#they're part of my brand now 😂

[firstkanaphans]

Slutty cousin types are actually the best cause just their existence is enough to introduce conflict 😂

Also, the boss leaving the fundraiser early, and without any explanation or reason given at that, is not a very professional look for Akk - I'm wondering if, and how, that will affect his business in the future. He's so unserious 😅

Oh, Akk’s got a one-track mind right now for sure. He’s been prioritizing work his whole life while slowly coming to the realization that it doesn’t make him happy and now he’s choosing to chase that happiness for all it’s worth. He can skip a few fundraisers to get dicked down in a back room. It's what he deserves.

#let thua run the company for a while #we all know akk hasn't been doing work for weeks anyway #and yes! slutty cousins ftw! #they're part of my brand now 😂 #asks #business or pleasure fic #lovely people

[roguegona]

Some thoughts about last night's Ahsoka episode:

SPOILERS BELOW

Everything about this show is so well done. The casting, the music, the cinematography, the callbacks, the writing, the direction...all of it is incredible. Brilliantly executed in a way that leaves me speechless for hours afterward.

THRAWN. I mean...what can I say? Lars Mikkelson NAILED it in live action. The mannerisms, the way Thrawn commands a room, the way he's two or three steps ahead of everyone else...and of course HIS VOICE. It's all just so perfect. I don't even care that they're going a different direction than I hoped to see with his character (from the books). He's a mad evil genius and I. AM. HERE. FOR. IT.

THE MOTHA FUCKING CHIMAERA. Holy shit y'all. We got the Chimaera in live action. And I love that they Kintsugi-fied it, along with the Stormtrooper armor. It really fits right into Thrawn's love of art. Also, I dunno who this Enoch is but I need to know more about him, stat. That's gotta be the most badass Stormtroooper helmet I've ever seen.

Oh Shin. Oh you sweet summer child. You're feeling some type of way about Sabine and you have no idea what to do about it. It's giving "baby gay first crush" vibes and I do hope you realize that 😂 The looks you were serving Sabine this entire episode were far too many and too pointed to ignore. What in the worlds are we gonna do with you?

Not sure I'm on board with whatever Baylan has planned. He's been more of an antagonist than villain so far, but whatever he's seeking on Peridea CAN'T be good.

EZRA. Never change my man. Befriending a local indigenous group is so on brand for you. Your own band of rebels, indeed. However, I am looking forward to seeing you have an absolute meltdown once you realize that Sabine found you but had no plan as to how the two of you were going to leave 😂 Oh and she also sold out the entire galaxy to find you, so there's also that 😬

"A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away." Listen, I didn't know I needed to hear David Tenant say that famous line in live action, but I did. Oh I did. That whole scene was meta as fuck, Dave. I loved it.

I'm sure I'll come up with more thoughts/analysis as the days drag on before Part 7, but for now, I think it's safe to say this has easily become my favorite of the live action series. Even over Andor. Yeah I said it.

#star wars #ahsoka series #ahsoka spoilers #ahsoka tano #sabine wren #shin hati #baylan skoll #grand admiral thrawn #mitth'raw'nuruodo #thrawn #ezra bridger

[stormblessed95]

Didn’t yoongi technically come out? Like I might be misremembering but didn’t he once say his type wasn’t restricted to girls, or something along those lines? I’ve been operating on the belief that yoongs was actually Out™️ for a while now 💀 rip if I’m wrong

LMAOOO friend, Yoongi comes out a couple times a year since their debut years (from saying his type isn't limited to women and even describing the type of man he would want, which macho, manly and with a beard lol) and the fandom still likes to pretend he is "just joking" or it's "translation errors" 😂 because of course. I have 3 posts about all of Yoongis queer/rainbow moments already where he is talking about it or wearing pride stuff. Which I'll link here:

My man is so unapologetically queer 🥰 he is just living his life and if you don't want to see, you won't. He doesn't care either way it seems. Lol but honestly, what a good excuse this post gives me to make another YOONGI RAINBOW MOMENTS post from even more things he has done more recently!!

On the D-Day tour, he wore a shirt that said the rumors are true from the LdSS brand which has an openly gay designer who has mentioned in interviews how their core fanbase is "quite queer, gay, and sex positive."

Again on tour, performing with Halsey (one of his besties) who is openly bisexual, under Bi lighting on stage

Seriously, the Bi lighting all through tour lol

The way he giggles over his guitarists and friends flirty jokes with him all the time 🥰😂 honestly, the reaction of falling on the floor giggling, blushing, and kicking your feet in the air when a man proposes to you before killing it on his guitar is both 💅🏼 and VALID

Ally Pup on his D-Day Tour Crew! 😍🥰

Rainbow cake in his Road to D-Day docu

Yoongis admiration for Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence. This Twitter thread actually explains it quite well and links to a video further in the thread too, so I'll just make yall go read about it from them. But do go read it

And going back in time just a little bit, when BTS was in Vegas for PTD and Yoongi got the marry me jokes again during the OT7 live stream and he said that marriages in Vegas are legal and possible no matter what your gender, I love him so much

I don't know what ANYONE else wants this man to do. This man is part of our community, like it's sooooo clear. I have 4 posts of him hinting at or out right just saying gay shit at this point lol Let the man live his truth!!

#yoongi rainbow moments

[9w1ft]

Even though people expext pap walks & the kind of exposure we got in 2015 (for my gratification I understand & I'd be overjoyed to have that too) I understand what they'd be reluctant (even without the current events). That exposure fucked with them a lot & if they're in a safe, secure place bts right now, I wouldn't wanna mess with that either. I think it's different & a LOT harder to be this exposed & have everyone chime in when the relationship is actually real. With Travis is theater so it might not matter. But when you care about the person, depending on the exposure, it can be very stressful. Like from a Karlie perspective, maybe she doesn't want to feel responsible for Taylor getting hate from something she does. She's an individual & not just a play thing in Taylor's world for people to live in their perfect Kaylor fantasy world. Thinking all the time "damn how would the brand TS would be affected if I do that" would stress tf outta me & tbh I'd prefer staying in the shadows for that reason alone, I like my individuality.

For Taylor it might be hurtful for certain articles to be written and have them disect Karlie's world the way they disected Travis's. They're people with real feelings at the end of the day and I can't imagine how stressful it'd be to have my ACTUAL relationship be place under such a magnifying glass. Maybe when the Tour madness is over would be a more appropriate time. I don't expect anything this year at least.

(Tbh with you, a person like me would either prefer to stay hidden or to break up than be put on blast & have everyone analyze every detail of my life for having a relationship with Taylor Swift of all people right now 😂😂😂. Yes Karlie is used to fame, but not this type of fame. Last time they tried it, it got fucked & now Taylor's bigger than she ever was)

yeah i agree like, there was a time where i thought that them coming out together was the be all and end all and like a puzzle or a well laid out treasure hunt we were being brought in and there were points where i felt that getting as many people as possible on board with kaylor, for example, was one of a few things of value that i could help provide or contribute to.. and while i still think that it’s something that’s aspirational to them in theory i also believe and now know that as you grow older priorities can change and the importance you feel about certain things can change too. and so i just want to try my best to think about where they are, as you described in part above, and to progress my thinking along with them and where they might be.

and i understand that this way of thinking isn’t going to win any internet arguments, or that it might make a theory feel weaker or less objective to someone looking for an objective take on things but i really feel in my heart if hearts that the time for proactive explanation of things has very much passed and i’m at very much peace with that 😌

#not that i don’t like archiving or explaining my thoughts. i love that. i just don’t feel an ounce of pressure to do so anymore

[perhaps-in-anotherdream]

Yo~ first;thanks for your uploads•~• second 😁:don't you find date or a fan art of MLQC characters which they're mafia or yandere in it?!(Except for their Mr killer date) I actually like yanderes😏✨I wonder what will "yandere Victor" look like???don't you agree with me🌚✨

hello! and thank you for enjoying them!~

hmm, before coming to your question, i think it's important to address–– the mafia trope and yandere characters aren't mutually exclusive haha, i.e., the mafia trope comes with its complications, but it also entails a sense of loyalty and duty and it doesn't necessarily guarantee the character would be a yandere. in the same way, you can be a hard-core yandere while being part of a perfectly normal social class.

now coming to the lovepro men, i have talked about this before many times too 😂 papergames doesn't exactly “experiment” with their characters (and it's not just limited to LnP. look at love and deepspace, it's the same world saving complex LOL). their ultimate goal is to present with love interests that are balanced in their stances so that they can still be your ideal types despite some complexities they carry. the 初心/ core of the lovepro men, in all settings (be it the dating verses, main story, or AUs), remains the same. for whatever reason, PG is very wary of not crossing “that line” lmao, so the men being possessive, protective, addicted to you to an accepted/ understandable level are all the yandere actions you’ll get in this game, and for that, you’d have to resort to main story, not dates. which to be honest, on 1 to yan scale, won't really pass 😂 i mean, even in Li Zeyan’s latest card (which i presume prompted the ask) where he is an arms dealer - it’s set to be a post apocalyptic world and even in that world of chaos and no moral or humanity, he longs to “restore order” :> if you want hard-core yanderes, you should play Beyond The World or read the cards from Light and Night’s stranger party event hehe 🤭

coming to the second part of your ask, with a balanced character like Li Zeyan, who is written to be branded as the ideal husband, lover and social icon type, it's hard to pinpoint which traits of his would magnify x1000 times if he were to be a yandere. but here’s my two cents—

he’d most definitely have some of magnified traits the from “intoxicated type” -

- “love is blind” i.e. sees only you, leading to being disturbingly direct and persistent

- directly linked to life and death (eyes all his 神灵 parallels, but manifested in the yan form)

- self-sacrificing, includes both continuous and secretive self sacrifices (his canon self already has this trait tbh aksksks)

- fetish with some specific body parts of yours owh god yes 👁️👁️

- rabid fan i.e., loves you so much that ANYTHING and EVERYTHING goes

these traits could most definitely be accentuated further with some of the traits from the protective and possessive types if you want to go ham ahah 🫠

lastly, it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but i’d be down bad if one day PG finally dares to do an event like Light and Night’s stranger party, have the MC and love interests go totally rancid yanderes with no moral compass and merry bad endings 😩

—

#ask #mlqc #love and producer #mr love queens choice #mlqc victor #mlqc li zeyan

[ageless-aislynn]

Back in the day, (around 2006 or so, I'd wager) I decided to try making a Bag End-inspired diorama display thing for my Lord of the Rings (and friends) figures out of plastic canvas and yarn. (No pattern, I was just winging it.) Here are some pics of how it turned out. 😉

The front with the famous round, green door. I also gave them some lattice-work windows and a couple of plant pots with greenery, just 'cause. 😉

Closer up on the door and one of the plants.

This is the wall that was beyond the window and plants, on the left side as looking in that orientation. I couldn't really do a hill without it looking weird so went with a tree motif on both sides.

The wall on the right of the door, this one with a "rope" swing, just for funsies!

Interior on the door.

Everybody needs a free standing closet to store your stuff in, right?

Yes, that's an Ian McKellen Magneto wearing Gandalf's hat and politely levitating his sword into the closet.😜

Behind the door standing open a bit is a coat closet.

I wanted a sort of marble inspired pattern. Plus, I really liked this variegated yarn so...

Everybody needs a table with a vase of roses on it! And yeah, that's a Nazgul wearing a tea ball strainer on his head. It was from a joke at the time. Also, we see our Hobbit guests putting their cloaks away in the closet.

Interior behind the big window. I thought of this as a combo kitchen/dining room area with a decorative rug.

Eomer CANNOT BELIEVE that we don't have his favorite brand of coffee! Storm thinks we should have a dance party. Boromir is heading over to lean on the fireplace mantel. 😉

Clearly Gandalf is HERE for a dance party! Oh and I do believe there might be a Boromir/Eowyn "leaning on the mantel" love connection going on back there? 👀👀👀😂

It's a little known fact that Darth Vader LOVES a nice tree swing! He even brought a droid friend, d'aww. That's my Xena poster on the wall in the background, btw. One of my most favorite Xena pics ever!

I also made Shadowfax, Gandalf's horse!

He can stand on his own. And yes, I made that fishbowl, including the Very Famous Fish Rear End on the side panel, lol! Nothing but UTTER ACCURACY around here, thank you very much. 😜

The chair was made from a kit. The cushion comes off and you can store things in the bottom box part. The mug of hot chocolate has marshmallows on top and also the rim raises up so you can store small things in it.

The flower vase was also from a kit. I famously got my hand stuck in it while doing the bottom stitch to finish attaching it to the base. I thought I might have to unstitch it a bit to get free but thankfully didn't have to. Absolutely no one who saw me with a plastic canvas vase stuck on my hand laughed. 😑🤣

(As well they should have. I laughed, too, once I got my hand out of there, lol!)

My mom loved lighthouses so I made her a day and night version. They're the same size but this was 2 separate pics edited together and the different angles made the night version look smaller.

Anyway, that's a few things I made back in the day. Nothing sophisticated but I just enjoyed playing around with it. The canvas got really hard to find for a while and then got very expensive once I located it again, so I stopped making things. 😢

Oh, almost forgot to add the pic that made me think to post these to begin with: Barbie with one of my ducks from my earthquake post.

I made a bunch of these little ducks for a project I never completed, then found them in a Ziploc bag the other day. Now there are little ducks all over the house, lol! 🦆💖

PS - I may have posted these pics before. I know I did on my Livejournal but couldn't find them on Tumblr. If this is the second time you're seeing them, though, apologies. Ais is old and the memory just ain't what she used to be. 😑😉

#lord of the rings #crafts #plastic canvas #plastic canvas crafts #bag end #ageless aislynn #ais used to be crafty

[crossguild]

had a conversation that actually made me sit up and pay attention to minkowski, who i always liked and appreciated but honestly never particularly pinged my interest, since she has largely presented herself as a person who likes to follow rules, who is reasonable, and whose moments of absolute batshittery are framed by her as moments of desperation, actions she was forced to take against her will. self-doubt and insecurity aren't compelling traits in characters to me

and, since i'm not immune to an unreliable narrator, i fell for it

i've seen some meta about how the si-5 lost in the mutiny confrontation because kepler screwed up and made mistakes, which is true to the extent that his mistake was assuming he was dealing with a reasonable person in minkowski! which really IS a mistake. he had logs! why would anyone who heard hephaestus crew logs assume she was any more normal than eiffel or hera or hilbert??

but either way i really think that interpretation is a huge disservice to the resourcefulness of the hephaestus crew, who won because they were unpredictable, because they grew beyond the people that kepler heard in the logs that he doubtlessly studied, but i digress

kepler backed down when minkowski threatened to drop the station, because he had just heard her shoot maxwell, another thing he was convinced she wouldn't do. (incidentally, which is why it's funny that in brand new world when cutter & co were convinced that eiffel would never ram the station, kepler was the first to acknowledge that oh yes, he would, because he is by now intimately familiar with how deeply UNreasonable the hephaestus crew is)

and that's… kind of their strength! minkowski believes herself to be and has always presented herself as someone who follows rules, who is diligent and reasonable, but a reasonable person doesn't turn a room's temp to 40 degrees to recover a single tube of toothpaste. she could've just ignored eiffel, eiffel-proofed their other supplies, and eiffel's need for attention would've won out. a reasonable person doesn't choose to drop a station into a star. a reasonable person doesn't hunt a plant monster for weeks. a reasonable person doesn't gas their crewmates just because they're insufferable. a reasonable person doesn't resort immediately to escalation 100% of the time and try to justify them. like ma'am, there were so many other options

her narrative of becoming someone who embraces how batshit and unpredictable she is & using it to get one over on goddard management is the BEST, because i love a character who is deliberate and intentional about their actions. and part of her learning to be a better, more effective leader is leaning into her strengths, and part of that strength is in being stubborn to the point of irrationality. everyone else is playing chess; minkowski is kicking over the table

thanks @ hazel who wisely doesnt use tumblr for hashing this out, i had a ton of fun 😂

#renee minkowski #wolf 359 #warren kepler #ironically reading minkowski this way makes me like her WAY better

[acaplaya-musings]

Voiceplay Visuals: Valhalla Calling

This could be a bit of a long one (though still probably not as long as my post for Hide And Seek/Ding Dong)

Valhalla Calling was released on the 8th of April, 2023, and is kinda-sorta a sister video to My Mother Told Me. But Voiceplay didn't restrict themselves to just standing in front of greenscreen backgrounds this time, no no no! They worked together with some production studios/group called Vū, and usually I give credit shoutouts as I go through the video, but I think it might just be easier this time if I show you the credits in the description instead:

Yeah, this one was massive. (And wow Eli did a lot for this one! Shoutout to Eli!)

Voiceplay didn't see a return of Jose Rosario Jr for this one, but we got J None back for it! Woooo! So anyway, let's get into this!

I will get to everyone individually, but check out the set! I like the shields in the background.

J None! The man, the myth, the legend.

J has got the same kind of rune/symbol on his forehead as he did in My Mother Told Me (I'm using the video thumbnail for MMTM for comparison purposes), but brighter white on his cheeks, and of course a fresh new haircut. His shirt(?)/top is the same as well I believe, but the fur is different to that of his original costume.

Cesar of course didn't join Voiceplay till sometime after My Mother Told Me (fun fact: Valhalla Calling was release just a couple weeks shy of when My Mother Told Me was released, two years' prior), so nothing to compare against, but I love his makeup here!

Appreciation for the visual effects/design!

Geoff has swapped out the grey fur over one shoulder for a brown fur cloak/cape thing, and ditched the purple-ish lipstick he was wearing in My Mother Told Me as well, making him look a bit less terrifying 😝 (also, his hair in this one has a bit more fluff/volume to it (love that for him <3)). He does however have the same/similar tattoo designs on his face that he had in My Mother Told Me.

(Also I know I'm meant to be sticking to just the visuals, but you can't just expect me to talk about Valhalla Calling without talking about the B0 subharmonic that Geoff holds for 15 seconds!!!)

Layne seems to be wearing almost exactly the same (if not the exact same) outfit as he did in My Mother Told Me (see the first screencap above), and the same kind of face designs as well

Eli still has tattoo designs on his head like in My Mother Told Me (though whether they're the same or not I'm not sure), but the makeup around his eyes is darker, and of course, he now has a full beard and mustache! (Very impressive, might I add)

"shields and s p e a r s"

(For someone who is ridiculously modest when talking about himself ("baritone with a bass range" I mean REALLY), Geoff sure knows how to look incredibly smug in videos when he wants to be 😅😂)

Actually scratch what I said about nothing to compare Cesar's outfit against - the cloak he's wearing is the same one (or at least very very similar to) the one that Jose wore in My Mother Told Me!

Also shoutout to Cesar for being able to do literally anything when it comes to characters, acting, and performances! Multifaceted is an understatement honestly (and yes I will be talking about Creep, eventually)

He's coming!!!

He is here!!!

(Love Geoff raising his alehorn(?) to J in greeting here)

Outside group shot! Makes costume comparisons a heck of a ton easier.

Layne is basically the only one that stuck with basically his whole original outfit. J kept parts of his and still stuck close to the original concept (with the fur and stuff), Eli definitely got an outfit upgrade (though his tunic/shirt is a pretty similar green colour to what he was wearing in MMTM, and Geoff just basically went with a brand new look (Good For Him). He's still got one arm uncovered/exposed like in MMTM, but it's the right arm this time, not the left! (And J none has more of his arms exposed than he originally did!)

Very smooth hood flip! (which somehow I never noticed before this)

More appreciation for Cesar's makeup!

Everyone of course gave this performance 110%, and J None absolutely killed it with his original rap solo (hey, it was a visual performance too!), but also look at Geoff, looking like some sort of powerful and intimidating sorcerer while delivering another B0 subharmonic held note!

J None trying to rival Layne in Hoist The Colours with his Fierce/Crazy Eyes look I see!

Also whoops I think I just spotted a minor editing/continuity mistake. See Cesar in the background in the above shot here? With the hood off? Well this is the next frame:

Cesar with the hood still on. I shan't hold it against them (editing this must have been a nightmare, at least partially), but I am here to talk about visuals, and so if I see something of note, then I will mention it!

A very small and very blink-and-you-miss-it eyebrow quirk/raise from Geoff (y'know, just to kill us further 😆)

The original creator of the song, Miracle Of Sound, commented on this video, saying "Well done, lads. Definitely one of the more creative covers I've heard! I rate it ten raised alehorns out of ten." And the video currently sits at 4.2 million views on YouTube, which is pretty dang impressive considering the video isn't even a year old yet (UPDATE: as of the 20th of March, it's now at 4.6 million! Goddamn!)

Incredible video, incredible arrangement, incredible vocals, it's honestly peak Voiceplay (but not Voiceplay at it's peak! They don't have one!). I have a good handful of videos to keep going through, so stay tuned!

#voiceplay #acapella #valhalla calling #geoff castellucci #eli jacobson #layne stein #cesar de la rosa #j none #acaplaya analysis #voiceplay visuals

[dear-mrs-otome]

Are there romantic moments in Silvio's route? Since he's such a tsundere mess I can't imagine him being sweet😂

He is absolutely a tsundere mess. Probably the worst one I've seen from Cybird...ever.

If you're looking for romantic moments, they're few and far between and probably not as mushy as you'd hope for. Maybe we'll be better rewarded with the romantic end! But they do exist, especially when you start to read between the Silvio lines. The most obvious one is probably the scene I talked about here where Silvio very sweetly fusses over Emma a bit. Earlier in the scene he also leaped out of his seat and freaked out a bit when he thought she'd cut herself.

The only real soft stuff usually happens when he thinks she's not able to see. There's a part where she gets herself drunk in his room and he very carefully lays her out on his sofa and is just kind of stroking her cheeks as she's sleeping and generally silently simping as he wonders what she's dreaming about so happily - only for that all to get ruined when she says Rio's name in her sleep. In the end CG he thought she was asleep in his arms as he lay there stroking her hair and admitting aloud how cute she is and how he's totally gone on her. (hint: she was not actually asleep and he wanted to die upon discovering this) Badly wanting to cuddle her but only knowing how to by bullying her into it.

But mostly his brand of affection is shown in smaller ways. Going from taking her out to an exceedingly fancy dinner that made her uncomfortable to taking her out to a local sort of dive bar and dressing down, somewhere a commoner would feel more at ease. Choosing the place because he heard they had good desserts and women like those right???

Buying her new clothes so she fits in a the auction house better. Blushing at how pretty she looks when she's smiling happily in the rose garden. Secretly adoring her food, even if he tsundere has to say it's okay - but refusing to let anyone take it and wanting to eat any dish she makes (and also jealously guarding the food or her feeding anyone else, Carlo you almost didn't get dinner).

Freaking out when he hears she's out with Keith and probably in danger, and rescuing her from that. Freaking out when he hears she's been taken and walking right out of the middle of everyone greeting his father's arrival in Rhodolite, spending his money and time and effort tracking her down and rescuing him herself. Freaking out when...well, pretty much any time she's even remotely in harm's way.

Offering her advice and help and insight in the ways that he can with his hands tied as they are (which is one of my favorite things of the route). He knows she Belle, she knows he knows she's Belle, but neither of them can admit it for their own reasons. Hers being obvious, and his being that he has to maintain plausible deniability basically so he can continue to not obey his father's commands. Rather, he'll come to her and say something like....the situation is X right now. If I were Belle, I'd consider something like Y or Z... And she'll say GOOD IDEA, er...if I were Belle or something that is.

Yeeting the both of them out of the castle with practically nothing but the clothes on their backs, knowing full well he's potentially giving up everything for her - his position as prince, probably even his life, all because he can't stomach her having to shoulder all this political disaster alone and can't forget how she'd seemed to have so much faith in him. Finally opening up for the first time to anyone and confiding in her how insecure he feels about himself AND ASKING HER HELP AND SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO MAKE HIMSELF A BETTER PERSON. Admitting that saving a tiny country like Rhodolite technically makes no political or economical sense but he can't NOT do so...simply because he likes it and because she does. Because sometimes business can be personal. Because it's the right thing to do...and because the most important thing to him is her smile.

#mrs o talks #spoiler #spoilers #ikemen prince spoilers #ikepri spoilers #i almost always recommend suitor POVS #but especially with the tsuns and especially with him

[couldbebetterforsure]

#I feel like I've made it clear by now on my blog I'm a ryuseitai girl there are NO bad songs in ryuseitai's discography I'll fight on that!

girl i love these idol power rangers too but you can't mean that when growing starry days and seishun emergency exist😂

What did I say, Anon?! 😡😡😡😡😡😡

I kid, you’re free to feel that way, Anon! But I truly sincerely mean it when I say I don’t think there’s a single bad song in the Ryuseitai discography. So, why don’t we go through all of their songs and I talk about why I like them!

I’m only gonna list Ryuseitai specific songs, so ones that features them as a group in the song or their solos. I’m not listing the shuffle unit songs or their version of songs like Brand New Stars, since those aren’t specifically Ryuseitai songs.

Yumenosaki Ryuseitai Uta: Dakara FIGHTING! ✊ (FIGHTING!) FIGHTING! ✊ (FIGHTING!) From what I understand this is in universe Ryuseitai's first song, from before the current Ryuseitai was even formed. And what banger it is! It's a shame there's no MV for this one, I feel like it could get a good one. I love that everyone says their catchphrase during it (well...I mean Midori made an attempt...) A perfect song for introducing who Ryuseitai are and what they're about as a group.

The Unrivaled Meteor Ranger: Absolutely catchy classic! So much fun to play in the rhythm game, I get so into it (which means I keep breaking my combos). I just feel like I'm having fun listening to it, as if I'm watching the boys actually perform on the stage in front of me. They also sounds really good during the chorus for this one!

Goshiki no Shooting Star: Shooting Star! Shooting Star! Kagayake! Seigi koso...Shinjitsu to! Shinjiteru! Inochigake! Mamorinuke! Doro ni mamire nagara mo!!! *insert head bopping cat gif* I think this song does a fantastic job of showing how much of a kick Chiaki's voice gives the group's vocals. His voice is the deep and strong, and when he backs someone else's vocals it gives the lines an extra oomph that I adore!

Super Nova Revolu5tar: I love the build up to the opening lines! I think Ryuseitai may sound the best as a whole in this song. Their voices merge together so gorgeously in the chorus. I love the part that goes from violins to guitar as the boys talk it's beautiful! The whole last minute and a half of the song is gorgeous and I won't budge on that.

Ryuusei Hanabi: Practically everyone and their mother adores this song, and for good reason! It's an absolute bop from start to end. The use of traditional Japanese instruments, the chants, the beat of it. Another fun one to play in the rhythm game! Though I can't full combo the song on hard mode 😭 Fun fact, this is one of those few songs I already knew of from years back! I always find myself at the very least tapping along to the chanting.

Growing Starry Days: Hot take, Ryuseitai should get to sing more soft sounding songs. I know sentai-esque songs are their main thing, but damn it this song is too damn beautiful to be one of the VERY few soft songs they do! I heard this one isn't popular, to which I say FUCK THAT! Another song that really emphasizes how Chiaki's voice really brings the group's vocals together. I can't helpt smiling every time I listen to this song!

Unlimited Power: I just love that this is a song of thanks from Ryuseitai to all their fans, that's so damn sweet. The part where they all list the colors and their names is adorable (well except for Kanata 😂) Just as I can hear how well they get across their gratefulness in their voices throughout the song, I end up smiling and feeling just as thankful for them for making me smile so much with their music!

Meteor Scramble: Like I said last time I LOVE that they included their names in the lyrics! And in fun ways too, they play around with word placement and even Japanese pronunciation of English words for Tetora and Midori. Chiaki (ichi ichi akirametecha), Kanata (negau kanata e ikenai), Tetora (tachimukatte toraburu o), Midori (saa let me dream), Shinobu (manazashi no bun). I enjoy the high pace energy of the song, and I ESPECIALLY love the guitar solo section!

Suisei Halation: I fucking love this song, it feels like such a 80s-90s sounding anime opening in all the best ways! The beat once the chorus hits is so high pace, it's so much fun to listen to and just as much to play in the rhythm game. I can picture waking up to watch an anime with this opening on TV whenever I listen to it. My favorite part is when the boys all take one line each from the beginning of the chorus, it has a cool feel to it!

Heart Heat Beat: While not as soft as Growing Starry Days, this song does have a softer feel to it compared to other Ryuseitai songs. I love listening to it while I walk, though I always end up bouncing along because it has such pep in it! I feel like this song is a hidden gem of Ryuseitai's discography, I rarely hear anyone speak of it but it has such a fun and adorable feel to it. Also, I really love how powerful Midori's "ikou yo" is, it's not often he puts that much power in his solo lines.

Nekketsu Ryusei Ninpouchou: The old video game sounding opening to this song is such a nice touch. I loved how everyone's voices sounded throughout this song, they flowed together so well. Combine that with the energetic feel to it all and it makes for such a fun song. I love how it changed from slower pace to higher pace at several points and yet never loses that energy. Also, I think this song has some of Shinobu's strongest singing in it!

Colors Arise: Another song that sounds like an anime opening in all the best ways! The guitar sounds absolutely fantastic in this song and really gets me so pumped up. I think my favorite part is when the song suddenly sounds like a completely different song a little over two minutes in before swinging back to the main chorus. It's such a fun change that manages to not feel awkward.

Relax Paradise: RELAX~! ☺️ I'll be honest on first listen this song wasn't my thing, so that would've made this post super awkward, huh? But after listening to it a couple more times I really started to get into the bubbly energy of it all. Like "you know what? yeah I DO wanna go relax in the jungle!" I am super duper eager for the full version to drop, I wanna embrace the bubbly relaxing atmosphere.

Seishun Emergency: Wooo, get a chance! Woooo, make a chance! Don't give up! Don't give up! Be my girl! Yuzurenai battle!!! I heard this is another song that gets a ton of hate to which I say, why don't you people like having fun?! It's such a fun song with lyrics that are basically a shoujo romcom, what's not to like here?! There's such fun energy throughout this song and I really love how Ryuseitai and Knights combine their voices in this one! I can't sit still whenever the chorus starts up.

Hamutaro Tottoko Uta: People who hate on this song have never felt the joy the little things in life can bring. Cring is dead, let’s get you some fun and whimsy! It has a catchy marching-like beat and you can’t help but clap, move your foot, or bounce along to it with Ryuseitai and Ra*bits. Plus, c'mon guys, it's HAMTARO! Daiiiisuki na no waaaaaaaa~! Hiiiiimawari no taneeeeeee~!!!!

Always Hero: BURNING HEART!!! JUSTICE BLAZE!!! 🔥🔥🔥 It's a song that feels very Chiaki in energy and lyrics. Despite not being a cute song, I just come out of listening to it feeling like Chiaki is adorable!

Marine Blue Rendezvous: Puka puka~ Love the slow feel of this song, I feel like I can sleep to this song. Not in a bad way, I mean listening to it is so relaxing, I can't help but be lulled into a peacful nap 😊

Mahiru no Zanzou: No joke, Midori's best singing is on display in this song. His voice is already soft, so his solo really showcases that. But there are moments where there's a emotional power there that hits me in my little heart juuuuust right!

Iron Heart Tiger: Another hot take I have is that Tetora's singing voice doesn't get enough praise. I think this song, especially with its high pace energy really helps to get across how pleasing it is to listen to sing!

Shippuu Jinrai Shinobi Michi: Such a Shinobu song, so very fitting for him and enjoyable to listen to from start to finish! I love the bouncy feel it has while also being mixed with some softer moments, befitting a ninja!

Okay, that’s all of Ryuseitai’s songs and why I love them! If you noticed I missed a song, please kill me where I stand because that means I failed to defend the honor of Ryuseitai’s discography if I forgot one 😞 Hope you enjoyed hearing my thoughts!

#story time with me #ensemble stars #did this manage to be longer or shorter than expected? #the answer may surprise you! 😃😃😃 #hint: it's both #I feel very strongly about ryuseitai and their discography I will defend it with all I got #ryuseitai has yet to release a song I hate no one in enstars is doing it like them #my soul connected to the right unit I have naturally good taste in fictional idols 😤 #my apologies to anyone who has been forced to read my nonsense #except you anon you asked to have my essay of a post forced on your brain #never talk to me or my power ranger idol sons ever again

[memes-in-a-half-shell]

Villain AU - Deadlock, Part 2

Part 1 ||

I'm trying not to linger for too long with the chapters. I know where I want to head with this, and doing too much exposition might branch me into other sub-plots and I don't have the energy for thaaaaat.

So far I'm having fun with this AU :]

Quick note that this AU is set years after the events of the two movies. Characters are mid 20's to early 30's.

Also, goddamn, never thought I'd be researching things about collecting evidence and its naming convention for a court case 😂 writing does indeed make me learn a bunch of stuff~

The card was safe. All scans indicated that no trackers were attached, to which Donnie couldn't help laughing at, in a sense. What a lost opportunity. Yet again, maybe that woman had no need to track anyone .... for the moment.

It was with a long sigh that Donatello finally sat at his desk, staring at anywhere his eyes would fall. Leo had chewed him up a little after this failure of a mission. How could he have predicted this, anyway? It's not as if they're to expect random people at every missions they go out to! Donnie pinched in-between his eyes, right under his glasses, trying to clear his thoughts. He next nonchalantly got the woman's card out of his pocket, taking a moment to look over the drawing once again. What a clown, he thought.

Leaving it on his desk, he next lunged towards a toolbox nearby, retrieving an utility knife. Then hunching over the small piece, he proceeded to careful cut around the felt chip inside. Getting the prize out of its prison, Donnie then went for a USB key into which he could insert the hardware into a designed slot. He paused before plugging the device into his computer, opting first to open a secured session - to avoid any infiltraton nor leaks.

Plugging the USB key, he didn't have to wait long before a file opened, revealing two documents. The first one contained code, which he knew must have been what was used to confuse his tracking. The other was a single textfile:

Congratulations! To anyone reading this, you're not a complete idiot :) If I took anything from you, I am not sorry. Learn to keep your information under better security, you fucking scrub. If you found this randomly, or you're a fan of my work, consider paying me for my good broker's work. Follow the white rabbit and you'll find your way ;) With love, smooth_criminal

"Follow the white rabbit?" pondered Donnie to himself.

Opening back the code file, he started to search for keywords. "Smooth_criminal" found several instances, hinting that it was her username, or rather administrator name, on her computer. Curious, he then searched for "white rabbit". There were indeed some instances, and starting from the top always had the text followed by a "go lower" mention. Donnie couldn't help the light smirk on his lips. She was clearly referencing Alice in Wonderland, following the rabbit down its hole. The last mention was found next to a website address, one Donnie had already seen before. It was one of those sketchy places on the dark web that often dealt in information brokering, doxxing, questionable freelance contracts, you name it! Personally he was not a fan, but it did prove an interesting starting point whenever he needed to start his searches somewhere.

Knowing he'd have some ways to go before finding any of her traces, he paused his work and instead went to prepare some coffee. I'll sleep when I'm dead.

***

Unsurprisingly enough, Donnie did find a user by the name of "smooth_criminal". How original.

Was it her, though? There was always a possibility that she could have set breadcrumbs towards a dummy account, or simply some random person on that website. But now knowing that she was an information broker, if she were to build herself a brand, she simply couldn't lead any potential clients away.

Retrieving an account Donatello had created ages ago, he first poked around the forums to first get a grasp of how she was operating around. Well-versed in internet speak, yet remaining professional, the woman appeared to always wanting to get straight to the point. Time was money, and if she had to poke often in order to get simple information, she was quick to dismiss anybody.

Many users were leaving good reviews about her work; impartial and efficient were the major key words. She didn't give a fuck about your background or what you were doing with the information. In the end it was only a job waiting to be done.

Who wanted the Foot investors' list then, wondered Donnie as he opened a window to send her a direct message. He had to make sure it was really her.

HookedOnCoffee: What are your prices?

He sat back in his chair, patiently looking at the screen. It surprisingly didn't take long to spot the usual three dots in the chat, indicating that she was typing.

smooth_criminal: Depends on the type of information you want and the equipment I have to use. Can range from 700 to 1K+. What's your need?

Goddamn. Donnie was quick to open his bank account information (something he always kept hidden from his brothers, but definitely not from his father). It's been a while since he last did some freelance work, so his funds were starting to get low, but he could still afford something - relunctantly. Yet he also wanted to test her skills...

HookedOnCoffee: I need you to retrieve lost information about Sacks Group Ltd. smooth_criminal: You realize that company was disbanded years ago with the arrestation of Eric Sacks, yes?

Donnie smirked. He already knew where to get the information.

HookedOnCoffee: Are you comfortable with reaching into police classified documentation? They have digital records that may prove difficult to access... Only if you feel up to the challenge.

He felt like a smartass - and he liked it.

smooth_criminal: Just 'cause you're assuming I'd be a coward about it, I'll charge you 2K. Half of it before, second half when I have the info. You want it when?

Now Donatello wasn't smiling anymore... He glanced at his finances another time, sighing. He'd definitely need to refill his account after this. Welp, no sleep for me in the upcoming weeks.

HookedOnCoffee: The sooner, the better. Start tomorrow night. The information is at the Police Department at 1 Police Plaza Path, Lower Manhattan. Near the City Hall.

smooth_criminal: Send me the money and you got yourself a deal.

"A deal I could've done myself," mumbled the terrapin, sourly giving away the first part of the sum.

***

Of course it had to rain on that night. The end of winter and early signs of spring always brought this weird shift in the weather that always froze Donnie straight to his bones. Perched on a tall building near the given spot, he lowered his googles onto his glasses, shifting the lenses for a night vision. He knew the best point of entrance would be by the building's roof, especially through the large vent openings. Would the woman need to make her way to the actual hardware, or could she hack herself from a distance? The terrapin couldn't help feeling curious about her course of action - as outlawed it may be.

He spotted a form making its way on top of the police's building. Was that a grappling hook? He was starting to get a little impressed...

It indeed looked like the woman he saw back at that Foot stronghold, recognizing parts of her gear and those flashing green googles.

"Gotcha," smiled the turtle to himself, noticing her get into a vent.

He sprung to action, calculating his jump and fall to land straight onto the police building. Setting up a remote tracker into the vent she went into, he opted for another entry point - one he knew would converge with hers at some point.

One advantage of being the slimmest out of his brothers was that he could easily make his way through the tunnels. His weight was still a concern, mostly due to his techm but Donnie felt no rush to make his way completely to the woman, prefering to get a screen out and take control of the remote tracker he sent. He wouldn't lie about the fact that he did prepare for this coup. He already had a layout of the vents and knew where the information was stored. Did that smooth criminal do the same? Donnie stopped his tracker around a corner, soon getting a view of the woman now looking down through a grid. She first got a device out of one of her bags, turning it on and slightly slapping its side with a grunt. The antenna on it brought Donatello to guess that it might be a sort of camera jammer. Tapping some instructions in, the woman switched her device for a sort of screwdriver, then taking care of the grid. She first started diagonally, then holding a loose part of the grid and unscrewing the remaining corners. It allowed her to hold the grid and attach it to her grappling hook, then gently lowering it into the room below.

She graciously made her way down, Donnie's tracker following suit as careful as he could. The next room was filled with computer towers and only two screens in one corner. The terrapin smirked when he got a look through his screen. Of course there wasn't going to be a server to tap into for easy access. Which computer had the right information? That could take hours to find out...

The intruder appeared defeated for moment, patiently making her way around the room and trying to find any potential revelation as to which information was stored where. She brought her left wrist up, a hologram screen appearing and she was then scrolling through different windows and texts. Tapping to the side of her facemask, she then proceeded to launch a call, to Donnie's great confusion. As soon as it picked up, the other end of the line announcing itself to be NYPD's bureau of investigations, the woman started to talk, but her voice was now mimicking another.

"Chief Rebecca Vincent speaking," said the woman - and her tone was indeed modified to resemble Vincent's. "There is a request pending for disclosing evidence of the Sacks Group Ltd case. I have a team that must access their digital files for a classified investigation."

"We can have the hardware delivered to any desired precinct-"

"The team will be going directly to the department in order to avoid unecessary dispatch of the evidence. I only need the serial number of the machine on which the information is stored, and my investigators will reach into it first thing tomorrow morning."

"Appendix FAP.SGL-14-TRN-1318.LAN"

"Thank you, that is all."

The call ended, leaving Donnie slightly impressed. Not bad... not bad at all! If she had been smarter, she would've researched the court case and found that information beforehand - but his request of acquiring the evidence in the briefest delays might have pushed her to accelerate her processes.

The criminal was next on the move, easily finding the labeled computer and whipping out an external drive to plug it into. Tapping onto the devices with her left wrist's hologram, she completed the transfer in no time.

"Easy peasy," came out the woman's voice in its flanged tone, disconnecting her device.

She got one of her calling cards out, placing it on the computer tower before turning heels and proceeding to climb back up the vent and seal it shut. What a goddamn fool, thought Donnie, already moving his tracking device towards the card. You don't leave evidence after such a flawless performance... Collecting it, the mutant then steered the tracker through a hole in the grid, after making sure that the woman was no longer in sight. He finally got on the move as well, ordering his device to track back to him automatically. If he was quick enough, maybe he'd get to see where the other would head next. The downpour was hitting harder now, instantly souring Donnie's mood. Collecting his tracker and the card, he didn't wait to scan the perimeters, hoping to catch any traces of the human. The rain was making it harder to catch anything, his sensors mostly picking activity from nearby cars and some daring pedestrians out in this weather. Unwillingly forfeiting, the terrapin shook some water off before deciding to head back to the Lair...

***

The first thing Vee needed was a hot shower.

As she got into her small apartment, she instantly dropped her gear onto the nearest table, then stripping down and throwing her soaked clothes into a corner.

Standing beneath the hot stream, she closed her eyes, letting any and all stress wash down the drain. Her mind did wander back to the information she was tasked to gather. Usually her clients would request data that was fresh or of a high value ... so for her to collect documents from Eric Sacks' company seemed to be completely out of the blue.

Curiosity killed the cat. Stepping out of the shower and quickly putting out panties and a large hoodie, she grabbed the external drive and plugged it into her computer. Her initial search through the files mostly revealed budgets, employee files, so on and so forth. But her eyes did catch something about the project 'Renaissance', the simple mention of turtle subjects grabbing her interest.

Her thoughts brought her back to that night at the Foot's stronghold. She truly did wonder if she would ever see one of them again, although it might not be in her best interests. Maybe her commissioner wanted information as well regarding those mutants? With a shrug, Vee first copied the documents to herself, then zipping the rest for her client.

Logging onto the usual website, she first pinged her investor:

smooth_criminal: Here is a shot of the file, showing you that I have it. Send me the rest of the decided price and I will send it your way right away.

She couldn't help yawning, hoping her client wouldn't answer late so she could go to sleep next... After what felt like an eternity (frankly, it was more like 5 minutes), she saw the usual three dots pop up in the conversation.

HookedOnCoffee: I hope it wasn't too much of a hassle for you.

And with that, they sent the rest of the money, Vee already accepting and then starting the transfer.

smooth_criminal: I do not disclose any details of the operation. You have your information, that's what matters. HookedOnCoffee: Aight. Business is business, I get it.

Vee did lightly fiddle her fingers above her keyboard, debating if it was a good idea to poke about the data...

smooth_criminal: ... I'm curious though, why Sacks? Forgive my intrusion, but that company was mostly dealing in the medical sphere. The only interesting document I can think of would be in regards to the project Renaissance.

She hoped she wasn't shooting herself in the foot. Vee usually wanted to avoid digging into her client's affairs, but with her recent meeting with the turtles, she only wanted to connect some dots. The other's answer took some time before being delivered.

HookedOnCoffee: Some components of that project need to be revisited for personal matter. I will only leave it at that.

Fair. Vee kept a mental note to dig more into the files. Maybe there was indeed something in there that could be worth selling for...

***

Donnie could't have wished for a more ideal situation. Getting that file transfer from her gave the terrapin all the information he needed in order to tap into her system, plus the discreet session hijack he could launch alongside the last money payment. He didn't want to log into her hardware right away, fearing that it would raise an instant suspicion on the woman's part. Instead he prefered to be entertained by her random inquiry about project Renaissance. Aren't you supposed to be impartial or something?

He didn't really need the information - in fact he already had most of the files thanks to April and the police department. There wasn't much to be found in those documents, except the mention of the green ooze that was classified as alien. Most, if not all of it had been lost in the lab fire, which resulted in the substance never being really studied other than the initial tests. There were traces in his family's blood and it could be tested ... but they did really need to?

Donatello saved the woman's system information with a satisfied tap on his keyboard. As he leaned back into his chair with a relieved sigh, Raphael was walking nearby the workstation, having just finished a training session.

"What's up, nerd?" asked the red banded one.

"Oh I just love when things go according to plan," smiled the bespectacled mutant.

He vaguely gestured his screen, looking over at his brother with a smug expression.

"Remember that woman that stole the information from that Foot stronghold?"

"... I mean, I didn't see her, but yes."

"I've tracked her and I might be able to hack into her system."

Raph was now intrigued, coming closer and soon a smirk creeping on his features.

"Can you get a view from her webcam? Is she hot?"

"I, uh-"

That's right, he could see how she looked like! But was it wise to risk it now?...

"If she's smart, she either doesn't have a cam, or the view is blocked when not in use."

"Ay, come on, let's try anyway," nudged the large terrapin.

Here goes nothing... Using the ID he gathered, he was able to bypass firewalls by disgusing his connection as a simple operating system check. Entering some commands on his side, he soon had a list of accessible devices; one being indeed a webcam. He glanced at Raph before hovering and clicking the option with his cursor.

"If she notices and blocks my connection, you're a dead man."

"Good luck trying to beat me, twig."

With a double-click, a new window popped onto the screen, first giving out a black screen. After a quick loading, a video feed now appeared, allowing the two turtles to witness a view into the woman's apartment; and her form as well. She was up and about, collecting some of her gear she had scattered on her arrival.

"Bro, is she only wearin' a hoodie?" started Raph.

Donnie pointed at the screen when the woman bent forward.

"She has panties on."

Both brothers looked at eachother, smirking.

"Nice," they said in unison.

Looking back at the screen, Donatello took notes of her appearance. Colored hair, glasses, some visible tattoos on her legs and one at the top of her right hand. He knew she also had one on her chest, but did she have more? She wasn't bad looking - in fact he'd be a liar to say she was anything else but pretty. Her apartment appeared small, but quite enough for her needs. Various tech and scraps were laying around, the woman obviously working on some new gadgets of her own.

"Watchu gonna do now that you found her?" questionned the red clad mutant.

Donnie's finger tapped on his desk, pondering the question himself.

"... I'm quite not sure, to be honest. My first instinct would be to retrieve the information she took from us, but at the same time I want to know more about her. She seems quite capable with technology, and from what I've found she's also a competent information broker. ... I'm worried she's using all that talent for the wrong reasons."

"Ya think she could become an asset for the team?"

The purple clad mutant's gaze remained on the woman on screen, weighing what his brother said.

"... High risk, high reward. She could be useful, but there could be a potential danger that she'd out us out to anyone offering a large amount of money."

"Not if you intimidate her out of the idea," shrugged Raph.

Donnie frowned: "I won't do that!"

"I will then."

"No, just- Stop! Let me think over this."

Still frowning, he continued to look over at the woman, the gears of his mind turning. Frankly, he wanted to meet her again.

***

Living a normal life always paled so much compared to the thrills of seeking out information around the city. Her day job was more of an alibi. Getting employeed at a coffee shop that was opened 24/7 only offerred the greatest opportunity to alter a payroll and, bam!, yes I was working on that night.

Sighing as she closed the entrance door behind her, Vee's steps lingered out of fatigue, first making her way towards the small kitchen and grab a glass of water. She had been sollicited a lot lately from various contractors, offerring her very little to no sleep over the last few days.

As she walked past her computer, she halted after a few steps - and mid-drink - and frowned as she looked over her screens. Is she really that tired? Is the mouse cursor moving on its own??

She watched for some minutes as she saw windows getting opened and closed, all on their own. Annoyed, she took a seat and forcefully grabbed the control back on the cursor. Opening a notepad document, she instantly wrote:

Hello??? Who the fuck do you think you are???

Some lines were skipped, a simple word being added:

Hi :)

"Esti d'criss," she swore in French before rushing out of her seat.

She made a beeline to her router, knocking stuff over in her hurry. First unplugging the box, she looked back over her screen like a deer facing headlights, almost expecting an entity to jump out of there for some reason...

Finally walking back to her desk, she first saw that the internet connection had successfully been cut. When glancing back at the previously opened notepad, she saw another line written:

Don't worry, I just wanted to know more about you. I got what I needed. We'll meet one day.

That sent a shiver down Vee's spine - not the good kind. She tried to go over the list of people she last dealt with. Did she provoke anyone without really wanting to? Or maybe it was a weirdo that was too enamored with her work? Freaked out for the evening, Vee decided to turn off her machine, prefering to focus on anything else.

((Part 3))

#it's-a-moi #villain au #usual sorry for any mistakes #lol 'haha I'm gonna write small chapters' #and here I go writing this freakin' long ass thing #I mean - I've written longer #but for this story I shouldn't be going that hard lol #Oh well ... at least I'm having fun - so that's what counts #next chapter is going to be fun :>

[drabbles-mc]

Looking On

A Narcos & Narcos: Mexico Crossover Fic

For @narcosfandomdiscord's "Porque No Los Dos?" Day: create a crossover with the original Narcos and Narcos: Mexico featuring at least one character from each

Warnings: 18+, language, blood/injury, no adherence to canon timelines whatsoever

Word Count: 3.5k

A/N: This is a crackfic in the sense that I am just taking elements from both shows and using them how I see fit. They're toys in my sandbox now etcetc. S3 cast of OG Narcos in s2 of NMX? Why not!!!! Also let the record show that this entire fic happened because of one little exchange that happens at the end. So. You know. There's that. 😂

Narcos/NMX Taglist: @garbinge @winchestershiresauce @sizzlingcloudmentality @panagiasikelia @616wilsons @hauntedforsst @mirabee @buckybarneshairpullingkink @boomclapxox @nessamc @southotheborder @supersanelyromantic @padbrookcottage @mysun-n-stars @raincoffeeandfandoms @justreblogginfics @ashlingnarcos @narcolini @proceduralpassion @artemiseamoon @hausofmamadas @cositapreciosa (If you want to be added to any of my taglists, please let me know!)

He understood why so many people left after Escobar. A lot of people didn’t survive to even have the opportunity. Hell, after Carrillo, once all of it was said and done, Trujillo would’ve been lying if he said that it hadn’t been a fleeting thought through his mind a time or two as well. But underneath it he always knew that he wasn’t going to be walking away. Maybe he should have. Maybe he should’ve taken the win and gotten the hell out. However, he knew himself enough to know that if he did that, part of him would always be wondering what he was even doing any of it for, then. If he left after one big win, or whatever killing Escobar qualified as after all the destruction wrought to get there, what would that say about him? Stopping with no good, clear reason to?

Then he heard that Javi was getting roped back in and that changed the game as well. Carrillo had been his touchstone for so long and he was someone that Trujillo was never going to get back. He knew that. He knew that there was no one that could really fill those shoes. Javi, though, Javi felt like the last remaining piece of that chapter of their lives. Because Steve was gone too, off to somewhere quieter, less gunfire for his wife and daughter—that made sense at least. Javi coming back meant that he wouldn’t feel quite so alone if he stuck around. It never hurt to have someone close by who had a little bit of shared life experience, especially the bloody painful kind they all had in common.

Days ticked by. Javi did come back, but things were different now—he was different now. Trujillo could see it, feel it, but he never said anything about it. There was no point to it. It wasn’t as though Javi was going to spill his thoughts out because Trujillo asked him nicely. But even though things were different, there was still a strange brand of comfort to be had there. Despite the changes there was still an understanding between the two of them. The rules of engagement were different now that there were new players in the game, but each of them knew what the other had in their back pockets if push came to shove.

Which was why Trujillo couldn’t even try to pretend that he wasn’t shocked at Javi’s pitch, the way that the request felt like it was coming seemingly out of left field. “México?” he finally managed to get out.

“It’s not an order,” Javi clarified, knowing that he still didn’t have that kind of pull with the CNP, “but I…” he trailed off for a moment as he tried to figure out what he wanted to say. “We’re going regardless,” he said with a nod towards the glass walls of his office, Feistl and Van Ness bickering on the other side, “and I could use, you know,” he sighed, “someone I can trust.”

The shock still wasn’t gone from Trujillo’s face, but now he was at least smiling as well. He nodded towards the two new agents outside the office. “You don’t trust them?”

Javi scoffed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I trust them not to sell me out. I don’t trust them to be fuckin’ subtle.”

Trujillo chuckled, nodding in understanding. “Right.” Taking a deep breath, he really thought about the offer that Javi was extending to him. It hit him that regardless of how much he did or didn’t want to do what Javi was asking, it wasn’t really up to him to decide whether or not he could go. “Did you clear it with—”

“They’re good with it if you are,” Javi cut him off, knowing what the rest of the question was going to be.

“That easy?”

Javi’s eyebrows lifted slightly. “As easy as anything is with them.”

Trujillo smirked at that. He could only imagine what that conversation must have been like between Javi and Martinez. It was nothing short of a miracle that Javi got the okay to ask. Trujillo supposed that maybe he shouldn’t waste the opportunity. “I’ll go.”

Relief crashed over Javi in one big tidal wave. His shoulders relaxed as he let out a quiet sigh. “Good.” He nodded towards his office door. “Go home and pack. We’re outta here first thing tomorrow morning.”

Their travels were quiet, uneventful. For the first time in a long time everything was on-schedule and going according to plan. In the back of Javi and Trujillo’s minds, they were both making a point to enjoy it because if history told them anything, it was that once they touched down in Mexico, things weren’t going to be quite as smooth.

“Agent Breslin,” Javi said, holding out his hand as they walked up to the man who was there to greet them as they got off the plane.

The man returned the gesture, giving Javi’s hand a firm shake. “Agent Peña.”

Trujillo stood back half a step as he watched all of the agents introduce themselves to each other. Even though Agent Breslin was wearing dark tinted sunglasses, Trujillo could still tell where he was looking for the most part. It didn’t take long for the two of them to be looking directly at each other.

Javi stepped in to facilitate their introduction. “Walt, this is Officer Trujillo.”

Trujillo stepped in to shake Walt’s hand. Despite his eyes being covered, the slow rise and fall of his head as he looked him over gave away exactly what he was doing as they shook hands. “Officer,” Walt said, his tone somewhere between a statement and a question. Trujillo only raised his eyebrows, to which Walt responded, “Just a long way from home, that’s all.”

Trujillo broke the handshake, arm dropping back to his side as he gave Walt the same obvious once-over he’d just doled out. “From the looks of it, I’m not the only one.”

The comment got Walt to scoff out something akin to a chuckle. He nodded. “Fair.” Turning back to Javi, he gestured towards the var behind him. “Come on, I’ll get you guys all up to speed.”

Trujillo stayed quiet for most of the drive. He listened to everything that Javi and Walt were talking about. Javi had given him the barest bones of a debrief before the took off, but Trujillo knew enough to know that he was going to be doing a lot of learning on the fly. That’s how it always was with them.

He didn’t know what he had been expecting when Javi told him that Walt had put together his won crew. Trujillo knew what their crew looked like in Colombia—it was essentially whoever Carrillo had any kind of trust in. And Steve. But he had no idea what he was going to be in for when they walked into the safehouse.

Whatever Trujillo thought it was going to be, the group of men staring at them as they all walked in were not who he had been expecting. He knew better than to judge books by their covers, of course, but it was hard not to notice the fact that it seemed like Walt was aiming to be as eclectic as possible with the people he brought into this. Trujillo wondered where the four of them were going to fit into it all.

Walt addressed his group of men first, taking the liberty of introducing everyone in one fell swoop. “This is Agent Peña—the guy I was telling you all about.” He pointed to the other two DEA agents. “Those are agents Feistl and Van Ness.” He turned and looked at the last man left. “And this is Officer Trujillo.” Walt looked at the four of them before gesturing broadly to the entire assembly of men in front of him. “This is the Smash & Grab Crew.” He paused. “You guys are just in time. Got some shit going down tonight.”

“Walt,” Kenny spoke up, cautious and annoyed.

Walt waved him off. “They’re here. They’re not goin’ anywhere. Might as well help—we could use the extra hands.”

After a few seconds of tense silence, everyone caved, nodding in agreement. It was too late to try and take it all back to keep secrets now anyway. Once they had all come to that silent agreement, they showed Javi and his men where they could drop their bags. They were all looking around the space as they made their way through it, scoping it out the same way they did every new environment that they got tossed into.

A man materialized beside Trujillo, and he would later learn that his name was Ossie. He had a cigarette between his lips and an amused smirk on his face as he watched Trujillo watch and process everything happening around them. “Bienvenidos, hm?”

Trujillo chuckled, for some reason feeling a little more at home after the comment. “Algo como eso.”

It’d been a long time since Trujillo felt like he was getting left behind and missing out on the action of things. It was a feeling that he hadn’t missed in the slightest. It wasn’t as though he was the only one left behind at the safehouse while the rest of them went out to snatch Verdín, but he still didn’t care for it. Javi was the only one out of the four of them to go, and while he heard Feistl and Van Ness chalk it up to a seniority thing, Trujillo knew it was much more about trust than it was rank.

His annoyance about the delegation of tasks was put temporarily on-hold when everyone came bursting back into the safehouse. At face value, it seemed like a successful operation. They caught the guy, after all. However, even though that was the case, Trujillo could feel the angst and tension among the men as dragged Verdín in. He was curious as to what happened, but he also knew better than to try and ask. If he needed to know, he’d find out eventually one way or another.

The second that Trujillo heard Verdín say, “I know that you left witnesses alive,” he knew what the initial tension had been about when they got back. He couldn’t help the sigh that escaped him, the way that he dropped his head. That was a problem that would rear its ugly head again at some point. Might be hours, days, or weeks, but it would happen—it always did. He knew why people did. He wasn’t heartless, after all. But it also came down to weighing ethics against the endgame. Means versus ends. For a moment he felt like he was back home, but it was a brief moment.

The lengthy, and fruitless, interrogation made him miss Colombia. More specifically, it made him miss Carrillo. Not to say that Carrillo always made quick work of things. There were plenty of times where it was a slow burn. There were plenty of other times when even if the going wasn’t slow, it certainly wasn’t going right. But even then, at least there was something.

He could only sit there and watch Walt try to beat answers out of the guy for so long. He left Javi and the two agents to play spectator with some of Walt’s other men. Trujillo wasn’t even planning on leaving, not like he had any other place to go. He just needed to look at a different wall for a little while.

He was approaching the doorway of the safehouse when he heard a few of Walt’s crew outside talking. From what he caught, he wished that he could’ve heard the conversation from the start. He got there in time to hear Danilo firmly put Ossie in his place with, “You got into this for a paycheck? Man, don’t be fucking stupid. We’re all in this with our lives.”

No one saw him, and even if they did it wasn’t as though they would’ve really cared for his opinion, but Trujillo was still slowly nodding at the statement anyway. He leaned back against the wall behind him, the murmurs of conversation from outside in one ear, the grunts and dulled thuds of punches in the other. He turned Danilo’s statement over in his head again, hoping that maybe it would drown out some of his frustrations, restore some of the faith. Because even though some of Walt’s men looked like they came from the same farm for Americans that Steve Murphy did, Trujillo had to admit that they were dedicated to everything that they were doing. Kind of like Murphy, he thought silently to himself with a quick grin.

More hours ticked by. More punches thrown. If only any of it had resulted in more information from Verdín, but they were still stuck at square one the same way they had been when they brought him back. Trujillo listened to Walt and Javi going back and forth about it, trying to figure out what the best plan of action was now. Like it or not, they were all on a clock—Verdín was right about that and a lot of other things, unfortunately, so they needed to figure their shit out and quickly.

“We gotta go to Plan B,” Kenny said, sounding a little more desperate than he should’ve.

“I don’t have a Plan B,” Walt responded, as exhausted as Kenny was desperate. “All I got’s a fucking Plan A.”

Trujillo listened to them all descend into bickering about the details of it all. They weighed the pros and cons of staying, of moving him now. Ideas got batted back and forth like ping pong balls, just as many flaws as there were upsides, if not more of the former than the latter. Trujillo watched the divide start to form, two camps, essentially. Plan A and Plan B were both taking shape, and no matter what one they went with people were going to be pissed off. What they couldn’t afford, though, was waiting around and letting Plan C unfold, which was Verdín’s people finding them and putting an end to all of this in the worst way possible. It was the first time in a long time that Trujillo saw Javi airing on the side of caution. The agent he knew a small handful of years earlier wouldn’t have been playing it safe like that. Things change.

Apparently Walt hadn’t grown wary in the way that Javi had, not yet anyway. “Danilo, give me your blade.”

The words had hardly left Walt’s mouth and Danilo was happily obliging. It caused some protests from the group. Kenny tried to stop him with nothing to show for it. Javi spoke up too, but was silenced with a pithy comment about being a guest and not having a say in this one. Trujillo had the vague notion that he should be backing Javi, but he also couldn’t help but to think that maybe this would actually do it. So, instead, he followed Walt back into the next room. He didn’t participate in cutting Verdín’s finger off, wasn’t one of the men holding him down. But he did throw his arm out to stop Feistl who was going to try and put himself in the middle of it. He had to align himself with one half of the team eventually—he wanted to be on the half that got some fucking results.

The only problem was that Verdín held strong even through that. Eventually it was just the four of them in the room: Walt, Danilo, Verdín, and Trujillo. For a while it was silent except for the sound of Verdín’s labored breathing. When the sound shifted, and it seemed like he was going to speak up, the three of them tried not to seem too interested, didn’t want to seem too hopeful.

What came out of Verdín’s mouth next, though, wasn’t what any of them wanted to hear. Trujillo still listened, though, unable to stop himself from comparing what Verdín was saying to what all the criminals back home in Colombia had said to him over the years. There were some similarities, but there were a lot of differences, too. He watched the expression on Walt’s face, the way that it hardly shifted no matter what the man tied to the chair said. He watched Danilo’s face, too. Out of all the people Trujillo thought this man would get a reaction out of, Danilo hadn’t quite been at the top of his list, but he was feeding right into it. Maybe it was a tactic, maybe not. Trujillo didn’t know the man well enough to make that call. Walt wasn’t stepping in though, wasn’t trying to cut the conversation short, so Trujillo opted to just follow suit.

When Danilo stepped out of the room, he figured that was the end of it. Verdín must’ve thought the same because he instantly started to say how Danilo was weak. He only got a few words into his next monologue, though, before Danilo strode back into the room, lifted his gun, and fired one shot right into the man’s stomach.

Walt flinched, but his face almost immediately shifted to acceptance after the fact. Trujillo stood back, not moving one way or the other as everyone else came filing into the room. Danilo was already stepping back, hands up in surrender. Amat took the gun from him without a fight. Trujillo studied everyone’s faces, trying to gauge what was going to happen next based off that alone. One thing he did know, though, was that driving him up to the border was officially out of the question.

Trujillo watched as Walt and Danilo sat by each other, both of them calm despite the slight panic and anger coursing through the rest of their team, which now included Javi and his two agents. Neither Walt nor Danilo seemed fazed by that though. Walt, with a tone as even as anything Trujillo had ever heard, outlined when and how Verdín could choose to die, Danilo sitting by him nodding in agreement.

There was a brief moment when Trujillo thought that Verdín was going to die doing what he thought was protecting his country. It wouldn’t be the first time he saw something like that happen, men dying for nothing claiming that it was for everything. But then he caved. With a gasp and a sputter, he finally gave out a name. It wasn’t a name that Trujillo was familiar with, but other men in the room were which was all that mattered. Trujillo looked on as Walt, with hollow but almost convincingly genuine empathy, said that they were going to get Verdín some help.

He also watched on as Walt strode into the next room and made no move to do any such thing.

It was the one argument of the day that Walt had ended up losing. A few of the guys ended up loading Verdín into the car, piling in after him, and taking off towards the nearest hospital. Trujillo didn’t volunteer to be one of those people, leaving that task for one of the other agents who had more sincerity left in them than he did.

When they were gone, Trujillo made his way out into the alley between their safehouse and the next building over. It was dark, but the streetlamps threw just enough light for him to see and make his way over to where Danilo was standing. He had a fresh cigarette in his hand, the look on his face didn’t hold a single shred of remorse.

Danilo watched as Trujillo approached him, not looking to move or get out of whatever conversation that the officer was looking to have. Whatever he had to say, Danilo was sure it wouldn’t be worse than anything else he’d heard before, anything else he’d hear when the rest of his crew got back.

Trujillo kept his mouth shut. He leaned back against the wall beside Danilo, looking at him for a few more seconds before looking down at the ground beneath their feet. Danilo let out a stream of smoke with his next deep exhale. He gave him another beat or two to speak up, but when he remained silent, Danilo broke the ice for him.

“Did you come out here to scold me like your other men?” Danilo finally asked.

Trujillo chuckled and shook his head. “No.”

Danilo waited another moment for Trujillo to explain himself. The man wasn’t making any move to ask for a cigarette or light one of his own, so he didn’t join Danilo looking for a smoke break. “What, then?”

Trujillo stared hard at the ground beneath his boots for a moment before finally turning and looking Danilo in the eyes. “You remind me of someone I used to know. That’s all.”

Danilo let out a laugh. “That explains it, then.” He saw the expectant look on Trujillo’s face and did him the favor of not making him ask to elaborate. “You were calm compared to your friends in there,” he said with a nod of his head towards the safehouse. “That because of the same someone?”

Trujillo nodded, unsure of what else to say. He wasn’t certain he could get the words out even if he did know what to say anyway.

#narcoctober #narcos #narcos mexico #narcos: mexico #nmx #narcos netflix #javier peña #trujillo #officer trujillo #walt breslin #danilo garza #narcos fanfiction #narcos netflix fanfiction #narcos mexico fanfiction #nmx fanfiction #porque no los dos day #my writing #fanfiction #drabblesmc

[skepticalarrie]

hello!😊

English is not my first language and I am horrible at explaining things,so sorry if that gets in the way. I am kinda new here and I have a question. So, I once met someone who worked at a record label and with a PR managment and she said to me that Louis does not actually smoke/ use drugs/ drink as much as his image might let people think. She also told me Louis does eat healthy most of the time and that the 'microwaved' meals and junk food is just his image to appear as 'cool'. She also told me that the drinking and smoking is for Louis' party image and that's why he gets papped when clubbing etc.

My question is do you think that's real? And are PR people genuinely able to create that kind of image for a celeb?

💕

Hi, darling. No worries, I completely understand what you meant.

I do think most things about his image are genuine, the same way I think Harry's image of being super healthy is also very genuine. But I agree that these kinds of things are intensified when we're talking about their public images. Because everything we see it's not real, their faces and their names are a brand, it isn't necessarily what best represents them as people. They're complex human beings and what we see it's just such a small fraction of them, they're not one-dimensional. We only see an exaggeration of certain parts.

I feel like Louis' "chav" persona is very much intensified sometimes, I actually really like how he's trying to reclaim that as his brand, of being so proud of where he is from. And it fits very well with the music he's trying to make right now. But I don't think this makes it any less genuine on his part, I mean- he's a healthy guy and that's pretty obvious, sometimes he's just talking out of his arse. But I don't think anything he's saying or doing is a lie in that sense, it's just a matter of perspective and we only see that part of him. Plus, personally, I don't see his smoking/ drinking and clubbing as that intense as some people make it sound. I just think he's very British 😂

As for your last question, yes, PR people can create literally any image they want for their clients. I mean, there are people out there thinking Harry Styles is a womanizer ffs LOL A certain party boy narrative was certainly created for Louis back a few years ago, which it was extremely fake. I don't see the same happening right now, there are a few discussions about whether what we saw of Louis on tour could have something to do with Elounor breakup, and it could... they could be trying to intensify the clubbing or whatever a little bit. But in general, I think that's just very much who he is.

#ask #louis’ image #chavy louis

[bridgertonbabe]

Friendly reminder to everyone that the real Queen Charlotte died in Nov. 1818. I was about to say that unless Shonda & Shondaland want to piss off historians, QC should die soon, or at the latest in between seasons 4 & 5 but, who am I kidding 😂 they've already pissed off almost half of the historian sphere & for various different reasons 😂 (one's topic of outrage depends on which area of expertise one has, the only one to beat Bridgerton in historian rage is The Crown)

P.S. How did I miss that her name is actually Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz? I knew the Mecklenburg part, I knew she had a daughter named Sophia but... SHE HERSELF IS NAMED SOPHIA

P.S.S. I hate to say it (because it goes against "my brand") but I'm slowly getting around to the idea that my girl Sophie is the illegitimate grandchild of QC...

See my theory is that they moved Polin's season in order to have Queen Charlotte present for the Whistledown story. While QC wasn't present in the books, in the show her main storyline has been her vested interest and obsession with Lady Whistledown and trying to figure out who she is. If the show had followed along the timeline set in the books then by 1824 when Polin get together and Whistledown is revealed QC (historically) would have been long dead and it would make her storylines in the first two seasons essentially null and void. There would be no pay-off to have her absent from a storyline she was involved in and so I personally think that's one of the main reasons Polin's season was moved forward. I also think that's why the Queen Charlotte spin-off was created and capitalised now while she's still present in the main Bridgerton series; to me these decisions were all made because of QC's real life death occurring mid-way through the show's timeline and they're going to adhere to that fact.

#asks #however if the show chooses to ignore history and keep her for the series run then this has been a moot point lmao #bridgerton timeline #queen charlotte

[dribs-and-drabbles]

#BADBUDDYREWATCH

Ep 8

The mint green shorts! The two faculty jackets side-by-side! The domesticity!

The way they haven't changed who they are for the other person. Pran still scolds Pat. Pat still teases Pran. But they're doing it knowing they're accepted for who they are.

Oh, I never saw Pran's name and the smiley face written on the bottle before!

Whether it's fighting or flirting, nothing gets done between these two faculties 😄 Pat and Pran being told off every two minutes by Toto.

Yes! Fierce Ink. No wonder Pat, Ink, and Pran are all friends, they all have the same fierce protective streak...

How did we ever think we weren't going to be getting InkPa endgame?! It's so obvious now.

We got another 'ja' end particle and this time I think it's only mildly teasing! On the rooftop after Pat says 'Copy Paste' he says thank you - "khawp jai ja" (the 'ja' being “used with very close friends/family and by the queer community”).

Oh there's so much in that rooftop dinner scene. The need to be public and to be secret in equal parts and the hurt they want to avoid but end up not being able to...

The way Pat can only lie to his friends because they think he's dating an architecture girl.

Proud to be a Noles Hater te-shirt my beloved.

Narcissist Wai. smh. The fact that Pa being Pat's sister is Pat messing with Wai's life 😂

Again...Wai listened to Pran talk about all the hardships he would face because of the rivalries if he tried to date Pat's sister...and yet had no element of empathy for Pat and Pran when he discovered they were dating.

Pran's line, "It's a kind of relationship that I always avoid" basically sums up the first 5 eps of the series, how Pran did his best to avoid getting close to Pat even though he was in love...but because we know that they did eventually get together, it just shows the strength of their feelings for each other because really, logically, they shouldn't even try because of how difficult it is...but they do anyway 💙💖

"When did I teach you to lie?" Ming's double standards are showing.

I don't think i could dislike Ming any more than I do. How very dare him to make Pat feel this way.

And then Pat's in all white, stripped of colour, of happiness... The 'temporary' alluding to how it will pass, the 'select' alluding to the sides they're on and the need to choose [spoiler: they choose each other], and the brand being Korean adding to the theme of sides and rivalry set up by the Noles t-shirt earlier on (even the Tampa Bay shirt in the beginning)... And finally, Pat lays the 'Friend' shirt across his chest, back to colour, back to happiness. 😍

I just love how dorky these two are. Pran imitates an elevator and escalator to make Pat laugh. Pat gets Pran a case for his headphones with a double 'P' design but won't say what it means. They virtual-hug across the divide and get each other to give each other big smiles. All through this scene I kept thinking Pat would tell Pran he loves him...but it shines through in their actions, in the care and support they give, and in the way they look at each other.

Ooof that xylophone scene is majestic. The way Aof took a risk with it but it's so powerful.

Pran thinking back to the ways that Pat has helped him or been there for him...and Pat thinking back to the gift of the t-shirt from Pran and how he threw that back in his face. Both realising that their anger is mis-placed -> it's the circumstances of their life that they're mad at, not each other, not really.

And Pran doing what he does best - hiding a compliment as he scolds Pat. "Put your shirt on, you're making everyone drool" = "You're so hot".

Their soft 'sorry's 😭

"But I care about you more" 😭😭

Pat is so happy. He just radiates so much love for Pran 😭😭😭

THE MUSIC! building and leading up to Wai. ajdalkgja;ldfgja!!!

When I first watched this end, I felt cheated. I wanted more happy PatPran times after their reconciliation and before their relationship got revealed and brought more angst. They had just turned a corner in their relationship - Pran making himself more comfortable with the levels of 'publicity' Pat wanted to make, and Pat understanding that love can also be private and still be just as important (the seeds of ep 12). But I guess knowing what I know now about how they still have happy PatPran times in ep 9, I accept this pacing. It almost seems fitting because Pran had just decided he didn't care as much if people found out...and so people did...and Pat and Pran's love and understanding of each other helped them through the fallout.

#bad buddy #badbuddyrewatch #bad buddy episode 8 #it feels weird to watch this earlier than the rewatch day #I feel I'm missing a kind of connection with everyone else #but I'm a busy bee this week and need to prep these before the day #it's such a trip watching all the eps again though #lin live-rambles the bad buddy rewatch

[shrinkthisviolet]

☕️ about the current state of the MCU!!!

It's honestly tough to really give an opinion about this because people are either: "everything's great!" or "boo MSheU!" and not enough people are willing to tread the middle ground of "hey, there's a visible step down between the Infinity Saga and now, and no, it's not because of the increased diversity."

Because...there is a visible step-down. And I know it's not fair to compare three phases of storytelling to one, but...even in Phase 1, there was a throughline. Like...it felt like they were building to something - that "something" was the first Avengers movie, but...it was simple. Standalone movies with tie-ins via post-credit scenes that culminated in the team-up movie.

Now it feels like there's so much going on, and...I'm not entirely sure what it's building up to? Like, don't get me wrong, I've liked parts of all of these projects. I enjoyed Ms. Marvel (though imo the villain aspect fell flat), She-Hulk was fun, Love and Thunder was funny in places even if the movie didn't quite land for me, Loki lost my interest about halfway through and got worse for me after that, TFATWS was great as a Sam origin story but fumbled its antagonist, Wandavision was great but tripped at the finish line, Multiverse of Madness was a lot of unresolved potential, Moon Knight was all right, I enjoyed Black Widow but it felt rushed (if we'd gotten a trilogy for her like the others, it probably would've been better), Wakanda Forever was fantastic...etc. I get what they're trying to set up based on comics: Young Avengers and/or Champions, but it just kinda feels...aimless?

Like, Phase 4 ended with Wakanda Forever. But it doesn't seem like anything was really accomplished? There was a little cross-talk this phase, but...aside from introducing the multiverse, did anything actually happen or change beyond just individual movies? Even in Phase 1, things were connecting in post-credit scenes and culminated in the Avengers, but...what's happening now? What's all of this for? Sure, I might have my questions answered in Phase 5, but...why?

And I know it might seem like a weird thing for me to complain about, given that my complaint about Star Wars is how interconnected it's becoming. But the key difference is that the MCU has always been like that, it's what people expect, and it's what drives the overall plot forward. The movies might have individual plotlines and such, but the phase moves forward when the characters across different movies are all driving toward a common goal. Star Wars used to be loosely connected stories within the same galaxy, but now it's leaning towards being interconnected...but my rant about that is for a different post 😂 not this one.

The point being: the MCU has built its brand on being interconnected and having phases defined by a common goal (or a series of common goals - Thanos wasn't the goal from Day 1, but a team-up was, and that happened by the end of Phase 1). And let me be clear: I don't think the previous phases were perfect either, the MCU has always had its flaws. But...the main problem of being so interconnected is that with each new project, the barrier of entry grows higher. And with so many projects released lately, without a clear endpoint to look to (or a clear goal that they're driving toward)...this is probably why we're seeing a lot of MCU fatigue lately. The MCU built a certain expectation, and now it's not living up to that.

send me a "☕️" and (optionally) a topic, and I'll talk about it!

#marvel #mcu critical #it's hard to put it into words tbh #because...it's not the diversity. it's not the feminism #it's the fact that this phase feels like unresolved potential #like...you know that twist in wandavision where pietro was actually some random dude? that's what this phase feels like #anti mcu