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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Ducktales Final Four!: The Lost Cargo of Kit Cloudkicker!

Hello You Happy People. SPIN IT! OHOHOHOHOHOHO LETS’ BEGIN IT!

After 10,000 years we’re finally at the motherducking Talespin episode! And only 8000 of those years were the last 14 months as Ducktales 2017 has been working toward this for a while with Cape Suzette being prominently mentioned in both the first episode and the season 1 finale, and Don Karnage being a regular part of the rouges gallery, voiced by the wonderous Jamie Camil. So this episode was less a matter of “If”, since Don’s presence meant Disney wasn’t really against it happening, and more a matter of “When and How.” The how, to a point was settled at the big NYCC panel for Ducktales that revealed Daisy and Goofy... as it also revealed aged up versions of Kit and Molly, meaning a proper tailspin episode was on the way. I could not have been more pumped. While I didn’t remember the cartoon well, i’d always loved Talespin since I was a kid and as an adult my curosity only grew. Still need to watch way more of it mind you, I really have slept on most of the Disney Plus Libarary and that’s dumb of me, but what i’ve seen is impressive. The story of an irresponsible bear forced to work with a buisnesswoman bear after she buys his seaplane, his loveable kid sidekick and said buisness bear’s daughter whose cute as a button but suprisingly tolerable for a little kid character. Opposing them were masterful buisnessman Shere Kahn, who sadly does not show up here and could be friend , foe or neutral depending on the episode, and Don Karnage, a kooky sky pirate who as mentioned is already in this series and was Balloo’s arch enemy. The series was colorful, creative, had a great premise and cast and in general was just awesome and out of the Disney Afternoon shows is honestly my faviorite, though Darkwing is getting close. I even recently finally got the Shere Kahn funko, which is starring into my soul as I type this review! Hurrah!

So I waited impatiently like I did for Daisy and Goofy, both also things I’d wanted in the series since the start. Thing was.. Goofy showed up in the second episode of the season, that was part of the premiere, and while the wait for Daisy was agonizing, she still showed up pretty early into the season at episode five. Gosalyn showed up at episode 12. This is episode 20.

I do get it: This season was built to be the last just in case.. and ended up being the last so good job there. There was a LOT to wrap up in one season and on top of that they had a double and TRIPLE length episode taking up 5 episodes of the season, AND two holiday episodes. So that gave them only 18 normal episodes they had to place very carefully. So likely, given that they had some episodes important to the finale that couldn’t wait for the last minute in “The First Adventure” and “The Battle for Castle McDuck!”, as I highly doubt pepper was given such a build up to not be important in the finale, still think she’s webby’s mom, we’ll see soon enough. And New Gods on the Block, while not as important was probably not swapped with this one because they wanted a lighter episode after three plot important episodes in a row, two of which are fairly intense and had lasting consequences and one of which, while a bit of a breather, was still indulging in the new FOWL status quo. This one ended up crammed into the last block.. because they likely really wanted to do this one, wanted it to tie into FOWL... and had nowhere else to put it, with Life and Crimes likely serving as one last break from FOWL, if it doesn’t end up tying into it, before the finale movie. Doesn’t make waiting forever for it any less grating, but hey it’s finally here. So how was it? Was it worth the hype? And how do the Wuzzles factor into this? Join me under the cut and spin it with me to find out and count down to 3!

So we open with an adult Kid Cloudkicker at work, voiced by Adam Pally!

If you haven’t heard of him, and one of my Patreons had not, he was on Happy Endings and the Mindy Project, and has a very distinct voice and is very funny, so it was a pleasant surprise to have him pop up here as Kit and given aforementioned roles were messes in some way shape or form, especially Max from happy endings whose essentially Oscar the Grouch, just as gay only not living in a trash can. Though if he had to he would.

Since he was a kid KIt’s picked up the old family business, and is now running hire for hire.. and has also picked up his Dad’s old enemies as Don Karnage chases after Kit, his second greatest nemesis, who freely mocks him. It’s a lovely sequence but shows Kit isn’t the best pilot, and his fancy flying, while beating Don, also opens both crates, freeing the livestock he’s carrying.. and the other cargo, a mysterious stone that was in a F.O.W.L. crate that merges the chicken with a goat, and scares kit, and he ends up causing his cargo to drop out of the plane. Cue titles.

Back with our heroes for this series, Della is recroding Dewey as he flies solo the first time!

That is so precious. Huey is along for the ride and is taking having his reckless brother with the attention span of a coked up ferret at the helm exactly how you’d expect.

Of course his helmet says safety boy and of course he has a helmet on over his hat. Awww. Dewey, while good at it, he’s a 12 year old flying a rather sizeable plane with no difficulty that’s pretty impressive.. he’s also Dewey so just flying a plane normally isn’t enough and he wants to Dewey it instead and do all the fancy stuff. He wants to be special as is usual for him, not realizing this is how you get to being good as his mom or Launchpad. And he’s 12 so that makes sense just on the basic level.. but it also makes sense on a comparison level: Dewey’s done a LOT of impressive stuff over the course of the series: rattling it off because why not, and this is just things he acomplished himself: he found the Lost Jewel of Atlantis (Getting it home was still a team effort but he is the one who identified it), is a golf pro better than his uncle whose played the game for centuries at this point, defeated Don Karnage in a sword fight with little to no sword training, was crucial in beating Magica during the Shadow War, travled through time, by accident or not, consulted on a major motion picture, defeated a Gandra, even if she was going easy on him, BLIND, and biggest of all defeated the World Serpent Jormunngandr, by himself, a GOD that’s fought Scrooge evenly for decades. AND FINISHED HIM WITH A PILEDRIVER. To reitirate this was ONLY the stuff he did himself. So I get why he’d think just flying a plane when his mom and best friend have done so much more with it is boring and that being a pilot when two people he looks up to are already one is just.. boring. I’ts not special or unique and given his family name is built on the two, I can see why he’d chafe under this.

Della for her part isn’t doing things wrong entirely, she wants him to start with the basics, the fact he can DO those basics at such a young age with minimal training shows he has a true knack for it, and it takes experince to pull off death defying stunts. The First Adventure backs this up as while Della was so talented as a kid she could land a plane herself.. that was all she did. And it’s still incredibly impressive a ten year old landed a seaplane with no real world training or hours in a full on flight simulator. The issue that’s never really adressed is while she’s mostly doing it right she dosen’t get that despite his talent, Dewey just dosen’t find this INTRESTING or get how impressive he is, and that dressing it up a bit migh’tve helped. It’s an understandable mistake though, teaching someone something in any context is hard. It’s one of many, MANY reasons like currently horribly hazzarodus conditions, long hours, having to buy their own suplies at times, that teachers are badly underpayed.

Before we get into why their headed to Cape Suzette at long last, there is one notiacble absence in this episode I can’t really ignore: Launchpad. While he has been absent in every episode since Let’s Get Dangerous, not counting “How Santa Stole Christmas!” as the two holiday episodes were made to fit in anywhere story wise and timeline and production wise take place before the rest of Season 3 , which takes place during Spring given both the March note on Boyd and Huey’s photos in Astro BOYD, and Forbidden Fountain taking place during spring break. At most it’s currently running into Summer. I put too much thought into this with someone i’ve lost contact with.

My point, I had one trust me, is that Launchpad has just been gone for the second half of the season . And up till now it wasn’t necesarily a bad thing: He was a major part of Let’s Get Dangerous and wasn’t really needed for any of the episodes so far: The Manor side of things in ImpossiBin was purposfully intense and while he would’ve had some thoughts on Beakly’s actions, it just worked better with him gone and the only other adult in the house at the moment busy doing other stuff for their protection till the climax. Split Sword was kid focused, New Gods didn’t really involve him at all, though I am sad he and Storkules never met as far as I can tell, The First Adventure was a flashback, Fight for CastleMcDuck was about the family unit more, and Beaks in the Shell is the only one so far I think he could’ve been included in at all and again shoving him in would’ve just cluttered things up. Like a lot of character ballance issues of the series, there’s a good enough reason.. this is just the one exception in the last batch I think would’ve been improved by having him. He’s Dewey’s best friend, he’s been there for him, he would’ve been a good counterpoint as a teacher and it could’ve been intersting having both he and della have constrasting styles but valuable things to teach and I would’ve loved to see him interact with Kit. It also just feels really weird to be down a pilot in the episode about the franchise about a pilot. \

The fact Dewey ends up crashing while landing after Huey applauds him on his safe normal landing, which ticks him off because he dosen’t want to be normal, hammers in it in a bit as he missed his buddy’s first crash. I get leaving him out as Kit is just as irresponsible and the episodes just as much about Kit if not more so as it is about Dewey, so I understand it but it dosne’t make it feel like any less of a lost opportunity.

As for why their in the cape at last, it’s unsuprsingly another missing mystery, the stone of what is which can combine two things, the stone seen in the intro. Kit loosing it turns out to be a good thing as it meant FOWL didn’t get it, and they can find it, and are in town to find him. They pass the hire for hire offices which have a ton of notices on the door, and Dewey is entranced by the idea of cloud kicking, aka sky surfing, aka that thing kit did in the original. We also get to see updated versions of Baloo, Kit and Molly. Sadly no Rebecca. Can’t win em all.

Our trio find Kit whose asleep, clearly having no customers and trying to pass it off like he does. It turns out he knows Della, as they went to flight school together, though she only vaugely remembers him at best. She does remember Molly though, wouldn’t be suprised if that’s another ex of hers either, and wonders what happen to her.. and not just because htere’s always room in Della’s harem. Kit dodges.. and it’s likely in large part because it’s clear to anyone looking despite his statments he’s kinda stalled as an adult. It’s very clear from his surroudings, him being a pilot for hire, and him eagerly taking Dewey on as a sidekick when Dewey shows intresting in Cloud Kicking, that he’s trying to be Baloo. This idea was, according to Frank, the brainchild of the episode’s director, and one of it’s writers and storyboarders, Tanner Johnson. Tanner pitched “What if Kit never outgrew his Baloo fanboying?”.

It’s an intresting idea: while it is sad we don’t get to see the old boy at any point and I do wonder where he is now and what he’s up to in his retirment, probably just flying about free as a bird would be my guess given how he never liked working to begin with, I applaud them for doing something unique with the Tailspin cast that fits into the themes of the season rather than just have them show up. By making it Kit instead of Baloo cargoing them, it gives us more of an arc to work with character wise as Kit has become so obessed with becoming his dad, he never stopped to consider if he was even good at it or enjoyed it.

Using Della is part of what makes this work as she too grew up with a larger than life mentor and adopted dad.. but unlike Kit, she grew up a bit and saw the flaws in her dad. His greed, his selfishness, his tendency to hog the glory, his ego.. she stopped putting him on a pedestal. She still loves him, still wants his respect and admiration to this day, but she gets he’s not perfect and not who she wants to be. Kit clearly never got this message. He never grew out of putting Baloo on a pedsteal and wanting ot literally be him instead of his own man. So he ignored the many flaws in how Baloo lived: Baloo started Talespin having lost his plane because he was so obessed with freedom and doing what he wanted, he didn’t bother actually paying on it and chafed under actually doing work half the time. He’s talented, fun to be around and a hell of pilot bar none, he honestly outclasses Della, but he was entirely irresponsible. Kit’s found himself in the same position Baloo was in: living alone, having not a lot going on, and on the verge of loosing his plane. Not only that he’s worse off because Baloo at least, while lazy, had enough talent. Kit.. isn’t a good pilot as we’ve seen and will see again, and clearly not only dosen’t have a knack for it, but is only doing it because Baloo did. He’s so obsessed with being who he THINKS baloo would want him to be, he never stopped to think that the actual Baloo would just want him to be happy and has probably told him this, or was probably too proud of what Kit was doing to realize what he was doing to his life.

But Della dosen’t have time to get him a therapist, they need to find that stone before FOWL, and Kit offers to take them.. if they hire him. Della scoffs at this and insults the Sea Duck

Yeah Della your fantastic.. but you do NOT insult the Sea Duck and your very, VERY lucky it’s not Baloo you were dealing with as he would’ve turned you down out of principal. The Sea Duck is fucking awesome, and a national treasure. Thankfully Kit instead points out the Sunchaser isn’t in a better place after Dewey Dewed what he dew, so they really don’t have a choice.

Della does draw the line at letting Kit fly as she eventually realizes he’s not good at this, mostly letting Crowby his crowbar do all the work, and finds he has a map to where he dropped the stone, so he dosen’t even have that leg to stand on and throws him out of his own cockpit before he gets them all killed. Okay that time on her side. Kit takes this time to try and train Dewey on cloudkicking... but despite being encaustic at the idea of it the reality leaves Dewford scared shitless.. and doubles up on bad things as Don Karnage and his crew are closing in on the island. FOWL hired them to get it for them, though why FOWL didn’t do so themselves I don’t know. Don’t get me wrong i’m happy to have Jamie back and it really wouldn’t feel right ot have a Tailspin ep without Don Karnage, I just find it odd Bradford would hire outside contractors for this given he has a full staff and not at least send Heron or Steelbeak along to supervise. Regardless, Don puts pleasure before buisness spotting Kit.. and fully commits after finding out Dewey is ALSO involved. I also find it hilarous DEWEY outranks Kit on Don Karnage’s enemy list. So naturally he goes after him, int he personal plane he used in the series which also showed up in the cold open, and with Dewey not having the skill to take Don on, Kit is forced ot step in. He also calls him “Little briches” which while another sign of how much he wants to be his own dad.. is still too awesome not to apricate. Don cuts the line but thanks to Kit’s fancy footwork, they make it out alive and wash up on an island. Della soon joins them, thanks kit for saving her kid then rightfully slaps him for putting him in danger in the first place. Dewey also has to stop her from punching him when he explains he had no idea the stone ended up on this island, which granted she is justified in but Dewey , of all people, rightly saw this means they don’t have to drag a unconcious bear around who probably hasn’t showered in a while. I mean the smell will be there either way but there’s less chance of accidnetlly inhaling too much while he’s conconcious. They also find out what the Stone’s been doing: combining the wildlife leading to rhino monkey hybrid trying to murder them. So at the last minute Frank also squeezed in another disney aftenroon show but one tha’ts not streaming and most don’t care about: the wuzzles, a bunch of hybrids of various animals... Frank couldn’t do much with that as is and just decided to rightfully play it for horror.

Our heroes find Don, whose found the stone.. and is simply throwing most of hi crew at it rather than doing anything productive, with them turning into just.. utterly horrifying combinations. Hands for heads and everything, bug legs, a non-anthro parrot head. it’s pretty tough to watch and I question why the episode did this as Don’s crew did not deserve this and this episode is mostly lightearted before and after this. A tailspin tribute episode episode should not pair well with the song no spill blood.. seroiusly you paid for all I do is win, and rightfully but you couldn’t get this?

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Regardless the kids and manchild are told to stay put while the slightly more functional womanchild takes care of Don. Dewey and Kit naturally don’t, which is fair: what did della expect, the sugared up rabbit in a small duck’s body and the incompitent but charming manchild she’s insulted repedadtly to listen? Naturally they both beef it as Dewey can’t board and while Kit does get Don’s plane, he ends up crashing it instead of doing anything productive. I mean even Launchpad would’ve at least got back to the seaduck.. he would’ve crashed into it but still. Look when you make Launchpad look compietnet you really need to rethink your life. Della has bigger problems though as it turns out the thing they were on.. was a coocoon.. for a butterbear. Oh no. Thankfully this goes better than you’d expect as she’s able to ride the thing and it tangles up some rope, taking the stone of what was with it and Don takes off after it with what pirates he has left.

Our remaining heros return to the Sea Duck. Dewey and Kit plan to do the same thing again and expect diffrent results but Huey.. has some words for them.

He’s fed up with this and points out they need to swap jobs. Dewey CAN fly, and Kit really is good at cloudkicking, it’s in the name, and he needs to return to it. While Dewey balks again stating anyone can be a pilot.. Kit finally admits that’s not true and he’s just not good at it and Huey finally snaps them out o fthier neurosis, Kit a bit late but better late than never given the state of his life, and points out the episode’s aseop: YOU make something special just by doing what you like to do and are good at well. I’ts been hard making these reviews, but I feel i’m getting the hang at it and it’s what I was meant to do, I just had to find it. It’s not always easy to find your calling but when you got it, go for it instead of some version of you you think you should be. So we get pured distilled awesome for the climax. Besides Della again riding a bear that’s also a butterfly, Kit, also a bear I did not miss that gag, proceeds to finally spin it and begin again it as he tears through them with Crowby and easily deispatches the planes finally earning Della’s respect and finally back in his element, using his newfound size and strength combined with his still inherent acrobatics to easily take them out and land on Carnage’s plane and beat him.

So the day is saved: The stone lands on the plane and our heroes properly secure it. Della releases her bear fly but it’ll find it’s way home i’m sure... so majestic. Or it’ll eat all the world’s seagulls. Good news either way.

Back at the bay Kit packs up the stone safetly and gives them the bill. Which Della grumbles at but whiel he didn’t fly he did save their asses.. after endagenring them but still and does have a buisness to run. Plus he has to save his plane.

But it turns out someone’s already bought it. And you can probably guess who.

No not you sweetie.. though he is an investor for the person who DID buy it: Molly, whose taken being danger woman from a 4 year old’s play time to her career running an air stunt show. This is the other thing that cemented the whole aged up versions of these guys working for me: HIstory Repeating itself. Once again an enterprising young woman with a lot of ideas has bought the seaduck from it’s incompitent owner and hires the former owner to work for her. But things are warmer this time: Kit wasn’t happy doing what he was doing, and it’s clear unlike Rebecca, who just bought the first plane she could get and hired baloo because he was who she could afford, they became friends with time and patience if not more but that’s still vauge... Molly did this out of love. She knew Kit was struggling and probably has as many fond memories of the sea duck and baloo as he does and didn’t want someone else to get the old girl. Her air show seems to be going fine, she apparently has a full crew, fans and enough money to purchase another plane on a whim from the bank to expand the show.. she wanted her old plane back and her old brother back. And wheras again Rebecca offered Baloo the job because he wanted to keep his baby safe from some half assed pilot she could afford and she knew it and thus could manipulate him with that. Plus he worked cheap so there. Here Molly just admires her brothers skills and hires them on it and he’s frankly more comfortable being a sidekick than the main star anyway.

He TRIES to brush it off but gladly accepts. God another possible spinoff.. please make this Disney.. and if not at least Reboot tailspin I miss it. Still it’s a very satisfying ending. But what of Don Karnage? Well he’s lost everything as a result of this, unable to get back to his carrier, his crew mostly gone, and FOWL sure to be gunning for him. This is seemingly the end for him.. until he finds a chunk of the stone. “Or the start of an encore”. Wether this was a setup for a possible part of season 4, a possible spinoff or is going to come back in the finale.. we’re just going to have to wait and see won’t we?

Final Thoughts: I really liked this one. It’s not the best of the season: Kit’s arc is kinda telegraphed and Dewey’s arc while intresting isn’t focused on enough to really be that engaging. But the ideas at the core are solid and fit into the series well, the idea to age up our kid heroes from Talespin was really clever and paid off and as usual Adam Pally is a delight and as I said at the top was pitch perfect casting. Couldn’t figure out who played molly and the credits cut out on me, so let mek now if you do but yeah I enjoyed this one> It wasn’t the series at it’s best but given the last two are liable to get pretty intense it was a nice breezy break. And it got me wanting to watch Talespin again and there’s nothing bad about that.

NEXT WEEK: In our penultimate adventure, Ducktales reinacts that one episode of Batman the Animated Series where all of Batman’s foes put him on Trial, as Scrooge’s Rogues put him on trial with Doofus as prosecuter and Louie for the defense. Well at least it’s not Lionel Hutz.

This Week: Lots of Ducks! The lena retrospective continues as we take a detour for some comix, and we begin the Della arc as we go back to the start. It’s finally time to talk about Woo-Ooo!.

If any of this sounds appealing follow my blog for more. If you like these reviews head over to my patreon, patreon.com/popculturebuffet, and become a patreon. At the 5 dollar level you get a review a month and even a dollar helps get to my stretch goals. I’m up to 15 a month so 20 is next and that means a darkwing duck review every month! And if you really like Talespin like I do, 25 nets you a tailspin review a month and a review of the pilot. Ohohohohohohoo. See you at the next rainbow.

#ducktales #talespin #the lost cargo of kit cloudkicker #della duck #dewey duck #kit cloudkicker #molly cunningham #danger woman #huey duck #don karnage #disney channel #the disney afternoon

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acioo · 4 years

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anybody who knows anything about me will be able to tell you i spend a bunch of my time ice skating & i’ve never seen a guide on how to write a character that figure skates , so i thought i’d compile some tips & explain things , because my whole childhood i was travelling across the country to spin on ice with nothing on but a leotard & some tights , and now i have nothing but a bunch of tacky costumes and this post to show for it . this is pretty in-depth , about 2.5k words , but if you have any questions about specific aspects or want me to clarify anything , feel free to shoot me an ask . oh & a like or reblog if you found this helpful would be sweet ! tw : injury, mental illness, eating disorders

most people that wind up as figure skaters started ridiculously young. i was probably six, but at my rink, we train kids as young as four and five. if your character has competed professionally at a state-wide level or up, they most likely started super young and have been professionally trained. figure skating is not a sport that you can do casually, most of the time. ice skating, casually, however, totally different thing. but competitive figure skating, being on a figure skating team, and the like, it’s a lot of effort, time, and discipline. in a lot of families, it’s a tradition to teach your kids to ice skate. at my rink, there’s a lot of people who come from slavic families whose parents signed them up - or athlete parents in gen. so, if your character is SUPER GOOD, they’ve put hundreds of hours of work into it, and have years of practice. it is not something you can pick up in a day, and i’d even say you have to be at it for at least two years before you get good good, and it takes a while to even become comfortable on the ice before you can start to do any kind of trick - THAT is why they start young, so by the time we’re pre-teens, we’re really, really good. the problem happens, famously, at puberty, because your balance gets knocked off, your bones are growing, and you have to basically relearn everything you know.

there are so many different types of figure skating. i specialize in singles, but i’ve done showcase and solo dance ( but both of those skills are more for me to be a well-rounded skater, not for competing ), and would sometimes be put into pairs to help learn skills and work together. you NEED to be in one of these categories for competition because they are what all comps are based upon. singles is, as you think, one single ice skater individually doing their routine. singles will do various dances, jumps, spins, etc. i won't lie, it’s hard, and really, really competitive. singles is the most competitive of all these categories. it’s usually a short program ( jumping, spinning, steps - the easier portion of competition because it’s really just a routine that you need to get down pat so you can boost your score. you will learn to do it in your sleep. ) and then a free skate ( longer than the other, it’s more complicated and difficult ). pair skating is really, really difficult, tbh, and you need a good relationship with whoever you are doing it with because there’s a lot of trust involved. it’s hard to break into pair skating because you need a partner that you’re equal to in skill and you like as a person. you guys spend a lot of time together and you need to get along. you guys need to be equally proficient at ice skating. most pairs get put together when they’re still very young. it’s very difficult to from singles to becoming a pair skater. it’s two skaters and they skate around each other, they lift each other, and move in synchronized patterns. it’s highly technical, like all figure skating, but it is more difficult because you have to keep in mind both your own feet and someone else’s. you do NOT want to bump skates with someone. at best, that is very uncomfortable. at usual/worse, you’re both about to eat shit on ice. in pair skating the partner that lifts needs SO much strength. like, so much. i’ve tried to lift fellow skaters, who are the same weight as me, and it’s near fucking impossible for me. ice skates are HEAVY and skaters have a lot of lower body muscle. we are not light people. for example, once time my team and i were out of practice and just skating around and we started playing around and i did a cartwheel on ice and i fell very hard. wiped tf out. and that’s me, trying to handle my own weight. like singles, it’s a free skate and a short program. pair skating is typically male + female ( what a sad world, i know ), but i encourage every writer to take some suspending of reality. ice dance is, basically, dancing. it’s a lot more performative than other types of skating. it’s done in pairs, but can be performed alone, in a different category called solo dance. in the nicest way possible, singles/pair skaters usually look down a bit on ice dancers because it’s a bit less technical, and doesn’t have any jumps of lifts. but ! that doesn’t mean it’s easy because it’s not. it’s rooted in ballroom dancing and they have two parts of competition: rhythm dance and free dance. fun fact: pair ice dancers scott moir and tessa virtue, who are famous to be suspected dating, are the reason we had a no dating rule at the rink. showcase ice skating is usually for some kind of platform, or in front of a large crowd. i’ve done showcase for investors for our rink. there’s usually costumes involved ( there are costumes for all competitions, but their costumes are more, like, theatre - y ), and props, and acting. it’s actually very fun to watch, but you need acting skill. theatre on ice, however, is just what it sounds like. theatre on ice is popular with children and good for ways to show off an entire team of skaters, because you can have eight to thirty skaters on the ice. they can also compete and they can go international, but they aren’t in the olympics and there aren’t many competitions for them. it’s usually just a fun way to get together with your teammates, bond, and then show off what you did.

so, competitions. super complicated, and as a writer, i suggest really glossing over them, because it’s difficult to get it down completely right. there are nonqualifying and qualifying comps. the difference is that in qualifying competitions, you’re looking to start moving up, basically, so if you qualify in the first one, you go onto the next one, then state eventually, then national, and so on. you start with regionals ( singles ) / sectionals ( pairs and ice dancers ). then, if you succeed, you go to sectional singles / pairs + ice dance finals. the goal is to get on the national team ( i’ve watched ameatur skaters tell other rinkmates they want to compete in the olympics - it was NOT pretty ), basically. which, let me say this. it is nowhere. near. easy. like, just go into youtube and search “ yuzuru hanyu “ ( gold medal in pyeongchang olympics for mens singles ) and watch ANY of his performances. now he’s the gold medalist, right. he started at four years old. so let’s go smaller. google elsa cheng and watch one of her routines. she’s a member of the us national figure skating team. she’s fifteen. YEAH. not an easy sport. nonqualifying is more laid back and for fun, or trophies. nonqualifying is also a way to practice before you enter into qualifying. competitions are really nerve-racking. it’ll cause stress between you and your rinkmates, because more often than not you’re going against one another. you and your coach will usually spend all the prep season creating your two programs, which you will almost always repeat in every single competition you attend. i have about 20 different routines stored in the back of my head. sometimes my coach would give us exercises of coming up with a routine during a time restraint. my friend junior learned a routine that was on yuri on ice.

for competitions you arrive, you get ready. you’re almost always wearing some kind of elaborate costume/dress leotard thingy. this is a time to start getting mentally ready, talk to your friends, and do each other’s hair and makeup. costumes are bought way ahead of time, and are usually related to the theme of your routine. you do NOT want a wardrobe malfunction. it’ll mess you up & you’ll lose precious points. your hair will most likely always be back and, more often than not, braided or in a bun. the comp will begin and you have a practice session so that you can get warmed up and ready. it’s not long. you will get the music for your program played one by one, and you rehearse - this is usually to check to make sure your music is right & to get acclimated to the ice then you get off the ice and another group will warm up. your coach can’t be on the ice whatsoever, and has to stay outside the rink. usually, competition order is done by a random draw. one by one, you will do your routine. no one but you can be on the ice. then you go off to the “ kiss and cry “ ( because you’re either about to celebrate or get your ear chewed off by an adult in a tracksuit ) where your score gets announced. then, competition continues. your warmup + when you start is not based on how you placed in the last part of the comp ( usually started with lowest ) and you perform the second routine. then, and this is usually determined by like how serious the competition you're going to, but there are trophies handed out, a podium ceremony is held, or medals or flowers are given out. my coach would always make the team pose together after competitions and go out to eat - lots of coaches hold bonding exercises esp after comps. if we did well, we could skip our 9 am practice. if we did poorly, the team meets up at a local park and runs the three-mile trail, and then they do technical corrections at the rink. after your medal/etc ceremony, you’re done. sometimes the top people will perform, but by that time you’re usually exhausted and want to sleep for a billion years ( or, if you did really well, you want to go eat 15 ihop pancakes and conquer the world ). the competition season is from august to april. this is a BASE of what happens. it’s different at different kinds of competitions and for different categories of skating, but it’s almost always something like this. offseason is for practice, rest, and fun, basically, but if you're a serious skater, by the time you’re hitting july, you’re spending more time at the rink than at home. the most well-known and the hardest competitions to qualify for are the grand prix, europeans ( european championships ), worlds ( world championships ), and the, of course, olympics.

another aspect of almost any professional sport is injury. think about any ice skating routine you’ve seen. there is no protection. you’re wearing a thin sheer leotard. you have basically knives on your feet. it’s VERY easy to get yourself beat up by ice. the ice is very hard and not very forgiving. meaning, if you hit, you hit hard. you usually are putting a lot of force into it, too, because you’re falling. don’t even get me started on the BRUISING. you will look like you have gone thru something, all the time. ice skates, which have to sharpened routinely, are, as you imagine, SHARP AS FUCK. knife shoes. i’ve been recreationally skating, because i work at a rink, and just monitoring the skaters and usually messing around with my rinkmates, and i fell, and i sliced open my thigh. i didn’t need stitches, or anything, but there was blood everywhere. very gross. ( ask abt this answered here ! ) and i wasn’t even doing anything particularly hard. and this has happened before. they WILL cut you. ankle injuries are super common. i’ve seen someone break their ankle feet away from me. i’ve twisted my left ankle five times. as for dislocations, they also happen a lot. when i was twelve, i was at the top of my figure skating career. i was qualifying to competition after competition. during a regular, normal practice, i was doing a jump i had usually aced, and i landed the wrong way and i dislocated my knee and blacked out. it’s a very disgusting injury and extremely, extremely painful. like, a good 50k in hospital bills for the surgery to fix it. i was very good and it was my favorite activity on the planet, but it was so awful that i quit. when i was fourteen, i started skating again, joined my team, etc, etc, but it was very difficult to recover from. and that’s a very common story. most people get injured and they have to stop. i know a girl who got a bunch of concussions, and wasn’t able to skate. i’ve been concussed on the ice. people tear their acls or their hip. we have a sports medic at all figure skating practices and comps. and a lot of injuries, once you hurt something, you will hurt it again because you made it weak. we are all very flexible but overuse will make your bones brittle. there’s also stress fractures and different things you can get from just overworking your muscles. shin splints, tendonitis, jumpers knee, etc. you name an overuse injury, and i’ve had it. i was one so exhausted after practice that i laid down on the ice and cried until my coach ( who i love very dearly ) gave me a bag of skittles and told me to suck it up. that’s not saying my coach is a bitch ( john mulaney vc my coach is a bitch and i like her so much ), that’s to say there is no break, no stopping. you get better, and move on, or you quit.

as-is with basically any competitive sport, if you get serious, you will probably go onto some sort of diet along with it. you want to be eating a lot of nutritional stuff ( granola bars are HOARDED in my locker room & to this day i gag at the sight of protein shakes ), anything with a lot of calcium ( because we do be breaking bones ! ), and iron. i used to eat pasta before comps ( like wayyy before not an hr or anything ) because it gives you ~energy~. you need to be eating a lot because you’re exercising a lot. gatorade is banned by my coach because it's so much sugar. you need to drink so. much. water. we all take a bunch of vitamins. usually will eat chicken / meat in general. but keep in mind, like any sport in which you are cutting things from your diet / eating specific things / etc, it can easily lead to an unhealthy relationship with food. there’s a lot of shitty mindsets you will encounter with coaches and fellow competitors about what weight a figure skater should be, and it's even worse in pair skating ( because of lifts ). when i was eleven, one of my old coaches told me that she hoped i never hit puberty because it’d fuck up my balance & when i did i cried. a fellow competitor once told me she wished she had my “ figure skater “ body ( and at this point of my life, i had very unhealthy eating habits ). another time a group of older kids made fun of how gangly i was while i was in earshot. the amt of times my coach has SCREAMED at ice skaters for making fun of / putting down fellow ice skaters is astronomical. it’s rough. a lot of figure skaters have opened up about how figure skating caused / contributed to their mental illness. it’s very easy to fall into because of how “ perfect “ you need to be. you can look up various figure skaters stories on this: adam rippon, gracie gold, and yulia vyacheslavovna - a very famous one as it was part of the reason her career ended & she was the youngest ever skating gold medalist. and i will say, personally, my unhealthy relationship with food ( that would eventually lead to lots o problems & i still feel the impact of today ) began when i was figure skating. there are other risk factors for mental illness as well because there’s so much focus on winning / losing. more than once, competitions would give me panic attacks because of the great stress.

another thing is MONEY. as fucked up as it is, you need money, or a grant, if you want to get good. you need expensive skates, costumes, travel fees, and more. my pro figure skates, not my casual ones, cost upwards of 300, and that’s low balling it. when i was ten, my parents spent upwards of 10k on figure skating. there are rink fees, there are competition fees, there are coaching fees. it adds up extremely quickly. i know a lot of skaters who stopped competing because it was just too expensive. i work for my rink by teaching classes and monitoring open skates and additional things, but if i added up every single dollar i ever made, it would be nowhere near enough to pay for everything. but the thing is, if you get really good, you can make money off of competitions, but getting there is the hard part. at one point in my life, my parents were paying $100 an hour for my private coach who i was seeing multiple days a week. figure skaters also oftentimes will take additional classes to help. my coach made the entire junior team take ballet one year. i took a ton of gymnastic classes as well to help with skating.

so, who are the kind of people that ARE figure skaters ? what do we act like ? there’s a lot of stereotypes that figure skaters are cold people. that’s not necessarily true. i would say that we are extremely competitive people. i’ve seen rinkmates get into full-blown fights during competitions. one of my best friends, who i met at my rink once i returned from my hiatus, HATED me because she knew i was competition. we are on-edge. stakes are high and the pressure is on. a lot of us are very perfectionistic because you sort of got to be to get to our level. we can have control issues and we can become easily frustrated if we flop jumps or keep stuttering coming out of a spin. the other stereotype is that we are super delicate little flowers. probably because of the way we have to move. realistically, we’re a tactile bunch of people who would probably wind up hurting someone if we played hockey. ( another stereotype : figure skaters and hockey kids. the closest i’ve gotten to a hockey player is the one time i threatened to quick him in the nads because they came early and insisted we get off the rink. ) we all love skating and have a lot of fun while doing it. it’s dangerous, and that’s part of the thrill. speeding around the rink at extremely high speeds is, honestly, exhilirating. we love our sport and, though we can get on each other's nerves, love our rinkmates. it’s not easy, but it’s our favorite thing to do.

#writing guide #character guide #sport guide #rph #rpt #i wrote this in a shakespearean fury #can u tell i miss my rink : (#i should be doing finals !#ch: axel mendoza

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dreamescapeswriting · 4 years

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BTS Reaction | Imagine [Song] [Request]

A/N: Based on Imagine ~ Ariana Grande

Seokjin: ~ Knew You Were Perfect After The First Kiss Took A Deep Breath Like, Ooh. (Character name for show - Sana - but Y/n is play sana just so there isn’t any confusion)

You had been nervous throughout the shooting of the last month. You were cast in a drama which wasn't a big normally a big deal but it was your co-star that was making you uneasy.

"Y/n you're on in five minutes," One of the female directors said as she came to the styling station, you nodded and let the stylist finish your makeup before going to change into the outfit. It was the biggest scene that you were shooting today, a big kissing scene that was going to be on camera for all to see.

"You're nervous about the kiss?" The outfit stylist asked when she noticed you pulling at the sleeves of the characters hoodie, you stopped what you were doing and sighed.

"That obvious?" She nodded at you and you groaned looking over your shoulder to see your co-star - The Kim Seokjin - walking over to set while holding the script. You'd worked together amazingly so far and the chemistry on-screen reflected what was happening off-screen too you were just two close friends.

"It's just a kiss..." You turned back to the stylist with a worried expression on your face, it wasn't just a kiss. It was standing out under a hosepipe while they made ''rain'' fall down on you while you screamed at him, well at his character.

"Everyone on set!" You sighed and looked at your hands trying to remember all of your lines but all that was flooding your mind was the thought of going out there and kissing Jin. Who was just as equally as nervous as you but he was better at hiding it after the years of touring the world and singing in front of thousands of people at a time.

"Action!" The water turned on and you were already soaking wet as you walked down the small street that was in the studio,

"Sana!" Jin's character screamed after you and you shook your head spinning around dramatically and coming face to face with him, you were panting and staring up into his eyes.

"What?! What could you possibly tell me that will make all of this better!" You screamed at him and he searched through your eyes for dramatic effect,

"Exactly! You can't! Just leave me alone!" You turned around to leave once again but his hand gripped onto your wrist,

"You can't walk home, you'll get sick." He whispered but you snatched your hand away from him,

"What do you care?!" Your character was supposed to be upset and hurt so you were doing everything to channel that into your speech, he swallowed harshly and looked at the floor as you walked away.

"Sana!" You span around and he rushed over to your his hands holding both of your arms in place as he bent down to kiss you and it was as if you were no longer acting in the drama. It was the drama, everything around you seemed to fade away as he kissed you, and it was as if you heard music playing. Your hands wrapped around the back of his neck to drawer him closer and his arms wrapped around your waist so he could hold you better.

"And cut!" You both pulled apart and looked at one another,

"Whoa." You whispered holding your hand up to your lips as you realised that the kiss was the best kiss you'd ever had in your life.

"Take five everyone!" The director called out and Jin stared at you trying to think of something to say while you looked down at the floor.

"That was...that was something." He chuckled reaching out to touch your hand, you felt sparks run start at your fingertips and slowly make their way up your entire body setting everything on fire as they went.

"It really was," You whispered back to him and he chuckled at how nervous you had gotten all of a sudden.

"I'd love to do that again-"

"Well, I'm sure they'll make us reshoot it-" His laughing made you stop talking and he shook his head at you,

"No, I want to do it outside of work...Maybe take you out sometime and get a meal?" Your heart raced at the thought of him asking you out and all you could manage to do was nod gormlessly making him chuckle a little more.

"I'll talk later, go and get changed before you get sick." He ran his thumb over your cheek and you nodded once again walking in the direction of the changing rooms still at a loss for words at what had just happened.

Yoongi: ~ We Go Like Up Til I’m Sleep On Your Chest, Love How My Face Fits So Good In Your Neck

Yoongi and you were spread out on the bed just laying together and spending all the time you could together since you didn't get to do this that often it was a nice break to be together. Alone for the first time in months since he'd been busy with the comeback, the boys and then with shows. This was the time you could fall asleep and not have to worry about not having him in your arms the next morning. Not that there was a lot of sleeping right now anyway, you were always busy with something else to sleep.

"We should go stargazing sometime," He said out of nowhere while he was holding your hand while you laid your face in his neck. He was playing with your fingers like a child with a fidget toy but you loved it, you loved that he would just hold you this comfortable and you could say nothing but just lay there for hours together.

"Stargazing we shall do then," You whispered back to him suddenly feeling the effects of the day coming back to you. You were out in a snow cabin for the week, he really wanted to get away from all kinds of distractions so he'd kidnapped you and had taken you hostage never wanting to give you back.

"I mean it when we go back to Seoul...We should start it," You hummed moving your head so you could lay it on his chest and he smiled drawing patterns up and down your bare back as you tried to sleep.

The next morning you woke up to an empty bed and it brought back the harsh reality that it was going to be like that again soon, you got out of the bed and went to the kitchen to see Yoongi making breakfast pancakes.

"Morning baby," He greeted but you groaned and sat down on the kitchen counter, pouring yourself a coffee and drinking from the mug.

"It's so early, why are you so happy this early?" You grumbled and he chuckled coming over to you and kissing you, but you pushed him away because of your morning breath.

"I stink-"

"I don't care, I love you." You giggled tiredly at him and he smirked going back to finishing the pancakes off for you both.

"I took another week off...I want us to go somewhere else together, somewhere a little warmer." You stared at the back of his head as he cooked in silence,

"Another week? Yoongi you-"

"I love my job I know but I love you more and I want to spend time with you." You hummed and he took hold of your hand as he left the pancake to cook on one side.

"I love you too Yoongi." You giggled kissing him on the forehead not wanting to kiss his lips, your breath was still gross and the coffee wasn't helping it.

"I'll go brush my teeth." You jumped down from the counter and rushed off in the direction of the bathroom.

Hoseok: ~ Quick, Quick, Quick, Let’s Go. Kiss Me and Take Off Your Clothes

The award ceremony venue was huge and you felt so out of place there. You were a new solo idol that was up for their first couple of awards,

"You look define." You heard a voice say from behind you, you turned around to see your brothers best friend Jungkook say you laughed shaking your head at him and going over for a hug.

"How are you feeling?" You looked at him as he asked you about to answer when the rest of your brother's group came over. Namjoon patted the top of your head as a greeting and you scoffed at him,

"She's nervous, heard her practising in the bathroom all week," Namjoon said making them all laugh. Your eyes landed on Hoseok standing in his suit and it made you yearn for him, you hadn't seen one another in two months since you were both busy with comeback season and awards. He was your secret boyfriend and had been for the last six months but it was hard to see him alone since you were Namjoon's sister and you had your own idol life to maintain,

"You look amazing," He whispered as you all began walking to find your seat his hand graced the back of your dress and you whimpered at the feeling of him being that close to you.

"You alright?!" Namjoon panicked and you nodded lying that you were just nervous about being up on stage to present one of the awards while Hoseok smirked to himself going to his seat between Namjoon and Yoongi.

The night was finally over and you were pulling Hoseok through the hall of your hotel, desperate for him. The rest of the boys were still trying to make their way back from the venue.

"Quick," You whined as he was slowly teasing you trying to take off your dress,

"I need you Hoseok." You panted and he smirked pushing you down onto the bed not bothering to take off the dress, there were too many buttons and strings for him so he bunched it up at your waist while you unbuttoned his shirt.

"We don't have long," He whispered to you as you began kissing down his neck and then sucking on his collarbone just a little - not enough to leave markings like you'd been dying to all night -

"I don't want to tease you, baby," He whispered running his hand up and down your thigh making you hiss at him,

"Liar, it's all you've done all night." He chuckled darkly at the memories, he'd switched places with Jungkook and had started running his hands up and down your leg all night, breathing close to your ear and whispering to you because he knew it killed you when he did that.

"But you aren't innocent yourself, ''accidentally'' brushing your hand on me and what was that with the ice cube?" He grunted remembering how you'd taken an ice cube into your mouth letting it melt and swallowing it before telling him you wanted to go home and drag an ice cube down his body.

"I didn't know you were into ice play baby," You giggled but he wasn't in the mood for games and neither were you, he kissed you roughly and you moaned out as he ground himself down again you.

Namjoon: ~ Me with No Makeup, You In The Bathtub. Bubbles and bubbly, Ooh

Namjoon had taken you to Venice to celebrate your recent wedding together, the night before had been perfect and now you were waking up together tucked in his arms.

"Morning beautiful," He whispered kissing your cheek, you looked at him and he was sitting up against the headboard with a book in his hands catching up on all of the reading he didn't get to do much of back home with the boys and work.

"What are you reading?" You asked tiredly and he shook his head closing the book and putting it down on the bedside table,

"Nothing. I'm going to run a bath," You hummed and he kissed you on the lips not caring about morning breath. You'd been together long enough that it no longer bothered you anymore, you laid on the sheets for a couple of minutes staring out of the balcony doors at the sunlight. It was beautiful outside and you couldn't wait to go out and explore the city together as a newly married couple. You lifted your hand up so you could stare at the ring again before getting up from the bed and going into the bathroom. Namjoon was sat in the bathtub surrounded by bubbles.

"We've got this from last night," He laughed looking at the bottle of champagne that had gone unnoticed. You were too focussed on other things to even look for anything the hotel had done for you, except the bed. When you first came into the room the bed had a heart made of rose petals sitting on it, as well as a cake sitting beside the table with your names on it, they'd gone all out for you it was beautiful.

"It's like our own resort." You laughed pouring some of the champagne into glasses before going to the minibar for some orange juice to make mimosa's for you both.

"You look amazing," Namjoon said as your head laid back down against his chest, you were both sitting together in the huge bubble bath,

"Don't, I don't have makeup on-" He kissed your exposed shoulder and shook his head at you.

"I love you without makeup, you always look perfect to me." You giggled at how cheesy he was being,

"You love me?" You teased,

"I mean I hope or do, why else would I have married you?" He chuckled wrapping his arms around you and bringing you to lean back closer to him.

"I love you too." You whispered closing your eyes and relaxing against him as you thought about the rest of your honeymoon together.

"We have the rest of the morning off you know...We don't have anything planned until late this afternoon," You hummed and he began kissing your neck sucking on the skin as he took the glass from your hand and placed it on the edge of the bathtub,

"I have a lot planned for us, Mrs Kim." He whispered turning you around so you were facing him now and sitting on his lap.

"Oh I think I know what you have planned Mr Kim." You giggled kissing him roughly, putting your hands in his hair and tugging lightly on the strands of his hair so he would let out a strangled moan.

Jimin: ~ Step up, the two of us, nobody knows us. Get in the car like ‘skrrt’

This was all Jimin's idea, get in the car and don't stop driving until you hit somewhere where no one would know who you and he were and why you had run away. Where you could just be alone and have no one bother you for the next week of his break. The first week had been a whirlwind filled with scandals and your relationship being outted by greedy media companies all using their own greed to exploit you both and practically ruin your reputation, you were an artist like Jimin and had started dating at the start of last year.

"It's like a ghost town," You whispered as you and Jimin walked around the small beach town hand in hand, it was pitch black but most of the shops were shut and boarded up and any that were open had one or two people sitting inside too bothered with their own lives to worry about your problems.

"A rose for the beautiful lady?" You jumped up in the air as a man appeared out of nowhere holding a rose out, Jimin paid him for the rose and watched him walk away without a single thought to who he was or what you were doing here.

"I might have to move here," You giggled walking with Jimin through the small streets and taking in the sights of everything around you, it felt amazing to be somewhere and not have to worry about who was following you or taking your picture without you knowing.

"You're sure no one followed us right?" You questioned as Jimin walked you down to the beachfront, it was more of a cove. Hidden away from everyone who didn't look close enough, Jimin sat you down on the sand and sat beside you linking your hands together.

"Noone knows where we are, not even the boys." He assured you making you relax, your head leant on his shoulder as you looked out at the sea.

The whole world felt silent and peaceful for the first time in a week, no one was screaming questions at you and demanding answers about why you had hidden the relationship. Noone was begging you to do brand deals or following you to your apartment to get a glimpse of your life.

"Jimin." You whispered poking his chin as you woke up, you must have fallen asleep together in the night before now the small cove was starting to gather a small collection of people all of them minding their own business as you slept.

"Hmm?" He moaned tiredly as he gripped you closer to him, it was the best night sleep he had gotten in months and he didn't want it to be over just yet.

"Excuse me, dear, if you'd like there's a small hotel just up the right in an old lighthouse, they serve the most amazing breakfast." An elderly lady said as she helped you up from the sand, you brushed yourself off and thanked her before poking Jimin in the side with your foot.

"I want breakfast Jiminie." You whined out and he groaned sitting up and rubbing his eyes,

"Just like my husband, not a morning person." She shifted so you could see an elderly man sitting on a fishing chair half asleep with a cup of coffee in his hand.

"Thank you again," You told her before you and Jimin went off to find the hotel together walking hand in hand once again and not caring about anything except spending time together. It felt perfect and you never wanted to change it though you knew it would come to an end soon you were going to live it up as much as you could for now.

Taehyung: ~ Feels like forever, baby I never thought that it would be you

"I feel stupid." You whined as you looked down at the dress you were being forced to wear for your cousin's wedding, she had you wearing a neon green bridesmaid dress complete with a silly hat to go along with it.

"You look wonderful, now go out there and knock them dead." You rolled your eyes at your mother's attempts to make this whole day feel better but it wasn't going to work, you were in a dress that looked like it could be spotted by aliens in space.

"Go!" The music started and you started walking down the aisle holding the matching green bouquet of flowers that she was forcing you to hold, you faked a smile knowing this day was for her and not you. You could go home and change once this was all over. Everything was going fine until you looked up to see Taehyung standing at the alter looking at you. A green tie to match your green dress and a giant smile on his face as he noticed that it was you walking towards him. You hadn't seen him in years and then all of a sudden he was right there smiling at you,

"Please be seated." The vicar said to everyone in the church, you and Taehyung held eye contact the entire ceremony while your cousin and her boyfriend got married.

"So it was you," He chuckled coming up to you later that night on the dance floor, he span you around and brought you into his arms.

"It feels like forever since I saw you," He laughed placing your arms around his neck so he could sway with you to the slow music that was playing.

"Seven years? I think." You giggled still finding hard to believe that he was standing right in front of you, he had been one of your best friends growing up but he went off to become the famous Kim Taehyung that everybody loved.

"It's a long time," He sighed looking away from you and he began glancing around the room with his brows furrowed together.

"What is it?" You asked as he turned your around, spinning you out and then bringing you back into his arms.

"I don't see you with anyone here." You made an acknowledgement noise and he hummed wondering why you were alone.

"You see, the one I wanted to bring as my date was already here and wearing a disgustingly bright green tie." He blushed as you flirted with him, it was as if the seven years apart hadn't even happened. You were still flirting with one another as though it was some big game though you both knew there was something more between you.

"Ah, I see." He laughed dipping you down and staring into your eyes,

"The one I wanted to bring was already here too and she's in an equally disgusting dress." You gasped acting offended as he brought you back up from the dip,

"You don't like my dress? I picked it out all by myself." You lied wrapping your arms around his neck once more and continuing to sway together. He leant his forehead down on yours and you both swayed in time to 'I Miss You by SOYOU',

"I love you, love you, love you..." You whispered as the song said it and Taehyung smiled as he heard you singing softly,

"And I miss you, miss you..." He sang back to you, you both stopped still and he titled your chin up to look at him.

"I love you, love you, love you." He whispered right before he placed his lips on yours, your eyes widened before shutting and kissing him back.

Jungkook: ~ Tell me your secrets, all of the creep shit. That’s how I know it’s true

You were sitting in a train carriage going to Seoul after one of the worst days of your life and you let out a small noise that could have been a choked sob or a whine but the man in front of you got up and left the seat not wanting to be around someone like that. You didn't blame him, no one wanted to be around you right now and no one wanted to be around a crying woman on a train it would look weird.

"Fuck," You whispered as you noticed the train getting busier by the second, you pulled up the hood of your jacket over your head and stared out of the window not wanting to cry in front of anyone. You'd done your best to keep it in, you weren't about to break right now.

"Everything okay?" You looked across from you to see someone who looked like Jungkook from BTS and you nodded turning back to look out of the window but the boy continued to stare at you.

"You sure?" You swallowed the lump in your throat before shaking your head at him and he questioned what was wrong putting his hands on the table. You stared at them and saw the tattoos that Jungkook had but it couldn't have been him, this was a public train so you assumed he wouldn't jump on and start talking to random people.

"I erm...My ex just broke up with me and threw me out." You stuttered out looking from his hands to his face, he had the same mole as Jungkook so it had to be him but there were always people that looked like each other.

"I'm who you think I am, but please don't scream." You shook your head promising that you wouldn't,

"You look like him, but everyone has at least five people that look identical to us...How do I know you're not some crazy fan who got tattoos to look like him." He started laughing and shaking his head at you, his laugh made you feel better the moment you heard it and you knew it was him.

"How can I convince you I'm who I say I am?" You pretending to think about it for a couple of seconds, all the worries of your ex-boyfriend fading away from your mind.

"Tell me your secrets," He chuckled and leant forward whispering a secret he'd never told anyone before and you nodded slowly pretending not to be convinced and he chuckled bringing out his ID and proving it was him.

"How do I know who you are?" He teased back, you brought out your ID and showed him it before he chuckled and began to question you on what had happened with your ex so he could find a way to comfort you.

"You should totally try it, I promise it's amazing." You giggled as you held out the cup of white hot chocolate for him to try. He took it from your hands and sipped on it before nodding.

"You're right, totally better than regular." He laughed as you started walking around the Han River for the sixth time that night, as soon as you both reached Seoul station you didn't want this to end so he offered to buy you a drink to cheer you up and spend more time with you. He wanted to get to know you and spend all the time he could with you,

"I have to go soon but here," He wrote his number down in your phone and text himself so he could have your number,

"Call me when you get home safe, okay?" You nodded and he kissed your cheek before running away.

Tagline:

@writingdreamsnottragedies @yoongisdumplingcheeks @snowy-meowl @lynnthevirgo @jooniesdarlingdimples @chimchims-stories-and-tales @fan-ati--c @lyoongx @mitzwinchester @callingmyangel @btsiguess-kpop @rjsmochii

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deans-haunted-baby · 4 years

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Curious. What do you mean by Dust till Dawn going against it's Characters? I know I have my own feelings, or confusion, with how they left Kate's story.

From Dusk Till Dawn effectively character assassinated every single character in the very last episode including Kate Fuller. No one is acting like themselves in that series finale it's like some deranged fanfic writer came aboard and hijacked the show while no one was looking. If you thought 15x18 & 15x19 of Supernatural were bad and believe me they really are; those episodes are minorly salvageable against the slaughterhouse that Dusk 3x10 was. It utterly contradicts and ignores everything the show put forward in all 3 seasons. I will never watch that episode again.

I'll first explain what that piece of shit did to the show's lead protagonists, the Gecko brothers. Regardless of how you or anyone else feels about Supernatural's series finale; that show was a saint to Sam and Dean's storyline beginning to end compared to how From Dusk Till Dawn definitively butchered Richie and Seth. I'm sad saying this because Zane Holtz and DJ Controna are outstanding as these characters. I freaking love their chemistry man, it's a great rival to J2! They're the badass dark clones of the Winchesters. Their arc starts out fascinatingly complex because they went from cold-blooded criminals/bad guys and meanwhile during their escape over the Mexican border with this hostage family the audience is told pretty quick by Professor Aiden Tanner that the Geckos are destined to become these foresworn warriors The Mayan Hero Twins in an ancient prophecy (based on real Mesoamerican lore) who battle the Underworld. So right away the show is telling us ahead where Seth and Richie are suppose to end up in their journey and when you introduce a storyline this big I expect a satisfying payoff.

At the end of season 1, Richie Gecko is *SPOILER ALERT* transformed into a culebra (snake-vampire) while Seth Gecko remains human symbolizing their night and day Hero Twin counterparts from the legend. And they're separated in the first half of season 2 where both try to navigate this new supernatural world they've stumbled on individually. What they find, no different than the Winchesters, is that neither can function properly without the other making their destiny all the more valid. That season is practically constructed like their swan song to the criminal lifestyle since the brothers are meant to become more than crooks; and since Richie's a vampire they can't ever go back to basics. Their adopted father aka uncle Eddie actually says the line "this is my swan song" in 2x07 to Seth and Richie in reference to their final heist together which is not a coincidence. That's the writers telling us that the Gecko Brothers' role in the show is going to shift from anti-heroes to heroes very soon. Eddie and Kate Fuller's fates in S2 act as the primary catalysts for this transition taking shape in the finale.

Going into season 3 it's business as usual for the boys until the prophecy of the twins officially rips a hole in the damn universe via demon queen Amaru. Who's now possessing Kate. Throughout that season Seth and Richie embark on a journey of heroism; find themselves battling monsters, actually saving civilians and dealing with their own personal demons (guilt and remorse over past sins). That year is presented as their redemption arc and final phase into their new role. No one ever tells them about their destiny (despite most of the other characters knowing) but we as the audience are already aware as we watch the brothers in action. The best episode is without a doubt 3x06 the crown jewel of From Dusk Till Dawn because it's about overcoming the darkness inside. And who best represents that than Richie; the show's most important central character whom began the series as a deadly clairvoyant criminal into the tortured vampire hero struggling with his own humanity. Now I won't spoil the whole episode for anyone who hasn't seen it or the show in general but it's an incredible moment of character development for both the Gecko brothers. Not only does it cement their powerful bond it's the episode that defines who these two are once and for all. The ones who lead the battle between good and evil; keep the balance of light and darkness. One day I plan to do an entire analysis of that episode because it's so fucking brilliant and shot so incredibly eerie at the same time 😁

You want to know what 3x10 does to these characters? It shits all over their entire storyline and pisses away THREE FUCKING SEASONS of character development. Just flushes it all down the toilet rendering everything they've ever done up to that point completely pointless! Their destiny which is the WHOLE POINT OF THE SHOW is suddenly dropped last minute and the Geckos hit reset on their former criminal escapades; dragging Kate along with them. I hate that finale with the fire of a thousand suns for what it does to Richie and Seth 😡

Moving on to Carlos Madrigal. He is the best villain character in the history of show villains hands down. I can actually say that without blinking. Wilmer Valderama is phenomenal, he steals the show as Carlos. He's is so freaking awesome, evil and badass! I just want to keep seeing this man tear things apart while being the sexy asshole he is 😈For all intents and purposes I don't want to spoil his whole storyline on the show for those following me in case they're interested. But what I will say is 3x10 destroys this character; so don't watch it if you want to keep the memory of who he was alive. I'm actually depressed over what was done to him as much as I feel sorry for Wilmer having to perform that shitty script. It's laughable in a very bad way. Gotta hand it to the writers and showrunners of FDTD they certainly knew how to humiliate their best characters in this series. Carlos basically goes from charismatic yet lethal Hannibal Lecter to a very captain obvious Gandolf caricature. Yah you heard that right, it's really fucking sad.

Next we have Freddie Gonzalez; the audience's avatar into the series. This character is connected to everyone on the show for a reason because of the crucial part he plays in this universe. The "Peacekeeper" destined to police the line between the supernatural world from the human world. In the beginning he's a Texas deputy on a quest to avenge the murder of his father figure/partner Earl McGraw via the Gecko Brothers. But once he steps in that territory of monsters there's no going back. And FDTD repeatedly tells him and the audience this in the first 2 seasons. But then 3x10 pulls the ultimate fuckery by giving him the most cliched, nonsensical hallmark ending effectively cancelling out his entire purpose in the series. He instantly forgets that he ever cared about Kate, watching her bleed out on the ground, then leaves the Geckos high and dry rushing his family (who isn't injured) to the hospital. And he stays there while the battle continues 😣

Kate and Scott Fuller OMG words cannot describe my anger over what was done to them so I'll make it fast. I'll begin with Kate the bright light and heart of the series. Her arc in the first two seasons is excellent. It's emotionally driven because she begins as an ordinary girl in broken yet seemingly-happy family to a young woman finding her way around the supernatural world maintaining her faith and moral compos while trying to help her brother after he's *SPOILER ALERT* been turned into a vampire; paralleling the Geckos's situation. Scott being only a 16 year old kid, like Richie, struggles immensely after his transformation; searching for meaning as a cursed individual and coping with his duality. He was already different to begin with so being a vampire adds some interesting layers to his character.

Btw Kate plays a vital role in Richie and Seth's lives, though in my opinion is more strongly connected to Richie. The show even goes as far as developing the early glimpses of a romantic arc between Kate and Richie (seeing as they kiss twice) with angst at the end of season 2 that is never resolved. You want to know why it wasn't? Not only does season 3 mute Kate's voice and agency but 3x10 ruins her character and demolishes her whole arc with Richie (who spent all of season 3 trying to save her) at the last second due to fan pressure of those who shipped her with Seth. They don't exchange one word nor barely look at one another it's like seasons 1&2 never happened. This is the biggest fuck you to fans of these characters I've ever witnessed in a series and they did my boys Adam and Michael so dirty in Supernatural. Poor Scott whom the show enjoyed kicking around all season barely gets a thing to do in that series finale either than listening to his sister and Seth gab about prom lol. Yah you heard me I'm not making this shit up I swear. Then he gets abandoned by Kate while she goes off to be a bank robber with the character assassinated versions of Seth and Richie. How extraordinary 😖

Santanico Pandemonium is really the only character in the series who manages to get out unscathed. HOWEVER her arc is handled very poorly beginning to end. They set up an arc between her and Seth that also goes absolutely nowhere. Give her zero closure with Richie whom she sired, dated and used in S2. And randomly throw her in a scene with Kate that makes no fucking sense after these two had nothing to do with one another all series. On top of that Santanico is barely in season 3 so by the time the show wraps her arc feels incomplete.

Other characters go missing that no one notices, the new bad guy whom they've set up at the end is just left hanging. And Richie Gecko, you know the show’s other lead, is horribly sidelined after 3x06 to make way for the Seth Gecko solo show. When I say FDTD series finale is bad I mean it's really fucking terrible and blasphemous.

#from dusk till dawn: the series #from dusk till dawn #richie gecko #seth gecko #kate fuller #carlos madrigal #fdtd #scott fuller #kichie #richiekate #seth x richie #freddie gonzalez #Santanico Pandemonium #anti fdtd 3x10 #the Gecko brothers

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doopcafe · 4 years

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Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Seasons 1--6), Final Analysis

Well, I made it through.

Let’s be absolutely clear: The Clone Wars (TCW) is not good television. For the most part, it’s not even watchable television. The show suffers from serious fundamental issues in nearly every aspect of storytelling. Characters are underdeveloped and inconsistent; the dialogue is expository and contradictory; the tone is disjoint and jarring; and most episodes serve no greater purpose than to be a twenty-minute vessel to house lightsaber fights.

So I want to put this part of the show to rest before I move on to Star Wars: Rebels (and before returning to watch season 7).

With two exceptions, the show poorly handles twists and reveals. In the earlier seasons, reveals were spoiled mostly due to telegraphing: Captain Sleaze in Cloak of Darkness, Senator Clovis in Senate Spy, and Yolo (?) in Senate Murders come to mind, but there were others. In later seasons, telegraphing was supplanted by “small universe syndrome” as the primary cause of spoiled reveals. In The Academy, a cloaked figure was seen doing shady, back-alley deals, but his identity could only have been the Prime Minister. During the “Ahsoka framed” series, Barriss was obviously the traitor, simply because her character suddenly reappeared after four seasons and there were no other candidates.

Probably the most successfully executed reveal was that of Krell, as his assholeness was at least initially masked as military rigidity. But even so, it was so over-the-top that when the reveal finally came to light, it felt more like an overdue disclosure than a dramatic twist. It didn’t help that, by that point in the show, the format of “asshole = upcoming reveal” had been firmly entrenched into the show’s DNA.

I would argue that the most effective plot twist of the entire show was when the dancer/singer girl shot and killed Ziro the Hutt in Hunt for Ziro. Although irrelevant to the greater story, it was an actual twist because it was strongly implied the opposite would happen (i.e., Ziro would betray the girl). If there is to be a second place, that award would go to Ahsoka’s decision to leave the Jedi Order at the conclusion of The Wrong Jedi. But this leads me into my next point...

Who was the main character of The Clone Wars? If we go by the logic that whoever had the most screen time was the main character, then Anakin probably wins over Ahsoka. But if we go by the logic that the most developed character was the “main character,” then this is a show about Ahsoka. Ahsoka---more than any other character---grows in a noticeable way (from impatient, violent child to impatient, slightly less violent teenager). In contrast, Anakin in Rising Malevolence is the same character as Anakin in Voices (only a little more violent and angry for some reason).

It’s unfortunate that her major character moments were never capitalized on. Intentionally sacrificing herself for the greater good in Weapons Factory apparently led to no lasting repercussions on her character. Her impatience and disobedience led to the deaths of thousands in Storm over Ryloth, but was similarly forgotten immediately afterwards. Even Ahsoka’s major character moment at the end of The Wrong Jedi resulted in her walking away from the show, never to address the implications of that decisions (although I suppose that’s the subject of Season 7).

On a different note, the show was riddled by a shameful amount of “references” and fan service, for reasons exclusively external to the story. These “nods” ranged from the obvious “Obi-wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope” (or whatever Senator Jimmy Smits says in Cat and Mouse) to the innocuous design of a droid or background device.

These “references” are objectively problematic for at least a few reasons. (1) They contribute to the sense that the universe is a really, really small place. Is the Mos Eisley cantina really the only place in the Outer Rim where shady deals go down? Is carbon freezing really the only way to store a person in stasis for transport? How long do Rodians live for anyways? Greedo’s gotta be what, like 80 when Han shoots him in A New Hope? It’s ironic that ultimately, this incomprehensibly large, diverse galaxy actually feels much smaller after watching this series because we keep going to the same twelve places...

(2) “Fan service” is tricky to get right because different people have different memories and impressions of the source material. In result, copying material will oftentimes comes across as a blatant misunderstanding of the original content. For example, to me, Vader put Solo into carbon freeze because it’s what Lando had lying around. It’s not a galactically established method of transporting people. Obi-Wan trained Luke with those laser balls aboard the Falcon because Han had them lying around and Obi-Wan needed to improvise a training exercise to kill time.

(3) "References” and “nods” usually are just a band-aid for a lack of creativity. Some of the better episodes in the initial seasons were just direct rehashes of famous movies. Seven Samurai, Godzilla, Stray Dog, The Most Dangerous Game, King Kong... I mean, it’d be pretty impressive to mess-up stories like these, but it’s concerning that there were just so many episodes made from other people’s stories.

These “references” even seep into the most innocuous of scenes. When Prequel!Wan lands on Mandalore to attempt a rescue of Satine from Darth Maul, one of the Mandalorians takes aim at him, only to have their blaster pushed down by their companion who’s shaking their head. This is a direct reference o the Tusken Raiders on Tatooine when Luke went after R2 in the desert. Even if this scene served an important plot purpose (it didn’t), there’s undoubtedly a multitude of ways to communicate the same thing. Instead, a small reference to the OT is interjected into the show, deimmersing the audience from the events shown. Unfortunately, this is just one (very small) example of hundreds over the whole show.

Let me say something positive. The episodes that worked best (especially early in the show's run) were ones that focused on mortal people, usually the clones. Innocents of Ryloth was one of the first watchable episodes, simply because we didn't have to sit through twenty minutes of unlikable, unrelatable “Jedi” and instead followed around a pair of troopers helping a little girl using their limited abilities. Likewise, Pursuit of Peace was way more enjoyable than it probably should have been, simply because the story was understandable, the consequences clear, and the drama real. Plan of Dissent (when the clones actively rebel against Krell) was also noteworthy for similar reasons: clones we liked must subdue a “Jedi” we’ve learned to hate.

This isn’t to say that episodes focused on the major characters were inherently unenjoyable, it’s just that none of these characters had any room to grow (with the exception of Ahsoka). Dooku, Grievous, Anakin, Prequel!Wan... They were the same characters as portrayed in Episode II and III. As presented, there was nowhere for these characters to go. Dooku was literally identical at the beginning of the series as he was at the end, and the same can be said about the others.

But these are false constraints the writers imposed upon themselves. Grievous was not in Episode II and was introduced in Episode III. TCW could have started him however they wanted and then illustrated his change into the character he later becomes. Who was he? What was his motivation? Why did he hate Jedi so much? The show was handed a completely clean slate to deliver a character from scratch, but instead we were immediately shown “Episode III General Grievous” with zero introduction because fans were expected to already know who he was.

This is partly why the backstory episode to Grievous was so compelling, at least in premise: viewing his home was personal to his story and it represented a chance to learn a bit more about the character and where he came from. Of course, it was mostly mishandled by a reliance on meaningless action, but the high ratings of that particular episode suggest there was room for quality television here, it just was never capitalized on.

Instead, we have completely static caricatures, especially for minor characters from the movies. Admiral Tarkin, Admiral Ackbar, Greedo (among others) were written out of cardboard and their roles in the plot could have just as easily been played by anyone else (there was nothing unique about their roles that required them to be these characters).

This is a shame because a lot could have been done with the established premise to really focus on Anakin, his motivations, and his relationship to his Padawan. I would have been okay with a lot of backtracking if it meant I could begin to grasp his “fall” to the Dark Side. Instead, I’m honestly more confused than ever about his motivation.

One argument is that Anakin joins the Dark Side because he like, “loves” Padme (or whatever). However, what we’re shown in this show---consistently, clearly---is that Padme and Anakin have a toxic, dysfunctional relationship. He is uncomfortably jealous and rarely trusts her. They argue nearly every time they’re together. Their “love” (or whatever) must remain secret, equating their relationship to something “wrong” or even “illegal” that must be kept secret, even on the verge of death. In a later episode, Anakin orders Padme to listen to him because he’s the “man” and, as his wife, she doesn’t have a say in the matter. This is clearly a broken relationship and the best result is the one that actually happens: They stop seeing each other. Anakin wants to save this woman from a vision? Why?

This brings up a second point, which is that Anakin can’t stand the pain of losing someone. His desire to protect those close to him may be Anakin’s only redeeming trait. He has a single selfless scene (in the entire show) during the opening of Jedi Crash where he sacrifices himself to delay an explosion and save his companions. I want to stress that any other scene where Anakin saves or helps someone isn’t done because he’s a good person, it’s done because he’s a broken person. It’s done because he, personally, would struggle with the emotional toll of knowing he allowed someone close to him to be hurt or die. In other words, he’s doing nice things for selfish reasons.

As far as I’m concerned, Anakin has always been Darth Vader. He is given choices between being a Jedi and allowing a lot of people to die, and he enjoys choosing the second. In Ghosts of Mortis, we’re shown that the threshold between “Anakin” and “Darth Vader” is disconcertingly low, requiring only a few choice words and less than a minute to convert him. In short, what I’ve learned from TCW regarding Anakin Skywalker is that he was an unlikable dick, and his “turn” to the Dark Side was just a long-overdue reveal.

While the later seasons worked towards the events in Episode III in a way that at least made a bit of sense, earlier seasons were focused on adult-themed wacky hijinks. In a way, the show almost would have worked better as a kid’s show, but this was clearly meant for adults: politics, war, slavery, and lots and lots of horrific violence. In comparison, the silly adventures of Star Wars: Resistance worked well because the show didn’t take itself too seriously. It was very clearly, from the start, a lighthearted show about kids going on fun adventures. In contrast, TCW suffered because its themes were adult in nature, but was portrayed as a Saturday morning cartoon show. The humor was misplaced, the tone disjointed from actual events, and the violence excessive.

Let me say a few words on the “Jedi.” Initially I labeled them as overpowered (OP), because in earlier episodes they seemed invincible and dissolved tension in every scene. Later, we see a slew of them get cut down as plot fodder, even against widely different situations. We see Luminara and others push through hoards of droids only to see “Jedi” Master Yoda-like dude get taken down by a dog. We watch as Fisto *heh* powers through entire battalions and the cone-head guy counting coup against an army, only to watch as pink girl gets shot in the face by a single clone who stands in front of her for several seconds before pulling the trigger.

It’s nearly impossible to feel tension in these scenes because the metrics for judging the true strength of a “Jedi” keep shifting as a function of the plot requirements. Anakin suddenly forgets how to use the Force when the plot needs his help to fake some drama. Prequel!Wan pointlessly fist fights with a slaver cat for an hour until the plot needs him to get back up again and OP everyone in the room. Even their ships are only as strong or weak as the plot needs them to be. Plo Koon’s fleet is devastated in seconds in order to portray the Malevolence as being a threat; Anakin’s fleet powers through a larger force three times its size because Anakin’s like, really mad about something.

Secondly, the “Jedi,” in general, were unlikable assholes. They were consistently portrayed as violent and ignorant and I struggled to understand them as real people. Frequently, we witnessed them torture victims, default to a lightsaber to solve problems, and enjoy death to the point of counting coup against sentient life forms defending their homes. Anakin threatened civilians with his lightsaber. Ahsoka was annoyed when she’s asked not to murder a defenseless creature in Jedi Crash. Prequel!Wan and Anakin team up to hurtle enormous rocks into a beaten monster in Dooku Captured. A trio of Jedi Masters mentally gang bang a shackled Cad Bane. They supported state terrorism when it suited their needs, but agreed to abandon their friends for political reasons.

I mean, these are not good people...

This is a shame, because my impression of true Jedi comes from Luke, Yoda, and Obi-Wan in the OT, as well as the expanded universe novels that take place afterwards. It always seemed to me that being a Jedi was about conquering oneself, one’s fears, and learning to use the Force to selflessly help others and let go of all worldly attachments. You know, like the Buddhists they were originally inspired by. I always had the impression that the Force was extremely powerful and that Yoda was only showing Luke a portion of what was possible. That the Emperor was only using Force lighting to toy with Luke. That Vader only Force choked his officers because it was visually intimidating and kept them in line.

Instead, we’re treated to some garbage about how a “Jedi” is nothing greater than an actuator to swing around a lightsaber. When Luke enters Jabba’s palace in Jedi to rescue his friends, it’s not with lightsaber swinging, cutting shit up, flipping around like an acrobatic monkey. Imagine Anakin and Ahsoka in the same scene. They’d blaze through the palace corridors before Force choking Jabba as the Darth Vader theme plays. Forget the rancor, these are demigods. They have lightsabers. Have you seen them? They go “woosh woosh.”

In short, there was little to look up to in terms of a “hero” character. I can see how children can look up to Luke as a role model, someone they want to emulate or play with as a toy, but looking up to Anakin? Ahsoka? Hey kids, wanna learn to become a psychopath? First, you use your power to abuse those who are weaker than you. Then you need to get really really angry and uncontrollably choke someone, preferably your sister or one of your cousins.

And so, for a Saturday morning cartoon show, it is very unclear who we’re supposed to care about. I liked when Ahsoka went against Anakin because I hated his character so much. I liked everything with Hondo, a pirate. I liked Ventress a little, because she was actively seeking to kill the main characters. I liked some of the clones, but I don’t know which ones because they all looked the same. I cared about Darth Maul because I’m honestly a little worried about him, especially after the loss of his brother. I kinda liked General Grievous just because he hates the “Jedi” and was therefore relatable (even though the reasoning was never explained). And... that’s it.

At no point did I ever “look forward” to the next episode. I painfully died a little on the inside hitting the “watch next” button every single time.

This “review” is already way too long, so let me summarize by applying my five-star rating system (developed for movies) to each episode. In review:

5. Amazing, classic, culturally important. Something everyone should watch. 4. Great; very well done, no significant flaws. 3: Entertaining with only minor gripes/criticisms. 2: “Watchable,” but suffers from flaws and has some poor parts. 1. Uncomfortably bad; suffers from serious flaws. 0. Painfully bad, would actively fight against being forced to watch a second time.

The 3-star episodes were:

Hostage Crisis

Lightsaber Lost

Pursuit of Peace

Carnage of Krell

The Wrong Jedi

Hostage Crisis was the introduction of Cad Bane, Lightsaber Lost was the remake of Stray Dog (and the only episode to include a real Jedi), Pursuit of Peace was the random Padme/politics episode that was strangely well-executed, Carnage of Krell was the reveal of Krell as a bad guy and his clones working to apprehend him, and The Wrong Jedi was Ahsoka leaving the Jedi Order (and the only episode to include a true character moment).

Also, I scaled the IMDB ratings of each episode to my ratings and then detected outliers in their overlap. In other words, I wanted to answer the question, “which episodes did I rate the most differently from others?”

Turns out, I rated every single episode lower except for seven. Those seven were:

Mercy Mission (+1.853) - R2 and 3PO discover an underground world with ents. This one is universally panned by “fans,” but was a competently handled episode apart from the disappointing resolution.

Pursuit of Peace (+1.382) - Padme struggles to win support for a Senate bill. Another competently handled episode that focuses on Padme and politics and is ranked low by “fans.”

Lightsaber Lost (+0.6471)

Weapons Factory (+0.4118) - An average episode with a dramatic scene of sacrifice by Ahsoka and her “friend” Barriss.

Shadow Warrior (+0.3824) - Grievous is captured during some dramatic moments on Naboo.

Hostage Crisis (+0.3529)

Front Runners (+0.0882) - One of the rebels episodes, I don’t remember which.

In conclusion, Star Wars: Rebels is next and I am somehow still alive.

#pie211-tcw #tcw #clone wars #the clone wars #star wars

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fcbabyx · 5 years

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Elite S2 - Worth It

Hola, hola, hola, ¿cómo están?

Netflix España’s hit teenage drama, Eilte, is back with its second season and surprisingly, is worth it. In only 8 episodes, the writers managed to reveal who Marina’s killer is to the Elite squad while introducing 3 new characters that serve as catalysts for some of the main characters. - spoilers ahead, just a heads up.-

The Good

The writers found a new way to keep Marina’s storyline alive with a different point of view. The communication between the teens and how open they are talking about sex, drugs, problems, etc... is nice to see that.

The Bad

The temporary write off of both Nano and Christian was unnecessary. To some point, I understand why Nano would leave, but Christian’s case, that was some real class bullshit right there. You have the one main character that knows the truth and you decide to get rid of him in the first episode? The fuck? Oh yeah, you know why? Cause, that’s how you set up the whole Samuel x Carla bullshit... 🙄

The show is still 8 episodes long. I personally believe that at this point the show could afford to at least hit the double digits.

The Ugly

Cayetana - Talk about a fucking unnecessary character. Her arc is so bland that the best the writers could do was turn her into a modern age con-artist, cause mind you that’s what she is, until her purpose was finally exposed a.k.a Polo. Also, Cayetana is the one character that is used to give in house bitch, Lucrecia a redemption arc and humanize her again, she is still a bitch tho.

Breakdown

Samuel goes missing. Okay. Christian gets run over by Carla’s dad hit squad. Okay. Let’s stop. As mentioned above Christian gets written off by a car “accident” that paralyzes him and hey, the in laws are willing to pay for his recovery in Sweden....so off to Sweden and just like that the one character that could have ratted out both Carla and Polo is taken care off. The only reason that shit had to happen is cause Carla had to fall for Samuel. I personally think is bullshit, that Christian didn’t asked for a moment by himself and Samuel and just spilled the beans. Por que puñetaaaa, if your bestfriend’s brother who is also your other bestfriend is in jail, you would think some he would try to do something, realistically speaking that’s what teenagers would do. However, that shit doesn’t happen. So Bye bye Christian.

Samuel and Carla, talk about, de el odio al amor hay solo un paso, bullshit. Fans are going crazy over this ship but is an excellent example of the writers doing a good job at setting this bullshit up and getting away with it. Let me remind you that Carla not once looked at Samuel, like oh yeah I wanna fuck him in season one. She was swayed by Christian and that was the introduction to the Polo x Carla x Christian dynamic. So in season 2, it took Samuel giving her a little attention when her boytoy, Christian is not around, and she just gives in. Literally that’s all it took, like one episode. It took Christian more effort than Samuel, just throwing that in there. However, this happened because, in order for Samuel to be found, Carla had to “break” and confess and expose Polo. That is the plan that both Samuel and Guzman come up with and it works. She “out of love” breaks and exposes Polo. 🙄To be honest with you, i was waiting for the moment that she would also deal with legal consequences for helping him out but you know, una puta con corazon de oro. Let’s be real Carla’s character has no purpose except for sex appeal and the Polo expose, that’s it, that’s the character. Cool thing that came out of it is Samuel and Guzman’s friendship.

Nadia and Guzman, let’s be real, their appeal is the whole Romeo and Juliet trope in a modern society. Guzman goes through a lot of emotions due to Marina, Lu, and Nadia. Eventually he breaks, it was bound to happen but he also finally, leaves Lucrecia. Now, it is Nadia that is getting all the backlash from the fans. Nadia in the eyes of many has been reduced from a badass proud Muslim girl to I’ll do anything to get Guzman, which is bullshit. Nadia’s transformation is 2 seasons long. One she finally breaks free on her own accords and 2, she takes control of her own actions without being forced by outside forces. Example, Lucrecia and the hijab bullshit at school. People have to realize that Nadia is the character that will defend her right to do what she wants, when she wants to, not because someone is forcing her to do so. It takes two seasons of context for her character to come alive.

She also gains a new female bestie, Rebeca. Rebeca is one of the catalysts of this season. She is one of Nadia’s biggest cheerleaders and confidants. A teenage girl usually needs a female bestie, and Rebeca is that for Nadia. Rebeca is also kinda used by Samuel, but Samuel is also used by her mom. The point is that Rebeca’s biggest purpose in the show is to be Nadia’s girl. I’m okay with that.

Lucrecia and Valerio, the Cruel Intentions + Flowers on the Attic dynamic, just doesn’t cut it. So here is my theory and the more I think about it and analyze it, it makes sense. The writers needed someone to beat Lucrecia with her own tactics, and who better than her half brother former lover Valerio? This is the perfect example of taste your own medicine. Nadia went head to head with Lu and won and lost. Guzman, lord knows it took too damn long for him to call it off and be honest about his lack of love for her, so here comes Valerio and does what needed to be done, he breaks her but in the process he breaks himself as well. I am not a fan of the incest, but Valerio is by far the best introduction this season. He, for the wrong seasons, wanted Nadia and Guzman together; however in the process he becomes friends with Nadia, which I personally appreciated. He also, makes the selfish stupid decision in recording her and Guzman having sex and sending the video to Lu, hoping that Lu would wake up from Luland and see that Guzman, just doesn’t love you anymore and it works. The backlash is that she spreads the video, to which he tells Nadia that he is the one who took it, and there goes their friendship. Mind you, all of this is after, he tells Nadia the whole incest thing. Eventually Lucrecia snaps in a fake gala by truly yours, Cayetana, exposes Cayetana, Guzman’s relationship, and has her emotional bullshit breakdown after she fucks her brother, then she fucks him again. So Valerio done with her bullshit, in the family dinner text’s daddy to look underneath the table y puta madre, quedo cabron!!!! Daddy gets to see how close his 2 kids really are. Now my only complaint is that at the end of season 2 Valerio is nowhere to be found while Rebe and Cayetana are still there, which makes sense. I personally would have liked to see the del amor al odio es solo un paso, cause let’s be real, Lucrecia will always be the greedy bitch of my way or my way and the only one that can beat her at it is her own fucking brother. I needed that. I need that.

Ander and Omar, the growth, their communication, the trust, the love, the love, fucking amazing. Omar, gets kicked out for finally standing up to his father, so he goes to Ander’s. He gains freedom and a non-toxic home that he, himself, said he is not going back to. He gets a job, he gets to dress up, and just be himself, fucking shit, HE DESERVES IT, PUÑETA! Ander on the other hand, has to deal with the hey my bestfriend killed my other bestfriend’s sister, cause Polo actually tells him. Ander’s emotional and mental state, did get the best of him to some point, his relationship with Omar gets affected, his relationship to Guzman eventually goes to shit, and Polo, well you know. However, Omar and Ander do figure things out, cause somehow, they are a mature couple that do loves each other. 👏👏👏👏👏👏

Cayetana and Polo, let’s be real, I don’t like the bitch. She gets introduced as another high class snob and immediately becomes friends with Lu. In the process she falls for Polo. Cayetana is ashamed of her poor life background and literally lies and fakes her way through life. It gets to the point that to pay off a debt of a dress she stole, she makes up this fundraiser gala that Lu eventually makes it a reality for her, in order for her to get the money to pay off the debt and keep the rest for her school, family, etc... that’s a con-artist, period. This bitch has no purpose except that she becomes Polo’s new partner in crime. She hides the trophy, y’all. That’s it, that’s the character. She’s so bland. She is so useless. In all honesty, she is not needed, Polo could had turned on Carla and bring her down too, but deep down he is still in love with her and his anxiety gets the best of him, and that I understand. Cayetana is now the worst character in the series. Con artist and partner in crime with a killer.

Also, Polo is technically a killer but not really. He killed Marina, in what it looks like as a pre-anxiety breakdown and a fit of rage trying to protect Carla. Keep in mind he didn’t wanted to kill her, he actually asked multiple times for the fucking watch , is not premeditated murder, he was trying to get the watch back and his worry over Carla pushed him to a breaking point. On top of that Marina coming at him made him snap. In season 2 his anxiety is in an all time high, due to the secret. He and Ander do bail out Nano, but he never confesses. In a way I do blame the writers in not wanting to bring Carla down, by not having Polo confess and point her as the one to suggest to cover up and shit, cause she was trying to protect daddy, who needs no fucking protection. This would have been completely different season, if Polo and Christian would had teamed up against Carla. That right there would have been fucking fantastic. In reality the culprit and catalyst of this are Marina and the watch, but the main problem is Carla’s dad. If Polo and Christian would had teamed up with Samuel and Guzman, it would have been a total different season, granted that also meant that Polo had to confess his act to Guzman, but it would have been a total different season. In reality Elite needs a villain and right now Polo is the easier choice. Is clear that if season 3 comes through, it will be a them vs Polo + Cayetana, which is fine I guess, but it steers away from the actual reason it happened, the fucking watch. I’m not saying Carla’s dad is corrupt, but Carla’s dad is corrupt.

Tl;dr: Season 2, exposes Polo by making Carla fall in love with Samuel. Lucrecia breaks cause she can’t have everything she wants, from Guzman to her brother, so she spreads a video of Nadia and Guzman having sex, real classy. Omander is still alive. Rebeca is a true friend. Guzman and Samuel are a good combo. Cayetana is a con artist that helps Polo to walk free by retrieving the trophy from the lake and hiding it. That’s it that’s the season.

I do believe that Elite’s downfall is not wanting to finish the murder storyline. Ideally they would wrap up the Marina murder storyline and shift the focus onto Carla’s dad and the watch, but that shit is not going to happen let’s be real.

Overall score : Is a solid 4/5.

#elite #elite netflix #season 2 #s2 #opinion #polo #carla #samuel #nano #guzman #nadia #ander #omar #omand #lucrecia #lu #valerio #rebeca #cayetana

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steve0discusses · 4 years

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Yugioh S4 Ep10 pt2: Yugi’s Never Ceasing Commute Continues

Last we left off, it was time to eat. Thank you. Thank you, Yugioh. You get me.

Not one of their better spreads, TBH.

No cheese wheels, too. They are truly living in hard times.

(read more under the cut)

Rex and Weevil decided to look for rare cards in the rubble of Arthur Hawkin’s house.

I don’t know why they bothered with this, everything was very clearly exploded and on fire, but youknow, these two just seem to be very hellbent on being bad at life. Just two jokes that are here just to be jokes, wearing these duel disks that they’re not going to use until it’s finally time for them to betray us. Checkov’s jokes.

And I hate to say this but they really are this season’s Bakura.

I know I just said that.

But this show really likes having at least one character that might turn at any moment and stab our protagonist in the back. They like to have at least one at all times there, hovering over Yugi’s oblivious shoulders, with that figurative knife (or literal, in the case of that time when Bakura stabbed himself without nearly any provocation).

In the past, when Bakura was out to lunch, we would have betraying friends like Kaiba, who would go solo in the middle of his own card game and end up throwing everyone in danger, and also Tristan who got full on possessed by the Big 5 and tried to murder everyone, but I guess after 4 seasons they were like “Youknow...I think Kaiba got over it.” and like...you can’t have Rebecca stab us in the back so lets bring Rex and Weevil.

At least their showtime is minimal, because unlike Bakura, who is pretty likeable even when he’s being an asshole, Rex and Weevil never turn off the asshole and are mostly just visual gags stumbling over eachother. Bakura was quite clever and had a bit of depth and mystery, while I don’t think Rex and Weevil are smart enough to even know how to spell mystery.

And if Rex and Weevil end up being good guys and the saviors of the whole show then my sincere apologies, but they are still kind of grating.

Now Rebecca gets a duel monster’s card that has a death threat on it, which is probably the normal way to sign your duel monsters cards in this universe. I imagine every card in Yugi’s deck has a couple death threats on each of them by now. Probably makes them more lucky.

Ya so...

I can forgive this. The people who made this looked at a map of California, forgot that California is roughly the same size as Japan, and were like “I mean, there’s like 50 states, it can’t be that big.”

But here’s the thing about Death Valley. I am a Californian, but I have never been there. This is why.

Death Valley is ASS to get to. Barely anyone lives there. Nothing goes there. You can’t just take a train, you have to drive there by going south past it and then turning around. It’s real round about and just in the middle of nowhere. May as well get there by flying into Las Vegas, and if you are flying into Las Vegas, chances are slim that you will leave that Vacation Town USA to vacation in a literal desert.

Clearly they saw the name “Death Valley” and got super excited but y’all...there’s a reason why we call it that, and everyone who knows about geography or is a Californian is kind of like “um...is Yugi...going to Death Valley???? That city slicker?”

Cuz this is not a normal desert. Normally, a human can survive 3 days without water, in Death Valley you apparently can only survive for 14 hours. It is the lowest point in the US and also the hottest point in the US and the place where the highest temperature was ever recorded on the Earth. And while that heat is only for 5 months of the year...it’s not winter in the show, is it? It’s fairly warm. San Fransisco wasn’t even foggy?

Like even the Death Valley website is like “please don’t leave the main roads and hike during the hot months” because y’all, this park is damn serious. Like this is one of the only National Parks that has not just one, but multiple ghost towns in it.

Don’t get me wrong, Death Valley’s very pretty and very fun I’ve heard, and it has like a very fancy dayspa in it, and if you like geography and like to rough it, then you will absolutely love how freakin weird Death Valley is. So, if you’re safe and know how to pack your gear, you’ll have no problem, but...Y’all, Yugi Muto, who barely survived Pegasus’ island (and only because Mai fed him) is going to just casually go into Death Valley.

In that outfit.

Then, in some barn somewhere (I have NO IDEA where this exchange takes place) Rafael is grilling Arthur only to realize that this is a very pointless conversation.

And in case you forgot Darts exist, he’s still out there, murdering people off for kicks. we’ll just add 20 more to the death count, the internet told me that’s the average amount of people on a fish boat of average size (although sometimes this boat seemed like the size of a shipping container barge but youknow...)

And in case you missed it, I have been doing the death counter wrong so I was 2 people behind--it’s correct now. With the rate this show goes I feel like we might see death 666 eventually. But, yes we did pass 269 so we’ll have to wait another 100, I guess, because it went to some rando on this boat. Nice.

(The highest surface temperature of Death Valley ((not the air, but the ground)) ever recorded, was 201° F.)

(That’s 94° C for those in the back.)

I mean Yugi is part Pharaoh so I guess he just has a strong attraction to really terrible deserts. He’s also half a dead guy so maybe he also just has a strong attraction to being dead.

But I dunno, maybe this is the months of the year where Death Valley is manageable? Maybe? Possibly? We’ll just assume that it is.

Now you can go horseback riding in Death Valley, as you can in any National Park, but it isn’t real normal to ride your horse all the way from San Fransisco. And like you can’t even let your dog off a leash in Death Valley. This is such a bad park for pets!

Also, I found out some fun facts about horse travel, for anyone interested in writing fantasy and wants to know the average speed of a horse.

So a horse can go about 100 miles in a day, but only for one day. If you do 250 miles, the time has to be more spread out since you must recharge your horse. According to some horse-specialist on the internet who does horse marathons from coast to coast, if you have to do 500 miles, then you average about 24 miles a day, accounting for horse-recovery time and assuming it’s a horse that wasn’t bred for super long distances. (this is about a 500 mi horse ride, ps)

The pony express of old, the iconic Wells Fargo, would actually have horse stations along the prairie, where you would trade in your tired horse for a new horse, so that way you would never have to stop going 100 miles in a day. Since Yugi never changed his horse, this ride would have been absolutely ridiculous, and Copernicus the horse, would have stopped somewhere in Gilroy.

But this is a kid’s show so wtv, we’re gonna ignore that.

(reminder that Yugi decided not to unhitch the perfectly serviceable truck and drive away with air conditioning.)

And Yugi really did make Rebecca promise not to tell these much older teens that he took off (something about how he doesn’t want to put more people in danger yada yada, normal Yugi stuff), but the show kind of blames this on Rebecca...but like...she’s 12. This one is on Yugi.

But, if Rebecca were older, maybe she would have done the same thing. Rebecca seems like maybe the type that realizes that when you like an idiot boy, you gotta let them do idiot things, and make idiot mistakes. You can’t just control what your friends do all the time, unlike this crew, which is controlling because that is the only way they keep eachother alive.

So Joey decides to ignore both of the cars right next to him, and just book it to save his stupid ass friend. On foot. To Death Valley. From what the show insisted was just outside San Fransisco.

And I guess that Rafael decided to just let Hawkins go?

Probably because Yugi got on a horse and Rafael was like “of course I know Yugi is chasing me on horseback off the main roads. Of course I know that.” and then he just...let Hawkins walk all the way back...

Hawkins should be dead, but not yet.

So lets check out Death Valley.

So like...again I just think they probably boarded everything and had a rough idea of “America has a bunch of natural canyons, right?” and didn’t realize that the Grand Canyon was soooo far from California.

There are actually canyons in Death Valley but like...I dunno if the art matches that so much? They aren’t nearly as massive as the canyon situation farther East.

Again this was their art choice that they made and it’s...a choice. And they committed to it.

And this bike thing happened?

This tandem bicycle for children lost among the wreckage of Rebecca Hawkin’s home is like a whole “baby shoes, never worn” short story in itself. Rebecca has nooo siblings or parents, right? She has a really old grandpa who is like 80 and doesn’t bike? Just uh...bringing that up...was this tandem bike for her to hang out with Yugi? Does Rebecca even have friends her own age? She already graduated college.

So much inferred by the bike that I know is just here because it’s a funny joke to see Rex and Weevil on a stupid tandem bike.

So I’ve heard about the bike/car/horse paradox before in regards to this season, (it’s one of the few things I knew about this season before going in) so I’m happy to see I’ve recapped enough Yugioh to see it play out.

The paradox being, if Yugi is on horseback, and Rex and Weevil are on a bike, and the rest are in a car, who arrives first?

Apparently the show itself isn’t even sure because Rex and Weevil can keep up with a horse???

Anyway, the correct answer to the paradox is that everyone not in a car is dead for not bringing any water.

Everyone except for Raphael, who probably put a camel pack into each of his shoulder pads.

OH NOW IT’S AN ANIME.

I don’t get why this is happening. But it’s a thing now. Rafael has either literal or metaphoric wings. Bear in mind I thought Pharaoh was Metaphoric for like 14 episodes. These Icarus wings might just be real. Rafael might have been a card this entire time, and I wouldn’t even blink.

Anyway, if this is your first post of mine you’ve seen of this, my apologies, we’re in S4 and this is very confusing. You can read from S1 ep 1 in chrono order by clicking this very handy link here!

#yugioh #ygo #Episode Recap #photo recap #yugi muto #joey wheeler #rebecca hawkins #raphael #rex raptor #weevil underwood #duke devlin #tea gardner #anime food #s4 #ep 10 #fully prepared for Rafael to be a card

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stevenuniversallyreviews · 5 years

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Episode 124: Lion 4: Alternate Ending

“Please tell me my destiny.”

We’ve had Ronaldo as a toxic gatekeeping fan intent on harassing the creator. We’ve had Lars as a disappointed fan whom the creator is desperate to impress. We’ve even had Navy as a false fan who’s only interested in robbing the creator’s spaceship (arguably a rarer breed than the first two). So now it’s time for the obsessive clue-hunter, who parses through the creation so deeply that the original meaning gets lost in the shuffle. And this time, our fan stand-in is Steven.

Lion 4: Alternate Ending is an episode about Steven trying to ruin Lion 3: Straight to Video. All the magic from that first glimpse of Rose Quartz threatens to be extinguished through overanalysis, to the point where his discovery of a new tape is met with dread instead of excitement. For all the Steven Universe fans that get frustrated by Steven not being as invested in the lore as they’d like, well, this is what happens when Steven gets as invested in the lore as you’d like.

To be clear, I don’t think Steven succeeds in ruining Lion 3, especially because the conclusion of Lion 4 manages to enhance its predecessor. I also don’t think it’s a bad thing that he tries: it fits his post-Storm in the Room state to tear through whatever evidence he's got to figure out why he was born, and it’s properly painful to see him so desensitized to the wonder of Rose’s tape that he’s reduced it to a possible decoded message. What better way to express how Steven feels than tainting a pivotal moment with his mother?

I’m super into stories where a mystery to the characters isn’t a mystery to the viewer: the core example is Cowboy Bebop episode Speak Like a Child, where our 2070s crew is trying to solve the case of a strange antique object that a 1990s audience already knows is a videotape (although a fifth of the way through the twenty-first century, we’re already getting removed from an era where modern audiences would know what a Betamax is, even as a cultural relic). Because the writers don’t have to try to fool us, we can focus more on how the characters tackle a problem instead of trying to beat them to the punch with our own deduction skills. I wouldn’t call Lion 4 the most concrete example of this sort of story, as it’s not impossible that Rose was leaving encrypted messages behind, but to me at least the “twist” that Rose’s tape wasn’t part of some dubious master plan is obvious enough that I can just enjoy the ride.

“Enjoy” is perhaps the wrong word, because while this is an excellent episode, it’s not a fun one. There are comedic moments, because this is still Steven Universe, but watching a kid at the end of his rope struggling to understand his place in the world is bound to be harrowing stuff. Steven’s determination is compounded by his solitude: the Crystal Gems are pointedly absent, as the last time he asked them for answers his dad got abducted to a space zoo and it’s easy to confuse correlation with causation. So it’s just Steven and Lion for most of the episode, and it’s telling that Lion answers Steven’s final cry for help by bringing him to see his dad. Some things can only be fixed by talking, and for all his strengths, Lion isn’t a great conversationalist.

Before we get to Greg, this Steven/Lion solo outing uses constant activity to sidestep the dullness factor that bogged down Steven’s Lion. After a strong first impression of Steven’s mental state as he scours Rose’s tape for clues, going so far as to try to find meanings in anagrams, Lion revs up the plot by retching up a giant key. I love that Steven’s first thought is the same as mine, and likely yours: the chest in Lion’s mane that we first saw in Lion 3, which unlike Bismuth remained a mystery (and it still is, because we never saw what Steven found in there between Change Your Mind and the movie). Even though the key is comically oversized, Steven ignores the obvious and keeps trying to make it fit. So right off the bat, we get two little stories about Steven looking for answers where there clearly aren’t any and doubling down despite the futility out of sheer desperation for the truth.

From here we get a montage of past locations a la Marble Madness and Warp Tour, accompanied by a gorgeous medley of location themes from Aivi and Surasshu; I will never not complain that we don’t get to have an album of their scoring, because this episode’s soundtrack is one of their best. Visiting the Armory harks back to Lion 2 as the tape did for Lion 3, and we also get a glimpse of Rose’s Fountain and Rose’s Room to continue our references to the many known areas tied to Steven’s mom. When nothing works, Steven pleads with Lion for more information, aware by now that the cat has some answers.

While I’m not huge on Steven’s Lion as an episode due to the aforementioned dull pace, it’s awesome to see our heroes return to where Lion was first found. Buddy’s Book already did a great job of reminding us of Lion’s desert home, but now it’s time to finally investigate the area further.

Jesse Zuke and Raven Molisee paired up for our last episode, leaving their usual respective partners Hilary Florido and Paul Villeco at bat for Lion 4. The ragtag team has so far given us rich visuals, with a particularly expressive Steven and Lion (crucial for the non-talking member of the duo) and a callback to the lovely settings of the past, but every aesthetic choice they make is topped by the desert run. It’s a beautiful shot, evoking the iconic ocean run of Lion 2, but Steven’s exhaustion (aided by Zach Callison’s beleaguered performance as he narrates his thoughts) tinges the scene with melancholy where there was once only magic. Steven’s desperation is no longer the frenzied need from when Greg was kidnapped, or even from the beginning of this very episode, but has been worn down to a weary determination that just breaks your heart. This is Charlie Brown after a yanked football too many; he hasn’t been thrown a single bone in his search for answers, and this might be his last chance.

I try not to include too many images in these reviews, because they can mess with the flow of the text, but screw it this shot is also amazing:

The pyramid-like structures leading to the locked door are the first we see of a new hidden getaway, and retrospect makes Steven’s plight even worse: as we learn in Legs From Here to Homeworld, all he had to do was touch one of them to get a major hint about Rose’s true identity.

It wouldn’t have solved everything, as Garnet would likely assume they were spoils of war, Amethyst wouldn’t recognize them, and Pearl would keep her mouth shut. And it would’ve ruined the pacing of the mystery for such a strange hint to be presented, so from a storytelling perspective it makes total sense to keep this in the backburner. And it’s not like it’s that weird that Steven doesn’t feel compelled to touch what seems to be a couple of statues when he’s spent the whole episode looking for a lock and it’s right in front of him and he just survived hours of desert travel. But knowing what we know now adds to the drama of how close our hero is to the truth he deserves.

In yet another bummer, Rose’s hidden landfill is worn down to the point where most of the walls had collapsed, meaning Steven didn’t even need the key. Which isn’t to say the key wasn’t important, as it prompts his trip in the first place, but it’s just one more way that the universe seems to be throwing unnecessary hurdles at him. In the same vein, Lion not only could’ve warped him to the destination as he mentions, but he could’ve done so without hacking up the key in the first place. But we’re long past the point where we should expect straight answers from Lion, so I forgive the big lug.

The first thing that came to my mind when Steven saw the dump wasn’t Amethyst’s room, although there are obvious similarities. It was Greg’s storage locker, the place where we first talked about Rose all the way back in Laser Light Cannon, the place where Greg expressed confusion about why a magic woman fell for a regular guy like him. And as frustrated as Steven is, this room is a wonderful unspoken answer to that distant question: among Rose’s many imperfections was that, like Greg, she was kind of a slob. It’s so nice to have a mundane flaw after nearly a full season of focusing on her as a liar and murderer, especially a flaw that reminds us of why she and Greg were so great for each other.

But yeah, Steven isn’t interested in subtext, and his tantrum is both realistic and reasonable. He finds the tape for Nora by accident, right after kicking some garbage in anger, and this is where that Speak Like a Child oomph comes in. It’s crystal clear that the tape was a backup in case Steven was a girl, but he’s so primed for lies and complications that the obvious answer eludes him and he suspects the worst. I honestly can’t blame him. If you learned out of nowhere that your mom killed someone, who’s to say you don’t have secret siblings?

The contrast between harsh desert and soothing sunset is another treat for the eyes, readying is for a cooldown after two distressing acts. Greg’s excitement over seeing the old tape blinds him to Steven’s angst in a way that adds honest tension to the exchange, because he’s trying to give Steven a fun treat but has no idea how much anguish his son has been through to get to this point. To Greg, telling Steven the answers outright would be ruining the moment, but the wait is already killing the kid. In an episode without an external villain it’s such a clever way to present a final “confrontation” to overcome.

When we finally see the tape, it becomes even more apparent that it was a backup for a hypothetical daughter. Still, I love how the strange new version of a video we know and love is only half-seen, as we focus so much on Steven’s reaction at the expense of footage. Where he was once gazing at the marvels of a new glimpse of his mother, his eyes are now furrowed in frustrated concentration. As in Lion 3, he has a viewing partner, and Greg’s welling tears mirror those of Steven and Sadie from the first tape, highlighting that the Steven of the present isn’t feeling an ounce of tenderness.

Tears do come for Steven, but in the form of anxious release. When he’s told that he’s Nora, meaning he’s the person the tape was intended for, Steven still doesn’t get it and exclaims that he’s his mom and his sister; it’s sort of a joke, but boy is it rough to hear him slip that in some way he does see himself as his mom rather than his own person. So thank goodness he’s saying this stuff to Greg, who’s calm at first but leaps to the occasion when Steven frantically asks why he exists.

As is standard by now, Greg's got fatherhood down cold. He adjusts his tone to show he’s taking Steven seriously, but rather than jump in he sits his son down and lets him talk. He addresses Steven’s concerns gently but firmly, leaving no room for doubt that he’s loved and appreciated no matter what. He brings himself into the conversation by saying he changed his name, doing so not to turn the topic to himself but to reassure Steven that it’s okay to not be stuck on one identity. And just look at how perfectly our three main characters exist in the shot during this last talk:

Steven gets those happy post-tape tears after viewing the last part of the video, and our happy ending is earned, but it’s not a full victory. Rose still had issues, but at least Steven has gained some confidence back that she wasn’t all bad. He’ll go back and forth on how much guilt he feels for her actions, but at the very least he knows now that his decisions to try and atone for her mistakes are his to make, and not a mandate from a dead parent looking for an escape route.

Whiiiiiiich means that now he’s able to try and feign a sense of control over helpless situations by assigning blame to himself in new, exciting ways. Hey, it’s not like the show could’ve solved all his problems less than halfway through Act III of the series. Lion 4 thus doesn’t have the conclusive oomph of Lion 3, which closed a trilogy of Lion Episodes as well as the stage of the show where Rose was a well-realized but distant idea more than a full character. For all its strengths, Lion 4 feels much more like Just Another Episode. But that’s okay. It doesn’t owe the past a thing.

Future Vision!

Again, those pyramids return in a major way, because they’re not pyramids.

Greg talks about Garnet’s inability to predict things about Steven, which is an element of their relationship throughout the show but gets major focus soon in Pool Hopping.

Escapism blends the two big Lion Runs by setting it back on the ocean, but making the passenger an exhausted Steven facing one last ordeal before relief in the form of his dad with a guitar.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

It doesn’t make the top twenty, it does make the top twenty-five. Just like Bismuth right before our hundredth episode, this doesn’t mean much now, but it will next time, because I’m expanding again to a Top Twenty-Five when we hit the big One Two Five with Doug Out.

Top Twenty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Earthlings

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

Steven’s Dream

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

When It Rains

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Gem Harvest

Three Gems and a Baby

That Will Be All

The New Crystal Gems

Storm in the Room

Room for Ruby

Lion 4: Alternate Ending

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Adventures in Light Distortion

Gem Heist

The Zoo

Rocknaldo

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

Tiger Philanthropist

No Thanks!

6. Horror Club 5. Fusion Cuisine 4. House Guest 3. Onion Gang 2. Sadie’s Song 1. Island Adventure

(Kind of unbelievable to me that a Lion Sequel doesn’t have official promo art, but luckily we have discount-supervillain’s measured take on what Nora Universe would realistically look like.)

#lion 4 #lion 4: alternate ending #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

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charmedtheselfproclaimedking · 4 years

Text

Charmed Again (Charmed Fanfic): Season 1

Episode 1: Charmed Reborn: Part One

Warnings: I don’t own the rights to any of the characters from the hit TV show “Charmed” or the storylines related to the show those rights belong to original creator Constance M Burge.

15+ Moderate/Graphic Displays of Violence, Sexual Innuendos, Witchcraft and Potentially Triggering Scenes.

Drake Black lived a relatively normal life as a former stripper turned rookie detective believing his stripping past was the most exciting thing about him until he went from being a rookie cop within the San Francisco Police Department to discovering he was a half witch half demon hybrid in just one day.

“It’s times like these I really begin to wonder why the hell I became a detective.” Drake moaned to his best friend and fellow cop partner Lacey Morgan as they stepped out of Lacey’s car stopped in the streets of San Francisco before heading down a nearby alleyway.

“Even the more eccentric people of the world need protection Tristan and let’s face it San Francisco is the city of eccentrics.” Lacey replied as they continued to walk down the alleyway. “Who knows if you’re nice enough to the lady she may even give you a free reading.”

“Please,” Drake scoffed. “If she was a real psychic, she wouldn’t be needing our help, or she would’ve called in advance.”

“Who says she didn’t call us in before the mugging?” Lacey teased her friend as they continued to walk down the alleyway.

“Maybe you should take that free reading considering you’re the one crazy enough to believe in all that hocus pocus?” Drake suggested to her not realizing the irony in this conversation.

“You know I don’t believe in most psychic’s most of them are just legally mugging people, but I do believe in some of them.” Lacey admitted as the two of them stopped in front of the psychic readings shop which had a bright red door.

“Yeah well consider me a bit sucker punched that we’re pandering to more psychics in this just then actually doing proper police work.” Drake moaned before loudly banging on the red door and shouting. “Open up it’s the police.”

“Good job not frightening the victim of the crime.” Lacey said to him.

“Well we are the police, aren’t we?” Drake asked sarcastically.

“Welcome to my humble establishment,” The elderly female psychic greeted Drake and Lacey as they all sat down around her table in her shop, a table with a crystal ball placed in the middle of the table. “I’m afraid I never seen my mugger’s face but I’m sure my crystal ball will see all.”

“I’m sorry but are you for real?” Drake abruptly asked her before being nudged by Lacey for being rude to the woman.

“The irony of someone so charmed being a non-believer is rather hilarious.” Laughed the elderly woman.

“We don’t mean to be disrespectful to you whatsoever mam, but we can’t go on what your crystal ball saw we can only go on what you saw with your own actual eyes.” Lacey politely explained to the self-proclaimed psychic.

“Drake,” The psychic said as she grabbed a hold of his hand. “You shouldn’t blame yourself for what happened you were never to know.”

“I’m going to have to ask you politely not to touch me please.” Drake replied as he pushed the psychic’s hand away from his own. “What exactly do you mean it’s not my fault?”

“What happened to your adoptive parents your mother wants you to know she’s found peace and all she wants is for you to find the happiness you deserve.” The psychic revealed.

Drake stormed out of the psychic reading shop and into the alleyway as he struggled to deal with the psychic’s revelation about his adoptive mother not believing a word she said but struggling to control himself at the mere mention of his brother before charging towards a nearby bin and kicking hard so the bin launched itself down the alleyway the rubbish from it scattering everywhere.

“Calm down Drake last time you checked literally was still a crime and you’re meant to be solving them these days instead of creating them.” He mumbled to himself. “Old lady has no idea what she’s talking about.”

“Well actually that woman your referring to is actually wiser than her years.” Prue admitted to him appearing from as if out of nowhere to now be standing in front of a stunned Drake. “If you stayed in a little longer you might have learned some more things.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t see you there.” A confused Drake replied. “Where exactly did you come from?”

“That’s kind of a long story to be honest and not why I’m here,” Prue answered with a sly smile. “My name is Prue Halliwell I’m the original charmed one so it’s only fitting I’m here to rebirth the next generation of charmed ones.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Drake asked her, trying to make sense of this strange altercation.

“You’re a witch Drake a Halliwell witch to be precise and you need to meet your real family so the charmed ones can be reborn.” Prue revealed to him.

After finishing writing the psychic’s witness statement and spending some extra time talking away to the elderly woman Lacey walked out of the psychic’s shop alarmed to see Drake just stood there looking dazed and confused.

“Are you okay Drake?” She asked while walking over to him. “I may have noticed her touching a nerve in there hence your early exit.”

“It was just a shock to be honest.” Drake admitted. “I think I need to take the rest of the day off I’m not feeling right after that. Do you think you could cover for me?”

“Of course but you’re still going to try making it tonight for that club reopening I can’t show up to the place run by a woman I went on one date with solo I’d look like I was going there for her.” Lacey moaned to him.

“Don’t worry I’ll try to help you hide the fact your stalking the poor woman.” Drake responded with a laugh. “Just cover for me at work and I’ll see you tonight.”

“Well our boss is my dad and I am his number one child so I’m so I can swing it somehow.” Lacey replied with a smile. “Besides he loves you too.”

Pan Halliwell had a big day ahead of her as she stood outside in the parking lot of the family owned club P3 looking at a newly renovated P3 sign which still looked very much like the old one just with a fresher look and brighter neon lights as a banner just down from the sign read P3: The Grand Reopening.

“I’ve heard so many stories about this place it’s almost as iconic as the Halliwell Manor itself.” Quinn said with excitement as he orbed into the parking lot to stand beside Pan. “You must be beyond excited to reopen the family club.”

“Don’t tell me you just orbed into a public parking lot in the middle of the day?” Pan asked him while looking around to make sure nobody seen him.

“I checked before orbing just in case we can do that you know.” Quinn responded with an innocent smirk before going on to say. “The reason I’m here is because the elders have informed me about a powerful evil rising within the Underworld they’re all pretty worried up there I’m meant to inform all my charges about being on high alert for potential demon attacks because of it.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me you know it’d be perfectly acceptable for me to accept just one day without some demon bother I mean if I have to vanquish anything to day I may just go down there and one woman army the lot of them for ruining my grand reopening.” Pan moaned.

“There’s something I should probably tell you.” Quinn replied to her looking far from innocent now.

“I don’t mean to be a bitch today Quinn but just for once could you show up with some good news for me.” Pan said with an exhausted sigh.

“I was just going to tell you good luck for tonight and if you need me just holler.” Quinn told her as he forced a smile on his face.

“Thanks Quinn I really appreciate that,” Pan responded with a soft smile. “Just remember don’t orb out…”

Before Pan could finish her sentence Quinn already orbed away from the parking lot doing exactly what she was about to tell him not to do.

“Well here goes nothing,” Pan said while crossing her fingers. “Tonight’s for you grams!”

Paul Halliwell sat behind his desk within his office at Stevens and Summers Law Firm located within the city of San Francisco as he busily was typing up a contract agreement for one of his clients before he was shocked to see Quinn orbing into his office while the door to his office leading to a public reception was still open.

“Quinn what have I told about public exposure?” Paul moaned at him as Quinn closed Paul’s office door to give them both some privacy.

“I checked first I know I’m relatively new and I was a tad shaky at the start but I’m sensible to check before orbing into places.” Quinn explained to him with Paul not buying a word of it.

“You may be able to, but did you?” Paul asked as he laughed while standing up from his chair.

“Okay maybe I don’t check all the time.” Quinn admitted shyly.

“Is this about the premonition I had about demons plotting an attack outside of P3?” Paul wondered. “Because I’m just finishing up my workload and then I’ll be heading straight down there just in case Pan needs some back up.”

“Well that’s definitely something worth talking about but there’s actually something else we should talk about…” Quinn began to tell Paul before they were both distracted by Paul’s great aunt Prue appearing from out of nowhere into the office to be standing next to them.

“I already saw you chicken out of telling Pan, so I thought I’d come down here and force your hand just a little.” Prue told Quinn clearly talking about a certain third Halliwell.

“Aunt Prue it’s really good to see you as always but how come you’re here instead of well you know resting in peace?” Paul asked his great aunt as respectfully as possible.

“Please Paul you know as much as I do death never stops any Halliwell.” Prue smirks before going on to reveal. “I’m here to help the next generation of charmed ones be born.”

“How is that possible? I mean the charmed ones were you, grams and Aunt Phoebe before later Aunt Paige and the last time I checked use are all dead except Aunt Paige who’s now head elder and Pan and I are the last of the Halliwell’s.” Paul asked Prue as he struggled to understand what she was meaning.

“Last time I checked you and Pan make two and it just show happens that a certain long-lost son makes three.” Prue explained to him. “Not to boast or anything but he’s got the same power as me meaning the three of you together have the same powers as us original charmed ones.”

“Wait a second Drake Black’s his son not his brother?” Quinn asked clearly shocked by Prue’s reveal.

“Well here’s the thing only the family knows the truth so don’t be rushing to tell the elders or me may just have to vanquish you.” Prue replied with both sarcasm and sincerity.

“Of course not, my lips are sealed.” Quinn promised out of both loyalty and fear for the Halliwell family.

“His name is Drake?” Paul asked in shock as tears began forming in his eyes as he sat back down on his chair. “I’ve never actually heard his name before.”

“Can you give us a minute?” Prue asked Quinn who quickly orbed away out of sight without any hesitation before turning her attention to her great nephew. “Nobody is judging you for what went down Paul I mean all of my siblings have wound up with a demon or two myself included it just so happened that your liaison with a demon resulted in a witch/demon hybrid baby.”

“I don’t get how you would even want him to be a part of all this madness?” Paul wondered. “I mean the whole reason I gave him up in the first place was so that he could live a normal life far away from all of this.”

“Paul when your mother convinced you to give Drake up for adoption and I know she hand a heavy hand in the decision; you were very young and the whole half demon/witch thing was frowned upon. I’m sorry but this really is for the greater good and if it’s too hard to admit your parentage after all these years Melinda’s already spoken with the elders saying he’s her secret child hence Quinn’s shock.” Prue explained to him.

“And what if the elders are listening now?” Paul quizzed. “What if I don’t even get the chance to tell that lie?”

“Paul I’m hardly a rookie witch I know how to stop them eavesdropping.” Prue revealed as she placed her hand on her great nephew’s shoulder, trying to comfort him.

“I don’t want Drake involved in any of this Prue and I’m especially not having him back in my life just for some second generation’s charmed ones.” Paul said defiantly.

“Drake completing the power of three alongside you and Pan isn’t just about the greater good although that is very important it’s also giving you the chance to finally get to know your son and if you’re too scared to tell him who you really are we will just continue the lie.” Prue said, trying to convince him.

“It’s not happening I’m sorry, but I can’t let it happen.” Paul refused as he stood back up from his chair.

“I’m sorry Paul I really am but the elders know about him now and with his demonic side never being bound it was only a matter of time before somebody knew. Trust me when I say I know more than anyone the burden of being a charmed one and how it can be dangerous but the things the three of you will do together will be truly amazing.” Prue explained to him trying to make him realize that the charmed ones were his, his sister and his son’s destiny.

As the hours passed and it became night time the grand re-opening of P3 had already begun and it was very successful at least judging by the endless cue starting outside the door all the way into the alleyway next to it and amongst the waiting crowd was Drake Black and Lacey Morgan.

“I thought you said you went on a date with the owner why are we stood so far back?” Drake asked his friend.

“I’ve been on a date emphasis on a date I’m hardly going to start asking for favors before I even manage to get a second date.” Lacey replied.

“Okay well I guess this means I should be getting my flirt on,” Drake boasted as he grabbed a hold of Lacey and the two of them pushed their way through the line until they were at the front door.

“Get to the back of the cue please.” The female club bouncer told them both.

“Has anyone ever told you before that you have the most beautiful eyes,” Drake said flirting with the bouncer. “I mean I could stand right here and just get lost in them.”

“Back of the cue now!” The bouncer snapped causing Lacey to laugh at her friend’s flirting attempts.

“Do you know he used to be a stripper?” Lacey asked the bouncer standing guard of access into P3. “I’m sure he could come out of retirement for a private performance if you let us in.”

“Hey, don’t sell me out,” Drake moaned nudging her before looking at the bouncer. “It’s true though and I was one of the best.”

“Get to the back of the cue now before I stop you from getting in all together.” The female bouncer replied not amused with Drake or Lacey.

“Actually, these two are with me.” Quinn revealed as he appeared from out of the crowd playing hero to Lacey and Drake.

“Oh, I’m sorry Mr Quinn,” The bouncer blushed “Come on in.”

Drake and Lacey followed Quinn into P3 which structure had kept the same over the year minus a few minor updates. It didn’t take long for Lacey to notice Pan serving drinks behind the bar counter being kept quite busy, the club filled with customers and Bebe Rexha was playing I’m A Mess live on the stage.

“I sort of work here well sometimes anyway so if you need anything just give me a shout and I’ll try my best to get it for you.” Quinn said to Drake and Lacey as he found them a private booth within the club, the same booth reserved for family non-coincidentally.

“That’s awful good of you, thanks.” Lacey replied as her and Drake took their seats within the booth.

“Yeah thanks ever so much.” Drake responded while rolling his eyes as Quinn smiled at them before walking away into the crowd leaving the two friends to it.

“Are you seriously huffing at him because the woman outside didn’t fall for your not so subtle charms.” Lacey laughed at her friend.

“It’s my tantrum and I’ll huff if I want to,” Drake admitted before looking over at the bar counter and noticing Pan busy serving customer after customer. “You know I can’t actually be your back up if you don’t go over to the girl don’t worry about me I’ll be hitting the dance floor soon searching for a guy or girl maybe both.”

“Okay,” Lacey replied nervously while looking over at Pan. “I’ll be back with lots of drink.”

Pan was at her happiest behind the bar especially when it was at it’s peak level of busy like that night on the reopening she was serving drink after drink which she much preferred to vanquishing demon after demon enjoying the moment of normality but before long she would soon find herself seeing normality less and less.

“I saw you walk in with Lacey and some guy how do you know her?” Pan asked Quinn in-between serving customers.

“It’s my job to get to know everyone that’s around my charges.” Quinn replied as subtly as possible as he served another customer. “You should take a break soon and go see your brother he’s in the back room waiting for you.”

“Let me guess he’s waiting to help me with my other job I am yet to find a way of quitting.” Pan sighed while rolling her eyes as she finished serving a customer only to see Lacey walk over to her.

“Hey Pan.” Lacey said as she stood in front of the bar counter.

“Hey, I’ve got to go to the back the now, but I promise I’ll catch up with you in a bit.” Pan replied rushing off before Lacey had a chance to respond.

“Yeah sure no bother.” Lacey mumbled to herself while assuming she had just received the brush off.

“Trust me she’s busy with work the last thing she’d mean to do is ignore you.” Quinn reassured her while pouring two large vodkas and coke. “The grand reopening is stressful but the good kind this means a lot to her.”

“Cheers.” Lacey replied in shock as Quinn handed her two vodkas and coke. “I didn’t even tell you my order.”

“Just call me the perfect bartender my name’s Quinn by the way.” He said with a smile. “Consider all drinks tonight on the house.”

“Thanks, you seem like a really nice guy which means you’re of a rare breeding or your trying to get in my friend’s pants either way I’m cool with it.” Lacey admitted to him while grabbing the two glasses.

“I’m definitely a rare breed.” Quinn laughed as Lacey walked away before mumbling to himself. “Well done Quinn with that kind of quick thinking you’ll be an elder in no time.”

“I don’t get it Paul how are we supposed to be the charmed ones 2.0 last time I checked it was the power of three not the power of two?” Pan asked confused by Paul’s confession after meeting him in the backroom.

“That’s not strictly true there is technically another Halliwell out there.” Paul admitted.

“Your son but that doesn’t make any sense the charmed ones were sisters so 2.0 is brother sister and brother’s son?” Pan responded trying to make sense of the revelation. “This is a lot to take in I can’t imagine how you must be feeling right now.”

“Well hopefully the two of you are both feeling like reuniting the power of three.” Prue said with a smile as she appeared from out of nowhere once again.

“Really?” Pan asked her. “We haven’t even seen Paul’s son since he gave up him all those years ago and now, we’re supposed to do what exactly?”

“The elders want us to meet him, activate his powers and then become the power of three.” Paul explained clearly still reluctant to the plan.

“He’s here in this very club tonight and it’s not a coincidence you had a premonition about a demon attack happening here.” Prue confessed. “I would’ve told you sooner but figure it was better till you actually got here.”

“You mean my son is literally in this club right now?” Paul asked completely terrified by the notion of meeting his son for the first time. “I don’t know if I’m ready to meet him not, yet this is all way too much.”

“I can’t guarantee you’d ever be ready to meet your son or that this is going to end well for anyone, but I can guarantee I’ll be here by your side as always.” Pan promised her brother as she placed his hand on her shoulder.

“I know all this is incredibly hard and if I cold prevent it all for you I would.” Prue admitted as she too placed her hand on Paul’s shoulder. “Sadly, when it comes to life as a charmed one destiny doesn’t tend to ask.”

Drake and Lacey found themselves on their next round of drink sitting in the booth until the artist Bebe Rexha began playing her song I’m going to show you crazy which gets the two both of up off their feet immediately as they rush to the dance floor and begin dancing to the song with excitement while singing along to the song in the process before Drake noticed Quinn from the bar looking over at him so smiles his way and gets a smile back from him before he returned his attention back to Lacey.

“Okay I’m no longer huffy although I maybe ready to get a flirty soon.” Drake shouted over the song.

“You always wind up flirty after a few drinks.” Lacey joked as she too shouted over the song. “I need to make a call before I forget do you want to come outside with me?”

“No problem.” Drake replied as the two began walking through the crowd and towards the club’s back door at the same time Paul and Pan walked over to the bar counter to talk to Quinn.

“Why didn’t you tell me who he was when you walked in with him?” Pan asked Quinn as she and Paul stood at the counter.

“Here I wanted to, but Prue said not to tell anyone and considering I’m highly terrified of her I decided to shut up and listen.” Quinn replied.

“I suppose I get that.” Pan sighed before looking around the crowd for a sign of her nephew. “Where is he anyway?”

Drake and Lacey stood outside in an alleyway next to the closed back door to the P3 club, Lacey having had just come off the phone following a quick check in call to her father/boss Eric Morgan.

“You seriously need to get your own place,” Drake laughed. “Don’t get me wrong I love daddy Morgan, but he needs to stop worrying about you so much.”

“Yeah I know it’s just I’m the only kid he talks to these days since well you know.” Lacey reluctantly replied, the topic not being easy for either of them. “It’s hard bringing it up that I’m ready to get my own place plus I’d be really worried about him if I did get my own place.”

“I get it family means everything.” Drake said with a sense of sadness before noticing a man shimmer his way into the alleyway leaving him completely shocked while Lacey was blissfully unaware.

Drake noticed the stranger summon an energy ball above his hand just before throwing at his and Lacey’s directly and without a second’s though he pushed Lacey out of the way making her crash into the bins as the energy ball came flying in his direction just for him to blink away out of sight before the energy ball managed to hit him and reappearing in the same spot as the energy ball hit a large garbage bin placed behind Drake.

“I guess the rumors are true about a Halliwell witch whose half demon.” The man chuckled before summoning an energy ball above his hand. “I really don’t like half breeds.”

Pan and Paul rushed out of the back door instantly with Pan raises her hands towards the man’s direction causing him to explode into pieces within second shocking Drake even further.

“Drake, are you okay?” Paul asked a clearly confused and shell-shocked Drake.

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codynaomiswire · 5 years

Text

TTS/RTA - “Destinies Collide” Initial Reaction

Note: Spoilers and some unpopular opinions ahead.

Ok, so...I’m going to go ahead and be honest right away. Overall...I didn’t actually like this episode very much. Not all of it was bad to me, but I also can’t say that I thought it was very great. Here are some of my general thoughts and opinions on it at this point for those interested:

Things I did like:

- As always, the animation, voice acting, and soundtrack were all really good in this episode. Kudos to the animators, VA’s, sound design team, and music team for all their hard work on it! You all did a great job!

- Special shoutout to Zachary Levi for his vocal work on Eugene’s song!

- Lance figuring out that destroying the statues would stop the ghosts from re-spawning! Such a great moment for him, and he was honestly one of the best things about this whole episode in my opinion. (Also the little acknowledgement between him and Adira was cute, and his complimenting Cass on her bravery when she went to retrieve the gondola from the middle of the gorge was really nice. Was great to see those fleeting but sincere moments of him reaching out to other characters he doesn’t talk to all that often when he’s on screen. It was a nice touch!)

- Adira running around like an old-timey cartoon character to catch Pascal as he was falling. That was cute and funny! xD

Things I didn’t like so much:

- The fact that the episode was stuffed to the gills with plot twists and red herrings. Like a lot of fans, I do love a good mystery, and plot twists when implemented correctly are terrific. But a lot of the twists in this episode felt really forced in my opinion, were too heavily concentrated, and the overall plot felt really rushed and chaotic. Especially when we get such big developments as Eugene finding his long-lost father and Cass going turncoat, I think it would’ve been worth it to spread out those plot elements a bit more and to flesh them out better over the course of more episodes perhaps. Probably would’ve been good on that note to take out some of the other non-plot-related episodes earlier in the season (ex. “Goodbye and Goodwill,” “Curses!,” “The Eye of Pincosta,” etc.), and instead give more time and attention to other plot-related elements that could’ve used it. (It also feels to me like Disney in general has been trying to chuck out a TON of plot twists in their latest works, and that’s starting to get a bit wearing in my opinion. Creators shouldn’t be afraid to use clichés or linear story lines if they happen to work out for the best. Not everything has to be super surprising or edgy in order to be satisfying or captivating to the audience. Don’t force it if it doesn’t work.)

- Eugene being revealed as the Dark Prince. Ok, ok, don’t get me wrong here. I don’t totally dislike this development. I do think it’s good that the series has endeavored to give us more of Eugene’s past, and yes, I do congratulate those fans who figured it out/had the theory before the big reveal. (Way to be observant guys!) But I personally do feel like there are a few problems with this development:

Was it just me, or did Eugene seem surprisingly...unfazed by this latest discovery? I mean, yes, he did have a song about having an identity crisis over it, but even then, I felt like he seemed to get over it pretty quick? I know he’s been increasingly unfazed by all the weirdness of their adventures, but man, this takes the cake on that point. He also didn’t seem to question it for very long (which is kind of odd, especially when Edmund himself is...a bit strange), he didn’t seem the least bit miffed with Edmund about sending him away when he was a baby, or really show much emotion at all over things save for a few words and shifts in expression. I’m sure all this needs time to sink in for him, ok, but still. His reaction wasn’t very realistic to me.

The fact that King Edmund seemed to just send baby Eugene away in the care of his nanny and...that was it. Like, I know the show can’t go into tons of detail on things, but honest to goodness! It looked like King Edmund just sent baby Eugene away into the wide, dangerous world with only his nanny to take care of him and to guard him. Like, there were no other guards with her or a foster father as well or anything! Nope. Just send your kid off into the wide world with minimal security and resources and hope for the best. Way to ensure a secure future for your child Edmund. Way to go! xP

The time spent on this development felt super rushed. I think it would’ve been better if there had been a whole episode dedicated to Eugene’s past as the Dark Prince, and not just have it as a B plot for the season finale. It is supposed to be kind of a big deal, right!? I think it would’ve been worth it to give this development its own episode.

I also find it strange that Edmund identified Eugene as his son simply by looking into his eyes. I mean...sure, I do think I see a resemblance between Edmund and Eugene, so it’s probably right anyway. But I do wish there had been a bit more of an explanation or more evidence for the truth of this theory instead of just, “We have the same eyes.” (Who knows, maybe we’ll get another twist in season 03 where we find that Eugene was not actually Edmund’s child, and he had been mistaken all along. But yeah, at this point, I would not be fazed by that.)

It seems like this development came along in order to bring about some sort of deep conflict for Eugene, but honestly...I don’t feel like it brings a whole lot of conflict at all? I mean, sure, it’s great that he’s come to find that he has a family and whole lineage that he can now learn about, and that’s a big change for Eugene on a personal level. But otherwise it doesn’t really do much to change the trajectory of his life or anything. I mean, if the Dark Kingdom were still a functioning place, I can see where this would present a conflict. Eugene could’ve felt torn between his obligation to rule the Dark Kingdom as its heir, but then his love for Rapunzel would be the opposing pull that could tear his heart in two over the whole thing, and cause more tension between himself and King Edmund who would’ve wanted him to stay to rule, etc. But that’s not really the case. The Dark Kingdom is dead, and everyone has left. So there really is no Dark Kingdom left to rule. So...Eugene can just go ahead and marry Rapunzel and live his dream in Corona anyway. No conflict really.

I also feel like the development does do a detriment to how Eugene’s character was played up in the Tangled feature film. One of the things that Eugene’s character was supposed to do in that movie was put a twist on the original fairytale, where instead of a prince saving Rapunzel from her tower, it was a thief that people assumed was just a good-for-nothing nobody. But he became the hero of the story through his own bravery and self-sacrifice, and not because of any royal blood in him. So yeah, I kind of feel like this development undermines that whole aspect of the original film.

And just a quick personal opinion: I feel like Cassandra being revealed as the Dark Princess would’ve been more compelling than having Eugene as the Dark Prince. Could’ve also been another reason why Cass seized the Moon Stone for herself, if that was the trajectory the writers would’ve taken things in any event. If she was the heir to the kingdom in charge of guarding the thing, it would make sense that she could see it as a kind of birthright for herself or something.

- And thus leading into the biggest one for me...the whole Cassandra plot twist. I know some fans think this is a fantastic plot twist, but I don’t really like it. Here are my reasons as to why:

It feels like a rehash of Varian’s betrayal, but bigger, with a lot less buildup, less reasoning behind it, and fewer sympathetic qualities. Now, I’m sure that something big happened to Cassandra beyond that mystery door in the shell house, and I do kinda hope that we’ll get to see just what exactly happened in season 03. But wow, I gotta say, it’s going to have to be something super compelling in order to excuse this degradation of Cassandra’s character. Especially after Cassandra had so much character development throughout both seasons 01 & 02, this really felt like it came out of nowhere and didn’t make much sense at all. I know there’s a theory that it’s not really Cassandra (that she’s either a clone/doppelgänger or is somehow possessed by some evil entity), and that may be right. Heck, with all the crazy plot twists peppering this series, most anything could be a possibility at this point. (She could be Zhan Tiri’s vessel, or Mother Gother retroactively reincarnated before she fell out of Rapunzel’s tower, or a young Mother Gothel before she time-taveled back to the past or something. Who knows at this point!?) But from what we know right now, it just seems to be a spiteful action with purely selfish motives on her part. (“I’m fulfilling MY destiny!”) We don’t even see her struggle with her decision (unlike Varian, who did have his moments of second-guessing), or show any signs that she’s making it out of interest for others. I mean, yeah, who knows? Maybe we’ll get yet another twist in season 03 where she did do it to protect Rapunzel somehow, and it was necessary for her to be perceived as an awful person in doing it for...some reason? But...sigh. (Especially when her solo song before this point was largely about her wishing she had the glory she felt she deserved...that whole thing just really rubs me the wrong way. Again, don’t get me wrong, I feel like “Waiting in the Wings” sounds amazing, and I would sympathize with some of the lyrics talking about missed opportunities, feeling like you’re meant for something more but not being there yet, etc. But it seemed like Cass was increasingly becoming some sort of glory hound, and nobody admires that or finds that sympathetic. (“Selfishness has never been admired.” ~ C. S. Lewis) At least Varian was trying to save his dad in what he was doing. Yes, he was going about it poorly, and there were some elements of selfishness in it to be sure, but at least he was understandable in his motives. Not excused for sure, but there was at least an explanation that made sense and was beyond “Me me me me me.”)

It’s also strange when Cass’s life was really pretty good before that moment, so what could she have hoped to gain from taking the Moon Stone for herself? She had her friends, a loving father in the Captain, a loving community back in Corona, a steady job, a dream to work towards, etc. It just...makes no sense, and feels more wrong than epic to me as a big reveal. Again, maybe there will be a good explanation for it in the future, but from what we know right now, it just seems to make her character a twist antagonist for the sake of having another one, and it just feels frustrating currently.

The weird transformation sequence when Cass grabbed the Moon Stone. I mean, I can certainly can get behind the glowing white-blue hair and eyes (something that the moon![insert character name here] theorists got right!), but...wow, the crew really went anime trope on this one. Which I’m not totally opposed to. I think anime references are cool. But this one just...felt a bit weird? I mean, I know the Moon Stone is way more extra than the Sun Drop, so sure, perhaps the alterations it makes to someone’s appearance when being infused into them could’ve been a bit more than just a change in hair color. But I think it would’ve made more sense if the armor Cass already had on became a different color or something (btw, RIP knight!Cassandra and armor, you were short-lived and will be missed), but instead it gave her what basically looked like a moon superhero jumpsuit. From a purely aesthetic perspective, it does have a great design, and Cass did look quite striking in it. But even though it looks great on a purely aesthetic level, I also don’t feel like it fits the tenor of the rest of the TTS/RTA aesthetic. I just..feels kind of out of place to me.

On a personal note: I also think it makes more sense for Varian to have been the moon vessel/the one to take the Moon Stone in the series, so this development also honestly had me disappointed in that way. I know, I know, yes, there is a bit of a bias to this opinion, but I also do think that Varian’s character had a TON of evidence to suggest this would’ve been more than plausible for his character, it could’ve tied into his motives to free his father, and he already had deeper connections to the Dark Kingdom than we’ve ever seen of Cass, and it would’ve been a great way to reintroduce him into the series.* And hey, if not Varian, I feel like it would’ve made more sense for Eugene to take the Moon Stone instead of Cassandra, with Eugene being all, “I’m sorry Rapunzel, but I can’t let you do this,” or something like that. I think that would’ve been way more compelling than Cass just doing it because of “destiny,” which she believed she had because of...reasons? Perhaps I’ll be proven wrong, but as it stands right now, I don’t think Cass was the best choice to go turncoat and to become the vessel for the Moon Drop. Or at the very least, they probably should’ve shown some sort of conflict in her over the decision. I know she’s not a very warm character, but pure malice doesn’t seem to fit her either. Just...weird.

*On the topic of Varian, I also have my opinions regarding how he as a character and a lot of the Varian fans have been treated in the aftermath of season 02 (by both other fans and some of the TTS/RTA crew members actually), but I won’t talk about that in this post as it’s not in the actual contents of the episode itself. And while I may get into it more in another post, I don’t feel like getting into that drama right now, especially when things are so fresh off the tail end of the finale. Just wanted to drop this note here though, as it’s another unpopular opinion I have related to this episode and to season 02, and I feel like the fandom and crew members could’ve done better in their responses to Varian’s fans. Just saying.

So...yeah. I guess that’s about it for now for my initial reaction to this episode. You don’t have to agree with me on it, but these are just my own honest thoughts on the topic for anyone interested.

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thecomposerthatwaspromised · 5 years

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Before we reach the series finale, there are two musical moments from earlier in the season I wanted to touch on with you: "Jenny of Oldstones," first, which stems from one single lyric in George R.R. Martin's books. How was the rest born?

Yeah, I believe that very first lyric comes from George, and then the rest? David and Dan wrote it. It's interesting. Sometimes, with the way collaborations work, the four of us have written the song together without sitting in the same room together. The three of them wrote the lyrics, and I put the music to the lyrics. Like many times in past seasons, this time, they sent me the lyrics and had me write the melody to it. I didn't have any picture to it. I did the same with "Rains of Castamere," as well. This was done before they were shooting, because in the show, they have Podrick (Daniel Portman) singing it, so they obviously wanted to have it in time for shooting the scene.

When you read the lyrics, what did you feel the song needed to sound like?

I felt it needed to be like… I don't know if "lullaby" is the right word, but it needed a somber feeling. The scene takes place in the night before "The Long Night," the big battle. A lot of our characters are together in a room, then there's the montage where you're seeing everybody else, and the emotional anticipation for them. This is the last night before some of them die or every one of them may die. To me, it needed to have a somber quality to it. That's what I was going for.

I also wanted to ask you about "The Night King," which plays in the closing moments of "The Long Night," as the tide of the battle goes through its final shift. It's only the second time piano has been used in the Game of Thrones score, that I can think of…

To go back to the other piano piece, "The Light of the Seven," that one had quite an impact because — and I've talked about this before — but the fact that we're using piano there for the first time was quite a shocker in itself. It wasn't part of the language of the score. When that piano came in, the listener immediately goes, "Whoa, what is this music? What's happening?" It slowly unfolds into the big explosion of Cersei's plan. Jump to "The Night King." At this point in time in the episodes, we have had 70 minutes of tension and action music in this big battle. Here's a scene where there's an opportunity to use the piano again, and yet again influence the listener in certain ways. This time, we're telling them, "There's piano coming in. The battle is over. We've had multiple attempts to stop the Night King and nothing has worked against his army." The piano starts, and the intention is to give you some closure. It almost has the reverse effect as "The Light of the Seven." We knew how that song would slowly build and at the end, there's the explosion. In this particular case, you're seeing closure all the way. Everyone is at the end of their abilities and they have either given up or will give up and it will soon be over. The Night King, just like Cersei, will follow through. This is going to be it. But then it has the reverse effect when Arya comes out of nowhere to save the day. It was interesting to be able to do this just because of the one other time we had piano. The buildup here is even more than it would have been because we had "The Light of the Seven."

Tying it back to another piece, piano on Game of Thrones almost has the same impact as "The Rains of Castamere" within the show's universe. Catelyn Stark hears that melody at the Red Wedding, and she knows something is terribly amiss. We hear piano on Game of Thrones, and we are trained to expect the worst, after "Light of the Seven." It helps with the surprise when Arya bursts in and saves the day.

Yeah, and not to get too technical about it, but it starts at a different key and a different tempo, and I even went as far as ending up in the same tempo and key as "The Light of the Seven," to even give you the subconscious sense that this is over, and this is the end of everybody. I really hope everyone was holding their breath. That was certainly the intention.

Let's get into the series finale, but before we even get into the music of the episode, let's talk about the fact that it takes quite a while before we even hear any score. The first few minutes are completely without music, as Tyrion and the others survey the wreckage of King's Landing. What were your conversations with David and Dan like about that choice?

Every choice of music is determined with David and Dan. It's not just this example, it's also including every single choice we've already talked about, like the use of piano in "The Night King" piece. Every choice was discussed with David and Dan. For us, it was definitely an active choice for everyone: "No need for music here. Let's just have the aftermath, look at everything that's happened and take it all in. There's no music necessary to enhance the emotion of what everyone is feeling." It's funny when you say that as a composer, because maybe it makes you sound lazy: "Oh, we don't want to write any music here!" (Laughs.) But it can be so much more powerful to not have any music than to try to put in some music when the visuals and acting and everything on screen is so much more powerful. You don't need to underscore that at all. We decided there's no music necessary until Tyrion sees Jaime and Cersei.

Silence can be an instrument, right? Knowing when to withhold music is absolutely part of your arsenal.

Exactly. There's no need to underscore any of the horror and emotion at all. In those cases, it was just better left alone. You want to hear the crackling of the sound effects, which tell a big part of the story as well. You're hearing crackling and bricks falling, all these things that become so much more real when there's no more music with it. It becomes so much more intense.

In the spirit of intense, the first glimpse of Daenerys in the episode comes in the form of her speech before her army. Tell us about crafting this piece, "Master of War."

It certainly underplays the scene. As we talked about earlier where there's no music necessary, here, we felt the visuals and her speech are so powerful that we didn't need to have a massive score enhancing it. The dragon's screams, the army, all of it speaks for itself. The music comes in, and it's almost you're subconsciously picking up on a mood. Her theme is definitely in the piece, but it's much more subtle. You have your full attention to her speech, and the power she conveys to her army, and how convinced she is that she's doing all the right things and she wants to keep fighting, and all the things she says. Musically, subconsciously, it portrays a darkness there. But it doesn't need to overstate that this is the Mad Queen.

You have scored moments of triumph for Daenerys before, and certainly, in her mind, this is a moment of triumph. But it's not for us. We can't share in the victory the way we did in "Mhysa," for example. Was that important to convey with a lower-key score?

Exactly. In a moment like the one you mention, Daenerys is celebrating, everyone is celebrating her. In the scene in the finale, she's being celebrated by her people and she feels like she's done the right thing, but Jon Snow and Tyrion and Arya are all looking on and they're all thinking very differently already. They are all questioning what she's done. "Is this right?" The music is more portraying how they feel and how conflicted the emotions are in the scene. Not everybody is on the same page here. It's why she's not being celebrated. We're playing it more from their perspective than Dany's perspective.

Turning toward Daenerys coming into the throne room and touching the Iron Throne for the first and last time… it's incredibly haunting.

On the soundtrack, that's the second part of "Master of War." That music plays dreamily, because even in her dialogue, she talks about how "When I was young, I couldn't even count to 20." She's very much in her head. As she walks toward the throne, there's a beautiful solo voice that rings out. It's haunting and mysterious, but there's also a sense of beauty for her. Unlike the [House of the Undying vision] in season two, here, she actually touches the throne. The score builds up, because she feels that sense of completion and power, just by even putting her hand on it. She feels she has arrived and she feels that central power.

It leads us into "Be With Me," the piece that plays as Jon Snow kills Daenerys — a critical scene for the series, let alone the finale.

The intention with the piece is that it's more from her perspective. Jon comes in, and Daenerys tries to convince him. The music playing is pretty much their love theme, or at least starts that way. It's trying to go full steam with the love theme: "Be with me, we can do this together." Jon starts questioning it. But the music plays as though she's convincing Jon. We don't know his decision at the moment. The music plays as though they are a couple and they are in love, and their love overrules everything. As we hear the piece, it gets interrupted halfway into the phrase. It never finishes out the theme, because he stabs her. It just stops.

Is that an editing choice in the episode, or is that how the piece ends as you wrote it?

That's how I actively wrote it. We definitely spent some time getting it just right. It's interesting how the phrasing works. If you land on a different chord during the stab, you can almost anticipate it. We really made sure it's written in a way that ends just during the phrase. It comes out of nowhere. You don't expect it at all. When they kiss, you want to feel their love is stronger than anything else. You don't want to anticipate that he's going to kill her. That's why I actively wrote it the way it is now. It stops mid-phrase.

Enter: "The Iron Throne," title of the episode, title of the piece you wrote, which scores one of the biggest moments in the series: the Iron Throne's death by dragon fire.

It comes out of "Be With Me." It starts with a solo violin, and leans on Jon and Daenerys' love theme, "Truth." It starts to play again, but it plays very fractured, and it has that same feeling from Jon where he can't quite grasp what he has done. He's holding his love in his arms. That's why the theme plays from the solo violin, very sparse. Then the dragon comes in and the piece starts to pick up. It becomes more powerful and powerful. It builds to what you think is going to happen next: the dragon killing Jon. But he melts the throne. Then the music shifts into a very powerful piece with the main title's melody in it. Clearly, the real intention is the dragon understands the reason why Daenerys is dead is the urge for power and the throne. I don't want to say the throne was "useless," but there are bad things that come out of the urge to get to power. At the same time, Drogon is crying because his mom is dead in front of him. The piece ends with a segment from "Breaker of Chains," when Daenerys chained her dragons and locked them up [in season four]. There's a callback to that when he comes in and picks her up and flies away. It's a very emotional moment. It goes from this powerful, overall message of what is the purpose of the throne and all the death that the throne has brought us, and then it goes small, to the mother and son relationship. I loved writing that scene. I was crying when I wrote it. It was so emotional.

You end the finale and therefore the series on "A Song of Ice and Fire," which is also the name of George R.R. Martin's series on which Game of Thrones is based.

I always wanted to hold that name for the very end. It had to be the main title theme. It felt like the right bookend. We've heard the main title in the opening of each episode. I just felt like it was going to be the right way to end the show and leave us all with that melody. In this case, it's a celebration. It's a full choir. Everyone's singing the melody. I thought there was nothing more powerful than to turn the theme into a song — the song of ice and fire.

This is the end of Game of Thrones as we know it. You will continue to live in Westeros with your concert series picking back up soon, but it's still an ending. What has it meant to you to be embedded in Westeros for roughly a decade?

It still hasn't quite set in. I'm still in denial. (Laughs.) It's been such a big part of my life. Every season when we end, we'd hug and talk about the season, and I'd go, "Okay! I'll see you next year." To now not have that? It's going to take me a little bit to realize that it's not coming back. But I'm very excited for the concert series. I'm going to rework the concert now with season eight, so now we will have a complete show from beginning to end. It'll keep things alive for me, and hopefully for the fans as well. If anyone wants to get their Game of Thrones fix, they can come see the concert. We have all the highlights from the series. It will certainly send me back to the world of Westeros, which I don't think I'm ever going to be able to let go. Definitely not.

#ramin djawadi #interview #game of thrones #Daenerys Targaryen #s8 #the hollywood reporter #they made him cry!!!

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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Simpsons Review: Simpsons Comics #102 “Uncle Burn$” or Homercore Nudity!

Whelp out of all the commissions Kev has thrown me this one’s kind of a curveball. I mean it makes sense why cover it: It’s a pastiche of Donald Duck Comics done in the pages of the Simpsons long running comics. I cover duck stuff on here, and not only do I love the Simpsons but I tend to reference it for jokes a LOT. I just genuinely never thought of reviewing it till now, likely because earlier on in my new career of reviewing animated shows, I wasn’t really convinced I could do pure comedies. With my regular reviews of Darkwing Duck and as it comes out coverage of the Loud House (I still need to get around to Band Together), that’s no longer a real issue and I should consider doing the show in the future, especially since I have an unabashed love for the first 10 seasons and a few episodes beyond that.

As you can tell, I love the Simpsons. While I do genuinely wish it would end and have no real intrest in the current seasons, though if you’d like me to take a look i’d be willing to. The show in it’s prime was funny, witty and each episode was crammed with jokes. And refreshingly for an adult cartoon show of it’s time, the show genuinely wasn’t afraid to mix things up: Milhouse’s parents divorced and stayed that way for so long that them apparently getting back together decades later is itself a huge status quo shake up. Lisa went Vegetarian which stuck thanks to sir paul mcartney, and then went Buddhist, both of which have never wavered since and both fit her well. Skinner and Krabbable started dating. Barney went sober for a few seasons. Apu got married. These are minor changes but the show does have things happen occasionally and doesn’t just snap everything back and it adds genuine tension to plots knowing they might stay the status quo They usually don’t but the occasional change gives things stakes. I could go on for days, but I couldn’t go on for 8 weeks, point is the Simpsons are awesome, and deserve the praise they get early on I just wish they’d stop as by this point people really have stopped carring and it’s time to pass the torch and Let Bob’s burgers be the wholesome family comedy that runs forever.. and even then that one should stop at 10 seasons. Or if not at least let the kids age dammit. But that aside, while many of you simpsons fans looking at this probably have at least seen the comics, or a collection of them over the decades, many of you like me are wondering what the hell Bongo Comics is and how they managed to last so long. Bongo was founded by Simpsons Creator Matt Groening in 1993. Matt Groening had noticed that at the time there just weren’t any funny books on the shelves, funny books being comedy based comics primarily targeted for kids, with Archie and Disney being really the only ones left at the time. So he founded Bongo to rectify that, and given Fox naturally liked the sound of more merchandising dollars, the publisher was primarily used to produce simpsons comics, though looking at wikipedia there were one or two that weren’t including, of all things, a Coldplay comic tying into their album. Why did Coldplay publish a comic book at a primarily simpsons comic book company?

Though most series seem to be either short lived or one shots, there were a few exceptions: Naturally the company put out an annual Treehouse of Horror issue, there was a Bart Simpson ongoing focusing on him and the other kids of Springfield, I had a trade for that one once, and once Futurama premiered it too got a comic book that held through both cancelations. But standing above them all was Simpsons Comics, a 245 issue long runner that ran all the way up to the company’s closing, likely due to a combination of a lack of profits and the then upcoming Disney-Fox merger depriving them of the very heart and soul of the company.

Naturally being a Simpsons fan I have a connection to these comics having gotten the trades out of the library multiple times as well as the collection of Bartman’s solo series, which was my favorite and I might cover some day. In addition to the Free Comic Book Day issues i also picked up scattered issues over my life since, much like Archie, Simpsons comics were a mainstay of bookstores and super markets and the decline of both comic markets is likely why the Simpsons comics started to peter out in the first place. The quality and memorability of the stories varied but they were a fun thing to have around and it’s sad to see them go, as well as see Disney not even make a remote attempt to bring them back or at the very least republish the vast library they now have access to. Also finally if your wondering yes, there indeed was a Simpsons/Futurama crossover. And no I have not read it. So with that history, most of which I just learned some of which I already knew, in mind, it is very fitting the comic’s did a tribute to the Uncle Scrooge comics. Though it does feel very weird that I have yet to cover any Donald Duck or Scrooge comics.. yet i’ve already covered one of the Ducktales tie in comics and a Simpsons homage to it. I’m going to have to correct that but until then, join me under the cut as I dive into adventure with the Simpsons.

This issue was written by Ian Boothby and drawn by John Delaney, I feel mentiong the writers and artists should be important in comic reviews and I kick myself for not having done that or gone into them as much before. Boothby was apparently the Ian Flynn of these comics, writing more simpsons comics than any other writer according to wikipedia and winning an Eisner for his work on the comic if sadly not this issue. He was nominated for an outstanding Canadian Writer award for it though so that’s good. Point is the guy is a decorated vetran of this series and it shows in how good this issue is and I felt he deserved some recognition as most Comic Book Readers, myself included up till now, likely weren’t aware he even existed nor took over the comic in the 2000′s.

We open with Burns getting attacked by a mummy! Gotta say wasn’t expecting this as where we started out but the simpsons have started with wonkier premises to end up somewhere. I mean there was the time a bag boy strike ended up with them in Africa. Also i’d say Burns should call the police, being the kind of privileged white guy they actually care about protecting and all, but frankly the Springfield Cops don’t have the best track records with Mummies:

But no it’s just Smithers, who dove in heroically to save the company 15 dollars after Homer took a bet to see how many fire crackers he could jam in his computer’s disk drive. Lenny said 20 but he proved him wrong. And yes those are all actual jokes from the comic, this issue is very funny and feels very much like a Golden Age Simpsons episode. They also all gather to sign Smither’s cast.. which naturally is a legally binding contract. Burns takes his loyal minion to get some quality medical care only to find an arcade because he traded the Medical Bay in for one during an outbreak of Pac Man Fever... again I really can’t top that and there may be a good reason why I haven’t covered the Simpsons till now. But yeah as Buns gives Smithers a roll of Pennies, he wonders who to have replace Smither’s on their annual summer treasure hunt.. which would come out of nowhere but we genuinely don’t know what they do most summers. I assumed Burns just road Smithers like a horse to play cricket while Smithers enjoyed it way too much. But a stray comment from Homer getting a Krusty Doll from a crane machine about being king of the treasure hunters leads to this.

I mean it’s an easy joke but damn if it didn’t get a laugh out of me. So later at the old Simpsons place, because this comic is fantastic, Marge and Homer talk things over, but Homer insists Burns said he’d split the treasure, and Lisa wishes she could come along. And Marge says he should, especially for his own saftey.. and when Bart complains, says all the kids should go, she already packed their bags, she’s heading to Rancho Relaxo byyyyeeeeeee. Once again, this comic is amazing, and I would say this is out of character for Marge, but frankly that’s the whole point. Plus it really isn’t when she has to deal with 4 children on a regular basis, and her sisters, and a town gone mad.. yeah can’t blame her here.

The next day at Burns Office, Homer is wearing his navy outfit.. or rather Donald’s Navy outfit. But given I did a quick google and found him having at least 4 different outfits during his time in the Naval Reserves, it’s not a stretch to assume the Simpsons Version of the Navy gave these out too. Seriously Ian Boothby has put more thought into continuity than most writers on the show proper. Also Simpsons Tide, season 9 episode, still very memorable and hilarious and not due to childhood nostalgia. Just looking up this bit had me laughing hard.

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I now want to watch that episode sometime soon so thanks Kev. Anyway Homer seems to have misplaced his plants. Now I could spare you the image since I don’t do things panel by panel anymore and only use panels from a comic when relevant. Buttttt

This traumatizing of my audience brings me to a point about this issue and why it works. While there are tons of nods to the Donald Duck comics and what their homaging is very clear, the issue doesn’t REQUIRE you know them to enjoy it. Knowing them I obviously enjoy it more, but most of the jokes aren’t reliant on you knowing anything about the barks comics and even someone with a passing knowledge of the Original Ducktales can still get the reference if not why Donald is here. It helps this is less of a parody, with the exception of some jokes, and more of an homage, using stylistic elements of those comics while telling i’ts own story as a loving tribute to it’s predecessors. Speaking of one of those jokes poking fun at the source material, Burns is delighted Homer brought child labor, which kept me laughing for a good minute, and when the kids introduce themselves we get this bit.

Not only am I 100% sure every version of Donald or Della did this to make sure they could tell them apart, very much including the reboot with Donald, but it’s a genuine hilarious bit. Donald’s response as they head off is “there’s somehting hooey Dewey and screwy about this. “ Also I will criticize the fact Bart isn’t the one wearing a blue outfit. For those wondering why, after all Maggie wears blue shouldn’t she get it, who haven’t seen this a LOT of merchandise early on had Bart in a blue shirt, due to early Merch being rushed out pre-show and since he wore one in some earlier concept art, he got to wear blue. He also wore it late into the 90′s.

Sidebar: I just found this and while it isn’t a bad joke given his character it is questionable to have a fourth grade boy tell you to buy him. Just saying. But the reason I bring it up is partly because the show itself referenced it at one point.

As well as it’s sister show Futurama

And you remeber that Bart Simpson solo I mentioned? That one frequently, both in and out of story, had Blue Shirt bart show up for some variety.

Also why yes each issue does have it’s own fun “Superman’s Pal Jimmy Oleson” Esque subtitle. And I love it so. Point is Blue Bart is part of the series legacy and this very comic company, so it’s VERY weird to not have that here. That being said there were a few Green Shirt barts apparently as a printing error, so he could just as easily be 80 steps ahead of me. I just don’t know.

Back at the plot Burns and the Simpsons show up at Frink’s lab, Frink rather obviously filling in for Gyro, with his own version of little bulb named F.L.O. who gladly shakes Lisa’s hand.. and releases a Pterodactyl but hey you can’t win em all. It’s a nice nod, though one only fans of the source matieral will really get, but the pterodactyl bit right after helps distract from it. Frink slotts into the roll well, as Frink has no reall affiliation with anyone and is basically, much like Gyro, there for various characters to go too when the story or joke needs him. Frink has two gadgets for them: Some Scuba suits that can go to any depth and a grappling claw that accidently gets him gripped to the pterodactyl. Also homer accidently switches suits with maggie, so we get an adorable shot of her serenely sleeping in a diving helmet while her daddy chokes to death.

So the next day it’s out to the open seas where The Simpsons are doing all the work while Burns lounges.. which yeah this is a typical uncle scrooge adventure all right. While the man unlike Burns does work hard and do things for himself, he spent most voyages talking about the destination while putting all the hard work on Donald, in case you thought there was at least one universe where Donald isn’t miserable most of the time. Lisa wonders what he’s doing and we get this lovely bit.

I just.. can’t stop finding that hilarious or a nice way to get the Uncle Scrooge bit in there while still fitting the Simpsons, and it at least explains what happened to Herb, whose been mentioned all of once in the 30 seasons since he last showed up. I checked. And yes for those unaware, which is fair, or who just now remembered Homer does indeed have a brother, one his dad had out of an affair who showed up twice, once with Homer unintentionally, and largely due to Herb’s own foolishness, ruining his life, the other time with Maggie helping him get back on top and him and Homer reconciling. He’s also voiced by comedic legend and your friend and mine, Danny Devito, whose still making us all laugh to this day and is a wonderful person from all accounts. Rock on Danny, here’s the only way I can think to honor you.

But yeah it’s a good gag. Burns claims to be watching for a Giant Squid.. and turns out to be right. So it’s up to the simpsons to fight the giant squid, a sentence I genuinely didn’t expect.. I thought like the Griffins they’d just ignore it.

I miss that show.. oh i’m aware Family Guy is still running but much like the Simpsons the show it USED to be is long gone. Anyways Bart tells a worried homer octopus suck out the innards and drink it first quipping “It’s not like you haven’t been drunk in the morning before homer. Homer chokes bart only for the squid to choke him which is easily the second best “Homer getting choked after Choking bart” gag i’ve seen.. the best being this one I found on youtube.

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Though personally my faviorite part of that whole bit is Bart’s proud “THAT’S BECAUSE I SOAKED HIM IN SLIME!” Anyways Lisa figures out a way to beat the squid, painting the likeness of each of them on it’s tentacles and letting the thing devour itself. Lisa lampshades it making no sense PHysics wise but with that she reluctantly accepts calling Mr. Burns, Uncle Burns and we’re off to our next location. Next up is Mt. Donrosa, a very clear nod to Uncle Scrooge maestro Keno “Don” Rosa, an avid fan of Barks work who expanded on it and turned it into a solid continuity, most famously, and what got me into the ducks in the first place, with the epic “Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck” which I proudly own and.. well I did say watch this space didn’t I? Enough hinting at the future as the Simpsons scale the mountain with Homer carrying burns up on a rickshaw. Burns however looses his lucky #1 penny, SUBTLE, and cuts Bart down to get it. We then get the best line of the issue:

Bart thankfully survives and we find out the Penny, much like Scrooge’s Dime is how Burns started his fortune.. for this issue and nowhere else but that’s standard for the Simpsons. Specifically loading it into a gun and threatning to kill Jasper’s grandfather with it during the gold rush, a nice twist. At the top of the mountain they find the fabled key of Strobl, which comes from the Taliaferro tribe.. more refrenes this time though I didn’t know them and had to google. Tony Strobl was an artist on the Duck Comics at one ponit and Al Taliforino id forgotten about. He did the Donald Duck comic strip which I had heard of and weirdly hasn’t been collected yet despite Fantagraphics covering mickey, as well as reprinting barks and rosa’s respective works.

The key is suspended in the air by what Lisa suspects to be magnetics, and while Burns plan is naturally “Have Bart swim in it and see if he surivives”, Bart, still pissed from the penny and not wanting to die today, grabs the Penny and uses his slingshot to fire it at the Key. The bad luck from the penny casues an erruption, but Bart once again saves the day and has them surf down, with naturally tons more great jokes. The family enjoys some steamed Seafood, except Lisa whose eating Seaweed, while Homer enjoys a sting ray “It tastes as good as it stings, Ow, Ow.” ON to Goddfrodson Trench, an odd choice given Floyd Goddfrodson was barks equivalent for the Mickey Mouse Comics and not really a duck writer, but he still deserves the honor regardless. Under the Sea, no accusations just friendly crustaceans here.. our heroes are close to the treasure but loose the map to the Jailbird Boys, aka Snake and his cousins, who found out due to Lisa’s blog. She didn’t want to loose any more readers to Sheri and Teri’s Olson Twin’s Fan Page.. which.. it’s 2004.. weren’t they dead by this point? Nope still alive? Still are today in fact? Alrighty then. Also this bit, and some of the other references are a bit heavy handed, I will admit that, but the jokes are high quality enough otherwise that it just comes off as a bit of an adorable wink more than laziness.

Snake and co cut their air with Starfish used as throwing stars.

The gang tie their air suplies to avoid dying, and Maggie, in a clever bit, talks with the starfish, since they communicate via sucking, to attack the Jailbird Boys. Again..

I genuinely don’t know, but our heroes find the fabled vault of Barks Billion.. named after Bark Barks, that polar bear from the sonic games.. no of course it’s named after Disney Duck God Carl Barks, who created the Duck’s share of Donald and Scrooge’s supporting cast: Uncle Scrooge himself, Daisy Duck, a fact I just learned but given he created her first short “Mr Duck Steps Out, shouldn’t of surprised me, The Beagle Boys, Magica DeSpell, Goldie O Gilt, Flintheart Glomgold, Gyro Gearloose, Gladstone Gander, The Junior Woodchucks as a whole, Neighbor Jones, John D. Rockerduck, The Number One Dime, Gus Goose, April, May, June and Whitewater Duck. Just the sheer impact he’s had on the comics on all continents cannot be overstated. He is also the one who refined Huey Dewey and Louie from hellraising little shits to the good little boys they are today.. well okay they were, thankfully the reboot has created much better versions. Point is what a man, what a man what a mighty good man, he is truly missed. We get two great homer gags in the same page, one where somehow he’s put the giant key on a key ring and still can’t find it.. with Bart helpfully taking it from him, and then we get this, which I missed on my first read through.

Naturally Burns betrays them, using a Gold Magnet, kay, to suck up all the gold and naturally planning to leave the Simpsons for dead to no one’s surprise. But thanks to Bart teaching Maggie how to use the spittoons, Homer gets one stuck on his head.. and starts getting sucked up with the Simpsons using them to escape. Naturally Lisa’s first instinct is obvious.

But Burns weasels his way out by promising them free gold after their free lunch. Naturally the next day this turns out ot be a trick as their lunch came from frinks and thus, for now, their weightless.. but Karma gets Burns when he tries swimming in his new gold vault... only for the natural result of what happens when am an who never exercises and who doctors once described as having so many diseases packed into his body at once they tripped each other off and that a strong wind could kill him, trying to do with a similarly aged but still physically fit and well trained at swimming in money man does on a daily basis.

We then close on a quick gag of weightless homer getting caught on fire and we’re out.

Final Thoughts: This was a really excellent comic. It captured the tone of the Simpsons at their best and while stiff in a place here or there, it’s mostly just really funny, entertaining and a nice and warm tribute to Donald and Scrooge’s long comics history, not really mocking it but instead just homaging it, while still throughly feeling like the Simpsons. It honestly feels like the Treehouse of Horor Segement on the shining, a bit that parodies something, but for the most part the jokes still feel firmly rooted in the simpsons and their cast. This was a treat to review and i’m glad Kev comissoned it and I may take a look at more Simpsons in the future. If you guys like this review, you can follow me on patreon at patreon.com/popculturebuffet, or if there’s a specific simpsons or ducktales episode or a specific comic you want me to review, you can comission your own review for just five bucks. Just send me a direct message on here through Tumblr, or take a look at my ask box or submit. However you want to do it. I take payments through paypal and until next time: Happy Days are Here Again.

#scrooge mcduck #the simpsons #carl barks #simpsons comics #montgomery burns #homer simpson #bart simpson #lisa simpson #maggie simpson #don rosa #professor frink #bongo comics #waylond smithers #reviews #ducktales

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venus-says · 5 years

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Kiratto Prichan Episodes 52-58

K-A-W-A-I-I~♪

Surprise~da-mon

I wasn’t going to do this. If you know me you know I don’t have the best track record with everything related to the pretty series. But since the begining of this year, as I saw myself getting more angry at Aikatsu, I’ve grown found of Prichan and saw myself enjoying the show quite a lot. So here we are to follow season 2.

I don’t plan on writing as much as I do for precure or aikatsu, because even though I like the show I wouldn’t call it a favorite and I’m not that attached to it, so my eager to shower it in praises or think of ways to make shitty things better isn’t the greatest. But talking a lot is part of my being so let’s see how that goes. XD

Before I start talking about this episode here’s a quick summary on my thoughts from Prichan’s season 1: For the most part I don’t care for the plot, specially when it regards to the main trio. Meltic StAr is my shit and I would say I love them just as much as I love Honey Cat. In general the beginning is boring but the show gets way more interesting in the second half, that’s when good songs finally start to come out. Mirai is as bland as any protagonist, Emo annoys me, Rinka I don’t have an opinion on her, Anna is hilarious, Sara is bae, Mel is my favorite (even being the most stereotypical character EVER), Anju is a goddess and she carries it.

And I guess that’s all you need to know of how I feel about season 1. Now to season 2.

Episode 52 doesn’t have a lot going on. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t amazing neither. Mirai’s new song is meh but is better than her solo from last season. The idea of doing everything on the jewel pact is pretty dumb, but I can give that a pass (I think). Meganee being annoyed at Dear Crown’s popularity was amazing, probably the best part of the episode.

In just a few minutes I already love Maria and Suzu more than I ever liked the main trio in the past 51 episodes. I love their looks and personalities and I can’t wait to see more!

One thing that I like is that this episode lays down everything we need to know for this season and they set all of the objectives nice and clear from the start. Is nice to know what to expect and what to look for. There’s no mystery, they go there, make their show, do a live, if they’re worth of it they get a jewel coord and when 10 are chosen they’ll compete to get the diamond dress, simple and easy.

The Designers 7 are now the Designers 10, which means there won’t be no new characters added other than Maria, Suzu and Daia on her non virtual form. Which is kinda good and kinda isn’t, and hope they make a good use of this shorter cast. While talking on designers I’m kinda disappointed because I thought Anju was going to follow along Aria and start her own brand and I was really excited about that but judging by the numbers she’s still with Precious Muse. But that’s not really an issue, just me being me again.

I have just one word for Episode 53: KAWAII~

Maria is annoying as hell and her love for cuteness is way too unreal to be true but I still love every second of it.

I think Mel may just have lost her spot as my favorite in this show. I love Maria’s personality, I love her song, I love her coord, I love EVERYTHING. I don’t even have anything else to say, just this. All I did through this whole episode was laugh and press the screenshot button non stop for 22 minutes straight.

There’s one thing that concerns me though. I hope they don’t make Maria just a flat character that all she has going for her is her love out of this world for cute things. I don’t need a serious character development or anything, I just want her to be more than just “the cute girl” and I hope they can deliver this.

Not a lot to say about Episode 54. I’m glad they’re already making “normal Daia” a part of the group so later on it’ll be more natural to have her join the gang. Also very nice that they at least acknowledge the similarities between the two Daias, is a much better way of dealing with it than what they’ve done last year with Anju and her sparkling lady persona.

Rinka recording their show in the pact is just the weirdest thing EVER, bring pricast back please.

Jewel Chance was weirdly short for some reason, Kiratto Chance seemed to last longer last season. Not that I really care for it since this concept never appealed to me, but it was weird. But I guess in this season they’ll at least have a more meaningful purpose to it, kiratto chance last year seem to be there just because it was a mechanic in the game.

Side note: while Suzu is dancing on the streets they have an amazing song playing in the background and I hope it’s the instrumentals for her solo and if it is I CAN’T WAIT TO LISTEN TO BEST SONG OF THIS SHOW.

What do I have to say about Episode 55? I don’t really know, it was pretty boring to me. Like I said before I don’t care for Miracle Kiratts so the plot of them trying to make a video to call more costumers to Prism Stone didn’t caught my attention. The little bits of Meganee, Maria and Suzu, plus seeing SUPER CUTIE SUPER GIRL (the best song from Kiratts, including solos) were the only things I enjoyed on this episode.

We of course also have the problem of the protagonist getting the super special coord of the season SO EARLY ON. I’m not gonna repeat myself, yall know what I think about this, I’m just disappointed. Now we’ve only seen one priticket with Mirai which may mean she only has one piece of the coord and she will have to work to get the other two as well and this may save the whole situation, but for now I’m just rolling my eyes and asking why they do this kind of stuff.

Episode 56 was surprisingly good! I've gotta be honest but when I saw Emo would be in one of the main characters in this episode I thought it would be garbage as much as Maria would be in there too, but I was wrong. It was amazing, I wasn't expecting to be this good.

I don't really have a lot to say, but I'm glad they used Maria's love for cuteness for something good. Even though her dream of bringing world peace using cuteness seem unrealistic she is still doing good for the world by using her cuteness to change lives. She was very nice to that little girl and it made me feel all fuzzy inside. As annoying as Maria is she is a very good person, she is one of those people who makes you believe there's still hope for this, and this makes me like her even more.

PS.: What the hell is her family, they're so weird. Now I understand how she's so crazy, who wouldn't be if they were raised by this family? XD

PS.2: If anyone did a drinking game taking a shot every time Maria says "Kawaii" this person would be in alcoholic coma by now and I'm sorry for you. XD

57 is our first episode focused on Suzu. AND WHAT A GREAT EPISODE IT WAS. There's not a single thing I dislike in this episode.

Getting to know more of Suzu was great, and I loved to watch as she started to grow fond of Maria even though she annoys her to death. They form such a great duo, it was great to see more of them together. I believe this is the first time we see them interact in a more complex way than just Maria following Suzu like crazy, and they did a great job at it. I like how natural it was, Suzu didn't just started liking Maria from nowhere, we had a build up and it was something gradual. It feels rewarding to see that they're closer, and if I already liked them before I feel like I'm even more in love with them now. I confess I would've like it more if we got to see Suzu perform, they teased with that same instrumental again and I'm just like AAAAAAA I NEED THIS SONG. I know Suzu's song hasn't been added to the game yet, but prichan releases song before they're in the game so I think they still could do it. But I'm happy with Maria's song anyway so, is all good.

I don't know how I feel about episode 58. I think I would have more strong feelings about it if Rinka was a character that I like, but as I said I don't really care for the protagonist trio and Rinka is probably the most bland of them in most of the situations so I don't really care for her.

The whole situation that makes this episode happen is good, Meganee is so stressed out by Dreamy Crown that she's breaking and she needs to rest. But then when it comes to Rinka and Yuzuru taking over thinks just get boring. I admit that huge part of this may be because I never liked Yuzuru and seeing more of him just makes me roll my eyes, but still as much as this episode tried it just didn't hit me.

The other big event on this episode was Rinka's new song and i'm a little disappointed. First because they give the most generic coord they could for her to wear, second because the stage is basically just a copy & paste from Netemo Sametemo Dreamin' Girl, and last because the song is just bland. It starts great like a callback from Rinka's solo from last season but then it comes the chorus and just kills the vibe. Also I don't think Rinka should've got Jewel Chance that time, she hasn't done anything exceptional on the episode to get it imo. But I like her dress design better than Mirai's so maybe that's a positive side.

And that’s it for the first few episode from Prichan Season 2! All in all I’ve enjoyed them, it was a great start and I’m sincerely excited to see what will comes up next!

Thanks for your time and till the next time~da-mon ♪

#Kiratto Prichan #Prichan S2 #prichan #prism series

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oscar-isaacs-number-one-bitch · 5 years

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“Mary Poppins Returns” Movie Review

Mary Poppins Returns is the long-awaited sequel to the beloved 1964 Disney classic, Mary Poppins, which originally starred Julie Andrews as the titular nanny who helped the Banks family to become closer in their time of need. Now, the Banks children are all grown up, and Michael Banks (Ben Wishaw) has fallen on some tricky financial hardship after the passing of his wife, and may be about to lose their home, which he lives in with the three children they had together. Jane (Emily Mortimer), his sister, is helping out as best she can, but it seems to no avail…until, that is, Mary Poppins (this time around played by Emily Blunt) comes back to Cherry Tree Lane. Her first order of business? That she may look after the Banks children once more, but is she can, she’ll help Michael’s children embrace their own worlds of imagination, and remind him what it’s like to be a child again.

As a disclaimer first, let me say this: many reviews are pointing out that this film seems to follow all the same plot beats as the original without adding all that much to the overall story. Given the fact that (although I’m sure I saw it many times) I do not remember the original Mary Poppins all that well, I cannot faithfully or in good conscience say the same. What I can say is what I did honestly think of the film itself, without such a note being implemented into my review. So, how does the sequel stack up now that it’s been 54 years since the original classic? It holds up just fine, albeit with a few noticeable (if ultimately inconsequential) flaws.

Mary Poppins Returns (from what I can tell) does serviceable justice to the original, while still trying to remain its own thing. Musical films are hard enough to do, especially as sequels to beloved classics, but director Rob Marshall and company have chosen perhaps the singular most beloved classic Disney musical (at least in non-animated form) of all time to test their sails out on, and for the most part, they pull it off. From the very opening frame, one can tell that we’re in for something that may not take off, but could still be quite a bit of fun while we’re on the ground, and fun, we do have. Even all these years later, if a sequel isn’t done correctly, one will fail to care about these characters between the showy moments and the blockbuster spectacle of it all, and while occasionally the movie takes some missteps in that department, for the most part we still continue to care for Michael’s plight. The scenes in which he and Jane are reflecting on their childhood, and in particular one where Michael is taken briefly into a song of sadness remembering the passing of his wife, are genuinely moving and do conjure emotional resonance in that very special Disney way they know how to do.

The magic, too, is not lost on anyone. The opening sequence/musical number may not be one of Disney’s stronger sequel introductions, but once Mary Poppins does show up, things begin to brighten almost immediately (quite literally as the clouds around her depart). This magic is nowhere more prominent than in the upbeat musical numbers director Rob Marshall and lyricist Scott Wittman have written, paired with a fun and soaring score from composer Marc Shaiman, the two strongest of which by far are “Can You Imagine That?” and “Trip a Little Light Fantastic,” on or the other of which I’m sure is locked in for a Best Original Song nomination at this year’s Academy Awards. But these aren’t the only Oscar nominations this film is sure to muster.

The visual effects of the film are also brilliant and astounding, reminiscent of the 2D-mixed-with-live-action style for which the film’s predecessor was known. Seeing the art pop into brilliant color on screen is a real treat, and if anything, this aspect of the film will charm you into utter bliss, if but for a small set of moments. The color is not just reserved for the visual effects either. The costume and production design in the film is simply brilliant, everything brought to life in such brilliant color you’d think you were watching The Wizard of Oz in 1939. One can safely expect a slew of below-the-line nominations at this year’s Oscars for things like Sound, Visual Effects, Production/Costume Design, and Original Song, but don’t be surprised if we also see one top-category nomination as well – that nomination being Emily Blunt as the title character.

Most of the performances in the film are anywhere from serviceable (in the case of Lin-Manuel Miranda, still a bit more comfortable of a stage actor than a screen one) to genuinely good (Ben Whishaw, Emily Mortimer, Colin Firth, Julie Walters), and the returning cameo by Dick Van Dyke is full of boundless joy, but absolutely no one outsteps the ever-lovely Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins. It’s a perfect recasting, and if it’s not, it’s certainly the closest we could hope for given Julie Andrews’ absence. Blunt embodies the charm, care, and comedy of the character of Mary Poppins so perfectly she’s well-deserving of a Best Actress nomination for her work here, should one come along. In every frame, with every line, she never misses a single emotional beat or drops the vocal cadence of the character and it truly is an astounding thing to see her move across the screen with the same confidence with which Julie Andrews did all those years ago. She is truly magnificent. It’s a marvelous, and (dare I say) flawless resurrection of the character, and marks a second banner performance in Blunt’s career this year alone (paired with her brilliant work in A Quiet Place), displaying her range as an actress like never before.

Then again, I did mention earlier that this film was not without some noticeable flaws. For one thing, it’s simply too long. That’s not to say that I was ever bored or that what I was seeing on screen didn’t add to the story at all, but there are sequences, even in the musical numbers, that could have been cut down for time; as long as they are, the movie feels like it’s taking its sweet time getting to wherever it’s trying to go and on occasion loses the sense of magic or urgency because whatever scene one is watching keeps going on…and on…and on…and on and on forever until finally you think you’re getting back to one of the quiet moments of the film…and the bombastic score takes over again instead of letting you rest. In fact, there’s an entire musical number placed between the second and third acts of the film that seems only to exist so that Meryl Streep can do one of the film’s less catchy musical numbers and never show up in the narrative again. It’s a fine performance, but it just seems so unnecessary by film’s end, one wonders why Disney would just stop the narrative cold in order to give some cinematic fan service that doesn’t add to it really at all (then again, this is the company that made Solo, so I guess it follows.)

Another thing the film suffers from, besides an over-emphasis on nostalgia instead of narrative, is a slight (if only barely so) lack of focus between its two conjoined storylines. Mary Poppins is off with the children having adventures while Michael struggles to save their home, and while all the magic and visuals of the Mary Poppins storylines are genuinely fun, I just wish we had gotten to spend a little more time with Michael as a character, to see the nuance of how he got to be where he is and how he’s responding to all of what’s going on. For long stretches of the narrative, he seems to have been forgotten almost entirely, only for the film to put him back on screen and say “oh, yes, the reason this is all happening, we can’t forget to let you know that’s still here,” as if an afterthought.

And speaking of afterthoughts, there are a few more of those scattered in the film, one of which has to do with a decision that was made about Colin Firth’s character that reminded me of Zemo from Captain America: Civil War. No, Colin Firth doesn’t have a master plan to drive Mary Poppins and the Banks’ apart and make them fight each other (though that would be an interesting thing to see), but without spoilers, the writers of Mary Poppins Returns do something with his character that seemed unnecessary given that Michael already has time to struggle against. In addition to this, while I certainly enjoyed the charm of Emily Mortimer’s performance, the movie just doesn’t give her much of anything to do other than be there, and seems not at all interested in exploring her life outside of her relationship to Michael. We never see where she lives or get to follow her to any of her pro-worker rallies or anything, she’s just kind of there, and feels like less like a character in her own right because we never see that she has a life of her own. That’s a real bummer considering how well Mortimer plays the character for what screen time she has.

Still, it’s not a bad film or even just okay by any stretch of the imagination (something this film relishes in stretching, by the way). Mary Poppins Returns is, simply put, safe. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t also fun. Emily Blunt is marvelous as the titular character, and despite some overlong pacing and unnecessary character/story beats, it mostly holds together as an enjoyable family film one can see over the holiday season. The visuals are fantastic, the music is good apart from two numbers that do reach that level of great, and on a costume/production design level alone, this film should show up at this year’s Oscars. It may not be practically perfect in every way, but it gets most of it right.

I’m giving “Mary Poppins Returns” an 7.8/10.

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agentelmo · 6 years

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The X-Files MSR Analysis Series: Season 1 Episode 10

“Fallen Angel”

Previous episode analysis - 1x09 Space.

From an MSR angle, Fallen Angel tells the story of Mulder’s personal angel, and how different his life might have been if he had never met her. We see here (and many times in the future) that when Mulder tries to go it alone, he doesn’t get very far. There are parts of this episode which feel like a glimpse into the life Mulder might have led if Scully had never came into his world. A crazy man running around the forest with a gun and a camera, getting nowhere fast and most likely winding up in prison, and/or fired from the FBI. Or living the life of a nomadic hermit, holed up in a tin can clipping away at newspapers and squinting at blurry photographs.

Then perhaps he might have turned to squatching much earlier in life, and you know that 90′s Mulder squatching would have only led to bad things. Very bad.

So the episode starts with Mulder in Wisconsin about to 007 his way into a quarantined area. The news is reporting it as an ecological disaster, but thanks to Grandpa Deep Throat, Mulder knows it is actually a UFO crash site. Papa Throat tells Mulder he has 24 hours tops to get in there and check out this downed UFO before the cleaners break out the military strength Mr. Muscle.

Fuck me, can I please jump into this screencap and suck on that bottom lip? HNNNNNGGGGGG... I feel like I am channelling someone. Is that you @defnotmeyo?

Clearly Mulder has failed to inform Scully of his escapade. At this point in time, Scully is still completely unaware of Deep Throat and the fact Mulder gets a lot of his information from him.

This failure points to the fact that Mulder is still holding off from completely trusting Scully. He can see she has integrity; despite her assignment to the X-Files being a means to an ends - a surreptitious attempt to spy on Mulder - she takes this assignment seriously and applies her scientific rigour to his work honestly and faithfully, and he sees that.

She has supported him steadfastly throughout their short partnership, but he still cannot shake that she was sent to spy on him. He cannot trust her with this greatest of secrets - the knowledge of Deep Throat’s existence.

It’s fair enough really, because as much as he really wants to trust Scully (and he really does want to trust her) he is still uncertain. The way he behaves around her says to me that he has a deep affinity for her.

Superficially he’s definitely low key attracted to her from the word go - she’s a beautiful woman - but deeper than that, they fall into sync with one another almost effortlessly at times, even when they’re at odds yelling at one another, they’re both learning that they can push each other and it will be okay. They will have each others back. The events of Ice taught them that.

But Ice also asked a question that Fallen Angel continues to pose. Can Mulder trust Scully? He desperately wants to trust her, but old habits die hard. Mulder’s motto is trust no one, after all. What if Scully’s entire purpose is to gain his trust and smoke out the insider leaking information to Mulder? While it’s no fun from an MSR angle, it does make sense that Mulder still doesn’t entirely trust Scully - he’s still weighing her up.

So he goes it alone. First mistake. And Mulder decides to go on this jolly jaunt through the forest cosplaying as the Milk Tray Man.

“All because the lady loves...”

Sorry non-Brits, you’ll have to look that one up.

He poodles through the forest trying to look bad ass, but fails spectacularly owing to the fact he has probably the dorkiest run ever. Sorry Mulder, you just can’t look cool running over hill and dale.

We know Mulder can look sexy running - he has a lovely bit of sexy running in season 6′s Milagro, for example.

Phwoooaaaaar, keep running G-Man.

But here, in this episode?

Yeeeeeah, not so much.

Look at him... boing, boing, boing!

What’s actually most surprising about this whole sequence is that he gets away with it! He dangles underneath a military vehicle and very obviously plonks on the floor with a soldier so close by he must have been asleep not to hear it let alone see it.

I think it’s safe to say that Mulder’s knowledge on stealthiness was probably lifted exclusively from Tom Clancy novels.

Either that, or he has stealth cheat codes enabled.

Now I can’t decide if this is Mulder’s “I can’t believe I just got away with that” face, or his “I think I just rolled in badger shit” face. Hmmm...

So Mulder bounds through the forest until he approaches a light in a clearing...

Creepy X-Files forest aesthetic on fleek.

He then reveals his true passion in life, as a photographer for Alien Vogue.

Work it, baby.

Going solo out here turns out to be pretty dangerous, so with no one to watch his back, Mulder finds himself getting butt-stroked.

Wait, what?

Honestly, that’s what getting pummelled in the face with a rifle butt is called! To be honest, I’d butt-stroke Mulder any day of the week. Know what I’m sayin’?

After a serious talk about breaking federal law with the designated bad guy of the piece, Colonel Henderson....

...Mulder is imprisoned.

Divine intervention is unlikely, Mulder.

So quick run down. Mulder gets a hot tip, tells no one about it, runs off without Scully and ends up in military prison. What a thoroughly unsurprising turn of events. When Mulder goes it alone and tries to do anything without Scully, he gets his arse handed to him.

Sorry Mulder, them’s the rules.

But it’s here we are introduced to Mulder’s mirror image. The man Mulder might have become himself had it not been for a lucky sequence of events in his life that led him to having the right people around him at the right times, whereas Max Fenig clearly did not.

Say hi Max.

Nawww... Max is instantly endearing in his overt politeness and kooky appearance. What we come to understand later is that Max recognises Mulder and he’s being such a try hard, wanting to be buddies with Mulder, because from observing his life from afar he feels he knows him. I mean, we can all relate, right?

But Mulder is actually surprisingly dismissive of Max, and I think even somewhat judgemental. He gets one look at Max and thinks he has the measure of him. He ignores his polite invitation to talk and rolls his eyes as he turns away.

I think Mulder might at times think himself above these kinds of people, the crazies who sit in fields on garden furniture holding up colourful “take me to your leader!” signs. I think that’s what Mulder sees when he first looks at Max - the archetypal UFO wackjob. The living embodiment of why his work isn’t taken seriously.

For a moment here, Mulder treats Max with the same dismissive disdain that other people have treated Mulder in the past.

Just to drive home the comparison between Max and Mulder, he utters Mulder’s favourite catchphrase of all time - trust no one. Mulder might not want to admit it now, but despite their personalities being very different, these two men clearly think alike in many ways.

Side note, Max is quite possibly one of the best supporting characters the show ever had. In all 10 seasons.

Mulder continues to roll his eyes ignoring Max, until Max asks if Mulder saw anything. Mulder plays his usual trick, to get information out of others rather than giving up any of his own, by playing the contrarian.

But Max isn’t so easily fooled, it seems.

Notice how Max is rubbing his ear in this moment? What makes him so sure? Well maybe it’s the fact he’s been abducted by these “alieums!” several times already - hint, hint, rub scar. FORESHADOWINGGGGGG!

Now finally, finally. Scully arrives... I mean, it’s only been a good quarter of the flipping episode without her. Geez... so her big dramatic entrance is entirely appropriate.

And glorious.

Imagine a church chorus as she enters, because the symbolism is so heavy handed here. Scully arrives, bathed in bright white light - blinding Mulder with her brilliance - liiiiiike.... an angel perhaps?!

While the crashed UFOs are referred to as fallen angels, Scully is the true angel of the piece. Mulder’s guardian angel. A supposed proxy of his enemies, sent to spy on him to do the bidding of the Syndicate, essentially. But in actuality is the only one truly looking out for him - and him alone.

But of course, Mulder knows he’s about to get a royal roasting. So makes a ill-considered attempt at being charming.

I love that comment though, “I didn’t order room service.” Because when Mulder does order room service, he orders a hot red head in a trench coat? I’m not sure we’re thinking of the same kind of room service here, Mulder. Rawr.

But Scully isn’t interested in banter, she’s here to tell Mulder he’s really done fucked up this time. That the higher ups are using his latest tomfoolery as an excuse to cashier Mulder out of the FBI.

Poor Scully. How frustrating this man must be to her in this moment. She’s trying to save the X-Files here, Mulder, did you miss that? She’s trying to save you too. Without Scully, Mulder is heading for a personal disaster, because he frequently cannot see the forest through the trees. So focused on his present goal he fails to see the larger consequences - or rather sees them, but doesn’t care - the sacrifice is worth it to him. The Truth™ is all that matters.

Only Scully is fighting to pull him back from the edge, and when he seems utterly blasé about the fact the X-Files might be shut down, she loses her cool.

In fact, I think this is the first time we see Scully genuinely pissed off at him – like really furious. She’s been varying levels of irritated, but this time she’s actually livid with his behaviour, and not just because he’s disregarding the rules.

In past episodes Mulder’s lack of respect for protocol saw Scully concerned about her career and what the consequences of being associated with this man and the X-Files would mean for her, but now she’s trying her damnedest to save both.

She’s angry because she cares and not just about their work, it’s established as far back as Conduit that she has more than just a professional interest in Mulder. She cares about him. She sees something in him worth caring about.

Steady on, we’re not quite at that point yet.

She cares about him as a friend and knows the X-Files are important to him - he would later refer to the X-Files as his life’s work - so of course she’s frustrated because she is trying to understand him, but can’t grasp why he would put the X-Files in jeopardy like this. To her, it makes no sense. To a new audience it makes no sense either.

Except that it does. What we will eventually establish with hindsight, is that this kind of behaviour is Fox Mulder all over. For merely a glimpse at the elusive truth, Mulder would risk everything. He is a master of self-sabotage - he is determined to barrel headfirst into self destruction - and the fact Scully is there to save him time and again is such an incredible stroke of fortuitousness on his part that, sometimes, I’d swear the Cigarette Smoking Man chose Scully for this purpose all along.

So moving on, and Mulder is being pretty flippant about Scully’s explanation of what was out in the woods; he mocks her, even. His attitude towards her similar to his dismissal of Max earlier. A slight “you-have-no-idea-what-you’re-dealing-with” smugness.

But is this really fair of Mulder? I mean, this disarming as fuck smile is definitely not fair of Mulder because hot dayum... But yeah - not what I meant.

What I meant is Mulder has information she doesn’t and that puts her at a disadvantage that she cannot overcome as a scientist who works off of evidence - proof.

She only sees Mulder seemingly pull this information out of his arse, so of course she isn’t going to believe him. Like in Ghost in the Machine, he’s not giving her enough to go on. It’s his own fault that she is so resistant to his version of events. His lack of trust in her is what is bringing this all down.

This is when we see why trust is so key to their relationship, as Scully will say much later in season 6′s The Beginning - it has always come down to a matter of trust between them. When they don’t trust each other, they both spin their wheels in frustration.

This is another episode where we see the outline of their working dynamic being drawn. As Scully will poetically put it one day, they are perfect opposites of each other, and as such their relationship only soars when they both trust in each other’s judgement, abilities and dedication to the truth - whatever that might be.

When mistrust, doubt and even resentment seep in, the differences that when perfectly aligned make them so strong, can instead work full force against each other, tearing them apart. Funnily enough, a good example of that is in The Beginning too.

But in this moment, Mulder doesn’t believe Scully puts the truth above protocol and he still isn’t sure if he can trust her not to report everything he tells her to the people he believes work against him. So he continues to hold out about Deep Throat... and, for now at least, they continue to grate against each other.

But hey, don’t worry about it. Any time you start to feel down about how Mulder and Scully are at odds with each other, just remember that one day these two Spooky babies will be having kinky handcuff sex. Canon kinky handcuff sex.

The next little scene with them has it’s MSR charm in a way. Because Scully is effectively Mulder’s jailer (a fact he amusingly references later with a bit of 70′s pop culture). She’s escorting him back to D.C. to face an Office of Professional Responsibility hearing - OPR!

We hear about OPR quite a bit over the coming years with these two, don’t we. Which is why these early brushes with pissing off the higher ups are so interesting to go back and look at, because it’s such a stark reminder of how their love and dedication to one another eventually takes over all reason - for both of them.

We know there will come a time when there will be no lengths to which Scully will not go for Mulder. From being thrown into prison, to sacrificing her job, to going on the run and harbouring him as a criminal fugitive for 6 years. This episode serves to highlight the beginnings of this behaviour in Scully. Her going against the rules for Mulder.

So, knowing she’s been sent there to take him back to D.C., Mulder changes tack, he wants her on board, he values her insight and abilities so he wants her to help him on this now that she’s here. When she’s there, undeniable and in his presence, it’s almost like he can’t help himself but to put his faith in her.

Scully, bless her, does her best to hold on to being angry at him. But Mulder’s incessant charm always screws her over in the end. She can’t resist him - and I don’t mean sexually, I mean just his boyish enthusiasm and unshakeable determination seems to always chip away at her resolve.

It is, after all, as she says much later in I Want To Believe, why she fell in love with him. So it makes sense that in hindsight she often gave in to him like this because she secretly found his stubbornness equally as endearing as she found it exasperating.

The Last Detail, starring Dana Scully! Ha, back in the 90’s you could quote 70’s movie classics and you’d have half a hope in hell anyone knew what you were talking about, Mulder.

So The Last Detail is a movie about a young naval officer being escorted across country to prison. But before his two jailers take him there they decide that, since he will be going away for a long time, he should first get to enjoy what life has to offer. The film stars Jack Nicholson so I think that voice Mulder puts on is his Nicholson impression. Yikes.

So is Scully going to show Mulder what life has to offer before hauling him off to OPR? WINK WINK.

Maybe that’s what Mulder was hoping for ey? Although, for Mulder, the height of what life most has to offer is bumming around Wisconsin looking for downed UFOs. Pfft. Spoil sport.

What I also like about this exchange before they enter Mulder’s motel room, is the fact that not so long ago Mulder was completely at odds with Scully, but Mulder so easily lets their disagreements go and slips straight back into their comfortable bantering.

It’s like whenever he is with her, he is unconsciously trying to charm her - he seems to turn it on whenever they’re alone together - it’s that little bubble they have that we’ve talked about in the past; once they’re in there together they are in a world of their own. While she is still clearly annoyed with him, he’s trying to entice her in to that bubble with a bit of casual flirting and she fights to hold on to her annoyance.

Course, the banter bus is forced to a sudden halt when Mulder and Scully realise someone has broken into and trashed his motel room.

Check out Mulder’s Ken doll pose.

I like how Mulder gets his quip in about how house keeping hasn’t been yet, but when Scully goes to say something in response, Mulder shushes her.

Piss taker.

The way Mulder goes for his gun, forgetting he doesn’t have it anymore - because of course he doesn’t, Mulder losing his gun is like, his favourite thing to do after secretly staring at Scully. His little head shake and her face fully communicating her thoughts on the matter. You don’t need me to translate, just look at that face.

“Soooo um... do you think she’s still mad at me?”

Yes, Mulder. Yes I do.

So the intruder turns out to be Max, and they drag him out of the bathroom so he can explain himself.

The best part of this conversation is when protective!Mulder body checks Max when he attempts to shake Scully’s hand.

Sit the fuck down, son.

It’s the only time Mulder becomes defensive in this whole scene, even though he’s just heard people have been spying on him for years, it’s only when Max makes a move towards Scully that Mulder gets visibly agitated.

Nobody touches bae, Max. No touchie.

There’s an entertaining beat later in this conversation, when Max explains that he read Mulder’s Omni article on the Gulf Breeze UFO sightings. Omni, interestingly enough, was a real magazine that was published in the 70′s through to the mid 90′s. It contained articles on both science, science fiction and the paranormal. Sounds right up Mulder’s passage. What?

Mulder seems to be slightly embarrassed to have this revealed in front of Scully, as his eyes dart to her immediately and he stutters before responding.

That’s his ‘please don’t judge me’ face.

He already knows from The Jersey Devil that Scully thinks he has no life, and so to have his personal pursuits just openly revealed - that in his free time he writes articles for a paranormal magazine under an assumed name, no less. Yeah, he doesn’t want Scully to pity his spartan existence any more than he thinks she already does.

Now I want to take a moment to dissect this phrase Max uses.

“The enigmatic Agent Scully.”

Because where does Max get the notion that Scully is enigmatic? Enigmatic, of course, meaning mysterious, indecipherable, puzzling etc. Max says that he’s been following Mulder’s career – meaning following his cases – through viewing his travel expenses. He would have been able to see where he was going, but not necessarily what he did when he was there. So I wonder if these NICAP groups are actually spying on Mulder and Scully? Do they go and hunt them down, look into what they’re investigating – observe them?

It might then explain why Scully is described as enigmatic – these people, who are clearly believers like Mulder - would find Scully completely inscrutable. A huge sceptic investigating the paranormal? Questioning her partner at every turn? From their perspective Scully would seem a rather enigmatic figure. An oddity. As Max himself says....

Perhaps these people were paying far more attention than Mulder realises.

While Mulder is clearly flattered by the attention, Scully finds it all rather tiresome.

Bless Max, he does not pick up on Scully’s unimpressed tone of voice whatsoever.

Mulder does though, and attempts to appeal to her own vanity.

Although to be entirely precise, Max did say enigmatic agent Scully, so despite apparently having a photographic memory, Mulder couldn’t accurately remember what was said only 2 minutes ago.

Look at the smile on his face though, keep trying to reel her in, Mulder. She’ll crack eventually! Mulder seems quite tickled at the idea of Scully being described as enigmatic. I think Mulder likes to think Scully is actually quite predictable, but she proves him wrong on that count several times as the series progresses. She can certainly keep him guessing.

So Max then invites Mulder and Scully into his trailer home, and Mulder can barely contain himself.

I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see Mulder so tickled by something, and the first thing he does is look down at Scully to share the moment with her.

She’s fighting not to smile, look at her face. She still wants to be annoyed at him. But he’s still chipping away at her resolve... chip, chip, chip.

This scene is quite heavily contrasted with Mulder’s first meeting with Max, where he was so dismissive of him. It kind of shows how Mulder’s single-minded focus on seeking the truth can actually dehumanise him. Because now he’s like a kid in the UFO candy store. He’s charmed by the hokeyness of Max’s trailer; in fact, the manner of decor - the haphazardly placed belongings mixed with newspapers clippings, photographs and stacks of books - bears some resemblance to the ordered chaos of Mulder’s basement office at the FBI.

Later, in season 4′s Tempus Fugit, Scully will remark that Max and Mulder are kindred spirits in “a deep, strange way”. That only the two of them could appreciate living like this - the nomadic, frugal life of a UFO hunter. Singularly obsessed, pinning newspaper articles and blurry photographs to every blank surface available.

She didn’t know how right she was, did she.

And that’s the MSR angle here, because I genuinely believe that Mulder could have easily ended up like Max if he hadn’t met Scully. In fact, we see in I Want To Believe how close Mulder is to the Max Fenig lifestyle. Without Scully working by his side, and the FBI to channel his energy, he effectively turns into Max - a recluse who sifts through paranormal paraphernalia by the ton, looking for some kernel of truth to prove the existence of extraterrestrials to the world, all the while slowly disappearing into himself in the process.

We see in season 10 that his home office that once kept his obsession contained - away from the rest of the house - away from the rest of his life, has now expanded out into pretty much everywhere - consuming everything, including his relationship with Scully.

What that says to me is that he really needs Scully to keep him balanced, and that’s what we see the first glimmers of here, in Fallen Angel - a need for someone to balance his obsessive nature, his single-mindedness, his propensity for self-destruction.

Oy... this got depressing.

So Max plays Mulder and Scully a recording he lifted from a police dispatcher radio transmission to a deputy who was the first to respond to the UFO crash - of course not knowing what it was he was dealing with. It sounds like this deputy and a fire crew were attacked. This spurs Mulder on, the look in his eyes as he turns to Scully tells her everything she needs to know - he’s not gonna let this one go.

DUN! DUN! DUUUUUUN!

She’s equally surprised to hear what happened out there, and now Mulder has finally cracked her - she’s on board. Even if she doesn’t believe the truth is “alieums!” she sees there is more going on here than meets the eye, and this is how these two work together so well.

Because even if they don’t agree on what is happening, they can still work together so long as they always share the core goal of finding the truth.

Now we are going to take a side step into Mulder’s Kitchen. Pull up a seat, we’re gonna delve into some mythology stuff for a moment.

So, this episode is a mythology episode before the mythology even existed. So some elements of this episode tally up with what we come to know later of the aliens, but then other things certainly do not. For example, the alien here is clearly incredibly powerful, much more powerful than the aliens we will encounter later - it’s main abilities being that it can turn invisible and PASS THROUGH SOLID OBJECTS. We don’t ever see that again - thank God!

The alien bounty hunters we see later are significantly nerfed - their greatest abilities are shape-shifting and super human strength. So is this alien here something different?

Something infinitely more interesting that this alien does do, is exhibit an ability which reappears in season 10. It’s this high pitched squealing noise that causes damage through the auditory cortex in the brain.

In season 10′s Founder’s Mutation, Dr. Augustus Goldman’s children that were experimented on with alien DNA are also able to exhibit this high pitched frequency which causes a very similar painful reaction. It’s literally the same sound, but a different pitch. Go compare them!

Towards the end of Fallen Angel, Max also hears this sound and he repeats over and over that he’s in pain, clutching at his ear that pours with blood.

Similarly, this ability the children have in Founder’s Mutation causes blood to pour from the ears, nose, mouth and eyes of Dr. Goldman.

I have no idea if this is intentional or not, but it’s shockingly similar. If it is intentional, then will we find that William has this strange ability too?

But that’s getting away from Fallen Angel, and into season 11 speculation territory.. so moving on!

Mulder and Scully visit the hospital to find out what happened to the deputy and the fire crew, and as Scully chats with the Doctor in charge about radiation burns, we discover a fascinating factoid about Scully.

Forensic medicine, ay? I mean, that’s not surprising at all, really, but still... GOOD TO KNOW!

Next we get a Mulder-Scully walk and talk. Hospital corridor too, classic!

Mulder, stop looking at your hot partners lips and concentrate, man!

Mulder is actually positively buzzing; hearing that the deputy and fire crew had severe radiation burns.

Look at how closely they walk together too, they’re bumping shoulders the whole time. Mulder really has no concept of personal space.

I like this scene because it’s Mulder being as excited as a kid at Christmas, and Scully is throwing out an alternative explanation, but he just keeps coming back at her. It’s a very familiar song and dance.

But this is what they do - Scully makes Mulder work for it, and completely opposite to what was intended, she ends up not debunking his work, but makes it stronger - actually gives it more weight, rather than less.

So what happens is that surprisingly, Scully doesn’t outright dismiss what Mulder is saying, but she is still relentlessly focused on keeping Mulder out of trouble, by getting him to the OPR hearing.

Mulder, however, remains pretty indifferent about it. He listens to her, but he’s not really all that concerned. He feels he is so close to catching a glimpse of something here, that he is willing to sacrifice even the X-Files to stick around and follow it through.

But ultimately what he’s doing here is incredibly reckless because he hasn’t actually seen anything. I mean, let’s go back and review. All he’s seen is a mangled crash site which could have been anything - let’s be honest - and some emergency services personnel with reported radiation burns. What it comes down to, is that he’s risking this mainly on the word of Deep Throat.

He needs Scully to remind him of what he needs to do – to think of the bigger picture. But poor Scully is just ignored – again. She’s trying really hard to save his ass, but seems intent on going down in flames.

Ah I do love a good walk and talk though. This is how I like my baby agents. Walking and talking and arguing and Mulder being a little bitch, and Scully exasperatedly trying and failing to get Mulder to see sense. Ah good times!

It’s at this moment, Colonel Henderson arrives with several of his men suffering from more radiation burns. GASP! Mulder tries to reason with Henderson about hunting the alien down, but is thrown out of the hospital, while Scully - she’s a medical doctor don’tcha know - is asked to stick around and help treat the soldiers.

Mulder decides to return to his motel to look for Max - what an irony, the only one with the means to help him continue his search is the UFO wacko.

But Mulder arrives to find Max having an epileptic seizure.

And Mulder is a pretty sweet guy really, right? Taking care of Max. He’s pretty caring when he wants to be.

Holding him through his seizure...

...getting him a glass of water... even if Max looks terrified of glasses of water...

...and tucking him into bed.

Naww… Mulder’s paternal instincts on display here.

Oh...

Oh God.

I need a minute.

Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

So after playing daddy to Max, Mulder notices that Max has a scar behind his ear. A rather grim looking scar, too. Eugh.

Mulder has seen this before... in an X-File of course, because everything is in an X-File.

I have bad thoughts looking at those pianist fingers. Seriously. No more fanfic for me.

Mulder has clearly had these documents faxed over to him, but who exactly did that? Who would he trust at the FBI to go through his files, not to mention the fact he’s currently up for disciplinary action right now, so who would OK these documents being sent?

Meh.

Who cares, we have got some hot glasses!Mulder action for you. KAPOW!

SHAZAM!

Mmm, yes. Ring Ring... It’s OPR here! We’ve decided to drop all disciplinary action, Mulder. Just be sure to wear those glasses from time to time and all is forgiven. HNNNNGGG.... Ahem.

Scully arrives back from her voluntary stint at the hospital - I hope she got paid for that. And she’s exhausted and dejected. Mulder has his theories, but wants to know what Scully’s thoughts are.

Nice one. Excellent theory there, Scully. Well thought out; good reasoning.

I kid. I kid.

I like this conversation, because for Mulder’s part, he’s showing that he values and respects her opinion, even when she hasn’t got one ha. Even though Mulder is used to her going against him, he’s willing to hear it - he’s willing to be challenged, and that’s why their dynamic works for him, because he doesn’t take her stance personally. He understands and values where she’s coming from, even when he doesn’t agree.

And the same goes for her, it’s why their dynamic works between them and them alone - because Scully listens to Mulder when most sane people wouldn’t, lets be honest.

But ever the guardian angel, Scully continues to remind Mulder to keep his eye on the ball.

His trust in her is building, because even though he’s aware her primary goal is to get him back to D.C., he trusts her to tell him the truth when he asks her to do him a favour and examine Max’s scar.

In a demonstration of her integrity, and her loyalty to Mulder, when Scully asks...

and Mulder responds by being a fucking tease...

Scully agrees to examine Max, not based on any claim Max is making - Mulder points out that it’s not Max who thinks he’s an abductee.

She agrees to examine Max against her better judgement and only because Mulder asks her to.

Nothing more than that. Which is a pretty big deal. “I do it all for you, Mulder.”

Unfortunately when they go to find Max, he’s missing and they overhear on his radio scanner that someone from Colonel Henderson’s patrol has spotted someone trespassing where they shouldn’t be.

Mulder and Scully both realise this must be Max.

Scully realises first what this means though, that Mulder isn’t going to be catching that flight to D.C.

The frustrated look on her face is the look of someone who knows exactly what’s about to happen... she knows this man well enough by now. He’s not going to do anything he doesn’t want to do - but she will still try to fight him on it. She isn’t going to give up that easily.

Mulder, on the other hand, looks at her with a face that says “I wholeheartedly concur Scully, lets go save Max!”

Wait, what?!

There’s a hint of desperation in Scully’s voice, she really is trying so hard to keep him out of trouble and protect their work - protect him.

He literally ignores every word she says though, and continues to obsessively pursue this lead. I honestly think the only reason he stops and engages Scully, is because he can’t find the damn car keys. I think if he had the keys and she didn’t get in the car, he would have just took off without her, because we all know he’s very capable of that.

But because he knows she has the keys, he takes a moment to explain his thinking.

Mulder’s theory is basically that Max wasn’t chasing the UFO, that it was in fact the other way around. The UFO was there for Max.

I don’t think Scully believes Max is being abducted by aliens - we know she doesn’t believe in that; but what she does know is that she cannot stop Mulder when he’s like this; he’s going with or without her. She knows trying to get through to him will only push him away, so she gives up trying to fight back.

She really should have just clobbered him with one of their FBI issue torches and shipped the stupid fucker back to D.C. in a suitcase.

As it stands, her only course of action is to go with him - to try and stop him doing something he might later regret. So reluctantly, she hands over the keys.

This is a dynamic that plays out again and again from this point onward. Mulder bullheadedly wanting to plough on ahead regardless of the consequences to himself (and frankly to Scully too sometimes) and she trying desperately to pull him back, only to end up being swept along for the ride in the end.

This dynamic is usually balanced out by then Scully serving some pivotal role in being there – usually saving Mulder’s life.

But oddly, not this time.

They find Max who is babbling about the alieums coming to get him, but then Mulder bizarrely sends Scully outside.

His confidence in her ability to hold off a shadowy military clean up crew is sweet, but she had no chance.

She’s grabbed immediately and Colonel Henderson completely ignores all of her protests.

In the end, Scully being there this time served no purpose at all.

But then again, Mulder being there served no purpose either. He wasn’t able to stop Max being abducted and he gets flung across the warehouse by the invisible alien for his trouble.

Mulder is lucky that this alien knows he’s one of the the main characters of this show and didn’t decide to irradiate him to death like every other human being it had encountered thus far.

When Mulder gets up, Max is being abducted, and Mulder cannot do anything to stop it.

The next thing we know, Max is gone and Mulder is left with nothing but his NICAP cap.

I got abducted by alieums and all I got was this lousy cap.

The next scene is of Mulder and Scully finally at the OPR hearing. Somehow Scully managed to get him there on time, it seems. This scene ultimately foreshadows what occurs at the end of season 1 which is the closure of the X-Files.

By rights, it should have happened here – it’s almost like Mulder knew someone would swoop in to save his ass, because he really didn’t give two shits about getting back in time.

We see at the very end of the episode that Section Chief McGrath is on the Syndicate books, and has been working to get rid of of Mulder.

But is saved by Deep Throat.

However, his motives are suddenly cast in shadow. Is Deep Throat on Mulder’s side or not?

What it does reveal is that, without Deep Throat, Mulder and Scully were doomed before they even stepped foot in the OPR hearing.

Scully, again, being the bastion of loyalty and integrity that she is, tries to defend Mulder until the very last. Even when she’s denied permission to make a statement on Mulder’s behalf she does it anyway. Or at least tries to.

She really doesn’t want their work together to end. That’s my greatest take away from this episode. That Scully wants to be out there with Mulder - and she’s willing to fight for it. If she didn’t, then she could have just let this play out, but she fights and fights - until someone shuts her down - to stay by Mulder’s side and continue with him on the X-Files.

You know what I said about Mulder’s charm earlier? He turns it on for Scully, and he’s trying to be charming here - but it’s not working.

When Scully wishes Mulder luck, he banters about how he’s surprised he lasted this long.

This is probably the most touching scene between the two of them in the whole episode, because for the first time, Mulder acknowledges Scully’s feelings when he tells her not to worry. He can see she’s feeling defeated and is concerned for him.

What I think he fails to realise is that she’s not just worried about him for his sake. She doesn’t want to stop working with him too.

The look of utter defeat on her face when she thinks it’s over - it’s almost like she can’t look him in the eye because she thinks she’s failed him in there.

He keeps putting on the brave face though. Trying not to worry her. He looks so sickeningly vulnerable hobbling away on those crutches. And this quip..

Ugh it just hits you in the heart, doesn’t it?!

Maybe he should have been fired here, then he could have asked her on a date because they’re not partners anymore and he’s out of the FBI. Then they might have got married and had babies and AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

No, brain. Stop.

Being serious now... because as disarmingly charming as Mulder is being, isn’t this all a little bit too casual for a man who is about to lose everything?

It’s actually in moments like these that we see how easily Mulder becomes his most reckless and self-destructive. He wants to believe so badly, that all else falls to the wayside when someone dangles a tantalising piece of the whole in front of him. His singular obsessive nature is so easily turned against him in this way.

Which is why he needs Scully to look out for him.

Mulder thinks he’s grasped something huge here, but we know that it’s merely a fragment of the whole, and those greater truths he will discover in the next 9 years would have been utterly lost to him if he didn’t have Scully there to keep him on the right path - keep him grounded.

He seems to have all but given up hope of continuing on the X-Files in this scene. Perhaps that was the reason for his casual attitude all along - he knew they would use this to get rid of him no matter what he did.

Perhaps he’s about ready to jump full blown into Max’s lifestyle – forget procedure and the FBI – that’s all just getting in the way.

Mulder gives an incredible speech here which seems to point to that conclusion, in a way. That the truth will out, regardless of the machinations of the FBI, whomever they serve and whether or not they fire him. He will keep pursuing the truth.

Man, what a mic drop moment.

But if he had been sacked here, Scully would have been reassigned and he would have gone right down the rabbit hole without her. See season 2.

Again, it’s incredibly fortuitous for Mulder that he met Scully. She really did save him from a life of ridicule and obscurity, a life in his season 1 youth he might have embraced in some petulant act of defiance against the world. But that ultimately only he would have suffered from... and Scully.

Mulder was, and always has been, walking a very fine line between obscurity and legitimacy… and while Mulder is indeed a brilliant man with an incredible mind – a beautiful mind as Scully would later describe it in The Sixth Extinction – he is constantly under attack, whether that be from his traumatic past, or the forces within and without the FBI that seek to turn him on himself or on those around him.

In short, he could have very easily fallen off the edge if he had no one to hold him back.

Scully truly is his guardian angel.

Next up... 1x11 - Eve.

#thexfiles #x files #txf gifs #txf meta #txf analysis #x files msr analysis series #dana scully #fox mulder #gillian anderson #david duchovny #chris carter #txf 1x10 #fallen angel #msr

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