#that things a work of magic. lightning in a bottle. etc

[heartbeatbookclub]

you fool.... i see all...

so have you ever .... dyed your hair? even a streak or smth?

would you rather get more ddlc content but the girls will go through an even worse time, or would you prefer staying in the happy world of the side stories?

I see enough, anon. Stare too long into the abyss and it stares back, I'm afraid. In fact...that reblog might have been bait. Tactically disguised as a stealth mission. And you might have fallen for it, hook line and sinker.

I dyed my hair several times back in middle-high school, actually! Each time I went fully red, which is, funny enough, where the Red part of the name on my main comes from. Each one turned out different shades, which I have several pictures of, somewhere, but instead, here's a loose doodle of what they looked like.

1. First time, went shockingly well. Did it when my hair was shorter, went swimming in a heavily chlorinated pool and it washed out to 2. Roots also grew out (one of my first times growing out my hair) and ended up being more like frosted tips after a while.

3. Redyed it again at least once I'm pretty sure. This got washed out again but to a much lesser degree, and I cut it all off much later because bleaching it made it feel ratty as hell.

4. Dyed it without bleaching it. Looked weirdly nice, but significantly darker than the others (my hair is naturally brown). It also lasted longer from what I remember. Eventually I cut it off. After that I seriously tried growing out my hair and that was interesting. Got to a point where strangers would mistake me for a woman.

As for the second, I think it would depend what the suffering of the first option entailed.

If it can at all capture what it felt like to play the base game for the first time, I'll take that. Else, I want more Side Stories shenanigans.

[buriedpentacles]

Do you have any resources/thoughts on storm spirits?

I’m studying in the American south and we’re at the tail end of hurricane season now. The last three months we’ve had three tropical storms, a hurricane, water spouts, and a tornado.

The first tropical storm, I went outside to scream bc I was furious abt my work. (It’s like they’re trying to get ppl to quit. I’ve worked there less than a year and a half and I’ve been here longer than 80% of the ppl I work with, including my manager.) But I was screaming and it felt like the storm was screaming with me. It was great to have a companion in my anger; I usually just bottle it up, I’ve never done anything like this before. The lightning was huge, the thunder deafening, and the rain so thick you could barely see across the street.

I was kinda egging it on, being like “yeah, fuck them! Cmon!” Which felt great but there were times were I was like “maybe I bit off more than I can chew.” Lightning hit the top of our building twice. The whole world went white and I genuinely couldn’t hear for a minute.

I know storms are dangerous and versatile and I had no intention of trying to control it, but in the future, is there anything I could do to spiritually prepare?

Now I want to say that I usually live in a place that gets hurricanes so I took all the physical precautions. Standing three feet from the front door under the concrete awning so I wasn’t even in the rain, no metal, no umbrella, first aid kit, water, and nonperishable food stockpiled upstairs, etc

I apologise for taking so long to answer - things have been HECTIC for me!!

If there's anyone who works with storms/weather magic/spirits more regularly, or has experience with hurricane spirit specifically PLEASE feel free to reply, comment etc and add your thoughts and suggestions!!

First, I live in the UK - we certainly have stormy weather but are not used to dangerous storms like hurricanes so I cannot provide a lot of practical advice that you won't already know. When working with any sort of natural disaster, you MUST take the necessary precautions. Research, Research, Research. Listen to locals and experienced storm-farers and prioritse your safety above all else (though it seems you're well educated and prepared). Storms are fierce and powerful, they definitely align strongly with extremely strong emotions like anger and a LOT of other practitioners (including myself) see them as a companion to our anger, as you said. Some practitioners do specialise in weather magic and seek to control storms - I don't nor do I reccomend it, they're not easily controlled and their energy often retaliates against attempts. However, from my experience any form of weather spirit prefers offerings of emotion over physical offerings (though they don't go amiss). Give up your anger to a storm, let your emotions be washed off by rain, present your soul and feelings while you bask in the sun. To spiritually prepare for storm work, I would say figure out what you want from it. If you give the storm a unbridled yet undirected push of anger, you get a powerful burst of energy that goes everywhere. Focus your anger, find your intention. Do you want to simply release your feelings, give them up to be whisked away by the storm? Let that intention be made clear. Are you asking the storm to give you energy? Make sure that is clear, offer an exchange of your feelings for their power.* Do you want to ask the storm a question? Make clear how you want the answer to be presented.

Storms have a lot of powerful and wonderful energy, sometimes its nice to just sit and watch and experience it. Make sure that intention is also clear, let the storm know you are simply a respectful admirer. *This is where you may want to collect storm water or have a set item that will "store" this energy to be used later. Or you can choose to ask the storm to imbue YOU with their power in the form of confidence or righteous anger.

[hinge]

Hinge presents an anthology of love stories almost never told. Read more on https://no-ordinary-love.co

[twig-tea]

Get To Know Me Tag

Tagged by @telomeke @lurkingshan @my-rose-tinted-glasses @he-is-lightning-in-a-bottle and @hyeoni-comb thank you all! 💕

Do you make your bed?

I like a messy bed, it feels more welcoming to me somehow. The only time I make my bed is when I'm without heat and it's winter, then you gotta do it to keep in any residual warmth! But normally I'd rather keep everything loose.

What’s your favorite number?

I....don't think I have one? Is this a thing people have, how do you choose?

What is your job?

I manage a team of Product Owners in the Operations division of a multinational company. In other words, I go to a lot of meetings.

If you could go back to school, would you?

Absolutely not. Beyond the fact that I was formerly a substantive editor of university textbooks, which included both editing the textbook content and sometimes writing their ancillaries (tests, powerpoint slides, etc.) so it feels like I took first-year Sociology at least ten times, I just don't love formalized education. I love learning but on my own terms and at my own pace.

Can you parallel park?

I can't drive at all! Technically I learned how, took lessons and everything, but never got my license.

A job you had that would surprise people?

Hmm. I was a call center person for half a day, it was terrible and I left without getting paid for the work I did because I was so eager to get out of there I didn't want to fight them for my pay (even though I needed the money which is why I was there in the first place). I hate phone calls, I can't hear well on the phone, and it was clear the call center script was designed to be exploitative. It was one of the worst jobs for me I could have taken lol

Do you think aliens are real?

I think it's extremely likely!

Can you drive a manual car?

Nope, even when I learned, it was only on an automatic.

What’s your guilty pleasure?

I'm not guilty about it but I can decimate an entire family size mac and cheese when I'm feeling down.

Tattoos?

I have 3 tattoos; one on each foot and one on the back of my neck. They form a rainbow.

Favorite color?

Blue-green! The shade of preference for any given moment varies, but anything in the region from mint to aqua to teal to turquoise will do; I love them all.

Favorite type of music?

My music taste varies widely but the common denominators are 1) fast tempo or upbeat, 2) solid harmonies, and 3) if there's a tempo or key change I am doubly sold.

Do you like puzzles?

Love puzzles of all kinds. I have a collection of jigsaw puzzles I do regularly, and word puzzles, logic puzzles, sudoku type stuff is all very fun. I don't make a lot of time for them but I do them occasionally and always enjoy it.

Any phobias?

I am afraid of falling. Not heights, but falling. The difference is: I can lean over the railing at the top of a 20-storey building or walk on a glass floor over a big drop and just feel a minor thrill, but am terrified to the point of maybe crying if I have to balance on a single step of a ladder or walk across a patch of ice. I had several brushes with death related to falling when I was a kid, and a few bad falls that caused injury as an adult, so it makes sense. Luckily I am pretty tall so I rarely have to do any kind of ladder-ing!

Favorite childhood sport?

American-style tackle football. We used to play at lunch on the pavement because the soccer kids got the field; we played in all seasons including snow, and we did it for love of the sport. I loved it a lot.

Do you talk to yourself?

Occasionally I'll provide a little commentary on what's happening aloud to myself; but I don't really have fully conversations.

What movies do you adore?

I have loved a lot of movies in my time! A few random ones that come to mind right now because I've been thinking about them for whatever reason are Saving Face (2004), Monster (2023), Practical Magic (1998), Moonlight (2016), and Clue (1985).

Coffee or tea?

Despite my username being a type of tea, in this as in all things I am a perfect Kinsey 3. Love both equally and drink a ton of both (coffee more regularly, tea in greater volume).

First thing you wanted to be growing up?

Lifeguard, I think! And then when I was in elementary school I wanted to edit textbooks (I was that kid who got annoyed whenever there were mistakes), so I did actually get to do my childhood dream job.

No pressure tags just going with vibes based on who I've interacted with recently (if you've done this already tag me in the comments!): @rocketturtle4 @visualtaehyun @sollucets @troubled-mind @jimmysea @ginnymoonbeam

[lol-jackles]

Hello! I don’t suppose you watch Bridgerton, but something a little strange has happened there this season that I wanted your opinion on. Luke Newton (Colin Bridgerton) and Nicola Coughlan (Penelope Featherington) were leading this season, as each of the Bridgerton siblings has their own season. So this season was Colin’s, a friends-to-lovers trope.

Now, the way Luke and Nicola carried out press tours was *chef’s kiss*, handholding, talking about how they’d be jealous of each other’s future co-stars cuz they were each other’s leading people first, etc. Even the jealousy trope played out in the actual season was used as a quick, fun bait for fans during such interviews where if Penelope’s other suitor (Lord Debling) was talked about, Luke would act bothered. In short, they were perfectly in sync with each other and were all set for a beautiful season.

Understandably, the formula worked and people couldn’t be more excited for this supposed lightning in a bottle chemistry. But once the show opened, there seemed nothing there! It couldn’t really translate to the screen. The much muchhh hyped sex scenes (it was a running joke that the director ywlled ‘cut!’ but luke and nicola still kept going cause they hadn’t heard them, seemingly so lost in each other, and also another time that they broke furniture filming a scene) seem awkward at best. Rather than coming across as two people who have long known each other and so find security through extending their companionship into a romantic relationship, what we got came across as two teenagers engaging in an awkward, horny one night stand.

Netflix’s comments section is filled with people bashing them for different reasons. Perhaps they didn’t give their leads enough screen time in their own season, maybe they cut down on their steamy scenes, etc etc. but still, the scenes they did get together, like i said, didn’t do anything for the audience in the first place. On the contrary Kate and Anthony, the season 2 leads, have outstanding chemistry and during the moments they popped up this season, totally stole away the room.

This has got me thinking, why couldn’t the press tour magic translate on screen? And are there any notable instances where the red carpet/ on-screen disparity has come out so notably?

The romantic leads of the previous seasons went through chemistry auditions, so they were casted precisely because they have chemistry with each other. Nicola and Luke were cast primarily for their characters, and I doubt they went through chemistry auditions because producers didn't know if there will be more seasons as the odds are against any new shows. #NetflixCancelsEverything exist for a reason.

If fans found the sexual chemistry between Penelope and Colins lacking, then it's probably for the same reason why Friends Rachel and Joey hook up in season 6 had zero chemistry. While I'm sure Matt LeBlanc was game, Jennifer Aniston had worked with and known Matt for 6 years and saw him in the friend-brother zone. It was awkward for her. By the time Bridgerton season 3 rolled around, Nicola had worked and known Luke for 5-odd years and she saw him in the friend-brother-zone. It's awkward for her and Luke picked up on it and acts accordingly. I'm not blaming Jennifer or Nicola, I blame the writer/showrunner for seemingly forgetting two things: 1) just because a woman has friendly chemistry with men does not automatically mean romantic interest. It's a bane for many women in real life that their niceness gets misinterpreted by men to mean sexual opportunities, and 2) women friend-zone men for non-negotiable reason, because women are innately more selective because they have to be because the risks are so much higher for them than men.

Full disclaimer: with all three seasons I watch the first two or three episodes and then skip to the eighth episode. My nieces watched S1 first two episodes over one of the holidays at my house and while somewhat intrigued, I quickly figure out they were going to go through all the romantic tropes, so it was a nope for me, but I had to find out who Lady Whistledown was and skipped to the final episode. A habit I kept for the following 2 seasons and Queen Charlotte.

ETA: I liked how Penelope wanted to find a husband in order to get away from her own family, only for her marriage to actually draw her closer to her blood family by healing some of the rifts, and then saving her mother and paying for her sister's dream ball.

[stinklebug]

it's been a while since i last talked about Lightning in a Bottle! for folks who don't know, that's my fantasy au (i kept the sci-fi elements, though, because i think that's more fun). since i'm going to get back to working on it soon, i figured i ought to do so!

so here's some stuff about it! starting with the Magic

there are 9 elements that all magic is connected to and comes from in some way: earth, plant, fire, water, air, ice, electricity, light, and shadow. there are variants of these, as well, such as blood, void, metal, etc., but variants do not have elementals that naturally exist of them. it is possible to create one, though

most mythical entities are some type of elemental. they can be any kind, it's not limited to what they are. for instance, mimosa, who is a harpy, is an ice elemental.

spells can be cast an infinite number of ways. it's simply a matter of knowing How. for example, chai casts spells via singing/playing instruments, but he also casts using drawings

anyone and anything can learn how to use magic.

only elementals are naturally born with it

angels and demons have their own unique types of magic that cannot be used by anything else. for angels, it's angelic/holy; for demons, it's demonic/sinful.

not necessarily about how magic works, but magic and tech are extremely intertwined in this world. most tech is made using magic in some form and has magical components

and some things about summoning to follow that up!

only angels and demons can be summoned

all summonings require a sacrifice of some kind. the sacrifice must be something that has meaning to the summoner

much like with casting, there are a lot of ways to summon. a common and easy method is filling a bowl with water. can be any kind, even the dirtiest, filthiest water in a cracked bowl

if you want to summon someone specific, you have to be more particular about the actual setup of the summoning. it requires at least One thing that belongs to whoever you're summoning

when a demon/angel is summoned, they are Always covered in blood.

alright, now about the Setting!

vandelay technologies? more like vandelay City!

roxanne is the founder and was basically the mayor, before kale made spectra and took over. macaron was part of the city council.

instead of departments, there's districts! there's the factory district, magic district, artist district, business district...and then all the other ones that aren't important to the overall story

next up: Characters!

chai is an electric demon. he gets summoned by peppermint to help her get into vandelay city. he specializes in electric (obviously), metal, demonic, and blood magic.

the vandelays and macaron are all humans. they all know magic

peppermint has Known about kale's takeover for a while, but hasn't been able to get into the city due to the gatekeeper (qa-1mil, who is named gk-1mil in this au). so she traveled around for a bit, trying to get more intel. she specializes in light and metal magic

macaron still lives in the city, now with his awesome cool robot cnmn. he specializes in earth and metal magic

rekka is an earth centaur. she specializes in earth (of course) and metal magic. she's in charge of the factory district

zanzo's an elf who specializes in water and metal magic. he's in charge of the magic district. he still has a lab; it's hidden in a cave behind a waterfall.

korsica's a...human. she specializes in air and blood magic. she's not in charge of any of the districts; security is Everywhere

mimosa's an ice harpy. she specializes in ice and air magic. she's in charge of the artist district

roquefort's a werewolf, of course. he specializes in earth and shadow magic. he's in charge of the business district.

kale's in charge of the city, and he specializes in fire, electric, light, and metal magic. lots of variety, i'll give him that

roxanne specializes in light, metal, and electric magic. she's somewhere. probably.

cnmn and 808 can't use magic (though they Can learn how to, as stated previously), but they are powered by electric magic. same goes for all of the robots

everyone knows Other Types of magic, too, they just aren't as proficient in them as the ones i specifically mentioned

that's about everything i can think of right now. if you have any questions, feel free to ask away! :]

[vro0m]

merc are desperately looking for that lightning in a bottle they have w Lewis. they've banked a lot on RUS but (in my personal opinion) Russell cannot fully extract the raw speed HAM does out of the car (he has been consistently slower on race pace for about half/a tenth in both seasons) and that is starting to eat him up inside when on track. He has a lot of potential and needs to focus more on his strengths rather than beating his teammate outright cause it is not happening. I have a lot of faith in the kid and I don't wanna see him trip himself up this early in his career

End of the ask posted afterwards : "btw off track I believe George has a ton of respect for Lewis, it's nothing personal"

Okay it became a long answer in the end so I'm putting it under a cut but TL;DR 50% agreed and 50% disagreed.

I think you're being a bit unfair to him.

For starters, I don't believe Mercedes is expecting him to be as good as Lewis, because I think they are fully aware that there is no such thing as another driver like Lewis. Doesn't mean they don't have expectations for George, but I don't believe for one second they hired him thinking he would outperform Lewis, and in any case not that quickly. First of all because, again, they know Lewis is a once in a generation driver ; second of all because Lewis is Merc's n°1 driver whether they admit it or not.

George is doing well. George won a GP in Merc's worst ever car. Yes there were circumstances around that, but there always are. Victories never happen in a vacuum. He's been pretty consistent. He's doing okay given the current car and compared to the rest of the grid.

Because yeah, the current car is still not good and that's a big factor. Lewis has 12 years of experience on him to make it work anyway. What is raw speed? You cannot realistically separate natural talent (whatever that is,I won't deny some drivers seem to have a magic touch but historically it's not necessarily a permanent quality and it generally doesn't significantly beat the state of the car) and experience, that allows to understand the car, know how to drive the circuits, know what works for you in terms of set-up, etc. The only way you could genuinely compare them is if they'd started at the same time in the same car. As this is not possible, you can't put aside the fact that Lewis is a veteran and George is still, actually, a newbie.

I do agree more with the second part of your ask. As I said in a different ask I do believe George to be slightly over-eager although it makes complete sense that he is. It's natural. He's a racing driver. He has an opportunity. He's gonna do what it takes. I think what's happening is

The car is legitimately difficult to drive and more than just that it's unstable, as in : they seem to still not be quite able to predict how it's gonna behave from one track to the next. It's frustrating, and experience does play a big part in that part of the equation.

I do personally believe there's some extent of him just going through what all teammates of Lewis go through aka realising that no, you're not that different from your predecessors that you're gonna be The One Who Does It And Beat Him. (And we're back to fan favorite blog subject : Lewis breaking his teammates.)

Concerning the second point, it might be a particularly difficult wake up call this year because he did finish ahead last year, firstly because, again, he is good ; secondly, because of non negligible circumstances re: car development and all that that we all know about.

I'm gonna give him grace about the mistakes he's currently making, not that he's making many of them in the first place, because he is learning. Lewis himself made so many mistakes on his way to were he is. On and off track. That's just part of the process, they all go through it.

As you somewhat point out, I do think he needs to be careful on the mental side of things to not, just as you are doing in this ask, compare himself to the incomparable and psych himself out like others before him did.

My advice to him, not than anyone asked and that I have any authority to give any, would be that Lewis won't be here forever, and in the meantime he should focus on learning rather than outright trying to beat him. In the end, you can't achieve the second without the first anyway.

[hinge]

Hinge presents an anthology of love stories almost never told. Read more on https://no-ordinary-love.co

[koifishstick]

firstly,

i absolutely adore ur posts. in love. you made me wanna get back to my hogwarts dr (which I ignored for quite some time). Mwah.

ALSO,

🥐 : CROISSANT . . . create a mood board of you in the beginning years of your desired reality vs years after you’ve experienced it. you could include your face claim, favorite color, clothing style, etc.

have a good day !!

first of all thank you thank you thank you for the ask!! (you are my first ask on this account) xo you are so sweet kajkfdhajkhdfdasf———since my hogwarts content has been making you feel inspired, ill use my hogwarts uni dr for this prompt. ps. i have updated my intro post to clarify on my boundaries, but i appreciate your follow up ask SO MUCH. x

🥐 : CROISSANT . . . create a mood board of you in the beginning years of your desired reality vs years after you’ve experienced it. you could include your face claim, favorite color, clothing style, etc.

baked goods ask game

des goldstein ─── journal entry 186 ⋆ september 02, 2025

well, i’m officially here, and—hogwarts is everything i dreamed of and more. the castle is bigger than i remember from my visits as a kid, and the moment i stepped through those great oak doors, i swear i felt the magic in my bones. i’m here. i made it. and merlin’s beard, i am going to make the absolute most of it.

my room in the dormitory is cozy, though i’ve already managed to clutter it with books, bits of parchment, and a collection of interesting twigs i found on the grounds (don’t judge—could be part of a nest, could be a wand prototype, who knows?). i’ve met my housemates, and they seem nice enough, but i’m far more interested in the creatures on the grounds than the people inside the walls.

today was my first care of magical creatures lesson, and i swear i almost kissed hagrid on the mouth when he started talking about thunderbirds. the way their feathers shimmer when they move, like bottled lightning—ugh, absolute perfection. if i ever get to work with one, i can die happy.

oh, and i may or may not have already gotten in trouble for sneaking down to the forbidden forest to try and spot a thestral herd. in my defense, it’s not illegal, just “strongly discouraged.” also, fun fact: if you crouch low enough, bowtruckle families will absolutely take interest in your hair. i may have a new friend. his name is twigsy, and he’s currently living in the pocket of my robes. i don’t think i’m supposed to have him.

i have a feeling this is going to be the best time of my life.

des goldstein ─── journal entry 1,011 ⋆ april 03, 2032

it’s quiet tonight. the kind of quiet you only get in the highlands—where the wind rolls over the hills like a whispered spell, where the grass sways as if it's listening. jonah’s inside, fixing up dinner, and i’m out in the greenhouse, hands deep in enchanted soil. my latest experiment? crossbreeding moonlilies with whispering violets. if i do this right, i might just end up with a flower that hums lullabies when the wind catches it just right.

our little burrow is coming together. it’s warm, full of charm, and has just the right amount of creaky floorboards to make it feel alive. no little feet running across them yet, but… maybe soon? we’ve talked about it. imagined what it might be like to have a little one running wild, barefoot in the grass, learning to call hippogriffs by name. i don’t know when, but the thought doesn’t scare me like it used to.

work has been insane lately. just last week, i apparated halfway across scotland to help a wounded graphorn. poor thing had gotten tangled in some cursed brambles, and it took every bit of patience (and a few well-placed calming charms) to get him free. he’s safe now, recovering in a reserve where he won’t have to worry about poachers. moments like that make all the long nights, all the studying, all the hard work—worth it.

sometimes they bring creatures to me instead. i built an enclosure out back, reinforced with all the best spells to keep patients safe and sound while they heal. last month, i had a baby occamy in there, all tangled up in its own wings. little thing wouldn’t stop hissing at me, but by the end of the week, it was curling up in my hands like i was its mother.

i never thought i’d settle down. never thought i’d find someone who could match my wild, restless heart. but jonah? he gets me. he knows i’ll come home smelling like smoke after wrangling a runaway fire crab, or covered in scratches from a fussy manticore cub, and he’ll just laugh, shake his head, and kiss me anyway.

the stars are bright tonight. i think i’ll stay out here a little longer, let the wind tell me stories, let the flowers whisper secrets. tomorrow, i might have to chase down a rogue kelpie or patch up a wounded chimera, but tonight? tonight, i am home.

black/gold star/moon divider here my apologies, i do not know where the glitter star divider is from ♡

[hautsreadsmarvel]

Lightning (Round) Strikes Thrice

Nearly everything I write about below bears my stamp of disapproval.

Thor, more like bore

Aside from this sick image of Loki revealing himself to the Cobra and Mr. Hyde, BAD “Every Hand Against Him!” has nothing new to differ itself from prior Thor issues, and it retains many of their problems. Hero with static, cookie-cutter “I shall fight the evil wherever it may strike my fair city” personality; villains who do villainy for villain reasons (you wouldn’t understand); forced and trite love triangle consisting of the hero, a completely flat FemaleTM, and the hero again; random Odin deus ex machina, either to solve the plot or add forced drama where it feels like if he had just bothered looking into Thor’s circumstances just a little more he would make a totally different decision; Thor can manipulate time via Mjolnir, but like Cesar Catilina does fuck-all with it; etc.

The follow-up issue, MEH “The Power of the Thunder God!” has similarly gnarly art (at least on the cover), but is also similarly lacking in merit. It tries to alternate between advancing Thor’s fight with Cobra & Mr. Hyde and the tangentially-related adventures of Balder in Asgard. However, the entire plot of Balder’s section is predicated on Odin’s mercurial whims and his unwillingness to literally think or do anything that would resolve the plot instantly when Loki does plenty of things that should make him incredibly suspicious. Also, Balder is kind of boring. He’s a god, but he’s the divine equivalent of “just some guy”. Thor’s fight is alright, but at one point he suddenly reveals that due to spending “a few months” in the presence of Iron Man, he’s learned enough about Earth technology to rapidly rewire a laser beam trap into discharging stunning electricity thru the entirety of the building it’s stored in. Sure, I guess Thor gets to be a super-scientist too, is he going to stock up on gadgets and make his own power armor now?

Still holding out for a single good Hulk issue

While The Mighty Thor is hounded by longstanding issues that have built up over the course of its run, The Incredible Hulk is a brand-new series which is… just as banal. The characters are possibly flatter than those in Thor, the fights are simplistic and unexciting, it gets increasingly unbelievable that nobody sees the Hulk transform (unlike Thor, whose transformation is always accompanied by a blinding flash and assisted by his fantastic speed), and the Hulk’s intelligence, desire to harm humanity or help people, and strength level are all incredibly inconsistent from page to page. At least BAD “Captured At Last!” introduces Glenn Talbot (of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. fame; I have no idea if that show holds up to my nostalgia for it, but I liked it when it was coming out) as an investigator sent by the Pentagon to tail Banner for ambiguous reasons.

BAD “Enter… the Chameleon!” technically introduces the Leader, a mysterious masked antagonist working on a homunculus he thinks can take on the Hulk, but that has no bearing on the plot. Instead, the Chameleon infiltrates the base where the Hulk is being held by nigh-unbreakable chains, and impersonates various characters to steal Banner’s military tech secrets. He is obviously foiled, the Hulk is prevented from harming anyone, the Hulk routinely saves people despite the narration constantly pushing how misanthropic and murderous he is, nothing comes of Talbot’s inclusion, none of the characters change, agh.

Thor + Hulk is magic in a bottle, though

Journey Into Mystery merges both its tepid titles into one issue, ENJOYABLE “The Mighty Thor Battles the Incredible Hulk!” Thor gets to tell some teens (I assume these are teens rather’n adults because they have the same hairstyles and clothing as Rick Jones and his Teen Brigade) an extended version of his duel with the Hulk from back when the Avengers battled the Hulk & Sub-Mariner. All this issue is interested in offering is action, and by the gods, it delivers it.

He fights his country’s battles in the air, on land, and sea

That’s right, Captain America gets the stamp of disapproval too.

In REALLY BAD “The Army of Assassins Strikes!” Zemo sends a meager cohort to non-lethally subdue Captain America. Excellent title, folks. Obviously Cap runs rings around normal McDudes, but there’s also a solid page worth of Rick Jones, the Astonishingly Average American Adolescent, defeating them in one-on-one hand-to-hand combat before successfully running away from them. It really just makes the ‘assassins’ seem like losers, and also c’mon, can we just ditch Rick Jones already?

Depending on how the next few Cap issues pan out, I might move his series to the 'skipped' section.

[negative-speedforce]

Ngl, I still think of Siv everytime I listen to The Prophecy. It’s just so her

It's so them tho???? And yes, I am about to use this as an excuse to do a full lyrical analysis of why it's her.

Hand on the throttle/Thought I caught lightning in a bottle/Oh, but it's gone again

After Gina's murder, Siv thought she'd never find love again. Then, Hailey crashlanded into her life and Siv fell hard and fast. However, when Hailey found out the truth, that they were actually the supervillain that she'd been hunting for months, their shaky rapport fell apart.

And it was written/I got cursed like Eve got bitten/Oh, was it punishment?

Siv sees her powers as a curse. She didn't ask to be the way that they are, and the more "eldritch" side of their powers are absolutely terrifying and near-impossible for them to control. She definitely sees that lack of control as a punishment for their failure to save Gina.

Pad around when I get home/I guess a lesser woman would've lost hope/A greater woman wouldn't beg/But I looked to the sky and said

Siv isn't one to dip into hopelessness. But they are well known for their desperation and loneliness. The fragile line between good and evil that Siv walks is a lonely one, and all she wants is to be known and loved.

Please/I've been on my knees/Change the prophecy

Siv's actually the subject of a prophecy! If you've been sticking around for long enough, you'll know that Morgan Stevens, the previous leader of the Akintola-Stevens coven and Cassandra's uncle, died overdosing on his own magic trying to rewrite the future that he saw- one where the future rests on Siv, who he saw as mentally unstable. When Siv finds out about this prophecy, it's absolutely terrifying- they didn't want this responsibility.

Don't want money/Just someone who wants my company

They're legally dead, and therefore broke af. But instead of the money that they could've inherited from Eobard, they'd rather just have someone who wants her for who she is.

Let it once be me/Who do I have to speak to/About if they can redo/The prophecy?

She's never going to admit it, but she wants nothing more than to be normal. If they could go back and keep their powers from ever manifesting, they would. Watching all their friends move on with their lives, falling in love, starting careers, graduating college, etc, while they were denied all those things feels like torment, and she's desperate for just a piece of that for herself.

Cards on the table/Mine play out like fools in a fable, oh/It was sinking in

The "fools in a fable" are Siv and Gina. Gina made her choice to not tell her girlfriend about Eobard's plans, but Siv blames herself for not figuring it out themself. There's almost a mythological metaphor there, some kind of Romeo/Juliet or Orpheus/Eurydice.

Slow is the quicksand/Poison blood from the wound of the pricked hand/Oh, still I dream of him

Switch that "him" to a "her" and we get another Siv/Hailey metaphor. Siv's secrets spoiled all the work that her and Hailey had put into their relationship, which died before it could fully begin.

And I sound like an infant/Feeling like the very last drops of an ink pen

She knows she's pathetic. But they've been surviving for so long without truly living, and it's exhausting.

A greater woman stays cool/But I howl like a wolf at the moon/And I look unstable/Gathered with a coven round a sorceress' table

Siv is... not the most mentally stable person on the planet. For someone who's been through what they've been through, she's actually fairly stable, but at the same time, they're willing to try just about anything to get back the life they had before, no matter how dark that path leads.

A greater woman has faith/But even statues crumble if they're made to wait/I'm so afraid I sealed my fate/No sign of soulmates

Siv doesn't see much of a future ahead for her. As much as she's fighting for a world where she can actually feel happy, safe, and loved, they know that if they keep on the path they're on, either their thirst for revenge is going to overtake them and her and Eobard are going to continue chasing each other until they're both dead, or she'll lose herself completely to her rage and grief. Either way, the path ends with the death of the self.

I'm just a paperweight/In shades of greige/Spending my last coin so someone will tell me/It'll be ok

Borderline Personality Disorder, baby!!! Siv's a textbook case of it, and as such, she struggles with self-image and emotional regulation, going through episodes of dissociation and deep self-loathing, and they often need help from others to get through that. In those moments, their desperation for external validation (and human companionship in general) really shines through.

[lesbiannancytruther]

guess who’s back

back with a brand new ronance au, drum roll, witch au! specifically witch and familiar au

im about to blow y’all’s minds bc ik the FIRST THING y’all thought was witch!nancy familiar!robin but im turning this shit on its’ head

basic lore: witches have a pretty broad range of magic and can specialize in any field, nature/elements, emotions/personality, curses, energy, etc etc. not everyone is born a witch, it’s just less than half of the population, but witches are highly respected for their abilities and their service to their communities. some witches can cast magic with just their hands, some need to channel their energy into staffs or wands, or anything they want to really. every witch has a signature color for their magic and it always looks different (some it looks like lightning, some it looks like fire, some it looks like sparks, etc etc)

familiars are destined companions to witches that are made entirely of magic. they all have a base animal and human form and are incredibly powerful, but they can not channel their magic on their own without disastrous consequences, so they’re paired with witches who they lend their strength to. this requires a strong bond, which is why familiars are bonded to their magical “soulmate” someone who’s the best for them in every way. familiars, with their great power, are bound to their witch companions and are under their explicit command, which doesn’t go well for certain familiars. they all have an item that ties them to their witch companion, like some form of jewelry or even clothing.

ok NOW

think about it…. clumsy but surprisingly powerful witch robin that favors elemental magic, with sunset type orangish reddish pinkish magic that looks somewhat like fire, worried as fuck for the day she performs the ceremony and gets her magically destined soulmate, either platonic or romantic, that would boost her magical capabilities and officially start her on the course of going professional, just KNOWING that with her luck it would go wrong

and she thinks fate is laughing at her when a fluffy dark grey cat with silvery streaks in it’s fur and blue eyes that sparked like cut sapphires, looks absolutely MURDEROUS when it appears in front of robin. she has no idea what to do, does she hug her? pick her up? shake her paw? introduce herself? but she’s given no time to even decide because her familiar just stands up and walks down the exit hallway with this little prissy flick of her tail, making robin quickly follow out of surprise and annoyance.

safe to say it is a ROCKY start. nancy, who’s name robin learned when it was called out at the ceremony AND was etched into the tag she was handed, refused to transform to speak to her and instead chose to be a sulking menace, planting herself on robin’s highest shelf (that even robin struggled reaching) and knocked everything off in the process. robin actually almost lost her temper at the shattered remains of a few bottles of ingredients on her floor when she got over her astonishment, why was this familiar so mean? but she took a deep breath and just cleaned up the mess, not looking to make things even worse

robin is at a loss, having barely done anything or said anything to this familiar that already hates her, and she can’t help but be supremely disappointed because she needed this to work and it just wasn’t. she tried in vain to talk with her, to convince her to at least eat something or curl up on this new bed she’d gotten, anything, but nancy was firm in her stubbornness. it pissed her off, thinking about the fact that people usually got friends, even lovers out of that ceremony and robin just got another person that looked at her with scorn. it wasn’t fair, but when was anything?

this went on for about a week, putting robin in a rotten mood where she muttered about “prissy, stuck up familiars” and “shit luck” as she walked around her apartment and tried to ignore the piercing blue eyes that she knew were glaring at her in accusation. she’d been getting behind on work, hoping to smooth things over with nancy before continuing, so that they could finally work together, but that obviously wasn’t happening any time soon.

nancy hadn’t planned on moving ever, simmering with resentment and watching robin critically from her perch as she attempted to fulfill a commission for a burn serum and was struggling a bit with the finer measurements, knowing it was something she could help with, when it hit her that robin hadn’t commanded her to do a single thing.

when nancy appeared in front of her new witch companion she’d been set on hating them, despising them for everything she could. this would be the person she’d be forced to obey for the rest of her miserable life and she’d make sure they’d feel as tortured as she did, feel just as chained to her as she did to them. when she was presented with the tall, pretty witch with a slanted posture and hope in her eyes she felt her resolve slip ever so slightly, but gripped it tight in the face of what was to come.

in her anger, she’d forgotten all of what she’d been expecting, watching this witty witch mutter about prissy cats in her comfy kitchen endeared nancy to her in a way she was determined to quell, before realizing that robin hadn’t commanded her to do a single thing. not even the things that would have been for nancy’s benefit, like eating or sleeping somewhere comfortable, and it startled her. it was obvious from the past days that the thought of forcing nancy to do anything didn’t even cross robin’s mind, and before she knew what she was doing she hopped down from her perch and padded over to where robin was frustratedly looking over a potion book.

she’s certain she’s not ready to transform yet, but when robin looks down at her in real surprise she gives a helpful gesture towards robin’s tools, specifically a thin bladed knife that could be used as a wicked precise leveller. robin gives nancy a surprised “thank you” and nancy just walks over to the bed robin got and tentatively sits on the soft cushioning, watching robin with wary, but not angry, eyes. maybe there was hope for them yet.

lmk if y’all want to see more! :)

[hchollym]

hi, witches&watchers anon here. this is gonna be pretty long and feel free to ask any clarifying questions

world building stuff:

• once again taking some inspiration from the wheel of time, this is set in medieval times, so you've got kings and queens and lords and shit, along with horse drawn carriages. there are also messenger birds, but they're pigeons and the likes, not owls

• witches tend to have an easy time blending in, and they still do thanks to their watchers, but there are witch communities hidden away, and there are some witches who just live in a secluded house in the woods (ex. the weasleys)

• the schools like hogwarts, durmstrang, and beauxbatons exist and operate pretty similarly to who they do in the books, they're just slightly smaller because a lot of families tend to homeschool or send their kids to smaller schools, especially if they live in a witch only community. still, there's the "well i had a great time at hogwarts, my kid should get the same experience" or they just don't have any other schools

• i haven't figured out what is taught exactly, but it's a lot of the basics of magic and how to control it in years 1-5 (starting at 11 still), but years 6-7 are reserved for learning how to bond with a watcher and use your magic collectively (since you've got spells that require multiple witches to do, plus some rituals, and those are a pretty big deal)

• witches themselves are pretty self explanatory (although the name wizard or mage would describe them better) and they have magic and can do spellwork, but their magic is not endless and needs time to recharge, and a witch can even lose their magic if they try to do too complicated of a spell, don't rest, etc., and they are not welcomed by (most) non-magic users bc they "work with the devil" (they don't; magic is more like an energy field only some can tap into).

• watchers were mostly explained in my first ask but i feel like i should reinstate that anyone can be a watcher, including two witches looking out for each other, which has become more and more common. still, the most common watchers are people who have magic, but not enough to actually do much with (think squibs, although they're more pitied than looked down upon). the watcher having magic does make bonding with the witch a bit easier, but it also allows for a greater push and pull between them if they don't get along (cough percy&oliver cough) since the watcher isn't fully connected the the witches magic, but it can also make them stronger if they know how to play to each others strengths

• (everyone's magic is different. for example, percy cannot preform healing spells for the life of him, but he can use oliver's magic to. another example would be olivers family has more fire-centered magic, and the weasleys are more weather-centered, and oliver can make lightning strike by tapping into percy's magic)

• okay so the bonding ceremony is huge and life changing thing nowadays, but bonds only took a few minutes to start and break since witches would run over to someone they trusted and ask they to basically bottle up their magic when the witch hunters came to town. however, those bonds were temporary, and those are the kind of bonds typically used in school, except they do a little ceremony thing to make sure the witch's and watchers magic is compatible

now for a bit of plot:

• if i ever write this, it'll probably start at the beginning of their 6th year, and at the compatibility ceremony mentioned above, and that's when things get a little funky.

• i don't know all the details yet but basically percy channels his magic into a gemstone (aquamarine is what i've chosen) so it's more stable since the magic actually has a source and he's not trying to manifest it out of thin air. every witch does this at some point, and not doing it usually makes a witch go insane (once again, haven't worked out all the details)

• anyway percy's and oliver's magic are immediately drawn to each other. like, if oliver doesn't become percy's watcher, his magic might throw a temper tantrum.

• so the two kinds just. stare at each other. they don't know each other well, but oliver is putting all his focus into not face-planting because the pull percy's magic has on his us about to drag him over and yeah something weird is happening.

• but they go through the ceremony as usual and surprise surprise, percy and oliver are paired, oliver gets percy aquamarine and percy gets oliver cats eye moonstone, and it's. intense to say the least.

• now, the first few weeks are always bad, but percy and oliver can feel every little nick or paper cut the other gets and every minute change in emotion (although they can't tell what that emotion is just yet, but they can tell when it's shifted) and they have to be moved into the same dorm and have their schedules shifted around because they can't be more than ten meters apart before percy's chest starts hurting (which is a normal side effect of being away from your magic source, but it's different and no one's telling them why)

• anyway, they go through their 6th year relatively easily after a few hiccups at the beginning (and after they make a truce to work together and stay at the top of their clsss because they're competitive motherfuckers)

• but then summer comes, and percy lives in devon and oliver in rural scotland and they've just started to extend their range to opposite sides of the school, how are they gonna survive opposite sides of an island?

• yeah it's not great for them

• but they make it through and get back to hogwarts for their 7th year, and percy and oliver all but tackle each other, like they've done before after little exercises to extend their boundary, but this time percy's not reaching for his own magic for comfort, but oliver's and oh, this years gonna be different.

sorry this is so long, i just had a lot to explain, but i hope you still enjoy this little au of mine :]

Continuation of this post.

That sounds awesome! I love it. 🥰

The idea of their magic being connected is great, and being able to feel what the other is feeling could lead to some interesting scenarios. Like Percy goes all mother hen when he realizes Oliver is hungry because he forgot to eat, and Oliver loses his s*^t when he realizes Percy feels upset/hurt when the twins prank him.

I'm also picturing them being absolutely pathetic over the summer - like not wanting to get out of bed and everything reminds them of the other - "these blueberries are the same color as Percy's eyes" or "Oliver loves broomsticks" - and their families get so exasperated. 🤣

Regardless, this is a fun concept for a fic, and I hope you end up writing it! Thanks for the comment/explanation! 😊

[panlight]

okay, since siobhan is able to manifest her desired outcome and kate can literally shock people, what kind of skill did they have in their human life? i know kate was a skilled yet underrated fighter, but what about siobhan? how does being a skilled fighter turn a person into a human(ish) taser? was siobhan just an optimistic person? idk if you ever answered this question before so feel free to ignore

It's hard to say, isn't it? This is sort of why I feel like the powers got a bit off the rails in Breaking Dawn. Previously a lot of the stuff was more subtle and psychic, and more in line with classic vampire stuff. Probably Jane and Alec were the most "out there" of the powers before Breaking Dawn.

There have been jokes in fandom that maybe Kate was one of those people who always accidentally shocked someone when touching them because of static electricity, or that she had an "electric personality." But she got this gift before the concept of electricity was really a known thing, so how did they describe/talk about in 1000 eastern Europe? I suppose it would be in terms of lightning. I guess that could be another thing--maybe she was struck by lightning as a human and survived it?

With Siobhan it's even harder, since she's not even convinced she has a gift (which might be limiting its effectiveness? If she believed it in herself would that create a loop that made her even more powerful?). Could have been optimism, could have been "luck" although falls into weird stereotypes about the "the luck of the Irish" which, you know, would track for SM actually. I think we all know someone who just seems to have better luck than most--they win raffles all the time, win money on scratch tickets, find the winning bottle cap, they just so happen to get upgraded on a flight, there's a snow day the one time they didn't study for a test, etc. Maybe she was THAT person and it just intensified as a vampire, with her being able to consciously will those 'lucky' outcomes. But I also thinks she feels like her successes do more to hard work and planning, so maybe that's where it came from; she always set her mind to things and accomplished them. She wanted to be a blacksmith like her father so she did it. It might be a little bit of supernatural magic, and a little bit of just being determined and driven.

[crystalkleure]

How would Evel or Clio fare against their avatars (I know they'll die in seconds but what would be the cause of death?)

DISCLAIMER: I'm not actually pitting the bladers against their own bey avatars, because their bey avatars are Made From Their Brains -- so I'm running on the assumption that, like in MFB, the bladers possess approximately the same Supernatural Abilities that the Brain Beasts they have created do. Like, Lui's hair is sometimes on fire without ever burning him because he has that fire At His Command, and Phi similarly wasn't burned by the forest he arsoned because his Phoenix bey means he has control over fire and is thus not hurt by it, and like Zac can probably zap people on command because Zeus does lightning, etc.; so the people getting mauled by the bey avatars in these scenarios are actually just random hypothetical dudes lol. It's just Some Guy. Some Totally Unarmored Guy with no magical capabilities to speak of. Probably Some Guy who has severely pissed off the owner of the assailing bey somehow.

Now, with that being cleared up...

Evel's Orb Egis

[Side note: I think a lot of people don't realize what Egis is supposed to be -- "egis" is an alternate spelling of aegis, which is a piece of armor from Greek mythology, which was often depicted featuring the head of a Gorgon on it, hence Orb Egis having that face in the center of it, surrounded by serpentine dragon heads.]

Oh this thing can POSITIVELY Murder You Real Dead, and it will do it Invariably Extremely Messily.

Egis has a giant scorpion tail. It can Extremely Impale You.

Egis' main body has several pointy edges it can stab you with, actually.

Egis' dragon heads have sharp teeth. Any single one of those things can Rend Your Flesh And Bones Very Badly with a chomp.

If multiple heads bite onto you at once and they all pull in different directions, they can violently rip you apart. Spectacular dismemberment on top of just the grisly bite wounds.

Egis' dragon heads each have that one backward-curving finned spike on them. The upside-down heads especially can sink that thing into you like a giant meat hook and drag/swing you around on it as you bleed the fuck out.

The necks of Egis' dragon heads appear to be made out of...plasma? Extremely Powerful And Highly-Condensed Plasma. That means this thing is probably going to severely shock you anytime it touches you. You are going to be getting violently electrocuted the entire time you are being impaled or bitten and shaken around like a chew toy.

Egis is probably heavy enough to just crush you.

Conclusion: You have been reduced to chunky salsa. And then that salsa has been deep-fried extra crispy. Whatever is left of you has probably been charred completely black. The clean-up crew might be able to retrieve some of your teeth.

Death thoroughness scale: 7/10, a normal alligator or maybe hippopotamus can probably kill you the same degree of dead, especially if it like tosses you into some power lines or something after it mangles you.

Clio's Deep Chaos

...Now, this is a first! I don't think this thing is particularly suited to outright killing anyone so much as it is made to simply drive them mad. Clio himself might actually be a more efficient Life Rights Revoker than his bey avatar is, and Clio is a child wearing plastic quarter-machine vampire teeth and drinking fucking bottled tomato juice.

Chaos is...fleshy. There's not really anything particularly sharp or even hard or heavy about it. Those crescents above its head are a bit pointy and might have a cutting edge to them, but...that's it. I guess it could stab you with those things? Evisceration might be viable with some effort?

Chaos has Buff Arms at the very least, and it's big, so I suppose it could grab you and swing you around into like a concrete wall or something and just beat you to death. Could also probably snap your neck, I guess.

Chaos' real Unaliving Talents come in the form of it just breaking your brain and then letting you do all the work yourself. You Stare Into The Abyss And The Abyss Stares Back, And Your Mortal Mind Cannot Withstand What It Sees, etc. It just drives you nuts and suddenly you think you're a chicken and that live power cord is the juiciest fucking earthworm you've ever seen or something. Chaos is just not conceivably any good at physical combat [because it doesn't need to be], it's probably just gonna Hallucinations You To Death.

Conclusion: If you have to get killed by a bey avatar, you're gonna want it to be pretty much ANY one but this one. This one is incapable of being even kind of humane and WILL fucking torture you. It's either going to just Kill You Real Boring or Kill You Extremely Agonizingly Horribly. No-win situation here. Yikes.

Death efficacy scale: 2/10 -- you're dead, but it was most likely not anywhere near quick and painless. You're also still probably mostly in one piece. Your corpse is just a pretty standard boring corpse, lame.

[twig-tea]

People I wanna know better tag meme

Thanks for tagging me @my-rose-tinted-glasses and enabling my I-don't-wanna-deal-with-this Monday! 💕

Last song?

Perusing my Spotify recs between meetings this morning and this, Adiós by I Segreti, is an immediate new like (guess the payola worked):

Favorite color?

Anything blue-green. Teal, aquamarine, turquoise, cyan, robin's egg, etc etc. If I had to choose a specific single colour? #33b3cc. Most of my closet is that colour or the complimentary #cc3366.

Currently watching?

Ongoing watch list (in order of when they air in the week because I'm too lazy to reorder them from my spreadsheet; top 5 in blue + * in case that doesn't render for everyone):

Chaser Game W* (on GagaOOLala this week)

7 Days Before Valentine

Cherry Magic anime

Playboyy the series

For Him the series

Sahara Sensei to Tori Kun

Sukiyaken kedo dou yaroka?*

Last Twilight (ends this week)

PitBabe the series

Ossan's Love Returns*

Cherry Magic Thailand*

Dead Friend Forever

The Sign

Night Dream the Series (ends this week)

Cooking Crush*

My Universe (ends this week)

Love for Love's Sake (starts this week)

One-offs: Happy Ending (airs tomorrow)

Just finished: VIP Only, Twins the series, Rebel Princess/Monarch Industries [binge], Taskmaster Champion of Champions 3; Ossan's Love original 2016 short (had no idea GagaOOLala had gotten their hands on that one too, I'm so happy to have finally seen the original!)

Last movie?

Monster (2023). It was incredible. Watched it twice in the same week.

Sweet/Spicy/Savory?

Savoury all the way.

Relationship status?

I'm somewhere on the aromantic spectrum; happily single for over a decade. A little over a year ago I was on a deserted beach on the Atlantic ocean and found a wedding ring that perfectly fits my ring finger, so I consider myself married to the sea.

Current obsessions?

In addition to the obvious BL/GL/Queer media obsession I have going on, I sometimes throw on live dives of ocean exploration when they have them (fave is Schmidt Ocean Institute, they have a YouTube channel here). The scientists live stream and offer commentary, and it's such a cool way of seeing parts of the world never before seen while learning something about both our world and how they undergo the science to inform what we know about it. And the camera quality has gotten incredible. My favourite thing I've seen is baby octopuses born live on camera at ~9k feet below the surface! It's a little addicting even though there are hours of nothing between the cool moments.

Last thing you googled?

Whether there's a difference between mayak eggs [Korean] and ajitama eggs [Japanese] (slightly different recipes but very similar in essentials).

Selfie or another pic you took?

Have another photo of my parents' dog, the bud in my avatar, Princess Patch aka Patches:

Tagging but as always no pressure: @sorry-bonebag, @solitarywandering, @hyeoni-comb, @he-is-lightning-in-a-bottle, @imminentinertia also @lurkingshan you mentioned me in yours so tagging so that you see this even though you've done it already! And anyone else who feels like it please consider yourself tagged 💕

[felassan]

Highlights and insights from the N7 Day cast & crew reunion panel

[Rewatch link]

In case a text format is better for anyone. There are some NSFW references. Cut for length.

(Some paraphrasing.)

“Some of us are inebriated”

“Patrick Weekes, the killer of man and beasts, the breaker of hearts”

JHale put the whole thing together, it’s the biggest ME cast reunion to date

The cast had no idea that the remaster was a thing

Lots of ace discussion about what the magic of the MET is (“it captured lightning in a bottle”)

Lots of warm fuzzies between the cast, crew and community, and lots of fun behind-the-scenes anecdotes

Lots of great discussion on the diversity and inclusion in ME: on gender, sexuality, representation, empowerment, the core message in the MET that “we’re all in this together or we’re screwed”, the progress made in the portrayal of female characters in gaming, etc. “Everything behind what went into these characters was authentic, we [the VAs] could tell that so much research, texture, authenticity etc had gone into them. It really made a difference”. JHale: “I’ve spent my career kicking down ceilings [barriers and so on women actors experience] with my steel-toed boot. To get to be a part of this game that has now created the expectation that there now be a female PC, ‘duh’, is once of the great things of my life. BioWare listened and put her on the box. The first time someone dropped the box in front of me I held it over my head and screamed over the crowd, ‘Casey Hudson, thank youuu!!’ It was a divine moment. This game was the moment the boot finally crashed through the glass, pushed by millions of women.”

The panel received many messages from the question submission from fans expressing that MET really helped them through very dark places and periods in their lives. The cast have had a lot of interactions with fans over the years where the fans expressed similar sentiments to them

ME was one of the first games Keythe Farley (Thane) acted for that had branching dialogue/dialogue choices, and when he saw the script with that when he went in, he was like “wow”. ME was the second big game D. C. Douglas (Legion) ever did. In his first audition he didn’t know it was for a robot-type character as it was disguised as something else with a military-feel. The second time it was to do a speech/lament at someone’s funeral and he knew it was for a robot. He said playing Legion for him was a case of “wake up, drink some coffee and go to work”

Jack was really special to her VA Courtenay Taylor because she relates to her so much and had a lot of similar emotional problems and personal troubles in her past. Jack helped her become who she has became. The host added that in his interactions with Courtenay over the years, he realized very quickly that she is very much like Jack

AWR has two moms, something which she hasn’t talked about/expressly said publicly before. Talking about recording lines between Sam and Femshep made her tear up. She said that being raised by two moms in the 80s was tough due to societal attitudes at the time, and so to see a loving relationship between two women depicted in a game was a big deal for her. When recording the white picket fence conversation, she was actually crying (“and then I’m crying because of the lesbians”). It was a huge moment for her to represent her moms’ journey. When she went home she told them all about how her character is gay and wants a white picket fence and everything “just like we had”.

When PW was working on Sam’s arc, one of the things they did was show it to one of their colleagues, who is a lesbian, asking what things she’d like to see in an arc like that and what things she felt were missing from it. The white picket fence conversation came from the colleague’s feedback (“we wanna see the nice, healthy, happy domestic stuff”, as it’s often missing in portrayals of wlw relationships)

As the VAs got more into their characters, they sometimes had feedback and input to the process to offer, like “I don’t think she’d say [this] like [that]”. Sometimes they knew their characters even better than the crew did sometimes. JHale waxed lyrical about Caroline Livingstone’s awesome direction, with the host adding that he has interviewed a lot of the VAs over the years and they all talk about Caroline like she’s Gandalf the White coming to the rescue in LotR. AWR expressed that Caroline is really funny (“don’t worry it’s not you, PW was sick when they wrote this line that’s why”) and emotionally in-tune with them and this makes long hard sessions with her a joy

When Mark went into record for the Citadel DLC one day he asked Caroline “wouldn’t be great if Shepard’s clone had been made to be the opposite gender? Then the two Shepards could fight each other!”

William Salyers (Mordin) likes the way Mordin’s story ended and felt that it was wonderful to be able to play that. He feels like the luckiest person because as he wasn’t the original VA of Mordin, he got to come in late to something that was amazing. “Caroline helped me get to where I needed to be emotionally to play that final scene. It was one of the most moving things I’ve ever gotten to do personally for a piece of interactive art”. PW related that with Mordin’s writing, they didn’t realize how much they were asking for. They thought William was amazing doing all the science-speak/technobabble, as they themselves didn’t know what it meant, and then suddenly having to deliver emotional heartbreaking lines. William’s always been a secret science nerd and so he loved that fact about Mordin. “It was a real treat to say your words”

Karin: “I always claim credit for the Scientist Salarian song even though I had nothing to do with it. I opened that door for PW”

Steve Blum (Grunt) found it a real treat playing Grunt as Grunt is a tough soldier on the outside but a [babey] on the inside, while he is more the other way around (softer on the outside, fight-y inside). He isn’t a gamer and so didn’t know what to expect or what he was getting into. There was the big pile of words, they showed him the picture of Grunt, and he just ran with it. “Grunt was kind of a perfect character for me in that respect”. Side note: his wry comments throughout the panel were hilarious

“Casey Hudson, our glorious loving overlord”

Courtenay jokes about “interspecies snorkeling”

The women Courtenay met working on this game are her friends for life. Ali Hillis (Liara) gave her her number the night of the ME3 drop and was like “let’s hang out!!” “JHale is the shit. I go to England and there’s AWR and I have this friend for life”.

“We’re a family”. The host comments that you don’t see this kind of closeness between the people on a lot of projects

Kimberley Brooks (Ashley) thinks things have and are changing for the better in terms of roles for women, and roles for brown and black women. This year she has noticed increasing awareness of inclusion and of where it’s lacking. “The copies I’m being sent for auditions, it’s drastically changing, I’m seeing it change before my eyes. It’s really exciting, there’s more and more roles for me.” “Ash is such a strong character and I felt very badass playing her, it was life-changing”. She’s excited that the remaster is going to be a new way to see these characters that they’ve been so lucky to voice. Kimberley/Ash was the first female character Karin saw in the studio, when she saw her she was like “Wow, she’s so kickass and inspiring”. At this point Karin hadn’t been working at BioWare for all that long, and she wanted to thank Kimberley, because she saw her and heard her voice and had a personal ‘this changes everything’ moment

Raphael Sbarge (Kaidan) finds it very moving how many women were encouraged into gaming due to ME

Raphael: “Everyone here has awesome varied careers, but because ME was so collaborative [and so on], [it was something really rare and special]. Nothing else I’ve done has been so important or impassioned, it has almost a religious experience to it, which you can see from tears in fans’ eyes and tattoos and people talking about it 10 years later”. “I’m so grateful for it.” “Clearly we’re going to do this again next year! :D” D. C. added that it’s going to follow him for the rest of his career. Courtenay says it has catapulted her career

PW talked about how it’s great that the female chars in ME were allowed to have real, realistic flaws and dark periods (as opposed to nonsense stuff like ‘her flaw is that she’s clumsy’)

Having the male and female PC be voiced was a big, expensive commitment for the studio. Karin commented that at the time, it was a risk that the pretty-much almost entirely-male leadership of BioWare at the time decided was important to take, and so she was happy that these were the values her colleagues had

PW was “the junior baby writer on ME1. I’d just gotten to the studio and Mac Walters fell down a flight of stairs and hurt his back, and they pulled me in while he was healing”. Karin: “Mac was very understanding when PW fell on the ice and hurt themselves during ME2.” PW: “My job in ME1 was to come up with conversations between followers to pass the time in the elevator loading times. I was throwing stuff at the wall to see what would stick”

Steve turning his volume down before he shouts classic Grunt quotes down the mic

Caroline: “Do you know how many tears were shed in the booth? How many times have we all cried in the booth...” JHale: “We were recording the end of ME3, which I never call the end, because I’m always like I’M HERE! [wink] The goodbye Garrus lines” - these lines got right under her skin and when she went to say her lines she couldn’t speak because she’d burst into tears. “It was all I could do to say those words... and then there was silence... [and Caroline had gotten choked up too].” This was one of the last sessions they did. PW: “John Dombrow wrote Garrus in ME3 and I’m gonna tell him that he got you both to break.”

Caroline was also really teary during Keith David’s (Anderson)’s performance where he tells Shepard she’s like his daughter. This moment was one of JHale’s favorites to act

BioWare came up with a proprietary VA recording system which JHale describes as a secret sauce as-yet not widely-used in the industry

Lots of fun in the line-reading portion at the end. The lines/scenes were sent in by fans. This starts around timestamp 1 hour 50 mins. There’s a break where they discuss more anecdotes after a bit then some line-reading resumes at 1 hour 59 mins 18 secs

"Salarian Vorcha Conrad Verner simmering sexual tension scene”

One of PW’s fondest memories is of ME3 when JHale and Mark got to play off each other (which they naturally didn’t get to do very much), when PW had shoved the entire script of the Blasto movie into random ambience throughout the Citadel. They knew Mark was going to be Blasto as he voiced most of the hanar. PW: “We had to have Blasto’s elcor partner’s hot sister... And I was like could it be JHale?? Because they hardly ever get to talk to each other. It was one of my proudest moments”. Mark: “Not only that, we had a romance.” JHale: “Yeah, it was hot”.

“Think of the poor cold freezing Edmontonian hanar”

PW’s story about Sam’s toothbrush: They wrote it as a throwaway line but AWR did it so well that PW wanted to bring it back in the Citadel DLC, as that DLC was the action-comedy one. So they decided the toothbrush was going to save the Normandy. The art director at the time was in an early playthrough of the scene and in that version of the scene Sam held up her empty hand. The director was like “We gotta make the toothbrush? Really? It’s gonna be thousands of dollars to render the toothbrush.” It then got to the next few lines and the director deadpanned at PW “Okay that’s pretty good, we’ll make the toothbrush.” PW: “Good, I got my toothbrush.”

It was John’s idea that we find out that Mordin had been working on a crime noir novel. There was a period in the development of the Citadel DLC where PW was feeling like “Mordin’s gone, he had his big moment, I want to respect and honor that” and the entire team were like “I think Mordin needs a couple more songs dude”. “Well alright!” By that point William had shown them he could deliver literally any line

“Oh I need a shower that was so steamy hot”

PW got in trouble with Localization over Jack’s “Save some of your energy, we’re gonna do it on the pool table” exchange. Localization were like “Um could you explain what Jack means by this??” These lines were PW’s, Karin as an editor got the question about it and passed it on to PW like “nope this is your fault”. “The best part is it was France that needed PW to explain the joke while apparently Germany were like ‘Yes please confirm that this is regarding the possibility of oral sex-’”

Keythe on voicing Thane: “Thane was a real lesson in opening up to the character, allowing this beautifully conflicted character to exist. Each character in the MET has conflicts within themselves and a tragic flaw that is revealed through the course of conflict.” He also waxed lyrical about how the MET was akin to Star Wars and Citizen Kane, and about the interconnectedness and representation in it

D. C.: “I have a question for you guys. Was it a conscious decision to not have Legion as a romance? Because there are a lot of upset people out there!!” “Voltage problems.” “A lot of creative reuses of ‘There was a hole.’” PW: “It was a process of us figuring out what we wanted to do. If we had known... The number of people who were like ‘I don’t know, are people gonna wanna romance Garrus? Liara? She’s blue and has no hair. Are people gonna be okay with that?” Karin: “We were young and naïve, now we know BioWare fans are thirsty.”

Derek brought in the first picture of Thane to show Caroline and she was like “He’s really hot, that’s gonna be a killer character. People are gonna want to romance that gentleman”

Raphael asked the BioWare team if there’s ever been a point where they thought about doing more DLC content or some kind of revival. “Has that ever come up?” “We’re legally obligated not to say, sorry, we’re going through a tunnel right now, bad reception!!”

D. C.: “Does this country have a soul?” “It does.”

“An N7 Day to remember! Go forth and heal.”

[finsterhund]

Ghostbusters Afterlife is SO GOOD you guys. I recommend you see it. It's managed to follow the original without just going "remember the 80s?" all the time and had pretty good characters and story. The Spengler grandkids are likeable protagonists too.

My one flaw is there's some retreading with the antagonists. No spoilers but I do wish there was something new in that department. But a very good movie and I'm pretty sure it hits the sweet spot a modern Ghostbusters should be. The machine aesthetics as always, an absolute treat.

If you’re wanting a perfect return to 80s charm you’re not gonna get that. And while when I was a kid getting mad when all those shitty live action reboots of 80s stuff was being made I expected modern studios to just magically produce a similar product but really you’d need to go back in time to properly make a new 80s movie. Modern studios just are unable to bring back the writing style, acting style, camera work, limitations(that’s a big one) and just being there. You see it with cartoons too. Nobody has been able to fully capture the old rubberhose aesthetic no matter the computers, talent, budget, etc. closest came was cuphead where an indie studio had to foreclose on a house and it was passion and dedication alone that carried them. You see this with things like It (2017) and Stranger Things. They get as close as you can but the writing and acting still feels off because you just can’t go back. It’s like a lightning in the bottle sorta thing.

But with that being said, this is what a modern ghostbusters movie should be. It really feels like it’s the same world, but the same length as time has passed since 1 and 2. It fits, it works, is it perfect? I mean no. Was the original? No. Is anything going to have identical vibes to the original? Also no. Should we expect it to? Again, I don’t think it’s possible. Because everyone who says “yeah this doesn’t fit right” has their own idea of how it should go and nostalgia is VERY subjective. But after an introspective about why the star wars sequel trilogy doesn’t work I do think Ghostbusters Afterlife succeeds where Disney trilogy failed and burned.

 spoilers below

so yeah. spoilers but hey it’s Gozer again. Which, I mean, it makes sense in the plot, it flows well, it works, but I feel they could have more fight. More “I remember this 30 years ago Imma change my gameplan up” but there wasn’t much focus there, which I get. The original movie is like that too. So like we can go “oh but the novelty of seeing them for the first time” and such so I think there was room for a bit more “we saw how the good guys changed, let’s see the flipside.” There’s a bite sized exposition of how the guy who built the towers (and it’s implied they conducted spirits on purpose) had some sort of scheme to use the next event to effectively live forever. He’s Lenin's tomb-ing it up in the quarry where the stone from the building was mined from (the location of Afterlife) so it’s not like “there’s a new potential doorway opportunity” doesn’t come out of leftfield. Again, I feel that our god of the dead should have had more of a gameplan for this. They DID have more knowledge about dealing with the proton streams but it was a minimal setback. The Zool dogs are more active in the world of the living which is fun to see but the big showdown is less action and more emotion.

Slimer was also ENTIRELY absent. No visual cameos, no nothing. Which was particularly strange. Especially when Gozer comes back.

How the original team are brought in is very touching and sweet and yeah I did cry at points. Egon was always my favourite (for reasons probably obvious) so having him be succeeded by his grandkids was very bittersweet. He shows up as a ghost and figuratively(and literally) guides his grandaughter Phoebe which was the emotional peak of the film.

Phoebe is an extremely likable and relatable character. She is very clearly neurodivergent-coded and there’s a dynamic where her mother is afraid of her and who she is as a person because of how she’s showing similar passions and interests as Egon, her own father. It’s revealed that Egon abandoned the family to make sure the apocalyptic event doesn’t happen by literally keeping vigil in this town while mocked and ridiculed by everyone. Nobody else stood by him or believed him. If they had, he likely could have stayed in his daughter’s life. Despite this he managed to watch his daughter and her kids grow up from afar. It’s poignant and heartbreaking and makes me miss my grandparents even more. Admittedly I am way too emotional for this kind of thing.

The humor worked a lot but I am a zoomer so take that with a grain of salt.

I found it a bit of a plothole/kinda hard to believe that it only took 3 decades for the incident in Manhattan to become urban legend territory, and I feel that it would have been more known to people even after that length of time but I should take into account that it was set in a little farming town leftover from an abandoned mine so that isolation could play a factor in it. Also this is America so the possibility for significant misinformation/cover up is there too. We don’t really have significant tangible proof of the paranormal to compare how people react to it decades later in real life so I can’t exactly tell.