#WE COULD HAVE HAD IT AAAAAAAALLLLLL

[em-exceeds-change-zearu]

I’ve mentioned this a few times on plurk, but I personally actually like the 3rd season of 5D’s despite it’s weird turn into slice-of-life absurdity while the writers tried to figure their way around the plot rewrites mandated after executive meddling crashed down on them. Scenes like this crop up every now and then during the season which more or less imply that despite Neo Domino City and Satellite reuniting, things aren’t hunky-dory and wonderful like your generic shonen anime would do when rejoining two divided factions. No, there’s still dissent and the city is still not quite reunited despite whatever spiel they want to put about the WRGP being the celebration of the reunited city and the Daedalus Bridge being the symbol of that and etc etc etc. We see that with all these background details-from the three boys’ expenses almost constantly being in the red, to that one episode centered about a young man’s family being hounded by sleazy debt collectors despite them finally being Neo Domino’s citizens, and so on. The earlier filler episodes even have small bits that are intended to drop more plot hooks-Yusei and co go to get an old man out of the reconstruction sites in Satellite, they meet with Saiga at Martha’s and find out about the mysterious falling tablets; Yusei goes to settle issues at Duel Academia, Sly the student who has an unnatural interest in Stardust Dragon is introduced. Some plot hooks are used, some aren’t, but the fact of the matter is that there was some attempt to seed in plot through all the filler works. 

That being said, I feel like Season 3 would have been stronger if it was instead set during the 6 month timeskip between the Dark Signer arc and when actual! season 3 begins. Think about it. You have a grungy Satellite that crawled up to become the new King of Riding Duels under dubious circumstances (you can’t tell me people wouldn’t have questioned the validity of a duel that literally happened in a flash of light to everyone else), the former King who was recently revealed to be from Satellite and therefore a fraud, a completely markered up criminal, the Black Rose Witch, and a pair of twins who have largely been isolated from the outside world due to Ruka’s spiritual shenanigans. All of them don’t fit into Neo Domino’s social world at all, all of them are now trying to find their own place to fit in after being brought together by the Signer War, all they have at this point is each other. 

Give me Jack fighting for his reputation and his new identity, insisting on carving his own way to be the King while making himself open to the people-all of the people from Satellite and Neo Domino alike, the kind of King Carly wanted him to be. There's resistance of course-he's lost fans, there are people insisting he's a fraud, there are others who hate this new persona of Jack's because he is different and challenges their standards and flawed and human instead of an ideal and a figurehead, but he soldiers on, unrelenting. Give me Aki still struggling with the stigmas that being the Black Rose Witch put on her, trying to fit into a normal life as a senator’s daughter and not quite adjusting because whatever her parents feel now, that doesn’t change the fact that she spent her formative years emotionally and physically apart from them, that doesn’t change that the place she feels validated and loved was at the Arcadia Movement (and now, with her fellow Signers), and it doesn’t change that she sees hostility no matter where she goes. I think it was @stierhai that mentioned this idea of Aki taking over what was left of the Arcadia Movement, or at least working with all the psychics that were displaced by the movement’s collapse, some having been taken in under Security’s care and others roaming free, working with the internal politics and wresting them away from Divine’s influence and making it into what it should have been, a haven for psychics to learn their craft without being stigmatized (and making it her own “place” as a result). Give me the twins deciding to go back to school and make friends their own age, but finding it difficult due to their own reputation during the Fortune Cup and Ruka’s still admittedly weak physical ability, never mind that they’re also friends with the other Signers. Give me Crow reluctantly having to give his kids up to Martha-because with the Daedalus Bridge being built and the B.A.D. area being renovated, he just doesn’t have a place to live anymore and can’t get by thieving like he used to, struggling to make any kind of income because he’s got markers up the wazoo despite all his charges being cleared, having to deal with more stigma than his other friends (because at least Jack has two years of being beloved as the King and a fresh clean face to get by, and Yusei has the current title as King to deflect some hatred) to the point that it’s a wonder he’s able to hold down any job at all until he flat out decides to make his own business with nothing but his D-Wheel and a jacket with a hand-drawn logo on it from his kids.

Give me Yusei, who, despite being the protagonist of the series, actually steps back this arc and becomes more of a background character, a quiet thread of support that keeps all these oddball misfits together. Yusei, who by default is the only thing all the other Signers have in common, bringing them together until they end up as their own interconnected network. Jack and Aki, being used by Iliaster and Arcadia respectively, hunting down evidence of those opposing factions and their ideals and their plans, working together in public to tear down the conspiracies and dealings that built Neo Domino into the faux-utopia it became, with Yusei a quiet moderating force between their easily inflamed personalities. Aki and the twins bonding more as they try to attend the academia together, with Aki trying to help smooth things along for Ruka so she at least doesn’t have the same rocky environment in school that she did in her youth and Rua and Ruka being a supporting, healing place for her to go when school becomes too much (and please, please, let Aki take down Heitmann, she has more investment in this matter than Yusei does and it can help her reputation in the school as well). Crow being the fun big brother for the twins (Yusei is nice, but steady and a little distant, Jack admittedly bonds with Rua and sort of takes him on as an apprentice but he’s still raw and open and figuring out this New King stuff and can be hard to tolerate in large doses, and Aki is a good big sis but also has her own issues) and the twins being a rooting force for Crow-while they clearly don’t need to be taken of the same way his own kids were, they’re also lacking the care and doting affection of a parent that his own kids have, so he’ll take care of them in his own weird big brother way. Yusei, who sits back and helps to facilitate all this happening, because now he knows better than to just shoulder all their burdens himself, knows that it’s better to support and be supported, and while he still has his own doubts and fears about the city’s future and his place in it, he knows with them he can find an answer some day. 

Give me the results of this when they go into the WRGP together-still a team that’s not quite in harmony yet, but they’re trying. They lose against Team Unicorn the first round-because even though Yusei tries his damned best, he can’t make up for the mistakes they made and the quick eliminations of Jack and Aki that happened because of it. From this they learn what is needed-how to combine their unique abilites, and when a rematch happens (because this time Team Catastrophe’s failure does not set off Placido’s robo-army just yet, there’s still a chance that the Unicorn-5D’s rematch could result in the Signer’s elimination), it takes full advantage of the fact that the WRGP takes place all over the Daedalus Bridge’s duel lanes, and the fact that it happens with no autopilot. 

The rematch happens-and to Team Unicorn’s surprise, Aki is the first wheeler out. She deserves her chance to show her real skills after falling so quickly to Andre, where all she was able to do was pass on Stardust Dragon. A free wheeling chase across the Daimon Area happens-the alleys she knows better than anyone else, the alleys she prowled as the Black Rose Witch, the alleys that once cracked and split open at her call now neatly paved and pristine. Even as she calls out her plants and they bare their fangs, not a single brick is broken out of place, not a single street is damaged, because instead of rampaging and letting out all her sorrow she is determined to follow her new purpose now and show just what a Psychic Duelist can do other than spread fear. She evades all of Andre’s attempts to block her attacks, triumphant. 

The Second Wheeler? Crow, who takes off across the Daedalus Bridge’s roads with glee at being able to freely cross the divide between Satellite and Neo Domino, who leaps from Duel Lane to Duel Lane with the wings of the BlackBird, and who can easily power through Breo’s deck destruction with a surefire kill thanks to all the cards that got sent to the graveyard (because if there’s a master of someone using things discarded like trash, it’s someone from the deepest depths of Satellite). Crow, who can finally enter a tournament like the WRGP and show everyone from Neo Domino just what he’s made of, and finally, finally get a reputation beyond the few people who willingly take his house calls, and create his first stepping stone to bigger and greater things. 

The Last Wheeler is not Yusei, but Jack, who leads Jean on a drive all around the newly reconstructed Satellite, his knowledge of just where every building is and where reconstruction is still going giving him the edge when it comes to dealing with no autopilot. Jack showboating like usual-driving up buildings, turning backwards, but all being done just to show off how well he knows Satellite, how much of his skills are real without using autopilot, and just how much growing up there has shaped his dueling and who he is today. (Because who knows the deepest depths of Satellite better than the duel gang who took over it all, who roamed every inch of turf and claimed it as theirs, who powered through every single adversary in their path because their strength was absolute!) 

Team 5D’s wins, and not because Yusei was the savior who dragged them all to victory, but instead because they bonded together into something stronger, something who could effortlessly tear apart a team who bested them when they were fragmented and still not quite together, because they made the field into something that demonstrated their own strengths, their weaknesses, their pasts, and their dreams for the future. 

just. god. give me a season 3 like that. pls. god. if only we could have had this.

[chrisjake-cp]

History 3 Trapped Filming Diary (full English translation) - Days 61-66 (final part)

Masterpost here.

I don’t own the book so I can’t post my scans of the pictures that came with it. So I posted some other pictures of the scenes that were being filmed. These pics belong to LINE TV or Choco Media, or I’ve taken screenshots.

Read days 61-66 (final day) under the cut. 

Day 61

In the final days before the end of shooting, we were finally scheduled to film in Zhaozi’s house. 

Zhaozi’s house basically only exists to let him and Jack be able to court each other. Every scene is just sweet and unbearably cute. In the drama, Zhaozi’s house is one that his late grandmother had left him. Mounted on the wall was a small framed picture of an older lady, and the protagonist of this picture was really Tingxuan’s [Kenny’s] living (maternal) grandma. His grandmother is already over 90 years old but she keeps in very strong health and can walk around in the park without having to use crutches. Kenny has a good relationship with his grandmother. When he took this photo out and introduced her to us, his eyes were full of happiness that we didn’t see at other times.⁕ 

An apron-wearing Jack is like the embodiment of a handsome chef coming to your house. Even if what he prepares are only super simple instant noodles, he could flirt with Zhaozi (and the hearts of many girls). 

I don’t know if Zhaozi’s grandma, looking on from the picture frame, would be satisfied with this young idol wearing her apron though. 

⁕ Kenny, why so cute? 😭

Day 62

That’s right. Today was also a whole day of kissing, hugging and rolling on the bed (I’m flustered) in Zhaozi’s house. The Sanzhi Little White House B&B has featured as the location for many famous commercials and idol dramas. The inside of the house feels warm and sweet, which is why it was selected as this drama’s setting for Zhaozi’s house. 

Zhaozi’s room is located on the second floor. Young people have good physical strength, because they had to kiss from the first floor all the way up to the second floor (if I’m not careful almost all of today’s pictures will be kissing pictures, hahahahaha), then in the room on the second floor they were rolling around in the bed and then back to the first floor to roll on the table. 

When you look at the pictures of the table scene, maybe it was cut to a short moment in the show, but the positions and the movements for this scene were rather complicated.  The two needed to first practice the chemistry between their positions and the camera, and many different camera angles as well as bloopers happened during filming. The two of them lingered at the table half the night, their rolling around started from dinner and went on until they had a midnight snack. We really can’t but admire the two’s good core strength. 

Day 63

Actually, the fighting scenes in the car and after they get out of the car after Tang Yi and Shaofei are being seized were filmed on different days. Therefore, what was filmed today was after Shaofei pulled the handbrake (right, I use this as the dividing point [between the scenes]) and the two of them rushed up the mountain. The weather that day was really cold, so it was also a test for the crew to go shooting in the mountains. 

That same day we also shot the plotline of how Shaofei fantasizes about how to get off the mountain. The crew used branches to make a scarecrow for Tang Yi and Shaofei to hang their clothes on. But during the filming process the art team made a total of three scarecrows. When asked about it, it was not because they wanted to have a back-up prop, but because one of them was snatched away by a dog from the mountains to use as a toy.

The art crew went: “Doggie, you bastard, come back here” (in Shaofei’s elevator voice)⁕ 

⁕  When Shaofei was cuffed to the handrail and Tang Yi stepped out of the elevator, Shaofei said almost the same thing to Tang Yi. (”Tang Yi, you bastard, get back here.”)

Day 64

It’s two days before the end of shooting, and I already can’t think anymore about how many times these two have kissed. And today was another whole day of kissing. I’m not exaggerating. Early in the morning we filmed that Shaofei grabbed Tang Yi’s hands when they got to the courthouse. When Director Qingrong arranged the scene, she figured that the plot allowed for them to kiss again, so a kissing scene was added on the spot. 

In the afternoon we switched sets and went to the balcony at the hospital. On the balcony Shaofei confessed his feelings and also stealthily kissed [Tang Yi]. How could someone confess like that and kiss straight after? Our boss Tang hadn’t even responded [to the confession] yet! Counting on my fingers, one camera angle takes 8 takes on average, and for one scene we would approximately change angles four or five times. So for all the scenes from morning until in the afternoon, they at least kissed 70 times, and that’s only today. ⁕ 

⁕ Listen, I need to see aaaaaaaallllll the taaaaaaaaakes.   

Day 65

Tang Yi and Shaofei have finished filming! 

They spent 68 days of wind, sun and rain together, they went through being chased by men in black and hit by bullets, together they spent [a night] in an abandoned cabin on fire, the two went from being strangers at the acting and martial arts classes to gradually developing a deep connection with each other and hand in hand, they overcame all kinds of difficulties. 

Different from the other “HIStory” series we have made before, <Trapped> was the first story to break free of having a school campus as its setting. The plot was much more complicated and the actors were faced with more and bigger challenges. Regardless of whether it were psychological challenges concerning their acting, or psychical challenges of being involved in numerous fights and constantly sustaining injuries, it was all very tough on them. The last day of filming, with good weather, was also spent in a fight. They fought 8 hours straight, from 9am in the morning until the sun set in the mountains, which was a major test of physical strength. The sun shone brightly, there were high temperatures and the rays of the sun dazzled the eyes. Tang Yi fought bravely in a suit and leather shoes, and Shaofei’s left eye was hit during the fighting process. He immediately returned to a state of readiness for war after a quick break to apply some ice to it. Thank you, all actors, for your dedication and the beauty of each frame that you presented, and thank you to the crew members behind the scenes for their hard work. You can leave the rest up to us now. 

Boss Tang was finished with shooting a little earlier than Shaofei, because in the evening, Unit 3 continued their scenes in the restaurant. Unexpectedly a group of people arrived earlier at the restaurant and waited for our arrival. It turned out to be our senior colleagues from <Crossing The Line>, Yanze (Zach Lu) and Menglin (Nick Yang) who were visiting the set. When they saw their younger ‘brothers’ working hard to film this show, and them being riddled with scars from filming, the original mood of being there to supervise softened. Senior Zach patted junior Jake on the shoulder, saying, “Seeing you taking this so seriously, I can pass the baton to you guys with an assured mind.”

Day 66

On the last day of shooting, the crew was divided into two groups to carry out the work. One group was responsible for returning to the international conference office and for going up the mountains to shoot some more final material to fill up some gaps; the other group in turn stayed behind at Zhaozi’s house to shoot scenes for the final episode, namely the fight and bed scenes after Jack took Zhaozi home on his motorbike (or should I say ‘transported’ home?). The evening’s bed scene called for Jack to do a lot of push-ups. Each time after “Action” was yelled, Jack huffed out sounds like “Ah” and “Huh” while doing his push-ups, which rendered the crew at the scene unable to stop laughing. After shooting the ‘official’ scenes, to increase the sound effects from under the covers, the two actors were asked specifically to use the blanket to create some more needed sounds for the show. After confirming that the sounds were okay, Director Qingrong yelled “We can pack up! <Trapped> has finally finished shooting.” Because there were other houses in the neighbourhood of Jack’s house and it was night time, everyone cheered a little bit but immediately said “shhhhhh”, reminding each other to be quiet. 

To be frank, practicing how to say goodbye is definitely not a simple thing. When you continue doing the same thing for 21 days, it would slowly become a habit. But with <Trapped>, from when shooting started until we finished filming, we went through 66 work days together. We were used to getting along with everyone, we were used to getting up early and eating breakfast together, or eating a snack in the middle of the night. Meeting with this whole team every day had become a kind of habit. In these 66 days, we experienced Yilan in 10 degrees and 30 degrees, we climbed mountains together and jumped into swimming pools together, we may have accidentally slipped on the mountain and gotten injured, we were shot at by airsoft guns (BB guns), and the thick smoke in the abandoned cabin made our nostrils turn black. All of that will become memories now. Finishing shooting [a show] is like the feeling of attending a graduation ceremony when you are a kid: you look forward to it, but the closer to the day it gets, the more you feel like you don’t want it to end. We hope that everyone who reads this diary will feel the warmth brough by the crew of <Trapped> and we also hope that these memories that left a deep impression, will forever remain in everyone’s hearts.

[altermun]

The only reason I know it’s not Monday is my boyfriend isn’t here.

>.O

It absolutely feels like a Monday. I have a quizxam (because I don’t know if he’s calling it a damn quiz or an exam) in stats this morning, and I have no idea what - OH right, I have a take-home exam due for the other class by Saturday night.

I also have my three-different-schools-of-thought-on-psychopathic-personality paper due on the 27th (Either I’ll surprise myself and make this deadline like a BAMF, or I’m gonna need until like the 10th to get it done). I have to have my “Humanizing Batterers” poster in my hands to take with me on the 29th. My four-different-papers-in-one paper is due on the 30th, when I will be in Pittsburgh. Also on the 30th I have an exam for the same class as the four-papers-in-one paper. On the 31st I give my poster spiel to people as they walk by and hope I catch peoples’ attention with it. On the 3rd (which is the Monday I get back from Pittsburgh) I have a paper due about my experience doing community outreach (which I may or may not have actually done... -cough-). I’m not sure how long that’s supposed to be, but I imagine this professor will at least be okay with me turning it in a bit late. On the 3rd I’m pretty sure I also have an exam in my psychopathology class... and aaaaaaaallllll of that is supposed to happen in the next 11 days. Including writing two papers and designing a poster (which I’m sure will be overnight-mailed again)...

><

This means I might have to miss my (presumably) future little sister’s science olympiad this weekend. OR I take my computer, lug it along, and do what work I can. Or I just take ONE day to be human and forget about the work. I love her and I love that she’s into the STEM fields as well as art and music. Like, she could EASILY be my biological little sister.

Which reminds me. The boyfriend and I actually had the talk about name-changing last weekend. It came up when I talked about telling my dad that he had to stay alive long enough for me to make stupid jokes about people not being able to tell the two of us apart because we’d both be doctors in very similar fields (but with different credentials). My boyfriend said, “You might be a different doctor by then,” just sort of in passing. I said, “What if I wanna keep my last name?” And he just looked at me. I snorted because I couldn’t keep the “innocent, wide-eyed, blinking” look going for that long, and admitted that I had always planned to change my last name. Because while I’m all for keeping the family name going, there are SOME old fashioned traditions I don’t mind so much. He made a comment about hyphenating, and then we tried it and it was just... like... no. I never wanted to do that anyway. I’d be happy to be one of their family, and mine will happily take him in. And they’ll love his little sister.

The one thing I’m REALLY happy about is that neither set of parents is pushing for grandchildren, or poking us, like “when’re you getting engaged? When are you getting married? Huh? Huh?” I finally had one friend straight up ask me “So when are you gonna marry this guy? He’s perfect for you!” and I did not know what to do. I just said we were taking things slowly - and we are. He KNOWS I don’t need a wedding to plan on top of everything else. ***Skip if avoiding marriage/wedding babble*** Besides - his parents AND mind would want some sort of huge ceremony AND celebration. But luckily they don’t get to make that decision unless they’re paying for everything, and neither family has the capacity for that. The actual marriage ceremony might be very small, once we get to figuring that out. We agree, at least, that there should be an awesome reception, but... I dunno. Neither of us want the big ceremonial thing. I’d be so, so happy to have family, bridesmaids/groomsmen, and like five friends from each side somewhere pretty. The reception would be the celebration and the fun part anyway, and more people could actually enjoy that, us included. We have not had the bachelor/bachelorette party discussion(s) yet. I’m indifferent. Lol.

SO SORRY ABOUT THE BABBLE. 

Kind of.

I dunno. It makes me happy. He makes me happy. ALSO, he cleaned like the entire apartment last weekend. Okay it was just the living room, but the amount of cleaning he did in a couple hours would’ve taken me three days. And he did it of his own accord, out of the blue, and even had a talk with me about how he’s happy to be able to help me, and how cleaning this place makes it feel more like home to him - which is the actual next step. Once things calm down at his job (lots of changes taking place), and he’s ready, we’re moving him in here for real. But the fact that he feels at home here means everything to me. 

Ugh. I have to get ready to go, like, 12 minutes ago - 13 - and I do not want. Yeeeeey stats quizxam...

[princesspadme]

let's talk about how finn is mentioned every .2 seconds but wells gets mentioned once and his own father doesn't even remember him like ok whatever no I'm not bitter at all lol

[boxingcleverrr]

Oops-you needed words, I'm sorry! Figrid: anything to do with their wedding day (mix of traditions, etc.) Or Bethyl: they find some DVDs and s working TV: what will they watch? Thanks! <3

(I will get to both!)

.

.

"No WAY," She whispers, hitting the button on the small contraption. Having finished covering all the small windows in the basement game room of the small house in the small suburb, Daryl turns, offering a grunt. Beth grins, holding up the laptop-sized, portable dvd player.

 ”Battery’s still charged, by some miracle.” She notes giddily, “…Let’s watch somethin’!”

 ”….S’a surreal notion,” He blinks, trying to wrap his head around the idea after all these years. Beth is already shuffling over to the cabinet nearby, rummaging. “…An’ who has every season a’Diagnonis Murder?”

 ”Old people,” Beth replies, flatly. Which makes sense, half the furniture upstairs had plastic on it. Still, gran and gramps had obviously had grandkids, judging by the video games and disney movies. And Tarantino, apparently. “Well, how ‘bout this one?” She holds up Pulp Fiction, “Never did get to see it.”

 ”Good movie…S’kinda violent, though.” Daryl appreciates the irony about a second after the the words leave his mouth. Beth just snorts.

 ”I THINK I can handle it,” She grins, shuffling back across the shag carpet to their little camp in front of the sagging couch. Cans, blankets, lantern, and that one tiny piece of working electronics.

 ”Still.” He grumbles, as she pops in the movie and settles in next to him on the floor, perhaps a bit closer than usual, “Girl like you shouldn’t be likin’ movies with gimps in ‘em.”

 ”Girl like me shouldn’t be washin’ zombie brains outta her hair at night, but here we are, Daryl,” She leans sideways, and he grins, shaking his head as an alien, once-forgotten glow of a DVD menu bathes her face. Hesitating for only a second, he slips an arm across her shoulders.

"And a five-dollar shake…" He murmurs.

.

[captain-britain]

So what I'm getting out of Farscape is that John is basically Hal Jordan. *rolling in the deep plays quietly in the background*