the hedge maze and Sky asks for a hint. This is the only exercise he and Bloom can’t pass.

Subtitles (thanks for the suggest, january-summers!) say Harvey’s first name is Ben. And he’s gonna lay some info on us! ‘Inside each burned One is a magical core called a cinder, and with time and finesse you can use your magic to destroy it.” That… seems like a factoid that should’ve been shared in the “all about Burned Ones” lecture that should have happened at the beginning of this martial push? Just sayin?

He also explains how fairy-and-specialist fighting works. The fairy must trust her specialist to protect her so that she can “channel controlled magic” without freaking out and lighting the woods on fire when a monster comes at her. And he must trust her to destroy the thing. Ok, that makes sense. That works. So is it normal for fairies and specialists to team up in pairs? Is that what they do in the army too? Were Dowling and Silva one such pair? Maybe Harvey and his unseen wife were and she’s unseen because she died in the war. Now I’m imagining Mrs. Harvey was a badass specialist.

Bloom flirtatiously asks if she can trust Sky and he more sensibly asks if he can trust her. He thinks Bloom was being awfully teachers-pet to Harvey. Bloom says since the outing with Beatrix everyone’s been watching her like a hawk, wondering if she’s Beatrix’s evil henchwoman. They joke about Bond villains and Sky has seen several James Bonds. Then they go back for another try against the illusory Burned One.

But they are being watched! In fact Bloom is being watched by Sky, who gets a very meaningful look from Silva as he goes past. Dowling eyeballs Bloom, who smiles innocently back. The teachers are walking with Aisha and Musa, And Musa is reading Bloom and Sky to see if they’re tired yet. She does say “I know they know I’m doing it, but it still feels invasive.” Musa would rather use magic on a real enemy! But Dowling says mind reading is support magic and that’s just as important. ‘Your magic can help us assess fragile states of mind or uncover hidden enemies.’

Aisha asks, ‘like Beatrix?” and Musa asks how B is doing and if they found out why she killed Callan. But Dowling just says, ‘let’s keep focused.” which, I can see why she’s not telling them everything but she is playing right into Beatrix’s hands.

Terra’s getting a drink of water on break between sparring. A girl specialist with a great hairdo, buns up the back of her head, compliments Terra on her vine restraint move. Terra says, ‘thanks, it’s all bout the tensile strength of the cellulose.”

Riven comes and sits down by Terra and says, “Tensile strength. Hot.” Terra, not sure what to make of that either but knowing Riven, pointedly ignores him. But Riven is having one of his likeable moments and says, ‘She’s right you know. you’re a force out there.”

Wanna comment on two things. First, Freddy Thorpe who plays Riven is great. He keeps making me want to like his objectively awful character. And he’s a fine lookin’ dude, the grin, the scruffy stubble… I hope he goes far as an actor. And second, the leather sword vests the specialists wear are really neat. Swords attach to the back somehow, Riven’s got a couple of potion bottles in pockets—which I hope they’re plastic and empty, glass bottles and fighting do not mix! And I’m not sure if it’s a vest or a vest and shoulder scabbard and separate belt. But all the specialists have them, and we know this show doesn’t spend much on props… I wonder if I can find the source?

Not immediately, it turns out. Anybody better with renfaire gear know where to get these things? Or what they’re called?

Polite Terra says, “You too.” but Riven wasn’t. He was garbage at fighting. Terra kindly says, ‘It’s been a weird week.” and “I know you and Beatrix were… close, so it must be really hard.” Terra is sweet. You can see her kinds thinking it would be kind to say those things even though she’s not keen on Riven.

Dane walks by and says, “Sweet moves Riv, I’ve never seen anybody die so many ways so quickly. You should go for Alfea’s Got Talent.” heh.

Riven says that was a burn from ‘the first-year monster I created. Or Beatrix created.” he says Dane still has a thing for Beatrix… ok HE says “A hard-on for her. A weird, gay hard-on. Is he even gay? I don’t know anything anymore.” and I chuckled because Riven is so delightful when he’s not being a terrible person. Terra just sits there with that Terra expression like she doesn’t know what to say to that, and now she’s probably worried that by dumping Dane last episode she drove him to the dark side.

Indoors, Sky catches Silva and calls him out on pairing them together so he can spy on Bloom. Silva says since they’re both strong in their roles nobody questioned it. But Sky is not feeling great about the whole situation. The more he talks to Bloom the more convinced he is of her basic innocence, and-- “Stella’s gone, Riven’s a mess, and the person I’m spending the most time with I’m spying on.”

Silva gives him a pep talk, that this matters and it may be lonely but it’s to keep the Otherworld safe. And this is honor. Sky hesitates, sighs, then nods and keeps walking.

Silva is drawn back into his memories! First of being grievously injured and falling down, then I think to another earlier memory recovering after a fight in the forest side by side with Sky’s father. Who has a serious beard! Andreas gently mocks his friend for not being tough enough and says Sky might be more useful. Sky who’s presumable a little kid at the time. Younger Silva calls him on it, asking when he last even saw his son. Andreas turns away.

The gang’s all here in flashback, Younger Dowling looks on while Harvey’s dissecting the dead Burned One saying ‘we still have a lot to learn about them.” Andreas spits on it and Harvey says, ‘Or we could contaminate it. Ok!” Heh. And here comes Rosalind congratulating the four of them on taking it down in under three minutes but saying next time they should shoot for under two.

Back in the present the adults are watching video of the students sparring on a tablet in Dowling’s office. Dowling is unhappy none of them took down an illusion Burned One, most of them just gave up! Silva says that’s why they’re in training, they’re not ready yet.

Do these three know about the Burned One Aisha pinned to a tree? The girls plus Sky have taken out two so far, which isn’t a lot but is more than zero.

Badass Marco comes in and he’s in trouble! He and his partner whose name turns out to be Noura took out a Burned One near the school—but it wasn’t alone! Now Marco has been poisoned! Harvey rushes for the medicine. Marco says “we were taught that Burned Ones are solitary hunters, but two of them traveling together..?”

Dowling says, ‘It’s rare but it happens.” and I don’t know if that’s true or she’s just saying it to look like she’s on top of the situation.

Silva says they should warn “the Solarians” and Marco says he tried, they’re not answering! And they pulled their troops from the battalion. Dowling says Queen Luna has been “distant” since she pulled Stella out of school. Marco says they’re low on manpower and “if the Solarians abandon us we’re in serious trouble.”

But isn’t Alfea IN Solaria? It was on the globe. They have separate armies? Maybe the Solarian army is their actual army and the specialist/fairy pairs trained at Alfea are a separate thing? Maybe Alfea trains elite magical troubleshooters and the Solarian army is made up of trained mundanes? But wouldn’t the government of the country want to be in control of all armies in that country so there’s no extra armies rattling around getting into trouble? And Dowling is Luna’s subject so... How does this WORK, show?

Be nice to know what the ratio of magic users to mundanes in the Otherworld is, too.

Over in the girls’ suite, Aisha pensively braids her hair and Terra happily moves her plants around. The lights are on and there’s sunlight coming through the curtains but the room is still dark, reminding us we’re supposed to be in a grimdark show. 9_9 Batman could’ve just paid his electric bill, then he wouldn’t have to be the DARK knight… sorry, sorry, I actually like grimdark I just have no patience for literally dark when it makes no sense.

Musa gets texts from Sam. Musa and Terra have a cute chat about how Musa’s dating Sam. terra’s happy about it. Terra is also moving her hundred plants into Stella’s empty room so it “won’t feel so ghostly in there.”

Terra: “and it’s been a week. We have to accept she’s not coming back. No matter how much we wonder how she’s doing, call or text...” and she lists every EARTH social media platform she’s checked Stella on. Musa asks if she misses Stella and Terra immediately says, “No! She was mean and insulting and left without saying goodbye, which was actually the meanest thing...” Musa asks if her insults would be a good substitute. Heh.

Terra made her outfit! She fishes for a Stellaish insult from Musa by mentioning that. Wow, Terra, you get cooler every time! Sewing is hard! I have trouble with just doll clothes!

A pot falls and breaks in Stella’s empty room. An omen!

Bloom is watching her phone like a hawk as she pretends to study. Aisha comes in to offer the, “I know you feel like you can’t trust Dowling, but you can talk to me. I wouldn’t tell.” but Bloom gets a text that Dane is starting his shift and hops up to go do her own investigation. On the way out Bloom gets a call from her folks. She doesn’t answer.

Aisha goes to the others, “We need to talk about Bloom. She’s been single-minded about her birth parents and Rosalind for weeks. And now it seems like she doesn’t care at all. Are we meant to believe she’s just over it? I know she’s keeping something from us.” And the girls put the pieces together! She was texting Dane, Terra heard that “Dane is still team Beatruix”

And Dane has knocked out his fellow guard with a sedative! Boy is that a bad idea! Bloom gapes. Dane says, “She’s waiting.” in the most doomful way.

And there’s B sitting on her bed in her dark room, fiddling with the magic cuffs. they’re like barbed wire and are messing up her wrists. She greets Bloom with, “Took your sweet time!” Bloom immediately wants to know if the murder thing is true, and B cops to it. Callan was also there to break Rosalind out, which we knew and now Bloom does. B says, ‘bit more complicated than evil beatrix kills hapless assistant.”

Bloom: “Dowling, Silva and Harvey haven’t told me the truth about a lot of things but that doesn’t mean you have.” Yay Bloom! Skepticism! But Bloom is determined to find out what really happened and Beatrix knows where Rosalind is. But only if Bloom gets her out of the cage. Beatrix says Bloom shouldn’t trust her, the faculty, her friends, anybody but Rosalind.

That’s interestingly hero-worshipy of B. She’s never MET Rosalind, how does she know Rosalind is a good guy? Or, y’know, whatever Beatrix thinks of as a good guy.

And Bloom’s along for the ride. Dane gives her a magic thingamabo she can charge up that’ll get the cuffs off Beatrix and then they can go to town. On the way out Bloom asks Dane why he’s helping her. Even if they were friends, hello, murder! Dane says, “She’s the only person here who ever made me feel like being different was a good thing.” And Bloom says she’s helping because “Beatrix is the only one who’s giving me answers.”

Because the adults are caught in Plot! And we can see where this Plot is going. Bloom releases Rosalind, who turns out to be master of the Burned Ones and they attack Alfea. Great job, teachers, what a dumb Plot you are caught in!

What Dane gave Bloom was another big leatherbound book called Ancient Geometry. Not usually an evil art, but she hides the book in her bag the next morning. It looks like she’s awake before Aisha but when she leaves Aisha’s eyes immediately open. She was pretending to be asleep to spy on Bloom!

More outdoor specialist training. they’ve got some gear, Riven’s doing that arm exercise where you wave two hoses up and down. Musa picks up a staff and twirls it expertly. Riven comes over to flirt. Musa says she used to be a dancer, that’s where she got the moves. And she misses being physical. Riven I think is venting about something else when he says, “Well too bad. You’re a fairy, they don’t care what you wanna be in this place only what they want you to be.” Musa reads his mind and gets all of Riven’s hate for Alfea. Which, yeah, they locked his girl in a cage.

Also is it even true? Are fairies not allowed to study martial arts? Martial arts is great for emotional control and confidence which would be great for magical control. I mean it certainly could be that Alfea forces people into roles, but I haven’t seen evidence.

Then Sam comes by and he and Musa head back to the suite where she jumps on him for a makeout session! Sam puts the brakes on asking if Musa’s upset about something and yeah, she’s angry that mind fairies are support type, they’re “powerless when things actually go wrong.’

Which… true, since Musa can only receive. She might be able to know the location of every enemy and ally making her super valuable in battle, but if she could project emotion just for a second, jolt an opponent mid attack… but she can’t. I see her point.

But we get a character building hint! “A long time ago, family stuff...” And that’s all. She says it’s nothing, that she’s just frustrated, and suggests Sam take advantage of that frustration. Which he is happy to do! Musa shoves him down on the bed, hops on top and takes her shirt off! Behind this increasingly steamy scene we see one of Terra’s potted plants revolve… then it crashes to the ground, breaking the pot and the mood. Sam yelps in surprise.

Sam: “Please don’t judge me on my completely legitimate and masculine fear of ghosts which are legitimately creepy...” Hah! I like you, Sam.

So… do ghosts actually exist in the Otherworld or are they just seen a lot but not proven same as in ours?

But the moment is gone and Musa says she should find the girls. She puts her shirt back on and Sam leaves, both of them happily looking forward to their next chance at sexytimes.

Alone and with her shirt back on, Musa scans the room and detects another person!

Stella appears!

Stella’s here! She snuck back a few days ago, and has been hiding invisibly in her room!

But before we can hear the details we go to Bloom at the stone circle. She’s got the geometry book and a round metal doohicky that she has to charge up to free Beatrix. She puts it down and channels magic into it, lighting up some jewels on it. I can’t immediately identify this thing, it’s too big to be jewelry, palm-sized.

Sky turns up and Bloom tries to hide the book. Sky can tell she’s doing it, and he’s tired of all the sneaking. So he comes out and says that Silva has him spying on Bloom—and that he knows Bloom’s not up to anything. But it was an order. Bloom is naturally pretty pissed off! She says quite sensibly, ‘He used you, used our friendship—but I’m the bad guy right?”

I wonder how much of this is because Bloom’s from Earth. If she’d grown up in the Otherworld would she be less surprised at specialists following orders? Would she have heard of the adults’ great deeds in the war and been more inclined to trust them?

Anyway Bloom goes to hide the book again and Sky grabs it. He asks what the magic thingamabob is and Bloom looks away super-guilty. Sky: “I’m trying to be on your side here but you’re making it really difficult.”

Which is just how I feel about this show quite often!

Sky says Bloom can trust him, Bloom says she’s not sure she can and starts to tell him about Aster Dell.

Back in Stella’s room poor Stella is telling Musa about her mother.

And her mother, in hologram form, is in Dowling’s office while Dowling asks why she withdrew her troops, when two Burned Ones have been seen together which hasn’t happened in a long time. The show cuts back and forth between the two scenes.

...Stella says the army’s all out looking for HER! That’s why. But Luna won’t look at Alfea, ‘To do that she’ll have to admit she lost control of something, and that’ll never happen.”

Luna: But you’re training the students to fight. isn’t that supposed to be what you’re teaching my daughter?”

Stella: ‘Project strength and power. that’s all she cares about. And I’m an extension of her strength”

Dowling: ‘Is this some sort of punishment? For not rehabilitating Stella in the way you wanted?”

Stella: “My magic has to be powerful at any cost. that’s what she taught me”

Luna pooh-poohs the idea that it’s punishment, “but you might consider updating your methods. Given the threats we face.”

...Evil queen wants to turn Alfea to the ways of the Sith? THAT’S the plot we’re going for here? Ok, solid plot, I guess. Could be worse. But Luna is a bargain basement evil queen if ever I saw one, she wears suits! And too much foundation! Where’s the spiky crown and overabundance of eyeshadow? Maybe they were going for an Umbridge kinda character.

Stella: ‘My mum treated me growing up… when positive emotions didn’t work she went right to the negative. Hard.”

Dowling: “My methods are effective. And they don’t cause students to lose control and blind their friends!”

Stella: ‘My magic is erratic because of her.” And Luna disappears and we get to hear the rest of Stella’s story. Blinding Ricki was an accident, as we could guess, but Stella would rather be seen as a “raging bitch” than weak. It was safer with her mom. Stella does know how messed up this is, and when she got home her mom immediately started abusing her again. No mention of stella having a dad, but Queen Luna’s clearly the ruling party.

Musa says Stella doesn’t have to hide, all the girls will help her. Stella says, ”Are you kidding? Do you know how judgmental; they are?”

I think the mind reader would know better than you, Stella! So there’s Stella’s sad story. And we don’t have to go to the palace of Solaria to rescue her like I was hoping we would.

From that heavy scene we jump to the cafeteria, where bad-boy music plays as Dane gets his lunch. he’s smoking a cigarette! And Terra is literally hiding behind a pillar in her homemade dress waiting for him. He lights up and Terra pounces!

They talk, Dane says rather sensibly, ‘I do one bad thing and you cut me off” and “Beatrix never made me feel this bad.’ and Terra says also sensibly, ‘but murder.” and Dane tries to flee and Terra vine-grabs his ankle and Dane takes a pull on his cigarette and Aisha water-guns it out and the two of them interrogate him on what he’s up to with Bloom. Dane has no chance.

Over to Bloom and Sky. Bloom must’ve finished her story since Sky is telling his while Bloom charges the thingy. He’s lived at Alfea his entire life, with Silva as his foster father. Bloom brings up some of the things I thought of, that Silva might be part of a massacre if he believed it was for the greater good. Bloom doesn’t think the adults are evil but she thinks they’re hiding the truth to protect themselves, too. Bloom says at least Sky grew up hearing stories of his parents from people who knew them.

It looks cold and Sky offers Bloom his jacket. And Sky is wearing a bright blue shirt and darker blue jacket, almost like a Red Fountain uniform. I wonder if that’s a holdover from a stage when this was going to be a Winx show. But Bloom just summons fire in all the braziers to keep warm.

Sky says, ‘Don’t need anyone do you?” and bloom says he’s “a fixer” and she doesn’t need to be fixed. Sky talks about his father the “great Andreas” the war hero who he’s heard so many stories about, “It’s almost like he’s still alive. But he’s not. he’s an ideal. Do you have any idea how hard that is to live up to? Even Silva, it’s like he’s playing some role out of a sense of duty. When all I really want..” poor Sky. He says he’s a fixer because he’s broken and everyone is.

Anyway it ends with them kissing.

Then the magic thingy is charged. Bloom says she does trust Sky, but if she told him he’d stop her.

Then Sky faints!

Bloom doped him with the sedative! It was in her water bottle that she shared with Sky. Wow, Bloom, dosing your own water bottle just in case you meet someone? That is impressively scary thinking ahead!

Bloom is clearly really guilty, but she still leaves Sky facedown on the ground in the circle! Hope no Burned Ones come along while he’s all passed out!

We go to the greenhouse where Harvey is doctoring Badass Marco who took a hit from a Burned One. Silva is hanging around and Marco, between grunts of pain, asks if he’s handling the pain better than Silva did. Harvey says the first Burned One poisoning is always the worst, it’s almost a rite of passage-- which suggests lots of people survive such injuries which is not the vibe we were getting a few episodes ago!

Marco asks about Andreas’ son helping take down the Burned One and if he inherited any of Andreas’ “less ideal qualities? His bloodlust?”

Ok, I’m callin’ it, dead surprisingly evil dad it is!

Silva just says Sky is his own man.

Marco is hurt but he’s not worried. He’ll survive weeks or months with the medicine, plenty of time for Noura and the battalion to get the Burned One. There’s Noura on the phone now! But… oh no! Noura is grievously injured and everyone else is dead! She’s out in the woods hurt and surrounded by lots of Burned Ones! We see on video call as poor Noura tries to run, goes down, and is taken out. Her phone lies on the ground sending a video of the trees—and fully half a dozen Burned Ones run past it!

Too bad. I expected Noura and Marco were for the chop, just because in these sorts of stories the trained adults have to be gotten out of the way so the teenage heroines can shine. But they were the interesting characters! They were professionals in a magical world. I wanted to learn more about them.

Bloom, like an amateur, heads to break Beatrix out but Dane isn’t there. Terra and Aisha are. Bloom sounds positively paranoid as she says, ‘Everyone here is lying to me! You don’t know what I know!” but they do, Dane spilled all the beans. Terra sounds about to cry as she says her dad would never do something like that. Bloom sounds super paranoid as she says to herself, ‘You’re his daughter and you’re Dowling’s little helper, I’m not gonna convince either of you, just like Sky.”

Aisha pushes back; she’s been spying on Dowling! For Bloom! And all she’s seen is how hard Dowling’s been trying to keep everyone safe.

Bloom says they lied about Rosalind being alive, lied about a war crime, “i get that you guys want to believe in them but they’re destructive maybe dangerous!”

Terra: “Bloom, listen to yourself, you literally sound like a crazy person.”

Aisha says they haven’t told the adults yet, but if Bloom tries to bust Beatrix out they will.

Bloom faces them like a cornered animal. Her eyes flame up. Terra and Aisha back away and Terra almost sobs, ‘We’re your friends, Bloom!”

Bloom stops and thinks. Friendship music plays. She gets the magic thingy out of her bag and gives it to Aisha. But when Aisha starts, ‘I know how hard...” Bloom says, “You don’t. None of you do.”

...why am I thinking about Higurashi right now? Maybe because everyone’s spying, nobody’s reaching out to their friends for help… y’all gonna get the bad ending! Hmmf. I prefer Oyashiro-sama’s curse over the YA Plot curse we’re laboring under. Characters I liked already died and as a father figure type Silva is likely next to meet a sticky end. I’m ANNOYED with this show right now.

And back in the suite Stella is saying she “can’t believe everyone’s listening to Aisha like she knows anything” and that the suite has gone to shit without her. And Stella’s been pushing plants over whenever she gets annoyed since she doesn’t want to appear. “I have opinions. If I can’t express them verbally, I’m not above poltergeisting.” just like Riven, Stella makes me absolutely hate her one second and then says a line that makes me smile. I dunno what to do with these two. Marvelous actors both of them, for playing such two-ways-at-once characters and making it work!

Then Stella gets invisible again and Aisha and Terra come in. They stopped Bloom but they think she’s losing her marbles. Which, yep, seems so. Aisha thinks they kinda need to tell Dowling, even though they said they wouldn’t. A pot wobbles. Musa decides to shut that down real quick and just tells the others Stella’s here, so as not to have to clean up any more broken pots! Heh!

Stella appears.

Stella’s opinion: “Everyone in this suite is so damn black and white. Bloom is a pain in the ass but she deserves to know who she is, not the stories the faculty is telling her. We can worry about being right or we can help our friend. Which is it?”

Friend since when, Stella? Also, maybe protect your friend from being instrumental in the downfall of the school?

Dowling in her dark office. She gets a text from Silva: five or six Burned Ones. “Suit up, we’re going hunting.”

Sad music plays. Dowling opens up a chest and reveals, I think, the olive colored costume her younger self wore in the flashback.

And in my head an alternate Dowling smiles as her heart picks up speed at the thought of getting back in the saddle. The opposite of what we see on screen.

Then Bloom storms in, breaking this tragic headmistress moment. Having lost the magic thingy, bloom goes for the direct approach and demands to see Rosalind. Poor Dowling doesn’t have time for this, she’s got a Burned One hunt! But Bloom busts out, “I’m from Aster Dell! that’s where I was born, that’s where my birth parents lived, until you all destroyed it.”

Good direct approach, Bloom! Except you only know that from #1 untrustworthy source Beatrix, remember!

Dowling, shocked and horrified, turns away. It’s true. But, “You think we did it on purpose?”

Bloom: ‘That’s what Beatrix said. That Rosalind had a crisis of conscience and you did it anyways.”

Dowling: “Rosalind! Still manipulating people after all these years.”

Flashback to the five of them! Rosalind was the most powerful fairy at Alfea, and Dowling’s mentor. Feared but respected, never questioned.

We’re up on the high plains, I think the same place we saw Silva being grievously wounded in a flashback before. Dowling, rosalind and Harvey are up on a high knoll above Aster Dell, too far away to get a good look at what’s happening in the town.

Rosalind taught them to combine their magic, something nobody had known was possible. They call down lightning and yeah, basically nuke the town. But! Rosalind said she made sure the humans were evacuated and only Burned Ones were in there! They didn’t question their commanding officer, and they didn’t know until they walked into town and saw the bodies. Past dowling puts her hand to her mouth in horror.

Present Dowling has tears in her eyes. ‘if Aster Dell is where you’re from… there are no words I can say to make right the damage I’ve caused you.”

But Bloom shakes her head slightly. “Why would she do that?”

Dowling thinks it’s because Rosalind was a zealot who “Wanted every Burned One dead no matter the cost” and who lied because she knew her team wouldn’t have gone along with it if they knew there were civilians in the town.

Bloom demands, ‘What about me? Why did she put me in the human world?” But Dowling doesn’t know. Bloom again demands to see Rosalind, getting up in Dowling’s face. I feel like Bloom is somewhat enjoying this revenge, being able to back Dowling into a corner and shut her up.

Dowling grabs Bloom’s shoulders and says, “Whatever she has to give you is not worth unleashing her into the world again.” and the thing I wish she’d said a few episodes ago, “I’ll help you get the answers you need. You have my word.”

...and Bloom believed her and they all worked together and got the good ending!

But bad-ending music plays and Silva comes to get Dowling to come take down the Burned Ones and the look on Bloom’s face is definitely a gonna-get-the-bad-ending look.

In her cage Beatrix whimpers and cries out in pain as she tries to get the cuffs off her wrists.

In the stone circle Sky wakes up from his drugged slumber.

In gorgeous Ireland Bloom sits on a bench pondering her next choices. Musa and Terra come up and give her the magic key. They don’t want to be more people who are hiding things from Bloom. Aisha can’t quite get on board with breaking a murderer out, but Musa and Terra are up for it! And so is Stella, who appears beside the bench. Smiles all round. I love the bonding, but wish they could maybe be teaming up for something that’s not so obviously a bad idea. Just because y’all the main characters who won’t die doesn’t mean OTHER characters can’t die!

The real Stella never learned invisibility because why should she want to hide her awesome clothes? But for this Stella, it’s a pretty handy trick!

The adults are packing their gear for war into the black SUVs and heading out. The sun is low so it must be evening. It occurs to me though—I’ve been in England in May, many Mays ago, and it stays light until like nine at night because the UK is super-North. Maybe the difference in day length is why I keep getting tripped up about what time it is.

Sky has staggered back into the school where Riven finds him. Sky is relieved to learn that Beatrix is still locked up, but they have bigger fish to fry. Looks like the specialists are joining the hunt!

Bloom brings Beatrix the magic key and Beatrix frees herself!

It is definitely-night and definitely cold at the barrier where the three adults with half a dozen other soldiers stand just inside the barrier. Dowling uses her magic to amplify the sounds of the forest—that’d be air fairy stuff, so Dowling is mind and air at least. I wonder how usual it is for fairies to learn more than one element.

Sky and the specialists arrive, late, to the sound of snarling Burned Ones. Aisha’s here too. Silva says this is no time for extra credit, but Aisha isn’t looking for extra credit, ‘I’m here because you need to know what’s happening.”

In Dowling’s office Beatrix is planning to toss Dane through the trap just like she did with Callan!

Then Stella appears behind her and shoves HER through! Ha ha ha! Beatrix goes down, lips blue, breathing out frost. It must just be a freezing trap, nonlethal. Not that I would mind terribly if Beatrix weren’t in season 2; she has some charming moments and Sadie is a top class evil actress, but let’s ditch the slutty villainess trope maybe?

Stella: “Break out the villain to get what Bloom wants, then trap her again. Simple. My ideas rock.”

The girls go down the tunnel. Stella holds a ball of rainbow light above her hand.

Terra’s feeling troubled about what they’re doing. she’s always trusted her dad to lead her right, but ‘I don’t know if he’d lead me down here.”

Stella: “Even the best parents are doing what they think is best for us. At some point we have to take over for ourselves.” Truth, Stella. I’m just questioning if this is the right point or not. Then Stella plucks a bit of light from her light and sends it to float by Terra. ‘By the way, that outfit...’ She smiles and Terra smiles back.

Then we jump to Bloom, having a destiny-ridden moment. “Everything I’ve been looking for is right through that door.”

No Bloom, Rosalind is through that door and how do you know she’s going to tell you any more truth than anybody else? But through the door she goes.

And there’s the glowy barrier with Rosalind inside. She opens her eyes and uses mind magic to say, “Hello, Bloom.”

...y’all gonna get the bad ending.

#fate the winx saga #you get the bad ending

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addictedtomarketing · 3 years

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You Can Get Paid Up To $60K To Make Social Media Content For This Science Company

Looking for a job in social media? We've got you covered!

The Canadian Association of Science Centres is looking for two content producers to join their team and create social media content across their channels.

Editor's Choice: Canadian Universities Are Offering So Many Free Courses & Here Are 7 You Can Try RN

They are searching for both an English content producer and a French one. They're offering a one-year remote contract with the chance to renew.

According to the job posting, with misinformation running rampant online, the content producer would work to make content that is relevant and useful to Canadians.

What is the job?

If you snag this job, you can be expected to work with a very close team. You will also be tasked with creating content that will go up on the company's social media channels, like their @ScienceUpFirst Instagram account.

The gist of the role is to find creative and visual ways for storytelling, but make it science! They also want you to combat misinformation by setting the record straight on things that matter.

Wanna get paid to make fun & life-saving social media content??@ScienceUpFirst is hiring Content Producers! 🎉 You do *NOT* need a science degree for these roles! We provide you w/ the facts, you create that good good! EN: https://t.co/xOm8F09nho FR: https://t.co/8YG99BmhXY

"As an expert in your language, you will have a strong understanding of cultural references and unique opportunities to use storytelling through video, graphics, and clever copywriting to convey messages that are entertaining, shareable, persuasive, and accurately represent the best available scientific evidence," the job posting added.

What are the requirements?

For this job, you do not need a science degree, however, the company does ask that you have a Bachelor's degree or diploma in marketing, public relations, graphic design, communications or anything that shows you can tell a story creatively.

You'll have to speak either French or English, or both, to get the job.

Do you have a knack for all things social media? Because you'll need to be well versed in content creating for Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

You will also need to have some basic video editing skills, like creating captions and "text animations."

How much does it pay and how do I apply?

As a content producer, you can expect to rake in $50,000 to $60,000 a year.

You may want to get a move on that application because the interview process starts the week of March 22, 2021. Luckily, they will keep looking until they find the right person for the job.

You will need to start by emailing a resume, cover letter and links to three examples of content you've produced, which could include social media posts and videos.

You can email your application to [email protected] with "Content Producer (English) or Content Producer (French), Science Up First" as your subject line.

#social media #content creator #canada #sience #marketing #digitalmarketing #jobs #job portal #find job #hiring and recruiting #europe #graphic design #social media marketing

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teddylacroix · 4 years

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The Audition Room: The Witcher casting director on playing hard to get with Henry Cavill, Joey Batey playing the lute and the character impossible to find

https://metro.co.uk/2019/12/20/witcher-netflix-season-1-henry-cavill-joey-batey-geralt-auditions-exclusive-11929585/

Sometimes you need a little bit of magic to spark a casting director’s interest and get you a role – and that was certainly the case with The Witcher.

But if you can nail that one game-changing audition, then the world is your oyster… and as you’re about to find out, going the extra mile is definitely worth doing to get a casting director’s attention.

To help you budding young stars out, we’re scoping out info from those on the inside of the industry with Metro.co.uk’s Audition Room.

Last time, it was The Politician’s cast talking about their campaigns to make it onto the series, but now we’re heading into the world of fantasy to see how The Witcher’s cast was magicked into existence.

Speaking to Sophie Holland, the casting director of the new Netflix series, we picked her brain on what she needed from the leading stars, the lengths actors went to to stand out…

… And also what it’s like playing hard to get with Henry Cavill.

Henry Cavill – Geralt Of Rivia

‘He is a huge fan of the world,’ Sophie told us. ‘He plays all the games, he’s read all the books, and he and Lauren chatted super early on. So early on, we didn’t have anything for him to read, she was like “I don’t have anything to kind of show you!”.’

‘We sort of talked about it and we thought it was important for us to see as many people who would fit the role as possible I thought there would be lots and lots of men between sort of 35 and 40 who would play it.

‘The shock, I think, was that we saw hundreds, and some brilliant actors, just no one who had quite nailed it. Meanwhile, in the background, we’ve got Henry’s agent calling saying he loves the project, he wants to meet for it. How can we make this happen?

To be honest from the moment he opened his mouth we just knew. We just knew.

‘We’re entering a phase in casting where ‘offer only’ is what everybody’s pushing for, and that can be really soul-destroying for a production. Once you do that, once you make a commitment to the actor, without ever hearing them read for it, then you have no idea really what the range is, what their approach will be, what they’re like… but he really wanted to meet with us. So we flew to New York, myself, Lauren and Alik Sakharov, we met at the Netflix office there.

‘To be honest from the moment he opened his mouth we just knew. We just knew. Which seems crazy that we actually could’ve saved ourselves all that trouble. But I’m kind of glad we did go on the hunt for it, and realising what we couldn’t find, meant that when we found him we just knew he was absolutely the right fit. Which is weird, because this is 100% Superman like you’ve never seen him before.’

Freya Allen – Ciri

‘We saw Freya when we were looking for another character. She got cast as another character in episode one, a character called Mirilka.

‘Then we showed her to the team, and everybody kind of fell in love with her. Freya’s so smart in such a young person’s body. She feels millenial. So we pulled her in, and we’re still having trouble searching for Ciri, so we thought “shall we just try it?” and she read for it and she was perfect so we booked her for that instead.

‘It was quite a process, I mean, just the hundreds and hundreds of girls that we saw for that role, just trying to find somebody special. Maybe two girls out of the hundreds that we saw could’ve played that role, so we were chuffed when we saw her.’

Maybe two girls out of the hundreds that we saw could’ve played that role, so we were chuffed when we saw her.

‘To find a girl who was 16 and could convey in a really emotional way, the loss of her parents, the loss of her grandparents, being pushed out into this world that she doesn’t know and surviving on her own in a way that is completely alien to her,’ she told us. ‘Imagine being 16, and trying to show that? When some 35 year old actors would struggle, we knew she had to be special.

‘Thank goodness she walked into our room when she did. She’s brilliant.’

‘That was really tough,’ Sophie added. ‘We knew it was going to be an unknown [actor], and we knew she was going to be super young, and we knew the chances were we were going to find, we were going to have to look really hard.

‘When you’re dealing with younger children, essentially, finding someone who’s genuinely talented is quite a difficult task. So we had to look in, not just places like the theatre, but also schools and youth clubs and theatre groups.

‘We’re really lucky we found her! I don’t know what we would’ve done if we hadn’t.’

Anya Chalotra – Yennefer

‘This was easy,’ Sophie told us. ‘I had met Anya on her first-ever professional audition for another project. I just knew immediately that we would work together.’

‘In the initial conversation when we were talking about our top 10 girls, Anya was on it but she was completely unknown. She’d not done anything and I wondered how I was gonna sell it. I didn’t need to sell it. That was the easiest find.

When we were talking about our top 10 girls [for Yennefer] Anya was on it. She was cast before anyone else.

‘She was cast before anyone else. If you imagine casting sort of secondary lead before you’ve even found Geralt. They couldn’t chemistry read together. We’d already booked her.

‘We had to find a guy who would just [fit]. I just knew. She’s gonna be the one I think everybody’s gonna watch that series and feel literally like a star is born. She’s unbelievably in touch with her emotions, she’s beautiful but it’s like she doesn’t know it.

‘She has a kind of natural beauty. We didn’t have to search hard for her which feels wild considering the pressure. She is wonderful.’

Joey Batey – Jaskier

In the cast of Joey’s audition, it was a case of going the extra mile that ensured Sophie there was no one else to play the dashing comical Bard… which was lucky considering it was a last minute audition.

‘This was the worst character to cast in the entire series. To find somebody… it was really hard. We had to find somebody who’s gorgeous, sexy, charming, can play the lute… and we just couldn’t.

‘We’d find someone that was almost, like, it was close but not quite there. We were split down the middle with some amazing people. I thought to myself, “we are not going to find this character, we’re just going to have to settle for second best”. We did one last push for actors and his agent said you’ve got to meet Joey Batey.

‘We gave him 24 hours and in that time he’d learned off-by-heart two scenes, he’d borrowed a lute… I mean, where on earth do you borrow a lute from in 2018?! That’s impossible! He’d learned a song, he’d set it to music, and he came in dressed as the character.

‘If ever there was an actor who deserved a role more… Like, he was, he was incredible. I said to him, rather inappropriately, “I could leap across this room and hug you!” He opened his mouth, and there was Jaskier.

Where on earth do you borrow a lute from in 2018?!… I think out of them all, in a way, I’m most proud of Joey Batey.

‘He’s funny. He sings beautifully, he’s so genuinely charming, he’s living his best life. He’s living his best life. That’s probably our proudest moment in casting, that character, because I really thought at one point, we saw hundreds and I really thought we can’t find him. Then he came in, and there he was, fully formed right in front of us.

‘He could play the lute, sing like a dream, can act and Jaskier could be a pantomime character, but he can act. He can make you laugh and then take you to the depths and bring tears to your eyes, with his honesty, his humour. I think out of them all in a way, I’m most proud of Joey Batey.’

#another just putting this here to find later #the witcher offscreen #netflix the witcher #henry cavill #anya chalotra #joey batey #freya allan

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littlepichon · 4 years

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Twitter: Silvia Stringhini- Swiss Epidemiologist, English translation of Dr. Daniele Macchin’s account...Bergamo, Northern Italy. Monday 9th March 2020:

‘I may be repeating myself, but I want to fight this sense of security that I see outside of the epicenters, as if nothing was going to happen "here". The media in Europe are reassuring, politicians are reassuring, while there's little to be reassured of. This is the English translation of a post of another ICU physician in Bergamo:

“After much thought about whether and what to write about what is happening to us, I felt that silence was not responsible. I will therefore try to convey to people far from our reality what we are living in Bergamo in these days of Covid-19 pandemic. I understand the need not to create panic, but when the message of the dangerousness of what is happening does not reach people I shudder. I myself watched with some amazement the reorganization of the entire hospital in the past week, when our current enemy was still in the shadows: the wards slowly "emptied", elective activities were interrupted, intensive care were freed up to create as many beds as possible. All this rapid transformation brought an atmosphere of silence& surreal emptiness to the corridors of the hospital that we did not yet understand, waiting for a war that was yet to begin & that many (including me) were not so sure would ever come with such ferocity. I still remember my night call a week ago when I was waiting for the results of a swab. When I think about it, my anxiety over one possible case seems almost ridiculous and unjustified, now that I've seen what's happening. Well, the situation now is dramatic to say the least.

The war has literally exploded & battles are uninterrupted day & night. But now that need for beds has arrived in all its drama. One after the other the departments that had been emptied fill up at an impressive pace. The boards with the names of the patients, of different colours depending on the operating unit, are now all red and instead of surgery you see the diagnosis, which is always the damned same: bilateral interstitial pneumonia. Now, explain to me which flu virus causes such a rapid drama... And while there are still people who boast of not being afraid by ignoring directions, protesting because their normal routine is"temporarily" put in crisis, the epidemiological disaster is taking place. And there are no more surgeons, urologists, orthopedists, we are only doctors who suddenly become part of a single team to face this tsunami that has overwhelmed us. Cases are multiplying, we arrive at a rate of 15-20 admissions per day all for the same reason. The results of the swabs now come one after the other: positive, positive, positive. Suddenly the E.R. is collapsing. Reasons for the access always the same: fever and breathing difficulties, fever and cough, respiratory failure. Radiology reports always the same: bilateral interstitial pneumonia, bilateral interstitial pneumonia, bilateral interstitial pneumonia. All to be hospitalized. Someone already to be intubated and go to intensive care. For others it's too late... Every ventilator becomes like gold: those in operating theatres that have now suspended their non-urgent activity become intensive care places that did not exist before. The staff is exhausted. I saw the tiredness on faces that didn't know what it was despite the already exhausting workloads they had. I saw a solidarity of all of us, who never failed to go to our internist colleagues to ask "what can I do for you now?" Doctors who move beds and transfer patients, who administer therapies instead of nurses. Nurses with tears in their eyes because we can't save everyone, and the vital parameters of several patients at the same time reveal an already marked destiny. There are no more shifts, no more hours. Social life is suspended for us. We no longer see our families for fear of infecting them. Some of us have already become infected despite the protocols. Some of our colleagues who are infected also have infected relatives and some of their relatives are already struggling between life & death. So be patient, you can't go to the theatre, museums or the gym. Try to have pity on the myriad of old people you could exterminate. We just try to make ourselves useful. You should do the same: we influence the life and death of a few dozen people.You with yours, many more. Please share this message. We must spread the word to prevent what is happening here from happening all over Italy."

I finish by saying that I really don't understand this war on panic. The only reason I see is mask shortages, but there's no mask on sale anymore. We don't have a lot of studies, but is it panic really worse than neglect and carelessness during an epidemic of this sort?’

(Source: @silviast9 https://twitter.com/silviast9/status/1236933818654896129?s=21 )

———————————————————————

Donate to fundraiser for Ospedale San Raffaele di Milano: https://www.gofundme.com/f/coronavirus-terapia-intensiva

Donate to China: https://give2asia.org/help-support-coronavirus-outbreak-prevention-wuhan-china/

Please update with donation/info links! Stay safe x

#COVID-19 #coronavirus #Italy #please take this seriously #WASH.YOUR.HANDS.#look out for each other #educate yourself #plan ahead #covid19

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precuredaily · 5 years

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Precure Day 151

Episode: Yes! Precure 5 03 - “Who’s the Precure of Effervescence?” Date watched: 3 October 2019 Original air date: 18 February 2007 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/wUrfDcF Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

If you like drinking games, watch this episode and take a shot every time they say the word “effervescent” or variations and report back to me. Cure Lemonade’s title and role call describe her as “はじける” (hajikeru) which every translator to ever touch this show has seemed to agree translates best as “effervescent”, an uncommon word which can either mean bubbly (in the context of beverages) or lively and appealing, when talking about people. To reinforce my point, here’s every English sub I could get my hands on:

First off, here is the Arienai fansub from around 2007, the first ones to ever translate this episode to English and thus establish the use of the word “effervescent.”

Following Arienai’s disbandment, in 2009 TV-Nihon took up the task of subbing and I know from talking with him that their translator was very aware of the Areinai sub, and also pretty new to translating, so he probably took heavy inspiration from their choice.

Lastly, here is the version used by Pretty Cure Splash Subs in 2014, although they admit that they took the Arienai scripts for the earlier episodes and just tweaked them a tad.

Amusingly, “bubbly” in the sense of personality is a pretty good synonym. I can only assume that they keep coming back to “effervescent” because within the narrative, Nozomi and Rin are confused when Coco tells them there’s a Precure of “hajikeru” so they chose a less common word to convey that better. It feels a little clunky to read but what can you do. Anyway, enough about one word, what’s this episode about?

The Plot

Urara is auditioning for a show and the interviewers quiz her about her school life, since she seems upbeat. She’s unwilling to admit that she spends most of her time at school alone, and she can’t talk about seeing two upperclassmen turn into Precure, so she lies and says everything is great.

At school, Rin catches a Pinky with Coco, this time using a trumpet. He then explains that the two of them are the cures of hope and passion, and they still need to find the cures of intelligence, tranquility, and effervescence. (1 shot!)

Over in Nightmare Corporate HQ, Bunbee tells Girinma he’s not performing up to standards, so he bring in the next consultant, a portly man named Gamao.

After school, Nozomi takes Coco home with her as a fairy, gives him a cream puff (the signature food of this show) and turns on the television. When her dad sits up from sleeping on the couch she quickly tries to hide Coco and distract her dad by pointing out Urara on the TV, saying she knows her.

The next day during lunch, Nozomi and Rin see Urara sitting alone and goes over to talk to her, saying she can ask them anything. So, Urara comes right out and asks what Precure is, causing the two girls to fumble for an answer before running off when the bell rings for the end of lunch. However, Nozomi comes back to retrieve her left-behind bento and decides to skip class and take Urara on a tour of the school grounds. When Rin and Coco find out about this they’re upset and they run off to find her, but Urara seems to be having a great time with Nozomi.

They get to the auditorium and Urara comments that she will stand on that stage someday! At this point, Nozomi declares that the two of them are good friends and reveals that she is a Pretty Cure, and don’t tell Rin. Well of course who should barge into the theater at that moment than Rin, with Coco on her heels, angry at Nozomi for cutting class and generally being a bad influence on the underclassman. But before Rin and Coco can properly chew her out, Gamao reveals himself and demands that they hand over the Dream Collet. Nozomi and Rin transform, urging Urara to run away, which she hesitates to do. Eventually she gets out, but she trips in the hallway, and after some introspection, decides to turn around and run back to help the two girls who protected her. Her strong feelings summon a yellow butterfly, allowing her to transform into Cure Lemonade! She unleashes her special attack, Precure Lemonade Flash, which takes the form of a flock of butterflies divebombing the Kowaina, freeing Dream and Rouge and allowing them to defeat the monster. Gamao runs off, complaining that he won’t get paid for this, and the auditorium resets to normal.

Outside, the girls remark that Urara is the perfect fit for the Cure of Effervescence, and Coco says he’ll fill her in on all the details after she and Nozomi serve detention for skipping class. However, the episode ends on a happy note, as the three new friends agree to work together from now on.

The Analysis

What I like about these shows with a larger roster of Cures is that it allows each girl to have their own reason for fighting. While all three girls so far have done it to protect someone, the motivation behind that protection has varied. Nozomi wants to help Coco revive his homeland. Rin wants to protect her oldest friend, Nozomi. Urara wants to save her newest friends, especially Nozomi, who saw that she was lonely and made it a point to spend time with her. Becoming a Precure ties directly into a personal problem in each of their lives, and that’s..... magical.

Urara in particular may hit close to home for some people, because achieving your dream can sometimes isolate you. Since Urara was always rehearsing or going to auditions, she didn’t have the time to make friends at school, and she was hurting for it. Nozomi was the first person to take notice of her, beyond simply being a celebrity. Nozomi saw a new student who seemed kinda lonely, and decided to show her a good time. The fact that she’s an aspiring celebrity is a side note for Nozomi, a cool thing to tell her parents, but it’s not why she approached her. They clicked in their first meeting and Nozomi decided she’d make a good friend. Then, when they were friends, Nozomi decided to tell her about Precure and their fight against Nightmare. Sure, it’s partly because Nozomi has little filter, but also she saw someone she could confide in. Unlike the other three members of the team, she didn’t pick out Urara as a good candidate to be a cure, Urara earned her spot purely of her own will. She literally ran away from the fight, but her concern for the others and desire to face her fears brought her back.

There’s a recurring trope in the team-building shows that I don’t like, though, which is that the existing heroines somehow find themselves conveniently disabled or unable to fight, making room for the new girl to swoop in, transform for the first time, and save the day. In the two-girl shows, if both of them got tied up, they had to use their wits to escape. I don’t mind it happening once or twice but it seems to be the only way the writers ever know how to introduce a new character is by making the other ones into jobbers.

On the villain side of things, we get to see a little more of Nightmare, which is always fun. Their HQ is a giant office building with devil horns!

You kind of have to wonder if this is just in the middle of downtown or if the other buildings are all in some ~evil dimension~. Also, we find out what happens to under-performers at Nightmare.... they get dropped down a shaft. Seems like kind of a hostile work environment but it’s great for setting the tone.

While I’m discussing Nightmare, let’s talk about Gamao in particular. Gama means “toad”, which is why Gamao is a toad. SHOCKING. Anyway, unlike the go-getter Girinma, Gamao is very simple-minded: he wants to get the Dream Collet so he can get paid, and isn’t interested in wasting time laying traps or listening to the girls’ life stories. He’s portrayed as a very portly man, looking kind of sloppy in his human form, not at all up to the normal appearance standards of a corporation. he wears cargo shorts, a t-shirt (it actually has a giant T on it), and an unbuttoned button-down shirt. Everybody else in the company wears a suit. Nightmare must be pretty desperate for employees if they let him work for them. Also, we now have a bee, a mantis, and a wasp, so let’s lay out the motif of Nightmare. All of them are animals that prey on butterflies, which of course are the motif of the cures. It’s a very clever pattern that I hadn’t even noticed until it was pointed out to me the other day.

This episode shows us very clearly what Karen must have seen during the first episode, when the auditorium magically restores itself after the battle. (check the gallery) It’s never explained how this happens in most shows, but it’s a constant so at least they allude to it. Indeed, their battle does not go entirely unnoticed this time, since even though they’re indoors, the commotion of the fight causes the students in Karen and Komachi’s class to turn their heads and wonder what’s going on. Karen is going to check it out, but Komachi stops her because they’re in the middle of class. I really like how proactive they are in trying to solve the mystery and very soon their time will come.

I think that about does it for my thoughts this time. Next time, what’s that minty smell? Look forward to it!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 1 kettei!

#Precure #Pretty Cure #Yes! PreCure 5 #YPC503 #PCD151

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