#i'm getting flashbacks to spider-verse

[voidpumpkin]

seeing analyses of nimona is fun because they have really good insights and are analysing every inch of this movie but in virtually all of them there is a gaping hole where the very obvious messages and metaphors in regards to race and racism in this film lay.

Like tell me, do you believe the story of a brown man, brought in by a black woman in an attempt to fix the systemic issues in a system where ancestry is valued over merit, is framed for the murder of said black woman by a white woman who is fueled by paranoia that a black woman’s efforts might upend the system, the supposed threat this brown man and of dangers that don’t exist and a desparation to fulfill the legacy of a white woman who is a literal metaphor for the way bigotry is taught (in particular homophobia/transphobia). And thus the brown man is villanised for something he didn't do and is forced to find support and companionship in another victim of the system, with this story ending with the white woman willing to destroy everything than let the brown gay man and a trans girl change the system/her mind, has absolutely no racial implications or messages surrounding race.

[midnight1nk]

So, the Silence of the Cats movie....

[spoilers below cut]

OMGOMGOMG IT'S TIME!

Y'know I have to put this on the big screen, full HD quality. I got my ramen and bingo cards, I'm SO ready!

3... 2... 1... happy new year oh wait LET'S GOOOO

[the following is my live reaction:]

frame one and I'm already hyped

OH OH are we starting off like we did in the trailer?

it's giving across the spider-verse vibes, ifykyk

OH GOD THAT'S EVEN WORSE. she got hit by a semitruck AND a car?! gurl are you ok?

and she's limping a bit. it was for a second but it counts!

the character of the hour....

*points at screen* THERE HE IS

I'm SO ready to punch his face right about now

ooh the animation tho okay Team

"That's probably not the biggest problem on their plate right now!" WPNZ, what did you do? where are the kids?

bc i swear i'll—

....OH HELL NAH I AIN'T TRUSTING THIS

WHY IS THE PIZZA BLUE?!

oh god did the Team see what I wrote?

YEAH YEAH kids, this is practically a hostage situation so PLEASE for your mom's (and my) sake you get outta here 😨

IKIK but kids, pleaseeeee

WPNZ, YOU ARE NOT PART OF THIS CONVERSATION WE'LL GET A CHANCE TO "TALK" (read: fight)

"Points for effort right?" oh you did NOT just say that to her AND to me. this isn't a "game", it's a family

ARE YOU FUCKIN KIDDING ME?! nopenopenope

kids, this is for your safety i promise

Zach omg, I know you're upset but geez

YOU *angry microwave noises*

THANK YOU KAREN, I was about say KICK HIS ASS

for a guy like WPNZ, Karen is pretty good handling him on her own. strong woman/cat, we love to see it

"Cmon! You know that "contract" jobs paid in DROVES-" AAAAA I'm gonna fall off my chair already

HITMAN INC. MENTION

seriously why is he here?!?!?! i wanna rip someone's head off

WHAT?! KATANA?! as in the sword?

OH that makes so much sense. WPNZ, Katana. Karen was a stray after all, she probably didn't give herself a name. or maybe Katana was just the codename given to her by the corporation and she used to refer to herself as that.

YEAH don't deadname her!

*head in hands* no one's letting her move on :(

"there it is, that glare." ew ew ew i HATE that. I'd rather have the fight.

i hope the kids aren't hearing this—

GODDAMMIT NOOO

yes kids, just give a moment to sort out this beef we have, ok?

don't. you. dare.

*slams desk* YOU MF

that's a VERY good question, Zach (please flashback storytime please)

YESSS

oh we're just going to sit on the floor, ok?

it was obvious that partners would grow attached to one other. A bond like this relies on blind trust, knowing that the other would do the job. And eventually, caring for each other's safety, for a job with high risks.

but ofc this turned out terrible for them and Karen did the right choice taking care of her kids without him, not getting her hopes up that he'll be back

And the team pulled off a spyxfamily moment 😌↕️

*angry microwave noises*

i LOATHE the kind of parents who think that financial support is all the kids need

literally him 10 minutes ago: "ahh ahh ahh, language. Wouldn't want the little ones hearing would we?"

oh, so when YOU say it, we're not supposed to judge?

fuckin hypocrite

ALL 👏 KIDS 👏 NEED 👏 SAFETY 👏

wait... was that supposed to be a frozen pizza? so all this "slaving away making dinner" was all for frozen pizza. well I was right about it being the case in my trailer analysis.

...I don't like how his face changed

NOPE *snap fingers* get tf out of here. this is part of a larger con, he's trying to make her feel guilty

huh, it looks like a day has passed (please tell me 4's recovering rn)

good on her getting security devices after what happened

SWAG! you're actually getting a scene and not just an appearance, yay 🎉

hey. hey swag. can you do something for me? could you uh arrest someone for me :) why? well he's a threat

WHY ARE YOU conveniently HERE?

ok WPNZ, you were stalking before but now you're just doing it to piss me off

not even government-level weapons could go against him ah fuck

"becoming weapons"? NOPE NOPE we're outta here

NO MEANS NO.

ew ew ew don't you ever say that, WPNZ

*points at screen* hey look, fnaf! (let's not think about the door, ok? ok)

aw katie 😭

this is going to come back somehow. i can feel it.

just Karen being a cool mom

"Kataanaaaaa :D" PISS. OFF. :)

that's right, let's not provoke him with whatever he's planning

it's not just an arcade game smh

*more angry microwave noises*

YEAH WPNZ what would you know about parenting? huh?

HHHHHH i hate that he makes a good point but I'm going to still keep reminding myself that he has bigger plans in mind

compromise is a big thing in parenting, especially when dealing with younger kids 😌↕️ (this is what KAREN did, not wpnz)

*ahem* uh you mean, HER kid

team istg PLEASE don't redeem him

this is a ploy this is a ploy

EXACTLY some things CAN'T BE FORGIVEN

YEP BYE

NOOOOOOO

ough her kids are her world.....

"AND NO WEAPONS" ah see, she said no WPNZ so bye creep :)

OH HELL NAH WPNZ, YOU DON'T GET TO PULL A SONIC ADVENTURE POSE. NOT ON MY WATCH.

those rocks are shaking, i don't trust that

WHAT DID I JUST SAY?

GO KAREN, SAVE YOUR KIDS

.... I'm sorry wha?

don't tell me that's bc.... *points at WPNZ* ....is it?

IT'S GENETIC?!

i...just. uh. how do i. i think we need to move on.

NONONONO YOU DON'T GET TO HUG THEM

he's winning them over, nooooo

it can't be like this. team please.

And he's teaching them how to become assassins, godammit

oh Karen, it's because they gained new "superpowers", ofc the kids would be happy about it. it's not on you.

"secret mission"?

THAT'S IT. THIS IS WHERE WE DRAW THE LINE. ABSOULTELY NOT. YOU DID NOT JUST SAY THAT AFTER YOU SAID "I understand that you don't want them to go killing" MF

WE CAN'T TRUST HIM WITH ANYTHING HE SAYS. KAREN, GET HIM

(oh, i didn't expect karen to say "absolutely not" like i did)

ROOTS?! ARE YOU KIDDIN ME

yep, he hasn't changed AT ALL. been telling you that this is just a con somehow

...oh no

....chat i'm this close to snapping.

first off, WPNZ didn't need to steal the "pick your poison" line from me

second, no, don't do this to me team

first with 4 and now. please don't.

I'M ACTUALLY CRYING, CHAT

like I know the movie's not going to end this way. it can't, right?

istg if this is how it ends, you're going to see me on the news

THE SHOWGROUNDS?! OH OH is it happening? what's going on?

4 MY BOYYYYYY 😭😭😭 i'm crying even more now

you're okayyy. i knew you would be but you're okay and that's what matters

AND YOU GOT BANDAGES? y'know what? I'LL TAKE IT

i'm not even mad bc you can justify it as, timeline-wise, it's been a few days after the events of "Enough is Enough" so 4 could've been recovering during that time

↑ yeah I'm going to make a fic about it

and it's SO in-character for him to be walking around while he's recovering

don't think about how the bandages are on (1) covering his logo particularly from his left side, (2) exactly on top of where his lobotomy scar would be, and (3) around his right hard in which was the first limb that broke free of the goo's corruption in IGBP. let's not :) <- I say, y'know like a liar

I'M OUTRIGHT SOBBING RN

4's talk was exactly what Karen needed. Ben lowkey was right, 4 really is the key, to help Karen

And it means so much more, considering how Luke became a content creator and it was Kevin who supported his passion, to be happy. it truly came from the soul of the whole channel, to the Hobo Bros.

this show, man......

AND y'know how I said that 4 to me is basically "that friend who gives a caring and supporting talk while getting a ride home from the airport" kinda vibe. now you see what I mean?

he would really do anything to not lose his friends, even from their own despair

(ok we have to keep going or else I'm going to start crying again)

YEAH KAREN, GO GET YOUR KIDS BACK

yep, WPNZ favors Katie out of her brothers oh no

oh kiddos, it's not a video game :(

WPNZ... they are LITERALLY KIDS. ofc they're going to joke around.

oop, we got some hesitation. please, I hope the kids turn against him

Again. they're kids.

BRUH WHY DID YOU DO THAT?

THEY'RE 👏 KIDSSSS 👏

arcade? this isn't a GAME. They don't wanna do this :((

aw no they're crying. stoooooopppp.

Karen I need you to come in right about now. Karen. KAREN.

LET'S GOOOOO, NEVER MESS WITH A MOM

ZACH'S CRYING? AW NOOOOO 😭😭😭

...WPNZ, I'm going to uno reverse what you said to them: how about you piss off?

HHHHHHHHHH i'm going to snap

yea no, it's not going to happen the same way like last time

i LOVE how different WPNZ and Karen talk to the kids here in taking whose side: WPNZ sees them more as one unit and what could they potentially do if they were stronger, smarter. To meet the standards of a legend. Keeping on referring to them as "weapons" and not kids. For Karen, she kneels down to their level, calls them individually by name, admits her wrongdoings (unlike WPNZ for what happened earlier), and whatever they will or will not be, she will still love them no matter what. They don't have to be legends, just be happy, it's all that matters to her.

and the kids chose their mom 😌↕️ THE POWER OF TRUE FAMILY

oh so you're that type of parent. Karen, get his ass.

I got a feeling who might've animated this fight scene

OMG DID HE JUST DECLAW HER?! 😨 now you gotta go (not die exactly but still)

OH YEAH? AND GUESS WHO THEY CHOSE THE SECOND TIME, WPNZ?

FINALLY SOMEONE SAYS IT! thanks zach

"A." well said, cory. such a beautiful speech right there 💙

it turns out the fight team-up was Karen with her kids all along! well, to be fair, we didn't know the kids's genes are them having weapons for limbs

GO GET HIS ASS THIS IS SO HYPE

"You screwed with the wrong family..." YES YOU DID

now we can curb-stomp him :)

Finally, an actual homemade pizza made by Karen

don't fight for food tho, kiddos

see? compromise 👍

oh. it's not over yet guys. hold on.

*looks at the magenta and cyan lights* .....heterochromia 4?

is the corporation going to come in? perhaps? maybe?

...wha?

NO STOP YOU BETTER NOT

THERE'S ONLY ONE PERSON I KNOW WHO WOULD SAY "DEAR"

NO WAY IT'S HIM AIN'T NO WAY

"A friend." OMG NO WAY I'M WRESTLING WITH MY DECK CHAIR RN STOPPPP

LET'S FUCKIN GOOOOOOOOO

THAT'S HOW YOU BRING HIM BACK AND END A MOVIE

WE ARE SO BACK oh this was fantastic

alright merch time!

KAREN PLUSHIE LOOK AT HER

Luke: "That ending, I wonder what that stinky SMG4 has in store" well, I have a couple theories—

LOOK AT THIS 💳💥 💳💥 💳💥

WHY AM I SO BROKE?

look at the katphish family, dude ueueue

*ahem at the Puzzles figurine*

……….eye of ra *explodes* (i mean, what else do you expect from me? NOT talk about goop!4? *points at blog bio* yea no, I will)

"the pencil case is probably for the younger viewers" DOES IT LOOK LIKE I CARE? i NEED it............

.・-: ✧ :--: ✧ :-・.

Now, you're probably wondering what I think of the movie, and the answer?

This has been one of the best movies I've ever seen. The writing, the voice acting, the animation. Spectacular all around, the Team really cooked on this one. I just. I have no words.

hey, shadow did say we were gonna get surprises, and oh boy we did.

Perhaps some things didn't happen in the movie/we didn't get to see and, honestly, screw it! It surprised us more than we could ever realize and I do hope the hype I brought to you guys made the movie worth watching bc it deserved the praise.

Karen and the kids learning what it means to be a true family. WPNZ, as much as I love to hate on his character and calling him yucky, he was incredibly well-written and I'm glad that the Team didn't give him a full-on redemption path. It feels realistic that he would try but ultimately his personality and desires was what crushed him at the end, if he didn't view the kids as potential weapons/assassins.

AND MY BOY 4 💙 I already said what needed to be said but golly he's such a sweetheart. how can you hate him? (no seriously how? I can never understand it.) personal hc: the Castle lights were set to "low" just to help 4 not get a headache, which conveniently set up the tone for the scene.

So. can we talk about that ending?! OMG MR. PUZZLES IS BACK!!! I can't believe it. Well, sort of. It's not that Mr Puzzles wouldn't be able to contact the outside world from solitary confinement. He absolutely can. See? I told you all he could. I just couldn't have ever imagined that he's starting to collect villains like pokémon. Likely making his own "Crew" to go against our SMG4 Crew. And y'know what it could mean? That's right: PUZZLEVISION+ and that also means, there's goop!4 theory potential 👀 especially with the lighting at the end there (ik the meme, ik but let me have my bliss for a sec).

Funny enough that Mr. Puzzles really said "You look lonely. I can fix that" to WPNZ. So..... hitshow, anyone?

Anyway, let's see what the Team has to say:

"You have no idea how long i've been waiting for this moment. Hope you'all enjoyed the movie the SMG4 team really did a amazing job!" — anaidon

"Glad ya'll liked the latest #SMG4 movie I got to be a part of with the animating styles. As for the ending though... [evil laughter]" — star

"MR PUZZLES YA VIENE CABRONES" [mr puzzle is coming, you bastards] — ben (YESSIR! and you were kinda right ben, 4 was the key all along)

"Hello SMG4 community, hope you all enjoy SMG4: Silence of the Cats Movie. I animated the sad/emotional scene which is kind of scenes I prepared myself to work on since I joined the team. I put so much effort into this scene [the first "pick ya Poison" scene of the kids choosing WPNZ over Karen], ensuring that I create the same emotional impact to you guys just like every other emotional scene in SMG4. I was nervous that I wasn't able to meet everyone's expectations, but seeing your reactions, All the doubts have wasted away. When animating the tension between Karen and Mr. WPNZ, I wanted to strongly emphasize the emotions from the amazing voice acting performed by Elsie Lovelock & Gianni Matragrano who were amazing. Also the crying texture that I used in the end of my scene was made by @/theartistisme43." — braden (you did an amazing job, dude, one of the scenes that made me first cry, bravo. and ay, Cantro got some credit for the textures!!!)

"The cat is figuratively out of the bag, I guess, haha. I animated the climax scene of SMG4: Silence of the Cats. For reals one of the trickiest things I've had to animate outside of the WOTFI raps, but damned if I'm not content with how it all came out. Of course, this was not a solo effort. Everyone else on the SMG4 team should be proud of themselves. Aaron, Braden, Anaidon, James, Paul, Star, ThatMadMoose. AND our newest additions, Clubbins and ShockHat. You two did amazing. Gotta also sing the praises of Gianni. Absolutely killed it as Mr. WPNZ, and was an honor to animate something with his voice. Here's to hearing him voice the armed boi more in the future. — shadow (I KNEW you worked on that badass final fight scene, haha. glad I was able to recognize your work! it was so satisfying to watch.)

Seriously, the Team has done an incredible job, and I always loved sharing their posts about their work to yall. They deserve the credit. And this is just the first arc of the year, my dear fellows. I can't wait to see what comes next, they do be scheming 😊↕️

and it's SO funny that few of the team are reblogging "you look lonely" fanart with Puzzles and WPNZ, or even the ship itself, in a crack ship kinda way. Peeps, you know what to do :)

Well, this is long enough already, so I'm going to cut things here. Again, this movie had me speechless for a whole 10 minutes. I'll also be posting my bingo cards later, which btw thank you to everyone who participated. It's been a blast! I'll see you all next time, and remember: numbers always go first!

...so anyway, heterochromia 4:

[szynkaaa]

guys I'm LOSING MY FUCKING MIND HERE

Found a 40 minute long behind the scene video about Black Myth Wukong from the devs, where they talk about the game, and they also talk about the early 2020 teaser gameplay they dropped, and how the opening differed so much from the final product.

The most interesting part (to me) is the Old Monkey talking at the beginning:

here they are saying how the Old Monkey is holding a bead/pearl bracelet in his hand

"And then suddenly, the bracelet beads break. [...] and then one of the bead fall to the ground and roll forward

"one pearl is one world" (literally translation lmfao this is why I could never work as a translator)

"and then you see the Sun Wukong of this world" and then it zooms into the monkey and this is how the game starts.

Interesting things to me is that

1) they call the monkey character Sun Wukong, so my guess is in the early planning stage, Sun Wukong was supposed to be playable?

2) the each pearl represents a different world??? with maybe different Sun Wukong?? So maybe something like the spider-verse except it's Wukong-verse oh god can you imagine all those monkeys getting together.

We know now that the game is out, they devs have changed some details from the original novel, and added their own twist to it, e.g. how the Tiger Vanguard had two tiger cubs, how Bajie had a spider lover and spared her life, and not to mention how they changes soooo many things about the Bull King, Princess Iron Fan and Red Boy.

It makes sense to play at the multiverse angle then, that way it would explain how each journey turned out differently and had different outcomes for some things. In another universe, the journey happened exactly like in the novel.

I don't think the devs were planning to expand on the multiverse in the game or in the franchise, but rather simply use that as an opening to introduce us into another JTTW inspired game were some things were or had different outcome.

GOD this has me so hyped up because in my Black Myth Wukong AU featuring my OC, I am playing with the different world and universe angle, I feel so validated to go down that route now

Here are some storyboard screencaps:

Here he is fighting the "new" Lingxuzi (not the same guy as from the original JTTW novel) and Monkey is hit with a lot of flashbacks (according to the CN text)

And then we return back to the scene where the Old Monkey is

SHIT WAS THE OLD MONKEY SUPPOSED TO BE SUN WUKONG BECAUSE THE HEADBAND

His final in-game journal entry also says that "Some say he is Sun Wukong himself."

4th spider sister my beloved wife

another spider concept art

my blacksmith husband Yin Tiger

we are all monkey

If anyone wants to watch the video, the link is here. It' 40 minutes long and in Chinese, no EN subtitles

[rwrbficrecs]

Hope you all enjoy our recs for November ❤️ (even though they're a little late!!) Incenatus by @missgeevious (book/movie-verse)

@suseagull04: I can't recommend this fic enough! If you love Twilight and The Phantom of the Opera, this fic is for you! A mysterious masquerade, a soulmate connection, and chemistry that's off the charts all culminate to make this one of my new all-time favorite fics!

Meaning Something by bleedingballroomfloor (book-verse)

@dot524: Really enjoyed this Liam POV that goes deeper into what actually happened with Alex and Liam, his relationship with Spencer, and how Liam reacts to Alex & Henry during the book. The feelings & coming out are really well done.

Needy & Greedy by @clottedcreamfudge (book-verse)

@heybuddy-drabbles: It's been HELL of a month in good and bad ways so I didn't have time to read much. I'm choosing to recommend a series of unconnected one shots, all steamy and delicious and fun and short for casual reading when you don't have much time to commit to a 70k fic. If you like smut tis for you!

Taste the Way You Bleed by @cha-melodious (book-verse)

@myheartalivewrites: a super fun What We Do In the Shadows AU, written for the RWRB halloween fest. Alex and Henry are oblivious vampires, pining for centuries, and the rest of the super-six turn up in hilarious mockumentary-style interviews. The summary alone had me HOOKED.

Camp Llwynywermod by bleedingballroomfloor (book-verse)

@myheartalivewrites: one of my go-to for comfort, all time fave fics. Alex and Henry as co summer camp counsellors, pining and bickering for years. The tension is top notch!

@dot524: It’s funny and I really enjoyed the camp setting and their journey from enemies to friends to lovers. This is a fun and cute fic.

Downburst by @cricketnationrise (book-verse)

@rmd-writes: an AU of The West Wing ep 'In the Shadow of Two Gunmen' - mind the tags, this is an angsty but beautifully written fic with very clever use of multiple POVs to tell several stories of love (including platonic love). This is so good I was mad I didn't write several lines in it myself.

@thesleepyskipper: Truly an incredible and unique work that was done with care. The way the various memories/flashbacks are done and how they are used as part of the storytelling absolutely blew me away. Loved that we got multiple POVs here too!

Underground by @zwiazdziarka (book-verse)

@suseagull04: An adorable kid, fantasy (including mentions of fantasy classics!) and a rescue mission make this such a fun read! The world building in this fic is phenomenal too.

A Long Way From the Playground by @three-drink-amy (book-verse)

@dot524: This is a getting-back-together AU where Alex & Henry were childhood friends who grew apart in college and then unexpectedly are neighbors. I enjoyed the slow burn here and the payoff — it’s just a comforting feel-good fic!

Five-Drink Henry by @whimsymanaged (book-verse)

@daisymae-12: I was honestly already hooked from the title and the fic did not disappoint – so much so that I’ve reread it so many times the past month. Loved everything about this fic!!

The Domestication of Household Spiders by @cultofsappho (book-verse)

@daisymae-12: This was everything I didn’t know I needed from a spiderman AU! Loved it so much. There’s also 2 new recent fics published in this series – plenty of spiderman Alex to read!!

you make it look so easy, i know it's not by @anincompletelist (book-verse)

@daisymae-12: A really fun fic about Henry’s first American Thanksgiving not quite going to plan. I was already laughing from the summary alone

The great turkey calamity? by @smblmn (book-verse)

@zwiazdziarka: This fic tells us what is actually means to talk turkey and this once Cornbread is a star he deserves to be. It's crack, it's exsistential crisis, it's hilarious. Oh, and Alex and Henry fall in love here too.

Lay You Down by ronans (book-verse)

@inexplicablymine: when I tell you the fluff is fluffing, Henry runs a sleep YouTube and Alex is in his comment section and in his DM’s and in his head. Do yourself a favor if you need a sweet treat today and read this work

@thesleepyskipper: OMG this could not be any cuter. I loved the way we got to see their relationship grow as they got to know each other online. Truly an adorable, well-written story that will plaster a smile on your face throughout.

Risk is Just a Board Game by @three-drink-amy (book-verse)

@suseagull04: Angst, domestic fluff, college AU, the holidays- this fic has it all! A look at why friends with benefits isn't always the best idea that culminates in an ending reminiscent of a Hallmark movie.

On My Mind (Let's Go) by @sparklepocalypse (movie-verse)

@zwiazdziarka: contrary to popular fanon, Henry can dance and here he uses that to get what he wants on New Year's Eve party. No notes, just go and read it.

check out our past Monthly Faves here ❤️

[brainwashedsmogbreathingprincess]

DC should be making more movies aimed at children/families because outside of the trinity and co i think DC has become a bit nichce. While I understand that compared to marvel, particularly in the last couple decades, it's been a bit more skewed towards adults (The isn't me asking for less of that it's just they could do more) They've got like twenty decent characters that would make great family movies but they just keep abusing batman. That being said I'm here to talk about robin.

While being around almost as long as batman and being what I'd consider an essential part of his character, most audiences only recognise robin from teen titans, young justice and titans, and even then since these shows no longer run

When I say movies aimed at children and families I'm aware that DC does make animated movies but outside of Lego batman, super pets and the teen titans go movie I wouldn't really say they play to a family audience I don't think they've made anything to the level of spider verse before. Not necessarily in terms of art style (although yeah give artists a space to create and play about) but more a movie that puts robin or fuck any of the other child heroes they have theain character seat.

A Robin movie would be so cool, of course there'd have to be Batman included but he's treated like an actual side character, like maybe don't even push the mentor role too much because I think we forget how young Bruce was when he took him in. A 9 year thinks nothing of a 25 year old. The movie would center on a young dick Grayson who just watched his parents die, in a city that's not his, ripped away from his only family and he's angry and vengeful and the first half of the movie is him just trying to seek justice by himself and it can end up being a parallel to Bruce's own feelings about self isolation . A focus on his relationship with Alfred instead of Bruce, because between a grey British butler and a depressed furry who's a kid gonna respect. There's been more discussion of Dick as the angry robin but how great would that be for kids to see a kid with reasonable and maybe even relatable anger issues work through that on screen.

So yeah that, three movies afterwards and a we a robin TV series. And we see the family fill in with each movie.

Second movie would actually skip to tim drake with flashbacks of Jason. Third, under the red hood inspired and maybe Jason brings Damian with him cause why tf not. Maybe a break here and a batgirls show that starts with Steph as robin and she meets Cassandra and Barbara trains them up. fourth Damian becomes robin but it's a kinda city of bane situation and he watches Alfred die and after helping defeat bane he takes a break and just gets to be a child because he especially never fully got that. All the robins relationship with Alfred would need to be intense here because honestly he is the one that is constantly in those kids' corner and encouraging their nonsense sometimes, he's the reason Tim ends up becoming robin and he's most likely the only person Jason would respect after everything

The we are robin series obviously focuses on Duke with guest batfam in each episode. The robins are being headed by an AI Alfred either Bruce or Tim made, and it's weirdly lifelike to the point where Duke becomes close to it referencing Agent A in a way that is disturbingly accurate to the bats when he first starts mentioning him in passing. It ends Duke becomes signal and we do a batman and the signal movie a while after.

[q8qwertyuiop8p]

My thoughts on arcane season 2 act one, part two

The grey is also confusing. So the industrialization Silco caused made the air worse, but he was able to build ventilation systems to keep it at bay? Is the grey alive? Why does it keep having a face? Is that what silco used against the chembarons, meaning he is immune? Did the grey kill Margot and her allies?

Also is Lest male or female? A transwoman? I'm having flashbacks to when I wasn't sure of greyson's gender. I think Lest is also a woman but I'm not sure.

I thought Ambessa actually wasn't so bad this time around, until we find out she was behind everything. How long has ambessa known about leblanc?

The Hellfire scene was super cool, the music was neat and we got a really good shot of Vi. The scene with Caitlyn and the funeral was also neat, how it explored a graphite style.

I'm mad that bilbok, hoskel, and Cassandra were the only ones to die. Why did shoola and Salo also have to live?

I don't like season 2 jinx so far. Similarly to Vi, I can understand why she acts the way she does, but I really don't like it. And why are Smeech's followers trying to kidnap all these children?

The fight between Smeech and Sevika was off to a good start. But once we really start to focus on sevika's arm (cue yet another glaringly obvious parallel in the way Sevika takes off her cape) things got very... strange. I personally wasn't into the style they used for Sevika's arm, along with the constant arcade noises. It felt spider-verse esque (along with the smoke of Jinx's gun making the word POW) and did not fit well into arcane. I also don't like the way Sevika's arm works- you have to pull the lever, wait for the slot machine, and whatever random combination you get dictates what the arm does. It's incredibly counterintuitive and again, how did jinx, as genius as she is, just build this so quickly? I do like the way sevika's new arm looks and how she can shoot the chomper and pull it back, but I have to say I prefer her old arm.

The fight between Vi and Jinx was heartbreaking and incredibly done. The song gave me chills and we got some incredibly beautiful scenes out of it, plus it was neat learning that Vander used to tell them stories about Janna. The only thing I didn't like about it was how rushed this, too, felt.

[spider-chris06]

Ngl, it's actually worrying how there are people who mischaracterizing Gwen Stacy and unironically think that she's an edgy with suicidal thoughs who does not know how to interact with people and a lone wolf when she always was literally all the opposite.

Or worse still, some try to minimize or erase her evolution as a result of his character arc by implying that, for example, during his stay in Spider-Society she did nothing but get depressed like Peter B during his flashback in ITSV when doesn't exist a single source that supports that, on the contrary, both the creators, the directors, actors and the art book itself literally said that she did the complete opposite of that, maturing, making true friendships and progressing in her social skills.

They did exactly the same thing with Miles the past year with his "Sunshine-boyification", and I still don't understand what the purpose of this is? Why want to transform a character into something totally different?

And I say this as a fan of her, of Miles and of all the characters in the Spider-Verse, I have had my own personal problems, some of those were no small thing at all, but I was always optimistic and that is something that characterizes these characters.

Its optimistic and positive messages inspires me and A LOT of people, and seeing that there are people who want to change that for something that the creators NEVER intended to do is uncomfortable and exhausting.

And you don't need to be insulting me, if you don't like what I say, ignore me and go on with your day calmly.

I'm not going to be a sellout to make everyone happy.

To everyone else who follows me and shares my opinions, even if they are few, thank you, really.

[biolizardboils]

so heads up! im popping a LOT of Prime Season 3 posts into the queue--they'll start coming out one week from now, on January 22nd! if you can see this post and haven't watched it yet, here's some tags to block: #prime spoilers, #sonic prime spoilers, #sonic prime s3 spoilers, #sonic prime season 3 spoilers.

got all that? great! here's my final unorganized little rambles about the show:

shoutout to Rusty Rose's Birdie, who only appears in the very first and very last eps for some reason 😭 her speech about it not being her power source came outta nowhere too, but i loved the message behind it

when everyone arrives at the Grim, just before the ep ends, Nine starts breathing heavily and it. instantly reminded me of Movie!Tails when the bar was calling them freaks. fuck. its a nice reminder of where Nine's coming from

speaking of Nine his poses getting more unhinged over time!! hell yeah

i love that the final fight(s) felt like a kid smashing 3 different Lego sets together, real Robot Pirate Island shit

i laughed a little too hard when the Grim's dome started closing in cus Nine's citadel-thing already reminded me of a thing that happened in Fortnite once, but hell naw they had to add The Storm too sdfghj

METAL BIG DESTROYED ME LJKHGFDV im SO glad i wasnt spoiled about it!!! a while in i started finding it creepy instead of funny, which is an added bonus

i was spoiled about the Advance flashback and its clashing sprites though. the utter whiplash of seeing that without warning mightve made me choke on my hot cheeto puffs. someone's already remade it btw, check it out

i fistpumped at the small reprise of "me beauty" gfhjk ill miss you so much Dread

we're four years into the 2020's and Sonic has nearly died an agonizingly slow death 3 times in 3 different continuities! and dare i say it was delicious every time >:)

unless Word of God says otherwise I'm gonna assume that the giant shadow at the end was The Return Of Metal Big lpoihgfds

So... Twitter, huh? My spoiler filters there had some leaks, and I saw some discussion out of context that... actually made me kinda scared to finish the show. But then I did, and had fun with it just like the other two seasons, and I remembered that Twitter gets high-strung about things that don't matter so much, and that giving it sway over how much I enjoy things is silly lol.

Yes, I think the last season could've been paced differently so it wasn't 5 episodes of the same Final Boss Fight. Yes, I think the writing switches jarringly between gearing for a young new audience and for a seasoned old one. Yes, I think the 2D flashbacks look and move worse than what fans constantly make for free. Yes, I think the final episode doesn't do nearly as much housekeeping as it should (does the Shatterverse still exist or not??). Yes, I think declaring the show is canon to the games or whatever they said probably wasn't the best idea. And yes, I think Black Rose should've had a shoulder-parrot!Birdie to match the other Amys. All valid critiques! All sensible things to think when you've been around the Sonic bush!

But I swear to god, people on Twitter act like these things spoil the whole package. Where's the nuance? Why does every opinion there become an absolute worth tearing others down for? Is it the character limit? I bet it's the character limit.

There's so much I love about this show that were infeasible for the Sonic brand just 3-4 years ago. Externalizing the characters' facets to explore them in-depth. Said exploration spanning multiple episodes instead of being one-and-done. The sheer amount of genuine Sonadow food (and I don't actively do shipping, so me adding it here should hold a lot of weight). The snappy, playful, yet blistering fight scenes that, dare I say, feel like a successful TV-budget Spider-Verse. It was all so much fun!

But I guess stuff like Green Hill being the gang's "home" is a big deal-breaker?? Like?? I thought that was silly too, but not worth ratio'ing people with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse over? Get well soon, I guess??

Rambling over, shout-out to the entire country of Canada for giving me the most fun I've had with a Sonic show since X! I'm gonna go figure out how to address all this as The End lol

[unpassive-viewer]

My Predictions for the Final Spider-verse

My semester is over, b*tches. You know what that means - I watched both the Spider-verse movies again. After seeing them with fresh eyes (meaning I thought about nothing but The Hunger Games and international relations for four straight months), I have a handful of predictions for the next movie. I am mostly interested in putting these all down so I can check my skill whenever the next film finally comes out. Disclaimer - this is motivated by no external knowledge. I've only read like three Miles comics and played the PS4 games, so this is all guess work. I have no idea how faithful this franchise is to the other media.

So, obviously throughout two movies we have the narrative of "Miles doesn't know who he is or what he wants". In the first movie we have the Great Expectations essay, and in the second we have his college applications where his advisor says "I don't know Miles, and I don't think he knows himself," (or something to that effect). We set the stage for the third film asking who Miles is going to be, both as himself and as Spider-Man.

Enter to Earth 42. We left Miles with the Prowler/Miles 42 and Aaron Davis on an Earth with no Spider-Man, which is being destroyed by the Sinister Six Gang. Based on the Spider-Man theme of redemption and how villains can always become good, I think they team up to help Earth 42.

Gwen + crew join the equation, with Miguel close behind. Miles needs his own watch to keep from glitching, so I have to assume there will be some dire scene where he's glitching out. A near miss, but he gets the watch. Either that, or Earth 42 Miles helps him build one, and he misses Gwen + co. altogether.

There will be someone who holds off Miguel. I think it will either be Miles42 or Spider-Woman, despite the former being a "villain" and the latter being unwaveringly aligned with Miguel's ideas in the second film.

Miles makes it back from Earth 42 just in time to fight Spot. I don't think Miles saves his dad, though - I think Gwen does. She's not lost anymore (she mended her issues with her dad), so she has to make up for betraying Miles in ATSV. We got a little foreshadowing of the Garfield-esque fall from TASM 2 in ATSV (I think in Mumbattan?), so I'm certain we will see the real fall in the third film. But of course, Miles can save her because he's an anomaly and from a different dimension and the rules don't apply to him the same way.

Based on Miles losing his uncle in the first film, I think someone close to him will still die in the third one. I just have no idea who.

I think the way that Miguel finds out that the worlds can tolerate Miles being an anomaly is that his canon event is interrupted and the world doesn't implode. I think they'll finally consider that despite being an anomaly, he's already had many of the canon events of a true Spider-Man.

I think they take out Spot the same way he came into being, by reversing whatever the process was that made him what he is. I think this mostly because there's no time to introduce new tech into the final movie of a trilogy. His first flashback scene in ATSV shows him holding something which reacts to the energy from the collider and transforms him. Miles, Gwen + co. just need to figure out what it was and reverse-engineer things.

Hobi was used a lot as a fast-acting plot device in ATSV, so I have to assume he will play a similar role in the last movie. He'll make an offhand comment about something that's obvious to him but not to anyone else, and it'll serve to expedite the plot.

Either that, or we find out more about Miguel's attempt to live in the alternate universe from Peter Parker, and they gain enough insights into how the multiverse works that they find a solution. Maybe both.

The only one I really don't know about is the Spider-baby. She obviously motivates Peter Parker to do the right thing (kids serve this purpose for him in both films), so I have to assume she'll just remain in that static role. Penny, Spider Noir, Pveter and Spider-Ham I think will just be muscle again.

Since we didn't get a real "What's Up Danger" scene in Across the Spider-Verse, I think the climax of the third film is going to blow the rest of them out of the water. What's Up Danger and the (lesser) scene on the train to the moon in ATSV both showed Miles breaking the glass he was perched on, because he's still scared. Logically, the climactic scene of the third film is going to be a reflection of those scenes, but we see he isn't afraid anymore. He is Spider-Man in the next film. Not a kid wearing a costume, trying to figure out what he wants and what his values are.

Oh, and obviously Miles gets and keeps the ability to go between dimensions. I also think the Spider Society will have some kind of overhaul and they begin to treat anomalies more fairly.

I know it's years out, but god I cannot wait to see this movie. The character motivations are so consistent between the first two films, I really want to know if I'm right about anything.

[vague-humanoid]

@dirhwangdaseul @ubernegro @el-shab-hussein not content to steal miles storyline and supporting characters, mcupeter is rumored to be attached to the final spider-verse to leech of its better franchise

I'm getting blade 3 flashbacks of that film being ruined by lessening blade's role to set up spinoffs for 2 white charcters

Thankfully this account is generally full of shit. So these are just awful rumors

[ao3feed-peterparker]

What now?

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/Gbcv3nz by Dinker27 After the events of the spider-verse, when all is said and done, what was Miguel going to do? Where was he gonna go? He had no clue, and nobody to really turn to. All he could do was... Go back to before. Be the one and only Spiderman in his Spider-verse, and try to bring some kind of normalcy into his life once more. Words: 999, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Amazing Spider-Man (Movies - Webb) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Categories: F/M, M/M Characters: Miguel O'Hara, Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker, Mayday Parker (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse), Miguel O'Hara's Daughter (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse) Relationships: Miguel O'Hara/Original Male Character(s), Miles Morales/Gwen Stacy | Spider-Gwen Additional Tags: I've no idea what I'm getting myself into, Miguel is so gay, Like, SO GAY, Gayngst, After the movies, non-canon ending, Post Ending, I'll be VERY SURPRISED if this actually happens, Give Miguel O'Hara a redemption arc, so much brainrot, probably angst, Discoveries and mistakes are made, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Miles and Gwen are adorable, I wish I could incorporate more spideys but probs not, his kid shows up in flashbacks maybe, Probably some kind of abuse will happen in flashbacks, Is this in the right place, It might go exactly how you think, genre mix, I'm new, be gentle lmao, I can't write combat, Probably not many spiderman action scenes to be found here, You Have Been Warned read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/Gbcv3nz

[badendinggamer]

All the jevins are here! Oh god now I'm getting spider verse flashbacks (the ketchup and mustard jevin probably have there own food stands here or something lol

Jevin convention!- It’s mostly an excuse to draw other people’s Jevin designs BUT jokes on you- You must guess which one is which!!! But just know I only own the one design frontmost that wants to go home (Overstimmed u-u)

[canadiancryptid]

Same universe. Peter got his body back, but prior to that, Otto got thrown into the near future and back for the events of ‘Spider-Verse’, finding out about these multiversal energy vampires killing Spider-People a reality at a time across the multiverse, so he created a society of Spider-People to wage war agains them (Miguel in ‘Across the Spider-Verse’ took some partial inspiration from him), so you have both Otto and Peter fighting in that, Otto assuming Peter is from the past, Peter knowing Otto actually is from the past; eventually Otto finds out Peter is from his future and one day he will lose the body and ‘everything’ with it (assuming it gets ‘stolen’ back, not knowing his future self had actually come to peace with Peter and sacrificed himself to bring him back to defeat the Green Goblin, whom Otto had the humility to admit he couldn’t beat himself), anyway because of this Otto ends up eventually turning against the other Spider-People, desperate to continue existing; eventually being sent back in time to resume the events of ‘The Superior Spider-Man’ that ended in his death, only before that could happen, Otto managed to back up his mind to a robot, who eventually transferred his mind to a new clone body. After briefly returning to being Doctor Octopus; he realised he preferred being good and made peace with Peter, becoming the anti-heroic Superior Octopus. Only once his actions lead to the villains of the first ‘Spider-Verse’ returning, resulting in many-a-death of a Spider-Person, in penance; Otto threw aside the mantle of Octopus entirely and returned to being the Superior Spider-Man once more, in ‘Spider-Geddon’ and beyond. Which is where we got the second ‘The Superior Spider-Man’ series, the one Gwen Poole and the West Coast Avengers pop in in the midst of, with Otto relocating to become the Spider-Man of Sam Francisco. He goes about doing hero work though that whole series, only to eventually come to blows with an alternate universe Norman Osborn Spider-Man and his henchman Spiders-Man (a hive mind of spiders who think they’re Peter Parker, under a spider-suit) from ‘Spider-Geddon’, and Otto is forced to make a deal with Mephisto (the devil) to restore his original self to defeat him, at the cost of his memories of heroism. If you’re wondering why the devil, don’t worry; literally every Spider-Man has been tricked / manipulated into making deals with him in the main continuity: Peter Parker, Ben Reilly, Miles Morales, and here Otto. So after then we got Otto as Doctor Octopus again, aware he had been the Superior Spider-Man, but not of the memories. So then he was a neutral figure for a few years, occasionally dipping a toe back into villainy, until last year, during one such excursion, he ended up about to die and aimed to transfer his mind into a new body, only ended up trapped in the head of a teenage girl in Japan, ending up mentoring her while she would soften his heart a bit, accidentally training a new Doctor Octopus. Now that’s still ongoing, so we don’t know how it will end yet, but eventually, Otto gets his body back again; will become obsessed now with getting his memories back, having realised he was smarter with them, previews for ‘The Superior Spider-Man Returns’ showing this, before transitioning to a flashback story, but something about his will then lead to a new, third ‘The Superior Spider-Man’ ongoing series, presumably with Otto finally once again openly himself as Spider-Man.

Anon, you managed to perfectly recreate the feeling I get whenever I see "The Colors of The Sky" on my dashboard while using nothing but text, and I think that's rather impressive.

Not sure if I'm any less confused than before, but its comics. I should've expected that at this point.

[thoughtsandbones]

Time for Tea?

Simon 'Ghost' Riley x F!MedicDoc OC (codename: Blue) 💀💙

WARNINGS: Mention of profanity, self harm scars, scars, fluff, medical inaccuracies and just getting the POV of our friendly neighbourhood masked menace.

Plot: Doctor Ruhari Hari Kaur (OC is South Asian ☺️) joins the 141 again, but this time as their doctor. After the betrayal of Shepherd and Graves, Task Force 141 begins their hunt on his whereabouts and locating Makarov.

PLEASE reblog and like! Hope folks are enjoying the series, I am building up characters and plots, cos I have a lot ideas and just been enjoying writing :D

Song inspo: Across the Spider-Verse playlist basically only Spotify

Word count: It's long... sorry, not sorry.

A/N: Flashbacks are getting messed up when I am indenting them and I am getting lots of errors when publishing the work, please bare with some mistakes and spelling issues.

I grew up with the OG MW2 game, so there are some references to the old one, so kind of a mix of both the OG and the new timeline... (Also I'm ignoring the OG Shepherd betrayal and keeping in line the one with the new timeline..)

All rights reserved to the rightful owners of Call of Duty Modern Warfare.

spelling and some grammar mistakes as I am bad at times... :/

(FYI: bold sentences... that are like this... are supposed to describe redacted data/info to the plot... ;] .. )

Please do let me know how you all are finding this fanfic! :D

PART 1, PART 2, PART 3, PART 4, PART 5, PART 6, PART 7, PART 8, PART 9 and PART 10

Part 11

<CUE FLASHBACK> Siberia, Russia, October 12 2010 Day 3- The storm was making it difficult to see where you were going; the harsh sharp wind was piercing through your morf snood, cold needles prick your skin. You breathe out, the moisture cooling the cold around your mouth. "Yer drifting right Blue, come to your left a bit" The Captain said over the radio Looking over to your left you could no longer make out the silhouette of the Captain. "Copy Cap" You say back and change your direction walking left, you see the outline of the Captain emerge. "Stick close, we are nearly there" He said over the radio again "Yes sir" Both of you walked, slightly crouched. The storm bringing in snow, being the perfect cover for the two soldiers infiltrating the base. Up ahead you see barbed wire fencing appear, the silhouette of the buildings of the base coming into view. The Captain puts his hand up, signalling you to stop, you do so. "Here we are Blue" He says "Hanger on the right hand-side of the tarmac Cap?" you say "Aye, make our way through to the left and head to the tarmac where the MiGs are." "Copy Cap" The Captain crouched down, looking left and right, and you followed him "Blue, yer nervous?" The Captain says You look at the back of his head, he doesn't turn, because you know he's looking on the look out. "Staying focused Cap" You respond, trying to keep a cool demeanour. "It's alrigh' to be nervous" The Captain teased "Nervousness produces adrenaline, which is keeping me on high alert for any Russians sir" The Captain chuckled through the radio "Aye, yer nervous" he said "Yer got me, so yer'll good" The Captain added You laugh back "Aye Cap" you mimic his Scottish accent which earned another chuckle over the radio.

"This is Major Perov! Come up with your hands...."

The hiss of that memory electrified your whole body awake. Hot sweats lathered your body, your baggy t-shirt clung to your back and chest making those parts of your t-shirt damp. You can smell the sweat coming off you as you turn to lie on your front.

Not another dream like that again You think, groaning into the pillow. The sticky sweat had seeped through your t-shirt and onto the bed. Running your hand through your hair and down the nape of neck, you could feel the droplets resting on the surface of your skin as they were squashed against your fingertips.

Gross

Getting up, you sit crossed legged on the bed, the sweat on your body going from hot to cold. You shiver. Grabbing the duvet you wrap it around you. You feel the cold within your marrow.

You grab your phone. It was 3:46am. Laying back down on the bed all snuggled with your blanket and sweat ridden shirt. Pondering at the thought of going back to sleep. The bad odour coming off you made you abandon the thought.

Unraveling yourself from the blanket you head to the bathroom, turning the shower on and wait for it to get warm. Taking off your shirt, still damp with sweat and chucking it in the laundry basket. Catching your naked body briefly in the mirror.

Your torso a lighter shade of brown than your arms and neck. You turn your body admiring the right side of your arm and shoulder, flexing the muscles under the skin. The bullet scar curved over the top of your shoulder, the black humerus bone tattoo standing out. These markings make you, you.

The mirror began to steam up from the heat of the shower, stepping in, bracing yourself for the onslaught of hot water droplets that somehow pierced into your skin and warmed your bones directly.

Once you dried yourself and got ready it was 4:26 am, you were hungry but the mess hall wouldn't be open. Price did say he had a small kitchenette next to his office you could use. In your second drawer you grab a mug along with a small bag that contained your emergency stash of tea, sugar and milk sachets. You hoped Price would have fresh milk and tea, but you brought yours just in case.

You put on a black hoodie over your clean grey shirt that was tucked in your black joggers, trying to keep you warm, and your trainers, walking out with your mug, whilst stuffing the your home tea kit in the large pocket of your hoodie.

Damp strands of hair clung to your face as you walked to the kitchenette, putting your AirPods and playing music to drown out of the echo of your dream.

Meanwhile in Price's kitchenette/break room, Simon sat on the sofa, head laying back with a cup of chamomile and lavender tea, it was the smell of this brewed tea that helped calm him from another restless night, he held the mug close to his chest, giving warmth to his heart.

The steam from the mug drifted to his naked face, his mask hitched above his brows. He brought the mug to his lips and took a sip of the tea, savouring the warm bitterness of the lavender and sweetness of the honey. His ears perked at the sound of approaching footsteps outside the break room, he quickly pulled his mask down his face with his left hand, holding his mug steady with his right.

The doorknob turned and the door opened. There you walked in, your long damp brown hair reflecting in the dim light, you did not turn the light on.

Ghost froze, he had not expected you to come here, especially at this time in the morning. He watched as you headed over to the kettle and placing your hand on it's side.

The kettle was warm, it had just been used, and someone was in here, as you heard movement come from behind you.

Price? You think and then turning around expecting to see a grinning gentlemen.

Nope. It was the masked menace, Ghost, sitting on the sofa, holding a mug of tea. Through the little natural light that lit the room, you could make out his blue eyed-balls widening at you.

"Morning Lieutenant." You say turning back round, and switching the kettle on.

"Mornin' Doc" Ghost gruffed, he cleared his throat. He watched as you took out a bag from your black hoodie, and take out a Tetley tea bag along with a spoon. You didn't even flinch.

Tetley girl eh? Ghost thought gazing down you, wearing black joggers. His eyes went back to your brown hair draped over your shoulders, some parts still damp.

The kettle began to shake as the water within boiled. You placed the string around the handle of the mug and plopped the tea bag into the mug. The kettle boiled as the switched flipped up. Waiting a few seconds then pouring the water into the mug, watching the colourless water become seeped with dark amber.

"Is there milk in the fridge that I can use?" You ask, your back still facing away from Ghost.

"Yeah, blue top on the bottom shelf" Ghost says watching as you move to the fridge

"Thanks" You say, opening the door and grabbing the milk.

Ghost watched as you set his pint of milk next to your mug, you stirred the teabag with a spoon you brought out from the little bag. You take out a sugar sachet, ripping it and placing its contents in the mug, then swirling the tea. He watches as you squeeze the teabag against the side of the mug and toss it in the open bin. You take his milk and pour a dash of it in, stirring the contents, you add a bit more.

Ghost wondered how milky you liked your tea...

You screw the cap back on and then put it in the fridge, grabbing your mug you sit on one of the four chairs surrounding a small square table, where you place your mug of tea. You look over your shoulder and see Ghost still staring at you. Looking down at your wrist, noticing you forgot to put your watch on so you couldn't count the seconds of how long he was staring at you this morning. You let out a sigh, delving back into the music that sprang from your earphones.

Ghost diverted his gaze back to his mug. He then watched you take a sip of tea in the corner of his eye. He looked back down at his tea, the mugs warmth bringing him a sort of comfort as you sat there. Ghost noticed you move your left arm up, like a magnet his eyes were drawn to your movements, you pushed you hair back, he noticed you had those wireless ear buds in, he scanned your body noticing your left leg resting on the chair opposite and your right foot tapping the air gently.

He was frozen in his seat. He felt like he could not move or get up. Ghost was drawn to you again as you raised your arm and placed your elbow on the table, resting your head in the palm of your hand.

You take another sip of tea. Gulping another sip of the hot liquid down, trying to warm your insides that felt cold, warming the nerves.

If only you could make some chai but you didn't have the spices with you.

"This is Major Perov..." echos in your left ear but faintly this time, you try and focus back on the music..

Should've brought my jar from home you think. You lean back into the chair sighing again. You turn your head to the left and see Ghost looking at you, he moves his head down, to look at the tea in his hand.

There was no heavy tension between you two... or so you could tell... He could've left when you went in but he didn't. You wonder how would you bring up a subject like Siberia to him. You don't even know him. He's just a masked enigma.

Wish the Captain was here. You think, worse case, Sergeant Riley would do, the distant memory of him awakens in your mind He'd surely tell you to leave him be but throw in the sarcastic comment to see how'd he'd respond and go off that. 12 years since they've been gone. 11 and 10 years for MG and KD. Your former mentors and comrades. Gone.

Now you've got new ones to get to know. And one currently sitting in the same room seemingly hates your guts or has some major trust issues.

You clear your throat, pausing the music, taking the left ear bud out, taking your shot...

"Did you get the email sir?" You ask, turning slightly towards him, bring your left leg down from the chair opposite.

Ghost looked up "Yeah I did" he responded whilst nodding, his the fingers on his right hand drumming against the mug. Lump forming in his throat again.

You nod back, bringing your mug in your hands and close your chest, and then take a sip. The insides of you cold still. Perhaps cocooning yourself with your blanket will help? You think

Ghost watches as you bring out your phone, taking your other earbud out and placing them back in your pocket. His eyes stuck to you as you get up and take your mug and little tea kit bag, stuffing it back in your pocket.

"See you later Lieutenant" You say not smiling

Ghost nods back at you and watched you leave, closing the door gently behind you. He glanced at his watch. 5:15am... In about 9 hours you both were going to have another interaction together... Why were you up so early? Training perhaps?

The stoic face you had flashed across his eyelids when he blinked.

You were annoyed, who wouldn't be? Ghost retorted to himself, slightly scoffing. The looped voices bouncing across his cranium.

He leaned back on the sofa, his tea now lukewarm, he lifted his mask and took a sip.

"Bleurgh" He said as the barely warm liquid ran down his throat. He gets up, takes the teabag out and tosses it in the bin and pours the tea in the sink, washes the mug and places it on the drying rack. Ghost stands by the counter, looking at the seat which you sat at moments ago.

He had a chance to apologise but missed. He left the break room and headed back to his room, his mind more clouded than before.

Later on that day

"Hope my blood pressure isn't too high" Price said as you wrapped the cuff around his right arm.

You smile slightly and shake your head at Price's remark

"Shall find out soon enough" you reply pressing the start button on the blood pressure machine, the cuff fills up with air, the machine whirrs, the numbers on the machine rise up.

Once you hear two beeps the reading is complete: 125/80

"125/80, that's perfectly good for someone your age" You say

"My age?" Price chuckles

"41 is a good age sir"

"You're 9 years younger than me Doc"

You look up "Don't look it though" You smirk.

Taking off the blood pressure cuff, you write the reading down on your chart for the Captain.

"Your med kit is good, I just put more Celox, the haemostatic gauze, and saline in there" handing him his med kit, zipping it up.

"That shellfish stuff?" Price asks as he takes his kit giving you a semi-disgusted look.

"Yes sir"

"Not a fan" He added looking at his kit

"Good thing you won't be eating it for rations" You retort

Price chuckles, and checks his watch 10:55 am.

"Right, I'll leave you to prep for the next patient" Price says, you get up and take the tissue paper where Price sat and placed it in the bin. Spraying the bed with disinfectant and wiping it down with blue roll. You wait for the remaining disinfectant to dry and go to the bathroom and wash your hands.

For the duration of the 30 seconds it takes you to thoroughly wash your hands you scan your reflection in the mirror. Drying your hands and turning the tap off you head back in the main room.

Laying new tissue on the bed, you hear footsteps approach, checking your watch it was 10:59am. Perfect timing you think

Gaz appears in the doorway, you propped open after Price left, you look up and force a smile

"Morning Gaz" You say

"Morning Doc, you good?" Gaz asked, he carried his half empty med kit in his hand, sort of hoping you won't scold him. He looked around the infirmary, it was done up well. Clean. Organised. A laptop on your desk, along with a few files stacked neatly next to it. A small brain statue lay next to the lamp.

"Good, how are you?" You say gesturing to the med bed as you closed the door.

"Very well doc, er.. my med kit is a mess" Gaz says handing over his med-kit.

You take it, and examine, a little worn and torn, but expected when out in the field, somewhat similar to Price's bits of sand trapped in the edges, unzipping it you see it stocked with a few plasters, one ambulance dressing and gauze. Looking back up, you see Gaz's concerned face.

"I can stock this up fully, don't worry" you say smiling, "Fill what you can on the chart, don't worry about address" you add, heading to the cabinets behind your desk and place med kit on the counter. You turn back to see Gaz and walk back over.

You take out your equipment and move over to where Gaz sat, placing the clipboard with the pen to the side.

"Temp check" you say placing the IR thermometer to his forehead. The screen turned green, 36.4 ℃, normal. You grab the chart and jot this down.

You place a pulse ox monitor on this forefinger on his left forefinger.

"What's this for?" Gaz says flickering his finger where the oximeter was clipped.

"Measures pulse and percentage of oxygen in your blood"

"Cool gizmo"

"98%, good" You say checking the screen and scribbling the number down. "Pulse at 88 bpm, also good"

"Why not 100%?" Gaz asks looking at the oximeter, he breathes in sharply and holds his breathe, the oximeter changed by 1%.

You let out a small laugh "Not always, as we have a little carbon dioxide in our blood" You say

"Interesting" Gaz says continuing to look at the oximeter.

Taking the oximeter off his finger you proceed with the other checks; blood pressure, height and weight check, general well being, medicine enquiries but mostly refilling his med kit.

You hand it back to Gaz and explain what new stuff you packed. Gaz nods and thanks you and leaves.

It was 11:45am, Soap will be here soon, you follow the same procedure, strip, wipe down and set up.

Never did you think you'd be doing the job of a GP, seeing patients one after another, no surgeries, no rotations and no other doctors, least no friendly doctors yet...

There was a knock on the door. Getting up and opening it, you see Soap grinning.

"Morning Doc" He said

"Morning Soap" You reply back, making way for him to enter as you stood by the door, he walked and looked around.

"How are yer?" He asked turning facing you as you closed the door.

"Good" You say "How are you?"

"Been alrigh' Doc, Ghost beat me in target shooting this mornin'" He adds, awaiting your reaction when he mentioned Ghost's name.

You walk over "Ah, better luck next time" You say

"Take a seat on the med bed and fill out the chart on the tray" You gesture to the clipboard.

Soap picks it up and starts to write down his details, he notices are large x in pen over the personal details section apart from name and date of birth.

He fills out what he can and places the clipboard back on the tray.

Walking over, you begin with the your check list of check-ups. Soap took his shirt off, you stare at him blankly, trying not to ogle at the toned and defined muscles of his upper body.

"Ergh what are you doing?" You say apprehensively

"Don't yer need to put those electric cables on my chest?" Soap said looking at you confused.

You meet his confused face with yours. Your cheeks feel hot as your eyes dropped to his abs and down his snail trail, Soap followed your eyes and grinned. Swiftly turning on your left heel I cannot believe I looked you cling to your white coat.

"I'm not doing an ECG, please put your shirt on" You say closing your eyes trying to shake the image, now realising what Soap thought.

"Alrigh' doc it's on" He laughed "Sorry, I genuinely thought.." he trailed off as your turned back around, your cheeks showing a tinge of pink. He saw you biting in your lips and your ears going red.

You proceeded with the checks:

Pulse oximeter on; 98% and 97bpm

BP: 126/70

etc etc etc

You finish by asking Soap to step off the weights.

"Got your med-kit?" You ask

Soap's face dropped, the one thing he completely forgot that he should not have forgotten.

Taking in his shocked face, you smirk

"Get it to me when you can. I have Lieutenant Ghost at 13:30 so before then please" You say and Soap nods as he leaves the infirmary. Glancing at your watch, 12:40pm, enough time for a quick lunch.

Heading down to mess hall, it was busy of course, you wait in line for food along with other soldiers. You felt like you stood out with your blue scrubs, it's not like you were actually working in a hospital. Should've worn my black fatigues and sweater you think as you move along with the line.

Lunch was a steak and ale pie with chips. You felt full after half-eating the pie, you check your watch 13:10pm. You swiftly stop eating and get up, putting the food in the food bin and placing the plate and tray on their associated piles.

Heading back to the infirmary, you spot Ghost and Soap talking outside, Ghost looks at you and lowers his voice, Soap also looks at you and nods, you see him holding the med kit in his hand.

As you approach, they both stop, both looking at you as you open the door.

"Afternoon" You say to Ghost,

"Goo' afternoon doc" Ghost said, taking a deep breathe as he stepped inside the infirmary. He looked around, it was nice, orderly and clean. A better state than before you came.

"Got the med-kit" Soap said, bringing out out of his pockets of his fatigues, it was rolled up and empty. You take it off him, "I'll give it to you once it's ready" You say, Soap nods but doesn't move

"Here's mine" Ghost said as he uncrossed his arms and brought his kit, it was fuller and heavier as it was placed on your hands.

"Right, I'll have a look in a bit." You say looking up at him and then to Soap who was still hovering.

"You alright?" You ask Soap

"Yeah, just..." Soap started looking at Ghost.

"Johnny, you had your check up, now bugger off" Ghost said turning to him, knowing exactly why he was lingering

Soap grinned at Ghost and then at you, he began to walk away but turned slightly

"Lt, if you wanna make the doc blush, all you gotta do is take your shirt off" Soap winks and teases closing the door

"Wa-What?!" You say stammer as Soap closes the door, you could hear him laughing on the other side.

Ghost whips his head from the door to see your wide eyed shocked face, you turn your head to meet his eyes, he taken in your doe-eyed expression.

"He took his shirt off on his own accord" Υοu blurt "Thought he was getting an ECG done" you say motioning to the empty space between you with your right hand as if to swat the memory away.

"It's alrigh' Johnny likes teasin'" Ghost says, he watches your face return to normal, and head to the back counter placing both med kits there and opening them up, examining the contents.

Ghost watched your back, like he did this morning.

"Sorry about yesterday" He says looking at your back, he watches your head come up, listening.

"I was out of line, you're good.." He added "Just was.. cautious" Ghost added slowly. He felt his right hand reach up out to you, wanting to tell you it's...

You take in his words.. inhaling for four, you turn around and head back to where Ghost was, exhaling for four.

Ghost swiftly brought his right arm down in his back pocket of his jeans. He looked at you and you smiled, he relaxed a bit more.

"Thank you lieutenant" You say, accepting his apology, you still feel like he somehow... For some reason he still despises you...

You look up at him and smile, he nods back, you his eyes crinkle a bit, hopefully smiling underneath that mask...

Ah the mask and the clothes... You always observed him wearing long sleeve shirts or sweaters, no t-shirt in site so far...

"So.. I'm going to check your blood pressure, pulse, weight, height..." You trail off looking at his blue eyes grabbing the clipboard on the tray.

Ghost blinks and looks back at your deep brown eyes, framed by your black mascara'd lashes "Yes doc..." He says slowly

"I understand the mask stays on, but need to take a neck reading for body temperature if that's okay?" You add looking down from his eyes to his shoulders then to your clipboard.

"Of course" Ghost says, lifting the hem of his mask to reveal is neck. You were entranced by the sudden willing nakedness of his neck, the hem stopping under his chin with his ungloved hand; snapping out of the haze you grab the IR thermometer and press the button, you look back at his neck and notice a mole on the pale skin covering his jugular.

The thermometer beeps, screen turning green, 36.8 ℃. Good. Placing the thermometer down, you grab the chart and jot it down.

Ghost pulls his mask down, watching you scribble out parts on the form. He unzips his jacket, revealing his own black pullover hoodie.

You look up and notice your lieutenant take his jacket off, and then reach for the hem of his hoodie. Leaning on your heal you turn your back.

Please don't strip down like Soap you plead trying not to imagine what his naked torso would look like.

After taking his hoodie off, and folding it on top of his jacket. He looks and sees you've turned fully, your back facing him, smirking slightly under his mask, he wonders if he should tease you and take his shirt off too...

Turning back to face the Lieutenant, you see him wearing a black t-shirt which hug snuggly to his muscular torso. Grabbing the blood pressure cuff you bring it next to him. You notice on his left fore arm a myriad of different tattoos.

Ghost watches as you move towards with a blood pressure machine, he rolls up his sleeve of his t-shirt, he gazes at your brown hair now braided, slightly messy, as few strands have fallen out are now tucked behind your ear, he notices two small silver hoops hugging your cartilage.

Unravelling the cuff, you wrap it around his chiseled bicep, you noticed a few scars up and down his arm, even a few on his hand, but you didn't say anything or linger on them too long. Not when you knew how awkward it is when people stare and make remarks of your own scars.

Looks bigger than my thighs you think, admiring the muscles laying underneath the flesh of his upper arm.

The cuff did not fit fully. You look up at Ghost, he was looking at you, your eyes widened slightly.

"Good thing the machine came with an extra large cuff" You smirk, taking the cuff off the machine and heading to the drawers he cleaned last week.

"Good thin'" Ghost repeats, sitting up taller, observing the way your white coat glided with your movements. Your left breast pocket filled with pens, he noticed some writing underneath the pocket, but couldn't decipher it.

Walking back to Ghost with the XL cuff, you plug it in the machine, unravel it and placed it around his arm above his elbow. You swiftly look at the tattoos again on his left arm; a black monochromatic piece, a wonderful chaos of skulls, a dog tag, guns and other army related pieces.

Your cold fingers grazed his warm skin, Ghost felt the cold ripple all the way to his chest. He watched on as you adjusted the cuff.

"That alright?"

"Yeah" Ghost says

He watches as you press the machine and watch the numbers go up, he felt the cuff tighten as it filled with air around his arm. The air hissed and he watched the numbers fall down. 137/88

Grabbing the clipboard and the pen, you jot down the numbers, and you frown slightly.

"You've got high blood pressure"

Ghosts huffs Great he moans in his head

"How old are you?"

"34" Ghost grumbled

"How's your diet?" You ask looking up at him

"Alrigh'"

"Are you taking any drugs, legal or illegal?" You ask

Ghost looks at you, stunned by the wording of your question

"Legal?" He asks narrowing his eyes at you. You gotta be pullin' my leg

"Paracetamol, simvastatin, antibiotics, opioid based pain relief etc" You say

"And illegal?" Ghost asks perking up, curious as to where this will go...

"Cocaine, cannabis and other not so fun things" You add smirking at him.

"Only done the legal kin', paracetamol and hold up - opioid based pain relief? Ghost whips at you, now realising what you said.

"Morphine, codeine and oxycodone" You say "They're legal but addictive like heroin."

Ghost takes it in, of course, he had his own familial experience with that dark side of drug addiction. Tommy...

"Just paracetamol and antibiotics from injuries in the field" Ghost said quietly

"Okay" You say, jotting that down.

"Any new stress in your life?" You say looking back up to him

Ghost looks at you, and then back at the reading of the BP monitor, 137/88 flashes at him.

You observe Ghost, looking at the monitor

"High blood pressure is not worrying if we can correct external factors like diet, exercise and maintaining any stresses" You roll off your tongue.

Jeez you sound like the pamphlet you remember your mum getting from the nurse about high blood pressure You slide back slightly on your chair turning your head, manoeuvring yourself to the trolley tray, rolling your eyes to yourself as you aimlessly fiddle in the tray.

Of course these guys would have a few health issues, they are super elite soldiers, they've dealt with so much...

Ghost looks at you. He's been here before, doctors telling him to change this, do that, etc etc...

You grab the pulse oximeter and move back over to Ghost.

Alright, Sergeant Riley taking your advice; sarcastic comment, time to throw that..

"Look, I sounded like a damn pamphlet, but I'm here for all your health needs" You say bringing your hands up to your sides, foolishly giving him jazz fingers and you smile with teeth.

Ghost scoffs a laugh out, then clears his throat turning his head to the side.

"No new stresses" Ghost says, his gaze back to you, he watches you raise an eyebrow and tilt your head.

"Not even me?" You add, remembering the encounter yesterday after the target course.

Staring into your narrowed brown eyes Ghost knew it was you who was slightly causing stress. Ghost shook his head and then looked at the BP monitor again.

You get up and take the cuff off his arm. You show him the pulse oximeter, and he brings his hand up, you clip it on his forefinger.

"What time do you usually get up?" You ask, remembering the encounter this morning at around 5am.

"Couldn't sleep last night if you're referrin' to this morning" He says looking up at you

You nod back at him, your lip curved slightly. 98% and a pulse of 72bpm. Strong heart

"Not able to get to sleep or wake-up in the middle of the night?" You ask writing down the readings of the oximeter.

"Both" Ghost grunts

"Have you tried any medicine for sleeping?" You ask

"That herbal stuff, calm, from Boots" he said

He watches as you wrinkle your nose. "Didn't work?" You say

"Yeah"

"I'll give you zopiclone, just one, for tonight, see how it goes and we will have another check-in tomorrow" You add, heading to the small locked cabinet and cut out one tablet from the sheet. Locking the cabinet, you head back and give it to Ghost, he places it in his jean pocket.

He continues gazing upon your movements, your hand flicking back a strand of hair that got near your amber brown eyes.

"Take it an hour before sleep, avoid going on your phone and alcohol and should help with aiding sleep. Keep water or squash nearby as it can have metallic aftertaste" You command softly whilst writing away on the clipboard sitting on the stool.

Ghost looked at you, all this seemed so natural coming out of you. He nods along, mesmerised with your poise and assertiveness. That's the rookie you remember from all those years ago. He smirked under his mask and leaned forward a bit.

"How was the herbal tea?" You ask looking back up

"Eh?" He guffles, how could you know?

"This morning, I could smell lavender, was that your tea?" You say, eyes becoming doe-eyed.

'Course, the smell of lavender was soothing, especially after that... episode... nightmare

"Yeah Doc"

"Does it help?" You ask

"Sort of, chamomile and lavender tea..." Ghost begins and then pauses.

Gazing upon his eyes, which shifted left to right as he spoke to you. His cool blue eyes strike yours, they were even icier against his blonde eyelashes.

Ghost looks at you, he notices the writing on your white coat, Dr Hari Kaur Neurosurgery threaded in black cursive under the pocket full of pens.

"What abou' you?" Ghost asks, he notices your eyes narrow.

"What do you mean?"

"You were up early" Ghost retorted

Tilting your head back, your roll your head around. Maybe if I open up, he'll too...

"Bad dream woke me up." half-lying to him. You didn't want to talk about Siberia, not now..

Ghost watched as your eyes lost a bit of brightness, becoming dull.

"Tea help?" He asked, trying to bring that brightness back in your eyes

"Tea always helps" You smirked

"What one you have?" Ghost asked, knowing full well you had Tetley.

"Tetley, but I prefer PG tips" You grinned, eyes twinkling again.

"Oooh" he sucked in some air "Yorkshire is best" he sighed

"Tetley is from Yorkshire!" You snapped

"Was from Yorkshire" He retaliated "Run by an Indian company now, Yorkshire Tea is still based in Yorkshire" He added crossing his arms and puffing his chest out.

You scoff at him, looking away and then back at him, admiring his chiseled torso.

"Actually prefer chai, with PG tips" You quipped

"Hmm" Ghost says "Maybe you could use my Yorkshire Tea next time and I'll judge" he added

Nodding back at him you get off the stool. "Next time for tea then?" he nods back.

Ghost watches and listens as you ask him to step on the weight balance, and checks his height. He continues to gaze at you as you complete other checks needed, obliging your every command willingly. It was the least he could do after the way he treated you.

You would understand if he told you later convincing himself that now is not the right time.

You would understand, bad people are out there

He gives a nod and a yes comes out of his mouth, as you say something about his med-kit, his eyes drawn in on your back as you walk to the counter checking their contents again.

You would understand, it's safer for Simon Riley to remain dead to you.

Ghost looks at you, wondering if you ever thought about Simon Riley...

"I am the death of everything you know and love" Roba's voice echoed faintly in his skull

You would understand

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Little Things I Dig About 'Puss In Boots: The Last Wish'

This will be an unorganized collection of thoughts, but... Here we go!

Do not read on if you have yet to see PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH. Spoilers *ahoy*!

The opening title card alone. A friend pointed this out to me, the whole "This story... Is a Fairy Tale..." graphic. This is **such** a 180 from the other SHREK movies, especially the first SHREK, which opens with a Walt Disney-style book opening, laying down some exposition, and then Shrek himself ripping out a page, wiping his bum with it... That shows just what kind of attitude one movie has towards fairy tales, and what attitude the other one has. It's like this franchise has matured from its early class clown days.

The sword-fighting in the opening action scene is seemingly in sync with 'Fearless Hero', just great timing and animated choreography there.

"Never been touched!"

Puss' battle with the giant gives me major SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS vibes. He makes that whole ordeal look like nothing, and this was *after* he took on a governor and his soldiers.

The very subtle midnight-to-dawn transition as the giant fight unfolds. For whatever reason, it makes the coffee bit even more clever to me.

The shot of Puss running down the rope holding the bell, in mid-air? A companion piece to "What's Up Danger?" from SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE. Also the shot of him 360-ing in the air before skewering the giant with his sword... That, too.

Death being visible in the background during the fight has already been pointed out ad naseum, but I want to point out something else... Something that was actually bugging me, until I thought of an explanation... Okay, so... The bell that crushes Puss. The wider end is hanging above Puss, yet when the bell falls? It fell sideways, despite hanging straight down. You know, the open end of the bell was facing downward. If it had detached from the rope and fell on Puss, he could've survived if the ringer didn't hit him... And that position of the bell is visible in the shots of the defeated giant... But since Death was there... Did Death magically make the bell fall that way? It's established that Death is fed up with Puss for not only mocking him, but also not valuing the other lives he lost. So maybe he magically made that bell fall in a way that it could crush Puss? Just to get it over with and not have to wait any longer for that cat to put himself in another potentially deadly situation? Thus leading him to his last life and Death's incentive to finish off Puss once and for all? Maybe?? Or am I nitpicking or looking too into this?

The continuity nods to not only the SHREK sequels, but also PUSS IN BOOTS Uno. The flashbacks Puss has when he encounters Death for the first time seem to imply that the events of PUSS IN BOOTS took place "after" SHREK 2, maybe even SHREK THE THIRD and SHREK FOREVER AFTER... Despite the implication that it was a prequel? I rewatched PUSS IN BOOTS a few weeks ago, and even that movie - sans the flashbacks/Humpty backstory - is rather vague on when it is set. Puss never mentions Shrek, Donkey, etc.... But weirdly, it could possibly take place after SHREK 2 at the very least?

Speaking of the first PUSS IN BOOTS... I'm now willing to know what the geography is of the SHREKverse. Where Shrek's swamp is, Far Far Away, San Ricardo from PUSS IN BOOTS, Del Mar from this movie's opening scene... Like where is everything in relation to one another? Are DreamWorks gonna make some sort of SHREK lexicon or map of the world that tells us more about this stuff?

A nice sense of pace when Puss stays at Mama Luna's place. We even get a passage of time there, which isn't so common in a lot of modern animated movies whose whole storylines seem to be over in 2-3 days.

Papa Bear singing a random ditty while interrogating Mama Luna with her own piano.

The town where Big Jack Horner's factory is: A very grimy and industrial-looking place for a SHREK series locale. It's fascinating even if we see very little of it. Seems like a crumby place to live.

Big Jack Horner's "Wanted" poster... The hell is THAT face?

Ya know, about the "Wanted" posters... I like that the film, despite leaning harder into fairy tales/fantasy than the first PUSS IN BOOTS, retains that Wild West/old-school adventure movie vibe from the first one with the Wanted posters and some of the score. "Fearless Hero" in particular. Like, this is still firmly in Puss' Wild West/Three Musketeers/Zorro/etc. roots.

Horner's quick snaps: "TAKE IT TO THE TROPHY ROOM!" "MAKE WITH THE BOX!" He's probably the most neurotypical character in this thing.

The Serpent Sisters are a lot of fun, especially the not-so-bright-one. Would've liked to have seen more of these two... Oh well, maybe in a prequel/spin-off short. They really reminded me of the twins from HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON. Hey, maybe DreamWorks could make a Goldilocks/3 Bears prequel where they had run-ins with these sisters.

One of Kitty Softpaw's attack moves is literally grabbing enemies by the insides out their mouths, like she's a dentist or something, and hurling them like they're frisbees. Humans twice her size, even! Her and Puss would've eviscerated Thanos.

Death's sudden appearances throughout the film... He's like the pterodactyl from JOUST, or Bendy from BENDY AND THE INK MACHINE. There is no beating him, and he'll just randomly appear... It's handled so effectively each time out.

Their take on the "cute eyes" scene. With the pushed art style and new approach to the animation, they really, REALLY push this gag for both Puss and Kitty, and even for Perrito when he finally masters the cute eyes.

Everything about the dark forest, really. In my Letterboxd review, I noted how this film was unique to the other SHREK films and the first PUSS IN BOOTS movie, in that it really just took on this very dreamy and airy feel. Something about it felt so ethereal in a way. Again, going back to the title card... It truly felt like a fantasy world, a fairy tale. This, to me, is evident in the scenes of Goldilocks being entranced by the Nostalgic Pines and Puss' confession to Kitty Softpaws when they're climbing a tall tree. Just all the shot compositions and color work and score, it's perfection. This is still a funny and farcical upside-down fairy tale world, but it's markedly different from the other SHREKs because of this.

Much has been written and said about the panic attack scene already, but what I particularly liked was how Puss runs through the woods for a bit, imagining the trees as Death looming. It is very reminiscent of the scene in SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS when Snow White, upon learning her stepmother wants her dead, runs through the forest and imagines all of the trees as gnarly monsters. Much like the scene in SNOW WHITE, PUSS IN BOOTS 2 doesn't lighten it with comedy or a gag. It is played straight, and Perrito coming to the rescue is not dissimilar to how the forest critters came to comfort a crying, frightened Snow White. Again, a night-and-day difference from how the other SHREK movies covered fairy tales. (And especially how the SHREKs “satirized” Disney's takes on those stories.)

The little song that Goldi, Baby Bear, and Papa Bear break into when approaching the illusion of their old home, dancing in a circle. It's like a nice little moment that those characters have together, establishing their connection and their little family quirks and such. It only lasts like a few seconds, but it's such a charming little moment.

The library card in the book of fairy tales Goldi used to read.

Nice callback to the dance-off from the first PUSS IN BOOTS when escaping Goldi and the bears.

"Oi like the cut of 'is jib!"

Is that an ACE ATTORNEY reference in a SHREK movie?

Such ace economy and pacing in the climactic final battle, with every section carefully thought out and so much being paid off, all the little details. It's just right. Three tones handled down pat, with seamless transitioning between the three: Kinetic action for everyone fighting, intense/scary when Death shows up, and then thrilling and heroic when "Team Friendship" defeat Jack Horner.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few details, which I'll put on here when they come to me, haha... But yeah, I loved PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH.

[rayghosts]

tobey!peter/"peter 2" from no way home is the same character as peter b. parker from into the spider-verse

idk if anyone has pointed this out yet, but it's heavily implied that tobey maguire's peter parker is the same character as peter b parker from spiderverse. this is obvious in spiderverse, since it explicitly shows scenes drawn from the raimi trilogy movies, but it's also hinted at in no way home that peter 2 is familiar with the multiverse and that the stuff that peter b went through may be canon to his experiences.

in spiderverse:

into the spider-verse opens with a bunch of scenes of miles's universe's peter parker (a.k.a. blonde peter a.k.a. RIPeter) shown in situations inspired by the spiderman movies tobey starred in, but all of them are slightly different from how they happened; like how he punched the car instead of diving away, or how mj was upside down during the kiss instead of the other way around. everything in miles's universe is slightly different from our own, while everything in peter b's universe is the same as ours--proof being that the brands in miles's universe (e.g. “koca-soda”) are parodies while the brands in peter b's universe (e.g. “coca-cola”) are the real thing (the one exception is sony, which exists in both universes because self-advertisement).

so it's logical to assume that, if blonde peter's timeline is slightly different from the tobey maguire movies, then peter b's timeline must be exactly the same. this is supported by peter b's own flashbacks, where some scenes--like the spiderman and mj kissing scene--are closer to how they were in the tobey maguire movies than blonde peter’s. not to mention his life is utterly miserable in comparison with blonde peter's, which fits in with blonde peter's flashback scenes being idealized versions of the tobey maguire movies while the movies themselves are utterly miserable.

also, i don't have a source for this, but i'm pretty sure that back when spiderverse was still in production, tobey maguire was considered for voicing peter b. so it's pretty much canon that peter b is based on tobey's spiderman.

in no way home:

both andrew garfield's peter and tobey maguire's peter are pulled into tom holland's peter's universe in spiderman: no way home. however, while andrew!peter freaks out over the confirmation of the multiple universes theory, tobey!peter is pretty much unfazed about being in a parallel universe. in fact, he immediately recognizes that another version of himself must exist here and goes to seek him out. sort of seems like it's not his first time dealing with alt universe versions of himself, no?

andrew: “wow... string theory, multidimensional reality, and matter displacement... all real. i knew it!”

tobey: “this might seem kind of weird, but i’ve been trying to find your friend ever since i got here. i just had this sense that... he needs my help.”

additionally, there is a scene later on where andrew!peter asks tobey!peter about whether he has a significant other back home.

tobey: "uh, it's a little complicated."

andrew: “no, i understand. i guess it’s just not in the cards for guys like us.”

tobey: "well, i wouldn't give up. it took a while, but we made it work."

this mirrors the arc that peter b went through in spiderverse regarding his own mj. in spiderverse, peter and mj got divorced due to disagreements about having kids, but were shown to try and reconcile at the end of the film.

was this intentional? it seems to me like peter 2 is meant to be taken as the same character as peter b, and that no way home takes place after his experiences in spiderverse. the peter parker that tobey maguire plays is the same peter parker that jake johnson voiced. or at least that's what i believe based on my observations. *matpat voice* but hey, that's just a theory. a fil-- *gets shot*