#this is my favorite scene in 205 for other reasons

[blues-valentine]

it’s still a bit frustrating readings pws claim to this day that portwell “was meant to be endgame” because it’s like they don’t understand those characters and the underlying premise of “their romance”. there was not romantic undertones to them on season 1 and their romance on season 2 was doomed before it even started. pls media literacy i beg.

I believe one of the main reasons PW/Rinis cling so hard to the whole “real endgames” thing is because they are so used to teen shows staying with the “core 4 ships” formula so they refuse to acknowledge the writers changed things because Rina ended up being more dynamic.

This amazing channel did a really thought out explanation about how PW was doomed from the start. Check it out. It has one of my favorite analysis about the show, especially Rina.

But let’s discuss for a moment:

As you said, there weren’t romantic undertones between Gina and EJ on Season 1. They had a common goal. She wanted Nini out of the role of Gabriella and EJ was jealous of Ricky being around Nini. Gina didn’t care about EJ getting the role of Troy. She was actively advocating for Ricky to keep it. The homecoming situation was a plan Gina came up with thinking Nini would be there and get that frustrated she’d quit the show — she was wrong so she took it out on EJ. And instead of the episode ending in some common ground between Gina and EJ, it ends with Gina leaving with Ricky and connecting with him over feeling like outsiders — which kick starts their whole journey. After that, she stopped pursuing her plan with EJ or seeing him all together. They had a whole conversation about Ricky. And later, another argument used to implicate PW was romantic. The plane ticket. That situation wasn’t about Gina. It was about EJ doing good things and becoming a better person and he was inspired to do so by Nini initially. I won’t say that Season 1 doesn’t end with the potential to turn this dynamic into a romantic one — and they did. But it wasn’t aimed as a endgame build up, and that’s made even clearer once you know the existence of that 206 opening night flashback taking place.

EJ starts Season 2 claiming he feels older than the rest of the group. Already making a point that EJ is moving towards a different life stage. His arc started with college applications and the first hint that he might have a crush on Gina comes suddenly on 205 [conveniently after Gina and Ricky had a fallout]. And the narrative never really says why he liked Gina in the first place. And I feel like in a way it was a distraction for him. I’d say it was easier to see why Gina would develop feelings for EJ. This is why I said pairing those two together felt like a plot device for Gina/Rina than it was to serve EJ’s own arc. He was there when she needed it and one thing about Gina, she craves the attention she lacks from her family unit. Gina liked EJ because “he showed up” and I feel he represented a band aid to her feelings. Just like Gina was to him.

The famous sofa scene, the one PWs claim is the epitome of understanding and connection. But as the person from the video says, it never really showed them being connected to each other — it does the opposite. Gina downright says she doesn’t understand him or what he is dealing with but it’s allowing him to dump his problems on her. She sympathized with him but cannot empathize with him. That scene only showcases how different their lives are about to be and how Gina isn’t at the stage EJ is at yet but at that point in time, it felt like they were the only people willing to listen and be there. And having Gina downright say “I don’t know” to EJ’s issues was straight up a parallel to Gina saying “I know” when Ricky open up to her.

And people claiming the miscommunication issues came out from nowhere are really not paying attention. The only reason Gina and EJ got together was because of Ashlyn’s initiative to clear their misunderstanding. If it wasn’t for her, they would have ended with that in mind. And it showed from the get go EJ assumed and let it awake his insecurities instead of speaking.

Another interesting thing the video points out, that I also noticed right away is how Season 2 is framed as a before and after. Divided by 206, which is the flashback episode but also the moment Gina decides to cut off her friendship with Ricky. It’s not a coincidence 205 sets PW up and 206 makes the argument there’s clearly unspoken issues between Ricky and Gina. But mostly, it sets the “I never do things right the first time, Ricky” thing in motion. I said it back in 206 that this quote had a deeper meaning. And after 206, the narrative insists on letting the audience know EJ could be Gina’s first date, first boyfriend and first kiss. They were spoon feeding you the narrative. EJ was going to be the first, just not the last. 209 is a Rina coded episode and I also pointed it out back when it premiered (X). The episode points out Gina was not over Ricky. It has Jack advising Gina to “care less” in her next relationship. An advice that she takes into consideration. And we also got Jack telling her to pick the safest seat on the plane (planes, a metaphor that has been used for Gina’s feelings about Ricky). Gina ended up this episode already with the mindset that she was going to go forward with a more carefree attitude because safest choice (EJ) = less potential pain. @curtsies-from-princess-ashlyn makes a great analysis on how 209 is an episode divided between Ricky and Gina plus their paralleled/individual arcs (X).

The Season 2 finale ties all of this together with second chance, which I said it was a Rina coded song and here’s this lovely analysis (X). Ricky and Nini having the verses about new beginnings because both of them had moved on from their relationship vs Gina and EJ having the verses about shutting down emotionally with Gina saying she’s safer on the run and EJ saying he isn’t sure about what he wants. Neither Gina and EJ started their relationship in the best mindset.

Now, Season 3 premiere, they bring back the “never do things right the first time” analogy again by hitting you with Gina’s “summer of firsts” = “first boyfriend” “first summer camp” and “firsts” continues being a theme all season. Then, we have Gina sub-conditionally saying a person could interfiere in her relationship with EJ, which is a way to say, Gina is not over Ricky. Like, it was so obvious and it was insane people were still holding onto the idea the season would culminate in a love confession with them.

A lot of Gina’s relationship with EJ started by the fact she was compromising her ambition to fit into a role that was more likable for others. She said this to Nini at the end of Season 2. And you can also tell by the way Gina interacted with EJ. It felt like Gina was trying her best to fit into the role of girlfriend, because she didn’t want her first relationship to fail. And this was noticiable with Sofia’s acting choices. And the fact she later confirmed this was an intentional choice means that there’s awareness there.

I’ve said before, Gina and EJ’s relationship was going to fail for a lot of reasons. Their different stages, the fact Gina was not really herself, the fact she still had unresolved issues with Ricky. Gina needed to date EJ to experience her first relationship and even out the dynamic between Ricky and Gina. Gina was pinning on Season 2, then it was turn for Ricky on Season 3, so they could meet in the middle when they were ready. In fact, Season 2 was the season that made me confirm they were serious about Rina because that level of detail isn’t given to non-endgames.

#hsmtmts #hsmtmts season 4 #hsmtmts s4 #gina porter #ricky bowen #rina #ricky x gina #anti portwell #asks

[sevendeadlyvices]

Maybe 11, 13 and 18 for the ask game?

Favorite Side Character?

Either Sybil or Flint Paper due to how awesome they are, how Sam and Max like them, and how they are underappreciated/need more content of them.

One of My Favorite Lines?

“Can’t think of a reason not to!”

Analysis?

Well, this is for my favorite part of 205: What’s New Beelzebub, the Sam’s Personal Hell scene. Putting my love of giants and perspective and what I have planned for it in writing aside... (for now). Also under a read more because this got long:

It’s been talked about in the fandom how Sam gets angry when Max is hurt/gone while Max gets depressed. One example that people make is where Max’s ears droop when he realizes that Sam sacrifices his soul to save everyone and he looks sad. 

What isn’t talked about is what happens after that and during Sam’s Hell.

When the cutscene ends, you see Sam in a world where Peepers replaces Max and the dog is miserable. He looks around thoroughly with no escape until he spots a hole in the wall to see a giant Max outside his Hell. Before I go into detail, note how there’s no reference of how long Sam was in his own Hell. 

What was Max doing while Sam was exploring? In the game, you can catch glimpses of Max grinning, an eye peeking into the hole, and a giant finger rubbing against the opening. That by itself seems to me that Max immediately went straight to Sam’s diorama and wanted to peek into it to check on him, either trying to get inside himself or get Sam out of there.

Next, let’s look at some of the dialogue options Sam asks Max. I might be paraphrasing at these:

Sam: “What’s going on out there?”

Max: “"After everybody saw what Satan did to you, it got pretty awkward. I don't like Hell when it gets all tense like this.”

This implies that before Max went to Sam, he either encountered or saw the once trapped souls and their reaction to being freed. Or maybe he made it up. Unlikely, but still. Max is uncomfortable when things get serious.

Sam: “Can you believe that Satan guy tricking me like that?”

Max: "Let's stack onion rings on his horns and throw him in the pit where they keep the gluttonous!"

Sam: "It's that kind of thinking outside the box that makes me wish you were my partner."

This seems more what they usually say when things are normal for their standards. It’s just so cute to point it out and how Sam likes it. Once Max sees that Sam is unharmed, everything seems normal.

But most importantly, we get this exchange:

Sam: “Peepers keeps telling me he’s my partner.”

Max: “What?! No one tries to steal my sidekick!”

Note how Max doesn’t miss a beat when Sam says his line. He sounds surprised/shocked/angry at the news. He immediately moves his head so that his eye is covering the hole and it narrows into a glare, wanting to see for himself. It’s subtle and it’s followed by Sam being like “I thought you’re my sidekick”, but this in particular needs to be talked about.

Max’s immediate response to [blank] claims they’re my partner is to be jealous/protective/possessive of Sam and be aggressive to anyone else. People usually think of the Tad Familiar scene with Honey Bunny and the cartoon when it comes to Jealous Max, but no one talks about this specific exchange. I just love it so much. 

#Sam and Max #Sam #Max #Prompt Response #thatpeachanon #that peach anon #Sybil #Flint Paper #205 #sam and max beyond time and space #what's new beelzebub #analysis #putting my love for giant Max aside #this is my favorite scene in 205 for other reasons #it gets deeper for my AU version of it #but still this lives rent free in my mind #Jealous Max #thank you for the ask #Season 2 Spoilers

[adminjolene]

trial claim form

Usually I don’t express a personal opinion when it comes to claims however I must say there was great excitement when this set of forms arrived on my desk. Reading it confirmed what I already knew, Mx Gilbert and Miss Cricket will make a wonderful pairing and we wish them nothing but the best on the journey they are about to embark on together. It is my great pleasure to say that this trial claim has been approved and the papers will be officially  turned in this Friday. 

Trial claim room 205 will be immediately prepared for LJ Gilbert and Nora Cricket, however due to it being spring break the administration understands that they may wish to take their time moving their things.

Name and Age of Dominant: Lisa Jane Gilbert; 27 Name and Age of Switch: Eleanor Lynn Toussaint Cricket; 22

Education Completed:

LJ: B.A. in Art from NYU

Nora: High School Graduate with honors, few college credits.

Length of Relationship: 5 months

Why would you like to enter into a trial claim?

LJ: Because I love her with everything and even more than that, I think we’re ready to take this next step. We’ve taken the time to get to know each other and this is the true test to see if we’re ready for forever. Which I def think we are.

Nora: Because they are the love of my life. We’ve been through a lot in the last 5 months together as partners, and my entire world has shaken and been thrown upside down in ways I never saw coming and they’ve stood by me through all of it. Even now as I realize I need to start focusing more on myself they are nothing but supportive of me through it all.

Do you feel you know your partner well enough on a personal level?

LJ: Absolutely. I feel like we’ve known each other a lot longer than 6 months. From the moment we met, we were connected and that connection only grew as we went through our individual and joined trials and tribulations. She knows things about me that no one else does and I feel like that’s the same for her. And I know there’s so much more for me to learn and I’m excited for that.

Nora: 100% I know them better than I’ve known anyone in my entire life, the connection was instantaneous, and for me it scared me more than anything which is why I had to grab it and not let it go. There’s so much left to learn about them, and about each other but.. That’s why I want forever so I can learn every single little thing about them and love them all the more for it.

Do you feel as though you have learned enough about you and your partner’s limits and expectations of the relationship as a whole?

LJ: I do feel like we’ve learned a lot about our limits and expectations. We’ve already had instances where we pushed each other out of our comfort zones and talked about what we expect from each other. We’ve been talking for months about taking this step and making sure that we’re ready for it. We’re ready for it.

Nora: I always figured TPE would be a hard limit for me but when LJ asked it was almost like something inside me said to give it one last shot. It was one of my favorite things to do, but I’d only ever do it with them. Having them control my every move was freeing in a way I didn’t think it could ever be living under someone’s constant eye. I trust LJ with everything in me because they’ve given me more than enough reason too. I’ve learned about their limits, and expectations through not only time but through experience and communication and I think that matters a lot.

Do you feel you both are well versed in what a claim will be outside of the trial period?

LJ: I think we’ve got a good idea from the examples around us and the things we’ve learned in our classes, but this will definitely be the ultimate test. We’re going to model our claim as we can to an actual claim to really push and test ourselves.

Nora: Oh yeah I fully think we know what to expect, but we also won’t really know until we try which is what I think this is for. This trial claim is to make sure when we move forward it’s smooth as can be, obviously not every bump and kink can be ironed out, but we can get rid of the big ones and handle the rest together.

Do you believe you are comfortable enough with each other and the fundamental levels of BDSM as a whole?

LJ: Yes. This was the part I needed to work on the most before we were ready for this step. I can be too relaxed and while I don’t think that makes me unfit I did need to think more like a Dominant instead of a romantic partner to Nora. But right now, I’m more than ready and I think she is too.

Nora: Yes, especially learning what they mean to me and how they relate to me. I was taught about D/s in a way that was unhealthy and so far in my time here I’ve learned submissives and switches are allowed to have a voice that can be heard. Beyond that I think, as I said above, the rest comes with time as we need to acclimate to what our dynamic as Dom and Sub will be not just girlfriends.

Lastly please provide the list of rules under which your claim will operate:

Nora will wear her collar at all times.

Nora will follow all school and society rules and address all higher marks with the proper titles.

Nora will go to all classes and club meetings unless otherwise specified by me.

Nora must go to all work shifts at the hospital unless otherwise specified by me.

Nora will do a scene with my at least twice a week and at least two full TPE weeks during the trial.

Nora will ask permission before doing scenes with other people.

Nora does not need to ask permission to hang out in her free time, but she does need to notify me.

Nora will be responsible for specific chores and meals during the week. For example (breakfast and the bathrooms)

Nora is encouraged to use her safeword any time she feels like she’s being pushed too far.

Nora will always be honest with me. And if she is not ready to tell me something, she should tell me that.

Nora must talk to me about all major life decisions before they are made.

Nora will keep a journal, writing down their reflections each week of the trial claim.

Nora will be punished for any broken rules or orders.

Including examples of punishments and rewards that may be used to reinforce them.

Rewards:

Choice of scenes

Choice of activities

Orgasms (given or received)

Gifts

Punishments:

Kneeling in stress positions

Grounding (No free time)

Corner Time

Loss of privacy (in extreme cases)

Kink/Limits:

LJ’s Kinks: TPE, roleplay, bondage, orgasm control/denial

LJ’s Limits: body fluids, humiliation. degradation, pain play (soft: impact)

Nora’s Kinks: bondage, impact play, forced orgasm, humiliation, edging, over stimulation, hair pulling

Nora’s Limits: scat, gore, vore, isolation, permanent marks, heavy degradation, yelling

Nora’s safeword: DIAMOND

#trial claim #approved

[koalala700]

Chronicles of Nick: Infinity Analysis

When I first started doing an analysis, I tried doing a post for the entire series. I realized that it would have been a huge information dump. To better organize my scatterbrained ramblings, I decided it would be best to do this one book at a time. 

Some background: I started out reading the Dark Hunter books and had already finished Styxx by the time that I even got started reading the CON books. There have been so many spoilers scattered in these books and as I try - and fail - to wait patiently for the new SOF series, I’ve been re-reading the CON books and trying to analyze the clues I find. I started coming up with theories about the things I was reading and trying to fit the scenes from the future into an organized timeline of sorts. 

I would like to point out that this is not a review as a first time reader but rather an analysis as someone who has re-read the books multiple times, although I do make nods at my own thoughts when I initially read the book. I am highlighting certain points in each book that I found relevant. Again, please note that this isn’t an analysis or review of the entire series so much as it is me picking apart each book for key points.

With that being said, these posts will contain a lot of SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the books, I would advise doing so before reading this post if you don’t like or want spoilers. 

The biggest focus for me, while reading this series again, was to focus on the future characters and their involvement in the CON timeline. With that being said, the primary purpose of this particular analysis is exactly that. Making sense of the scenes I see scattered throughout the books. I also note certain parallels that are happening in the series. I do my best to kind of stay in order but I'm a little scatter brained so some of what I mention is all over the place and for that I apologize in advance. 

So the first book I want to start with is Infinity. This is the first book in the Chronicles of Nick series. It starts off as an introduction to the characters and sets us in motion for what the series will be about. When we’re introduced to Infinity, we get to see Nick’s past that is briefly mentioned in the DH world. 

While getting an introduction to fourteen year old Nick, we also get a glimpse of the Ambrose Malachai centuries after we know him in the Dark-Hunter  world. For me, the book was entertaining but really the overall take away from the first book was an introduction to all of the characters: Nick, Ambrose, Adarian, Kody, Caleb, and all of the familiar faces we know and love from DH as I mention above. Having originally started out with the DH series, there were a few things I already knew quite a few things about Nick, before even starting this series. This includes: Nick being the Malachai, that he would become a Dark-Hunter, his mother would die, who and what Caleb was and that he knew both Styxx/Bethany.

The series starts out as with Nick, at fourteen, living in poverty and very much an outcast at his school, St Richards. Something I didn’t realize was that this was a school for the supernatural to attend. We get to see characters again from the Were-Hunter series as well as some of the Squires from the Dark-Hunter series. This book introduces who Nick is and is the first time we have a really deep insight into his POV. I liked him enough in DH but after the events of Seize the Night going forward, I was frustrated with his character. I think that is part of what delayed me reading this series as much as I did. I’m glad I rethought that idea because his series really blew me away.  Nick is a lot more than what we see in the DH series and much like other characters we love and/or hate, he is a lot more layered than I initially realized.

This is also the first time we encounter Ambrose in series who poses as Nick’s uncle from his father, Adarian’s side. We find out that Ambrose is there to change Nick’s future so he doesn’t make terrible mistakes that result in the end of the world. While this is the first book we introduce Ambrose, this is also the first book where Nick begins getting introduced to who he truly is. This is one of the first parallels I noted. Most initial novels of a series are an introduction so I'm just stating the obvious but both Nick and Ambrose are introduced as characters and to each other in this novel.

Why me? I don’t understand why this is happening and why they’d give two spits about controlling me. I can’t even walk across the floor without getting grounded. 

“Nick, you are key to some of the rawest, most potent powers ever created. The battles for your possession will scar you in ways you won’t know until it’s too late. If you listen to me, I can save you.”

I’m key? Dude, you seriously have me mistaken for someone else.

“No, I don’t. I, better than anyone else, know exactly how powerful you are and what you can do. And deep inside, you feel those powers too. You’ve spent your whole life denying them. Saying it was Menyara or some sixth sense. It’s not a buried sense. It’s your birthright and you have got to embrace it or you will lose everything that matters to you.”

And if I don’t believe this crap?

Images of a dark, frightening hole flashed in his mind. He saw himself in the future looking a lot like Ambrose. Alone. Bereft.

Tortured.

Most of all, he was inhumane and cruel.

“If they can turn you evil, they will be rewarded and you will be ruined. And everyone you love will pay the price.

“Everyone.”

Nick shook his head in an effort to dispel the horrific images. Terror choked him as he feared becoming the monster his father was. Of becoming the creature he’d just seen.

I don’t want to be evil.

"You can’t just say it and make it so. It’s not that easy.”

Of course it is. My mom tells me all the time that we decide between good and evil. What we are is completely up to us.

“And things drive us to make decisions that are beyond our control. Just like your mother. You know how much she hates dancing and yet there she is every night, right on time, often working double shifts to bring in more money. For you. And you haven’t been betrayed yet, Nick. You don’t know what that’s like. What it does to you. The scars it leaves that never fade.”

Not true. Alan, Mike, and Tyree had all betrayed me.

“And you want their blood for it.”

I want to bathe in it.

“That’s exactly what I’m talking about. That’s the evil seducing you. The malevolent power that is crawling through your blood tempting you onto a treacherous path that will cost you everything you love and hold dear. You have to let that anger go before it’s too late. Vengeance always turns inward and it will consume you until nothing’s left but an empty hole that nothing can fill.”

Nick bristled as he saw that night again—the glee in Alan’s eyes as he pulled the trigger. They shot me!

“And they will pay, but not by your hand. Trust me. Karma has her own plans for them and what she has in store is more painful than you could ever dream.”

I don’t know about that. I have one great imagination. And letting it go is much easier said than done.

Ambrose laughed in his ear. “Believe me, I know.” Infinity

This conversation mentions a few things I already knew and points out what will happen if Nick doesn't accept his destiny and his powers. However, the point I want to take away is the “karma” that Alan and Tyree end up experiencing. The more I read and re-read, the more I wonder if Ambrose knows everything that is going to happen. It’s not himself that he’s trying to stop. He knows his son is the one who will end everything and that comment seems like a sly little way of adding foreshadowing. We see what ends up happening to them in Invision. 

The conversation continues and Ambrose explained what Nick really was. There is also some sympathy towards his father, Adarian. By the end of CON, Nick also understands his father and puts away his hatred of him. I spend time going back and forth wondering how much Ambrose knows and remembers about CON. Is it from his own experience as a father that he understands? Is it just from growing as the Malachai and being consumed by hate that he understands? Or does he remember from CON what his father did for him in the end and the choices he was forced to make? 

“We”—he indicated the two of them—“are the last of a cursed race. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing as it’s our prime nature to hurt others. When they’re weak and hurting, we swoop in for the kill. But I’m hoping you have enough of your mother in you that you’ll learn to curb those impulses and learn to let things go that I never could.”

Nick hoped so too. I don’t want to be anything like Adarian.

That eerie red tint returned to Ambrose’s eyes—not that Nick needed a reminder that the creature net to him wasn’t human. “Neither did he and he’s not quite the jerk you think he is. In time, you’ll understand him better than you’ll want to. And together, if we’re lucky, we’ll keep you from following in his footsteps. In the meantime, I have to reach you everything I know as quickly as I can.”

Why the rush?

Orange flickered in his red eyes, like dancing flames. “My time’s running out and soon I won’t…” His voice trailed off.

You won’t what?

“I won’t care anymore. About anyone or anything… not even you.” Infinity

When I began reading this book, I was thinking it made sense that Ambrose went back (assuming he didn’t know about who would truly rise to take power after him). If you’ve read about Nick in the current timeline, he’s not in the best of places. Nick lost so much in the current timeline that it stands to reason that he would want to change things, if he could. It should be noted though, from the glimpse to the future, that it isn’t going very well.

“Why can’t I stop it”? he snarled. Why, with all of the powers he’d mastered, all of the elements he controlled, couldn’t he prevent a mere fourteen-year-old boy from being an idiot? No matter what he did, certain events kept unfolding.” Infinity, 329.

This was pretty fascinating to me as someone who had only read DH. Given what I understood about Nick in DH, he didn’t even know about the supernatural until he was out of high school but in CON, he knew about it sooner. This was first brought up in Night Pleasures. It seemed noteworthy that nothing was changing, despite Ambrose having gone back in time and that certain events happen differently or sooner.

This gets explained later in the books why nothing is changing but it was always one of those tidbits when I first started reading that really made me think - that gets the wheels in my mind turning. While re-reading this scene in particular, it seems like maybe things are changing. Maybe he did make an impact but the end of the series just brings us back to square one but Ambrose doesn’t realize this yet. Time-travel is different in every universe but I imagined initially that any changes Nick made would automatically affect Ambrose. 

Another conversation that I think is kind of important but can’t really explain is the one between Ambrose and Caleb. 

“Caleb leaned forward, between Nick and Ambrose, then said in a low tone, “By the way, boss… you’re not as covert as you think, and I’ve heard everything you told the kid in the car.” He looked straight at Ambrose. “Nice coat, but I prefer the black suit you had on the last time we met.”

Ambrose made a Vader move that made it looks like something had grabbed Caleb in an invisible choke hold. “Don’t push your luck, Malphas.”

Caleb relaxed as Ambrose moved away. “You know, Nick, I like you so much better than that prick.”

For some reason, Nick wasn’t sure that was a compliment.

400, Infinity.”

What does Caleb mean by “the last time we met”? That is something I still haven’t been able to figure out. Is this a hint towards everyone going to the future at the end of the series? Or is this simply Caleb’s coy way of saying that he’s seen him before with Nick. I may be reading too much into this (like some of the other scenes) but some of the conversations and events are hard to make heads or tails of.

The more you read this book though, the more bits of foreshadowing you encounter. One scene that was definitely foreshadowing - that has already played out in DH - is Nick’s death by Ash’s hands. This is one of the more obvious ones, assuming you read DH first. 

“At least let me get laid before you kill me... So you have to wait a good ten years before you snuff me. Deal?”

..... “Ten years, huh?”

“Yeah, you can kill me when I’m twenty-four, provided I’m not still a virgin, but not a day before that.” 

“All right. It’s a deal... provided you keep your trap shut.” 

“Trap nailed shurt, sir.” 

“But at twenty-four...” Ash let his voice trail off. 

“I’m all yours, babe.” 

204-205, Infinity.

Neither character at this time realizes the implications of this conversation. I know Ash doesn’t implicitly swear this, but it seemed like both him and Nick had just set both of their futures in motion by speaking this aloud. As the final fate, Ash pretty much just said what Nick’s fate would be. Ironically, Nick doesn’t realize that he, too, has called on his own death. It seems like this is one of the events that I think completes the circle when it comes to time-travel. Ambrose wants to prevent Ash from being the cause of his death, but what if this scene is proof that it was always meant to happen that way? Like a pith point.

This is also not the first time that one of the two of them have said something that sets Nick’s future into motion. I’m pretty sure in Dance With the Devil or The Dream Hunter (I can’t remember which), Ash actually makes a comment about Nick living and dying for his mother. Madoc then makes a cryptic comment about it being a shame that Ash can’t see his own future (or more appropriately, those close to him). This scene in CON reaffirmed for me that this was always going to play out this way. 

The further you get into the series, the less things started making sense (in regards to what we are made to believe so far). That’s a big part of why I made a point to start writing out notes for myself. The thing that was hard for me to understand were some of the times that we get scenes from the future compared to the knowledge that the characters in CON have. It isn’t until the end of CON that some of that confusion is cleared up. 

The first thing that confused me was about when the time-travel began and this scene was probably a little over mid-way through Infinity. We see that Ambrose has started time-traveling centuries after the timeline in CON,

“Ambrose grabbed the bookcase and slammed it to the ground, spilling the ancient books he’d carefully collected for centuries across the floor of his stygian office.” Infinity, 329.

Here’s what kind of perplexed me when I first read this. As previously stated, Nick wasn’t always my favorite character in DH. I did understand why he was so angry at the world, after the events of StN, but if centuries had past since his mother’s death and his conversion as a DH, why go back now to change his future? What changed?

While I also knew he definitely had some moments where he is infuriating in the series, it seemed odd that he would actually end the world centuries after his mother’s death if that is the supposed catalyst is the reason for his downfall. Especially when it seems like, later in CON, he’s starting - I say starting, not that he has completely - to come to terms with his mother’s death (in Time Untime, for example). Why not end the world once he found out what he was in DH and unlocked his powers? I always imagined that if it was a future Nick changing the events in CON, it would stand to reason that the future Nick would be closer to the timeline in DH than one that was centuries in the future.

There is another thing I found worth noting. We find out that Ambrose has no idea who Kody is and doesn’t remember her. This scene was initially weird to me because if she becomes a part of his past, why wouldn’t he remember her? Any changes he had made would affect his current memories. Until you get to the end of the series, this is a little confusing. Even going on the assumption she was added to a timeline and had not been there before, Ambrose would still know her from Nick’s memories. 

Nick flinched as he forced that memory away and turned his thoughts to something he’d said to himself earlier. “Who is Nekoda?”

Artemis gave him a blank stare. “Never heard of him.”

“Her, Artie. It’s a girl.”

One of her perfect brows shot up as a jealousy darkened her green eyes. “What kind of girl?”

“I don’t know. Nick knows her.”

“You are Nick.” Her tone was testy.

“Exactly. How can I not know who she is?” How could he not have seen her as he looked back? For some reason, she was a complete ghost to him. No matter what power he used, he couldn’t find this piece of his past. Even with certain aspects altered, he should still be able to hone in on her.

Yet he couldn’t.

Why?

Artemis shrugged her thin shoulder, “You forgot her. It happens. You were human… once.” 333-335, Infinity.

While confusing when first reading this (assuming I knew how I time-travel worked), I didn’t think much of this scene at first. It later made me wonder if this meant that she was hidden from him, similar to how Tiyana was (in Inferno, Nick learns the store she works at was cloaked from him). What’s I think is important to note about that parallel to me is that Tiyana in DH was Nick’s possible future. She could have been his wife and mother of his children.

We get the impression from the start of the books that Kody will be important and they both have feelings for each other. How does that impact Ambrose, though? How did Ambrose not know about her? It tells me that she’s important to his future later on. It also leads me believe that when Ambrose started time-traveling, she either hasn’t been born yet or he just hasn’t met her yet. For a while, my theory was that she was already born but Ambrose didn’t know her. I also thought that this scene was interesting because at the end of the series, like Artemis says, Nick does end up forgetting about her. A little bit of foreshadowing perhaps? 

As far as the first novel goes, all in all, it was really good. It pulled me and definitely had me wanting to read more. I had several questions after my initial read. Nick is the Malachai. We know this from the DH series but it goes into a lot more depth in CON. In Infinity, my biggest question was why Ambrose was losing his humanity so long after his mother’s death. I was initially curious about Nekoda and who she truly was and her impact in the series. The first glimpse we got into who she truly is was mentioned briefly in Infinity. 

But as he reached it, an unbidden image went through his head. It was Nekoda…

Only she wasn’t the girl he knew who made him laugh and who kissed him on the cheek. She was something else entirely. Dressed in armor, she looked like an ancient warrior, complete with a helmet and shield.

And a sword she was driving straight through his heart.

368. Infinity

I would also like to put a pin in the scene where she drives a sword through his heart, as the person she would actually be fighting isn’t Nick. It’s Cyprian, as he is the one who ends the world. Wouldn't this mean she came close to defeating or defeated Cyprian? Or is it just a metaphor for her mission in the past?

The other scene with Nekoda that I thought was a nod to where she truly comes from is this comment by Simi. Nekoda is from the future where the Malachai has destroyed the world so it stands to reason that nothing could be scarier than that. As a first time reader, both of these scenes didn’t mean much to me at the time other than a reference to why she was sent back in time. 

Simi came up to lean against Kody’s shoulder. “Oh, the Simi thinks you’ve seen things much, much scarier than that.”

Nekoda paled a bit, but didn’t elaborate.

456, Infinity.

If you’ve read the entire series and re-read it, we get what is, in my opinion, the first bit of foreshadowing about Cyprian (Nick’s son).

Ambrose had learned long ago to fear anyone he let near him whose past and future he couldn’t see. Any time he’d make that particular mistake, the person had done their best to destroy him. 459, Infinity.

Don’t get me wrong, I do understand that Ambrose is specifically referencing Kody here and that comment about trying to destroy him does come to a head in Inferno. To me though, it seems like the implied implication here is pointing to just more than that (having read of all of CON). 

Later on in the series, Cyprian is revealed to be his son. Someone would would be “near” Nick but whose future and past he cannot clearly see. It is also interesting because once we are introduced to Ambrose’s son, what does he spend most of our interactions with Nick doing? Trying to destroy him. 

SK is one of those authors that doesn’t write things in her books for no reason. What she writes has some deeper meaning or intention, foreshadowing. I feel like the books leading up to us finding out about Cyprian are scattered with foreshadowing of his arrival into the series. I could just be reading too deeply into things but who knows.

The next post I make will be in regards to the next novel in the book Invincible. The first few books have a couple of points that I would like to mention but it really doesn't get in depth until we get to the last few books. Putting some of these scenes together is helping me make sense of some of my theories I have while reading. Like I mentioned before, I initially tried to make one large post about the entire series but it became a convoluted mess so I decided it was probably better to split it up, book by book. Thanks for reading and please feel free to share your own thoughts, comments, theories as I would love to find more readers who analyze this series as much as I do. 

#con #sherrilyn kenyon #sherrilynkenyon #sherrilyn mcqueen #chronicles of nick #dark hunters #dark hunter series #malachai #nick gautier #shadows of fire #nekoda kennedy #caleb malphas #ambrose malachai #cyprian malachai

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z 205

Last episode-- OH SHIT THAT PLANE IS CRASHING!

Nevermind, Saiyaman’s got it.

Since this is DBZ, the story is covered on a gigantic TV screen.   

The press asks Great Saiyaman for a statement, so he hops on top of the plane and gives them one.

But his statement is to just do a goofy pose and introduce himself, like he always does.

Even small children are put off by Great Saiyaman’s antics.    I feel like characters in this show are too hard on Great Saiyaman, but I suppose I’m biased on account of I know he’s Gohan under the suit, and Gohan’s last story arc saw him become King Badass of the Universe when he killed Perfect Cell.    He’s entitled to act like a goofy goober, but this little girl doesn’t know that.  

Anyway, Gohan head to Bulma’s place once again to tell her about how he got roped into entering the 25th Tenkaichi Budokai, one month from now.   Videl figured out Gohan’s secret identity, and that he’s the son of former Budokai winner Son Goku, so she’s blackmailing him into entering the tournament against her.  

Nice shot of Bulma lighting up.  

Anyway, Bulma thinks he’s here looking for improvments on his disguise, but actually, Gohan’s decided that there’s no getting around Videl’s demands, so all he needs is a way to cover his face.    See, body armor is illegal in the Budokai, so Gohan can’t wear his full costume there.

One jump cut later, and Bulma has the solution: a bandana and a pair of sunglasses.  Sometimes, part of being a genius is knowing when to go low-tech.

Bulma laments the pointlessness of Gohan entering the tournament, since he won’t have any true competition there, what with him being a Super Saiyan and all, and then Vegeta walks in and invites himself to the tournament.    I guess he wants to beat up Videl too?    Oh, wait, he wants to fight Gohan.    Couldn’t he have just asked him for a match?   They didn’t have to wait for an event.   

Trunks is all psyched up for this, of course.  

Then Goku announces that he’ll enter too.    Wait, what?

Remember back in the Fortuneteller Baba Saga, where Grandpa Gohan got special clearance to return to the living world for one day?   Well, Goku’s entitled to the same privelige, and he’s decided to cash it in for this tournament.   

Trunks asks whose voice they’re hearing, but no one answers him.    Vegeta’s too exicted to get another shot at his old rival.

And Bulma’s still riding the nicotine high.

Gohan suggests that Vegeta get a costume like his own to protect his privacy and Vegeta hates that idea.    He’s practically a shut-in anyway, so what’s the difference?

I feel bad for Trunks getting left out of all of this.   

Here’s a cameo by Farmer With Shotgun, which I don’t really get, since he was killed in Episode 1, and I’m pretty sure he wasn’t brought back to life.    Then again, this is hardly the weirdest cameo in this episode.

On his way to tell the others about Goku coming back for the tournament, Gohan discovers a car chase and tries to intervene...

... only to discover that he’s actually wandered into the filming of a movie.

And the director is Commander Red, who’s been dead for nearly a quarter-century.   Is this supposed to be his reincarnation?   I kind of doubt it.    I think it’s just a callback gag, but you never know.   Weird to see him without his eyepatch, though.

As it happens, this movie they’re filming is about the Great Saiyaman, which seems rather sudden, but oh well.    I dig the doe-eyed lady they randomly slapped on the poster.  

However, the guy they have playing the title character is afraid of heights, so he can’t film the flying scene they have planned.  One thing leads to another, and Gohan gets roped into playing himself, since he happens to be wearing a costume.  

And from there, the gag is that the director hates all of Gohan’s superhero poses, because he thinks the real Saiyaman is more dignified than that.    Oh, and Staff Officer Black is part of the filming crew.  

Great Saiyaman would be downright subdued in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, though.    The thing I don’t get is why the director is so picky about Gohan’s poses, when he ought to be concerned about Gohan’s costume.    He doesn’t have the helmet, after all.    You’d think that would play hell with the film’s continuity.

Finally, they try to film that flying scene, which involves hoisting Gohan up by a crane, but then he notices how late it’s getting, so he flies away under his own power, dragging the crane through the set.   

And then everyone realizes they were dealing with the genuine article.   Whoops.

Gohan stops off at Kame House, where Krillin is apparently still living.   Also he retired from martial arts and let his hair grow out.   

Also living with Master Roshi are Android 18 (his wife), and Maron (their daughter).  Krillin is excited about Goku coming back, but he isn’t too hot on entering a tournament with three Super Saiyans in it.   But this year they have prizes for 5th place, and Krillin likes those odds.   So does 18, who plans to enter herself, because 18 really wants money in this leg of the story.   

Next stop is the Lookout, where I guess Piccolo lives.   He’s also down to enter the tournament, so it looks like we’ve got a field of eight already.  

Gohan invites Dende too, but he’s not a warrior-type Namekian, so he takes a pass.     I think this was just an excuse to establish that Dende is still serving as Earth’s Kami, and that he’s grown up some since his most recent appearance.   Pretty sure Dragon Ball Super de-aged him for some reason, so enjoy Teen Dende while you can.  

Piccolo thinks Gohan’s outfit is stupid too, which is pretty weak considering Piccolo is basically wearing the same look.    I mean, which part is stupid, Piccolo?   The cape?   The cloth wrapped around his head?   

That takes care of Piccolo.    What about Tien and Yamcha?   What about Tien and Yamcha?   Bulma can do it.   Next.  

On his way home, Gohan starts to think about how he plans to proceed with the actual competition, and he figures he’d better take some time to whip himself back into shape.   

You’d think Chi-Chi would have a problem with Gohan’s plan to take time off from school, but she’s totally on board with the idea, because if Goku and Gohan enter this thing and do well then they can score a bunch of money to send Goten to school later.     Also she’s happy to see Goku after a seven year drought, if you know what I mean.   

And there we have it.   Gohan’s all set to train for the tournament.  

Hey, it’s some deer.   

Later, we find Gohan and Goten warming up for some training.   Great to see Gohan in his classic purple Piccolo dogi.   I was never too wild about Gohan wearing Goku orange.   

So this episode marks the debut of one of my favorite pieces of music from the Japanese score.    On the OST, it’s part of a track entitled “Believe in Tomorrow”, but it’s the final segment, beginning at about 5:17.

It’s a reprise of the ending theme, “We Were Angels”, but it’s more ominous, and well-suited for end-of-the-episode cliffhangers.     Not that this part of the saga is especially suspenseful, but it’s still pretty exciting to see Gohan preparing for an epic battle against Vegeta and/or his dad.   

Goten’s pumped for this, and so are we.    

#dragon ball #2019dbliveblog #great saiyaman saga #gohan #goten #piccolo #vegeta #krillin #android 18 #chi chi #dende #mr popo #bulma #trunks #king kai #fortuneteller baba #commander red #staff officer black #farmer with shotgun #maron #believe in tomorrow

[natsubeatsrock]

My Ten Favorite Chapters of Fairy Tail

I've been going back through the old chapters recently and remembering how much fun I've had reading Fairy Tail. It's easy to forget that there have been chapters that I genuinely enjoyed throughout the series. You’d think, for a guy planning to remake the series in his own image, I wouldn’t like many chapters of Fairy Tail. However, this list has been something I’ve wanted to do for years.

So, to celebrate almost 5 years of blogging and 10,000 posts here, here's my list of favorite chapters throughout the series. Emphasis on my list. A few of my rankings have changed over the years and I acknowledge that a few times in this post.

Number 10: Chapter 417 - Lone Journey II

The month before I started posting on this blog, I did the Fairy Tail 30 Day Challenge. Thinking back, there are plenty of things different from me then and me now. For example, I actually liked Gruvia back then. Of the many things that have changed, it's funny to think that this was, at one point and time my favorite chapter. For a long time, I've considered it to be the best chapter in the series.

What I love about it is that it's a chapter where Mashima shuts his characters up and literally lets their actions speak for themselves. This isn't a particularly unique thing to happen. Obha and Obata did the same thing for most of a chapter of Death Note. However, I love the content of the chapter. I love the connection between Natsu and Gildarts. I love how it calls back to their fight during the Grand Magic Games. I love how we see that Gildarts does care for Cana. 

The reason I've grown to love it a bit less is the difference between my first reading it as I was getting into the series and me reading it in the context of the complete series. I can't ignore how annoying it is that this is the only chapter that exists in between the second time skip. And speech bubbles would have been appreciated during the waterfall scene. Still, it's one of my favorite chapters.

Number 9: Chapter 430 - Operation Purify

Closer to the end of the series, there was a panel of all the dragon slayers that was hailed as one of the best pages in the series. Ehh? It's not bad, but calling it the best in the series is a stretch. I already have my pick for best page locked in.

If I'm perfectly honest, I would have put chapters 430-435 if not for any reason but the sheer hype going through them the first time through. However, aside from only honoring single chapters, this was the only chapter with no flaw big enough for me not to like it, looking back. I mean, Erza single-handedly mowing down forces is bad, but this was after the Kyouka fight.

However, the moment of note is at about the middle of the chapter. Because after a year of separation, going their separate ways, Team Natsu is finally back in action. And they all share the same cry on a single page: “We're all fired up! I'm not even looking at the page and I'm getting chills thinking about it as I write down my thoughts on this chapter.

Number 8: Chapter 418 - Challenger

Natsubeatsrock is a hilariously ambiguous name to have. Since I've started this blog, I've realized just how loaded my URL actually is. It's been assumed to have ties to my series Opinions I'll Probably get Stoned For, either because of the title or because what I'm saying is blasphemy. Funny thing, it could also have been tied to the fact that Natsu is my favorite character and my middle name means stone. Not sure beats would have been the right word to have in the middle, though.

However, my name comes from one of my favorite chapters. After the time skip, we're briefly introduced to Lucy's work during as a journalist. If I were a bigger fan of Lucy, this would be a great chapter for me to have gushed over her growth as a wizard. I especially like that she was keeping track of the members of the guild.

However, if you can't tell, the most important thing in this chapter is Natsu’s return. Unlike a lot of people, I'm impartial to his post-time skip looks. But the idea that Natsu has flames strong enough to destroy the arena and melt clothes is simultaneously hilariously nonsensical, disgustingly overpowered and one of the coolest things that Natsu has done in the series. Period.

Number 7: Natsu and Asuka

Guys. I said that this was my favorite special chapter in the series. Did you really think I wouldn't have it here? I know that I made a chapter review for this a few years back, but I don't mind talking about it again. While I don’t think that this is my favorite omake anymore, it’s still a very solid chapter. 

I still believe it's a great display of how resourceful Natsu can be. I love the extra insight we get into Alzack and Bisca’s relationship. It's the best chapter in the FT Matsuri. And this chapter may have convinced me that Asuka deserves nothing but love and protection. I'm scared about what a potential time skip involving the hypothetical NYCC children would do to her. 

Maybe the worst thing about it is that it only ever gets mentioned because Natsu and Lucy didn't kiss like Asuka wanted them to. However, that's obviously not about the chapter itself and, as I demonstrated when I talked about it, you don't need to mention it to talk about the chapter and the good things about it.

Number 6: Chapter 205 - To Continue Down This Path

Even though I did make fun of my old choices during my go-through of the FT Challenge, there are some choices I'm glad I made even now. Up to this chapter, we don't have a good idea of how strong Gildarts is. Especially if you watched the anime where he has only introduced the arc prior. We know S Class mages are powerful, but Erza seems to think Natsu could beat her and we saw Laxus get defeated, albeit only barely by getting double-teamed. So we’re aware that even S-Class isn't akin to invincibility.

In addition to that, Natsu has been known to edge out victories that make no sense for him to have. Natsu’s next win after this battle holds that to be true. So, even against incredibly high odds, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Natsu would find a way to win.

Which is what makes Gildarts unleashing his power all the more insane. Natsu, a character who has, up to that point, always strived to beat whatever opponent he's faced, realizes that he can't just power through. This chapter forces Natsu to realize how weak he is and is a challenge for him to get stronger in his weakness. Does the series do anything with this? Not nearly as much as it should have. But this is still one of the favorite moments for Natsu.

Number 5: Chapter 507 - Voice

The fact that this is one of my favorite chapters shouldn't come as that much of a shock to people that have followed me for long enough. What might be shocking is that it's one of my top ten favorite chapters, even in my top 5. The fact that Natsu and Gray were fighting for about three chapters before this was stupid to a lot of people who were paying attention. There was no need for them not to be in their right minds and little need for them to take out their frustration on each other. 

One of the big fears I had over this fight was that it would end because their supposed love interests whom they thought were dead would stop them. It would have been hilariously cliche for them to come and immediately stop them from fighting. While I can understand wanting a ship to happen, this isn’t the way I’d want to see my ship happen. I’m even annoyed that their arrival is what gets attention from fans when this is brought up.

Thankfully, Mashima decided to pick Ezra for this role. Feelings over ships aside, Ezra was the person best qualified to stop Natsu and Gray fighting over nonsense, considering that's something she was doing from even before the events of the series started. That Natsu and Gray (and the audience by extension) are reminded of their own reasons for not wanting Erza to cry when they see her tearfully breaking their fight up was an amazing twist on what I expected. To be blunt, Juvia and Lucy could have not shown up and this would be just as impactful, if not more.

This chapter would be much higher up on my favorites if it zeroed in on this aspect. However, the rest of the chapter isn't very important or impressive. It sets up the fight against August by showing the members of Crime Sorciere failing to beat him. It’s not particularly bad, but it’s not better than what was before it.

Number 4: Chapter 415 - That Is The Power of Life

One of the weird trends that all of my favorite anime shares is that they make other people cry for one reason or another. I find that to be a weird trend for me specifically. I wouldn't be shocked to find out that there are people who enjoy crying. However, I'm not a huge crying person. I can count the anime that have actually caused me to get close to crying on my hands and only one of them actually is one of my favorites. However, I can think of three Fairy Tail chapters that definitely pushed me to tears and two are on my list.

The Igneel and Natsu storyline was, like so many things, handled badly. I think that it could and should have been a more relevant subplot/character aspect throughout the series. At the very least, the fact that Natsu seems to have stopped actively looking for Igneel since chapter 1 should have been more directly addressed. That being said, the impact of Natsu seeing Igneel dying is not lost on me. Igneel would have had to go anyway. We learned this chapter that the dragons only had a limited amount of time outside the dragon slayers. So seeing Igneel disappear would have been sad for Natsu anyways.

But having to watch Igneel lose half of his body and get blasted by Acnologia makes the situation feel even worse. It's like someone shooting the family pet after breaking its neck. There was no need for that to happen. Watching as Happy watches Natsu watches Igneel die is sad enough on its own for me. Watching your fave cry over losing his dad after looking for him for so long. 

This chapter marks an important shift in Natsu’s motivation. Whereas before the goal to defeat Acnologia was somewhat unnecessary and unconnected to the main cast, now Acnologia has a target painted on his back. Would the takedown be handled well? Depends on who you ask. This chapter is on this list and that one isn’t.

Number 3: Chapter 9 - Dear Kaby

I'm supposing that the vast majority of people reading that care about me are Fairy Tail fans. At one point or another, we fell in love with this series. There was a specific moment that we decided that this series was worth reading and/or watching days worth of material that varies in quality as the series goes on. This definitely happens for every series, to some extent, but it feels more significant for long-running series. 

This chapter was that moment for me. At the time I first saw the episode this chapter was based on, I knew a fair amount of anime. I had grown up with DBZ, Pokemon, Sailor Moon, and Naruto, among other anime that I don't remember much of. I wasn't aware of what I was getting myself into when I decided to watch this series my younger cousins and siblings were so interested in. However, I figured that, even as I enjoyed the beginning of the series, there was no real reason to think this would be different.

But when I got to this episode, I realized this series was special. This was something I was in for the long haul. Even reading this as a chapter, I still think of how different the end of this arc is, even to other arcs in the series. On the one hand, it deals with the issue of Kaby and his father in an amazingly emotional way. On the other hand, it gets undercut by Natsu’s unwillingness to take the reward for a job they didn’t actually do. Mashima made both work in one chapter and that is amazing.

Of course, there’s a little more at play in this chapter. Natsu gets mad at Kaby’s disdain for his dad’s work, which works amazingly well with his character and search for Igneel. Lucy is revealed to be a writer in her own right. There’s something special about a series called Fairy Tail being told mostly through the lens of an aspiring writer. It's stuff like this that makes this chapter a delight to come back to very early on in revisiting the series.

Number 2: Special Mission: Beware of the Guys Who Show a Keen Interest!

One of the weird trends that occurs in fandoms is shipping the main characters together, regardless of any chemistry they may have with others. However, if writers plan not to put characters that the fandom would otherwise assume will end up together, there are many different ways to handle the way that will play out. In a lot of television I've seen, the two will actually get together, they’ll date for a little and break up for one reason or another. I’m not really a big fan of that.

Things have happened differently in the manga I’ve read with this. In Bleach, the question of liking Ichigo was brought up to Rukia very early on and never addressed. I liked that way, even though plenty of fans were shocked to find out the implications of that statement. But Mashima couldn’t possibly do a better job. Right? Wrong!

I think that tackling the issue of whether or not Lucy likes Natsu in an omake was an interesting decision. It doesn't take away from the main story but it's out there for fans to experience if they really want to. The main takeaway of this chapter was that the idea of Lucy and Natsu getting together is awkward for Lucy and nowhere on Natsu’s radar. Of course, they could those feelings, but not overnight.

Too bad so many people thought this was a sign Mashima would develop a romantic relationship between them. I'm not sure if I could have blamed that one on him. Though, considering his Twitter art antics, he’s not doing much to help keep that break mentality up within fans. Then again, I’m not sure there’s anything Mashima can do on that front.

Number 1: Chapter 100 - To Tomorrow!

If you can't tell a big reason why certain chapters are in my favorites, it's because of how they represent in what the series could have been. I do believe that Hiro Mashima is capable of great writing, even and especially within Fairy Tail. It's just that he does something to mess up what good there is. But that doesn't mean that I can't like something I know is badly written. 

Erza not dying, at least to me, represents a sign that characters important to the narrative were in no real danger of dying. Looking back, it's hard for me not to think about how the explanation for Erza and Jellal surviving is stupid. And Natsu very likely should have lost his fight to Jellal. I could easily see someone saying these are issues with this chapter.

However, for me, this chapter stands out as the single best chapter of the Tower of Heaven arc, arguably the best arc in the entire series. I love how this chapter signifies a shift in Erza’s thinking about her friends. I love how the beginning and end of this chapter deal with Erza’s ability to cry, which was already mentioned in this arc at least twice.

I love how this chapter all but confirms Natsu’s terrible ways of handling death. This matters especially in light of the other people he has lost in his life. Think about how Erza has been portrayed up to this point in the series and you’d find her death to be unbelievable. This was the moment that brought me the closest to crying upon my first reading of the series. I’m proud to call this my favorite chapter in the series.

That’s my list! See you!

#fairy tail #fav #thank you all #10000th post #crazy right

[blogs-of-our-lives]

I, Frankenstein is a Trash Movie

           I’ve been putting off writing this for some time now. I watched Episode 98 immediately after watching 97, and you can tell it was getting a little hazy by the end. I can vaguely remember the beginning of the episode, and that’s when my memory was at its clearest. So I may take some creative liberties and make my own plot as I go.

           Welcome to Carter’s nightmare carnival funhouse version of Days of our Lives.

           This show makes me sad. I write way way way slower than they produce episodes. As I write this review for Episode 98, they’ve already released episode 205. Granted, I have no intentions of following it every day (episode 200 has a thumbnail of Ciara passed out on the floor as an obviously fake fire consumes her house, so I’m abso-fucking-lutely reviewing that one next), but the blistering pace that this show takes is disheartening. It just goes to show that life moves fast. You blink, and kids your age are getting married. In the previous NFL draft, the Buffalo Bills selected linebacker Tremaine Edmunds in the first round, at the age of 19. He’s younger than I am. That’s ridiculous. I’m getting old, fast.

           The episode opens with John at the hospital. He looks flustered, glancing around desperately. For those who haven’t read about the previous episode, the last we saw John, he had just entered the Dimera mausoleum with Will. As the door shuts, we hear a gunshot. Shortly behind him is Paul (wearing a black leather jacket, everybody in this show is wearing a black leather jacket, it’s like the soap opera version of Sons of Anarchy).

“What have you done?” Paul asks, staring in horror at the floor.

John steps in behind him, holding a comically small gun. “The same thing I’m going to do to you,” he says. It cuts to the outside of the mausoleum, where we hear another gunshot.

I didn’t mention this last episode, but imagine if that was the last thing you heard. It was clearly not a sincere question. Paul knew what happened. Ugh. I hate that line so much. Imagine your first memories. Imagine kindergarten, first grade, all the way up to middle school and high school. Every moment of your life, every love and every regret, every moment of anger or sadness, has been leading up to an old guy in a black leather jacket with a tiny gun saying “The same thing I’m going to do to you” and then shooting you.

Anyway, we’re caught up. John is distressed, and at this point it’s kind of unclear what he’s trying to do. I can’t remember if John is trying to finish off Steve (John is a spy tasked with killing Steve, the eyepatch guy), trying to tell his wife (Will’s grandma, and just so you guys all know, there’s no coming back from murdering someone’s grandson. No amount of foot rubs and boxes of chocolate shaped like hearts can help you come back from murdering your wife’s grandson) that he’s a spy, or maybe he just had a moment of clarity and realized that Days of our Lives can only rent like three sets at one time and he truly had nowhere else to go.

I’ll just tell you all the truth. Will and Paul are alive. They both make an appearance on the thumbnail of episode 191, and unless it’s from a flashback (more on that later), they survived. Just as a good rule of thumb, if this show wants you to think somebody is dead, they’re probably alive.

Fun fact, when someone on the show says “They’re in a better place” when talking about a dead character, they’re telling the truth.

Oh god, I just realized that it doesn’t even matter. They’ve blurred the lines between life and death so much (Will returning from the dead with amnesia, the Salem Stalker victims returning to life, John dying in a car accident and somehow appearing in this episode) that there truly is no reason to believe anyone is dead. It doesn’t matter if an actual licensed doctor comes on screen and pronounces the character dead. You could probably bring back your favorite character just by emailing the producer. The email is [REDACTED BY EDITOR – You absolutely may not use my personal email address], by the way. Email that at least twice a day every day, and soon you’ll get your character back.

The scene cuts to a man and a woman standing next to each other in front of the Dimera mausoleum. The mausoleum has “DIMERA” etched into the marble, just in case the viewer has forgotten that scene from less than 24 hours earlier. It could have easily been confused with any of the thousands of mausoleums that appear in our day to day television. These two people (the woman is a former lover of Andre Dimera, the most recent Dimera to pass away – which apparently is common enough that it merits the need for a mausoleum – and the man is of absolutely no consequence and isn’t worth the number of words I’ve invested in him already) take up most of the episode, pondering Andre’s life in front of his tomb, before they will presumably enter and discover Paul and Will’s “bodies” (I have no idea what they will find there), but are also painfully boring. I’ve said before that a single Days of Our Lives episode contains very little content. Usually it has about a conversation’s worth of information. For example, the description of episode 189 is “Kate makes a huge confession to Chad.” Presumably they also talk about the confession, right? Usually not. Usually the episode breaks down in the following way: Kate sees Chad and says hello, cut to other characters, cut to commercials, Kate says she has a confession, cut to other characters, cut to commercials, Kate says the confession, cut straight to commercials, Chad looks upset, the episode ends.

This is a very long-winded way of me telling you that it takes the full 60 minutes of Days of our Lives for the two people to enter the goddamn tomb.

It’s about time I talk about the flashbacks. I don’t remember what each individual flashback contained, but there were two or three in this episode. And holy crap, they were genius. Not the content of the flashbacks, but the idea of them. Because they literally reused old Days of our Lives footage. Imagine if I could copy and paste bits of previous Blogs of our Lives episodes, label them as a flashback, and call it a day. Oh man, I am jealous of the writers. Until I remember they’re stuck in the Fields of Asphodel that is being a writer for Days of Our Lives.

Naturally, the flashbacks have slightly lower quality than the episode itself. We live in an age of progress, and in a few years, even the most recent movies will look dated. But this is just absurd. It looks like someone went frame by frame and printed out the entirety of the flashback, photocopied them, photocopied them again, and put them back in. Also the audio sucks. I don’t have anything poetic to say about it. It just sounds like the voice actors did their recordings via walkie-talkies.

Remember Gabi, the chic murderer? Well now she’s talking with a police officer in the station. He’s trying to get help her out, clearly a friend of hers. “You’re going to be home to see your daughter soon,” he said.

“That’s not likely,” a woman says, strutting into the room. She’s got a satisfied, smug smirk. “I’m pressing charges.” Ah, she must be the DA. I think? Is that how law works? The DA can just press charges? Does that mean that she just as easily could have chosen not to? For murder? I’ll give DOOL a pass because I don’t understand it myself.

And now my notes start making even less sense. The handwriting is larger and sloppier and mostly illegible.

The former lover of Andre Dimera and the man accompanying her continue on their Hamlet-style soliloquy, talking and talking and talking and just standing outside the damn mausoleum. Finally, she opens the door and gasps, before the camera fades to black, ending the episode. Which is the biggest cop out I’ve ever seen, but nothing in this show surprises me anymore. I’m not mad, just disappointed. I’m telling you guys, an hour of Days of our Lives contains about five minutes of something actually happening.

Of course, this isn’t the end of my notes. I will transcribe them below exactly as it is written:

·       GUY IS MURDRER

·       WOMAN SEES THINGS

·       PUNTS SRYNGE IN SLEVE

·       FIGHTS OF ANGELS AND ALL THAT

All of these wonderful pieces of insight culminate in a full page entry, in all caps, on the next page. SHE FINDS HIM THERE.

I don’t know. I was going to put more to that sentence, but I realized it answered every question one could possibly have about that list. Why did I forget how to spell? I don’t know. Presumably I was in a rush to get all my ideas down. Where does the syringe (or rather srynge) come in? Who is the woman that sees things? Why are the angels fighting? I don’t know.

My best guess is that John Black stole a syringe to inject Steve with poison, seeing as both were in the hospital. Which opens up the possibility that I meant to write “punts srynge in STEVE.” Somehow I doubt that, however. I assume I meant “flights of angels,” a Shakespeare reference. Who even knows. You guys can probably decipher my notes better than I can.

The other day, I was at Walmart (while procrastinating writing this, and I suppose in a way I’m still procrastinating by writing this side segment), when the $3 movie bin caught my eye. I’m drawn to it every time. I love DVDs (there’s something to be said about physical media rather than digital), I’m a cheap bastard who loves cheap-ass shit, and I love love love love love bad movies. More on that later.

I found a three movie collection of Prom Nights 1-4, starring Jaime Lee Curtis. It seemed to be some kind of an off-brand Carrie. Also, for those of you with keen eyes, it was not a mistake that the 3 movie collection contained 1-4. For whatever reason, the set contained Prom Night, Prom Night 2, and Prom Night 4. Why not Prom Night 3? Won’t I be lost without knowing what happened between Prom Night 2 and Prom Night 4?

I truly, sincerely believe I have good taste in movies. I watch a lot of good movies and can understand what makes them good and why. However, on one fateful day about three years ago, I discovered that it was far easier to enjoy a bad movie with your friends than a good one. I get upset if people talk during a good movie, and don’t care if people talk during a bad movie. We can make fun of bad movies, but not good movies. Most of all, a good movie often invokes a specific mood. It’s hard to match that mood with a group of people. A bad movie also invokes a specific mood, always laughter, which is very easy to match with a group of people.

Which is why I’ve seen Fridays the 13th Parts 1-8, Jason Goes to Hell, Jason X, Freddy vs. Jason, Nightmares on Elm Street 1-3, FACE/OFF, The Room, a lot of Scooby-Doo direct to DVD movies, Scared Shrekless (in my defense that was a gift), The Wickerman (the one with Nicholas Cage, obviously), The Gingerdead Man (starring Gary Busey), Starship Troopers (starring Gary Busey’s son), Antz, Darkman (treat yourself, it’s pretty great), Flushed Away (I enjoyed this one a little too genuinely), Birdemic: Shock and Terror, S. Darko, Jurassic Park III, Vampires Suck (not as much as that movie did), Hellraiser, Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2, Meet the Robinsons, Hannibal Rising (swapping Jodie Foster for Julianne Moore was a poor decision), Alvin and the Chipmunks, Eragon (sweet Jesus Christ, I forgot about Eragon), Annabelle, Annabelle: Creation, The Conjuring (people will try to tell you the Conjuring is a good movie… don’t let them), Ouija, The Boy, and The Visit. Honorable mention goes out to Rubber, which isn’t actually a bad movie, and one other.

I, Frankenstein.

A movie so bad its title needed to be separated so it couldn’t taint any other sentences. The worst movie I’ve ever seen. But I can save that for another post.

You’ll notice that a lot of these movies are horror. I looove horror movies, so I say this with all the love in my heart. It’s a trash genre. I’ve never seen anything like it. For every one good horror movie, there are at least fifty horrible ones. Not fifty bad ones. Fifty horrible ones. I’ll talk about horror as a genre next time, but I’ll leave you with an anecdote. My friends and I wanted to watch a horror movie, so we found a list of the Top 100 Horror Movies of All Time. We didn’t recognize a single movie until #50, and they had the movie Oculus as the 25th best horror movie of all time. That’s ridiculous. The nicest thing I have to say about Oculus was there were a lot of parts of the movie where I didn’t want to get up and leave. There were a lot of mediocre scenes, and I mean that as a compliment. I thought about this for a moment, that Oculus was ranked 25th of all time, and realized that’s about right. There are so so so few good horror movies, and just an absurd amount are terrible. I think it’s due to the fact that all horror movies are vaguely formulaic, relying on tropes for the genre. It makes them really easy to write and produce.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and I’ll have the next Blogs of our Lives out much sooner than I got this one out.

Fuck I, Frankenstein.

#Days of Our Lives #blog #soap opera #movies #funny #hopefully #I'm the internet equivalent of a guy talking to himself on the bus #bad

[exxar1]

Chapter 13: Ambassador Kosh, The Smoking Caterpillar, And Six Months Saved

3/16/2021

            One of my favorite sci-fi shows from the 1990s is Babylon-5. It takes place on a space station in neutral territory between various warring alien and human empires in the mid twenty-third century. One of the alien characters, Ambassador Kosh, is fond of asking those around him, “Who are you?” Kosh is a Vorlon, a mysterious, cryptic species who’s true physical nature is hidden from others by an elaborate encounter suit. No one has ever been to their homeworld, and the Vorlons rarely interact with other species around them, so when one asks “Who are you?”, it’s a significant question that implies a need for an honest, significant, soul-searching answer.

           That is a question I’ve been asking myself a lot these past few months. This week is the six month anniversary of my salvation. Looking back, it feels like I’ve crossed a gulf wider and deeper than the Grand Canyon. September 17th seems like almost a lifetime ago. And yet, it also feels like it was just yesterday. So much has changed in my life, and yet so much is still the same.

           The other day I was looking back over my previous log entries from this new journey. The one from October 10th leaped out at me as I reread it:

            “I just recently realized how much we change throughout our adult lives as we get older. Those passions and desires and things that interest us and consume our time when we’re in our twenties are not necessarily the same passions, desires, and things that we care about in our forties, or our fifties, or our sixties. We as people are not just flesh and blood. We are conscious, thinking, emotional, intellectual human beings, and the parts of us that make us who we are are those passions, desires, interests, and things that we care about. It’s what makes me me.

             Some of those qualities can be defined as hobbies or interests, the things that I do in my spare time or what I’m passionate about in life. The fact that I have always been a science fiction fan, for example, or my writing. Other qualities can be emotional, or intellectual, or parts of me that aren’t necessarily physical. The fact that I’m gay, for example; or that I love to read, or that I’m an introvert, or that I once used to be an Atheist.

           In other words, those things that make up who we are as an individual human being, that define us to the world and to other people around us, are not always constant or unchanging. And that’s what I had never realized until now. I have always been happy living my life on my own, by my own terms, and I found peace in being alone. I have never felt the need to have that “special someone” in my life, but now, for reasons I cannot explain, I’m no longer content with that. I think this is why so many people at this point in their mid-lives have a crisis. They buy a new car or get divorced or change careers. Perhaps my loneliness is nothing more than a mid-life crisis?”

           At the time, I was attributing all my recent angst and internal unrest to aging, but now I recognize this for what it really was – and still is: sanctification. (or maybe it’s a little of both.) 2 Corinthians 5:17, one of the first verses that I had memorized long, long ago in Sunday school, says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” It’s one thing to know about a process, but quite another thing entirely to actually experience that process firsthand.

           Who am I?

           My name is Neal Timothy Jones, I was born on June 4, 1978, I currently weigh 205 lbs., stand at a glorious height of 5’5”, have blue eyes, brown hair – which I’m very slowly but surely losing (more than in the back than the front, I’d say), and a goatee that is now more silver than brown. My favorite color is blue. I’m a brother, a son and an uncle, but not a father or a husband. I was born and raised in Twin Falls, Idaho, and I’m an introvert. I’m often shy, quiet, used to have a hard time speaking up for myself and was afraid to be myself for fear of ridicule and shame. I’m a sci-fi fan (Star Trek in particular) and an avid Super Mario Brothers player. (If that was an Olympic sport I would hold a gold medal for most games conquered and exceptional fire flower skill.) I also read a lot, and, lately, I have a very hard time shutting off my brain. I’m always overthinking, overanalyzing, and overly critical of both myself and those around me.

           My favorite food is Italian, especially pizza and pasta (hence the 205 pounds), and I despise coconut. I mean, like really, really hate it. Whoever decided that shredded coconut should be a topping on desserts should be strung up by their apron strings and crucified in their kitchen. Coconut – especially shredded coconut – has absolutely no taste for one, and for two, it has all the texture of grass. It’s vile and disgusting.

           I have type 2 diabetes, and I’m a good twenty-five pounds overweight. I’ve always hated exercise. Yes, I enjoyed running around the playground and being outdoors in general when I was a kid, but I hated organized sports. I suffered one year of soccer in 7th grade because my parents insisted I needed to get out and do something besides always being alone under a tree with a book in between classes. (I think they were worried about my anti-social behavior far more than they actually let on.) That one year led to a life long revulsion of sports in general. Seriously, I don’t get it. Running up and down a field, chasing a ball or trying to make a goal – *yawn*. So overrated.

           Also, for that matter, is competition. I’m probably the least competitive person anyone knows. I really couldn’t care less whether or not my coworkers beat me in upsells and product promotions. I don’t give a damn if my friends or family make more money than I do. I have no desire to rise the corporate ladder and be king of my local branch. I don’t really care what my house looks like on the outside compared to my neighbors. Nor do I give a rat’s ass if my car is the nicest one in the neighborhood. (And, frankly, given the neighborhood I currently live in, I most definitely do not want a super nice car that would attract nearby thieves.) I really do just march to the beat of my own drum, and if you’d like join me, great! If not, oh well. You do your own thing, and you be you. I’m not going to care one way or the other.

           Who am I?

           I’m gay. Or, rather, I was. Or maybe I still am. I honestly don’t know. And that’s been my problem lately. Clear back in September, right after I was saved, I was sure of two things: one, that I was saved and new child of God, and two, that I was gay. In just six months, though, I’m not so sure of that latter one anymore.

           It’s funny how we sometimes take one thing in our lives – our marriage, our job, our sexuality, or maybe that one hobby or spare time interest – and we build our whole self-identity around that. For me, it was being gay. That was who I was, and I centered my entire self-identity around that one thing as soon as I left high school. After I left the Army, after returning home to Twin Falls and enrolling at the College of Southern Idaho, I immediately joined the Gay-Straight Alliance on campus. I spoke up for gay rights, and I even helped organize a petition for a gay float in the local Western Days parade. (I honestly can’t remember if we ever really accomplished that or not. I do remember the city council not being very happy with our little request.)

           I watched pretty much anything on TV that had gay stories and/or main characters. Shows like Will & Grace, Queer As Folk, and Six Feet Under were my favorites.  Same for the movies. Hollywood was my religion, the local cineplex my church. Celebrities like Ellen Degeneres were my idols, and I did my best to follow their wisdom and lifestyles. Throughout college and my early adult life afterwards, whenever I introduced myself to new friends and co-workers, I was quick to let them know I was gay. I was proud of that, and anyone who disagreed with that or tried to tell me I was wrong for living that way would quickly get shut down by my new, independent spirit and debating skills. I bought t-shirts with slogans like “I don’t even think straight” or which just had the symbol of the rainbow flag on the front.

           Everything else was secondary, and when my life moved online to social media, I made sure to put my sexual orientation front and center on all my bios. I connected even more to the greater national gay community by joining Facebook pages that promoted gay rights, and I followed many gay activists and celebrities on Twitter and Instagram. In recent years, especially after moving to Las Vegas, I did quiet down a little with the in-your-face attitude, due more to aging than anything else. It was no longer that important than every single new friend or co-worker know right away that I was gay. Instead of announcing it with the first handshake, I let the subject come up organically in regular conversation. I also purchased Apple watch bands made in rainbow colors or plastic bracelets of the same design to wear as a silent testimony of my proud lifestyle.

           Who am I?

           One of my favorite scenes in Disney’s Alice In Wonderland is the one where Alice is confronted by the smoking caterpillar. He repeatedly demands of the young, lost and confused heroine, “Who. Are. You?” (Each word is punctuated by a perfectly shaped ring of cartoon smoke.)

           In recent weeks and months, there have been days when I have stood in front of the mirror above my bathroom sink, looking at my reflection with puzzlement and curiosity, asking that very same question. Some days, I have felt like a true warrior of God, leaping from bed, excited to rush into the world and live the truth of Christ. Other days, I have felt small and weak, and conflicted, and wondering why I have kept giving in to the old lust of the flesh and breaking my vow of celibacy. (Yes, even just giving in to old desires and lusts in the mind’s eye are a sin in the presence of God. It doesn’t necessarily have to go as far as an actual, physical act with another man.)

           One evening, about three weeks ago, as I got ready for bed, I was reflecting on my day. It was one of those mediocre days, not too bad, but not really exciting or exceptional either. I was feeling a little down and discouraged, but I couldn’t say exactly why. I sat on the edge of my bed, lost in thought, and tracing absently with my right index finger the outline of the tattooed cross on my left bicep. Since the tattoo was barely a week old, most of it was still one large scab, and I had been fighting the recent urge to pick at it. I glanced down and saw the plastic rainbow bracelet on my right wrist, right next to the other bracelet with white stars and a blue strip on a black background.

           As if by some spiritual instinct, I reached out with my left hand and pulled that rainbow bracelet off. I held it up, examining it for a few moments, and then I opened the drawer of my nightstand. I tossed the bracelet inside and shut the drawer. I sat for a minute or two, thinking about what I had just done, and then I got up and marched across the hall into my office. I opened the bottom left drawer of my desk and rifled through the several dozen Apple watch bands that have accumulated there over the last few years. I pulled out all the ones that were rainbow striped or rainbow colored. I threw them in the trash. I also threw away the bag of rainbow bracelets (they had been 20 for $5 on Amazon). I turned out the light and shut the office door.

           I went to bed that night feeling more at peace than when I had first asked Jesus into my heart just a few months before.

           The next day, during my lunch break at Walmart, I went through all my social media accounts and removed the word ‘gay’ from my bios, as well as any emoji symbols such as the rainbow flag. That, too, felt right. I was now just ‘Christian’, not ‘gay Christian.’

           I’m still honestly not sure what this means. Part of me has felt utterly terrified, as if I’m erasing more than just part of who I’ve been for all my adult life. The one thing that was the core of my self-identity has been essentially wiped away, as if God was one of the workers in the amusement park of Westworld, another of my favorite shows. In that not-so-distant future setting, the human-like androids are often re-programmed by the park’s engineers to change their personalities or even their entire character to match whatever new story is going to be enacted for the park’s biological visitors and tourists. Ever since my salvation, I have often felt that God is reprogramming me in the same way, erasing parts of the old sinful self and rewriting new software, giving me a new core identity. Right now, that process of sanctification has only just begun, and, hence, there are days when I don’t quite know what to call myself. Yes, I’m a Christian. Yes, I am a child of God. But I feel like there should be more than just that. I feel like the loss of my old identity means that that I also have nowhere to belong; there is currently no new community in which I can plug myself in order to have the same sense of friendship and comradery that I once had with my fellow gays.

           And yes, I know what you’re already saying to your phone or computer screen as you read this: “Neal,” you say, “just being a child of God is enough. Just calling yourself a Christian is enough. That is the new community that you now belong to.”

           Yeah, I know. But, at the same time, I still feel incomplete. Don’t ask me why. I feel like those Lego sets I used to play with as a kid. My favorites were the spaceships, especially the really big ones that came with about two hundred individual pieces. I liked those the best because I had the choice of either building the ship pictured on the front of the box, or I could assemble a different ship entirely using the same pieces but fitting them together in different ways. I feel like God is doing that with me right now. He’s completely disassembled me from the inside out, and his Spirit is slowly and gradually reassembling me into something totally new.

           Part of me wishes He would just hurry the hell up and get to the finished product already! Why is He taking so long?? But the other part of me – the part that I am slowly coming to recognizing as the voice of the Holy Spirit is gently, firmly reminding me that this process can take a lifetime; that I need to learn to be patient and wait upon the Lord.

           Who am I?

           I am ALL of those things that I listed above – yes, even the homosexual. God hasn’t changed that completely. But that particular Lego piece is now on the worktable with all the others. And I no longer feel a need to advertise to anyone and everyone that I am still gay. For now, I am just ‘Christian.’ And I’m looking for a church family where I can truly belong.

           I recently finished reading a book that dealt with this exact topic. The author is Greg Coles, someone I’ve mentioned before in these posts. The book is titled No Longer Strangers: Finding Belonging in a World of Alienation. There are many, many lovely and beautiful passages in the book where Greg gives his own testimony of finding his place in his particular part of the world and his church community after coming out as a gay Christian in 2017. But there are two passages, specifically, that I found most inspirational in my own journey of trying to find the church family in which God wants to place me. I’ve already posted them on my social media, but I’m going to quote them again here.

           The first is from Chapter 5: Hide and Seek:

            “But God—the real God—has only ever been interested in loving us, in redeeming us, in transforming us. He has no interest in an army of clones, a horde of wax figures and cardboard cutouts sent to approach him in bold unanimity while his heterogeneous flesh-and-blood children crouch in the shadows.

Those of us who love Jesus are indeed called to find our paramount identity in him. Every other identity is placed in submission to Christ, upturned and radically reordered by the logic of the kingdom of God. But our particularities are not erased in the process. We are not recycled paper, blended into a pulp and recast as a blank sheet. We are a painted canvas in the hands of a master restorer, painstakingly cleansed and healed and remade until we finally become the irreplicable artwork we were always intended to be.”

           That ‘irreplicable artwork’ is what I cannot wait to see! That’s what I’m eagerly waiting for – that finished masterpiece. But I also know from the testimonies of my parents and Pastor Mark, as well as ones that I’ve read online from other Christian authors, is that there is a real possibility that I might never see that completely finished work; that God, in His infinite wisdom and grace, is never entirely finished with us. And that’s okay too. That’s what I need to recognize and reconcile with right now. The old saying really is sometimes true: it’s the journey that matters more than the destination. But, along the way, God does not want me to just melt into His crowd, to be one more clone in the Christian army. Instead, as Greg points out, God wants each of us to stand out, to share our unique gifts and talents with the body of Christ and with the world around us. We need to shine for Him, and we can’t do that if we just hide away, afraid to be more than just another smiling face in the crowd.

The other passage, the one that brought me to tears, was the final paragraphs of the book:

             “I am my Beloved’s. He is mine. We belong in one another, with one another, to one another. We always will. We’re not going anywhere.

             I’m not the only one making these vows with heaven, to be sure. A symphony of voices joins mine in the air. The song includes married folks as well as celibates like me, straight and gay and everything else. Our choir represents every race, every language, every nation.

             But despite the grandeur of the choir, Christ still hears and responds to each individual voice. He isn’t content to declare his affection for us in form letters and megaphone announcements. He whispers to us one by one, into your ear and mine, exchanging promises of love. As long as these promises remain true—as long as our fragile memories can hold them—home will never be further than a whisper in our ears, never further than an ink drop beneath our skin. We are loved. And because we are loved, we belong.”

           I have re-read that passage so many times over the last couple weeks, savoring it like piece of gold, a treasure of beauty and real wisdom. Greg’s completely right. Not only does God want us, just as we are, no matter how broken, how lost, or how sinful, but He also wants for us to belong in Him, and Him alone. This small piece of wisdom seems at once so simple and yet so complex. I have had to remind myself almost every day, especially those days when I’m feeling lonely, or a little lost, or discouraged because the church that I had hoped was going to be my new home didn’t work out after all, that I am first and foremost a child of God. I belong only – and solely – in Him. I need to understand that that is all that matters right now. The rest will come in time. Perhaps once I have understood and fully absorbed this first and important truth, then God will begin providing unto me the rest of his desired blessings and, especially, belonging within a new church family.

           As a result of these blog posts, I have had the immense blessing and pleasure of reconnecting with old friends who had once taught and reared me when I was that stubborn, contrary, rebellious kid who gave out more sass and disrespect than a Las Vegas drag queen in a nightclub. One of those friends shared a quote by Leonard Ravenhill with me a few days ago that immediately touched my heart. I printed it off and taped it to the bottom frame of one of my computer monitors in my home office.

“Great eagles fly alone; great lions hunt alone; great souls walk alone – alone with God!”

             The friend who shared this helped me to see that same truth that Greg pointed out in that second passage that I quoted above. It’s okay for me to stand apart from the crowd – Christian or otherwise. It’s okay for me to continue marching on my own. The only difference between my old life and this new, blessed one is that God is now marching beside me. He has changed the beat of my drum, and He has “…begun a good work” in me, as Paul says Philippians 1:6, and that work will not be completed until “…the day of Jesus Christ.” But, if I’m honest, I will say that, on most days, I don’t feel like the lion or the eagle. Not just yet. I feel more like a church mouse from a Beatrix Potter tale, crouching in the shadow of my Lord and Savior, and letting Him do His thing on my behalf.

               One of my other favorite quotes that has had a special significance to me these last few months is by Socrates. He once stated, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” I think God would agree, and the best form of self examination should always start with the following question:

                Who am I?

#Christian #spirituality #gay #personal growth #sanctification

[justanothercinemaniac]

Epic Movie (Re)Watch #205 - Hocus Pocus

(GIF source unknown [if this is your GIF please let me know].)

Spoilers Below

Have I seen it before: Yes

Did I like it then: More or less.

Do I remember it: Yes.

Did I see it in theaters: No.

Format: DVD

1) Let’s start off this post with a little blasphemy: I actually don’t have a ton of nostalgia for this movie. I watched it like maybe three times growing up. I’d always catch bits and pieces on Disney Channel or ABC Family Freeform, but I just never got into it like so many other people did. And (prepare to be outright offended now) the last time I watched it all the way through (I couldn’t have been older than 13) I thought it was kinda boring. BUT I was going through a bit of a “too cool for this shit” phase then. Spoiler alert: I enjoyed it A LOT more this time around and do understand the hype now.

2) Fun fact: Human Thackery Binx is played by Sean Murray but is dubbed over by the actor who performs him (Jason Marsden) for consistency.

3) Despite being largely a comedy, there is a wonderful sense of creepiness to this film which I think helps to give it its unique flavor. I mean, this is a Disney movie which starts with a child being killed so witches can drain off its life force. Then these same witches - who explicitly say they’re loyal to satan and have been to hell - get hanged. There’s this sense of edge (or the Disney version of edge) which helps elevate it above a lot of Halloween family fare. I think it’s what makes the film so endearing.

4) Ah, our first encounter with Winifred Sanderson.

5) The Sanderson Sisters

So the way I’m going to structure this note is each sister will be like 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3. That’s how long the note is. The Sanderson Sisters ARE the movie. They’re the reason it holds up so well, they’re the reason people keep coming back to it, is because this trio is so absolutely wonderful. Each sister is written and performed in a way where you get a clear sense of who they are as individuals (instead of just being clones of each other), yet they chemistry between the actresses works so wonderfully that the trio is strong as well. They are the heart and fun of the film, with each actress being brilliantly comedic but also able to turn on a villainous dime when necessary. They’re just incredible.

5.1) Bette Midler as Winifred Sanderson.

The leader of the group in both writing and performance, Midler commands the sisters in a natural way. The actress is the most unrecognizable in the part, so much so it took me YEARS to even realize this was Bette Midler. By putting aside any and all ego, Midler gives a performance which embraces its cartoonish fun to totally wrap you in. She pulls focus, commanding every scene she’s in to the point where you can’t/don’t want to take her eyes off of her. She’s just incredible. According to IMDb, this is Midler’s favorite performance of her own. That fun just shows through.

5.2) Kathy Najimy as Mary Sanderson.

Najimy is an absolutely amazing character actress who totally blends into every role she’s given. Mary is no different. Much like Midler, she is able to work with the cartoonish silliness of the part (with a character who is maybe more so that than her sisters) to just make you laugh. There are so many great moments Najimy has, often times while other things are going on, that you have to watch multiple times if you even hope to catch them all. She’s just really great.

5.3) Sarah Jessica Parker as Sarah Sanderson.

The youngest (I believe youngest) Sanderson sister proves that there is no weak link in this chain. Much like Middler, this role is so different from anything else Parker is known for doing (“Sexy in the City”) that I have to remind myself it’s here. She is able to be charmingly dimwitted and absent minded in a way which is absolutely gut busting. There is this wonderful physical and almost airy quality she brings to the part which pulls you in, the way she moves and plays with her beloved boys. But Parker - like the other Sandersons - can turn on a dime to an intimidating baddie. She’s - like the others - is incredible.

6) Max Dennison.

This may be blasphemous (I don’t know all the things people love about Hocus Pocus), but does anyone REALLY watch this movie for Max Dennison as a protagonist? I will admit the place where the character ends is something I appreciate a lot (more on that later), but for most of the film? He starts off as kind of a douche bag who acts all macho, thinks he’s too cool for his new town, and is mean to his sister. Almost every other character in the movie is a more interesting potential protagonist than Max to me, which I will say is not the fault of Omri Katz. He actually does the best he can to make Max seem interesting, because I’m aware that he could’ve been a much bigger pain the butt during the movie. But the writing is just not there as we get to know him, even if he does develop nicely by the film’s end.

7) It was at this moment I realized Alison was a much more interesting protagonist than Max.

Max: “But everyone here knows that Halloween was invented by the candy companies it's a conspiracy!”

Allison: It just so happens that Halloween is based on the ancient feast called All Hallows Eve.”

Allison is actually a bit of a missed opportunity, development wise. She has a good understanding of not only the tradition of Halloween but also the Sanderson Sisters, showing a creepy side to a character who does not appear as a stereotypical goth. She’s rich, doesn’t seem to really care for her parent’s fancy Halloween ball, is kind, brave, but we never really explore her that much. I’d love to get to know a bit more about Allison.

8) The inclusion of buttheads Jay and Ice add a nice bit of humor to the film. Yeah they’re jerks, but their idiocy is definitely funny to watch. Don’t take them seriously as bullies or threats and you’ll enjoy their presence.

8.1) So I was looking up the actors who played Jay and Ice and…AH! ICE IS THE SAME ACTOR AS LARRY FROM “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”!

9) According to IMDb:

Charles Rocket [Max and Dani’s dad] acquired a certain notoriety for swearing on live television during the final moments of the 21 February 1981 episode of Saturday Night Live (1975). There's an in-joke in connection to this, where he says to Max, "Watch your language!".

10) Thora Birch as Dani.

Can I just say, Dani is so much more interesting to me than Max. I kinda wish we saw this movie through her eyes. She just brings a smile to my face whenever she’s on screen. Birch plays Dani with such honest enthusiasm and intelligence (not every kid in movies is played as smart, sadly) that it’s intoxicating. She stands up to the bullies and later her first instinct upon the Sanderson Sister’s resurrection is to LIE HER BUTT OFF in an attempt to make them think she’s a witch! HER FIRST INSTINCT! And then later when she finds out this freaky zombie is nice she’s immediately like, “Hi Billy!” so sweetly. I dig that.

11) Ah great, toxic masculinity infecting an eight year old girl.

Dani [after Max says fighting the bullies would’ve gotten him killed]: “At least you would’ve died like a man.”

Sorry, that’s just a personal thing.

12) Um, maybe some fans of the movie know this, but why exactly the Dennison family move to Salem? I don’t remember it ever being mentioned. I’m assuming job opportunity but what job takes you from LA to Salem?

13) Um Max, you’ve know Allison for like a week (maybe a week and a half). Isn’t this a little much?

Max [about Allison]: “Dani, this is the girl of my dreams.”

14) The Sanderson house has this wickedly creepy sense of place to it. You know these guys aren’t supposed to be there, you know that this is a place of evil, so when things start getting weird it’s not much of a stretch to see it happening.

15)

16) So at one point in the movie Allison hits Mary with a frying pan and all I can think of is this:

17) The most fun this movie has is watching the Sanderson Sisters adapt to 1993. Reacting to things like the, “burning rain of death,” (sprinkler system) the, “black river,” (a pavement road) and even the way they run from approaching firetrucks because of the sirens is all a hoot. Like I said, each actress is amazing and they play it so well. It’s a wonderful source of comedy.

18) Thackery Binx.

Jason Marsden is an excellent voice over actor (perhaps best known as Max in A Goofy Movie and Impulse in “Young Justice”) who helps give Thackery a lot of life. This immortal black cat is wonderfully charming, with a compelling wit and sarcastic sense of humor which helps flesh him out as a character. But he also has a lot of tragedy in his life, a real loneliness. Thackery is a unique and fun addition to the film which just works really well.

19) That’s Doug Jones as Billy Butcherson.

Jones is currently one of the most well regarded character/makeup actors in showbiz, with such famous roles under his belt as both Fauno and The Pale Man in Pan’s Labyrinth, Abe Sapein in the Hellboy films, and the creature in the upcoming The Shape of Water. Just thought I’d share.

20) I gotta say, the Sanderson Sisters are a lot more funny to me in my 20s than my teens. The whole bit with the calming circle specifically had me in stitches.

Also this is great.

Girl Dressed as Angel: “Bless you.”

Sanderson Sisters: [Freak out.]

21) This whole bit with the fake cop is kinda clever, but this bugs me.

Cop [after Dani tells him Max is a virgin] Are you a virgin?

Max: Yeah.

Cop: Really?

22) Garry Marshall’s devilish cameo.

While largely (if not exclusively) serving as a distraction from the plot, it just continues the fun of the Sanderson Sisters adjusting to the new world. Garry Marshall’s presence in any film is a welcome treat, especially when he brings along sister Penny. There’s just a great sense of fun here born from the audience being in on a joke the witches are clearly unaware of.

23) Okay, this always bugged me: couldn’t the kids get A LOT of people to believe them if the talking cat explained what was going on?

(GIF source unknown [if this is your GIF please let me know].)

24) “I Put A Spell On You”

This may be the most iconic moment from the film, working primarily because it’s just so freaking fun! The tune is infectious, it carries a delightful Halloween sense to it, and Midler’s vocals are top notch. It’s just FUN and that’s what works.

25)

Winnie [upon seeing a high school]: “It is a prison for children.”

Well she’s not wrong.

26) As a fan of old school Universal Monster movies, I dig this line.

Max [over the high school PA]: “I’m your host, Boris Karloff Jr.”

27) Honestly I think this film’s biggest issue is a structural one. Some gags, while fun, don’t add much to the overall plot. Also the moment of quiet/peace after the heroes think the Sanderson Sisters are dead just messes with the overall flow. The tension never got high enough for it to be effective or earned. It just throws off the momentum I think.

28) Winifred’s Book.

It’s not often that I discuss prop pieces in these posts but Winnie’s book is in a lot of ways a character unto itself. The art design on the piece is absolutely wonderful and just really interesting. You understand it’s not a possession but (largely because of that eye) something a little more intelligent than that. A little more alive than that.

29) As soon as Allison opens the book this is all I can think of.

(GIF source unknown [if this is your GIF please let me know]

30) Sarah’s song to lure the children (written by James Horner, not composer John Debny) is wonderfully creepy while also being sweet. It makes sense that it would draw in a bunch of kids but as the audience we can hear the sense of doom it has.

31) So this is a classic case of Villain Stupidity™. Winnie HAS her victory! All she needs to do is give her death potion to one of the countless kids which just appeared on her front lawn but she needs to have her revenge so risks it all (needlessly) to go after Dani.

32) Okay, how does Winnie know enough about modern life to make this joke?

Winnie [pulling up next to Max’s car on her broom]: “Pull over! Let me see your driver's permit!”

33) The film’s climax actually is pretty well done. There is a nice sense of stakes and tension to it. THIS is earned, unlike the school scene. And Max’s decision to drink the potion so he can save Dani is a great character choice, showing how strong his relationship with his sister is and what he’ll do to ensure her safety.

34) Okay, when the sun rises at the end all I can think of is…

35) It may be a little cheesy, but I do really like that this film ends with Thackery being reunited with his lost sister Emily after 300 years. Also his goodbye to Dani is really nice.

Hocus Pocus has become a cult classic for a reason. With three absolutely phenomenal actresses acting as the heart of the film, it has a wonderfully wicked sense of fun to it that works at Halloween. But either you’ll like it or you won’t. There are some problems with structure, focus, and some character development. But honestly I don’t care about those so much because it’s just so freaking fun. It more than makes up for its flaws with a sense of humor and cartoonish mayhem which carries the 90 minute run time well. It’s just a fun Halloween movie which everyone should watch once just to see if they like.

#Hocus Pocus #Sanderson Sisters #Bette Midler #Sarah Jessica Parker #Kathy Najimy #Epic Movie (Re)Watch #Omri Katz #Thora Birch #Jason Marsden #Garry Marshall #The More You Know #You Must Not Read From The Book #Doug Jones #Faceplam #Buffy the Vampire Slayer #Sean Murray #Movie #Film #GIF

[thesportssoundoff]

“Yo, this is appointment viewing”A UFC 218 preview

Joey

November 28th

Not since LAST November-December have we had two genuinely stacked PPV events back to back. UFC 217 brought the sizzle with three title fights, former champions and title contenders competing for standing and a loaded prelim slate with HWs and BWs looking to find their place in the world. UFC 218 heads to Detroit with just one title fight but with it a host of potential #1 contender clashes alongside a flat out good undercard with relevant fights and action fights all across the ledger. The headliner is a short notice clash between Max Holloway and Jose Aldo, a pretty damn good 145 lb title fight that could either solidify Max Holloway as a P4P great or reannounce Jose Aldo's return to the top of the division. Under it, all four main cards are REALLY on point with potential #1 contender clashes at HW, LW, Flyweight and SW. I can't begin to express my excitement for this bad boy much longer so let's just get right to it!

Fights: 13

Debuts: 1 (Allan Crowder)

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: 2 (Frankie Edgar OUT, Jose Aldo IN vs Max Holloway/Al Iaquinta OUT,  Charles Oliveira IN vs Paul Felder)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC):  13 (Jose Aldo, Max Holloway, Justin Gaethje, Eddie Alvarez, Alistair Overeem, Henry Cejudo, Sergio Pettis, Francis Ngannou, Michelle Waterson, Tecia Torres, Charles Oliveira, Alex Olivieira, David Teymur)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC:  1 (Angela Magana)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC:  11 (Sergio Pettis, Felice Herrig, David Teymur, Drakkar Klose, Alex Olivieira, Yancy Medeiros, Paul Felder, Tecia Torres, Max Holloway, Francis Ngannou, Alistair Overeem)

Stat Monitor for 2017:

Debuting Fighters (Current number: 41-35)- Allan Crowder

Short Notice Fighters (Current number: 23-34-1)- Jose Aldo, Charles Olivieira

Second Fight (Current number: 27-37)- Justin Willis, Dominick Reyes, Sabah Homasi

Cage Corrosion (18-13-1)- 0

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1- We should begin with the main event which in my estimation an improvement over the Edgar/Holloway booking. To explain, while Edgar/Holloway is a fresh fight and one that would've been truly awesome, we've seen Frankie lose to Aldo twice. Aldo is the superior fighter of that we have no doubt---and so seeing Holloway/Aldo II isn't as fresh but it is a better all around fight. The first fight in my estimation is one of those clear examples of "sometimes stats lie, man." Everybody, almost like a chorus of geese on a cold Winnipeg morning, honks about Aldo winning the first two rounds and that's true but also irrelevant. Why? Because if you WATCH the fight, you can tell that the second round was a round where stats lie. Halloway had no respect for Aldo's power, he marched him down, he took to give (in my opinion he won the round) and by the end of the second round, their respective reactions heading back to their corners should've told you who was winning or about to win that fight. It wasn't Aldo.

2- I also don't buy the idea that leg kicks are some vaunted weapon which has been missing from Aldo's game and will be some deciding factor. For starters, it's not Holloway hasn't faced explosive kickers in the past. Second, it's not Aldo's leg kicks are the key weapon to what was his dominant run to begin with. They're a tool in the act but no more a tool than his amazing takedown defense and superb angles. LASTLY this is a guy who has been rocked/dropped in 3 of his last 4 fights. He's been finished in 2 of them. The only guy who hasn't finished him is a guy who has one KO stoppage in the last six years (love ya Frankie!). Aldo has plenty of ways to beat Holloway and Holloway has plenty of ways to beat him in return---but leg kicks? Not really seeing it. Aldo hasn't been this big leg kick monster since about 2013 or so. They're a sparsely used gimmick at this point.

3- I wonder if the UFC is as frustrated at the 155 lb scene as we are as fans. We have:

-A champion who doesn't seem like he's defending any time soon.

-An interim champion who seems to be torn between waiting for the neverending stop of the McGregor/UFC table dance and taking a fight that risks him losing the biggest payday of his life.

-Two fantastic 155 lb fights that could determine #1 contenders for titles that don't seem to be getting defended any time soon.

-Dustin Poirier sitting on the outside looking in after dominating Anthony Pettis plus depending on who you ask finishing/almost finishing Eddie Alvarez.

Making matters worser than the worst worse, you have Nate Diaz potentially malingering around, the looming threat of Max Holloway or Jose Aldo finally making a move up as well as a solid crop of 155 lb talent who aren't close to title shot contention but would in theory be closing the gap if the division wasn't held up at the top so much (the aforementioned Paul Felder, a suddenly resurgent Clay Guida, Anthony Pettis is still young enough to turn things around, too too early to write off Michael Chiesa and Kevin Lee after tough losses, Devid Teymur and the mystery that is Mairbek Taisumov).  At some point something has to give along these battle lines and I wonder if that means biting the bullet, admitting that there's a need for it and opening up 165 lbs.

3- I do think, title contention wise, it says something that Alvarez/Gaethje is 4th on the card underneath Pettis/Cejudo when it comes to relevancy. Could be nothing, could mean everything.

4- There's a lot of hype and pressure on Francis Ngannou. That's probably well deserved but as I've said perhaps one time too many, don't get caught up in the narrative if he loses. Once upon a time, Stipe Miocic got his first real big step up and he was iced in two rounds by Stefan Struve. Shawn Jordan once put Derrick Lewis on ice skates with a fat guy wheel kick. This will shock and amaze you but fighters do improve over time and at HW, nobody is ever truly a lost cause. Division lives for chaos.

5- I know I'm the weirdo in this regard but I'm really excited to see how Sergio Pettis handles the challenge that is Henry Cejudo. Of all the Duke Roufus products, Sergio is the one who seems to most fit the mold of what they want. Functional in every facet of the fight while still having the flash, sizzle and workrate to keep people interested. Cejudo's rediscovered his power recently and his boxing has looked world's better. I have cardio concerns with him as you always need to but Sergio Pettis has always had an aversion to guys who pack a shot on the feet. This fight could be really great.

6- Paul Felder's stock, which continues to go up and down depending on the time of year, is probably as high as it's been since he iced Danny Castillo way back in 2014. Felder has always been really talented but at 33, the clock's ticking on him really making a run. He's won 4 of his last 5 fights but the only guy who remains int he organization out of that group is Stevie Ray. His losses are two totally acceptable ones (a decision to Barboza where he could've probably won, a 3rd round TKO stoppage vs Francisco Trinaldo in Brazil) and one totally bemusing loss to Ross Pearson where he spun for the entire fight chasing a bonus and never got it. Felder's inconsistency is partially the reason why it's hard to feel overly confident in him vs Charles Olivieira. Do Bronx is always dangerous for a quickie sub and he showed that vs Will Brooks when he got his back and subbed him in the first round in April. Historically Charles has won to the guys he's supposed to beat and found creative insightful ways to lose to the guys he shouldn't. He's always in a fight until it's over and Felder historically leaves enough margin for error where  he could, in theory, give Do Bronx opportunities.

7- David Teymur thus far has passed every test put in front of him. He was successful in TKO-ing guys who he probably would've been fighting on the regional scene and then really broke out when he spoiled the Lando Vannata hype with a decision win in March. Teymur is one of those guys who mixes techniques well, never tries the same trick twice and has improved time and time again whenever he fights. He's a bit old for a prospect (28) and Drakkar Klose will probably be the bigger, stronger fighter but I'm excited to see what Teymur has added to his game during his time away. Dude has top 15 potential in my estimation.

8- There's going to be a lot of interest in the Waterson/Torres fight and fair play to it but I'm all about that Felice Herrig/Courtney Casey bout. I haven't been wow'd in Felice's more recent fights (never really impressed with Kish, thought Grasso won) BUT even having said that, she's finally matching her record with her boisterous personality. On the other hand, I'm all about that Courtney Casey violence. She debuted vs Joanne Calderwood on short notice and put it on her before she gassed. The same for her vs Seo Hee Ham where she started off hot and then the wheels fell off. She rebounded by finishing Christina Stanciu and has a "way more impressive in hindsight" sub of Randa Markos. A loss to Claudia Gadelha followed where she never seemed to get out of second gear and you could almost sense her upside would be "tough woman who lives on the outskirts of the top 10." She then went and beat the fuck out of Jessica Aguilar in a fight that wasn't competitive for a single minute of its duration. She is all action, all the time and Felice Herrig's size, grappling and developing hands are going to give her a real test. This fight is great.

9- Yancy Medeiros vs Alex "Cowboy" Olivieira is gonna be your favorite 90s gore action movie where it's all violence with no sense behind it. Just action figures ramming into one another.

10- Does the Ngannou/Overeem winner gets the "The UFC would like you to face Stipe Miocic on -insert date here-" sprung up on them?

11-  So Dominick Reyes is arguably the most exciting prospect at 205 lbs in a long long time---but I can't help but feel like Jeremy Kimball is going to be a step too far for him in his development. I kind of think the UFC thinks so too since it's buried on the FP prelims where a loss can almost be hidden.

12- Would a loss to Tecia Torres expose Michelle Waterson as being a PVZ-esque hype job?

Must Wins

1- Michelle Waterson

Might as well just flow from A to B, right? Waterson came into the UFC off a loss after the organization had been hounding Invicta to free her up for a while. She went 2-0 and WME-IMG actually signed her and took over as her media reps. The response off of that was a loss to Rose Namajunas where she was outmatched from the get go. Waterson says she went out for a while to get stronger and balance her aggression in the cage (she felt Rose just swarmed her from the jump and she was too timid on the feet) so hopefully we're going to see a new and improved Waterson.  She is still super markketable, talented and has exciting fights more often than not. A loss to Tecia Torres would be really tough on her career and would put a lot of things into question, primarily whether she's big enough for 115 lbs or whether this entire thing is really a new PVZ.

2- Eddie Alvarez

Alvarez exorcised a lot of demons when he beat RDA for the title and ended the bullshit about him just being a good fighter outside of the UFC who couldn't hang (loss to Cerrone and two ugly split decision wins weren't helping). He never had a chance vs McGregor where he was basically knocked out by the first left hand that landed. The last fight vs Dustin Poirier was, I suppose, the return of the Eddie Alvarez of old. He got hurt, survived, found whatever it is that makes him insane and then used it in the second round. A blatantly illegal knee ended the night for Poirier and Alvarez but for a BRIEF second, Eddie Alvarez was the man he was in all those wars. He's had a lot of wear and tear on his body from fighting great competition for little fanfare. The UFC version of Eddie Alvarez is a little smarter, a lot more chinny and the epitome of age kicking in too late to protect the body. Alvarez vs Gaethje really does feel like a battle between Eddie Alvarez retro and Eddie Alvarez off the shelf. Justin Gaethje has a ton of Alvarez in his game while being younger and hitting way harder---but does Eddie still have some magic left?

3- Dominick Reyes

205 lbs needs Dominick Reyes in the worst way. The under 30 LHW prospect got into the UFC on short notice after a viral headkick KO and he did little to disappointed in stomping out Joachim Christenson. Still I think we can admit that Christensen is ways away from being UFC quality and so Reyes still hasn't beaten someone of note. Jeremy Kimball isn't great shakes BUT he has a very deceptive record. He started his career 5-3 and since then he's gone 10-3 which includes a 1-1 stint at Bellator and wins over dudes with far more fanfare than he (TUF finalist Matt Van Buren, Cody Mumma and Chidi Njokuani all ring a bell). This is a sneaky test of Reyes' ability and I'm hoping he'll pass it.

Can't Miss Fights

1-  Justin Gaethje vs Eddie Alvarez

2- Jose Aldo vs Max Holloway

3- Francis Ngannou vs Alistair Overeem

4-Henry Cejudo vs Sergio Pettis

5- Alex  Oliveira vs Yancy Medeiros

#MMA #UFC #Holloway #Aldo #Medeiros #Oliveira #Cejudo #Pettis #Ngannou #Overeem

[res-hippie]

get-to-know-me survey

1: Name: noor 3: 3 Fears: being burned alive, buried alive, heights  4: 3 things I love: tv shows, books, nature 5: 4 turns on: humor, kindness, not insecure, dependable/reliable 6: 4 turns off: rudeness, arrogance, treating ppl based off appearance, idk just talking down to someone 8: Sexual orientation: straight, unfortunately 11: What do I miss: being happy 12: What time were I born: sunrise 13: Favorite color: light orange/peach 14: Do I have a crush: Jack Whitehall 😍 15: Favorite quote: anything by sylvia plath 16: Favorite place: in nature, on a rainy day 17: Favorite food: Indian street food 18: Do I use sarcasm: not really 19: What am I listening to right now: hindi songs 20: First thing I notice in new person: the way they look at me, their attitude 21: Shoe size: unreasonably small 22: Eye color: warm brown :) 23: Do I like roller coasters? God no, I have motion sickness 🤮 24: Favorite style of clothing: 70s, mini skirt, fitted tops, color block sweaters, ie: jackie burkhart, sumtimes fran fine 27: Meaning behind my URL: none, it just sounded cool 28: Favorite movie: the prestige, eternal sunshine of a spotless mind 29: Favorite song: alors danse by stromae, she'll be loved by maroon 5, 30: Favorite band: imagine dragons  31: How I feel right now: unhappy 32: Someone I love: me 33: My current relationship status: imaginary 34: My relationship with my parents: unhealthy, non-existent 35: Favorite holiday: christmas 36: Tattoos and piercing i have: simple, ears 37: Tattoos and piercing i want: oof😍 nose piercing on left side in which i would insert a small silver hoop, more on my ears at least 2 or 3 (double helix) [maybe one cartilage and maybe a tattoo of a small leaf or something somewhere] 38: The reason I joined Tumblr: it looked fun 39: Do I and my last ex hate each other? yes and no 40: Do I ever get “good morning” or “good night ” texts? lol no, I'm not sure if i would want them, seem like a nuisance 42: When did I last hold hands? with myself? 50: Do I have someone of the opposite sex I can tell everything to? Yeah probably 51: How often do I wear a fake smile? More often than my real smile  57: What do I think about most? Past mistakes 58: Do I have any strange phobias? You know how ppl are scared of flying on planes? Well, when I was young, I saw a movie where an astronaut's tether to his ship got cut and he floated away to his death, and the scene must've stayed with me, bc I was scared of flying, not bc I thought the plane was going to go down, but I thought we’d go too high, and we'd accidentally get stuck in space and die there. lmao I really didn't understand atmosphere as a child. So whenever the turbulence hit, everyone was like “I hope we don't go down,” I was praying “I hope we don't go up” 60: Do I prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it? Behind, i think 61: What was the last lie I told? Its ok 63: Do I believe in ghosts? How about aliens? ghosts no, aliens yes 64: Do I believe in magic? Science is magical 67: What was the last book I've read? Red queen 68: Do I like the smell of gasoline? Lol yeah 69: Do I have any nicknames? noor, for myself: dumb bitch 72: Can I touch my nose with a tongue? No, i don't really care to either  78: How can you win my heart? Be funny and be nice 79: What would I want to be written on my tombstone? Idk, y'all suck 80: What is my favorite word? Atm: y'all 82: If the whole world were listening to me right now, what would I say? Stop having kids 84: I accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what’s even cooler is that they endow me with the super-power of my choice! What is that power? To fly 86: What is my current desktop picture? Flowers🥀🌻🥀🌻🥀 :) 90: Failed a class? Had an F for awhile, never failed 93: Have I ever kissed somebody in the rain? on my bucketlist ;) 98: Played on a sports team? Does PE count? probably not 

99: Weird desire? I want bigger hands 103: Am I a vegetarian/vegan? Vegetarian 110: Gotten my heart broken? Yeah :( 111: Been to a professional sports game? No, Thank God 118: Had a crush on someone of the same sex? no 124: Voted in a presidential election? yes, but she lost to an oompa loompa 127: Met someone famous? No :( and i live in LA, so it should've happened already 128: Stalked someone on a social network? Fk yeah 129: Peed outside? Not that I can remember, ever 130: Been fishing? No, and like, i want to, but i don't want hurt the fish 132: Been rejected by a crush? Informally, yeah 133: Favorite K-drama? Heartless City, and i think, Smile You, Jung Kyung-ho can GET it

134: Favorite Ship? idk, maybe Klaroline

What is your idea of paradise?  In nature, alot of greenery, like a meadow, empty for miles around, gloomy af, raining hard, like to me that is heaven on earth Do you believe in god and if so what is he/she/it like?  I'm an atheist :) I don't believe in God. 159: Which do I value more in others, brains or beauty? neither, inner beauty, intelligence doesn't matter 183: What is my spirit animal? panda 184: How do I want to be remembered? i don't tbh, pls forget me, Obliviate bitches 185: If I could master one skill, what would I choose? idk playing the piano, typing without looking at keyboard, a lot of button pressing going on here, genuine confidence

190: If I could time travel, where and when would I want to go? the future, im curious  191: What makes me the happiest? rainnnn, gloomy weather, a warm cup of cha, and a good book, or my tv shows 194: If I could choose my last words, what would they be? fuck y'all tbh 195: Would I ever want to encounter aliens? fk yea, take me away homies 199: Live in the city or suburbs? suburbs, i want sum peace and quiet, city life is glamorous, but you realize it's kind of a facade every once in a while

216: Favorite fictional character? Atticus Finch

[thisweekingundamwing]

August 27-September 2, 2017

This week’s installment of wonderful Gundam Wing works is here!

Please sit back and enjoy them! Lots of things to read and art work to drool over.

~Mod Hel

Fanfiction:

@ahsimwithsake​

Chains (Ch. 7-9) http://archiveofourown.org/works/10884354/chapters/26941902

In which Trowa tries to get back to normal.

@anaranesindanarie​

Death Unspeaking (Ch. 5) http://archiveofourown.org/works/11483196/chapters/27041313

What happens when a Gundam Pilot is mute? What happens when the other Pilots look down at him because of it? Will he overcome the odds or will the odds overcome him?

I Swear (Ch. 2) http://archiveofourown.org/works/11967684/chapters/27064149

Chang Wufei/Duo Maxwell

Trowa Barton, Duo Maxwell, Chang Wufei

Song fic, Breakups, pinning

End of Summer Block Party Tropefest!

Strangers http://archiveofourown.org/works/11974647

Character Death, Song fic, Death Fic, hope you like it, The feels, Suicide?, accident?,i have no clue

This is for Shini who asked that someone write a fic to this song. I hope you like it!!!

The song is Strangers by Scratch21.

Bernie Calling

Triangle (Ch. 9) https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12512891/9/Triangle

Suite "les chasseurs sont lâchés" et " Dilemme" Pourquoi cela s'appelle un triangle amoureux? Duo ne comprend pas, il aime Heero, Heero l'aime ainsi que Hilde, seulement ni elle, ni lui ne sont amoureux. Ce n'est pas un triangle à la rigueur ça peut être un angle amoureux

Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell, Hilde Schbeiker

@chronicwhimsy​

Symptoms of Exposure http://archiveofourown.org/works/11966928

Chang Wufei/Duo Maxwell/Heero Yuy

trope: sex pollen, dubious consenticles, but not really, A little?, they all check things are happy, consent is important kids, also Very Bad Science, and poor quarantine procedure, for reasons of shameless filth.

After exposure to an unknown substance in the course of an operation, Heero, Duo and Wufei spend the night in quarantine. A long, increasingly acrobatic night…

End of Summer Block Party Tropefest!

@claraxbarton​

Ready for You (Ch. 5) http://archiveofourown.org/works/11763066/chapters/26972172

A chance meeting ten years after the war leads Duo and Trowa down an unexpected path.

2X3

Academic AU http://claraxbarton.tumblr.com/post/164774181565/trowa-looked-at-the-single-table-at-the-small-and

2X3, First Morning... >_>

Academic AU http://claraxbarton.tumblr.com/post/164790571080/the-faculty-meeting-wasinteresting-trowa

Faculty Meeting was interesting

Diana_Lua

Right Now http://archiveofourown.org/works/11946267

"And we wanna fight; each of us has something to do, something to achieve.

So, we just wanna be right here, right now.

We got fire, so, let it burn…"

Warning: Some context of Episode Zero, chapter 4.

Trowa Barton

Burning (Ch. 3) https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12326620/3/Burning

Same as above...(but this is connected to the first two chapters).

Ónoma Ὄνομα http://archiveofourown.org/works/11970393/chapters/27071328

Sometimes it's necessary to choose a new name to live freely. [AU; Something about Duo's past with Solo; 'Where my demons hide' side story (can be read independent of it); Angst; Shounen-ai; probably yaoi/lemon at ending (Angel incest)]

Duo Maxwell/Solo

Duo Maxwell, Solo (Gundam Wing), Zechs Merquise, Naina Peacecraft

Angst, Yaoi, Angel Sex, Shounen-ai, Alternate Universe

Duointherain

Santa Clarita: You’re not my Mother! http://archiveofourown.org/works/11939703

In the virtual world, Duo discovers his power and a moment before he tears Heero's mind apart, Martha shows up to send him to his room.

Santa Clarita: Going Home (Ch. 3) http://archiveofourown.org/works/11858241/chapters/26916459

Heero thinks he's going to find a young Duo, that he'll be responsible for him, that he's going to do everything he can to take care of him. Things never go to plan.

ExecutiveShrimp

The Princess With The Purple Heart (Ch. 19) https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12584463/19/The-Princess-With-The-Purple-Heart

AU, 2x1: Don’t ask, don’t tell.

Greentbag

Trust (Ch. 15) https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12226861/15/Trust

It’s been years since the Gundams existed, yet he still manages to find himself in the clasp of those metallic prongs. The scientist has always been lethal, he knew that better than anyone. But how much did they know about the good doctor? More importantly how did they manage to involve Relena? He could never bring himself to kill her, the old man might not be so lucky.

Duo Maxwell, Heero Yuy, Relena Darlian/Peacecraft, Doctor J

Friction (Ch. 4) https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12627540/4/Friction

AU(ish). Relena, a preventer agent is sent on mandatory leave after the death of a colleague. With no choice, she heads to her favorite vacation spot for some much needed r&r. No one told her she would be neighbours with the very handsome, very intriguing Trowa Barton.

@isolavirtuosa

Unlikely Office Romances (9&10) http://isolavirtuosa.tumblr.com/post/164709214984/unlikely-office-romances-9-10

1x2x1, probably PG-13ish though there are some mildly sexy times and the usual trashmouth

Basically Duo is a jerk and Heero is an awkward nerd.

Unlikely Office Romances (25) http://isolavirtuosa.tumblr.com/post/164856606269/unlikely-office-romances-25

1x2x1

It’s the last part!  Thanks for reading <3

((All other ���parts’ are connected, be sure to read them all!))

@kangofu-cb

Just Getting Warmed Up http://archiveofourown.org/works/11923545

Trowa Barton/Duo Maxwell

Huddling For Warmth, Tropes, Sex, loads of sex, mostly just sex.

Duo and Trowa are hiding following a mission in a frozen wasteland. An unexpected storm causes lower than expected temperatures, leaving them only one option… Huddle for warmth. 

End of Summer Tropefest!

Right in Front of Me http://archiveofourown.org/works/11923836

Chang Wufei/Duo Maxwell, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Quatre Raberba Winner/Heero Yuy, past Duo/Trowa

Duo Maxwell, Chang Wufei, Heero Yuy, Trowa Barton, Quatre Raberba Winner, Zechs Merquise

Tropes, Fake Marriage, a bunch of emotional shit, some commentary on figuring out orientation, Pining, Sex, somewhere in all this emotional bullshit there's sex in here, not angsty though, for once, Fluff, happy endings, Alternate Universe - College/University

End of Summer Tropefest!

@lbro009

Legacy Part 4: WuFei’s POV https://lbro009.tumblr.com/post/164713501400/legacy-part-4-wufei-pov

An old story I am trying to finish up- set post-EW. Mostly about Sally but also heavily featuring Duo and Wufei, among other characters. A smidge of Zechs in this chapter too. Angst angsty angst is how I would describe this chapter.

Lord Raa

Heero Sandwich (Ch. 7) https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12594063/7/Heero-Sandwich

Nobody asked for this, especially not Heero Yuy, but here we are all the same.

Prepare for a "comedy" with some adult content. If the chapters feel truncated, then you might want to look for a certain Fanfiction Forum on the (dot) net for a more complete experience.

luvsanime02

Turbulence http://archiveofourown.org/works/11927283/chapters/26957496

The story about what Agent Frank Parks has been up to between Evasion and now.

This is the seventh story in Navigation, a fem!Heero series.

I noted this in the tags, but I just want to say again that there are a couple of sexist slurs in this interlude, and I don't want anyone to be caught off-guard. Read safely!

Maeyne_Ann

Boot Camp fr (Ch. 24) https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5998164/24/Boot-Camp-fr

1X2, 3X4, AU, Yaoi, Langage grossier oulàà, et pas qu'un peu, Assez OOC, Violence, ref. NCS plus tard

French translation of Snowdragonct’s Boot Camp.

Maldoror_Chant

Darkside Tales http://archiveofourown.org/works/11910963/chapters/26913267

A Preventer has caught a thief. How banal. Having a straight poker like Chang Wufei chain him up and hang him from the ceiling is a tiny bit on the left side of banal, but still within spitting distance, Duo judges. Nothing to see here, folks, keep walking.

But on the darkside of this tale, like a cracked photographic plate, monsters of the mind are revealed.

5/1, 5/2

Moving http://archiveofourown.org/works/11973444

Goddamn, moving was a pain in the ass. You had to strip yourself down to the bare bones, and Duo had spent five years in Sanq padding himself up.

Duo Maxwell/Heero Yuy

Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell, Chang Wufei, Relena Peacecraft

The trauma of moving house,Relena Finds Out, And loses her shit, Sparkly shining things, Jerry - Freeform

Mistaken-Miracles

When The Tides Change (Ch. 31) https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12432602/31/When-The-Tides-Change

Preventers learn of a new underground rebellion group, along with the arrival of a new ally. Can Heero put his feelings aside to trust this ally or will new discoveries create tension between the Gundam Pilots? Can they work together to keep the peace? Or are there too many complications to control?

Heero Yuy, Relena Darlian/Peacecraft, Trowa Barton, OC

Morbidbirdy & @the-indomitable-bhg​

Where I Belong (Ch. 21) http://archiveofourown.org/works/10691187/chapters/27012999

In the year AC 205 the status of the Earth-Sphere remains relatively peaceful thanks to the efforts of the ESUN and it’s peacekeeping organization Preventer. The five young men who had once fought together for this peace now work quietly behind the scenes to maintain it. Despite their new roles in this world, Heero and Trowa struggle to establish a comfortable place in it. In the process of finding themselves they eventually realize that their place is with each other.

Something About Us (Ch. 20) http://archiveofourown.org/works/11333262/chapters/27012636

Five Years after Operation Meteor the fragile peace between Earth and the colonies is once again threatened when a beloved prominent political figure is assassinated. The former Gundam pilots come together again for a new mission, which forces unexplored feelings to arise between Heero and Trowa.

Zodiac Black (Ch. 2) http://archiveofourown.org/works/11947887/chapters/27012120

Set several years in the future, Heero and his seasoned crew are on a mission to transport passengers from Earth to a colony planet. Under the guidance of new management, the crew has to cope with the inconvenient changes that disrupt their lives on the ship. Heero, captain of the Zodiac Black, faces off with a longtime rival who threatens his control. Will the crew successfully complete their mission despite the chaos that ensues? Or will something go terribly wrong, forcing them to abandon their journey?

@nekoflashficcing​

Misadventures http://nekoflashficcing.tumblr.com/post/164882685645/gw-misadventures

Magic gone wrong AU/accidental summoning AU

End of Summer Block Party Tropefest!

Speed http://archiveofourown.org/works/11968653

AU - Quatre and Duo meet at a dating event.

End of Summer Block Party Tropefest!

@noelleian​

Beyond the Nexus http://archiveofourown.org/works/11932002

In a bid to increase his income, Trowa accepts the position of Executive Assistant to New York’s most distinguished fashion editor, Quatre Winner. Over time, he begins to fall in love with standoffish blond and hopes to be the one who can crack the icy fortress that Quatre's built around himself. He finds the courage during their first night in London, but Trowa’s reward comes at a steep price after the unwelcome arrival of an old flame.

End of Summer Block Party Tropefest!

@outofworkshinigami​

Special Needs (Ch. 8) http://archiveofourown.org/works/10549412/chapters/26964906?view_adult=true

Sally finally gets out of Duo what happened between him and Wufei. Treize’s fate is decided.

Also known as the chapter in which Relena is a badass and hands Treize his balls in a gift bag. (Rather, BALL. Singular. He lost the other one to Tallgeese ii.)

Heavy warnings for mentions of rape/non-con, as with the entire fic

Control http://archiveofourown.org/works/11965875

Sometimes, you don't truly believe you've been traumatized until someone getting you ice cubes causes you to shatter a drinking glass.

Treize Khushrenada, Zechs Merquise, Lady Une, Vingt Khushrenada, Hundeldt Catalonia, Angelica Khushrenada

13x6, 13x11

Warnings: past child abuse, past rape, past incest.

@post-settlement​

PS: Mars Fic https://post-settlement.tumblr.com/post/164679931324/characterdevelopmentforwriters-has-your-character

About growing your own food.

@remsyk-blog​

Blooming For You http://archiveofourown.org/works/11981688/chapters/27101835

Hanahaki Disease

Established 1x3x1, eventual 1x2x3

"You made flowers grow in my lungs, and though they are beautiful, I can't fucking breathe."

Duo has silently loved for them for years. He watched them find each other, yet the feelings still remained. But now the love he's carried for so long may become the thing that ends him.

End of Summer Block Party Tropefest!

@rhysgalentalcernunnos​ & @anaranesindanarie​

The Maxwell Twins: Shi and Duo (Ch.7) http://archiveofourown.org/works/11026149/chapters/27043587

(It had apparently been left out...)

Shadow-Hawk2

Imperial Guard (Ch. 59) https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12559874/59/Imperial-Guard

Duo Maxwell is trapped in another part of the galaxy far from all that he knows and the woman he loves. He must learn to survive among primitive violent people and accept that he may never be able to return to Earth.

ShenLong

Bound, Bonded, and Betrayed (Ch. 61) http://archiveofourown.org/works/7188593/chapters/27087705

Heero is the eldest son of the King of Colonia. His 21st birthday is approaching and as tradition dictates his betrothed is soon to arrive. However he is also bound by tradition to select his own personal slave. The events that unfold lead him down a path that not only tests his sanity but his humanity and love as well.

1x2, 3x4, 1xR, 2xR

Soloscry

Mysteria: Myth of the Siren (Ch. 11) https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12615425/11/Mysteria-Myth-of-the-Siren

A cursed Siren must find the One to lift the eternal darkness cast upon his eyes. But can the beautiful creature of the sea be able to purify the ruthless heart of the One?

1x2, 3x4, 13x5

AU, Dark, Angst, Romance, 13x5 Initial Non-Con

Luxevar (Ch. 7) https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12628162/7/Luxevar

A beautiful male, betrothed to the Master Vampire of the City, enrolls himself into a Boarding School under strict orders to find the Human who's been tracking cult-movements. His mission: Seduce and Kill. But can he do such a thing when his love for the Human becomes stronger than the love he has for his Master?

1x2, 3x4, 13x5

AU, Dark, Romance, Vampire, Lemon

Taichara

Knights And Castles http://archiveofourown.org/works/11947839

Some years after the final clash over Mars, Gaelio's found he has unusual company indeed ...

機動戦士ガンダム 鉄血のオルフェンズ | Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans, Gundam Wing Frozen Teardrop, Gaelio Bauduin, Heero Yuy, Alternate Universe

Tahiri-Chan

Studio 10 (Ch. 3) https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12623011/3/Studio-10

Quand on a 16 ans, et que la vie ne vous a laissé aucun répit, il faut du courage pour aller de l'avant ! Et faire les rencontres qui changeront vos vies...

Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell

@the-indomitable-bhg​

https://the-indomitable-bhg.tumblr.com/post/164655310602/the-deafening-grating-sound-of-metal-intruding

Snippet from Eve War Event fic

“Good Deeds” https://the-indomitable-bhg.tumblr.com/post/164849415777/tropes-supernatural-au-high-school-setting

TROPES:  Supernatural AU, High School Setting  |  Zombies, Tentacles |

Duo Maxwell & Heero Yuy (+ Relena Peacecraft )

God of Death Duo Maxwell encounters a rather formidable zombie.

@gwblockparty Gundam Wing Fan Fiction &  Art submission by BHG

TheManwell

May Demons Rest: Shinigami Sleeps (2017) (Ch. 18 & 19) http://archiveofourown.org/works/10944786/chapters/26929380

2X3, warnings for language...

Vega_Lume @vegalume​

Afterthoughts of Discourse (Ch. 8) http://archiveofourown.org/works/4095778/chapters/26936103

Angst, MPREG, Yaoi, Het, limey? Lemony? Mountain Dew?(Let’s just say there are some citrusy parts, k?)

2x1, 2xH, OMCx1

@weiclown​

Accidental Clone http://archiveofourown.org/works/11980098

Quatre was simply touring the research labs at WEI. He hadn’t planned on being doused in an experimental liquid that didn’t have any obvious reactions right away. What will he and his lovers do when faced with a perfect clone of the blonde CEO?

Trowa/Quatre/Wufei/Clone! Quatre (in various combinations)  Smut, NSFW, No plot.

End of Summer Block Party Tropefest!

Fanart:

@endlesschaoscosart​

https://endlesschaoscosart.tumblr.com/post/164678575071/trowa-barton-as-roy-walker-by-endlesschaoscosart

Trowa Barton as Roy Walker

@gundamwing-ellesmith​

http://gundamwing-ellesmith.tumblr.com/post/146208549944/pure-nonsense-inspired-by-this-post

The GW boys on Peacemillion

@hainekoken

http://hainekoken.tumblr.com/post/164752439661

Trowa Barton

@jadeune​

https://jadeune.tumblr.com/post/164881980206/so-i-dont-write-fics-i-draw-so-for-my

Duo Maxwell/Trowa Barton

End of Summer Block Party Tropefest!

@littleladyfish​

http://littleladyfish.tumblr.com/post/30132093101/i-still-dont-think-wufei-gets-enough-fan-art

WuFei Chang

@maevemauvaise​

http://maevemauvaise.tumblr.com/post/164917528156/yeah-so-ive-really-been-feeling-relena-as

Relena as Anastasia

@milliardo​

http://milliardo.tumblr.com/post/164818905520/a-gundam-wing-song-came-on-my-playlist-so-i-had-to

Milliardo Peacecraft/Zechs Merquise

@missingart​

https://missingart.tumblr.com/post/164812001040/thisweekingundamwing-requested-lucrezia-noin-from

Lucrezia Noin

@my-lovely-sketches​

https://my-lovely-sketches.tumblr.com/post/164693345233/uploading-old-fanart-of-mine-back-in-2000-i-was

WuFei Chang, Heero Yuy, Quatre Raberba Winner, Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton

@space-husband​

https://space-husband.tumblr.com/post/164694644832/i-did-the-thing

Gundam Heavyarms, model

@vegalume​

http://vegalume.tumblr.com/post/164764416350/hand-painted-wall-scroll-24-by-36-inches-on-blue

Heero You, Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton, Quatre Raberba Winner, WuFei Chang

Cosplay:

@mysteryandcheekbones

http://mysteryandcheekbones.tumblr.com/post/164894810733

Duo Maxwell, Heero Yuy

@outofworkshinigami​

http://outofworkshinigami.tumblr.com/post/164782098487/more-metrocon-photos-renmaxwell-as-mercy-and

@renmaxwell, @chemicalcrush​, @abitofdeath​, @scytheatariocosplay​, @ahsimwithsake​

MetroCon

Head Canons:

@lifeaftermeteor​

https://lifeaftermeteor.tumblr.com/post/164876823419/that-rd-shop-has-a-whole-lot-of-files-that-are

Quatre Raberba Winner

@outofworkshinigami​

http://outofworkshinigami.tumblr.com/post/164741784392/treize-headcanons-i-love-to-imagine-young-treize

Treize Khushrenada

(Taking/was taking asks about everyone’s Treize HCs)

@maevemauvaise​

http://maevemauvaise.tumblr.com/post/164697610281/the-indomitable-bhg-dorothy-catalonia-im

Dorothy Catalonia (check out the notes)

@the-indomitable-bhg

https://the-indomitable-bhg.tumblr.com/post/164704855127/pallistic-peridot-meteorite-gemstone-gundam

Birthday stone headcanon for Trowa, Heero, and Duo.

Chats/Dialouges:

@the-indomitable-bhg​

https://the-indomitable-bhg.tumblr.com/post/164762419472/duo-whats-up-bromeo-wufei-what-did-you-just

Bromeo. Duo Maxwell, WuFei Chang

No Idea What To Put This Under:

@helmistress​

https://helmistress.tumblr.com/post/164717477004/this-thing

Another Discord server for Gundam Wing

(Join both! It’ll be fun!)

In case anyone missed it!

http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-feature/2017/04/17/feature-found-in-translation-how-gundam-wing-became-a-global-phenomenon

Crunchyroll Article about Gundam Wing’s Epicness!

@lifeaftermeteor​

https://lifeaftermeteor.tumblr.com/post/164843762549/so-i-went-ahead-and-uploaded-my-fsts-or-most-of

FST on Spotify

@snufffie​

http://snufffie.tumblr.com/post/164081305120/im-setting-up-a-gundam-wing-discord-server-pm-me

They have created a Discord server for Gundam Wing

Ask them about it! ^_^

Calendar Events:

End of Summer Block Party @gwblockparty

https://gwblockparty.tumblr.com/post/164876416556/its-here

Tropefest! Get your trope on!

Entries to be posted September 1st - 4th! (Happening Now!)

Gundam Wing Eve War Event @gw-evewar

https://gw-evewar.tumblr.com/post/164079261510/an-open-gundam-wing-fandom-community-science

Open Science Fiction Themed Event

(Saturday) December 23, 2017 - (Sunday) December 24, 2017

*** Event will be observing Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) ***

Submissions: Fanfiction, Meta essays, Personal Headcanon, Fan Art

Rules: All works must feature a science fiction theme. Alternate Universes, and cross-over fiction are welcome. There are no limits to characters, pairings, audience rating, time frame or universe.

OC October @gwoc-october

https://gwoc-october.tumblr.com/post/164521028355/update

For the month of October, we can post everything and anything pertaining to fan OCs in Gundam Wing with weekly themes and perhaps a featured OC every other day or so. This includes fic, snippets, art, OC profiles, headcanons, ships, discussions, and anything you have as long as it’s about an OC. Even if this OC of yours is still in the mulling-stages, we want to hear about it! Let’s embrace OCs and celebrate our collective awesomeness.

This Week in Gundam Events @thisweekingundamevents

Our new sideblog for helping to host Gundam Wing fandom events!

Check us out and hit us up!

Currently just reblogging Gundam Wing event in progress!

#thisweekingundamwing #This Week in Gundam Wing #Okay so about 5 things were submitted #at least one tagged us #and there were several thing messaged. #But still most of this was from me seeing it or searching for it on AO3 and FF.net. #Not bad. ^_^ #Gundam Wing #August 27 - September 2 2017

[mrjeremydylan]

My Favorite Album #223 - Sarah Lewitinn (Ultragrrrl) on Interpol 'Our Love to Admire' and why they should have been 'the' band of the 2000s

Sarah Lewitinn's career has taken from writer to manager to DJ, self-described 'queen of beneficient debauchery' and the once and future 'Ultragrrl'.

In a personal and emotionally honest conversation, Sarah makes the case for Interpol's 'Our Love to Admire' as the band's best album and the deep, slow-burning relationship she has had with it. We talk about the efforts she's made to keep her personal distance from the members of Interpol, the legend and reality of Carlos D, and how the album feels like the closing chapter on an era of her New York life.

If you haven't yet, I recommend reading Lizzy Goodman's amazing oral history of the 2000s NYC rock scene 'Meet Me in the Bathroom', in which Sarah features, and listening to my recent podcast with Lizzy.

Listen in the player above or download the episode by clicking here.

Subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts here or in other podcasting apps by searching ‘My Favorite Album’ or copying/pasting our RSS feed -http://myfavoritealbum.libsyn.com/rss

My Favorite Album is a podcast on the impact great music has on our lives. Each episode features a guest on their favorite album of all time - why they love it, their history with the album and how it’s influenced them. Jeremy Dylan is a filmmaker, journalist and photographer. He directed the the feature music documentary Jim Lauderdale: The King of Broken Hearts (out now!) and the film Benjamin Sniddlegrass and the Cauldron of Penguins.

If you’ve got any feedback or suggestions, drop us a line at [email protected].

LINKS

- Sarah Lewitinn on Twitter and Instagram. Read her archived blog here.

- Buy ‘Our Love to Admire’ here.

- Jeremy Dylan’s website, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook page.

- Like the podcast on Facebook here.

- If you dig the show, please leave a rating or review of the show on iTunes here.

CHECK OUT OUR OTHER EPISODES

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#podcast #sarah lewitinn #ultragrrl #interpol #our love to admire #carlos d #paul banks #greg drudy #spin #the strokes #meet me in the bathroom

[moonsault-fics]

Extreme Deadline Exchange Letter!

Dear Exchange Writer: thank you for taking part in my favorite exchange and being willing to write one of my requests!

An advance apology: I’ll have family visiting when the collection goes live—I’m hoping to have time to get to my gift quickly anyway, but if I run late on my response, that’s why.

General likes: Gen and slash are both fantastic. Romance can range from pre-slash (I actually love relationships written as just a shade more emotionally intense than canon but not explicitly romantic) to NC-17.  Mutual pining, I love mutual pining, especially if it’s eventually reciprocated (but angsty mutual pining that doesn’t get consummated is great too!)  I love dubcon and just about any scenario where characters are forced into sex that they want but refuse to admit they want, maybe even to themselves—and that desire can remain angstily unacknowledged or enthusiastically consensual by the end.  I really like stories about the actual world of wrestling—I love plotted-out fantasy bookings, descriptions of feuds and matches, details of life on the road or backstage moments, etc.  On the other hand, I also enjoy non-mundane AUs—fantasy, science fiction, spies, pirates, feel free to go crazy!

I’m fascinated by the Firefly Funhouse right now and the possibilities for brainwashing and weird dubcon scenarios with any possible pairing.  I’m not usually into ageplay, but I could definitely have a taste for an attempted rescue of a mentally-deaged character that goes horribly wrong and sex is required to snap someone out of it or get Bray to let them go. Non-sexual scenarios are also interesting—Sami having to deal with a Kevin wiped back to a teenager could be super angsty gen or non-sexual romance as well.  Physical de-aging seems possible too (though keep anything like that non-sexual, please, that would be a bridge too far for me).

DNW: Anything non-kayfabe compliant (the characters shouldn’t know the results of matches beforehand; no wallet names). Rape, non-con, infidelity—if you write sex or romance, please simply un-marry any married characters and remove their spouses from the story entirely. Alpha/omega dynamics. Rimming, scat, water sports, vore, daddy kink.

Requests:

Brian Kendrick: just about any character study or plotty fic with Brian!  What caused his recent change of heart?  How does he feel about his relationship with Tozawa and how does that alliance work behind the scenes?  Now that Jack Gallagher seems to be shifting face-ward, does Brian get in touch with him? And how does he feel about Daniel Bryan’s return from retirement and fall into darkness?  None of those relationships were in the tag set [update: I’m a blind dork I think all of them were nominated, I just... failed to see them.  Consider them on the table one way or the other!] and , but if you feel like writing any of them as romantic, feel free (but absolutely not required).  He lost his beard and cut his hair recently and immediately looked 15 years younger—how do he or others feel about that?  And he’s said that he still dreams of wrestling Daniel Bryan—if you want to fantasy-book that match with Bryan, that would be lovely.

Sami/Kevin; oh gosh, anything at all. Gen, pre-slash, slash; from fluffy to romantic to angsty to downright dark; from their earliest days to right now to a hypothetical future.  I’d love something from a champfuck beltworld AU where a battered, bruised Sami is required to have sex with new NXT champ Kevin (though please keep it dubcon and have Sami secretly or explicitly be into it by the end).  More recently, how did Sami feel, watching Kevin have fun with New Day, and how did he react to Kevin’s turn on Kofi?  What happened when they were both injured that led to their friendship apparently cooling off?  They teamed up against New Day on the European tour—did they get along outside the ring as well?  I am a sucker for mutual pining with these two and will not complain if you literally write them as having pined for each other for 16 years, I don’t care how implausible that is. On the kink front, with this pairing blood play, pet play, and informal BDSM are all delicious.

For Kevin or Sami alone: any piece about their motivations or storylines at the moment!  I'm fascinated and wracked up by where they both are emotionally right now, broken and miserable and cut off from human connection, whether with the fans or other wrestlers. Explore what you feel about their situations, fantasy-book them a path out of the misery, both are good.  You can write a story about Kevin without Sami, or about Sami without Kevin, that's fine--but please don't write either of them in a pairing with another character, they're the OTP that I cannot multiship (Kevin being married is fine if he's not attracted to Sami, though!)

Naito/Hiromu: Either as comrades or as lovers! I love their dynamic, where Hiromu’s passionate caring about things breaks down Naito’s shell of not-caring.  This is another great one for mutual pining, since there are some compelling reasons why Naito wouldn’t want to risk coming on to a subordinate and Hiromu, for all his brashness, might be hesitant to risk the rapport of LIJ.  Since it looks like Hiromu’s injury won’t end his career, feel free to write some h/c about his recovery, or to fantasy-book his return. Does Naito win the G1 in honor of him?  The two of them lost and bewildered on some hypothetical foreign tour that lets them explore an area you know well might be fun. And how does Hiromu feel about Naito’s complex relationship with the IC title?  I love the found family of LIJ, so feel free to include any or all of them in a fic as well.

Mustafa: Anything based on his recent switch to the main roster—his reactions to Daniel, his observations about other wrestlers. Does he miss 205 Live?  Have his relationships with the 205 wrestlers (who of course he still sees backstage every week) changed at all?  He wants a match with Kofi—a story fantasy-booking an eventual title match (maybe a win?) would be wonderful.  He’d be fascinating to see feuding or teaming up with Aleister Black—the darkness and the light.  And I think Bray would be fascinated with him as well, as a possible captive firefly in the dark.  I’d be happy with either gen or slash and would be amenable to seeing him with Daniel, Drew Gulak, or Aleister if you find any of those interesting.

Drew Gulak:  Drew seems to be spinning his wheels a lot right now.  Any reflection on his current status or fantasy-booking leading to title win at last would be great!  Why does he keep desperately forming factions and alliances, and why do they never seem to work out?  How does he feel about Jack and Humberto going off on their own, apparently?  If you want to go back to bad old times, does he have any memories of his days in the Zo Train and do those humiliations still drive him?  Does he miss Mustafa at all?  If you want to write slash, I happily ship him with Jack, Mustafa, Humberto or Tony, but gen is very welcome too.

#wwe fic

[personata6980]

Reflections on “The Mirror”

I love Tarkovsky’s films for many reasons. His long takes canvas the images and environment of the landscape and allow for thorough inspection. His films always contain many references to popular artworks and thus serve as an excellent study for art enthusiasts and aspiring cinephiles alike. Every frame’s placement and aesthetic depiction is significant. Not a moment is wasted.

In The Mirror, just as in Ivan’s Childhood, we see the appearance of an art book which displays some reproductions of the works of Leonardo da Vinci. Da Vinci, who often considered the apex of high Renaissance, had a growing significance in Tarkovsky’s life. In addition to Robert Bresson, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Leo Tolstoy, he was one of the personalities who influenced him until his dying day. In the flashbacks to his youth, Alexei is displayed as a child who browses this particular art book; the partialities of someone else are indicated by inserted dried tree leaves, for instance at the studies towards ‘The Last Supper’.

Probably the most prominent role in the film is Da Vinci’s ‘Ginevra de’ Benci’, which was acquired by the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. and is therefore the only painting by Da Vinci in a collection outside of Europe. In his book, Tarkovsky describes the ambivalence of the impressionable impact of the portrait in his own urgent words as “inexpressibly beautiful and at the same time repulsive.” (Sculpting in Time: Reflections on the Cinema, Page 108). “This Portrait is needed in order to introduce a timeless element into the moments that are succeeding each other before our eyes, and at the same time to juxtapose the portrait with the heroine, to emphasise in her and the actress, Margarita Terekhova, the same capacity at once to enchant and to repel.” The lasting fascination lies in the fact that these very different moments cannot be taken separately. In the film, there is a moment when Johann Sebastian Bach’s recitavito “Und siehe da, der Vorhang im Tempel zerriss in zwei…” plays, presisely when the homecoming soldier and father is holding his son and daughter in his arms. In the Gospel According to Luke, the curtain (Vorhang) is meant to seperate the Holy from the Most Holy Place; thus, the Most Holy Place became visible to us.

This brings me to the conclusion that the film itself becomes the mirror; because the viewer does not accept the ambivalence for a continuance, one has to decide upon one’s own interpretation of the expression—thus, the film is intended to reflect one’s own reality. One gets the impression that Tarkovsky’s conception of art is dialectical in nature, which led him to violate the harsh limitations placed on visual art in the Soviet Union, which at the time restricted any imagery that contradicted Soviet foreign policy. He wanted his art to depict life as a whole without being subject to the conditions of the state. At last, Tarkovsky managed to retain this tendency against partiality inside the composition of his pictures. Perhaps that is why, to this day, Tarkovsky’s last film The Sacrifice, has often been interpreted as a plea for Nietzsche’s ‘Will to power’ or ‘Eternal recurrence.’ As it is written down in the Gospel According to John: “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.” (1 Corinthians 11:31)

Another scene in the film is about the paramilitary training of young boys during the war at firing range. One of the boys, Asafiev, refuses to follow orders from the instructor. I believe that this boy might be a survivor of the Siege of Leningrad, which, alongside the Spanish Civil War and Mao’s attack on the Russians, is part and parcel of the structure of relationships between wife, husband, mother, father, and son. He succeeds in putting the instructor and his comrades in fear and distress by throwing the dummy of a hand grenade with intent to let them participate in his traumatic experiences. As the dummy rolls over the floorboards, everyone throws themselves to the ground. By trying to catch the grenade, the instructor loses his cap and some kind of protective plastic cover. Apparently, he is missing a piece of the cranial vault, and we see a throbbing pulsation beneath the scar covering his head. The cold and hard-hearted man suddenly appears vulnerable and defenseless. The general pity of which Tarkovsky occasionally spoke is revealed to us—for example, in the interview for Nostalghia: “I wanted to speak about that which is called ‘nostalgia,’ but I mean the word in its Russian sense, that is to say, a fatal disease. I wanted to show psychological traits typically Russian … The Russian term is difficult to translate: it could be compassion, but it’s even stronger than that. It’s identifying oneself with the suffering of another man, in a passionate way.”

Subsequently, we see this unfortunate boy in front of a Winter landscape vivified by people. This scene is often referred to the Brueghel painting ‘The Hunters in the Snow’, which had been shown in Solaris . Tarkovsky himself announced that he had sought the immediate proximity to Brueghel in this scene: “Again in The Mirror, take the shots of the episode with the military instructor. There are two or three that are clearly inspired by the paintings of Brueghel: the boy, the tiny figures of the people, the snow, the naked trees, the river in the distance. I constructed these shots very consciously. Almost deliberately. And not with the idea of stealing or to show how cultured I am, but to testify my love for Brueghel, my dependency on him, the profound mark that he has left in my life.” [1]

But I would like to emphasize another relationship that was important to Tarkovsky and which is less obvious. In one of his books, ‘Sculpting in Time’, he speaks of the many-figured pictures of the Venetian painter Vittore Carpaccio. As the special feature of his art, he emphasized the fact that each and every single person in them could be the subject of the whole image. Perhaps he saw something similar in Brueghel since this is exactly what seems to be happening in this scene: a sparrow takes flight and settles down on the boys head. This might be a poetic indication that he is meant to be remembered, and this also applies to a boy who seems to have refused everything in life. Utilizing the collage technique characteristic of this film, this scene is proximately surrounded by terrifying black and white images of world-historical significance: the corpse of Hitler, an awfully mimeographed bust of Mao, atomic clouds, et cetera. Apparently, it must be understood as the assertion that despite all these terrors, there is still enough attention for the individual.[2]

To me, The Mirror is Tarkovsky’s most personal achievement of Art, for it captures life how the artist remembers: a dreamlike, fragmented and often out of order tragic soliloquy. The brilliant inclusion of his father Arseny’s poems, my favorite of which is First Dates, serves to accentuate the poetic nature of the film. The Mirror is an existential Gesamtkunstwerk, a dialectical unity of life’s serene beauty and immense tragedy. While all of the characters experience melancholic lives, an overwhelming beauty pervades the film. Even with the majesty of the images, a subliminal sorrow always prevails. However, this is not to say the film is pessimistic. In fact, it transcends all dichotomies. In his words, “Artistic creation is by definition a denial of death.”

1. http://nostalghia.com/  Tarkovsky talks to Guerra, mainly on Stalker (1979). 2. “In one form or another all my films have made the point that people are not alone and abandoned in an empty universe, but are linked by countless threads with the past and the future; that as each person lives his life he forges a bond with the whole history of mankind..” (Sculpting in Time, Page 205).

#tarkovsky #mirror #andrei #zerkalo