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sortasirius · 4 years

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what makes you think the writers want deancas? not trying to be an asshole, i'm just genuinely curious as to why you think that. i know berens' episodes are pretty heavy with subtext so i can see why you'd say that he wants it, but i'm not so sure about the rest of the writers/dabb. it seems like meghan isn't a huge fan either, given her "they twisted it so fast" tweet :/ of course she's a very new writer (think she's only writing one ep this season?) but still

OKAY this is a great question, welcome to my dissertation.

I’m going to address the end of your question first. Meghan is actually DeanCas positive, she has been for quite a long time. She actually, a few years back, posted a picture of her reading a literal book about Destiel and captioned it “writing reading” or something like that.

This whole thing just comes out of a boiling over of tensions because of how nasty fandom twitter can be. Like I said here, I think this has just gotten blown out of proportion, they shouldn’t have posted all this randomly disparaging stuff, but also like...can you blame them? The fandom is a lot, we always have been, and they’re probably also under a gag order not to talk about the finale, and are annoyed that people keep asking.

So nah, Meg is not anti Destiel.

To the first part!! So let’s take a look at the show runners since Cas has been around.

Seasons 4 and 5: Kripke

Seasons 6 and 7: Gamble

Seasons 8-11ish: Carver

Seasons 11ish-15: Dabb

So starting with Kripke. Okay, yes, I will be the first to admit that we have some pretty incredible Destiel moments in these seasons, but it’s less directly written into the plot and much more from Misha and Jensen’s uhhhh ~chemistry~. The only times it was directly written into the script was when the episode was handled by someone like Edlund (“On The Head Of A Pin,” “The End,” “My Bloody Valentine”). And you have to remember, if in season 5, there are moments here and there where you’re like huh that’s suspiciously romantic dialogue, remember that Cas took Anna’s place. Anna was supposed to be endgame for Dean, but due to a myriad of issues and Misha’s general greatness, Anna was replaced with Cas.

Onto 6 and 7. Hmmm. Gamble. 6 and 7 are my two least favorite seasons and that’s no secret, and that’s not only due to the plain old weird shit in the overall storyline, but also that homegirl killed off Cas in s7 and then Bobby like four episodes later. (Also it ALWAYS rubbed me the wrong way they couldn’t have Baby in that season lol). We still had some great DeanCas moments, but again, it wasn’t really written into the overall arc (until they had to change the end of season 7 because of tanking ratings and bring Misha back lol, anyone remember the fact that Dean kept Cas’ jacket and would randomly dream of him? Yeah.). But we still had those moments, those distinctly romantic moments, probably the best example in these two seasons is from Edlund again, specifically “The Man Who Would be King,” I wrote a little about that here.

We move onto Carver, who gave us, at this point, the most overt DeanCas season with season 8 (season gr8 is a better name imo), and this is the first time Dean and Cas’ relationship is directly written as an arc of the season. I mean, you have everything in Purgatory, Dean “seeing” Cas everywhere, the fact that he felt so guilty that Cas stayed in Purgatory that he manipulated his own memories to think that he was the one that failed Cas, because he couldn’t comprehend that Cas would want to leave him, and let’s not forget Dean snapping Cas out of Naomi’s hold on him in “Goodbye Stranger.” It was a very obvious shift, not enough to alert the general audience, but more than enough for most of us in fandom.

It’s also important to note that this is when Andrew stopped co writing with Loflin and started writing his own episodes (”Hunter Heroici” anyone?) I like Loflin fine, but Dabb was able to stretch his legs a little bit more once he stopped co-writing, and we also began to see some DeanCas themes in his solo episodes.

In any case, them and their issues being a big part of the seasons continued with Carver, and Berens entered the scene, his first episode (”Heaven Can’t Wait”) is one of my favorites, with human Cas and the fanfiction gap and Dean and Cas just generally being awkward and funny and sweet. This is Bobo’s FIRST episode, remember that. He comes right out of the gate with it.

Also in Season 9, this is when Dean takes the Mark of Cain, and the Cas/Colette mirror is born, so obviously, Dean and Cas are the fabric of the season once again. This is also the season where Metatron says Cas is “in love with humanity,” and then immediately refers to Dean as Humanity so uhhhh yeah.

Onto season 10, Dabb and Berens continue with their greatness (I could write pages on the DeanCas date in “The Things We Left Behind” alone). And then we have one of the best scenes in the entire show in “The Prisoner” where the Cas/Colette mirror continues and Dean, driven by grief and pain and rage and the Mark, still doesn’t kill Cas. He still can’t kill Cas.

Season 11 is important because it takes choice away from both Cas and Dean, and shows us, as the audience, how much losing each other takes out of them. We saw in season 10 how much losing Dean takes from Cas, but what about Cas losing Dean? Dean loses his choice with his connection to Amara this season, and loses even more when Lucifer reveals he’s been possessing Cas, and plays on Dean’s connection to Cas like a mockery. It’s also worth noting that, similarly to season 8, Dean breaks out of the connection with Amara when he’s worried about Cas, and that’s something that even SHE is surprised by.

But then season 12, the beginning to the Renaissance. This is when we get the writer’s that become important for what Dean and Cas are today, and, truly, why I believe they want canon Destiel as much as we do.

This is the first season with Dabb’s writers: Davy Perez, Meredith Glynn, Steve Yockey, and of course Bobo all come in with their incredible talents and gave us episode after episode of good content. “Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets” is probably my favorite, probably the best example of what I’m saying. An episode where Dean is called out by an enemy directly, told to “roll the dice” on Cas’ life. And Dean won’t, it’s not even really a hesitation. And this comes from a character that has known Dean for ten seconds. I also wrote more in depth about this episode here. There are also some.....distinctly domestic details we get this season, specifically in “The Future” (written by Berens and Glynn) with the mixtape. The most tropey of tropes mixtape. Yeah, I’ll just leave that one here.

And then season 12 ends with Cas’ death, but also with the parallel between Sam and Dean with Jess and Cas. Sam literally has to drag Dean away from Cas, just like Dean had to drag Sam out of his burning apartment in the pilot. The episode drives it home in every way that it can: Dean is the one left kneeling by Cas’ body, while Sam goes to find out what is upstairs. Dean is the one who stares at the sky, finally broken. This isn’t a random thing, this is Dean’s whole arc, it’s the entirety of the beginning of 13. Dean’s pain, his anguish, his anger.

Season 13 starts with them burning Cas, with Dean, who has begged God to bring him back, who has split his knuckles punching a door, standing, staring at Cas’ pyre with brokenness on his face.

I mean.....

Anyway, season 13 is where it gets interesting (well, I think all of this is interesting but I’m a writer nerd so). So Cas comes back from the Empty in “Advanced Thanatology” written by Steve Yockey, and then a wombo combo of “Tombstone” by Davy Perez next (”Brokebacknatural” as the PR said at the time). Listen. This is the part that SPN crossed a line that they couldn’t come back from. With Cas being Dean’s “big win,” the fact that Dean and Cas watch movies together, “I told you, he’s an angry sleeper. Like a bear.” Talked about it here.

This is where, in my opinion, the network stepped in, but the damage was already done. They had already established that Cas was Dean’s big win, that Dean’s poor coping was not due to Mary’s disappearance, but solely due to Cas, and that Dean and Cas have more married energy than anyone else. The network had nixed blatant canon at this point, and they writing room had been pushing the boundaries of what the network would allow.

After these episodes, we see a marked drop off of DeanCas heavy scenes. They’re still there, still a part of the fabric of the season, but not as...obvious as it had been in early season 13.

And this continued through season 14, we’re back to scraps of Destiel scenes here and there, but to me it always felt like there was something bubbling under the surface, something distinctly unsaid in the themes of the season, even after the walk back of obvious “Dean and Cas are in love” scenes.

And then we get to season 15, which, y’all know I talk about all the time. What’s important here is that Bobo and Glynn are both executive producers, calling more of the shots than ever before. Additionally, it’s important to note that, though they only co write occasionally, Glynn and Berens refer to each other as “work husband” and “work wife.” Each episode has just turned up the volume, and, not for the first time, but certainly the most obvious, Dean and Cas ARE the season. Sure, they’re trying to beat God, they’re trying to finally find peace, defeat the final big bad, but really? This season has been about Dean, and Dean’s relationship to Cas.

And not only do we have obvious and clear Destiel in nearly every episode, but we have episodes like “Last Call” which canonize bi!Dean (wrote about that here).

And, maybe most importantly so far, we have “The Rupture,” the breakup, and “The Trap,” Dean’s confession (both written by Berens). And here’s the thing. These episodes feel connected, but also feel like they’re missing something. Beren’s last episode is 15x18, “The Truth.” We’ve all spec’ed about what could happen in this episode, and I think *I* know what it’s leading to. But for it to be leading to that, it means that the network has to have approved what we’ve all been waiting for years for.

Who got this change to happen? Who got the network to change their minds? It wasn’t us. It was them. I am fully convinced that Dabb and Berens quite literally put their careers on the line for Dean and Cas. They believe in them, they’ve shown that from the beginning, but the only thing standing in the way was the network, never allowing them to take the final step.

So, to answer your question: I think the writers want canon DeanCas because they’ve already shown us that they do. Take a look at their episodes, at Dabb’s, at Beren’s, at Glynn’s, at Perez’s, at Yockey’s. They’ve been telling us what’s going on with Dean and Cas for years.

Sure, I’m not in their heads, I guess I don’t know for *sure* that this has been their thought process, but if we put it all together, from the marked shift when Dabb fully took over in s12, to the change right after “Tombstone,” to the new shift, the blatantly romantic shift in season 15, what else is there?

I’ve said for a long time that we, the SPN fandom, are beyond lucky to have the writer’s that we do. They’re all going to go on to have prolific careers and we were lucky to get them at the end of our little show. I give them a lot of credit for what we have in the show today.

Just remember, they’ve been telling us in all of s15 who Chuck is. He says he’s the writer, right? But a writer who doesn’t have control of his characters? A writer who wants to do the same ending over and over because it “works”? That doesn’t sound like a writer, it sounds like a network exec.

They’ve been showing us what they want for years, and the way s15 is going? I think they may have convinced the network to let us have it.

#supernatural #destiel #spn #my writing #anyway yeah i love these writers #welcome to my essay lmao #spn writers #anonymous #lilly answers

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afrival · 3 years

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Ranking and Rating All the Animes I’ve Watched (Which ain’t a lot)

Some of these might get me killed lmao but whatever. Feel free to judge me for my top fives

in order from least favorite to favorite

+++

15: Angel Beats: 2/10 for cool concept

- This is the only anime on here that I hate 💀 Idk why, there was just something about it. I’m not a big fan of romance so the ending was...eh. The concept is interesting as hell tho honestly

14: Banana Fish: 6/10 for Ash breaking my heart

- I know this is such a beloved show, but I just. Cant. Like it’s good, I like it, I’m just not a big fan of— idk how to explain it. Street fighting style anime? I like superpowers basically LMAO

13: Dorohedoro: 4/10 for Lizard bitch

- This is just Banana Fish on drugs and paranormal also as far as I can tell nobody falls in love here. I’m still watching and I’m struggling to get really into it, but I’m giving it a chance. The intro is one of the best ones on this list tho

12: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: 6/10 for intros

- I made it halfway through Part 2 then I gave up because it’s so batshit, but that’s kinda why I love it even though it’s so low on here. It wins #1 for THE BEST opening songs and intros

11: Hunter x Hunter: 7/10 for having one of the best villains

- I watched this entire goddamn anime and it just did not stick with me. I skipped a lot of episodes in the Chimera Ant arc because it would be one fight dragged on for three eps, however I will say I absolutely bawled at the end of it.

10: Yuri On Ice: 6/10 for Jerry Jewell the Russian King of Funimation

- Good comfort anime I binge watch every few months, my main beef with it is how repetitive it is. There doesn’t seem to be a lot at stake besides their careers and obviously the romance. Maybe it’s just because I’ve seen it so many times that I’ve become numb to it

9: Devilman Crybaby: 7/10 for WHAT THE FUCKFJJG

- I watched this mf in one night and I have not been the same since. The ending is fucking insane and I adore it, but everything else leading up to that is kinda lame. The animation is kinda ugly too lol

8: Beastars: 8/10 for sexy deer

- Can’t believe I made fun of this furry anime only for it to be one of the best things I’ve ever seen. Amazing plot, I genuinely can’t wait for more seasons especially since the manga gets insane. Also— that INTRO IS AMAZING

7: Soul Eater: 5/10 because Kid is in it

- My first anime besides SAO 🙌 Very unique art style I love it, also lovable characters. My main thing with it is that honestly the stakes seem a little too much for a group of fucking 15 year olds to handle but whatever, that’s most shounen anime in general

6: Demon Slayer: 6/10 for Nezuko and the orange mf I know will be my favorite

- I’m still watching this and so far I really like it, it’s just slow as hell. I’m not entirely sure what the main goal is, but I’ve heard it gets really good. Looking forward to another season if we get it

5: Fairy Tail: 7/10 for power of friendship

- I’ve loved this anime since I was like 10 bruh. I know it’s repetitive with “the power of friendship” but that’s what I like about it— nothing beats good character dynamics. Also wins the award for Best Hetero Ships in existence

4: My Hero Academia: 9/10 for the characters being AAA

- Hands down one of the best cast of characters, there’s not a single one I hate (besides Mineta but that’s the point of his character). The main issue I have with it is right now in the anime it’s still a little...kiddy? Like there was a festival arc after a very emotionally intense arc LMAO. Anyways, I’m excited for it to get more gritty

3: The Disastrous Life of Saiki K: 10/10 for amazing characters and comedy

- I just like dumbass fucking satirical comedy, as you can probably tell. This show made me laugh out loud so many times. If I had to choose anything to like not like about it it would be the fact that near the end of s2 it got kinda 😳😰 out of NOWHERE

2: Hetalia: 0/10 I fucking hate this dumb country anime

- I don’t even wanna talk about it. Just repeat what I said about dumbass satirical comedy and add my love for history and you get the mold that’s been growing in my head for over a year

1: Attack On Titan: unable to be rated bc it’s so good

- Honestly this just speaks for itself. Never have I absolutely loved a story and it’s characters this much, and it’s so well written I don’t know how Isayama came up with it. The ending was genuinely amazing. I’ll be thinking about this dumbass thing for a while . Also: amazing intros

+++

I have a long ass list I still need to watch tho this list will be updated in the future

Edit: lmao maybe I should say that this isn’t a list on which anime is good and which is bad, it’s just a favorites list. some of the ones I dislike are really good, they just didn’t stick with me 🤷

#hetalia #attack on titan #my hero academia #angel beats #dorohedoro #hunter x hunter #devilman crybaby #banana fish #soul eater #beastars #yuri on ice #jojos bizarre adventure #demon slayer #fairy tail #saiki k #kenranks

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andoqin · 3 years

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Shows I've watched in 2021 pt 2

These are the shows that I watched and finished.... but man do I fucking regret doing that now for a lot of them. Often the show shat the bed or i just watched it and wasted my time and I should have just dropped it. There are some in here that I feel mostly blah about, that I finished mostly because i was heavily skipping through :(

The Veil - Nam Goong Min got *really* buff and roughed up for this one. And I like action-y shows and they made the smart decision not to make it 16 eps, but man, the mystery and writing was so blah, the plot points so forseeable and while I appreciate Nam Goong Min really transforming himself he also just got stuck in "Badass Mofo" mode and it kinda felt like I was seeing him struggle to act like that. I gave it a 6.5 bc he does try very hard and with 12 episodes and some skipping it's not a total chore.

The Silent Sea - Gong Yoo and Bae Doona doing a short Scifi show? Sign me tf up, AND Lee Joon is also there. The cast was fuckig stellar, but uh there were supposed to be smart people on the station and it *really* really didnt feel like there were. For plot convenience everyone got to be an idiot at least for some time and I honestly think that it would have been better off as a movie because some plot threads felt very "red headed stepchild". Plus as a movie I possibly wouldn't have started wondering how the presentation of the premise and the premise as a whole even work... 7/10 because the acting is good, the cgi is also pretty good and I wanna support scifi stuff and I'm maybe giving it a bump for Gong Yoo and Bae Doona that it doesn't quite deserve.

The Tasty Florida and You Make Me Dance - two outings from Koreas recent push into BL content that are blessedly short but also don't really offer anything new and the acting and writing is suspect at best sometimes. Thankfully both are blessedly short, so it's not like I wasted a lot of time. They both get 6.5 stars but I think YMMD does have better acting than TTF.

Hellbound - For a 6 episode show it sure knew how to tank after only 3 eps, I mean damn. Yoo Ah In sells his role pretty well, as is expected of him, but the shoddy CGI monsters just feel hilarious and weird and not scary. While I do think that the opening is very well done the tension just starts to bleed out and Kim Hyun Joo's character get's to be a badass... but also how? I mean I'm glad she got to kick ass but I just felt like the latter half expected me to just go with it in a way that made me go "uhhh nah". 7/10 but honestly only bc I did enjoy the first half the latter half is like a 4.5

LUCA: The Beginning - OH MY GOD where to fucking start with this show. 8 eps of all I wanted and then it just lobotomises Lee Da Hee's character and then the ending is just the fucking cherry on the shit sundae. I was honestly *really* vibing with the way this show was using its athmosphere to sell its story, and even the (completely nonsense lyric) OST song was a fucking banger and Kim Rae Won was great in the role, but my god the writing. The writing is the block of cement around the shoes of this drama, dragging it to its death. This plus the next entry really made me wary of livewatching anything in 2021 because christ. It gets 6.5 stars only because the first 8 eps were pretty much 9-10/10 for me and so strong but the last 4 eps are like a 2/10 at most.

Mr. Queen - Fuck this show and the homophobic horse it rode in on. 19 eps where Shin Hye Sun gets to deliver the role of a lifetime, just nailing every single beat and doing the silly (and very funny) humor with a gusto that is rarely seen, plus a slow developing romance between a king and his queen who changed so radically but finally also sees him for who he is, plus the show even had the king let go of his first love in a way that felt organic and believable. The bad guys were a bit eh, but the show was being hard carried by SHS acting her heart out as the modern cook Bong Hwan now caught in the body of a woman in the past. The slow emotional connection that Bong Hwan built up with the king was a highlight of the show for me and I really felt like they had captured the essence of the cdrama original, but well then ep 20 happened, well specifically the latter half and the show thrust me and its general audience the middle finger and expected me to believe the genuine connection between the king and Bong Hwan (who was influenced by the previous' souls feelings which I will believe) was... pretty much all the previous soul who was just hanging around in the body and when it came to ~skinship she came back out and it went pretty much uncommented in the latter half of the show.... Yeah no, I could write a wholeass rant why the show did not earn the ending it gave me. 3/10 only because I really liked the show previous to the ending.

The Uncanny Counter - This show is not as bad as the previous 2 entries, but the plot really wasn’t made for 16 episodes. The main character really began to grate on me and I felt like the villain(s) only got by for so long because the script demanded that our protagonists turn into idiots. I didn’t mind the found family stuff, in fact that was ace but I was also not really into the way the show struggled to make it work, because the main character had a life outside the found family. Once again the writing wasnt really strong enough to support it during its entire run and while it didnt shit the bed as badly as the previous entries this drama should have been 12 episodes at most. 7/10 but a very low 7 I’d say.

Dali and the cocky prince - Another show I felt struggled to support its 16 episode run, plus the ~mystery and plot was paper thin. I also found Dali as a character to be wholly frustrating (not to mention her hair) and Moo Hak really was making me cringe in second hand embarassment a lot. I did like their shenanigans and their romance was cute and the characters do feel like they belong with each other but theirs just wasnt a story that didnt vibe with mine. I felt myself nodding along with the “traitor” in the gallery more often than not because Dali really seemed like she had her head in the clouds to a lot of things and I guess rich airheads just don’t do it for me. 6.5/10

Squid Game - The drama that took the world by storm... for some reason. I’m a big fan of death game type stories and netflix put out Alice in Borderland last year which I loved (for the most part) but SG is just fucking stupid and everyone in it is an idiot. The hype about it didnt help, but I watched it before it became a Global Phenomenon so it’s not like that influenced my opinions. The fact that *none* of the hundreds of participants (other than I guess the best friend antagonist) thought about how to game the system seems mind-boggling to me. Coupled with the fact that there are only 3 very simple rules for each game and they’re always the same and they are literally shut in place with nothing to think about the rules and the games I would have liked some more ingenuity. Plus the games were kinda eh and then the last episode was terrible and turned Gi Hoon into a fucking asshole and still expected me to like him and I was like no thank you. I will not be watching the sequel since I doubt the writer has the chops to course correct if this is what SG looks like after he’s been thinking about it for 10 years. 5/10

Move to Heaven - This one wanted to be a big tearjerker and I have a big soft spot for Lee Je Hoon, but other than one episode (the first one iirc) none of the plots moved me even as I felt the writing desperately trying to tug at my heartstrings. Maybe it’s because I have the stellar Tatortreiniger a German half hour comedy as a comparison, where the poignancy is only ever hinted at and the script just full of gags that only creep up on you because in the end, cleaning up after a dead person is just a job. It can be moving, it can be touching but often it’s a bit mundane and the comedy is about that. Idk I guess I just like that view of it a lot more (Go watch Tatortreiniger if you can!) 6/10

Law School - I watched this on the strength of a few gifsets that crossed my dash and while I don’t regret it and I think the acting is fine it also didn’t really blow me away and I didn’t really retain anything from my watch. 6.5/10

Mad for Each Other - Well Netflix says I finished this. I don’t remember doing that. I do remember that I liked the way it treated trauma (in the beginning) and the way that two very damaged people could heal each other but then it began feeling rote and boring and that’s where I lost interest I guess. 5/10 because I can’t really rate sth I don’t remember all that well.

13 shows I finished, where I really hated 2 of them another 2 I had some big issues with/forgot halfway through that I watched them and the rest are watchable I guess but with big caveats. *sigh*

#move to heaven #squid game #dali and the cocky prince #mad for each other #law school #the uncanny counter #mr queen #luca: the beginning #hellbound #the silent sea #the veil #the tasty florida #you make me dance #kdrama #year in review

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wonniesmile · 3 years

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❥ playground! (ep. 2)

⤷ ellie’s moments in playground episode 2! (ft. txt <3)

⤷ bulletpoint format!

⤷ after a long wait, episode 2 is finally out! don’t forget to leave suggestions for new fics!!!

“HOW THE HECK DID YOU BEAT ME AGAIN.”

huening and ellie were once again playing on the nintendo, waiting on the others to finish getting ready for the next shoot.

“ellie please. please let me win. just this once...for my dignity.”

the boy gets on the floor and starts bowing.

ellie starts freaking out, obvi.

“NO PLEASE DON’T BOW!”

she’s in a very frantic state at this very moment, no clue why...but, i mean it’s ellie...right?

“what’re you guys playing?”, “oh- um- mario k-”

ellie looks up from her position, DUN DUN DUN.

that was like...really cringe, i’m so sorry.

it was none other than the choi beomgyu. standing. right. in. front. of. her.

“oh- oh my god- uh- h- he- hello!” she musters up a greeting and quickly bows.

“you don’t need to bow ellie! we’re friends!”

oh no, this poor girl’s heart.

if she dies from an early heart attack, it was bcs of choi beomgyu, just giving everyone a heads up! /j

anyways, her face was like BEET red.

from across the room, her members were watching her every move.

sunoo was laughing at how serious the rest of them were.

“can you guys like...idk...calm down? she’s literally fine.”

“i know, but...” (jake)

“but what?” (sunoo)

“oh you know...” (jungwon)

“can ya’ll finish the damn sentence?” (sunoo and jay)

“it’s nothing...” (sunghoon)

“jesus christ, you guys are insane.” (sunoo)

“five minutes!”

ellie’s head shoots up.

“darn it, i almost beat you.”

“not even close huening, ellie is the master.”

her cheeks, once again, burn up.

before she could thank beomgyu, ellie is pulled away by jungwon.

“what the heck wonie?”

“it’s time to go.”

she’s obviously very confused? what was getting into him?

choosing to ignore his attitude, ellie obliges and lets the boy drag her into the studio.

he spoke no words...very odd.

ellie started overthinking...did she do something subconsciously???

“places please!” she massages her temples and goes backstage to wait for her group’s cue.

the episode started with each group dancing on stage.

their instructions were to “have fun!”

she gave it her ALL, messing around...and even getting into a dance battle with riki.

she found it absolutely hilarious, but unfortunately, her face dropped at the sight of jungwon.

obviously, something was bothering him, but she didn’t have the courage to ask...at least not now when everyone seemed to be having fun.

jungwon was not one to show his emotions outwardly, so to a normal person, he seemed like his usual self.

but, ellie knows better, she can read jungwon like the back of her hand...something was up.

she made a mental note to herself to ask him if he was ok after the shoot.

the first game was an absolute BLAST.

they were competing to see which team they would have to play on.

since there was an odd number of people, ellie didn’t have to compete against anyone. instead, she got to choose which team she wanted to be on.

(she secretly enjoyed it)

she looked at the two teams in front of her.

her original plan was to go into the yellow team so both teams would have an equal amount of enhypen members, but she felt iffy about doing so because of jungwon...

she could possibly be overthinking things, but she didn’t want to take any risks.

making eye contact with him one last time, she looks over at the red team and points finger guns at them.

“yay ellie!” beomgyu seemed way more enthusiastic than everyone else.

of course, ellie’s heart rate quickens at the weird observation.

the team name choosing was absolutely wonderful.

beomgyu came up with ‘brave dummies’ and for some reason everyone went with it, not that ellie was complaining because it was REALLY funny.

this episode required a lot more physical activity than the last one, which she had no problem with.

she led her team to victory during the first game with the tubes and ping pong ball.

got picked up by beomgyu hai!

wait wait wait...let me set the scene for you guys because...it was something else.

after winning the race, the 7 teammates all did a group hug, ellie being shoved into the middle while the rest ferociously chanted “ellie! ellie! ellie!”

kinda scary...looked like a cult from the outside lol.

she was so confused.

all of a sudden, a figure picks her up from behind and starts cheering very loudly.

she looked absolutely terrified because she had no. clue. what. was. going. on.

and when this poor girl turns her head back to look at the person carrying her, all bodily organs in her shut down.

her eyes went blurry and suddenly she couldn’t see, her kidneys failed, her limbs detached from her body...it was insane.

jay and sunoo, being the teasers they were, laughed at the look of the flustered girl.

it was...so much.

when beomgyu put her down, she felt her life flash before her eyes.

she still couldn’t believe what just happened, placing a hand on her forehead to see if she was sick??? for some reason.

she literally could NOT think straight after that.

the rest of the episode felt like a blur.

during the flag game, she failed oh so miserably...

“you ok?” jay teasingly asks her.

“leave me alone.” *cue her side eye*

“hehe.” (jay)

she felt so bad for doing so badly during the game, she kept apologizing :’).

“ellie! its ok! none of us did good :)” thank god for yeonjun.

she had to lay her head down onto ni-ki’s shoulders because she felt so defeated.

ni-ki responded by hugging her by the waist.

“don’t worry, i did horrible too.”

she hummed and pouted.

the screaming from the others made her feel a lot better.

“there’s that smile!” sunoo squeezes her cheeks.

the other team won, obviously.

she examined jungwon, he seemed like he was doing a lot better, seeing him enjoy himself was all the reassurance ellie needed.

oh good god...the next game...hahahaha.

it was...hai!

they had a piece of paper in which they had to fit all their teammates on, it was...intense.

she tried standing in the middle of jake and ni-ki, but was pulled by kim sunoo to stand in between him and beomgyu.

she froze up, god...can’t you just act normally ellie? (this was to herself btw ;) )

she tried not to think about the close proximity between her and beomgyu, instead giving her all into the game.

“ellie, it’s alright, step on my foot.” yeonjun tells her.

“are you sure?”

“yes of course.”

she cautiously steps on his foot, making sure not to put too much weight into it.

they got past a good amount of rounds, the last one is where they REALLY struggled.

“i have an idea!”

ellie announces while clapping her hands.

“i think if we put our feet in this pattern...”

she shows what she means by using her own feet as an example.

“it would save space...we can hold onto each other for balance like all the other rounds and our other foot can come up. the foot on the ground will serve as a stabilizer.”

“that’s SUCH a smart idea!” yeonjun smiles at her.

“thanks!”

jake couldn’t resist it...it came as an automatic reflex. he moves his hand around to squeeze her cheeks.

“miss smarty pants saves us yet again!” (jake)

she glares at him and hits his arm.

(there was a slight smile on her face though)

with ellie’s strategy, their team wins yet again!!!

they huddled into a group hug while the other team groaned in defeat.

“ellie should’ve joined our team!” soobin yells.

she giggles.

the final game was a big round of yut nori, which ellie still had NO CLUE how to play.

“do you know how to play?” beomgyu asks her.

“not really?”

“no worries, leave it to us!”

ellie blushes...yk...the usual.

ellie didn’t do much through out the game, following whatever the others told her to do.

by the end of it, you’d think she’d know how to play, right? wrong!

she still, to this day, doesn’t know how to play yut nori :))).

she was sad as the shooting ended, knowing that they probably won’t be able to shoot together with txt for a LONG while.

it was so very fun getting to hang out with her seniors, though beomgyu was a bit too much.

after they said their goodbyes on camera, it was time to say goodbye off camera.

soobin suggested that they make a gc together, to which everyone happily agreed to!

beomgyu asked ellie for her number, which she shouldn’t have though much about considering he was the one making the groupchat for them, but a girl can dream right?

after hugging everyone goodbye, her group moved back into their dressing room.

“i’m exhausted.” sunghoon mentions.

ellie’s eyes did feel heavy.

the 8 of them have been shooting all day and they could all probably agree that what they needed now was a nice long nap.

she moved over to where sunghoon was laying down and tapped the boy to ask him to scoot over so she could lay down as well.

the girl cuddled into sunghoons warmth.

“sooo, you and beomgyu, huh.”

“why? are you jealous?”

“maybe...but you know who is Very jealous right now? and who you should probably talk to bcs he’s definitely upset?”

her eyes widen, finally realizing.

“oh my god, i gotta go.”

she climbs out of sunghoon’s embrace.

“i was comfortable ellie!”

“yeah yeah!”

she runs out the dressing room, frantically searching for jungwon.

she accidentally bumps into beomgyu.

“woah there, where are you going???”

“i’m so sorry! uh- i have to go talk to jungwon about something, i can’t really stay for long...”

beomgyu nods his head and motions for her to go.

she finally finds jungwon at a vending machine, grabbing two drinks.

“yang!”

she finally reaches him and drops her body down to catch her breath.

“i’m so sorry.”

“about what?”

“sunghoon said you were upset with me about something...and i wan- (deep breath) i wanted you to know that no one will ever replace you or any (deep breath) any of the other members (deep breath).”

jungwon stays silent for a bit before chuckling at the sight of the girl’s state.

“oh ellie...” he gently makes her look up by her chin, “don’t worry about it, i knew you would never do that...i just got jealous seeing you blush at beomgyu so much...”

the last part was barely audible, but ellie understood.

she giggles, “i didn’t know mr. yang was the jealous type!”

he glares at her, “whatever.”

she smiles and hugs him by the neck.

“let’s go back, we’re heading home soon.”

ellie pulls jungwon by the hands.

“wait,” he fishes for the two drinks still left in the vending machine, “this is for you.”

it was strawberry milk, her favorite.

“thank you, kind sir.”

the two walked back hand in hand.

“is wonie feeling better~” heeseung teased.

jungwon mocks his face.

“time to head back!” their manager calls out.

“god i cannot wait to sleep.” ellie groans.

“ellie~ can i sleep next to you tonight?” ni-ki pleads with his eyes.

“why not sunoo?”

“he wanted to switch it up today, apparently.” sunoo clings his arms with ellie’s.

“i mean of course you can riki, just promise me you’ll actually sleep and not watch videos all night.” ellie stares at him.

“promise.”

she smiles and hooks her free arm around his.

“now...let’s go home.”

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sour-n-salty-citrus · 3 years

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Do you have any hopes for the season finale? I saw in another ask, you described the dynamic between rick and morty this season as "very weak, distant, and downright frankly boring" and I completely agree with you! I hope that, because this is most we'll see rick and morty interacting this season, it'll have at least a few moments of what makes their dynamic so interesting to watch.

(Ok i started airing my grievances with this season, which ended up being... long, so skip this paragraph (starting at / / /) to get to my thoughts on the finale)

Oh gosh I remember that ask (I think-). And yeah, maybe I'm being a bit overly critical. I'll probably look back on this season with retrospect, and a kinder, fonder view. Ik androgynousblackbox (think thats right) made a great point about it being the season FOR rickorty shippers. And sure, I agree on some bits, like Rick acting all pissy and partying the way you would if your ex got with someone new in the planetina ep. Overall though, i think my problem lies in that I was enjoying more individual moments than episodes themselves, especially the middle three. For example- Amortycan Grickfitti. Like, I really liked the idea of the Ship getting on a crazy adventure with Summer and Morty (and Chutback). I like the idea of a Beth-Jerry-Rick adventure. But put together, it's just kinda... meh? You know? I liked the first half of the Thanksgiving special... but it kinda dragged on after that. I get that they want to give other characters (particularly female ones) more attention, which is completely understandable and i encourage it(!) but I can't help but find it underwhelming. Like, Summer in the voltron ep was like- girl how are you STILL vying for Rick's attention! He's the worst! Haven't we done this already? (I will say though I ADORE how far Beth has come, props to her for continuing to seeing through her dad's BS. I was worried the character would relapse into a more typical s1/s2 Beth, and I'm glad she didn't). Some of these plots, funnily enough, seem more fitting of the comics (they actually had a voltron parody already). Fun and entertaining for two or three-something issues, not so much a 22 minute episode. i think most of my complaints come from the dynamic between our titular characters- ok, I know I'm very biased (I mean you can see it), but I came to the show primarily for their relationship. It doesn't even feel drama-fueled, just that they kinda... can't be arsed. I'm torn because on the one hand, they're unhealthily codependent and this separation is probably a good thing, but on the other... it doesn't feel natural? I'm not sure if that's the right word- it's like, season 4 had them practically joint at the hip, but all that's suddenly flung out the window. It just kinda feels like this "i got better things to do" vibe from both of them and its strange. The only time they both got a solo adventure (I'm classifying "solo" as an adventure where they spent a significantly large portion of time together, without the other family members) was in the sperm ep and Thanksgiving ep. And, well, in the Thanksgiving ep Morty felt like a side character in his own show, and the sperm ep... um. Yeah. I don't think it's AS bad as people were saying, but I was cringing the whole time (the second hand embarrassment for Morty was so strong I had to turn off the episode multiple times and return to it. It's just like- godammit MORTY). And I think there's good reason those two seemed to be the most disliked episodes overall. They're the ones RaM spend the most time together and it's... meh. Meh? Meh. I don't mean to say the season overall is bad (it has loads of good points, and its amazing for Smith family as a whole) just that if we're talking specifically about the dynamic between these two? Yeah, I wouldn't recommend a single episode from this season so far to use as an example of their relationship.

/ / /

There's one thing this season has been pretty good at, though. And it's showing us what happens when Rick is alone.

And that brings me to the finale.

"Who is Rick without Morty?"

Well... we already know the answer to that. Pathetic. Sad. Lonely.

This season has been phenomenal in humbling Rick. (And trust me I'm happy for it- every time someone beats the crap outta this shitty old man I'm like YES!!! IT'S WHAT HE DESERVES!). Ep 1 had his "nemesis" clearly besting him, ep 2 had Beth making constant digs (love her) and overall pointing out his extreme callousness and cruelty towards even himself(ves). Ep 3- when Morty shows interest in a girl and ditches him (like seriously it's not like he's moving out, chill) he immediately goes on a bender and develops a deep attachment to the first person he can (wearing yellow, funnily enough). Ep 4, he devotes himself to becoming an "honest man" for his new child, only for it to instantly be taken away from him. Ep 5 highlights how RICK is the asshole for making fun of and taking advantage of someone well-meaning and honest, if "simple", and how literally not cool that is. Ep 6 has his crazy rivalry with the president, and they both get smacked down a couple pegs for that. Ep 7 shows what happens when he allows himself to get carried away, and that he can end up driving everyone else away in the process (lucky they still wanted to save his ass when he needed them). And episode 8? Hooooo boy. Episode. 8. We see a direct parallel in Birdperson with Morty, and the whole "Rick and [insert] 100 years!" Rick has few people he cares about, arguably only one or two that he truly devotes himself to, but when he does, boy does he go HARD. We see younger Rick, optimistic, energetic, friendly and hopeful. And we see all of that crushed in minutes. Rick is desperate for a companion, someone to see the stars with. He needs someone there, someone he can trust and rely on to stay. Someone like Morty. So without Morty, who is Rick?

No one.

And the thing is, Morty doesn't need Rick anymore. Not like Rick needs him. In season 1, Morty was this bright-eyed kid who was new to the cosmos and the multiverse, who needed his grandpa there with him as they explored all these places together. But that's not him anymore. That's not them.

The promo has Morty using the portal gun to go somewhere w/o Rick's permission (i like to think it's boob world lol). It doesn't matter to me as much where he's going, as much as he's doing it alone. He doesn't just not need Rick there, he doesn't want him.

(Also correct me if im wrong but I've missed that sweet portal gun so much. I think the last ep was like- the first time this season we saw it).

Morty's response to Rick? "Replace me!". And wow. Wow. WOW. Morty doesn't give a FUCK! I think Rick thinks that because he's so smart, that he can offer so much, that Morty will come crawling back, and I don't think he will.

Hopes for the finale! Hmm. I mean, I definitely hope "evil" Morty makes a reappearance, haha. I think we all do tbh ;). I want to see some Morty development too, this season has been very Rick-centric (not that there's anything wrong with that!) so I wanna see what's in store for Our Boy. I really hope we get to see the Citadel again, and see the state it's in, but I doubt it. We know something super big is in store, it's just a question of what? Other hopes I have is some Summer + Beth action (please let them team up Im BEGGING) and Jerry too ahaha. I'd love if some other side characters made an appearance as well. Oh- I'm definitely expecting a dramatic cliffhanger at the end of the first half leading to the second half, with the kind of angsty music that leads into the credits (pls that shit is so good (OH WAIT imagine if it was like, for the damaged coda, but like- the chopin version or smth so it could be more subtle maybe bruhhhh)). Ok haha, maybe that's asking too much, the writers made it clear in the story train ep that they weren't gonna do that big dramatic showdown (... unless 👀). Oh, I'd also love some Premium Angst too, like someone getting kidnapped/nearly dying (like ACTUALLY nearly dying). These stakes better be so damn high I could spear a man on them! OH, also I remember androgynousblackbox (is that right? I hope it is) mentioned something along the lines that they could be driving Rick and Morty apart this season in order to have them come back together stronger than ever in an explosive finale, which, I'm strongly hoping for myself.

Thanks if you made it this far! If you have any thoughts on or hopes of your own for the finale please feel free to share! :D

#ohmygod im sorry #i rambled way too long #akdjsksaksn #someone needs to take this phone away #also AGAIN im not shitting on s5 as a whole i actually quite like it #its just the RaM dynamic thats lacking #but again that could be intention so ig we'll see #RaM #rick and morty #meta #?#long post #citrus speaks #oh wait i should probably tag to be safe #rickorty mention

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officialwittek · 4 years

Text

pt. 6

*gif is not mine*

word count: 1,449

The incident with Jeff barging into my apartment happened two weeks ago. Since then I have refused to be in the same area as him. I understand he wanted to apologize but at the same time I had made it clear I would like to take some space to myself to collect my thoughts and feelings. I don’t really appreciate when someone forces the conversation on to me. On top of that, my EP release party is tonight courtesy of Natalie and David. I let them invite Jeff because at the end of the day he’s been one of my biggest supporters and it would sort of be a dick move if I just didn’t invite him. I also didn’t tell anyone what happened the other day so there’s that issue as well.

I sigh and force myself out of bed. On top of all my friends from YouTube my friends from my label are coming as well; my manager, producer, and well just Cody and Noel. I haven’t really had the chance to meet people other than those two absolute clowns.. in the best way possible.

“Good morning sleeping beauty” a voice calls, I turn and see Carly standing in my doorway with breakfast and my latte

“You are the backbone of this country” I reply, she laughs and hands me my food

“I’m picking you up at 8 tonight. I just have to run some last minute errands with Dave and Natalie” Carly says, I nod and continue eating breakfast

After Carly leaves I decide to do some work and clean up a little around the apartment. I finish up a few touches to my latest songs that I’ve been writing and I forward and emails about business opportunities to my manager. After about three or so hours of doing work it was time for me to start cleaning. I turn on some music and start picking up all of our scattered belongings in the living room. I do a load of laundry and after making our living area look more presentable it’s about time for me to start getting ready.

I get all my shaving supplies ready in the bathroom and put my hair in a shower cap. I hop in the shower and do my usual routine, and go through my entire saving routine as well. After my shower I put on a hydrating sheet mask and walk over to pick out an outfit. I chose an oversized, emerald satin blouse, a lace bralette underneath, and a Gucci belt around my waist. I laid the clothes on my bed and did my skin care routine. I unwrap my towel and change into the bralette and matching underwear with a robber over it. I sit on my vanity and take all my makeup out. After contemplating for a few minutes I decided to do a mix between a smokey eye and the fox eye trend. It took me about two hours to do my makeup because I kept fucking up and wanted it to be perfect. Once I was satisfied with my look I took out my hair tools. I simply curled my hair and put it in a half-up with two strands framing my face. To conclude the hours it took to look presentable I finally changed into my clothes and put some accessories on.

“Sorry we’re here earl- HOLY SHIT” a male’s voice yells, I turn around and see Zane and Matt with both their mouths agape

“Oh hey guys” I reply, changing my earrings out and putting in some diamond, dangling ones

“Jesus christ guys can you stop oogling my wife” Corinna scolds, pushing them out of the way and grabbing my shoes

“C’mon we’re gonna be late.. although I wouldn’t mind a quickie” she jokes, I chuckle and spray one more layer of setting spray before slipping on some knee high boots and leaving with them

Apparently Carly had a lot more to do than she thought so she asked the three of them to pick me up on their way over. After about 20 minutes we finally arrived, my mouth fell open when I realized David bought out Saddle Ranch for the night. We walked inside and almost everyone I’ve ever met in L.A was already inside.

“There she is, the woman of the hour” Jason yells into a mic, I assume he’s MCing the night which should be interesting to say the least

“Come on up here little lady” Jason calls, everyone makes a path and I head up to the stage

“Hey everyone, thanks for coming to my release party. If any of y’all don’t know me I’m Sage. Please stream my EP for clear skin” I say, the crowd cheers and I walk off to get a drink

After mingling and getting a little bit of alcohol inside me. I did give a quick greeting to Jeff. Jason had told me that I was supposed to go up and perform my new EP to get everyone ready. I thought it was fine, technically it was coming out in a few hours so my producer got ready to help me perform. Jason gave me the single and I took my last shot and went up. I whispered to my producer to start with ‘urs’

‘... Now I can't move 'til you call and tell me to

Now it's all guessing games, I'm guessing every gaze, like

Do you, don't you, would you even stay if you did?

All I know is suddenly without you the bed feels too big

Tryna find where your head is

But I'm losing myself in the process

You're bad for my health

All the good nights

Are they hidden goodbyes in disguise?

I never know…’

The music flows and I let my emotions out. I sway to the beat while I’m singing. My entire EP was dedicated to Jeff and how I felt. I made sure to let him know tonight. The love, the secrecy, the eventual heartbreak. Everything I did was for him and it stops tonight. Tonight is my night and I will not let some boy ruin it for me. After I finished singing we went back to some regular dancing music and my friends were screaming as loud as they could.

“Jesus, there’s no way you aren’t going on world tours after that” Mariah says, I chuckle and grab another shot

“Here’s to our most talented, beautiful, soon to be celebrity friend” Heath yells, all of us taking our shots

Before the night was over I was pretty hammered. I hung out with Cody, Noel and their girlfriends before they left. I love them so much.. I’m so drunk right now. I kept drinking everything people gave to me. Thank god I took pictures before this. I stumbled lazily to my friends. I felt a pair of arms guide me to our section. I look up and saw his stupid face and immediately pushed him off.

“Get the fuck off me, respectfully” I said, glaring at him as he sighed

“Can’t I just help you once? I mean you’ve dragged this on long enough? It’s getting childish” He retorts, I scoff and push my finger into his chest

“From what I recall, I have a right to be upset. I can’t help that you don’t feel the same about me, that’s fine I’ll get over it. But it’s so unfair of you to keep trying to push the conversation on me when I’ve told you repeatedly that I’m not ready to talk. Then to turn around and tell me I’m childish? No, you don’t get to do that. If I was childish I wouldn’t have invited you, I would make our friends pick sides. So fuck you. God, what did I ever see in you” I reply, pushing him away with all my strength and walking to my friends

“I’m fucking leaving” I said, grabbing my purse and phone from the section and calling an uber while my friends follow me

I get outside and turn to face them and most look utterly confused. I sigh and let my tears fall.

“He fucking sucks” I whimper, biting my lip and look at the floor

My friends come around to comfort me while David gets the Tesla. I asked them to drop me off at my apartment, whoever wanted to come over was welcome to do so… yea they all wanted to stay. After getting back I changed while they went to grab food for everyone. We watched movies and just had a good time. Eventually everyone left and I crawled into bed, thankful to be surrounded by such amazing friends.

#vlog squad imagine #vlog sqaud #jeff wittek imagine #jeff wittek

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mowu-moment · 3 years

Text

i feel controversial & i care too much, so here's my des rocs complete tierlist

ranked list & reasoning (ish) under the cut

1. WAYNE: hoholy shit wayne. can hardly put into words how explosive this one is to me. the intro sets a Whole Mood before swiftly (& cleanly) smacking it down into an Absolute Banger and i don't use the term lightly. very hard not to scream along with it. only detriment is that wayne the person is kinda an ass in the mmc video but that's no qualm

2. POS: basically the same thing as wayne (oh both have great lyrics btw, this one more so), only gets points knocked for being 2 minutes long and having 30 seconds of that being intro & outro. go danny give us nothing

3. WHY WHY WHY: there's a theme among my top picks--they're all hard-hitting w/ killer guitar. the lyrics are absolute batshit in a good way, but the chorus is a lil flat & i feel like in general it just needed a touch more spice to score the top spot. or maybe it's just seniority & it'll have a coup a few months out idk

4. DEAD RINGER: similar killer guitar & lyrics but this one is Groovy as Hell. don't particularly like his singing in this one & it's too repetitive if i'm feeling grumpy but there's something so magic about after the bridge. top 10 songs to twirl a flag to

5. NOTHING PERSONAL: the minute long outro irks me & it's a little bit empty but plays into that well. groovy, great lyrics, the Sexiest Guitar Solo of the lot, the screaming's a minus but it does have an emotion there. not entirely sure what one but it's there.

6. LET ME LIVE / LET ME DIE: his first time being all over the goddamn place, history was made. amazing guitar, a little worse lyrics than 1-4 i'll admit, the intro Slays me both in a good and bad way. must be a joy to play live where he can just drag out that intro & bridge as long as feels right. at least i liked it in the digital concert like that. would actually kill me in a physical concert, imagine how much stomping gets going to that beat. bonus points for presumable cowbell

7. PIECES: for once not this high for the guitar & lyrics, they're both kinda basic. idk what's about this one but it just takes me to a separate dimension & i love it so much for that. really fills those earholes. also a bit of personal meaning, heard it for the first time on the day we moved into the house i'm currently split-custody-living in (is that tmi?) & the first music video of his i saw. man i love some spaghetti on the wall

8. SLO: basically the same as dead ringer, but knocked points for a kinda lame outro & the subject matter being a little less interesting to me. still lovely.

9. HANGING BY A THREAD: not my normal fare really & the way that the ends of the verses don't really fit in the pacing of them is bleh, but it's just so reminiscent of the songs my brother puts on whenever we hang out together that it just makes me all warm & fuzzy. it's also nicely put together which is something i'll have to start saying for. the later list.

10. SUICIDE ROMANTICS: this is where i start griping about head voice & higher pitches in general. don't like em so the pre-chorus is a lil annoying. also not my normal fare but it's tender & the ending is awe-striking. imo better live where he's loud on that last line before the final chorus. not enough to bump it up though. shoutouts to love and a smoking gun, i still am dying to hear that one

11. THE PAST HAS PASSED AWAY: my favorite lyrics out of the first 2 ep's. only thing wrong with it really is the bridge getting kinda repetitive. love that last chorus heehoo. same schpeel as the Banger Category

12. MMC: this one's lower than the rest of the Bangers for being pop punk which is something the radio has made me dislike, i guess. that trope with the guitar in the second half of the chorus just kills me so much. improves greatly during & after the bridge, love that lil ragtime piano. generally the same bit as before but i do love him doing something un-romance-related. yeah fuck the establishment!

13. THE DEVIL INSIDE: reminds me A Lot of the electronic-ish cassettes i've got from the early 90's but that's just me. this one will probably move up as i get more used to it, but only a little bit. the first part of the second verse makes me like. genuinely uncomfy? but the second part of it's fantastic. ending's ass though what happened to the instrumence. bonus points for using 'reverie' that's an SAT word (maybe). good singing but returning to the gripe at higher pitches, just a little bit though

14. THIS IS OUR LIFE: feels shockingly generic for a des rocs song tbh but there's nothing really wrong with that. adore the bridge. singing's alright. kinda miffed that he doesn't pronounce the 'f' in the second 'life' in the chorus, but it makes sense here. that sort of thing won't later so i'm bringing it up now. guitar's nothing spectacular but fits nicely into the song, probably one of the most cohesive of his (especially in recent history).

15. OUTTA MY MIND: really lives in the same space as slo and dead ringer do in my head (most likely the 'songs to twirl a flag to' zone), but this is by far the worst of the three for when i'm grumpy. just. Very repetitive. back to great lyrics here but it's kinda hard to pick them out (i've heard the song at least 100 times by now & i'm still missing a few lines). still groovin'

16. RUBY WITH THE SHARPEST LIES: what the fuck actually goes on in this song by the way? not the premise or whatever it's just. so all over the place. the verses are incredible but bringing in another vocalist just for one line kills me. bridge is really cool but that one part i don't remember where it is, the one that alternates basically nothing & an Electronic Piano Chord blaring at ya? ruins it. partially anyhow. also can someone tell the people on genius that it's 'carved it in my skin' not 'crawled down in my skin'

17. GIVE ME THE NIGHT: same repetitive issue as outta my mind but it's not groovy enough to save it, shame. feels like a trial run of all the wackshit stuff he's been doing recently, with the additional vocal bits at the end & the kinda weird lyrics. it still has a place in my heart don't get me wrong but it's just fallen in favor of stuff that Commits to banger or batshit (or actually pulls off both strongly, yyy). oh yeah nice guitar alright singing etc etc

18. USED TO THE DARKNESS: similar story to give me the night. i love it i do, but it's just lackluster nowadays. also remember that under-pronunciation thing i brought up in this is our life? this is where that comes back. rampant i tell you! that second verse he just doesn't finish the words & i hate it!

19. DON'T HURT ME: i honestly don't know why this one isn't in D. the chorus bit where he just cuts it short is irksome. the lyrics aren't anything special. i don't know what i like about it. but i can tell it does exactly what it set out to do if that makes sense. respect, respect. and using missile in an analogy, he's getting creative with the vocab

20. LIVING PROOF: kinda got a vendetta against this one i think? i don't know why i hate this one but i do. it's just kinda, blah. like the perfect sort of thing to nightcore up. sentiment's lovely & i do love the lyrics even if they aren't impressive but like. it bores me to an extent

21. TICK (LIVE): separating the version i heard in the digital concert just to give it some credit, this one was actually kinda nice. another one with a nice sentiment & what he was going for is great. no clue what the second part of the second verse has to do with any of this though. and it also begins our final group, the songs that just feel empty. like there's not nearly enough going on. this one's alright though i was just hoping the studio version would add some flair. you can see where that one is though.

22. IMAGINARY FRIENDS: also got a vendetta against pop. kinda hate the sentiment here (contrast!), the chorus just falls short of what the verses prime me for, head voice is rampant, and yet i still swing along to it. it's infectious props to him. love the outro though, monkey laugh and all.

23. MAYBE, I: another empty one, like it's a four-note progression what is that. love his singing in it, and the chorus parts do round it out, but like. eh? it doesn't even give me much to say.

24. BORN TO LOSE: another flop on the chorus! too smooth i say! and i absolutely Despise the pitch-shifting thing going on. not something i was expecting him to express so points there, lyrics are nothing fancy to my Literary Mind though. initially good singing but the chorus he's just sloppy over it. the instrumental is lovely but the vocals just throw it so hard into the bin which is a right shame. fuck that outro too i hate that gimmick

25. I KNOW: here's where the bad batshit comes in. singing is some of his worst imo, does the other-vocalist thing for that bridge, genre i'm not fond of, just a soup of Stuff I Don't Like. not one i'd kill someone over putting as #1 like i can see where it comes from but. mmmmmhhhh bad. cover does NOT help his case.

26. HVY MTL DRMR: empirically i should put this one higher. but the chorus flops so goddamn hard it deserves to be in the bottom of the barrel. the verses are lovely for what he was doing back then! but then just... nothing!

27. RABBIT HOLE: i was so excited for this name but it's just sad boi hours playlist curated by some corporation you hate. probably the most nothing of them all, genuinely where are the instruments. what happened. was this one just shoehorned in as the final track just to pump numbers up. and i swear he had some autotune or something which only makes his voice worse it's fantastic naturally. also that's not what a rabbit hole is! that's not the idiom! a rabbit hole is when you go on a wikipedia spiral from jennifer lopez to group theory! not when you just have a shitty night's sleep or whatever this is! i'm not just miffed i'm downright annoyed

28. TICK (STUDIO): what the fuck happened des. how did you release this. it sounds like a 3rd grader singing for the school talent show it's so out of rhythm. singing's honestly kinda bad & the instrumental has the same problems i talked about in the live version. the last chorus is fine, i guess, but no i don't forgive him for what he did to tick.

#des rocs #yeah i forgot tphpa on the first pass. it's always at least one #i guess i'm pessimistic on the new album? or i just don't like his new direction? idk i just finished it like. today.#wasn't expecting to be able to rank the songs of my Favorite Musician & be happy with it but here we are #tell me why i'm wrong in the notes <3

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forestwater87 · 4 years

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Every episode of Camp Camp ranked: A very (non)objective list

It's well past the time of year when Season 5 of Camp Camp would've dropped. I fully understand and support it not coming out; the crew's health and safety are much more important than a comfort show.

However . . . man, would it be nice to have some comfort right now.

So I'm reliving the entire series! I've been known to share with the world a whole bunch of Spicy Hot Takes, but I've never really sat down and talked about my feelings about the show as a whole.

And what's the best way to do that? Well, just ask Jenny Nicholson: a numbered list! That is, here's the series ranked from worst episode to best, because I want to get the negativity out of the way early and focus on everything I love (and because people enjoy complaining, so let’s frontload all that).

The takes will be hot. The feelings will be intense. The post, I'm assuming, will be largely unread.

Let's do it!

Oh and duh, there are spoilers. I tried to keep it pretty chill, but you’ll want to have watched the whole show or just not care about spoilers before going forward.

Also slashes in the middle of “naughty words” are meant to prevent this from being kept out of the main tags. Who knows if it’ll work? I don’t.

60. Who Peed the Lake? (Season 4, epis/sode 3)

Ah, good ol' Pi/ss Lake (or as @hopefullypessimistic84 calls it because she's funnier than any of us will ever be, “Pis/s Fe/tish Dot Com”). Terrible, one of the few I’d consider nigh unwatchable. I actually kind of love this episode for being such great shorthand for "the absolute worst one."

Who signed off on an entire episode centered around Sherlock Holmes meets a bad om/o joke? Give me names and addresses: I just want to talk.

59. Reigny Day (Season 1, episode 6)

And nobody was surprised.

I'll admit I'm more willing to defend this episode than many people, but it's not . . . like, good. It seemed okay when there were only 11 other episodes to compare it to, but now that there have been so many bangers, this comes across as extremely weak.

And let’s just say the Na/zi jokes hit a lot differently in 2020 than they did in the summer of 2016.

I’m overall happy with the direction the showrunners have moved Dolph’s character in, and I can’t totally blame them for using a kind of humor that was fairly common in the pre-Trump era, but yikes, this has aged like milk. And it wasn’t even very funny at the time, so it aged like milk that was already pretty bad to begin with.

58. Squirrel Camp (Season 4, episode 10)

This is a dumb one.

Not much else to say; it’s just kinda stupid and lame.

57. Fashion Victims (Season 4, episode 13)

I love Sasha, but this is filler. Which isn’t in itself a bad thing -- I have a couple episodes near the top that could reasonably be called filler, and a valid argument could easily be made that “filler episodes” don’t actually exist in a show with no plot -- but as much as I adore the Flower Scouts and enjoy the handful of good moments we get in this episode . . . who cares? Does anyone really give a sh/it about anything that happens here? Does anyone get their life from this one?

I didn’t think so.

56. Foreign Exchange Campers (Season 3, episode 3)

I know, I know, your Russian waifu came from this episode. Why do you think it’s so low on this list?

Okay, for real: this is . . . fine. It’s fine. It’s fine? I’m not mad at it, it just feels tonally incongruous and not very memorable beyond the fact that the fandom got really weird and kinda gross about Vera. But the episode itself? There’s some cute stuff with Neil and Nikki being jealous, but for the most part it’s a big hunk of white bread with some super mild white cheese that’s kinda soggy from sitting in a bag for too long and getting all condensation-y.

That is to say: it’s fine.

ETA: Space Kid does say “fu/ck.” I can’t decide if that’s a point in the episode’s favor or against it.

This is the last of what I’d call the “bad” episodes. Everything after this ranges from mediocre to mind-blowingly amazing. But whatever our failing tier of Camp Camp episodes is, it stops right about here.

Onto the good stuff!

55. Night of the Living Ill (Season 2 Halloween episode)

I keep switching this with “Eggs Benefits,” which probably means they should be tied. But whatever, this is my list and I am in charge and I’ve finally decided, after like 5 changes, that I like this one a little bit less.

It’s a fun Romero parody with nothing I’d call bad. Really this one’s only so low on the list because I think it’s kinda icky, and looking at those green snotty faces makes me queasy. If you think this is a bad reason to put it near the bottom of the list, then make your own post.

54. Cameron Campbell Can't Handle the Truth Serum (Season 4, episode 11)

I . . . don’t remember this at all. I initially had it a bit higher because I tend to love things with Campbell in them, but then I realized that nothing about this episode stuck in my brain even a little bit.

Oh, this is the “Dolph has autism” episode that made everyone either extremely happy or really mad? Okay. I guess that’s the most remarkable thing about it. Neato.

Cam, I love you, but this was just not the best use of your sleazy charm.

53. Eggs Benefits (Season 2, episode 9)

This is one of those episodes with enough cute moments and good ideas to save it from being totally unmemorable, and I mostly enjoy rewatching. Platypus being a mom is a fabulous idea, and pairing the campers the way they did was mostly really interesting and fun.

The Preston-Nurf stuff takes it down several pretty significant notches, though. It’s what the kids would call problematic, and while I normally enjoy how the show doesn’t skew away from darker themes and jokes, it didn’t really fit either of their characters and just . . . isn’t fun to watch. It’s not especially funny, it’s not especially tragic, it’s just uncomfortable.

52. Camp Campbell Wants YOU! (Season 1, episode 0)

Honestly, this would be a lot higher if it was a full-length episode. It’s funny.

The next 5 or so episodes fall under the “cute but not very memorable” umbrella:

51. Nikki's Last Day on Earth (Season 3, episode 4)

I love the ensemble episodes, so this was always going to score higher than any of the single-character “meh” eps. I didn’t see the twist coming, though I know a lot of other fans did. Textbook example of “cute but not very memorable” -- the Platonic ideal of that concept.

50. The Candy Kingpin (Season 3, episode 9)

A clever idea that plays on Max’s worst characteristics and then calls him out for them, while also giving Dolph some much-needed character development. Unfortunately, I don’t feel like it really picks up until the last third of the episode, leaving the rest just kind of sitting there.

49. Campfire Tales (Season 4, episode 13)

Who doesn’t love campfire stories?

That’s all I got. They’re campfire stories.

ETA: OH SH/IT THIS ONE HAS THAT REALLY SCARY STORY! Where David’s all like . . . Slenderman’d. Fu/ck, I didn’t remember that until I was writing out my thoughts for #35 or so. That definitely elevates it, but I’m too tired to try and re-decide where this should go, so just tie it with “New Adventure!”

48. New Adventure! (Season 4, episode 4)

New trio! Focusing on these 3 was a definite risk, and I think it really paid off. While the “plot” itself isn’t anything special, there are a handful of really great side gags (hi, Dirty Kevin!!!!) and it’s fun to see these three interact. They all get some nice character beats. It’s a good time.

47. Something Fishy (Season 3, episode 8)

This might’ve hit me harder if I’d actually seen The Shape of Water, but the send-up works fine without having more than the seen-the-trailer level of understanding. Gwen dresses pretty, which I love; Max sucks, which I also love. What drags this one down is mostly feeling like the surreal aspects of the comedy go a bit too far into the “what the fu/ck am I looking at?” territory without really . . . making an actual joke beyond “look! Wacky!"

Why is David at the opera with a bird? Why??

46. City Survival (Season 3, episode 11)

Literally do not remember a single thing about this episode except David getting mugged and being called a “homeless twi/nk.” That should probably rank it lower on the list, but David being a fluttery mother hen saves it for me -- as does the fact that it leads directly into one of my favorite episodes, and the single best story arc of the series.

Next set of episodes is what I’m going to arbitrarily call “okay! but like the good kind of okay, not the bad kind.”

45. Bonjour Bonquisha (Season 2, episode 7)

Max and Sasha masterminding a scheme is really fun; their dynamic is great (though it won’t be fully realized until Season 4), and heartbroken David is so tragically cute it actually makes my heart explode out of my chest.

Also I can’t resist a good “3 kids in a trench coat” gag.

44. Anti-Social Network (Season 2, episode 2)

Neil is very relatable and I don’t have much else to say about this one. It’s fun to see an episode that more heavily focuses on our nerdy science boy, and Max and Neil teaming up to save Nikki was really charming and sweet and set my Makkiel ship out to sea.

43. A Camp Camp Christmas, or Whatever (Season 2 holiday episode)

Why does this episode have a musical number? It’s not good.

Okay, that was mean. This is fun and cute and Gwen wears a pretty purple sweatshirt and Space Kid gives her a present and it’s really sweet. But that musical number is an instant fast-forward for me, sorry.

42. Preston Goodplay's Good Play (Season 4, episode 7)

We get some Preston character development! Awesome!

It’s done in a really trippy and surreal way that totally fits his character and heightens the drama of the episode! Awesome!

David has an apparently-tragic history of being a French mime! Not a good call!

Next tier: Some good sh/it! (Tbh, these could all be put in just about any order; they might as well be one massive tie.)

41. Cookin' Cookies (Season 2, episode 11)

I love the Flower Scouts. I love Dirty Kevin. I love the idea of accidentally starting a dru/g empire. Another weird, borderline experimental one focusing on side characters, and I think it works better than “New Adventure!” because the scale of the melodrama is just so over-the-top.

The fact that this is in the bottom 20 but I have nothing but good things to say about it illustrates how dang good this show is. It’s only getting better from here, folks!

40. Romeo & Juliet II: Love Resurrected (Season 1, episode 7)

Preston is a terrible playwright. This makes sense, because he’s like 11, but he’s the kind of hilariously bad I wish I’d been as a preteen, because his play is absolutely bonkers. Max fucking with David is great, Tabii vs. Bonquisha is great, Bonquisha in general is a giant amazonian goddess and I want to be swept up into her giant arms. Neil is . . . a robot, for some reason?

So much fun!

39. Camp Cool Kidz (Season 1, episode 4)

I don’t love Ered’s characterization in this one, but there are a lot of wacky hijinks in this episode that I think make it really enjoyable. Max’s wide-eyed revolutionary naïveté is a fun change from his usual dour pessimism, and Nikki’s loyalty to Ered is both very gay and very charming. Plus we get to learn a bit more about how the camp operates (and fails to operate), and it’s a nice way to better establish the campsite as its own setting.

(Definitely think “Cool” should’ve been spelled with a K though. But whatever, I don’t write for the show.)

38. Scout's Dishonor (Season 1, episode 3)

The birth of Neeancy! The introduction of the Flower and Wood Scouts! Neil saying “cu/nt” -- one of the first and only truly shocking uses of profanity in the entire show! ZUKO!

I don’t know if my fondness for this one is rooted mostly in nostalgia or if it was actually really fun, but I enjoyed the he/ll out of it. Not as highly-rated as some other episodes mostly because it doesn’t really do anything, character or story-wise, but not every episode needs to be a massive game-changer that drowns us in feels. Sometimes it’s enough to have a fun romp, and this is very that.

37. Ered Gets Her Cool Back (Season 3, episode 2)

Awww, Ered. I have a soft spot for her, because I love the archetype of a spoiled bit/ch clearly still figuring out how to be a person and have friends. You really get the sense of her as a teenager trying to sort her shi/t out in this episode, which I would love to see more of. Her interactions with Nerris are top-tier, and I like that it’s a continuation of how her character’s been softening since Season 1 into this kind of big-sister figure.

Also, all the female campers in this show are lesbians. I do not make the rules.

36. Attack of the Nurfs (Season 4, episode 2)

I feel like this is a pretty underrated episode. But then again, I feel like Nurf is a pretty underrated character, so maybe that’s just my own personal bias.

I really enjoyed all the different iterations of Nurf, and I think Blaine did a killer job giving each one its own personality and life. It’s a fun episode that plays hard with cartoon physics (a 3D printer printing people! I love it!) and has a surprisingly moving ending.

At least, that’s what I think. Most other people seem to find this one pretty forgettable. Again: make your own da/mn list. I liked it.

35. Mascot (Season 1, episode 2)

This entire episode is memorable for so many things, but a few of my favorites:

David is established as kind of a di/ck.

Platypus arrives and kicks all the as/s.

Quartermaster is the best.

Nerris, Harrison, and Space Kid all get little moments to show off how cute they are.

Neil and Nikki bonding.

This:

34. Quest to Sleepy Peak Peak (Season 2, episode 3)

I love watching Nerris and Harrison bicker, and Neil and Nikki fit really well into their group. It reminds me of being a kid, and of playing Dungeons & Dragons (as an adult, because I’m so cool), and of summer . . . which is a really good thing for this show. There are a lot of funny one-liners, and it’s just a good dang time.

33. Quartermaster Appreciation Day (Season 2, episode 6)

I don’t think this one is all that well-loved, but I thought it was funny. There are literally zero important plot or character moments, but it made me laugh a lot, and that’s all I need a Camp Camp episode to do.

I love QM, and the more we learn about him, the more confused and disturbed we end up being. What a fu/cking champion.

32. Arrival of the Torso Takers (Season 3 Halloween episode)

I lowkey hated this one when it came out, because I knew the Daniel stans were going to be exhausting. And they kind of were? But looking back, it’s a great way to reintroduce this motherfu/cker. He’s a lot scarier than he was the last time around -- but also less competent, which is a great way to kick him in the proverbial ba/lls -- and while I wish it had a lot more Gwen in it, it’s a clever and creative Halloween episode.

31. Operation: Charlie Tango Foxtrot (Season 3, episode 10)

Charlie . . . Tango . . . Foxtrot . . . CTF . . . OH! Capture the Flag! I never got that before. Oh, that’s neat. I love this show.

Listen, every time the writers decide to take a risk and do something bizarre and creative, I’m going to be here for it at least a little bit. An entire episode told from the POV of the Woodscouts, explaining how hard they failed in all directions? A great gag where everyone in Petrol’s story talks in grunts? The return of Jermy Fartz?! Fantastic.

30. Panicked Room (Season 4, episode 16)

Listen. I’m a sucker for my trash grandpa; anything Campbell-centric is probably going to be pretty good (except #54), because he’s just one of the most consistently funny and engaging characters. Good times are had whenever this terrible man is on the screen, and giving him a romantic backstory? A tragic romantic backstory full of mistakes and emotional damage?? One where he waited 17 YEARS for the love of his life???

We have no choice but to stan.

29. Party Pooper (Season 4, episode 15)

I’m so predictable. If you put Gwen in something, I will be happy. If you make an entire episode about how Gwen is under-appreciated and overworked and just trying to do her best despite the circumstances, I will dedicate my firstborn child to you.

Anyway, this episode is really sweet, and I liked the unexpected direction the writers took her relationship with her dad. He seems like a nice guy, they seem like they have a nice relationship, and . . . well, an episode about how hard it is to be an adult millennial hit pretty hard. Plus this was just a really pretty episode -- and not just because Gwen was in so much of it! Seriously, that night sky was a thing of beauty.

Also if you say a fuc/king word about Max and that godda/mn dog I will choke you out with your own intestines. Few things are more hilariously, annoyingly ironic than the fact that the entire fandom ignored and failed to appreciate Gwen . . . in the episode all about how everyone ignores and fails to appreciate Gwen.

28. Culture Day (Season 3 holiday episode)

Now, would it be arrogant to point out that I had the idea for a Culture/Heritage Day back in September 2018? Yes, especially since I don’t think the writers ever read fanfiction and it has literally nothing to do with this episode. Will that stop me? He/ll no it will not! I am a creature of ego! Read my stuff!

Anyway, this is a really fun look at Neil’s background, personality, and relationships. Max looking out for him is just . . . oh my god, I cannot, I’ve written like 30 of these and my brain is starting to melt, but these two are so cute. I love arrogant Neil, and I love protective Max, and I love QM and Gwen fuc/king over the Flower Scouts to save the day. Everything about this episode is lovely.

27. Cameron Campbell the Camp Campbell Camper (Season 3, episode 7)

This should not be ranked so high (even if these are all essentially tied). This is a dumb episode based on a really, really dumb premise.

But . . . I don’t know what to tell you. “Samboy Kidwell,” Max realizing he and Campbell are disturbingly similar and not liking what his future could look like, David’s “I’m not mad, I’m disappointed” face . . . this episode happens to hit all of my favorite things. It had a really good balance of heavy-handed moralizing and goofs, it was part of the most graceful lead-up into a finale the show has ever had, and I’m just all about it.

Excellent job, Samboy. Count Olaf would be proud of your disguise.

There ends the “some good sh/it” tier. We’re starting to get into the really excellent stuff now!

26. Parents' Day (Season 2, episode 12)

I know. You want this to be higher. I hear you.

Honestly I’m kind of shocked it’s this high; it’s my least favorite of the season finales so far, and I had to push past a lot of prejudice to actually rank this where I think it deserves to be, as opposed to somewhere in the like mid-40s. Mostly because it gave fuel to the raging inferno of “Max has terrible parents and David should adopt him” headcanons, which I’ve detailed my problems with extensively in the past (in a post that, statistically speaking, none of you have read).

But, trying to be objective: is this episode actually any good?

Well . . . yeah, it really is.

So much work was put into giving each of the campers families that make sense with their characters and bounce absurdly well off of them, ranging from wholesome and adorable (Nerris’s family) to quietly tragic (Harrison’s parents), and they’re all designed so well; they’re fun to look at and fun to watch interact with the kids and each other. (The only exception is Dolph’s dad, who is both kinda lame and misattributes the cause of the weird Na/zi thing because it did not come from Germany, I assure you. But things with Dolph are always a little off, and I don’t really know how you would give him a backstory that actually works with the character, so they were caught between a rock and a hard place there.)

The drama of David having to choose between the man he considers his father and the camp he considers his home is really touching, and him and Gwen choosing to take a sad camper out to get pizza instead of covering for their boss’s a/ss is such a beautiful moment for both of them that I can’t really blame the fandom for losing their mind over it. Campbell’s arrest leading into the arcs of the next two seasons was great as well, and the finale left us all with this weird sense of foreboding because we didn’t know what was going to happen next; it was the only finale that actually ended on something close to a cliffhanger, while still being satisfying enough to keep us all from melting down.

Plus, it’s funny. Carl and Candy are really funny and the idea of Neil and Nikki’s parents boning is funny in a horrible way. The joke about Quartersister is funny. It’s a good episode.

Should this be higher? Maybe, but I can’t bring myself to put it above the rest of these episodes. Again: make your own list.

25. Mind Freakers (Season 1, episode 10)

The episode that launched a thousand ships. Assuming those ships are all Harrison/Neil, anyway.

It’s hard to talk about these Season 1 episodes because they feel so classic. Like, what is there to say? You’ve all seen it a couple dozen times; I’ve seen it a couple dozen times. Harrison is a di/ck, Neil is possibly an even bigger di/ck, and magic may or may not be real. (Though spoilers for literally every season: yes, magic is definitely real.) It’s so much fun watching these two smug as/sholes snipe at each other in an almost literal playground hair-pulling way that could very easily be read as flirtation.

And the fandom did most certainly read it that way, at least for a little while.

24. Gwen Gets a Job (Season 2, episode 8)

It’s Gwen. What, was I supposed to not put it this high?

This was the first Gwen-centric episode, and it absolutely slaps. She’s pushed to the breaking point and responds by being a cold-hearted BAMF, and it got her some pretty significant hate from fans but I don’t give a fu/ck, I loved it. We got to see her all dolled up, and then we got to see her all disheveled, and both of those looks were gorgeous. David gives her a tiny fragment of the love and validation she deserves (I don’t know if this is when gwenvid started taking off -- I think it wasn’t really until “Parents’ Day,” or even Season 3 -- but I ate that s/hit up).

Also, again: job hunting post-2008. It’s a bad time, y’all. Camp Camp gets it.

23. Follow the Leader (Season 4, episode 6)

Yeah, I was kind of surprised at how high this landed, too. I guess I’m just a sucker for unlikely companionships, and these three have a great chemistry. The combination of competitiveness, sass, and reluctant admiration make their interactions a lot of fun. Their motivation of doing petty errands for Campbell for the sake of getting at the Box of Illegal Contraband is a great framework too, with high enough stakes to justify all sorts of wacky shenanigans without causing actual anxiety.

I want to see these characters forced to spend more time together. Please, RT, make that happen.

22. Escape from Camp Campbell (Season 1, episode 1)

In terms of numbers, this feels so low, but considering everything from about #45 on is ranked as at least decent, this is actually a pretty high rating. There are 21 episodes I’d call better than this, but these decisions were all pretty painful.

This introduces us to everyone! The main trio, the counselors, Mr. Campbell; we get a snapshot of the major personalities running around the camp, the major points of conflict (Max vs. David, primarily), the major building blocks of future episodes, setting, and relationships . . .

Again, I don’t know how much of my love for this episode is nostalgia -- there’s a lot of squeeing at familiar faces and gags; this is the first time David gets hit by a bus!!! -- but it was a fun and funny introduction to a series that’s ended up being so important to me, and I’m so grateful this wonderful, quirky little show with its wonderful and quirky little premiere.

Of all the episodes, I really can’t look at this one objectively. It’s too important.

21. The Fun-Raiser (Season 3, episode 1)

David and Gwen scheming is my ki/nk. They very rarely scheme together, but every single time their teamwork makes the dream work (or, more frequently, makes the dream fail horribly and have disastrous consequences) my soul flies out of my body and takes to the stars, where I write another 500 first chapters to gwenvid fanfics I’ll probably never finish.

This is a great follow-up to “Parents’ Day,” where we immediately see the consequences of the previous season finale and what happens when the one adult in the camp disappears. Mr. Campbell was a terrible adult, true, but at least he was smart enough not to steal QM’s hook. Like . . . whose plan was this? It was so bad. These two are hilariously incompetent sometimes -- often when their bad ideas are feeding off of each other, actually, a la this and “Space Camp Was a Hoax” -- and watching them frantically try and keep all their balls in the air is so great.

The ending is satisfying, too; a bit graphic, in keeping with a show that tends to keep the violence limited to periodic spurts of bloodshed 1-2 times a season and mostly pretty mild the rest of the time, but between Max stepping up and fixing everything while still being his shi/tty self to our dear dumba/ss counselors getting their dumb as/ses handed to them (deservedly so, if we’re being honest) . . . it’s such a great note to begin a new season on.

20. Journey to Spooky Island (Season 1, episode 5)

A classic.

We get to meet our spooky boy Jasper, we get to watch the comedy trio play off each other and continue to sketch out the general contours of their friendship, and we get to see the Quartermaster with a big purple dil/do for a hand. What’s not to love?

19. The Butterfinger Effect (Season 4, episode 17)

CONTROVERSIAL HOT TAKES! GET YOUR CONTROVERSIAL HOT TAKES HERE!

I’ve already gone into some pretty intense detail about why I think this one is actually really good and carries the theme of embracing change that everything about Season 4 was centered around, but none of y’all read that so here it is in short: this episode is super funny, almost all of the campers’ transformations work really well as extensions of their characters while still being strange and surprising, and the fact that Nurf creates all of these problems by trying to solve them is deliciously fun to watch in a karmic sort of way.

Or maybe it’s just because any Nurf-centric episode is going to rank pretty highly for me. That is also possible.

18. Space Camp Was a Hoax (Season 2, episode 10)

Our camp counselors being bad people: it’s my drug of choice.

We get Space Kid tripping balls in what might be one of the funniest sequences in the show, the entire camp coming together to try and pull off the stupidest, most impossible task (and kinda maybe almost nailing it???), and once again the fun of watching Gwen and David scramble to keep from getting caught in their boss’s shit/ty lies is so great. And Lindsay’s voice acting is absolutely killer, even more so than usual.

17. Jermy Fartz (Season 2, episode 4)

I get the sense this might be a somewhat controversial one.

I’ve written before about why I think this episode is a lot of fun, but it mostly boils down to two things: watching the campers try (and fail) to be nice to the most bully-able person on the entire planet, and the essential likeableness of Jermy.

No, really.

I think a lot of people were put off by Jermy’s general grossness, because . . . my god is he disgusting, but he’s also polite and good-natured, and seems totally self aware of how difficult he is to be around, without letting it make him depressed. He’s cheerful in a weirdly downbeat way that’s impossible to understand until you see him in action. He’s so matter-of-fact about his own awfulness in a way that I found entirely endearing. I don’t think I’d want him at my camp, either, but get that kid to a good dermatologist and gastroenterologist, teach him some basic hygiene and social skills, and you’ll have quite a little gentleman there.

I do however find it hilarious that apparently David got the type of tree wrong when making fun of Jermy. Not only is that a great moment for reveling in David being an as/shole, but he didn’t even have the right wood. F/ucking idiot. I love him so much.

These last ones are my favorites! (Well, duh, that’s how this whole ranking thing works.) Maybe not perfect, but just really good and with limitless rewatch value.

16. St. Campbell's Day (Season 4 holiday episode)

They Grinch’d Camp Camp. Those brilliant bast/ards, they really pulled it off.

Ignoring the fact that David is truly frightening-looking for most of the episode, this is a great bookend to Season 4, following up on the theme established in the first episode about how David is a flawed and selfish human being despite trying his best not to be.

This is another one I was surprised to find so high on the list, but the more I thought about it the more I realizes how good it is. David being a jerk is always one of my favorite storylines, and the fact that the trouble comes from him trusting Mr. Campbell too little instead of too much is a nice twist on the usual formula. Gwen coming to help him out despite a blistering hangover gave me aggressive shipping feels, yes, obviously.

Between a lot of really funny little gags like QM’s failed satanic ritual and the genuinely touching moral about the importance of spending time with the people you love, it’s just a really lovely episode that gets just the right amount of maudlin for the holiday season.

15. Jasper Dies at the End (Season 2, episode 5)

I kept switching this and “Dial M for Jasper”; it was a really difficult decision to make, figuring out where these two belonged. I think in the end, while the John Dies at the End reference was very, very good, this one loses me a little bit by being told from David’s perspective. Now, normally the more David is in an episode the more I’ll be likely to love it (see my #1 for proof of that), but his blinders when it comes to the camp and Mr. Campbell result in a really funny story, but one without the same emotional heft as hearing about what happened from Jasper’s point of view.

That doesn’t mean it’s not perfect for what it needs to be: each Jasper episode builds on the previous ones, and having the same intensity of “Dial M for Jasper,” where we learn how he died and how his relationship with David fell apart, would be weird and heavy at this point. In Season 1 we just found out he’s a ghost (and eagle-eyed viewers realized he’d been a camper with David); in Season 2 we find out how David views their friendship and time at camp; and in Season 3 we get Jasper’s perspective. It’s an absolutely wonderful raising of the stakes (for lack of a better term), but the one that packs more of an emotional punch is going to rank a bit higher than the one that’s mostly just for laughs.

That being said: there are plenty of laughs in this one. Everyone -- Griffin, Miles, Travis, the animators -- nailed this one, and it gets funnier every time I watch it.

14. Camporee (Season 1, episode 11)

AKA the episode where Forest realized she was in love with Gwen.

What a great idea for an episode, seriously. Every coming-of-age story has a talent show or a competition or a big game -- something where the kiddos can show off their improved skills and teamwork to beat their bullies or whatever. And this show has both kinds of bullies: the popular girly girls and the violent muscleheads. What a great moment to pull everyone together and show how friendship can help us accomplish anything!

Except . . . of course that’s not what happens. Of course they’re absolute garbage, and of course teamwork isn’t the answer. Gwen is the perfect foil for David here, being the anti-teamwork, anti-Camp-Campbell adult who can perfectly and effortlessly undermine David’s relentless optimism. David wants so badly for his campers to live in the same coming-of-age summer movie he did as a child, and their staunch refusal to do that leads to a really heartbreaking closer to the episode, as well as lead into the next one. Everything about this, from the challenges to the setup to Gwen shouting “we are winning this FUC/KING trophy!” is just gold.

13. David Gets Hard (Season 1, episode 9)

We have David. We have Nurf. We have Gwen. We have Max trying to be helpful in the shi/ttiest way possible.

We have all the makings of a da/mn good episode. And they deliver. Not a very emotionally intense or moving one, but so, so funny.

12. Dial M for Jasper (Season 3, episode 5)

This isn’t the fate any of us expected for Jasper, and it’s not the fate of a lot of people wanted. But godda/mn it, it worked. The constant bait-and-switch the episode keeps playing with, where you keep waiting for something really dramatic and tragic to happen . . . and then the reality is that Jasper died because Mr. Campbell was stupid and careless, and it was all just a horribly sad accident.

It’s anticlimactic, but in a way that suits the series, both as a comedic counterpoint to all the hype throughout the episode and as a way to establish that Cameron Campbell is a bad man first and foremost through selfishness and laziness, not Daniel-esque sinister evil. Jasper’s death was totally avoidable and totally Campbell’s fault, and while that’s sad, it also adds a weird sort of lightness to the episode. David didn’t do something terrible to kill his best friend, Jasper didn’t kill himself, and without having actively chosen to murder a child (well, not this time), the door remains open for fans accepting Campbell’s later pseudo-redemption. It was just an accident, and Jasper was “haunting” David to tell him that he was sorry for how their friendship ended. That’s really sweet, actually.

I think it’s the best way this reveal could’ve gone, and I’m so impressed with how they pulled it all off.

11. Into Town (Season 1, episode 8)

This might actually be the only flawless episode in the entire show. I mean, I call a lot of them flawless, and I mean that on an emotional level -- “I love this so much I cannot see anything wrong with it” -- but this one is a masterpiece of storytelling. All the technical jumbo I’m bad at, like planting and payoff and tension and all of that, is just perfect.

I feel like this is the kind of claim that needs to be backed up with a long-as/s essay full of citations and video clips and references to, like, Joseph Campbell or something, but this is my 49th entry in the list so I am not going to be doing that. Besides, I don’t think my English degree qualifies me to critique film/animation; I don’t even entirely know half the terms I’ve used to compliment this episode. Someone else please explain why this is such a good one.

10. The Quarter-Moon Convergence (Season 4, episode 5)

I’ve mentioned in other entries that the weird, surreal humor sometimes doesn’t work; it feels too much like being odd for its own sake, and sometimes gets so distracted in being surreal that it forgets to include anything funny or meaningful.

This . . . is not one of those.

Putting Harrison and QM together is a stroke of genius; the two of them are literally the most magical beings in the entire show, and using them as the conveyance for this great Lovecraftian horror-comedy was such a good idea. I don’t know if we’ll ever see these two interact in another episode -- honestly, this felt a bit like lightning in a bottle, and I have a hard time imagining what could possibly bring them together again -- but if this is the only episode we get, it is such a fantastic one.

Harrison makes a really good everyman, despite his powers; he’s just the right amount of confident and insecure to pull off that wide-eyed apprentice to QM’s grizzled wise mentor. (The fact that QM is objectively a terrible mentor is beside the point.) I still don’t entirely know what the two of them accomplished, but it feels baffling and momentous, with the perfect amount of gravity to make things extremely tense all the way through to the end.

Also, I guess God is an octopus? That’s kinda cool. I like octopuses.

9. Camp Corp. (Season 3, episode 12)

Another unpopular opinion? Oh ho ho, I am so contrary! I am Not Like Other Fans! I am the Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way, refusing to have the same opinions of all you prepz.

I know this wasn’t the most well-loved episode, but I think it did a really great job tying together story threads woven throughout Season 3: Max’s selfishness leading to him hurting other people, his growing realization that he cares about his friends and the camp itself, the parallels between him and Mr. Campbell (and the fact that they both get this redemption moment in the finale).

This is the most Max-centric season, focusing on his flaws and character growth, and they pulled it off in a really organic way that felt faithful to his character, touching without being too maudlin. The fact that his feelings about the camp are echoed in Gwen, Neil and Nikki, the other campers, and even Mr. Campbell drives home how important the camp -- and David -- are to this strange little family.

Each season, Max reluctantly becomes a better person, without changing the fundamental core of who he is. That’s a really hard putt for the writers and Michael, and I’m blown away every finale by how they so consistently nail it.

8. Time Crapsules (Season 4, episode 18)

Gwen-centric? Check.

Max learning how to be a better person while still being the bratty kid we know and love? Check.

Looks at one of the most under-appreciated character dynamics in the entire show (i.e., Max and Gwen)? Checkity check-check-check.

I don’t really have much to say about this one, which I should: it was considered a pretty serious letdown to a lot of fans, and I’m not sure how to explain why I loved it so much.

Comparing Max from “The Order of the Sparrow” to Max from this episode is wild. It’s not like 2 different characters: they’re still very obviously the same cynical, self-absorbed 10-year-old trying to survive summer camp. But he’s become a more considerate friend and decent version of that kid, and it’s great to watch. The moment where he and Gwen go too far and immediately regret snapping at each other is still painful (on my god, the VAs in this show, they’re so talented), Nikki and Neil both get nice subplots about how they’re also growing up, and the ending is fuc/king hilarious, perfectly breaking the tension from Campbell’s speech, which is both beautifully done and important to hear, especially if you’re in a period of uncomfortable transition (like, say, in your late 20s, or living through about 5 different national and global catastrophes).

And okay, I found that speech on the wiki for this episode and it made me deeply emotional, so here:

Here's the thing: you've got to take your failures and make something out of them. Take Camp Campbell for instance: a lot of poor decisions went into making this place what it is today. Sure, somewhere along the line it maybe strayed from its path, not living up to the camp it wanted to be. At some point, the camp realized that the camp would never reach the end of its path until it was ready or until it gave up. So, if the camp wanted to keep embezzling money and dealing with foreign powers, so be it! But, at some point, it didn't anymore. I never saw this coming, but I'm starting to think this camp is the best it's ever been.

If this is the last episode of Camp Camp we ever get -- and for at least a little while, it looks like it’s going to be -- I can’t think of a sweeter, funnier, and more lovely bittersweet note for this show to go out on.

7. The Lake Lilac Summer Social (Season 3, episode 6)

And again: No one was surprised.

This is the longest non-finale episode of the show, and it uses that time perfectly. Rather than having some big emotional moments and character arcs -- which are great, don’t get me wrong -- the writers use the extended time to build a series of shenanigans as complicated as Gwen’s matchmaking web, and watching her try to set up a series of dominos (with David, for once, being the responsible, level-headed one) is almost as satisfying as the catastrophic results.

Neil and Snake steal this episode, even from someone as in love with Gwen as I am, and for an episode that’s largely about making fun of shippers, there hasn’t been one that launched nearly as many ships as this. Neil/Snake? Tabii/Erin? Max/Nikki? GWENVID?! It’s all here, and I am here for it.

It was also fun to get a traditional episode setup in a very non-traditional show. I assume this means the beach and/or hot springs episode is forthcoming. (No, Pis/s Lake doesn’t count. Obviously it doesn’t count.)

6. Keep the Change (Season 4, episode 1)

Again, this is an episode I’ve said a lot about in the past -- and I was pretty uncharitable toward Season 3, which in retrospect was very unse/xy of me -- but I stand by a lot of my opinions then: this is a fu/cking great episode.

David is an as/shole, Max is an as/shole, Campbell is an as/shole. No one escapes the as/sholery. David schemes, Max catches him in the scheme, Campbell gets drunk and kind of gay . . . I’m 54 entries into this list and I don’t have much to say anymore: it’s just really good and fun and I love it.

5. Camp Loser Says What? (Season 4, episode 9)

This is another one I kind of hated when it came out, and again for fandom-related and personal-grudge reasons.

Fu/cking Daniel. That motherfu/cker. He shows up for 12 minutes and Tumblr bursts into flames. Every single time.

However, it’s really hard not to love this one. Daniel-as-Trump is a clever but subtle -- I mean, for this show’s definition of subtle -- allegory, and it’s amazing how much this slimy freak and the Woodscouts slot into it. David is a bise/xual disaster with the absolute worst taste in men, Dirty Kevin and Daniel are onscreen together for all of 2.5 seconds and the kevdan shippers lost their minds, and Xemug looks like Megamind for some weird reason.

My only minor complaint is that the ending is a bit anticlimactic, but it plays on Daniel’s stupidity and the value of teamwork, so it’s a very small nitpick in an episode that mostly works like gangbusters.

4. Cult Camp (Season 2, episode 1)

Duh. There’s a really good song and we’re introduced to a charismatic, sinister, and totally dumba/ss villain. What’s not to like?

I don’t think I even need to say anything about this episode. Season 2 started off the summer by throwing a lit firecracker directly at the viewer’s face, and ignoring the fact that we as a fandom proceeded to eat each other, it’s impossible not to get caught up in the episode’s wild energy.

And dude, that song. Fabulous. Fu/ck Daniel, but thank god he’s around to be such a prickly little pri/ck.

Now for the top 3: Literally perfect, wouldn’t change a single solitary thing.

3. After Hours (Season 4, episode 8)

I’m not sure anyone loved this episode as much as me. But this is my list, and I will put this up at the top if I want to and you cannot stop me.

It’s much easier in a lot of ways to talk about the episodes I hated than the ones I love this much. What do I say besides “literally everything about this fills me with joy and my life is better because it exists”? I don’t know. The counselors are my favorite characters, and between Gwen and QM having the weirdest bonding experience, Gwen getting to meet up with people who care about her silly fanfiction, Mr. Campbell being the trash grandpa of my dreams, David getting in way over his head . . . it’s the episode I always wanted, and they made it work so well.

Also, I just discovered that “Gwen Isn’t Your Mother So Stop Asking Her to Rinse Your Dishes” is an actual song and I am overwhelmed with delight. Here, I’m embedding it as well as linking because it’s so good:

youtube

God. This show. What the fu/ck even is up with this amazing, weird-as/s show.

2. The Order of the Sparrow (Season 1, episode 12)

Duh.

The entire first season is a great time (except “Reigny Day”), but it’s a pretty low-stakes kind of great time. There isn’t much in terms of emotional depth until the very end of “Camporee,” despite some hints at darker themes in one-off jokes and quick asides, so this episode comes a bit out of left field, tonally speaking.

But that’s not a bug, it’s a feature; if the show had been this overtly emotional from the outset, this finale wouldn’t hit as hard, and the rest of the season wouldn’t be as funny.

This manages to serve as a capstone to the conflict of the first season, building on episodes like “Into Town” and “Escape from Camp Campbell” in a way that feels totally natural for both David and Max’s characters while revealing new sides of them. It works because it’s so unexpected, but it doesn’t come across as incongruous with their personalities. It’s the first and only time David swears in all 4 seasons, and that line -- I don’t even need to say it, you know exactly what I’m talking about -- still gives me chills.

Also, Gwen sings the camp theme song. Impossible not to cherish.

1. The Forest (Season 4, episode 12)

I’m not sure if this one is a surprise or not. It might be the obvious first place, or it might be a bit of an oddball for some people.

I had a really hard time choosing between this and “The Order of the Sparrow”; I switched their places half a dozen times, and the difference in quality between the two is razor-thin. I think part of that is because it accomplishes a lot of what “Order of the Sparrow” does: puts David in a situation where he’s pushed to his absolute emotional and physical capacity, crushes every shred of hope he has left, and sees what he’s actually made of when you strip everything away. It’s much more dramatic this time around, but it’s the same basic concept.

And just like in the Season 1 finale, what we see is a man who’s determined to do good even when he isn’t rewarded for it, even when he’s actively punished for it. Who wants to love nature, and life, and make the world a better place -- despite his faults, his selfishness and thoughtlessness and anger, David proves that he is fundamentally kind. He’s not nearly as deludedly optimistic as he seems; he just refuses to stop trying.

Because somebody fuc/king has to.

I’ll admit, some of what puts this one in first place is that I’m a sucker for whump, and David really goes through the ringer. However, I also think it’s important to acknowledge the risk Joe Nicolosi took with writing this episode: it’s all centered around a single character, it’s darker and more viscerally bloody than any other episode in the show’s history, the art is focused on these grand sweeping backgrounds that must’ve taken forever to paint, and there’s very little talking in a show that runs 99% on clever dialogue. This could have so easily backfired -- and for some fans it did -- but it was brave and beautiful and breathtaking.

I’ve actually only watched this in full once. It’s really hard to get through; it’s just so intense and even disturbing. But if there’s one episode I'll remember for the rest of my life, even when I’m 80 years old and haven’t seen the show in years, it’ll be “The Forest.”

It’s funny how such a sharp departure from the format and style of the rest of the show somehow manages to perfectly capture the heart of it. Talk about a fuc/king achievement.

So what have we learned?

I don’t entirely know what the purpose of this whole exercise was. I think it was mostly to get myself a nice Camp Camp fix that came from something other than slogging through 20 different fanfic WIPs, and to remind myself of what a strange and fun ride the last 4 summers have been.

I also wanted to take a moment to acknowledge what Camp Camp means to me. This show has been hugely important to me on a personal level: I met two of my best friends through this fandom, and I’ve never been more connected to a community or readers than I have with CC. I know I bi/tch about this fandom a lot, but it’s a big extended internet family, and I’m so happy to be a part of it. Going through all these episodes, getting the chance to ramble about the things I liked and the things I didn’t, was a great way to reconnect with a series and community that I love.

So . . . what have we learned?

1. Season 4 was all over the place.

Some of this has to be due to the sheer volume of episodes, but when I sat down and organized everything into tiers:

There isn’t a single category Season 4 doesn’t have at least one episode in. I was surprised to see how high a lot of them ended up; it really was the best and worst of the show so far.

For the fun of it, I decided to give a number to each placement -- 60 points for the #1 episode, 59 for #2, etc. -- and see how each season broke down. Because that’s that kind of thing I think is worthwhile, apparently. And . . .

2. Seasons 1 and 4 are really good, actually.

Well, I don’t think anyone’s surprised to see how well Season 1 stacked up; it was amazing. But I was surprised to see how much I ended up enjoying Seasons 3 and 4, when if you’d asked me before this little project, I would’ve said they were the most underwhelming. Maybe I messed up the numbers a bit -- I’m no mathmagician -- but not only are they all really close, but Season 4 was one of my favorites.

3. This entire show is really good, actually.

One thing that really struck me when I put it all together visually is how most of the episodes sit in the “good,” “really good,” or “amazing” categories. The amount of episodes that are memorable, fun, and/or emotionally resonant is crazy. I don’t now how many other tiny cult-hit web series can say the same, honestly, and all of the writers, animators, directors/producers/other people whose jobs I don’t really understand, and voice actors should be commended for their outstanding talent and hard work.

4. Thank you, Camp Camp.

It was a real pleasure to relive all of these episodes again and think about what they meant to me. It won’t be the last time I sit down and watch this show -- and it certainly won’t be the end of my being a shrieking fangirl over it -- but with this break, where we have to get through a blazing, extremely difficult summer without a new season to fawn over, it’s nice to stop and appreciate what a precious gem of a show this is.

I hope everyone involved with Rooster Teeth is taking a much-deserved rest and prioritizing their health and well-being. Thank you for creating something truly special, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

#campcamp #camp camp roosterteeth #thank you RT Animation for giving me my life these past 4 years #cc david #cc max #cc gwen #i'm not tagging all the characters #campcamp masterpost #i really hope this doesn't get hidden from the tags but #guys this was a super intense labor of love please check it out #but also reading it is also a super intense labor so i get it if you don't XD

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buckyodinson · 5 years

Text

You Didn’t See This Coming (Mandalorian x fem!Reader)

Request from anon: Din Djarin x Fem!Reader!!! Where she's precocious; she's a time traveler who knows what's going to happen to them (like in ep 7-8) and it gives her anxiety, but she stays strong through most of it. So, at the end of ep 8 she expresses her crush on Din (Cara & Greef may already know just for fun haha) because of everything they've been through together. *;-; Sorry for the long detail, it can be nsfw or fluff* :3

Word Count: 2.1k

A/N: I din’t make explicit mentions to the reader being a time traveler as such, but more-so that she was just aware of what was going to happen? This takes place at several points between episodes 5-8 (sooo spoilers for those episodes!! - don’t read if you don’t want the second half of the series spoiled)

You had been travelling with Mando since he landed on Sorgan. He had met Cara and yourself at the same time and befriended the both of you (after a little skirmish, obviously). You were aware of everything that would happen over the next few weeks, and you did your best not to panic over them. In such a short time, you’d grown very close to Mando, and you were a little embarrassed about how quickly you had developed feelings for him. You kept them to yourself, however, knowing he had much more important things to be dealing with in the near future. Your biggest struggle was keeping the events of the future to yourself. You knew everything that was going to happen to Mando and his acquaintances over the next few weeks, and a fair amount of it was bad, but you knew you couldn’t outright tell anyone, otherwise the changes to this timeline could be catastrophic.

When Mando was approached by Toro Calican, and an offer was made for Mando to keep the whole payment for the bounty, he agreed, and you felt the panic rise in you. You knew this partnership would end badly, but all you could do was stay back at the Crest with the Child and hope for the best. You didn’t stop pacing the entire time Mando was gone, though eventually succumbing to sleep through pure exhaustion, but you were rudely awakened by Toro coming aboard the Crest and attempting to steal the Child from you. You put up a fight, but he ultimately beat you down and all you could do was watch as he left with the baby, praying Mando would return. You heard shouting and blaster fire, and Mando ran up the ramp and threw himself down next to you, checking over your injuries. You were bleeding pretty badly from a blaster shot to your side, and the last thing you remember seeing before passing out was Mando hastily fumbling about to find his med-kit.

When you awoke, you looked around and found you were in Mando’s bunk and you noticed the bandages on your side, confusion etching your features. When you attempted to stand, pain shot down your side, and images flashed through your mind of the fight with Toro. You shuddered at the pain but made your way slowly up to the cockpit to join Mando. It took you a while to climb the ladder, but you finally made it up there, letting yourself melt into the co-pilot seat.

“Thanks for patching me up, back there. I appreciate it, Mando.” You croaked out, your voice rough from lack of use.

“It’s okay. How do you feel?” he spoke back, and despite the cold tone to his voice, you could hear a semblance of worry in it.

“My side is still a little sore, but I’ll be fine in no time – thanks to you. Sorry for depriving you of your cot for the night.”

“I rarely use it anyway, so there’s no need for apologies. You must’ve been exhausted though, it’s been almost three days since Calican.”

“Three days?!”

“Yeah. You’ve been out cold since. Did you not sleep while I was away?” his helmet tilted slightly to the side to face you.

You blushed and looked down at your hands in your lap, “Not really… I was just worried. I didn’t trust him.”

“Well, you were right about that one. Should’ve trusted you there. Obviously, we didn’t get a payment for that job, so I’m reconnecting with some old…. acquaintances of mine for another job. This one will go a lot smoother, hopefully.” He placed his attention back to the stars flying past you through the transpiristeel.

You realised this was the job where Mando would be infiltrating a prison with some people he knew before his time in the Guild. You internally sighed, knowing how this job would end too, but outwardly you just hummed in response.

You didn’t like the crew who’d joined you on the Crest, and seemingly, the feeling was mutual. The Twi’lek was very suggestive towards Mando, which confused you, while Mayfeld was suggestive towards you, which made you cringe. You were sat uncomfortably in the hull of the ship with the rest of the crew, waiting to dock when The Child escaped his pod, and you quickly shuffled to put him back. Mayfeld made a remark about it being Mando and the Twi’Lek’s child, before being shut down by Mando.

“Or is it yours and hers?” he asked suggestively, pointing at you as you disappeared to go put the child more securely in his pod this time. You could hear the discussion carrying on behind you, and the anger in Mando’s voice was evident.

“Back off.” Mando seethed.

“Is that what you look like under the helmet? Where do you fit the ears? Shame it didn’t take after it’s mother.” Mayfeld snickered and his friends all laughed at his comments.

“It’s not our child.”

“What is she then, your girlfriend, Tin Can?” he leered when Mando told him to back off.

“No. She’s just a crewmate.”

“Well then, I hope you don’t mind if I make a move then…” Mayfeld stood and was about to follow in your direction when Zero announced that you’d arrived.

You waited nervously on the Crest while the gang attempted to break the prisoner out, knowing any minute now, Mando would hastily return and fly the Crest away, leaving the rest behind. All you could do in the meantime was keep the Child away from Zero. Being the little womp-rat he is, the Child escaped you and you sprinted back to the hull when you heard a blaster shot, comforted to see Mando had shot Zero and the Child was fine.

“Oh, thank the Maker.” You breathed out in relief.

Mando undocked the ship and flew away, making a quick punch to hyperspace.

“I assume this one didn’t go as planned either?” you spoke softly as you joined him in the cockpit.

“You could say that.” The modulator picked up a long sigh after he spoke.

“We’re all okay.” For now, you thought. You gave him a weak smile when he turned to look at you. “That’s the main thing.”

You sat in silence for what seemed like hours in the cockpit, the Child eventually making his way to join you, reaching up until you picked him up and placed him in your lap. Eventually, a message from Greef Karga popped up, and this was the moment you’d been dreading. He spoke of Nevarro being under siege by Imperial troops, and how they desperately needed his help. You were reunited with Cara, and while you were happy to see her again, you couldn’t help but feel the anxiety rise within you, knowing what was coming.

You knew most of what was going to transpire over the next few days, but one thing that did come as a surprise to you though, was an IG unit offering you tea while you were at Kuill’s moisture farm. You thought the droid seemed sweet, but Mando was adamant about not trusting it. After meeting with Greef, you’d all made a camp to stay warm overnight, when you were attacked by Mynock’s, which left both you and Greef badly injured, but the Child was able to heal the pair of you. It’s powers a shock to everyone, but less so to Mando, who’d seen the Child’s power against the Mudhorn.

You’d finally made it to Nevarro, yourself and Cara claiming to be the ones who’d captured the wanted Mandalorian. You tried to play it as cool as Cara did, but you were panicking, knowing everything was about to get a lot more difficult.

Fast-forward to Cara practically dragging you down through the grate to leave Mando – now Din – behind, to make sure the Child was safe. You didn’t make it very far before Din and IG-11 joined you in the tunnels under the city. You handed the Child to Cara before rushing to Din, embracing him tightly.

“Don’t ever do that again. Me and the Child need you, Din.”

“I’m sorry, mesh’la. It seemed like the only way out for you.” The Mando’a was lost on you, but you linked one of his arms around your shoulders so you could help him walk. He leaned his body weight on you for a little while before the bacta IG-11 had administered began to work, and he was able to walk by himself. You did still have a firm grip on his hand for a short amount of time, and while nobody mentioned it you could see Cara and Greef share a knowing glace, which made you blush and let go of Din’s hand.

You reached the enclave, only to find a pile of armour, and even though you couldn’t see his face, you could tell by his body language that Din was devastated. He soon became enraged, turning on Greef, before the Armourer appeared, explaining what had happened. You watched in awe as she bestowed Din’s pauldron with the Mudhorn signet and declared Din to be the Child’s father until his home is found.

You held tightly onto the Child as you travelled down the lava river, watching on as IG-11 sacrificed himself for the child. You weren’t ashamed to admit you shed some tears over the droid, and you were almost sure Din did under his helmet too.

After the big brawl with Moff Gideon, everything you’d been dreading had finally come to pass, and you could relax now. You said your goodbyes to Cara and Greef and made your way back to the Crest. Din held tightly onto you, and you held the Child between your bodies, as he flew you back to the ship. When you reached the ship, an upsetting sight was left for you.

You quickly ran into the Crest, and put the Child in his crib, before appearing back outside and helping Din bury Kuill and leave a memorial for him. You cried into Din’s chest once you’d finished, the pair of you looking down at the goggles atop the pile of rocks. Din held your hand as you walked back to the Crest, not letting go until he climbed the ladder and you followed.

Once you were in hyperspace, your new adventure to find the Child’s home planet officially begun, you realised it was now or never.

“…Din?” you spoke barely above a whisper.

He pressed a few buttons before turning his chair around and nodding, waiting for you to continue.

You took a deep breath before starting, “I know we haven’t known each other for a long time, but today really proved to me how much you truly mean to me. I honestly though I was going to lose you, back in that cantina…” your voice faltered, and he reached a hand out to lace his gloved fingers with yours. “And I don’t know what I’d do without you, Din. I think I’m falling in love with you. And I understand if you can’t reciprocate that, but I had to get this off my chest… Today was just… so much.”

There was silence for a while before he grabbed your other hand and spoke softly, “I feel the same way mesh’la. I was so afraid of what I was feeling, but a lot of things have made me realise I love you too. Today, especially. When you all took off down the sewers, I thought I was gonna die there, not having told you what you meant to me. So, when IG healed me, I knew I needed to tell you. But you beat me to that, I guess.” You heard a noise through the modulator, which you assumed to be a chuckle, and it drew a laugh out of you too.

“I’m glad.” You smiled and leaned forward to rest your forehead against his Beskar-clad one. You closed your eyes and stayed there for a while, before being interrupted by the hiss of the door, as the Child clumsily made his way into the cockpit. You both broke apart laughing, and you picked the Child up, settling him in your lap. Din leaned back in his chair, watching you and the Child, smiling brightly beneath the helmet.

“What a weird band of misfits we are.” You laughed as you looked up at Din.

“A family.” He spoke back, and the soft smile that adorned your face almost took his breath away.

A family, you thought. You could get used to that.

#mandalorian x reader #the mandalorian x reader #mandalorian imagine #mandalorian fanfic #din djarin x reader #din djarin imagine #din djarin fanfic #mandalorian x fem!reader #din djarin x fem!reader

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curiosity-killed · 4 years

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a bow for the bad decisions

canon-divergent AU from ep. 24 (on ao3)

Wei Wuxian rolls his hands, flattens them, and presses the seal into the dirt. A flash of scarlet bursts in the air, then a sudden swell of power, prickling, needling— It dissipates, and Wei Wuxian exhales, resting his wrists on his knees. Eyeing him a moment, Jiang Cheng turns back to the wards and reaches out with his spiritual energy to press tentatively at the barrier. It feels…strange. Alive in a way that doesn’t feel quite like spellwork but more like the cool distance Wei Wuxian kept up during the war. “That’s it, then?” he asks. Still crouched down, gaze longsighted, Wei Wuxian gives a slight nod. His hair’s drawn up high off his nape in a style he hasn’t worn since they were kids, and it sharpens the angles of his face, makes the new hollows and tired lines more apparent. Worry shivers in Jiang Cheng’s chest but he presses it down; he was worse during the war. He’s doing better. Jiang Cheng will bully him into getting some sleep now that the shields are done.

“It feels…different,” he admits eventually, turning back to the energy he can only barely sense before them.

“Mm,” Wei Wuxian hums as he straightens up. He sways, stumbles back half a step, but catches himself. “The trigger arrays in this one will ping any intruders. They’re really more a warning than a true defense. If someone crosses them when they’re live, they’ll hit the talisman traps and so on.” Nodding, Jiang Cheng crosses his arms over his chest and surveys the work. Nine layers, nine shields of warding and arrays spreading out from the center of Lotus Pier to encompass all the outer buildings and main dock. If there’s another attack, the city itself will still be at some risk, but there’s enough ground covered by these defenses that all the townspeople could take shelter and be protected. The knowledge makes something tighten in his chest, a fanged satisfaction baring its teeth. “It’s under your command but tied to the land,” Wei Wuxian continues, wiping his palms on his skirts. “You can grant authority to others but as long as Lotus Pier stands, the shields will hold.” He’d explained it as he worked, but his explanations tend to get…well, distracted, when he’s multitasking. Channeling resentful energy is still a little shaky as far as Jiang Cheng’s concerned, but he thinks he gets the basic premise. Like using residual spiritual energy, the arrays draw on the resentment naturally released by the dying things throughout the region. Flowers, trees, animals — over the generations, they build up enough that the outer arrays can draw off them without leaching too much vital energy. And for the arrays in the center, the strongest and most vicious — well, there are always bodies in the lakes. “Not the Tiger Seal?” he asks. Wei Wuxian’s face is unwontedly serious, drawn, as he shakes his head. “No,” he says. “It’s… Think of it more like Chenqing. They draw from the energy around them but aren’t controlled by it. The only one who can command them is you, and whoever you grant access.” “So you and jiejie and Bujue,” Jiang Cheng suggests. Wei Wuxian wrinkles his nose, dropping his hands to his hips. “Maybe just shijie and a-Jue,” he suggests instead. He says it too casually, nonchalant in a way he only is about serious things. Jiang Cheng scowls. “Why shouldn’t our da-shixiong have access?” he asks. “Ah don’t give me that look, Jiang Cheng,” Wei Wuxian gripes, shoving at his shoulder. “I just mean the more access you grant, the bigger the holes are. Like a fishing net where you keep widening the weave, pretty soon anything can get through. Anyway, it’s not like I couldn’t figure out a way in if I really needed to. I made the arrays, didn’t I?” Relenting, Jiang Cheng lets it go. It makes sense, he supposes, even if he’s not sure he believes Wei Wuxian fully. “Alright. So I just…tell it who to answer to?” he asks. Wei Wuxian hitches his shoulders in a little shrug as if to say ‘sure.’ Stepping forward and holding his palm flat until he can feel the shivering vibration of the ward, Jiang Cheng closes his eyes. He can’t get a hold on this energy like he can his own qi, but he can feel it humming just shy of him. “Jiang Yanli,” he says and feels a ripple, an echo of sensation, course through the wards. “Yu Bujue.” He wants to add the third but holds back for now. Wei Wuxian will kick up a stink and anyway, he can always come back and change permissions now that he knows how. “Well then!” Wei Wuxian says, exhaling. “We’re all set. Ugh I’m starving. Do you think they cooked lunch already?” Jiang Cheng snorts but starts heading back. “Get some sleep tonight,” he says. “You’ve been pushing too hard and you agreed you’d take care of yourself. Last thing we need is a mess at the hunt.” Spinning Chenqing, Wei Wuxian scrunches up his face in annoyance. “I’m fine,” he insists. “The wards needed finished and it’s not like we got much done while Huaisang was here. Anyway, are you sure I have to come to the hunt? I could stay here and keep an eye on things while you and shijie are gone, make sure the defenses are ready, keep up training. The upper talisman class is really coming along, you know. They’re about ready for practical application.” He’s heard some variation of this argument about a dozen times over the last few months, and Jiang Cheng doesn’t hold back his eyeroll. If they were closer to the lake instead of on the far side of Lotus Pier, he’d just shove Wei Wuxian into the water and get it over with. “Yeah because coming to the Phoenix Hunt without our First Disciple and resident war hero won’t feed any rumors,” he retorts. “Anyway, you’ve still got to talk to Lan Wangji, remember?” That sours Wei Wuxian into silence. He kicks idly at a stick in his path, and Jiang Cheng eyes him a little curiously. He doesn’t know what happened between the two of them, and normally he wouldn’t care at all but — well, in those three months, he almost thought they’d be having a wartime wedding once they found Wei Wuxian. Incomprehensible as it was, Lan Wangji’s devotion to finding Wei Wuxian was simultaneously unnerving and deeply relieving. He’d been so sure that the sect leaders, the adults, the ones who actually knew what they were doing, would tell him to leave his hunt and let Wei Wuxian lie with the rest of the dead. When Lan Wangji stepped in at his side to join him, he’d finally been able to exhale a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding at the time. They weren’t friends by any stretch of the imagination, but they’d had a common goal and shared fear. It was like they were both searching for their missing piece; Jiang Cheng for his brother and Lan Wangji for his — his something. Jiang Cheng still isn’t sure what, exactly, Wei Wuxian is to Lan Wangji. “I still think it’s a bad plan,” Wei Wuxian says stubbornly. “It’s a-jie’s idea,” Jiang Cheng reminds him in an attempt to end the conversation. “Shijie thinks the best of everyone,” Wei Wuxian points out. Jiang Cheng inclines his head in acknowledgment. On another day maybe, back in Cloud Recesses or before the war or if he weren’t so sick of this argument, he’d let it go with the acknowledgment that jiejie is far too kind for the vast majority of people in the world. But he is tired and he’s sick of Wei Wuxian pouting about this whole plan. “What happened between you two anyway?” he asks. “He was always in your tents playing music at you while you were half-dressed during the war.” “What’s that supposed to mean?” Wei Wuxian shoots back, brow furrowed. It’s the frown that makes Jiang Cheng hesitate. He’d only been needling, venting some of his irritation by prodding at this easy opening, but now he pulls back. Wei Wuxian has always been a relentless flirt and overly affectionate with anyone he likes, but Jiang Cheng is almost certain he’s never actually acted on that. For all his irreverence and shamelessness, Wei Wuxian has an at times uncanny deference to morals. He might flirt and tease and drape his arms around shoulders, but Jiang Cheng doesn’t really believe he’d go to bed with someone if they weren’t serious, if they weren’t someone he meant to give himself over to fully. And anything less than that, Jiang Cheng is positive he would’ve heard about: Wei Wuxian would’ve crowed about getting a kiss from a pretty girl until Jiang Cheng beat him to death with a pillow. “Nothing,” he says, sighs. “I just — it was impossible to drag you away from him before the war and now you can’t stand to be around him. Did he say something to you?” They’d have a whole other rumor problem on their hands if Jiang Cheng punched Hanguang-jun in the face, but for his brother, he’s willing to do it. If Lan Wangji said something, hurt Wei Wuxian— “Relax, Jiang Cheng,” Wei Wuxian says, laughs. “You don’t need to go beat up Lan Zhan for me. I’m not some fragile maiden.” Shooting him an annoyed look, Jiang Cheng forces his shoulders and hands to loosen. Wei Wuxian shakes his head before tilting it up toward the sky briefly, drawing in a breath of clean air. “So?” Jiang Cheng prods, elbowing Wei Wuxian in the arm. He scowls at him, rubbing at the spot as if it actually hurt, and Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes. “He’s just so — ugh, you know how the Lan are,” Wei Wuxian says. “All he wants to do is drag me back to Gusu to face punishment for my deviant methods. You heard him, all that ‘return to the righteous path’ and ‘I have to exorcise the evil out of you.’ I’m just tired of getting lectured all the time.” It still doesn’t feel quite right, like the explanation’s too shallow. Still, Wei Wuxian had hated all the rules in Cloud Recesses and Lan Wangji had been unusually terse about the cultivation path he walked. “Maybe he’ll relax if you explain it,” Jiang Cheng suggests, trying to sound genuine and not like he wants to shove the two of them in a small room and make them figure themselves out. “Like you’ve talked to me about it. He can’t bother you about returning to sword cultivation if he knows you…you know.” Wei Wuxian breathes out something that’s not quite a laugh, too bitter. There’s a twist to his lips that Jiang Cheng never saw until the war, something dark and ugly under his brother’s amusement. “Yeah,” he says eventually. “Maybe.”

#mdzs #cql #the untamed #untamed fic #yunmeng shuangjie #jiang cheng #wei wuxian #my writing

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megamanxfanfics · 4 years

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Looking back at the 1st Nightmare Arc

Well folks, here we are. It’s the end of the year and I successfully completed Season VI’s first arc! Today, it’s all about celebrating with an honest take on how I feel it all went down. No backstories on what took so long this time. Just all Mega lore and analyzing whatever I’ve managed to create in the Fanon. So let’s dive into it. This was an interesting one:

tl;dr? - Ep. 1: Boring Beginning, Exciting Middle Ep. 2: Steady Solid Stage! Ep. 3: Long Stage, Big Payoff Ep. 4: Strong Start, Very Expository Ep. 5: Another Long Stage, but not Draining Ep. 6: Reverse Pacing Ep. 7: Epic. As. Fuck.

Ep. 1: I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but Boring Beginning. I wanted it to start just like the game with the exciting narrative intro, except.. written out, it’s not all that exciting, but instead - expected. The same goes for Gate’s immediate monologue when you press start. I took the safe, easy route and just added stage directions to his discovery of Zero’s “piece”. Regardless, this was “A Broken World”, and I loved that title for a new Season #1. Honestly, I feel like this one really picks up from the middle, onward. Once we get into X’s first mission, the addition of the new reploids from the X5 ending didn’t really help at all. I got rid of them almost as soon as I introduced them, but it was supposed to serve a purpose. It was supposed to show us just how dangerous it is out there for noobies - especially the ones who think they know it all, like Cody. Once X fights High Max though, we almost mirrored the X1 feeling, which is exactly what I wanted. From here on, it’s pretty exciting and interesting to me. Because now X is all intrigued and worried about these new “Investigators” that have sprouted up. Giving X someone to fear again with High Max made for a really refreshing touch, too. Once he gets home to learn about them from Alia, the episode heavily leans on flashbacks from Xtreme 2, but they serve as a nice re-introduction to our 8 Investigators. I also really liked their Re-activation scene. That mirrored the vibe from Mega Missions when Doppler revived his select batch of Mavericks. Once they pinpoint their locations and X finds out that 3 of the Investigators are in Brazil, he wants to go there first. I feel such a hyped jolt of excitement at that Cliffhanger.

Ep. 2: Steady Solid Stage! It took forever to write out, but upon reading it, the pacing is surprisingly smooth as X explores the Amazon Forest. Calling it “The Nightmare Is Real” based on a random Rescued Reploid’s words was a little weak at first, but it comes back around to get real meaning by the end. During the stage, X’s dialogue with Iso kept things interesting, while he pursued that near-impossible sub-tank. [I swear, you can only acquire this with a jump part equipped, or exposing AI with the fire blade or something...]. I really really didn’t want X to use his Ultimate Armor so soon, for nothing, because I’ve added stakes to such a game-breaking power up. If he uses it, he blows out all of his stamina and needs to rest. Period. Using this to rescue Iso was not only a waste, but things probably would’ve gone down very differently, later. Anyway, that fight with Commander Yammark was perfect. At first, I thought it was a little short, but looking back on it, I love how they both get solid blows in, but then come to a standstill when they realize they’re on the same side. Having Nightmare Zero intervene was absolutely the right choice!! It gave us a new hook for something to come back to, as yet again, X had someone new to fear, like in X1. Since it’s an evil Zero, I’ll even say like X2. This is where the title “The Nightmare is Real” works, because... the Zero Nightmare was absolutely a sentient problem. And it wasn’t going away any time soon. X had to retreat and get out of there. Thank God for Alia’s force-teleporting. Pushing Alia's Love Interest during the debrief was also a very exciting development. I knew I wanted to do this, but at first I wasn’t sure if it was too soon to happen right here. Now, I feel like it was just right.

Ep. 3: Long stage, big payoff. Starting with Isoc’s report to Gate was actually not as boring as the 1st episode canon scenes. I made more of an effort to wake the scene up with stage directions or dialogue that makes more sense... Them talking about the possibility of Zero still being alive also sets up mysterious intrigue. Is he still out there?? And if so, how??? Will we see him???? Naming the entire episode, “The Outlier”, however is misleading. I suppose that could connect to Ground Scaravich, who wasn’t one of Gate’s original creations (in my Fanon). Still, giving X & Alia that slice of life romantic wake up scene at the near-beginning was absolutely refreshing. Not only that, but I think it was very necessary. Things are all Doom and Gloom this Season, which is my forte, but this shows that at Home you can still find happiness in Loved ones. The actual stage itself was an absolute pain in the ass and I knew it was going to be. I'm just glad it didn't completely burn me out. His fight with Ground Scaravich was bad ass though. X had the rare upper hand from the get-go as the menacer that Scaravich was afraid of. So he came in with confident energy and tried to beat him down for information. Of course, Scaravich didn’t let up and only revealed worse information, that those Reploids were being used for DNA Data. But that cliffhanger I left at the end, with Zero Nightmare applauding X for his kill...! It definitely helped me pursue a much sooner Chapter 4.

Ep. 4: Strong Start with the Zero Nightmare fight. I had a big challenge here, because I didn’t want X to win yet. We needed to build this feud and drag it out as much as possible. Zero Nightmare was gaining new motivation. He apparently knows about Zero’s existence, but thinks of him as a Fake. And thus we have the title “Where Is The Fake?”. Having X get weakened and willingly teleport away was a really mature choice. I think it shows growth. He could’ve done that plenty of times in the past. But here we go, X is wounded again.. I didn't want this to become a trope or slow us down, but it brought upon some very necessary world building and character development for the new reploids. Very much, the expository episode, this was an important chapter, because it set up things for future episodes and kept me on track, months later when it was time to think about the bigger picture. Kassy & Hal went to the Magma Area while Tack checked out the Laser Institute. The Nightmare System was in full effect now, and the goal was to show how dangerous the Nightmare actually is to some red shirts, before X goes in there. How effective that actually was in my execution, remains to be seen. At this point the episode title remains prominent, because X expresses sincere interest in finding the Real Zero, but they have... zero leads. (Sorry, I had to.) The Villains even had an interesting follow-up about Scaravich’s death and there was an interaction, which vaguely eluded to something new happening, from Metal Shark. So that will be something fun to look forward to. Ending at the beginning of a new stage is always a cool cliffhanger. Believe it or not, I wanted this to go all the way through the Rainy Turtloid stage, which would have given the title prominence for a 3rd time. But that’s okay.

Ep. 5: Another Long Stage, but its not half as draining as the Central Museum. In fact, all of the Reploid Interactions kept it really lively. Especially by the end. The Inami Temple was the first stage that I could hint at our location with the episode title - “Nightmare Rain”. I wish I could’ve done that for the previous episodes, but it’s alright. I took some interesting risks, during this stage write-through. I almost forgot about that frickin Monbando Reploid unit. I took a real risk by giving him an AI, but he keeps things interesting, giving X someone to talk to, which actually added levity to the situation where appropriate. That Nightmare Zero encounter mid-stage was what it was all about for me, though. I'm really proud of that one, using the stage layout to my advantage in an innovative way. All of that Levy stuff with Rescue Reploid 6 was another interesting choice. I have more in store for her, but I'm really hoping there will be more of a payoff, than just an Easter Egg Cameo. We’ll see. I’m looking forward to seeing what else I can do with her in the next arc. Need I bring up X’s Reploid rescues in the Gaia Armor!?? That was a bright idea that I came up with after post-planning. The original plan was to have X revisit the stage later, but I thought about how this Acid Rain was killing them, so... time to settle the issue of an unused Armor. [X6 granting us the gift of using a modified Fifth Armor was nice, but it made me wonder, why can’t he access the Gaia anymore?]. The answer was just that he doesn’t really like it. But he used it to his advantage here, and now I had a new challenge ahead of me. I had to get rid of it. Another challenge was posed when X discovered a fucking portal in one of the tunnels. I wasn’t prepared for that! But thankfully, I was able to come up with a viable excuse rather than just X being scared of the portal. He ran out of teleporter rings!!!! This gave me new Fanon Mega-science to add to the stakes. Teleporter Rings now need a day to recharge, and it was clear that plenty more needed to be made. This gave Alia & Douglas something to do, so in the end, this was all good. But now it was time for X to face off against Rainy Turtloid. He’d have to come back for the others later. [Time will tell, how well or poorly that is handled, depending on how long it takes X to actually get back there.]

Ep. 6: This one basically had Reverse Pacing, but I liked it. It started with a Climactic, Rainy Turtloid fight. I mean, this was Epic and fucking Brutal. Thanks to my brilliant bring-back of the Gaia Armor, now Turtloid had to take it away and break the shit out of it. This is where “The Fight Becomes Dire” and I thought it was amazing. In my planning phase, that was never remotely on the table, but it worked out wonderfully. What was on the table was X possibly using his Ultimate Armor if the battle got too brutal, but I wanted to avoid that. [I had done practice playthroughs where I managed to get X to win in Normal Armor and definitely in Falcon Armor with some select weapon spamming and pattern memorizing. I was open to keeping it simple, I really was.]. But after X got smacked around like a bitch, it was time for payback. Especially considering Turtloid’s motivation to fight was “But I have to listen to Master...” Here we had the interesting case that both Men respected each other and didn’t want to fight, but they had to. {Even though X thought the Reploid Trapping and Nightmare acceptance was reprehensible}. X primarily focussed on that and tried to change Turtloid’s mind, but once his Gaia Armor was destroyed and X nearly died, it was time for some Ultimate payback. I’m really surprised by how epic and dark it got. I’m very proud of it. After the mission, due to some very necessary stakes and power limiters, X had to sit out for a day again, once again slowing our pacing down to a screeching halt. This one hurt me, I think. At least he wasn't injured this time... As I stated before, when I made the decision to include the Ultimate Armor into this Season, I did so knowing that there needed to be a price. It comes with him using up all his stamina. Therefore, he can't spam it with every mission or battle. The same rules applied to his shotokan moves in Season I & II, which have basically been replaced by the Ultimate Armor at this point. With more opportunity at exposition, however, I was able to follow up on the new reploids, who were now in trouble at their respective missions. [This is the stuff I needed to give X motivation for his mission choices during the planning phase, but it just wasn’t there]. And yet, one was debatably set up too soon. I had a new dilemma, where X was forced to sit out, while Kassy & Hal are stuck at the Magma Area, hurt. The choice to show X training the recruits in the meantime was a fun risk to take though. It showed productivity and progress in the downtime, hopefully eluding to the idea that these newbies can fend for themselves, while it inevitably takes X a while to save them in the future. I also got to develop Levy more and even create some juicy tension between her and Alia, which wasn’t originally planned. I had intended for a 2nd sex scene with Alia to happen at some point, but I didn't want it to be forced. Just more of an implied - ‘this is what’s happening while we wait’. But the addition of Levy’s flirting played into Alia’s insecurities, which gave it more of a purpose. And poor Douglas! Hahahaha. I was so tickled when I put that in out of nowhere. We got some much needed levity when he wanted to show X a new part, but instead he overheard them having sex and walked away with a “Nope!” lol!!! Its becoming very clear that I enjoy the in-between mission slice of life stuff Way more than the missions themselves. But then, when we get back to it... after X gave it a night, he and Signas found every excuse not to save Kassy & Hal yet, because my Stage Order plan still needed to be in play... At least Tack discovered that Portal at Sheldon’s stage. This saved my Stage Order Motivation, but it was still weak. If only Zero was around, then they could split the difference. But what I liked about this was that it showed just how bad of shape that X and co. were in. Yet again, the episode title remained prominent. “The Fight Becomes Dire”! The truth is, they were all over the place and X didn't know where to go first. For the first time in a while, our Hunters are overwhelmed and understaffed. And that was really noticeable here. I still think the ending is kinda weak though. There's no real cliffhanger other than knowing that X will pursue Shield Sheldon next. But overall, I liked the flow of this. There's a lot of forced slow downs in the momentum to have us sit with the characters and their decisions. It makes for a very different, sort of dismal pacing, which adds to the atmosphere of this looming Nightmare that won’t go away. One noticeable thing, however is that I failed to follow up on the Villains this time around. I had an ample opportunity to follow up on Gate’s thoughts for losing Turtloid again, who was debatably his favorite creation. I really botched that up, but I simply didn’t think of it at the time before posting. So who knows? That could be possible room for improvement in a future edit. Either way, the Villains are sure to be due for a check in soon.

Ep. 7: Epic. As. Fuck. But it took a minute to get there. Shield Sheldon's stage was more complicated to write through than I originally thought. Its the shortest stage in the game and yet all those damn lasers and their angles made for quite the challenge. This in itself, was a “Laser Light Phenomena”. Another immense challenge that I wasn't expecting was Sheldon's battle completely Flipping the Narrative on X. Admittedly, I really had a hard time finding motivation for those 2 to feud. Especially since he wasn't holding a grudge based on the past. I noticed a while ago, all of Gate's creations are so very willing to sacrifice themselves for Gate's cause. Like, to a nonsensical degree. Maybe that's their degree of Maverickism. They're just crazy... Anyway, this Deadlock Standstill might really play into my favor, since this recent Portal Experience is going to change X's motivations. I... don't want X to take a backseat, but... Rescuing the Reploids is going to be his 1st Priority from here on in. Especially since he wasn't able to save Tack and the bunch. Again, thats where stakes come into play. I didn't come into this episode knowing I was going to make that decision. But when I saw the layout of the "Pocket Dimension" as I'm calling it, and I factored in the time Tack spent in there, trying to rescue the Reploids by himself, there was no way I could have them all just hang out at a narrow ledge by the gate, or stuck in the gateway, scared. I wasn't gonna pull a lame idea that they managed to somehow unlock the gate, like I did with Data. (That can be the one trait that makes Data special and could play into his advantage in the future. But no one else's). Nightmare Zero wouldn't spare them either. He'd absolutely kill them in bloodlust. So... stakes were created. X took too long to catch up to him and thats what he gets. That last battle with ZN though... I'm really proud of where it went. I had some obvious limits this time compared to past Zero fights. That could be an analysis for another time.. But, I was happy to get pretty gorey by the end, there. And that pay off Cliff Hanger was so satisfying! It gives me all the feels.

The 2nd Arc is going to feel very different. But we ain't out of the woods yet. Rereading the 1st Arc served as a dual purpose. Not only could I gush about my favorite moments or be open about my choices and how things came out, but it is starting to reveal where else it's going. Kassy & Hal still need rescuing at the Magma Area. Cody & Data are at the North Pole! Tekk is at the Weapon Center. X still needs to save whoever is in the portal at Inami Temple! Let alone revisiting the Amazon and Central Museum again. Exposition is just waiting to happen, and now that Zero is back?? Things are going to get easier, but also a little bit harder for X. One thing I can definitely say is that seeing him will bring back some Unwanted Memories. And its gonna be very interesting to see how he deals with that. I'm definitely looking forward to writing the 2nd Arc out in the New Year.

Until then, folks. I hope you enjoyed reliving this with me. See you in 2021, which should hopefully prove to be a far more stable year than 2020. [God, I hope I didn’t just jinx everything...]

#Season VI Diaries #Looking back at the 1st Nightmare Arc #Ep. 1-7 #writing wins #writing woes #X #Alia #Investigators #New Reploids #Zero Nightmare #unexpected dilemmas #writing out of pitfalls #stakes #limits #forced slowdowns #dismal atmosphere #navigating dystopian writing

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happymetalgirl · 4 years

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September 2020

As quickly as I caught up, I fell behind, and I’ll explain it all later, but that’s why some of the review blurbs here are really short while others are much longer. I still tried to make the shorter ones as expressive and dense as possible, even though I personally don’t like that approach so much. Anyway, September 2020, still a hellhole.

Faidra - Six Voices Inside

Drawing very obvious influence from Burzum’s Filosofem for the ambient portion of its sound, Faidra’s atmospheric black metal debut manages to marry both the snow-hazy ambience of Norway’s second wave with today’s more full-bodied naturalistic ambient black metal in a ceremony rather respectably elegant for a debut.

7/10

Heathen - Empire of the Blind

One of the more anticipated thrash metal releases of the year, Heathen’s more intensely melodically focused and unbalanced approach only drags their lethargic Testament-sequel brand of melodic thrash down, as Empire of the Blind trades out the genre’s hallmark spitfire aggression for dull guitar leads and uninspired operatic vocal lines that leave only a desire for the former.

5/10

Oceans of Slumber - Oceans of Slumber

A demonstrably competent, but woefully soulless and bloated display of neo-classical prog metal chops, Oceans of Slumber’s self-titled fifth LP is one of many of the genre’s avatars for much of its impressive face-value and numb delivery.

5/10

Corey Taylor - CMFT

We all knew this day would come, the charismatic Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman has finally released a solo album. And you could tell from the rollout with the star-cameo-studded music video for the lead single, “CMFT Must Be Stopped”, that Corey was going to lean in on it. But honestly, for as much natural swagger Corey Taylor can wield and showcases on the track, his straightforward rock songwriting that has graced Stone Sour’s discography is astoundingly weak, and this song’s more exuberant egotistical indulgence amplifies it rather than remedying it. It’s definitely one of the worst singles I’ve heard all year, especially for a project so highly anticipated as this, and there’s really no excuse for it to be this bad. If the general goal of a solo project is to transcribe your creative DNA onto an album as authentically as possible, and if this is an honest portrait of Corey’s creative core, it really just affirms for the many people annoyed by his media omnipresence that his main talent is just being the great big mouth. It should be obvious, but I’m not saying this to disparage in any way his massive contributions to the legendary legacy of Slipknot or even the genuinely important role he’s taken up as metal’s de facto representative press secretary. It’s not unheard of, and probably more normal than the opposite, for group-embedded artists to struggle to get a strong solo venture going. Thankfully, the lead single is the lowest point this album stoops to, but with its generic 80’s hard rock and glam anthems, it frequently gets pretty damn close. And look, I can tell it’s an album that’s supposed to be more about having a good time than any of that other artist DNA shit I brought up earlier, but its only routes there are through cheap imitation of other artists’ styles, and this still wouldn’t be anywhere near my first well of songs to draw from if I were making the most drunken of tailgater playlists.

4/10

Skeletal Remains - The Entombment of Chaos

Relatively new on the wider death metal scene, the Californian four-piece show once again, on their fourth album, why there remains such an appetite for old-school death metal with effective beating sessions and shredding clinics like The Entombment of Chaos.

7/10

Messiah - Fracmont

Originally part of the movement of early intensifying that inched fast, heavy, growly metal closer and closer to, and eventually over, the line that would separate thrash from what would become the vast world of death metal before their lengthy disbandment, Switzerland’s Messiah are fortunate to return to a world still hungry for new and old flavors of death metal with the stylistically and compositionally vintage (if not rusty) but somewhat technologically updated death-thrash of Fracmont, but they will need to do more than just pick up where they left off and acclimate their approach to the modern era if they intend to stick it out in today’s harsher death metal ecosystem.

6/10

Stryper - Even the Devil Believes

The Christian glam metal outfit have really leaned into the power metal glory that their high-soaring brand was always kind of adjacent to over the past few albums, and to their benefit, and despite what their goofy striped outfit look back in the day would have led you to predict, the steadfast veteran Christian rockers have aged far better than most of their 80’s hair metal contemporaries. Nevertheless, the walking oxymorons’ cheesy, on-the-nose, and occasionally preachy lyricism remain a pesky turn-off to both the religion they espouse and the medium they evangelize through. Frontman Michael Sweet took a bit of a misdirected offense from another reviewer who pointed out exactly this about his band’s new album, taking some media time to play the insufferable persecuted god-fearing follower of Jesus that so many Christians so delusionally imagine they are as a majority religious group with more political power than any other. Now with Michael Sweet claiming that his band has it so rough because they’re openly Christian, I say it really comes down to how you present it, and he especially presents it kinda goofy. One of the songs I’ve been getting energized by a lot on my workout playlist is “Devil’s Den” by Impending Doom, an also openly Christian band. And apart from the nasty 8-string groove, the song’s central refrain “slaughter the demons that are clawing on my brother’s back, until my brothers fight back” about support through spiritual struggle against one’s vices is a thrilling lyric that frames that aspect of Christian spirituality in a much more relatable and sympathizable manner. I’m not expecting Stryper to go into gratuitous deathcore brutality to deliver their message, but they can’t be mad about receiving criticism when they haven’t evolved the 9th-grade-reading-level lyricism that was begrudgingly accepted in the 80’s. Sociopolitical stuff and frontman antics aside, Even the Devil Believes is an instrumentally solid, but exceptionally lyrically corny record full of Bible verse quotes and Sunday School rhymes. I’ll highlight the song “Do Unto Others” for beating the odds on this album with its invigorating sing-along power metal melody, but that song is perhaps the sole reason my feelings in this album are more neutral overall instead on negative, while the vast majority of this album is just begging to be instrumental or at least tuned out.

5/10

Mastodon - Medium Rarities

Mastodon really could have just saved the earth-quaking opening single for their next album or released it as a stand-alone single instead of with the other forty minutes of entirely unnecessary of instrumental versions and live cuts among the other worthwhile material to compile for an album like this.

Fallen Torches/10

Ihsahn - Pharos

The now prog-immersed enigmatic Emperor frontman put out a pretty solid EP earlier in the year, but I was still hoping that Ihsahn would come through with a more essential addition to his solo catalog, and even if it’s a small one, his second EP of 2020 is that addition. Pharos is a succinct, five-song display of proggy melodicism much more confident and infectious than the still-respectable Telemark, further bolstering Ihsahn’s prog credibility and proving to anyone skeptical that he was all esoteric experimental bark and no substantive bite that he indeed has the songwriting chops to thrive in the genre.

8/10

Uniform - Shame

The New York duo’s sardonic and noisy industrial metal neither progresses nor regresses on their fourth album, Michael Berdan’s nasty vocal delivery and the backing industrial instrumentation lose steam and effectiveness rather quickly and the numbing experience ends up being over before you know it for the wrong reasons. It has its moments, but they are brief and few in number.

6/10

Cloudkicker - Solitude

Through an eleventh album under the name of his occasionally djenty instrumental prog studio project, Ohio virtuoso Ben Sharp once again flexes his technical and compositional prowess in an entertaining rather than self-congratulatory manner.

7/10

Marilyn Manson - We Are Chaos

This was a bit of a weird one, and it definitely caught me off guard for a few reasons, mostly for how it flows and for my own not hearing the title track previously when it was released as a single. The iconic 90’s boogeyman of the religious right wing in America is on his eleventh album now and (I mentioned it when I reviewed his tenth album, Heaven Upside Down, in 2011) it seems like people are finally accepting that the Antichrist Superstar’s fire-stoking strategy of blasphemous industrial metal last century was something that served its purpose for a time that has now passed. With Manson now on the more mortally introspective side of 50, the more measured rock of the latter portion of his catalog is starting to outsize what so many see as his grotesque golden age, which has seen him dip occasionally into the sounds of his beloved trilogy, but mostly dabbling in glam and indie rock sounds to find a late-career footing to sustain him. And on this album’s collaboration with country outlaw Shooter Jennings, I think the aging provocateur has found a direction that could be promising. Now I say it that way because I don’t think they gave us more than a tantalizing taste of it on this album, but I would love for Manson to further pursue what he and Jennings pull off together at the beginning of We Are Chaos. It took me a little while to warm up to the hammed up spoken word intro and industrial rock body of the opening track, “Red, Black, and Blue”, but I do think it does kick the album off well, albeit deceptively. It’s easy to forget how well Manson can hold himself on a ballad, not just on his meditation on his own aging during “Running to the Edge of the World”, but also on several cuts in his famed trilogy like “Lamb of God”, “Man That You Fear”, and “Coma White”. But after the somewhat tame fire of the intro track, Manson jumps straight into three songs of completely unexpected indie rock balladry that capture his mission to soundtrack every listener’s individual apocalypse at this time. Going through a lot of changes in life myself, I had a bit of unexpected catharsis with these songs that I think I’m going to be unable to dissociate them from with future listening. Unfortunately, Manson doesn’t re-engage ballade mode until “Broken Needle” closes the album, with the middle portion of the album having some good moments of industrial rock swagger, like “Perfume” and “Infinite Darkness”, but also some songs like “Half-Way & One Step Forward” that are just too dry on energy to be worth the time. But overall, I think the brightness in this album’s best spots make it well worth more than just a cursory listen, and I just hope that this album is a turning point for Manson and a step toward finding his groove without the flagrant heresy that built his youth.

7/10

Derek Sherinian - The Phoenix

Meandering through a generic prog rock instrumental wasteland and picking up the occasional morsel from between the dried out cracks of desert floor, The Phoenix is barely even a hearty display of the prog metal skill and street cred we all know the talented keyboardist to have.

5/10

Napalm Death - Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism

British grindcore legends Napalm Death need no introduction at this point, and with plenty of excitement behind their most lengthily-awaited LP after 2015’s well-respected Apex Predator - Easy Meat (and the sizzling appetizer the Logic Ravaged by Brute Force EP gave us), the band’s fifteenth full-length onslaught of deadly grindcore, Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism is a satisfactory dose of the band’s usual black-pilled rage against political and societal ills at most, with a few odd, to say the least, stylistic choices to say the least that beg the question of why this took so long.

6/10

Finntroll - Vredesvävd

While its adherence to the band’s boundaries within the niche genre they occupy makes it unlikely to take its established Finnish masterminds to any new heights, Vredesvävd is a professional, yet still fun serving of Finntroll’s black-metal-flavored folk metal brimming with energy and optimism.

6/10

Proscription - Conduit

Another Finnish outfit making their mark on 2020, Proscription still have some important ground to cover in ironing out and more specifically differentiating their blackened death metal sound, but Conduit is hardly a timid debut, providing a solid foundation for the four-piece to build upon.

6/10

Carnation - Where Death Lies

Not the faintest hint of a dreaded sophomore slump can be heard on the Belgians’ unflinching, merciless follow-up to their sizzlingly nasty 2018 debut album, Chapel of Abhorrence. Where Death Lies is as unyielding of a continuation as it gets, and in the best way such a straightforward trajectory can be. Nothing but skin-shredding, means-tested death metal in its most fibrant Floridian Form from front to back, Carnation showcase their skills from groove to solo in another stellar all-around display of force that provides a perhaps necessary reminder to the fans and critics annoyed by its ubiquitousness of the raw power that can come from unadulterated death metal.

8/10

Fit for a King - The Path

Fit for a King deliver perhaps the most convincing pathos yet for their more brightly melodic brand of Architects-like metalcore on their sixth album, putting on an exquisite balancing act that could sway even the most stubbornly cross-armed observer who likes the breakdowns but hates the clean singing.

7/10

Kataklysm - Unconquered

Kataklysm’s 2018 album, Meditations has ironically stuck out to me in retrospect because it was the shortest full-length review I had ever done, simply because there was so little to say about the unmemorable melodeath on that record. The band have definitely bounced back with some potent fire in their belly on the metalcore-infused Unconquered. Boasting more infectious grooves and more crushing breakdowns with a notably greater sense of urgency behind them, it’s still a pretty unambiguous and unambitious record, but it makes a far more convincing case for itself.

7/10

The Ocean Collective - Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic / Cenozoic

After a largely forgettable preceding act from all the way back in 2018, The Ocean Collective Return much more revitalized and sufficiently warmed up for a much more engaging 51 minutes of progressive metal that checks both classical and modern boxes.

7/10

Fires in the Distance - Echoes from Deep November

The debut album from the Connecticut four-piece offers a rather compositionallly directionless and standard take on the death-doom it offers. Even while taking a melodic approach very similar to that of a Khemmis or a Spirit Adrift, the attempted soulful guitar leads come off as aimlessly noodly and unplanned as the structures enclosing them, whose dynamic shifts feel more like repeated defibrillation attempts for unlively songs.

5/10

Darkcluster - Spirit of the Void

The debut album from this Canadian one-man-band studio project makes its intent to fill the sci-fi extreme thrash void that Vektor might not get to return to in the wake of the revealing David DiSanto’s domestic violence toward his girlfriend, and while Darkcluster’s mastermind clearly has the technicality down, the atrocious vocals across the rather lengthy and largely compositionally aimless project greatly hold this album back.

4/10

Swine of Dissent - An Uprising

A safer and more measured, but more successful black-metal-flavored thrash debut record, Swine of Dissent still have some work to do on the compositional floor as well, but with not as many glaring flaws, they have enough to start with and move forward with this type of thrash metal.

5/10

Gazpacho - Fireworker

The artsy Norwegian outfit returns to the more sprawling prog rock that hooked me into their music on Night for their eleventh album, but Fireworker is far from the kind tepid, nostalgic return to normal that a late-stage revisiting of older styles often suggests of other acts. Elevating their already lofty sound and massive scope to new cinematic, choral, orchestral heights with astounding ease, the soulfulness contained within the band’s clinical execution of such a daunting series of tasks makes Fireworker their most accomplished and enrapturing work yet.

9/10

Sumac - May You Be Held

While far from fatal, after the enthrallingly eccentric and humblingly heavy sludge experimentation of 2018’s Love in Shadow, the slightly tempered creativity and muddied production of May You Be Held is a mildly disappointing fourth LP simply for how high its creators have set their own bar. Nevertheless, Sumac continue to impress with a noisy, explosive, yet hypnotic approach to post-metal that thrives in the band’s love to draw outside the lines and with a deluxe box of crayons.

8/10

Obsidian Kingdom - Meat Machine

Priding themselves on their eccentricity, Obsidian Kingdom come through with one of the most stylistically diverse, genuinely experimental, and entirely entertaining sludge albums of the year, if not recent memory. Taking the thunderous sludge of Mastodon and going at it with the mindset of a band like Sumac, the quirky Catalans pack operatic vocals and even Slipknot-sequel passages into the intricate compactor that is Meat Machine, and it’s a feat they can certainly take pride in.

8/10

Deftones - Ohms

Coming from a big fan of both Gore and Koi No Yokan, Deftones’ plunge deeper into the elegant shoegaze of this later stage of their career on Ohms was bungled far too much by a lapse in the critical compositional organization that has allowed their ventures into spacey alternative metal territory to succeed.

5/10

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