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thoughts-on-bangtan · 4 years ago

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Let’s talk: RUN episode 130

by Admin 1

A week has passed and it’s time for the continuation of last weeks tennis episode, this time with BTS coming together on a tennis court to decide who the BTS Tennis Champion is, excluding Yoongi who was the MC and umpire due to his shoulder. He was joined by one of the coaches who’d previously given the members lessons at the club we’ve seen them at in last weeks episode.

Before I truly get into it, and let me tell you, for those who haven’t seen the episode yet but are still reading this anyway (thank you so much for that), there is a lot to get into. Especially when it comes to vmin. It was a feast this week, I can tell you that much (so fellow vminnies prepare yourself to get annoyed and upset with you know who again this week as is tradition whenever we get a lot of vmin, am I being shady/petty?). But the other members were comedic gold as well, especially Yoongi with his amazing commentary, and fellow namjinists, we got a few nice things as well.

Funny thing is about an hour after the episode went live, the following ask appeared in our inbox and, at this point, I hadn’t seen the episode yet so reading this made me giggle but also very curious to see what exactly even happened that led to Jimin carrying Tae, as well as how Jimin did that since I immediately thought back to that moment at MAMA 2019 where he tried yet failed to lift Tae.

From anon: Tonight's Run episode. Omg. When JM carried Tae and pretended to give him mouth to mouth, Tae gay panicked and said 'Hold on!' and swiftly got up and went back to the court. I cannot with these two. 😂It's always like someone is brave and then the other one panics. Come on VMIN you can both be brave hahahaha

But lets start...at the beginning (and make yourself comfortable because this ended up being a truly long one, also spoilers for who the winner is will be marked):

The episode opens with the members reminding themselves (and the viewer) why they are on that court again (as well as Hobi playing so much with his racket that he ends up dropping it, aww) and also letting us know that a solid 3-5 months have passed since the previous episode was filmed. Furthermore they talk about how, due to their schedules, they didn’t really have time for practice (as in they basically conclude they were bad at keeping up with this project and mostly merely went to practice once while Yoongi commented how they probably should’ve chosen something a little more approachable with a schedule like theirs), seeing as in the meantime Dynamite was released and they also had MOTS ON:E to practice for and perform. I do love how the editors flexed Dynamite’s BBHot100 longevity in the subtitles.

Since the members all spoke toward the center, mostly turned around toward Jimin and Yoongi, Seokjin commented how they should also talk toward him, which Tae took as funny invitation to stand exceptionally close to Seokjin making him laugh with a big smile on his face. When I tell you I adore their dynamic and bond, I truly mean it.

Yoongi is announced as MC and joined by Coach Kim, to whom the members apologize for forgetting everything he taught them. Next they move along to explaining the “rules” which basically ends with none of the rules actually being explained and the members making jokes about how headshots are against the rules. Then the order and pairings for the starting matches are chosen by chance by Yoongi and Coach Kim, though Hobi and Seokjin are separated so they won’t end up playing against each other since Hobi is the only one with past experience while Seokjin was the only one who actually went to practice four times between last episode and this one.

While that’s happening, we get a wide shot of the court and the RUN crew giving us once again an idea of just how many people are involved to film these episodes and how many pairs of eyes are watching them. (this is something some people truly should remind themselves of more often when coming up with...theories.)

The order is decided as Hobi vs JK, Namjoon vs Tae (can we please talk about how, when Namjoon is pulled as Tae’s opponent, Seokjin quietly comments how he wanted to play against Namjoon? Cute!), and Jimin vs Seokjin. After the pairs are decided there’s this small hilarious moment where Seokjin stands a little further back and pulls out his phone and is promptly snitched on my Yoongi. In his defense Seokjin says that his dad was calling him so it was a completely valid reason to check while the other members complain about him having brought in his phone at all. Namjoon even tells him that he shouldn’t use his dad as excuse to which Seokjin challenges him if he should show him his phone as proof.

Then, finally, the matches begin. Yoongi and Coach Kim settle behind their umpire desk while Namjoon and Seokjin sit in the stands behind them to the left, thus on JKs side, and Jimin and Tae on the right, thus on Hobi’s. Who starts the match is decided in good old BTS fashion with rock-paper-scissors and we are treated to Yoongi calling Hobi a dummy which had me howling with laughter.

We also get chaos immediately as Tae pretends to be the ball boy on JKs side, though quickly gives up his job and returns to his place. All signs point toward Tae being in a fantastic, comedic mood once again. We love to see it. As the match is happening, Yoongi comments on how it’s actually surprisingly fun to watch, with which Namjoon agrees (and so do I). They all get so into it making it double fun to watch and even easier to cheer along and get emotionally invested in what’s happening on screen.

During the second half of JKs match with Hobi, Tae asks Coach Kim what kind of player JK is to which he replies that he’s a passionate one, and upon prompting clarifies that JK always stayed longer after practice to practice some more. That certainly sounds very much like JK, and fits with what we’ve seen in the previous episode. Despite that Hobi wins the match!

Next up is Namjoon against Tae. Jimin playfully takes up the role of Tae’s coach, hands him a bottle of water and carries his racket while Tae ties his shoes and then approaches the net for rock-paper-scissors. Upon seeing their shenanigans, Seokjin jumps in as Namjoon’s coach, making sure he has spare balls and that he actually goes to the net as well.

Before the match even begins we get Namjoon asking first Seokjin, who says he doesn’t know, and then Coach Kim if he’s even holding the racket properly which Yoongi comments upon saying he’s holding it the way you would a knife while cooking. Honestly Yoongi is on fire this episode with funny commentary. Then as they get to rock-paper-scissors, Tae as the most endearing human ever asks upon his angels (with Yoongi asking the editors to add in actual angel graphics for his sequence) to help him win, which he does. He gets to start off the match.

Namjoon is certainly the funniest tennis player among the members adding in little hops and spins making everyone laugh so, so much. Coach Kim comments upon how, because Namjoon was so busy, he didn’t get to learn how to do backhand and thus only knows how to do forehand (please don’t ask me what that means and what kind of effect that has because I have no clue). Speaking of laughter, at some point Seokjin is laughing so much and so hard Hobi turns to him and asks “why are you so happy?” but we never get an answer. Interestingly enough, as they announce a serve change, so Tae serving instead, Seokjin immediately stops laughing and looks focused again.

Also at some point they realize that Namjoon was playing with someone else’s racket, leading to Namjoon switching to his actual one, while Coach Kim says that Namjoon had left his racket at their gym which Seokjin comments by saying “that’s Namjoon”. We’re also treated to Nam-derer (Namjoon + Federer) and Tae-kovic (Taehyung + Djokovic) by Seokjin. Honestly, extra points for creativity. The match ends with Namjoon losing, ending up at the net and immediately being ready to bump elbows with Tae accepting his defeat. Absolutely hilarious match!

Next up is Seokjin against Jimin and it starts with Seokjin promptly loosing three points one after the other with the other members commenting that tennis is a mind game and Jimin’s mind is good. Jimin loses the next point, thus the members idea of Jimin potentially winning a “perfect game” (without Seokjin getting any points) is gone. Although it’s meant teasingly, this is still really cute:

Upon being prompted by Namjoon to bring out his (Jimin’s) true tennis skills, the game turns around and Seokjin goes into the lead. Soon thereafter the score is 5 for Jimin and 9 for Seokjin which leads to Tae calling out the score to Jimin (saying Jiminie) as 5959 which apparently is both a lucky number and phonetically similar to something you’d say in a cutesy way to a child or someone you love in Korean, and on top of that it’s also 9595 backward. Unfortunately all that soulmate luck doesn’t help since Jimin still ends up losing the match.

Next up is Hobi against Tae with Hobi “teasing” Tae by claiming that he’s certain Tae will win. The match starts off with Hobi winning twice but Tae gets into it soon enough and they actually manage to get a few rallies going, as well as Coach Kim commenting on how you can tell that Hobi has prior training. As they reach 6:7 for Tae, Jimin and Namjoon start chanting KIM TAEHYUNG, with Jimin, Seokjin and Jungkook also doing some additional “cheerleader” moves. Very sweet and supportive! Look at their smiles, look at Jimin’s smile! He does that a few more times as Tae wins more points.

Then we get to the moment that had everyone, vminnies and non-vminnies alike, in absolute shambles: Tae hurts himself (though I’m still not 100% certain if it was a joke or he actually hurt himself even if just a bit) and falls to the ground, Yoongi rushes in with a big smile while calling for a medic and Jimin runs over saying he’ll carry Tae. Which he does, just like anon said. Look at him! How is it possible that somehow Tae turns so smol whenever he’s in Jimin’s arms? Also just how strong, exactly, is Jimin that he can just pick up Tae like that despite Tae being taller, and therefore also surely a little heavier than Jimin?

Also can we please talk about how Tae hooks his arms around Jimin, how he nestled his head against him, and also about that barely visible (from our angle and due to Jimin’s shoulder) smile on Tae face as he’s being carried? And also Namjoon’s face. Of course he’s there as well because what would be a vmin scene if Namjoon wouldn’t be there as well haha.

That’s still not everything (truly this episode is a gift that keeps on giving) since Jimin puts down Tae on the stands and proceeds to give him pretend CPR and acts like he wants to also give him mouth-to-mouth which makes Tae giggle/laugh, but not just any laugh, it’s his Jiminie laugh. Catch me crying. After that Tae gets up and ends up winning the match giving us the following (it’s not too visible in the gif but my heart melts at Jimin’s happy/fond smile):

And thus the final match is Kim vs Kim, place your bets now before continuing on. I do love how seriously Jimin is taking his “coach” job as he once again stands by Tae’s side before the match begins and carries his racket.

Since this is already getting outrageously long (and there are still 16 minutes left) I’ll just mention a few highlights instead of a detailed commentary. Also, if you don’t want to know who wins, I’d recommend skipping this part. I’ll add a bold Match Over at the end so just scroll until you see that.

Tae and Seokjin tease each other which Seokjin delivering the following line “I’ll prove that the underdog can’t make it to the top”.

Tae fails his first attempt at a serve, but upon second try, wins his first point.

Tae asks for more balls so he can keep some in his pockets which is commented by JK as Tae being greedy for balls because his mom didn’t buy him the toys he wanted as a kid. Another member, though I can’t for the life of me figure out which, asks what he’s talking about, and then Namjoon puts an end to the antics.

Seokjin rolls up his sleeves (things are getting serious serious) and Namjoon wishes him good luck (we love a supportive leaderbf). This is followed by Namjoon wondering if Seokjin is Shapovalov and Seokjin wins the point.

Seokjin wins the first set and they switch sides.

Seokjin tries to pick up the ball by hitting it with the racket just like they’d been taught in the previous episode but hits the ground instead. Yoongi wants to give him a yellow card but only has a yellow pen which he holds up instead.

They get a fantastic rally going but unfortunately Tae loses because he hits the ball too hard and it goes OUT. JK says it was so good there should be a slo-mo to commemorate that rally which makes everyone laugh.

Tae hits the ball into the OUT and nearly hits Jimin and JK which prompts Jimin to chant something in Busan satoori along with JK but Namjoon stops them by saying that they’re in Seoul.

The ball gets stuck in Tae’s racket, something that happens very, very rarely and thus the members decide to give him that point simply because of that. Namjoon also tells Tae he should buy a lottery ticket.

Finally, because “hard work never betrays”, Seokjin wins! He also wins, according to me for the cutest smile because honestly LOOK AT HIM, how can anyone not be endlessly fond, endeared and enamored with him? That’s scientifically impossible and should be a punishable crime. Am I exaggerating? Who cares!

Also Hobi gently, so very gently, dabbing away Seokjin’s sweat with his sleeve.

Seokjin receives a skinny little gold medal, which Tae sneakily steals from him like a little squirrel while Seokjin gives a speech while being the most humble and very Seokjin.

MATCH OVER

After the game the members gather at a restaurant with the bill being paid by Seokjin, which is something the members simply decide upon though Seokjin makes a joke about having forgotten his wallet at home. What a nice prize for winning, makes it totally worth it, right? The first dishes that are served are seafood which Namjoon comments on by saying that he can’t eat them, but he needn’t worry because there was plenty, and I mean plenty, more food to be tried and eaten.

Overall the dinner featured some funny and interesting moments such as:

Hobi, Tae and Seokjin playing the “tangsuyuk” game which Namjoon calls childish and yet makes a game out of him saying “child” and Jimin “ish” with a laugh and smile on his face.

Jimin and Seokjin having a funny/cutesy conversation in a mix of Korean and English which is followed by Seokjin saying they should now only talk in English, which Hobi accepts. The only ones who do it are Hobi and Seokjin (who shows off two sentences with great pronunciation) and then it’s over and they switch back to Korean.

JK saying “I wanna be a lobster” to the tune of “I wanna be a rockstar” from Interlude: Shadow.

An extreme closeup shot of Jimin trying Peking duck including some ASMR for those who like it.

JK and Seokjin reaching for Seokjin’s drink at the same time with Seokjin telling JK he should order his own instead of trying to take his (later we see JK still drink from Seokjin’s glass). Jimin also asks for a sip (though he might be talking to Hoseok since there’s a glass standing between them as well from which we see Jimin drink).

Tae wonders what they’ll be going through in the next episode of RUN which gets commented as “reasonable doubt” by the editors in the subs.

Jimin tells the story of how he went to a hair salon with Yoongi though at first he can’t remember when it was. Tae and his vault of Jimin memories though does, saying that it was for their profile pictures before debut. The story goes that Jimin got an asymmetrical haircut which apparently was so bad/funny Yoongi couldn’t look at him and left him behind to meet with his friends instead. Once Jimin arrived at the dorm, Hobi woke up from his sleep yet, upon seeing Jimin, “fainted” because he laughed so hard.

As final dish they get mattang which reminds them of the mattang JK made in an older episode of RUN which ended up basically being completely immovable and stuck to his plate. “First is cleanliness, second is cleanliness, and third is adhesiveness.” I’m not surprised that we remember these things, but looking at how much they do, see, and have to remember, I’m always amazed by the fact that they remember such small things as well.

Jimin asked how long they’ve been doing RUN for to which JK says “10 years” making everyone laugh. Yoongi though comes through saying that they started in 2015, which is correct.

In the end they get some coffee and Tae asks if they should leave for their next shoot now, something it seems they’ve been stalling on doing since Tae already asked that twice before and they came up with things they should/need to do or eat before that.

And that concludes the episode! Wow, this turned out way too long. If you actually made it this far, I truly applaud you and also thank you sincerely. I loved this episode and I just had a lot to say, I suppose. This might be one of my new favorite episodes, which I have a feeling I’ve been saying for the last couple of episodes as well, but what can I say, these episodes have really been amazing recently.

#BTS #RUN BTS #RUN BTS episode 130 #tennis #Namjoon #Seokjin #yoongi #hoseok #jimin #taehyung #jungkook #vmin #bangtan sonyeondan #RUN episode commentary

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riotwritesthings · 5 years ago

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Things You Take a Chance On

WinterIron, T, 1k, just neighbor boys finally getting it together

For the @buckybarnesbingo fluffathon event! Day 7 Prompts: Escape, Europe, Eternity

(Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6)

They end up sitting on the floor, pressed flush against each other and leaning back against the couch, eating spaghetti straight out of the container perched carefully between their laps. Tony is warm and comfortable against Bucky's side, smudge of sauce at the corner of his mouth. Bucky can't stop staring.

"I think you made this dialogue up," Bucky says suspiciously, dragging his eyes back to the TV to squint at the subtitles. “There's no way this movie is actually about time traveling earrings. That's why it looks like a bootleg. You took some other poor kung-fu movie and made it this."

"How dare you, sir?" Tony demands, looking not at all actually offended as he shoves more pasta into his mouth, "this is a very serious movie, about very serious magical accessories. How could you not be appreciating this right now?!"

"I'm just sayin’, if someone offered me earrings they described as 'deeply and horrifically cursed’, I would just not take them," Bucky says with a shrug, and uses Tony's moment of sputtering distraction to twirl himself up a huge bite of noodles without Tony trying to knock it off his fork, as has become their game.

"You just don't appreciate art!" Tony finally decides, shooting Bucky a betrayed look. "I'm taking my pasta, and I'm leaving," he adds with a huff, turning his nose up haughtily even though Bucky can absolutely see the smile trying to break through his pout.

“Don’t you dare,” Bucky says, dropping his arm from where it’s stretched out along the couch to wrap around Tony’s shoulders instead, holding him in place as Tony laughs and tries to wiggle away. “Unhand the pasta!” He demands when Tony continues struggling, holding the container out of reach of Bucky’s fork.

“Never! People who don’t appreciate my movies don’t get to eat my pasta!” Tony says around peals of laughter, and when he starts trying his kick his way across the floor they both go tumbling sideways.

“You better not have spilled that,” Bucky says, voice muffled because he’s ended up with his face mashed against Tony’s chest and his heart in his throat.

“I... did not!” Tony says victoriously, but Bucky can’t help being suspicious of that slight pause. He doesn’t actually want to lift his head, partially because he’s sure his face is warm, and partially because Tony smells amazing, Bucky can only assume he was also running around in the rain all day and how is that even possible.

Finally Bucky lifts his head just enough to see that Tony has not, in fact, spilled spaghetti all over his floor. It’s a close thing though, a couple noodles hanging over the edge as Tony holds the container up in the air with one hand. “Alright,” Bucky allows, finally twisting his head to look up at Tony, “you live another day.”

“So kind, so forgiving,” Tony says with another little giggle and his free hand lands on Bucky’s shoulder, fingers twitching nervously like they’re not sure if they should settle or not. “Now move so I can eat all this pasta myself already.”

“Like hell,” Bucky grumbles and wiggles one arm free to make a grab for the container again, laughing when Tony shrieks and nearly throws the entire thing as they wrestle across the floor.

They manage to eat the rest of the pasta without spilling or flinging it, leaning against the couch again and trying to out-eat each other. By the time they finish Bucky’s stomach hurts a little, but his face really hurts from how hard he’s smiling. Tony still has sauce at the corner of his mouth, or maybe it’s new sauce, and Bucky’s thumb practically itches with the urge to wipe it away.

"So," Bucky says slowly as the credits begin to roll at a truly ridiculous speed, "was that really the end of this movie? The whole universe just ends?”

"And that's why you never mess with time travel," Tony says happily, slumping a little heavier against Bucky’s side, "no matter how fly the magical earrings make you look."

"That is the lesson, here," Bucky agrees, shaking his head and grinning a little, "I'll make sure to remember that." Tony looks up at him, lifting his head from where it’s been resting on Bucky’s shoulder for the past ten minutes, and before Bucky can even think he’s finally, finally reaching out to swipe his thumb over the edge of Tony’s lips, lingering just a little longer than he strictly needs to.

Tony’s eyes go wide, and Bucky feels his own expression going shocked to match. His other arm is still around Tony’s shoulders, somehow, and Bucky hadn’t even meant to do that-

“What are you doing tomorrow?” Tony blurts, cheeks going pink and not looking away even as the incredibly loud DVD menu comes back up.

“Working,” Bucky says with a little smile because that’s one thing he never has to think about. He’s always working, and for a split second Tony’s face starts to fall before it lights up again.

“Okay, but hear me out,” Tony says, turning towards him a little bit more and still not looking away. “Quit your job. We can run away! Watch terrible movies and eat cold pasta for the rest of eternity!”

“That’s your plan, huh?” Bucky asks, smile getting even wider and Tony is so warm against him, pressed in so close. “Just run away together?”

"Yes,” Tony says seriously, eyes lighting up like he’s actually getting excited about the idea, “we can escape to Europe. Change our names. Start new lives as, I dunno, farmers or something."

"Wait, why do we need to change our names?” Bucky asks with a laugh, because how is he supposed to just let that go? “Are we committin’ some crime on the way?"

"I mean, we could,” Tony says with a careless grin and a tiny shrug, waving the arm that’s not squished between them, “the world is an oyster."

“Isn’t that supposed t’ be our oyster?” Bucky asks and they’re so close now, Bucky can practically taste Tony’s breath against his lips, spaghetti and coffee and Tony.

“Like that makes any more sense,” Tony says with a scoff, rolling his eyes, and he so close, and he’s so damn gorgeous-

Bucky doesn’t think, doesn’t give himself the chance, all it takes is the slightest motion, he leans in just a little bit and he has Tony’s lips beneath his own. Tony gasps and almost instantly his hand is on the back of Bucky’s neck, fingers tangling in his hair, and then Tony is kissing him back, slow and sweet while the DVD menu rages on in the background.

“Okay but what are you doing after work?” Tony asks when they finally break apart, looking a little dazed. His face is a brighter red than Bucky has ever seen it and his smile is so wide that his eyes practically glow with it. Bucky can see the constellations of freckles across his skin.

“Dunno, you got any suggestions?” Bucky asks, and laughs when Tony’s smile gets wider.

#My fic #winteriron #buckytony #starkbucks #buckybarnesbingo #bbb fluffathon #and I did it!!!!#super proud of me #yay or whatever

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13eyond13 · 6 years ago

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Comparing Manga!Near to Anime!Near

Sure! I actually found Near’s character very wooden and boring the first time I watched the anime, and then was very pleasantly surprised at how interesting and full of personality he seemed when I read the manga later, so I think comparing Near’s character in both sources is a great idea. I’ll outline the major differences I found between them below.

(This post is using the official English translation of the manga and the English subtitles from Netflix for the screenshots, by the way):

1. MELLO AND NEAR’S PERSONALITIES AND MOTIVES ARE DIMINISHED IN THE ANIME’S VERSION OF THE WAMMY’S CHILDHOOD FLASHBACK:

This is a scene that was changed slightly in the anime, and at great detriment to both Mello and Near’s characters and the audience's immediate understanding of them, I think. When we are first introduced to these two in the manga it shows a few panels of Mello being a bully at Wammy’s who gets right into the center of the action, and Near being a loner who is invited to participate but prefers to do puzzles by himself:

The anime begins directly at their meeting with Roger in the office, so we know nothing about how these two normally behave at the orphanage or how their peers perceive them / interact with them:

When asked to work together Mello refuses and explains to Roger that he and Near have always been at odds. The manga shows a flashback to Mello studying very hard to surpass Near's scores and always failing to do so, which sets up his inferiority complex and his strong work ethic. It also shows Near being surrounded by admiring students, which indicates he was probably well-liked despite being a loner, and shows that he’s very competent, the most successful student in the school:

The anime simply has Mello say that they've always been at odds and competing with each other. Mello describes himself as overly emotional and Near as logical and cool-headed, and then they just leave it at that.

It isn’t until much later in the anime -- after the kidnapping, when Light finally finds out about Wammy’s -- that the difference in Near’s and Mello’s academic ranking is even mentioned at all:

I think the manga gives a much better sense of the successors’ personalities and motives right away than the anime does. All we see in the anime is that Near seemingly doesn't give a shit about L's death, nor care much about how the successor choice is made, and that Mello is temperamental and thinks that since Near’s unemotional he will be able to better solve the Kira case. I remember finding Near extremely cold and wooden the first time I watched it, because his reaction to L’s death is so callous, and none of that other stuff about him was shown or explained.

2. THE SPY IN THE SPK IS TAKEN OUT OF THE ANIME STORYLINE:

In the manga once the NPA Director is kidnapped by the mafia Near starts to suspect there is a mole in the SPK who would've leaked their plans to the kidnappers (which there is, Ill Ratte):

In the anime Ratte's role as the spy was cut out of the storyline altogether, so Near just immediately figures it out and then orders his FBI agent to cooperate with Soichiro:

I’m guessing they cut that spy bit out of the anime due to time constraints, but Near being betrayed by one of his employees and being shrewd enough to suspect it adds an extra little layer of vulnerability and sympathy to his character beyond just “smart, blase guy who never loses his cool.”

3. NEAR NO LONGER SUCKS AT DARTS IN THE ANIME:

The scene of Near and Light first talking on the phone and Near calling Light “L number two” is basically the same between the two sources:

Except that in the manga Near is shown to absolutely suck at darts, lol:

In the anime Near is just sitting there building a basic tower out of dice:

Little detail changes like this might not seem that consequential, but I'd argue they make all the difference; sucking at darts adds an endearing aspect to Near beyond just “humourless successor of L who sits around playing with toys a lot.”

I love it because it seems like exactly the opposite of what you'd expect them to show in order to get the audience on his side and believing he's L's super-competent successor, you know? It made me laugh and feel affectionate toward him in the manga, because he looks so dang serious about it; plus I love that he sticks with it for so long despite clearly not being very good!

*(side note: Tumblr’s image uploader glitched out at this point, so unfortunately the rest of the post won’t have any visuals, apologies:)*

4. THERE IS NO “WAS HE EATING CHOCOLATE?” SCENE IN THE ANIME:

Near never detains Sayu and Soichiro after the kidnapping to interrogate them in the anime, so sadly we don’t get that hilarious little manga moment where he deduces it was Mello behind the kidnapping because of the sound of him eating chocolate over the phone.

5. NEAR’S RESPONSE TO THE SPK DEATH SEEMS LESS EMOTIONAL IN THE ANIME:

His reaction to most of the SPK getting murdered is different in anime, and I would argue he comes off much less sorrowful or shaken by the deaths. He seems pretty matter-of-fact about it, and almost like he'd predicted and planned for it to happen that way. The main emotional reaction we see is his dice tower falling and his face looking intense/angry.

In the manga Near is caught off-guard by the deaths; he laments that he didn’t find the spy in the SPK before it was too late, and then he says to Light: “I was somewhat prepared for this the moment YOU gave the notebook away to the kidnappers, but it sure does hurt.” He is shown looking very sad about it. Light asks Near to share information, and Near has to deliberate for a while internally about whether he wants to trust Light with any information about Mello or himself before he agrees.

In the anime Near calmly predicts the deaths right before they happen, then tells Light that they died, then says: “L, you helplessly handed over the notebook.” Light asks him if he would have done anything differently if he was in charge, and Near says: “No, with that kind of preparation it would’ve been taken either way. There’s no point in us arguing. Let’s help each other and tell each other what we know. I have some idea of who the culprit may be.” MUCH LESS EMOTIONAL, and a bit overly willing to immediately volunteer information about Wammy’s and Mello to Light.

6. NEAR COMFORTING AND INFORMING THE SPK ABOUT MELLO AFTER THEY ARE DISBANDED BY THE GOV’T IS CUT OUT OF THE ANIME:

In the manga Near spends a good deal of time explaining Mello’s thought process to his team and warning them about his dangerousness before they ever meet up with him. He tells Halle in particular to watch out, because he believes Mello will target her home because she’s the most vulnerable, and then says to whole group:

“If you’re scared, you don’t have to participate. But please don’t leave the headquarters. I’m scared, so I’m not going to go outside.”

This display of thoughtful consideration for his team’s feelings and safety and his honesty about his own fears is not shown at all in the anime, as it skips directly from the news of the SPK being dissolved to Mello breaking into Halle’s apartment and taking her hostage to the SPK HQ.

7. NEAR SEEMS A LITTLE MORE EXCITED BY MELLO’S ARRIVAL IN THE MANGA THAN HE DOES THE ANIME:

And there was a more in-depth explanation given in the manga about why he continued to defend Mello and sympathize with him. But even so, I would say these scenes are for the most part very similar between the two sources. The anime did a great job adding some lovely stained-glass visuals behind the boys and such here, too!

8. THERE IS NO SCENE OF NEAR AND MELLO WORKING TOGETHER TO QUESTION MOGI IN THE ANIME:

This is a real shame, because it’s basically the most fun interaction these two have and the closest they get to collaborating in a personal way after their dramatic reunion at the HQ (even though it could also be seen as Mello just attempting to taunt/use Near, but Near doesn’t seem to take it that way). Near’s interactions with Mogi and Mello are weirdly cute in this scene, as he often compliments them on their impressiveness and such, so it’s too bad that the anime chopped it out!

9. THE ANIME PUTS A MORE POSITIVE SPIN ON NEAR AND MELLO’S COLLABORATION AGAINST KIRA:

It’s left very ambiguous in the story if Mello was trying to save Near or beat him by kidnapping Takada. The manga takes a typically unsentimental view of Mello’s intentions, and the anime takes a more hopeful view of them.

In the the manga, Near says this: “I find it hard to believe that Mello thought that far ahead. But I am sure that he was always trying to get ahead of me. And that’s not all. Even if he didn’t surpass me, Mello always said that he was going to be number one, and that he was going to be better than me and L. But I always knew I would never be able to surpass L. It could be that I lacked the action and he lacked the calm; and even though we couldn’t surpass the one we admired on our own, together we can stand with L. Together we can surpass L.”

In the anime, Near says this: “I believe Mello knew in his heart that alone we aren’t able to reach our goal, to surpass L. But together... together we can stand with L. Together we can surpass L!”

10. NEAR’S PHILOSOPHICAL SPEECH IN THE WAREHOUSE IS CUT OUT OF THE ANIME:

It’s probably my favourite thing he says in the entire manga, so that’s too bad! He says it in response to Light’s passionate Kira monologue.

In the manga, after Near shuts Light down, Light says: “Near, you're wrong. I'm the icon of justice now.”

Near replies: “You may be right. I'm no different than you. I believe in what I think is right, and believe that to be righteous. Nobody can tell what is right and what is wrong, what is righteous and what is evil. Even if there is a god, and I had his teachings before me, I would think it through and decide if that was right or wrong myself.”

I loved getting these little deeper thoughts from Near in the manga; it made him come off less cold and uncaring and more human and insightful to me.

11. NEAR HAS A PLAN TO LOCK LIGHT UP FOR LIFE IN THE MANGA THAT ISN’T MENTIONED IN THE ANIME:

When Light tries to stall for time by attempting to tempt Near into testing the Death Note, in the manga Near replies:

“Light Yagami. Kira. I have no plans to kill you. I really don't care if the notebook is real or not anymore. From the very beginning, my goal was to capture Kira. All I want is for everything to become clear and for Kira to be captured. You're as good as arrested now, and I'll confiscate the notebook Mr. Aizawa has. That should be enough. And I will not announce Kira's arrest or the existence of the notebook to the public. I believe that everybody here can keep that secret. I'll take full responsibility for locking you up in a place where nobody will find you until you die."

I find this both refreshing and scary, because it shows Near’s definitely not doing this for his own glory or his ego (like Mello and L might), but it’s also a very ruthless and scary side of Near that adds a lot of spice to his character! I can’t imagine much of a worse fate for Light than that had Ryuk not gotten to him first, yikes.

12. THE EPILOGUE CHAPTER IS LEFT OUT OF THE ANIME:

In which Matsuda and Ide speculate about Near possibly “cheating” with the Death Note (aka being behind Mikami messing up with checking for tampering and dying in prison ten days later and such). Near is shown doing well as the new L, playing with toys and eating some of Mello’s trademark chocolate and collaborating with the NPA on their new work. Which is nice!

So in conclusion to this massive post, I would say that most of the characters in the second half of the story kinda got shafted by the anime because of how the plot was condensed; it didn’t help that the animation portrayed the subtler characters like Near in a less dynamic/expressive way than the original manga art did, either. Despite what it may sound like, I do love the anime a heck of a lot, but I think people will probably miss out on a lot of Near’s charm if they never get to experience the original manga version of him, as well!

#death note #near #mello #light yagami #long post #meta #p #i am so mad that the image uploader crapped out #i took like dozens of screencaps i can't use #but i guess you get the gist of things #there are probably other things i missed too

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sohmariku · 6 years ago

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RIKU’S RANDOM LIFE: THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF... AUTISM?

Yesterday What do I need to do today? Finish decorating the Christmas tree? Reminds me, I still need to by a Christmas stall. But the kitchen really needs to be cleaned too. It’s also about time I finish the Winter set-up of my nendoroids. Crap, I absolutely need to vacuum the house today! Laundry can wait another day,...can it?

*Proceeds to watch another episode of Avatar: the Last Airbender*

Thankfully I’ve managed to cross out most of the tasks I had to do by today, but the Christmas tree still lacks decorations and my nendoroids are still disorderly shoved on the shelves. Maybe tomorrow...?

(I came to come to the conclusion I still have dry laundry hanging on the clothesline... I estimate it’s been up there for about a week now.)

While my mind is usually in a state of “semi-organised chaos”, the last couple weeks it’s mostly been “pure chaos”. Due to an overload of responsibilities, birthday parties and other holiday-celebrating occasions, I can’t seem to keep up with even the most basic tasks.

In short, I’m mentally exhausted and need a break.

Last time I blamed my kitten for the lack of progress on any subtitles, but... I’ve come to the realization it’s been not just that. The seemingly never-ending string of social responsibilities has drained away all my energy... to the point I could barely be bothered to eat breakfast some days. Of course my dumb-ass mind was too tired to realize what was going on and... Hello Meltdown Yesterday.

In hindsight, I really should have skipped that birthday dinner party, but my boyfriend was already guilt tripping me into going, before I even could mention I didn’t want to go. His father would be so happy if I’d be there, he said. Mind you, I had completely forgotten about that party until my boyfriend called around 4PM telling me he was on the way home, so we’d surely get to the restaurant in time. That day was supposed to be MY DAY OFF! Because I could feel I had reached my limit. Nope, that evening is gone! Though I was literally on the verge of crying, I decided to push through, because his parents feel they don’t see me around enough already and gotta keep them happy, sorta.

The effect showed immediately, because it took me two days to even realize I had forgotten my scarf at the restaurant! And I only noticed, because I couldn’t find it when I forced myself to do the grocery shopping I absolutely didn’t feel like doing, because I was still recovering from said dinner party. Of course, as the responsible adult I am, I didn’t call the restaurant, but instead texted my boyfriend “I think I might have forgotten my scarf at the restaurant!” and prayed he’d solve the problem without me literally needing to ask him to make the call for me. Because if there’s anything I hate more than making phone calls, I hate making phone calls to admit I’m an absolute airhead who forgot her scarf! Thankfully he fixed it without me needing to spell it out word for word. Got my scarf back.

But really, this whole debacle really shows how on-edge I was that evening. I clearly remember thinking to myself “don’t forget your scarf” and then came the waiter who handed me a little rubber duck. (because apparently every female customer gets one) And boom, I became a happy little penguin with my rubber duck. It was all I could focus on ad when people started to leave, I quickly waddled outside (after saying some painfully awkward goodbyes to people I don’t actually know, but who do know me) and totally forgot about the scarf. Until days later! But yes, I got it back.

(To add to that, I lost that same scarf again today but in the Garden center, because I was too focused on a text conversation on my phone. Took me a lot of courage and agonizing to ask the staff if anyone had found it. They did, I got it back. Also, when doing some grocery shopping last week, I forgot my empty shopping bag at the cashier. I didn’t go back to ask if anyone found it. I could get a new one for only 58 eurocents after all. Anyway, notice a trend?)

If that wasn’t enough. The worst part is probably, I know I’m not out of the woods yet. Choir practice on Friday (20), Christmas Market Choir performance on Sunday (22), Christmas Evening Church Mass with choir on Tuesday (24),Christmas with family (parents/siblings) on Wednesday (25), Christmas with extended family (grandparents/uncles/aunts/cousins) on Thursday (26)...

Somewhere in between all that I need to find time to properly clean my whole house (which hasn’t happened in forever), because I’ll be the one hosting the Christmas gathering on the 26th (It’s way too late to back out now...) and my aunts are already judging me enough as it is.I don’t need them to think I’m living like a pig. (It’s the first time they’ll see my house, so they’ll be sticking their noses everywhere most likely...) My house isn’t dirty per se, but it could definitely be cleaner.

And when you think the “suffering” finally ends... my boyfriend has a compulsory day off from work (27). So, I won’t get a fully quiet day until Monday (30). My plans for New Year’s Eve (31) are still unclear. But then my boyfriend has another compulsory day off on New Year’s (1) and he also decided to take Thursday (2) and Friday (3) off too. Now my grandmother’s birthday is on the 7th, but she might very well be celebrating it on the 4th or 5th. Or the weekend after that (11-12). Plus in either of those weekends my boyfriend’s parents very much want to go out for dinner with us too...

In short, that means I’m not expecting any “true” down-time until well into January... And just that thought alone is enough to drain away the last bit of energy I had left and dread the rest of the month.

Always love the holiday season... //hear the sarcasm//

If it was up to me I’d go into hibernation and wake up somewhere in January.

---

Note: Though I have no official diagnosis (and not sure if I’ll ever pursue one), in hindsight, I’m pretty clearly on the Autistic Spectrum. It’s only been a year ago since I really came to this realization, I’m apparently pretty good at masking, and I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. My autism affects a great deal of my life. For one, any social interaction requires a lot of energy. It’s worse if I’m meeting with a large group of people. And even if I’m not in the same room, having another person in the house will somehow keep me on edge to a certain extent. I’m well aware that full schedules are exhausting to everyone, but to me they are “extra” exhausting. For example, it can take 2 full weeks to fully recover from a gathering with extended family. And when I’m in recovery, it’s very hard to do anything productive on a day. As I’m writing this, it sounds insane. And it doesn’t always happen, but it does happen and that’s extremely inconvenient.

This post became a lot longer than I expected, but I guess it’s good to finally talk about this? Though part of me is feeling really anxious about it. How dare I claim to be autistic without an official diagnosis? It’s silly. My life is all about silly worries. This is just one of them. The anxiety is real. >< Guess I’d better just post this already... and then regret it all night... have trouble to fall asleep... while I dread the reactions people might have. Yes, that’s how my mind works. By morning I’ll realize I had nothing to fear, I hope... O.O;;

By the way, congrats if you made it all the way to the end of my rambling!

#Riku's random life

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recentanimenews · 6 years ago

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The GREAT CRUNCHYROLL Re:ZERO REWATCH Kicks Off With Episodes 1-5

Welcome to the GREAT CRUNCHYROLL Re:ZERO REWATCH! I'm Jared Clemons, and I'll be your host this week as we make our way through Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-. Last week, we answered our initial questions about the series, and this week we began episodes 1-5.

Going into Re:ZERO, for the most part blind, made for some surprising moments in just these first five episodes alone. I wasn’t expecting Subaru to just switch worlds with seemingly nothing happening to him in his original world. Nor did I think constantly redoing periods of time would be a thing. Somehow, that aspect of the show completely passed me by when it was airing a few years ago. I’m not completely bought into Subaru as a hero quite yet. There’s something about him that just feels fake or off to me. Maybe that’s the point though. I’m sure I'll figure that out along with everyone else over the course of the next four weeks. Regardless, I’m interested to see where this whole thing goes and why this has the reputation it does. Gotta figure out who made Subaru turn into mush at the end of episode 5, which I have some theories about.

Before we discuss these episodes, let's check out some questions and comments you had from our last installment!

Acapo asks: “so how are these rewatch things decided? Do we vote somewhere? Or...”

We came to a consensus together as the Features team. While taking suggestions from you guys wouldn’t be a bad idea, we have tentatively booked ourselves for the next two Rewatches, so it’ll be awhile before we could ask for ideas.

MachaiArcanum asks: “So how exactly does this rewatch thing work exactly? This is the first time I’ve heard of it and I’m not sure what exactly is going on.”

So, we are going to watch five episodes each week and you'll get to read the Features team's thoughts and opinions on that set of episodes. We welcome all of you to watch along with us and you can ask questions or give your comments about these episodes similarly to what we're doing. Plus, you can be featured in this segment of the Rewatch as well!

Deatherz007 says: “Time for Subaru to suffer once more”

Only a little bit.

Now, let's see what the Crunchyroll Features team thought of this week's episodes!

We kick things off with, depending on the version you’re watching, two episode ones or a longer episode one. Did this longer episode do a good job of introducing you to the world of Re:ZERO? Would you have liked it to have been shorter or cut down in specific spots?

David: The only thing I would change is the cut in the middle being completely abrupt. You can imagine a commercial break there or something but having no transition at all makes it feel very odd.

Austin: I wouldn’t say it introduces the world of Re:ZERO well so much as it introduces the slums and the characters well while making the capital feel as huge as it is. That said, I really like longer first episodes of anime since they’re great for setting the tone and almost always make me want to watch more right away.

René: I’m with Austin on this. Longer episodes really give you that opportunity to establish a proper mood and mindset for a show that is way harder to accomplish with only 20 minutes. Whenever an anime serves me a double-length episode, it immediately piques my interest since it’s obviously something special if it gets this kind of production treatment.

Kevin: It’s a bit hard for my to say, since this is my third or fourth time watching the show, so I already know a lot more about the world than I should. I’ll say that I like some of the worldbuilding that they hint at, like mentioning Satella and the Jealous Witch early on. As for stuff that could be cut down, I’ve always felt like while a bunch of stuff is repeated due to the time loope mechanic, very little is actually wasted, and speeding much of it up would make things fly by too quickly.

Carolyn: I thought the point of it was not so much to introduce the world but to set up the storytelling device of semi-time travel and constantly dying, which it did very well.

Paul: I watched the Japanese version with English subtitles, and while I was initially lukewarm on the premise, I must admit that the first two episodes hooked me. From what I've seen, I think Re:ZERO works best when it's structured like a horror movie or a murder mystery, and these early episodes demonstrate a lot of that.

Joshua: I think for the story Re:ZERO is trying to tell, and the emotional depth it’s trying to tell it with, a standard 25-ish minute introduction would have been nowhere near as effective. We had to learn not only of Return by Death, but the impact it has on Subaru, and there’s really only one way to do that (over and over again!). This hefty run-time even came without an explanation for Subaru being isekai’d! While Truck-kun won’t be getting a paycheck this time, and there was no other crazy reason like other shows in the genre, I actually respect how Re:ZERO skipped a convoluted set-up in favor of what actually matters right now. I felt that the double episode gave me a firm anchor on the characters and their feelings, which is a useful connection to make early on.

Noelle: I think the setup was effective enough. I haven’t seen this show before, and I don’t know anything about it, but the first few episodes delivered enough information to get me interested, but not enough to give me all the answers, and that’s fine. I don’t think the world as a whole has been introduced, because it’s still filtered through our protag’s eyes, but we don’t need an opening history lesson in this case.

Danni: I thought it worked really well as a two-parter. It was a long, but effective, introduction to the world and Subaru’s predicament as a whole. It also managed to do so without any big exposition dumps, which I really appreciated.

Kara: Nothing felt wasted or overly long in that first episode. As others have said, there was a lot to set up, and going for the standard 22-minute runtime wouldn’t necessarily have allowed for enough room to lay things out adequately. I wasn’t checking the time at all, which is always my high sign for what feels decently paced.

Subaru quickly learns that he is reliving time after getting killed. Since you may have known about this already, what did you think about how it was executed in these episodes? Was anime Groundhog Day what you were expecting and do you think it’s been explained well thus far?

David: It takes him a few times in to figure it out, I was actually kind of surprised to realize how many times he went through it before he understood he was going through the same day over and over again. That said, I think it’s well explained because of how natural it comes to Subaru. The show literally starts with him realizing he has been isekai’d, but it takes him a while to realize he is reliving scenarios.

Austin: “Quickly”, he says… Sarcasm aside, I think it was done well since it adds a kind of unique weight to everything. Sure, Subaru can die with relatively low risk, but I tense up every time he gets in a fight or near anything sharp and pointy since I really don’t want to see the poor guy have to suffer both another death and having to redo a section of time but this time figure out what he did wrong.

René: The gruesomeness of his deaths are what really sells the memetic “suffering” part of this show. Yes, it may be of little consequence for him to die but the way his deaths are depicted just really shows you how painful it actually is and moves it away from just being a videogame-y element as in many other isekai shows.

Kevin: Once Subaru finally realized his power, I looked down into the episode comments and saw “out of everything that has happened it’s the chips that make him realize what’s going on,” and that pretty much sums up Re:ZERO. The time loops make sense, and they keep happening in part because the main character is either too stupid or stubborn to stop dying. As for what I was expecting when I first watched the show, I remember quite appreciating how much Subaru tries to learn each time he dies, using past loops to influence how he acts in the current loop. He’s genre savvy enough to know that if he does things the exact same, then the same outcome will happen, but human enough that he can’t repeat things exactly, which then leads to different outcomes. The actual ability hasn’t really been explained yet, but it’s easy enough to get a grasp of how it works.

Carolyn: I was trying to figure out if he actually died on what we would consider Earth? That seems pretty clear but it’s not totally cut and dry, I guess. If so, is he in Heaven/Purgatory/whathaveyou? I’m still kind of stuck on that.

Paul: The mechanics of Subaru's “Return by Death” ability haven't been explained at all, although I have an inkling of how it works as a result of encountering some spoilers years ago. I think the series works best when it leans heavily on the dramatic irony, to the point where neither the audience nor the main character knows exactly what is going on. It's satisfying when something unexpected happens.

Joshua: I really liked how Subaru didn’t twig it the first time, so we could join in his confusion as he tried to figure out exactly what was happening to him. It does make a little sad that some neat conversations are lost to everyone but Subaru though; like his chat with Old Man Rom. So I hope the series is able to counterbalance that loss of character development as it moves forward.

René made a great point about the impacts of Subaru’s many deaths though. In fact, my Mum walked in on me watching one of them and called it “horrific”! It’d be easy for a show like this to lose all sense of any stakes if viewers become too comfortable with Subaru simply waking up at the last “save point”, but seeing the physical and emotional pain each death causes him, really makes me want to see him break the loops!

Noelle: I wouldn’t call him keying in quick by any means, but then again, it takes people some time to process information, especially if it’s been after a traumatic experience. I don’t think the deaths themselves are that gruesome all things considering (I do watch a lot of horror), but they do a great job at showing Subaru’s terror. When you’re a kid with no combat experience, going up against very experienced enemies, that’s only inevitable…

Danni: This is my first time watching it, but I actually didn’t realize it was a Groundhog Day situation until we started planning out this rewatch in the group chat. I think it worked about how you’d expect with him taking a few runs to really understand what was happening. Honestly the only thing in the premise I took issue with was how quickly he was on board with suddenly being summoned to a parallel world and a tiny bit put off by how self-aware he was of isekai tropes.

Kara: I literally had no idea. Time loops are one of my favorite narrative devices to see played with. If I’d known this was a major part of the concept of Re:ZERO I probably would have come to it of my own volition much sooner.

Since we’re now 20% (yes, that does sound weird) of the way through Re:ZERO, give me your thoughts on Subaru as a protagonist so far. What do you like or dislike about him? Is his heroism heartfelt or insincere?

David: So this is actually my favorite part about this show—Subaru’s “heroism” isn’t “heroic” as much as it is “altruistic”. He doesn’t do things because he expects rewards, but because his actions will help make the world around him better in some way. Emilia is the same, and their conversation on the bridge in the first episode highlights this.

Austin: I really like Subaru at this point, and I think these early episodes do a good job of painting him as a sympathetic character. He’s seemingly selfless to a fault and just wants to make Emilia happy since in turn that’ll make him happy.

René: These first few episodes do a great job divorcing Subaru from your run-of-the-mill isekai protagonist. Not only is there seemingly no actual reason for him to be isekai’d as he just randomly pops up, it also undermines every heroic deed he tries to accomplish almost immediately. It really drives home the fact that he is just your regular guy who doesn’t get to be The Chosen One simply because he came to this world.

Kevin: Oh boy are we going to have a lot to talk about in a few weeks. For now, Subaru is goofy and driven and as a result is generally likable. At the same time, he clearly has no idea what to do to move forward, so is just fumbling around until something catches his eye. He’s basically like a lost puppy, so that helps to endear the audience and characters to him. His heroism is heartful, just misguided. He wants to help Emilia, but he has no actual reason to.

Carolyn: I immediately saw him as the Deadpool of Isekai. Deadpool knows he’s in a comic and all the tropes that come with it, Subaru knows all the tropes that come with this strange new land he’s in. I found that to be entertaining. As for his intentions, I think he’s been very straightforward about that. He’s sincere, but his motivations aren’t entirely noble. He will help others but does intend to get something out of it. He’s just honest about that.

Paul: I like Subaru more than I expected to, although I don't know whether that's because he's well-written or because of the pathos evoked by his Job-like suffering. His biggest flaw seems to be that he keeps treating the world like a video game, and he doesn't realize that he is not the protagonist. Subaru also doesn't realize that his affection for Emilia is one-sided. He mistakes her basic empathy for romantic interest, and as someone who made the same mistake as a dumb teenager, I can only see that ending poorly.

Joshua: I’m honestly not sure how to read Subaru. Puck keeps on saying he has no ill-intent, yet he’s usually the first to make some off-handed weird comments. He’s definitely complex, and I wouldn’t mind this becoming a recurring question each week! For now, I’d say he’s earnest but his constant self-deprecation will make others see him in a worse light. He can also be a bit too cocky at times, like his meeting with Roswaal. So I’d like to see him gain a bit more respect for others not called Emilia, and himself.

Noelle: I’m on the fence. Subaru is by no means a bad kid, he’s nice and he sticks his neck out for other people, and he is kind deep down. At the same time, there’s a profound sense of entitlement to him, for he doesn’t seem to realize that he’s dealing with people with lives of their own, not characters. He also expects the world to revolve around him because he’s supposed to be special, and that’s pretty yikes.

Danni: I like him more than I thought I would, but not as much as I probably should. The fact he knows what isekai is and essentially that he’s the protagonist of an isekai anime is pretty grating. I like him more when he’s being himself than when he’s trying to be a protagonist.

Kara: I kind of agree with, like, literally everyone in the show that Subaru is not terribly ambitious, and I’m kind of wondering what the hell he’s been through. His “skeevy” comments don’t seem skeevy to me so much as an attempt to assume a role he thinks he’s accepted to fill. Also, he hasn’t once displayed any sort of concern about going home or missing anyone or anything from the “real” world. More than anything, I’m curious what he’s been through to the point that he’s downplaying himself so much and basically pretends his previous life doesn’t exist.

The last two episodes of this initial set sees Subaru taken to the Roswaal mansion and beginning work there. Here, we learn a bit more about the state of the world Subaru has been summoned to and meet Rem, Ram, Beatrice, and Roswaal along with Emilia. What were your initial impressions of this cast of characters and Subaru’s interactions with them?

David: Roswaal is the teacher in Isekai Quartet, and I forgot he was even a character in this show, so I keep hearing him and associating it more with Isekai Quartet than this show. Beatrice is great.

Austin: When I first watched this show I saw every character sans for Emilia as kind of distant and suspicious. Now that I’m rewatching it, I realise that they all have a very good reason for being this way; one thing I really like that I noticed now that I’m rewatching is that Beatrice seems much more aware of Subaru’s situation and current death loop than he is. Also, Emilia is still as wonderful as I remember her being.

René: The Roswaal mansion arc is what really lays the groundwork for what the show is all about for me: This isn’t a world that revolves around the protagonist but one in which he must find his place and the distant and mysterious nature of the mansion inhabitants really drives that fact home. Since we are almost exclusively kept within Subaru’s POV, it really is up to the viewer to piece together the mystery of why he is dying again. We don’t yet understand the new characters and there isn’t an obvious threat like Elsa. It’s basically a murder mystery in which the victim is also the detective.

Also, I have to second Austin’s sentiment: Emilia truly is wonderful!

Kevin: Pretty much what Subaru said. Oh, it’s Emilia, the twin maids, red one and blue one, and a drill loli that clearly isn’t human. Also, Roswaal, but I got that before Subaru. As for his interactions, I really like that Rem and Ram are differentiated, even this early on, and that everyone is going about their own schedules, since they actually have lives outside of tending to Subaru. Roswaal is the only one that doesn’t really get much development, and even he finds a scene or two to talk with Subaru and generally show that there is more going on than we know about.

Carolyn: At first I didn’t like them at all. They are all very odd with a bizarre manner of speaking and behaving and I couldn’t figure it out. But after the reveals that not everything is exactly what it seems in the castle it started to make more sense and now I’m very interested in finding out what they are actually up to.

Paul: It's fine as far as world-building goes. I appreciate that they don't dwell too much on the lore, because often those are the least interesting elements of the early set-up of an isekai story, and here we get the impression that the world is much bigger and more conflicted than Subaru fully comprehends.

Joshua: Roswaal is just fabulous. I’ve been watching the series in Japanese, and Koyasu Takehito’s voice alone is a scene stealer. This being my first rewatch of the show in years, I was actually taken aback by how cold Rem was here, and I really appreciated Ram’s dry humor a lot more (like that sly comment about Subaru’s “sorry thing”). I can see the twins talking in unison getting very annoying very fast though, so luckily that was kept to a minimum!

Thinking about it, Subaru and Emilia are a bit alike, aren’t they? Both have selfless qualities that they try and cover with more selfish pretenses, so I can definitely see why they’ve developed chemistry. While she can seem warm and inviting, that occasional cold glare of Emilia’s is genuinely unsettling though. It makes me wonder what kind of person she really is. Beatrice is precious though. I’d like her to guard my manga collection with that baby cactus attitude of hers!

Noelle: I think the mansion gives us a little slice of the world at large, but isn’t enough to be overwhelming. We really don’t need to know everything after all, just enough to situate us in the situation that Subaru is currently in. I think it’s a little too early for me to gauge the mansion characters, but they’re all a pretty interesting cast. Roswaal especially.

Danni: None of the girls so far seem to match up to how I thought they’d be, or how they come across in all the art of them I’ve seen. I kind of expected a bunch of meek pushovers—particularly Rem and Emilia—but they all have some endearing bite to them. I especially like the antagonistic rapport between Beatrice and Subaru with both of them getting the better of each other. It’s a lot of fun watching this cast interact.

Kara: I’m so glad to have some good old-fashioned Koyasu madness back in my anime with Roswaal. Emilia is lovely, but Ram is still my favorite of the girls so far despite everything she seems spring-loaded to do over the course of the show. I can, uh, absolutely see why Rem is such a fave and it doesn’t do much for me. If that makes sense.

We wrap things up with the gore factor getting ramped up and poor Subaru having to give up an arm and an eye amongst other parts to figure out why he’s going to barf city. Since this was a cliffhanger for our first group of episodes, what’s your initial theory on who this mysterious attacker could have been? (For those of you that aren’t new, if you can remember, tell me what you initially thought of this or just give me your wildest theory possible.)

David: My first thought was Roswaal. Seems suspicious.

Austin: I’m in a troublesome spot right now since I remember why he died the first loop and who killed him the second loop, but I don’t remember exactly why they did and it’s bothering me… The first time I watched it I thought Elsa had hired someone to go kill Subaru; not sure if I would have liked it more if that was the case or if what’s really going on remained in place.

René: The first time watching it to this point, I actually suspected Puck. Since Knox’s 1st Commandment forbids introducing the culprit later on and I couldn’t yet deduct any possible motive for the mansion residents, Puck seemed the most likely. His fondness for and protectiveness of Emilia had already been established and jealousy would’ve made for a possible motive since Subaru started getting closer and closer to Emilia, forcing himself into her life to the point of becoming her servant.

Kevin: It’s Beatrice. She has the power to connect the library to any door in the mansion, and so can get around without any issues; and clearly has at least enough power to throw someone out of a room without any effort, so more lethal attacks are almost certainly possible. Subaru was also acting very strange in the second mansion loop, as we saw in a couple of cutaways. Since we already know that Roswaal was wondering if he was a spy, that could be enough for him to enlist Beatrice to kill Subaru in his sleep. The first time, Subaru didn’t know to resist, while the second time he fought her magic, so she either used a more lethal attack or enlisted the other mansion staff to assist her. She attacked during the first loop, when Roswaal knew that Subaru was unlikely to be a spy, because of how much he annoyed her. The only way to progress the loop is for Subaru to tell everyone about his power, which calls Beatrice off because she knows at that point that it would be useless to attack him.

Carolyn: The first time he died in his sleep he was poisoned, but he was asleep so he didn’t vomit. Whoever did that (I suspect Ram, she claims to be a bad cook but is skilled with the knife so she isn’t that bad and that could be cover for her poisoning his food) poisoned him again the second loop but because he wouldn’t let himself sleep he felt more of the effects of it and vomited. He could also have built up a little bit of a resistance to it the second time around. Either way, I think the results of those two things are the same. I do not think whoever poisoned him killed/dismembered him in the second loop. That was someone different who saw an opportunity and took it.

Paul: Unfortunately, this is a detail that was spoiled for me long ago, so although I know who the culprit is, I don't know why they are behaving in such a brutal and murderous manner.

Joshua: Having already watched the series, I know who, but I genuinely had no idea on my first viewing. Rather than thinking too much about it, back then I just went along with the ride.

As I can't offer a serious guess though, I’ll just make a joke about whether Rem’s really as good a cook as she claims, and it was just a really bad reaction to off-chicken or something. Feeling really cold, vomiting… sounds like bad food poisoning to me.

Noelle: I admit, I’m really not sure. It has to be one of the characters introduced so far, it can’t be a random stranger we haven’t seen. The problem is that I can’t quite figure out the killer’s motive. Subaru is seen as suspicious, and it’s been made clear that he hasn’t earned trust just yet, but that doesn’t seem to be a reason to kill him (at the moment). There’s a who but also a why.

Danni: It’s definitely Ram. I have no idea if it actually is or why I think so, but it’s definitely Ram.

Kara: I haven’t got the first clue, but I want it to be Rem just so there can be something about her that interests me.

Let’s continue our final question tradition with the Rewatch. Give me your highs and lows for episodes 1-5.

David: High is the conversation between Subaru and Emilia on the bridge. That’s the thesis of the whole show I think. Low point is when Subaru almost died on the last go around of the initial day. I thought he might die and absolutely didn’t want to have to sit through that same day again.

Austin: One of my favourite scenes in the whole show is when Subaru asks Emilia her name after the fight with Elsa. Something about the delivery of Subaru’s lines and Emilia’s little laugh before her answer makes me feel so bubbly inside. Seeing exactly why Felt gets taken away by Reinhard was also a nice connecting of dots in my head. As for lows, I don’t think I’ve really hit anything notable yet; these first episodes are really strong in my opinion.

René: My high in these first few episodes is definitely the set-up around the mystery of Emilia posing as Satella in the first loop and the first meet-up between the Subaru with her in the second one. I just adore the shots with them being reflected in each other’s eyes and how it calls into question their perception of each other (I would heavily recommend this interview with the show’s director on this scene—do beware of SPOILERS for later episodes, though).

And since I can’t think of a low point, I’ll just sneak in a second highlight: Takehito Koyasu’s performance as Roswaal is just deliciously exaggerated. He’s already legendary for voicing Dio Brando but the way he sings every line is just pure joy to listen to.

Kevin: High - Subaru thinking about how he was going to die the second time, and then realizing that he was going to fight anyway. Myself and many other people joked during the series that Subaru was going to start carrying a bomb or something so that every time he messed anything up, he could just Return by Death to redo any mistake. This is a great moment though, because it both gives a reason why he won’t do that and is also extremely relatable. Even if you knew that you would come back to life, dying isn’t fun, so you’d want to avoid it if at all possible, which is exactly the conclusion that Subaru comes to.

Low - Elsa’s final attack. Subaru is clearly moving around, standing up straight, and generally doing a lot of things that use at least a few core muscles, and nothing happens. But when it’s convenient, it turns out that the attack went straight through the club, his clothes, and his stomach, when the club previous stopped all of her attacks and there was nothing supporting Subaru’s track suit or shirt.

Carolyn: High points, just the mystery and twists that have been unfolding so far. I like all the suspense around the people at the mansion. Also the line about not knowing what Subaru is talking about but that it’s stupid and that’s disappointing. That was pretty great. Low point, I’m not sure I have one but I could definitely do with more of the cat.

Paul: My high point was Subaru awakening, noticing the lack of scars on his hands, and realizing he'd somehow died in his sleep and reset the time-line. That was a chef's kiss perfect cliffhanger to end an episode upon. My low point is that it takes Subaru a few lives too many to realize he's resetting from a save point. Anyone who brags about playing video games all day like Subaru does should have picked up on that detail by the third life, tops.

Joshua: Subaru and Emilia doing aerobics in the garden is a definite high point, that makes me think back to the equally adorable scene with Ema in Shirobako. I also really appreciated how the series even humanises characters like Rom, instead of taking the easy route and making him a one-note shady dealer. Despite his hulking appearance, he genuinely seems like a decent guy who just got the wrong stick (or club) in life. The music is also great—that kind of eerie ringing when disturbing shenanigans are afoot is so effective at capturing the mood, and won’t leave my head.

As for low points, how many times did we need to see that initial mugging attempt? I liked how the show always found a new absurd comment of Subaru’s for the trio to react to, but I hope the series balances just how many times certain scenarios are reset. Subaru’s exaggerated statements can also be a bit awkward, so I’m glad the rest of the cast react like I do.

Noelle: High point: the mystery! I want to know why the time loop is happening, what’s the driving force for all of this, why Subaru in particular. We don’t really have any clear answers, and it’s the main point of the story. Tell me the answers! Low point is that Subaru takes a really long time to realize that he’s in a time loop. Isn’t he supposed to be really familiar with games? It makes sense realistically speaking but for a story, it drags a little.

Danni: Hard to think of a singular high point because I loved the heck out of this batch of episodes. I guess I gotta go with any time Beatrice is on screen. I love her so much. Low point is tough as well, but I have to give it to Subaru’s immediate acceptance of his new isekai life.

Kara: Gotta agree, the high point was Subaru waking up without the scars. That was so well played, and I loved seeing that the audience was being trusted to let the revelation hit us as it hit him. Good visual storytelling, would watch again. Honorable mention to Roswaal’s crazy voice. I thought they were playing it up in Isekai Quartet but no, that’s just how he is. Low point is I’m pretty sure Subaru and Emilia are never gonna go on this date and that makes me sad.

COUNTERS:

Ram calling Subaru “Barusu”: 10

Subaru death count: 5

Different ways Subaru has died: Disembowelment, Disembowelment, Stabbing, Unknown, Combination (Unknown+Dismemberment)

And that's everything for this week! Remember that you're always welcome to join us for this rewatch, especially if you haven't watched Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- yet!

Here's our upcoming schedule!

-Next week, on September 27th, Kara continues the Rewatch with episodes 6-10

-Then, on October 4th, Carolyn takes us past the halfway mark with episodes 11-15

Thank you for joining us for the Great Crunchyroll Re:ZERO Rewatch! Have a great weekend, and we'll see you all next time!

CATCH UP ON THE REWATCH:

Re:ZERO Introduction Questions

Have anything to say about our thoughts on the episodes watched? Let us know in the comments! Don't forget, we're also accepting questions and comments for next week, so don't be shy and feel free to ask away!

---

Jared Clemons is a writer and podcaster for Seasonal Anime Checkup where he can be found always wanting to talk about Love Live! Sunshine!! or whatever else he's into at the moment. He can be found on Twitter @ragbag.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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posterclever974 · 4 years ago

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wetwellie · 8 years ago

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AU where instead of going to Samwell, Jack starts a widely successful Publicly Broadcast show for children.

Jack learns that he is great with kids after coaching them for a little over two years. Moreover, kids are good with Jack. There is no pressure to be anything other than who he is.

It all starts with a local news program doing a fluff piece on Jack Zimmermann’s coaching ability. But then it turned into something completely different when Jack skated onto camera and started to introduce every single one of his kids and what was special about them. He was...really enchanting actually. He didn’t ever really talk down to them. Jack just treated them as a tiny friend. They ARE his tiny friends, but that’s not the point. The footage they got of “snack time” was really the best. Imagine a good 16 kids piled around this massive man teaching them the best way to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

It should have been obvious that a local channel would contact him. It still surprises Jack. They want him to host a show? Why? Everyone always teased him about how impersonable he was during interviews. Is it because he’s Jack Zimmermann’s son? Or Alicia’s? Jack asks all of these questions to his mother and she just laughs. “You made a PB&J interesting to 16 kids just by being you” Jack figures it wouldn’t hurt to give it a shot.

It becomes an overnight success with children all across Quebec. Heck, it’s even broadcast in some parts of the Northeast US, and bordering provinces in Canada. He gets quite the following in New Brunswick, but it’s still hard to capture the attention of children who don’t speak French and can’t read subtitles. Jack, at this point, is 1010% into this show, so he offers to do a second recording in English for those kids. That is when his popularity skyrockets from regional stardom to...daytime TV personality stardom. Anyone with a kid under the age of 8 knows his face and his show and adore him. In this universe, there is no Mr. Rogers. So he’s basically Mr. Rogers but without the sweaters. Or with the sweaters. On the show they do various things. They reenact history with puppets, and he shows them how things are made. There’s still a lot of snow and ice rink trips. There’s a segment that’s literally just a zamboni cleaning up the ice while calming music plays in the background. He also addresses a lot of emotions and feelings that other shows don’t. He talks about how sometimes he gets really upset when he feels like nothing is going right. Yes. He does sing about these feelings. And he talks about anxiety a lot. But he always makes sure to let the watcher at home know three things by the end of every episode: He likes them, he’s proud of them, and life is a wonderful thing to be lived. After just five years, he’s won a daytime emmy. He loves his job and the children love him. Three years after that, the producers finally decide that it’s time for the “cooking episode”. They were able to avoid it for 7 years, but it had to come sometime. Kids wanna know how to cook, parents want Jack to make kids stop being so damn picky, and it’s a hassle for Jack to even think about. “You know I can’t cook, Johnson” “We know. That’s why we’re asking a Baker to come on the show. He’ll move the plot in the direction that readers want” “You mean the audience watching the show?” “Right” he said, prolonging the sound of the ‘I’ much longer than necessary. Eric Bittle comes up to Quebec a month later. When Bitty’s hockey scholarship didn’t stretch as far as he needed in terms of rent and books and whatnot, he opened up a makeshift dessert shop outside of his dorm in his first year. It became a hit to overworked students everywhere. When he got a concussion bad enough to keep him from playing hockey, he’d earned so much from the pies that he didn’t have to worry too much about ends meet. The Hockey team still lets him live in the Haus in exchange for his sweet treats. Johnson swears that he is perfect for Jack. Or, for Jack’s show. For baking. Yes. “So! Jack. What do you know how to make?” Bitty asks. “I can make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich” “From scratch?” “From a jar” “Oh dear” The episode that they film is making a pie from scratch. Eric introduces himself as Chef Bittle, something that the small kids near Samwell call him. And he asks Jack what kind of pie he likes. “I don’t know, I’ve never really had pie” Bitty just blinks. He smiles and said “Well I’m glad that this will be your first pie.” He finishes the sentence by saying “But it might ruin any other pie that you eat in the future” But that was taken out of the episode. Then, Bitty lugs out three things that Jack doesn’t recognize. “What are these?” “This,” Bitty starts by pointing to a large tub of white goop “is lard.” “Can I touch it?” “Sure” Bitty offers Jack the jar, and the camera zooms in on Jack’s hand as it dips tentatively into it. “It’s goopy” “I’m sure all of these will be very goopy” Jack moves to the next jar. It’s called shortening. Bitty explains to the camera and to Jack that a lot of people use this to make their pie crusts because it’s easy to mix into the dough. “What do you like to use?” Jack asks. Bitty grins and points to the last jar. He opens it and it’s just full of cubed butter. “I know what this is” he says. “In my opinion, butter is the best way to go.” Bitty then explains his way through measuring the flour and putting it in a bowl. He lets Jack try, but Jack spills a little bit of the flour over the bowl. “Seven years after hockey and your hand eye coordination is as flawless as ever, Jack” Bitty chirps. This also is cut from the episode. Bitty then folds in the butter and brings out a pastry cutter. He explains what this is and lets Jack try to cut the butter into the flour. While he does this, Bitty explains how to add the water to the crust and, after that is finished, putting the dough in a giant fridge. While it is chilling, Bitty and Jack are able to have their first real conversation. It, of course, starts with Jack and Bitty’s mutual love of hockey. “Do you still play?” Bitty asks. “With people older than 12? Not in a long time” Jack says. “You?” “I’m not cleared to play with the NCAA, but I still play whenever there’s shinnies” says Bitty before pausing and saying “If you’re free, you should come down to Samwell sometime. I’m sure the Hockey team would love to go a couple games with you.” “I might just take you up on that” By the end of the day, Bitty had taught Jack how to make the perfect apple pie with a maple syrup egg wash. “Now that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Bitty asked, after filming was done. “Not at all. I actually had fun. You seemed totally in your own element” “It’s what I do” Jack’s face then broke out into the most devilish grin. “I can’t wait for you to do the same thing in French two days from now.” Bitty gulps audibly. The following morning, Jack is at Bitty’s hotel room at 4:30am with a whole pile of flash cards. They spend a good hour improving Bitty’s abysmal French before Jack notices that he’s live tweeting the whole event. “Saying only good things, right Bittle?” “I’m just tweeting that for a beloved kids TV personality, you can be kind of a hardass”

“Just because I don’t play hockey professionally doesn’t mean I can’t keep my hockey butt” Bitty doesn’t even give Jack the satisfaction of sputtering, but he is blushing quite violently when he chirped back: “Really? You can never tell that you have anything underneath those sweaters” “The studio we filmed in was always cold, hence the sweaters” Jack starts “It became a brand thing after a while”

“Yes. Because the children would cry if they saw you in a T-shirt.” “They wouldn’t cry, but I’ve been told by my producer that it would give the show a ‘sex appeal that really shouldn’t be on publicly broadcast daytime television’ “

“I’m sorry to say but you’ll have some sort of sex appeal in your show no matter what” Jack leans into Bitty’s space and looks him straight in the eyes “Now Bittle, why do you think that is?” Bitty, this time, does sputter. Just a little. They continue with the flashcards after that.

The following day, Bitty is halfway through explaining the different types of apples he can use for the pie when he just sort of shuts down. He feels like no one’s going to understand him, and there’s no way that this audience is going to like him as much as the one two days before would.

So he just pauses and says “J-je ne savais pas du tout quoi dire” with a southern drawl and not even sure if that’s the right thing to say at this time. He googled the meaning just before filming started. Just in case. Jack puts a hand on his shoulder and says something like “it’s okay” in French. He then looks at the camera and explains that Bitty is from a place where they don’t speak French normally, and that sometimes speaking a second language is hard. “But you get to make lots of new friends if you speak more than one language. Chef Bittle wants to make lots of friends here, right?” Bitty nods. “That’s wonderful to hear. You’ve already made a friend in me. Do you know what friends do?” Bitty, not quite understanding what’s going on, says “what do friends do?” back to Jack. Jack squeezes Bitty’s shoulder gently and looks directly at him. “We have each other’s backs” he says in English. He then turns back to the camera and continues in French. “Friends help each other” When Jack takes his hand off Bitty’s shoulder to continue peeling the apples, Bitty feels a strange longing for Jack to be back in his space. He shrugged it off as something that surely everyone must feel when they are in the presence of Jack Zimmermann. They wrap up the episode and Bitty thanked Jack and everyone profusely for this wonderful opportunity. He was ready to leave when Jack pulls him aside for a moment. “You were right” Jack says “About what?” “Your pie. I’ll never be able to eat anyone else’s again” “Well if you want any pie, you know where to find me.” “I’ll have to come down some time” “Definitely!” Bitty then says how he’s got to get going, there’s a plane to catch at 3am and and clothes and souvenirs still needing to get packed. And that was that. He was boarding the plane at an ungodly hour when he got a text from a number he didn’t know.

Hey. It’s Jack. My producer gave me your number and told me to tell you to eat more protein. Don’t ask. You already miss me so much that you’re texting me at this hour? haha

Bitty doesn’t get a response until he decides to turn airplane mode off sometime around noon the following day.

You’re an easy person to miss.

Well. Damn. He’s going to have to talk about this on his vlog.

Bitty wasn’t even home when Jack found himself standing in front of a home that should very well have been condemned years ago. The person that comes to answer the door is a tall, blonde man with glasses. This man’s eyes widened at the sight of him and then slammed the door in his face. He could hear him scream someone’s name. “Ransom!!!! I need you to open the door and make sure I’m not seeing things.” “Seriously man?” another voice responds. “Just do it!”

He hears a groan and then a pause while the other person, Ransom, gets to the door. The man opens it and freezes up. “Uh, hi.” Jack says. “We have a drinking game for your show” Ransom blurts out in response. And then he covers his mouth and turns to look at the man next to him. “Holy fuck so that is Jack Zimmermann?” “You can’t say fuck in front of him!” “He played hockey of course he’s heard the word fuck” Jack coughs loudly “Uh. Is Eric here?” They pause for a moment and look at each other. “Oh you mean Bitty?” “Yes” “No. He’s got class until 4:45 today.” “Oh” Jack says with a bit of disappointment. It was only noon. “I can come back later” “Don’t you dare! You can wait here with us.” “Really?” “Totally.” Jack is then welcomed into the Haus and ushered to an awful green couch with an odd odor and even stranger stains. Nevertheless he sits down and the two of his “hosts” introduce them formally. They are D-men on Samwell’s hockey team, Ransom and Holster.

“We’re also the captains this year” That’s all they need to say for Jack’s hockey-centric mind to take control of this conversation. He asks them about how their season is going, what’s the hardest and most rewarding part of captaining. As well as the way the NHL season. “I assume that you’re a Habs fan?” Ransom asks “Because of my dad?” “Yeah, and the fact that you were practically radiating when P.K decided to be on the show with you” “I feel like anyone would be that way with him, though” Holster interjects “He’s amazing” “What a fucking beaut” Ransom agrees Even Jack hums in agreement. The conversations stays on Hockey until around 2pm, when Dex comes home from his class and walks into the living room. He lets out a little yelp of surprise when he sees Jack sitting down with Ransom and Holster. “Can I call my family on skype? My siblings grew up with you” Dex says “I always love meeting fans” 20 minutes later, Dex comes down with his laptop in his hands and on the screen is about five kids between the ages of 7 and 15. “Oh my gosh! Is that him?” The oldest looking one says “Mister Jack!!!” “You’re not wearing a sweater!”

Jack laughs when he hears that, and proceeds to have a lovely conversation with all of Dex’s family for a solid 10 minutes. When it’s time for them to go, the littlest one asks for Jack to sing the song he always sings at the end of each episode. Jack willingly does and the little ones all sing together. Even the 15 year old, who believes she’s to old for Jack, is humming along. Off to the side, Holster is trying to hold in a scream. “Rans oh my goodness he’s actually singing” “I know man, it’s crazy. Like he’s supposed to be tiny and on our TV screen. Not in our living room on our gross ass couch singing out feelings.” “It’s fucking swasome” “chyeah” When the call ends, Ransom and Holster are texting literally everyone on the team to come over here right now!!!!!! The first person to walk through the door after that text is Tango. He recognizes him immediately, and he smiles. Tango says he loves watching the show. Even if it is for little kids, it is pretty calming.

“Ransom made a fun drinking game with it too, which is nice” he adds The questions kept coming after that. Why does he wear sweaters? Does he like French or English episodes better? “Why are you even here, though?” By this time, the Haus is full with the Frogs, Lardo, Whiskey and Tango, and Ransom and Holster. They all look at each other. “He said he wanted to talk to Bitty” “Bitty? Why?” Jack was about to answer when they hear the front door open and Bitty shout “Holster, this mass text you sent out better be serious or I will have words.” “It is serious! One of our neighbors came to stop by” “If one of those LAX-holes were hiding out in the attic again I’ll--” Bitty shouts while making his way into the living room, only to be shut up by the sight of a tall, handsome face looking like a deer caught in the headlights. “Jack!” Bitty says in a voice that’s about three octaves too high and two decibels too loud. “Uh, hi Bittle”

“What are you doing here?” “You said I could come down when I wasn’t busy to play hockey” “Mister Jack plays hockey??” Tango asks. He’s quietly shushed by the Frogs. All Bitty says is “Oh”. He wants to say more, like chirp him about how he could have texted beforehand. Or...something. Nothing comes out of his mouth. The silence is painful. Jack doesn’t once take his eyes off of Bittle. “So!” Ransom finally says, breaking the silence, “We have everyone here. Why don’t we go have a shinny?” Bitty thinks he says “That’s a great idea! It will be so much fun”, but he’s not sure. Maybe he just nods and makes a garbled noise. He’s not really sure. But the response is what’s needed. In that moment, the silence ends and everyone is whooping and hollering and grabbing their gear. He’s pretty sure he hears Holster ask Jack to smell his bag. It’s all a lot to take in. The image of Jack Zimmermann inside the Haus should be foreign, and it is foreign at first. But on the other hand, it feels like this is where he effortlessly fits in. Bitty watches Jack sniff Holster’s bag and say “Yup. Hockey bags still smell like shit. Nothing has changed” And everyone yelled when they just heard Jack Zimmermann say ‘Shit’. “Guys we have to get Shitty here. If only for the name” Dex says “I texted him an hour ago, he’s on his way and skipping a lecture for this.” Not many people give it much thought when Bitty says he’s headed to the kitchen to bake up a few things for the game. They told him not to be too long and left a few minutes later. He’s finally alone and as he pours the flour into a bowl, Bittle whispers to himself “oh my god”. Jack actually came.

Did he come for him, though? Or just to play hockey? That was the thing that was on his mind. If Jack was simply here for hockey, Bitty would be fine with that. He’d have a grand old time and thank him at the end of it. Just like with filming. However, what if Jack came for him? Bitty can’t let himself think like that. It would never work. Jack has never presented himself as anything other than straight, from what Bitty and the rest of the media has seen. And despite having Bitty’s number, Jack never texted him. That must show he’s not overly interested in Bittle, right? It’s just Bitty wishing for something. What is he wishing for, anyways? “Oh no’ Bitty thought. He’s gone and done it. He’s gone and possibly fallen for the most unobtainable guy he will ever meet. A guy who is in nearly every household in north america. A guy who lives 300 miles away. A guy who is just too darn nice and too darn attractive for his own good. “I think you’re over mixing the dough” a voice says behind him. Bitty whips around to see the one person he doesn’t want to see (and also the person he wants to see more than anyone else). “Jack!” he says again in that surprised voice . “You didn’t go with the Boys?” “I wanted to see if you needed any help.” “Well Jack, that’s very nice of you. But you don’t have to help me if you don’t want to. I’m sure that the Boys are a lot better company” “They are great company, but I just spent four hours with them.” “Four hours?” Bitty exclaims. “Yeah,” Jack says “So can I help?” Bitty pauses for only a moment, tries and fails to crush all warm and fuzzy thoughts, and nods. “Of course you can.” He points to the pile of apples and asks him to peel and chop those up. In five minutes, Bitty has three pie crusts ready to bake. “It took hours to chill a pie crust on the show how did you--” Jack starts to say, and then Bitty flicks him with some flour. “I don’t give away all of my secrets. Mr. Zimmermann” 15 minutes later, Jack and Bitty leave the Haus with three freshly baked apple pies. “This is impossible. You are amazing, Bittle” “But you already knew that I was great at baking. Wait til you see me on the ice.” “Bittle, I look forward to it” The thoughts that were going through Jack’s head when he saw Bittle do a jump like that in hockey skates are unable to be transcribed as anything other than internal screaming and maybe Ode to Joy. And then seeing Bittle moving faster than any one he’s ever seen. “You don’t let him play anymore?” Jack shouts incredulously at Ransom and Holster. “Not our decision. It was the coach’s” Ransom explains “What a damn shame” At that time, Bitty does a flawless spin-o-rama into and scores on Chowder, who first swears in frustration, and then cheers for Bitty. All Jack says is “Nice” “Not so bad yourself” Bitty responds. “Yeah that hockey ass isn’t just for show!” Ransom shouts, and then Bitty flushes and trips over himself. All in all, it was one of the best games of hockey that Jack had played in a long time. It was one of the only games of hockey Jack had played in a long time, but that wasn’t the point. The point is that there was no pressure to be anyone other than him. This is how hockey should feel all the time.

Jack wishes he could say that he realized that he really liked Bitty a lot right then and there. But that’s not what happens. Oblivious as ever, and surrounded with a bunch of new people around his age that like him for being himself, Jack does not have any revelations. Well--romantic revelations, that is. When he says “Hey Shitty” to a moustached man with a tweed jacket and a flow that’s just barely starting to grow out, and the man literally jumps leaps into his arms like he’s the starlet of “Dirty Dancing”, Jack knows he’s met a friend for life. He doesn’t know how or why they click, but they do. Jack leaves late that night with a new group chat, a baskets worth of pie, and a handful of new friends, promising to return as soon as he gets the free time. And if the ever-oblivious Jack, waiting for his flight on the airport just happens to text a certain Eric Bittle, he sees nothing super romantic in his message. Thanks for letting me come over and steal your friends. I hope that next time we can have more quality time one on one Jack texts. Big groups tend to drain him pretty fast, he reasons. Bitty, on the other hand, is freaking out. He’s already blogging about a friend who came, and the feelings which definitely did not follow when the text comes. After about fifteen minutes of freaking out, he sends back a neutral That sounds great, Jack! You haven’t lived until you’ve been to Annie’s.

When Bitty wakes up in the morning, he has a text that says I called my mom and asked her about Annie’s. She said it’s really good. You called your mamma at god knows when to ask her about a coffee shop? She said it’s a really good coffee shop

Their texts never really stopped after that. One casual text turned into entire hours of just texting back and forth. Even the most banal things sparked the interest of one another. Jack shared some of the pictures he takes on his days off, and Bitty shared his famous pregame playlists.

Jack would also come to find himself visiting Samwell nearly once a month. In the cold months, they would play hockey on the pond.. Then, when all the ice melted into spring, he still came over to just hang out. Although, as the months passed on, he ended up spending nearly all of his time with Bitty. They would just go on walks, or get brunch. Or Jack would spend hours in the kitchen while Bitty chattered on about the things that he had already texted him about. There were also the times when they were on walks that kids recognized Jack from TV. He would always stop and say hi to the kids, and introduce them to Bitty, who would melt instantly.

In the spring, Jack stands in front of Bitty’s door and shoves a week’s worth of sweaters into Bitty’s arms because “I know you’ve lived here for 3 years but Samwell is colder than Georgia, and I know for sure these sweaters are warm” “Jack, it’s April” was all that Bitty could say. “April is still cold at night” Bitty laughs, and slips on one of the sweaters. “It’s a bit big, but I’ll be sure to wear them whenever I can” he then pauses and retreats back into his room. “Now you just wait a moment! I got something for you too!” Bitty comes back with his hockey sweatshirt and hands it to Jack.

With no hesitation, Jack slips the sweatshirt over his head and pulls it on. It’s a bit tight around his shoulders, but fits more or less everywhere else. Its shade is a few tints lighter than the red that everyone else has. That washing machine really needed to be fixed. Jack stuffed both his hands in the front pouch and absolutely beamed at Bitty in utter comfort and bliss. “I love it,” he said. Bitty laughs and starts to put one of the sweaters he’d been holding with his arm on. “Just wear it now, why don’t you? Don’t even put it through the wash.” “I trust you to do laundry enough” “Well you are too trusting, Mr Zimmermann.” He says as he pulls his head through the hole of the sweater.

The sleeves are a bit too long, so he slides them up to his elbows and puts his hands on his hips. “Well I think this sweater will do nicely” says Bitty. “When it’s cold”

There’s an overpowering feeling that hangs over Jack for the rest of that night. Nothing is different when they sit next to each other in the quiet of Bitty’s room. Bitty balances his laptop projecting the playoffs, and a bowl of kettle corn on his stomach. He slumps down on the post of his bed and pats the space next to him. Jack climbs onto the bed, and sits himself right next to Bitty. “So why aren’t we watching this downstairs with the boys again?” Bitty mumbles something about fines. “What?” “It’s nothing. We all support different teams and it can get pretty tense. Ransom was fixin to fight someone for insulting Mashkov last night. And you know how Chowder is with the Sharks” Jack hums and continues watching the game. Bitty doesn’t talk at all. “You must be really invested in this game” Jack notes “What?” Bitty says before processing what he heard. “Oh, no. This game isn’t that important on the grand scale of things for me.” “Oh? And what is important on the grand scale of things?” Bitty keeps his eyes fixated on the images on the laptop. He doesn’t respond. Time stretches out to a point where Jack thinks he won’t answer, but then he does. “I don’t know. Is anything really important?” If Jack had been perfectly honest, he had been expecting a response about his preferred hockey team (previously Blackhawks, but now he’s leaning towards the Schooners or Falconers), or the business that Bitty wants to start (baking school for kids). He hadn’t expected for it to get that serious. Tetntatively, Jack places his hand on Bitty’s forearm. “Do you want to talk?” “I don’t know? Maybe?” “It’s up to you” Bitty sighs “I don’t know. It’s not that I don’t think things are important, per se. It’s that maybe the things I am making important shouldn’t really be? I mean, what I’m trying to say is that I’m starting to see my future in a way that scares me. There are all these variables except for one constant. Except I have no right to assume that, uh, thing will be a constant in my life in the future.” Jack just stares at Bitty. “I didn’t really follow what you were saying, to be honest.”

“Just forget it, it’s silly” he says.

And, for that time, Jack lets it lie. They watch the game in silence, but Jack’s hand never leaves Bitty’s arm. In too short a time, Bitty is standing outside sending Jack off. He has a morning talk show appearance in NYC the following morning, so he couldn’t stay the night. “Will you be watching tomorrow?” Jack asks “If you need me to, just try to be less stiff than your late-night appearance” Jack smiles “I’ll try. But talking to adults is a lot harder than interacting with kids on the show.” “How so?” “You don’t ever have to fake laugh with kids. Talk shows are 90% fake laughing.” Bitty snorts “Well, just try your best. If Mister Jack can have a fun talk with grown-ups, then so can your tiny audience.” “And this is why I need you to be watching tomorrow: to keep me thinking of the big picture” “What would you do without me?” “Hopefully I’ll never have to know” he says. And immediately feels the weight of the statement. “Uh, I gotta go now.” Jack ruffles Bitty’s hair, gives him a quick “byeIwillcallyoulater” and drives off. --- Bitty wasn’t able to get much sleep the night before, so he doesn’t notice that he goes downstairs to the kitchen in the sweater that Jack had given him. Fortunately, only Chowder was downstairs at this early. He had gotten back from his morning run, when they bump into each other. He gives Bitty a knowing look “Ohhhh. So that’s why you didn’t join us downstairs last night” Bitty turns beet red and immediately turns on his heels and towards the stairs to change. “Chowder, I don’t like what you are insinuating,” He says. “I’m sure you would like what I’m insinuating an awful lot” “One more word out of your mouth and you’re not getting any muffin with you’re breakfast” “But today is brunch day!” Chowder calls up the stairs.

Damn. He’d forgotten that they were all going to watch Jack on the talk show today. Half the Haus had taken bets, and the others were planning on making a mimosa drinking game out of it. Which means he can’t even retreat to the comfort of his kitchen to cook something until at least lunch.

Despite telling himself this, Bitty found himself serving a bunch of tiny chilled strawberry rhubarb tarts to everyone gathered around their tiny TV, creating the rules for the games. “Shitty says that you have to down your whole glass if Jack brings up how his show isn’t just him, and that it’s a team effort” Lardo reads from her phone “Bullshit, he can’t make the rules if he’s not even here” Dex protests “I’m gonna turn on the videochat in a minute. He’ll be here” “In robot form” Lardo rolls her eyes “Whatever,” she says “I don’t think we should take big drinks if any of the hosts seem thirsty. We don’t wanna show up to brunch completely wasted”

“That’s true. But if he is asked any awkward questions about sex and/or romance, you gotta take a drink every time that he says “uh” or “um” Chowder adds. “That seems fair. He seems to be getting better at deflecting the questions about MILFs a lot better since we’ve talked to him” says Ransom, grabbing a tart from the coffee table while Holster is swats him.

“Shhh it’s starting!” What seemed like a world away, Jack was sitting at a rounded table with three women sitting across from him. Jack took a deep breath and counted his heartbeat until it steadied a little bit. The camera panned to the women as they introduced him and his show, and started an interview.

“I must say you are a lot more attractive than any other children’s personality. That must be some reason for your popularity. Parent’s don’t want to change the channel either!” Jack reminds himself that this is a time he should be lightly chuckling before he speaks, “While many do believe that is the case, I always believe that the popularity with the Neighborhood is the content we give out as well as the people behind the camera producing it. I may be the face everyone sees, but I couldn’t make a show without everyone’s help” Back in Massachusetts, a Haus full of hockey players groan and down their mimosas. The interview then turns into the show going into it’s 8th season, and how the kids who first were watching are growing up into teenagers. “My daughters were 4 and 8 when they started watching your show almost 8 years ago. Now, they’re showing it to the kids that they babysit! Isn’t that weird to think about?” “Uh, yeah. It’s amazing that the show has been able to impact as many as it does. The kids who I coached before the show, the ones that made me think I should get into children’s programming, they’re all headed into colleges next year. It’s amazing how quickly time passes” “Yes. It truly is.” One of the other women says “Children seem to take your word for gospel, it seems. I remember when my son was a toddler, he would run around saying ‘Mr Jack says this’ and ‘Today Mr Jack talked about that’. But now, he’s 13, so his problems and fears have gotten to become much larger than being afraid of the dark” “That does seem to be the case with aging”, Jack says. “Which is why it’s important to give children the tools to taking care of themselves mentally down the road.” “While we certainly agree with that, do you think you could do us a favor?” They had mentioned this favor. Jack tried to act somewhat surprised when he said “Of course, I’d be happy to help with whatever you need.” “Great! Because yesterday, we sent out a message asking everyone who wanted advice from you in this segment to tweet their questions to #askMrJack on twitter. And we were flooded with responses. Do you think you could answer a couple of these?” “It would be my pleasure” They all smiled as they read out the first one. It was something about having to deal with the pressures of school and expectations. Jack was able to answer it as eloquently as possible, and looked into the camera like he was talking to a person on one of his shows. The next question was about a joke about fashion. “Now that my parents don’t dress me, I have a hard time figuring out what looks good. Any help?” This made Jack let out a real, genuine huff of laughter. “If you ask my friends, I also have a hard time figuring out what looks good. I can let you learn from my mistakes: It’s never acceptable to wear three different colors of neon on your body at once.” He answered more questions until it got to one that stumped him. “How do you know when it’s a good time to ask someone out?” “Preferably when you realize that you like someone, you should ask them out. You should do it in person. If they say no, it’s ok to feel sad. But know that your value isn’t based off of this one person’s opinion of you romantically. And that there are several people in this world who would love to get to know you” “And how do you know if you like someone?” One of the women ask. “Well. I don’t know. I figure I would just know if I do.” “How do you know? What’s are the signs that you look for?” “I...don’t?” At the Haus, Lardo made a comment about how the thirst is going into double time. Without any prompting from the game, Bitty takes a swig of his mimosa.

“Ok, so for the kids watching out there. How would you explain the feeling of wanting to date someone?” “Is this a tweet?” Jack asks “I’m sure several people are tweeting it right now” “Uh. Okay” Jack starts “But I should say that I’m pretty useless at this kind of stuff. So, I only speak from my own perspective” “Please do! I’d love to hear what it’s like for Mr Jack to like someone” Jack said nothing and counted to 10. He thought about the girls he’d gone on dates with in Montreal. He thought of Kent. The even thought of the guy that Jack told his mom that he was to. None of them sparked anything really. They might have. But not anymore. All he can think about is last night. “I guess that if I like someone, I want to talk to them all the time. Or, hear what they have to say. Everything that they say is interesting.” He starts. The women nod. “Uh, and then I think about them a lot. At first it’s just if I see things I think that they’d like, but then it seems like everything reminds me of them. It can be overwhelming if you think about it too much; then you just think of how happy he makes you. And it’s ok.” Oh.

“Ohhhhh” The three women say in unison “are you thinking of someone specific?” “Yes” he says without hesitation. “I guess I know now” Without any further ado, Jack is out of his chair personally shaking the hands of the women across from him and thanking them for having him on the show. “I’m sorry to be rude, but I really must be going. Thank you so much for having me.” He then, rushes out of the studio and into his rental car.

250 miles away, the Haus stares at the screen in dumbfounded silence. “Okay boys. Down the rest of your drink, we’re officially allowed to get rat assed.” Lardo starts “Except for you Bitty. You may need to drink some water or milk or something.” “I think I just need to sit down” he says “Bitty. You are sitting down” “He needs some milk. I’ll get it for him!” Chowder says “Did that just happen?” Tango asks “It looks like it did.” Bitty replies dazedly Three hours later, Jack pulls up to the Haus and sees Bitty sitting alone on the roof, nursing what looks like a chocolate milk. “Bitty!” he shouts “Can I come up?” He waits to see Bitty nod before sprinting through the front door, up the stairs, and through the nearest open window to the roof. “Long time no see!” Bitty says, with a bright, somewhat tense smile. “Bitty. I have something to tell you?” “Yeah?” “I get what you were talking about last night now,” says Jack. “About how when I think about the future, there’s always a constant. I hadn’t realized until,3 hours ago, that there was a constant in my future plans too.” Bitty looks at him, but can’t find any words. “And that’s you. No matter what I see myself doing, I can’t imagine any world where you aren’t a part of it. Because I really, really like you Bitty.” Jack had planned to say more things, but then he found himself being grabbed by the collar of his sweater and being kissed by Bitty.

It lasted for a good long while before they had to be broken apart by a long string of buzzes from Jack’s phone. Grumbling, he took his phone out to put it on silent, but then started laughing. “What is it?” “A text from Johnson. He says not to worry about writing the episode on handling crushes, because apparently I’m a ‘frickin ding dong who should have figured out that I liked you by now,” he says.

Forty-seven years after the show airs, Jack receives the best reward he could ever hope for. It’s not his Emmys, or his prizes for being a humanitarian, or even the plaque that says “Honorary Captain of the Montreal Canadiens Jack Zimmermann”. It’s Jack sitting next to his husband of 35 years, listening to him chatter about whatever he pleases: the weather, a new jam recipe, the sales of his cookbook, what a little kid said to him the other day, what his own child (who is no longer very little) said to him on the phone, and how Bitty is blessed to have not gone bald like all the men on his mom’s side of the family. Eric Bittle is the best thing Jack could have ever asked for. Jack leans over and gives him a quick peck on the cheek. Bitty flushes and take’s Jack’s hands in his, “Now Mr. Zimmermann, what was that for?” “I’m just happy that we actually grew old together”

#omgcp #check please #jack zimmermann #zimbits #ok i love the idea of jack with kids #and i love kids tv shows like mr rogers #this is way too long and also not long enough #i wish that i could put more love into it #but this has been in my drafts since november and it deserves to see the light of day sometime #this is a half assed fic or an over assed bullet point headcanon and its been so long #ahhhh it's 1 am and im done #im so proud of me #it's like 6000 words #au

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forlawfirmsonlymarketing · 5 years ago

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Three Steps to a Better-Performing About Page-Posted by AnnSmarty

Posted by AnnSmarty Somehow, many businesses I’ve come across online have one glaring problem in common: a very weak and unconvincing About Us page. This doesn’t make any sense in my mind, as the About page is one of the most important brand assets, and unlike link building and social media marketing, it doesn’t require any ongoing effort or investment. An About page is often part of a buying journey. It can drive people to your site and help convince them to deal with you. And, in these uncertain times, you can use it to help build trust in you and your business. Creating a solid About page is a one-time task, but it will boost both brand loyalty and conversions for many months to come.

Why is your About page so important?

It is often an entry page

Whether you’re a business owner or blogger, your About page tends to rank incredibly well for brand-driven search queries (those that contain your name or your brand name). If nothing else, it shows up in your sitelinks: Or your mini-sitelinks: This means your customers will often enter your site through your About page. Is it making a good first impression to convince them to browse your site further (or engage)? Let’s not forget that branded queries have high intent, because people typing your brand name in the search box already know you or have heard about your products. Failing to meet their needs equals a missed opportunity.

It is often a conversion trigger (and more)

How often have you checked a business’s About page before buying anything from them? I always do, especially if it's a new brand I haven’t heard of before. Or maybe it’s not even about buying. Anytime someone approaches me with a quote or an interview request, I always check their About page. I refuse to deal with bloggers who don’t take themselves seriously. Likewise, I often look to the About page when trying to find a press contact to feature a tool in my article. On a personal level, I always open an About page to find a brand’s social media profiles when I want to follow them. A lack of a detailed, well-structured About page often means leaked conversions as well as missed backlinks or follows.

It is an important entity optimization asset

We don’t know exactly how Google decides whether a site can be considered a brand, but we have well-educated theories so we can help Google in making this decision. The About page is a perfect entity optimization asset. First, what we know: An About page is mentioned in Google’s human rating guidelines as one of the ways to determine the “expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness”, or E-A-T, of any page. Human raters don’t have a direct impact on search results, but their assessments are used to teach Google’s algorithm to better rank pages. So if the About page comes up in their guidelines, it’s likely they use it as a ranking signal. Second, Google is using information you choose to put on your About page to put your business inside their knowledge base, so it’s important to include as much detail as you can. With all of this in mind, how should you put together a great About page?

1. Start strong

This step is not unique to this particular page, but that doesn’t make it any less important. Treat your About page as a business card: People should be willing to learn more as soon as they see it. Your page should be eye-catching and memorable, and grab attention at first sight without the need to scroll down. For example, Cisco starts with a powerful picture and message: Nextiva starts with their main tagline: Slack tells us exactly what they are doing and sums up its most impressive stats: Telling your brand’s story is a great way to make your About page more memorable and relatable. Terminus does a very good job at starting their page with some history about the company that leaves you wanting to know more: And Zoom starts with a video and a list of the company’s values: Starting your page with a quick, attention-grabbing video is probably the best idea because video has been proven to convince visitors to linger a little bit longer and start engaging with the page. You can create a short and professional video within minutes using web-based video editors like InVideo (in fact, InVideo is probably the most affordable solution I’m aware of). To create a video intro using InVideo:

Pick a template

Upload your images and videos (or use the ones inside the platform)

Edit subtitles to tell your brand’s story

Add music or a voiceover

It’ll take you just 30 minutes to create a captivating video to put on your landing page:

2. Link your brand to other entities

With all that Google-fueled nonsense going around about nofollowing external links, or even linking out in general, marketers and bloggers tend to forget about one important thing: A link is the only way for Google to crawl the web. More than that, Google needs links to:

Understand how well-cited (and hence authoritative) any page is

Create a map of sites, entities behind them, and concepts they represent

This is where linking out to other “entities” (e.g. brands, organizations, places, etc.) is so important: it helps Google identify your place within their own knowledge base. To give you some ideas, make sure to link to:

Your company’s professional awards

Your featured mentions

Conferences you were/are speaking at

For personal blogs, feel free to include references to your education, past companies you worked for, etc. To give you a quick example of how useful this may turn out to be, here’s my own Google Knowledge Graph: How did I get it? To start, “Shorty Awards” is Google’s recognized entity. When I was nominated, I linked to that announcement from my blog, so Google connected me to the entity and generated a branded Knowledge Graph. This nomination is hardly my only — or even most notable — accomplishment, but that’s all Google needed to put me on the map. Google may know you exist, but without making a connection to a known entity, you can’t become one yourself. So start by making those associations using your About page. To help Google even more, use semantic analysis to create copy containing related concepts and entities:

Register at Text Optimizer and type in your core keyword (something that describes your business model/niche in the best possible way)

Choose Google and then “New Text”

Text Optimizer will run your query in Google, grab search snippets, and apply semantic analysis to generate the list of related concepts and entities you should try and include in your content. This will make it easier for Google to understand what your business is about and what kinds of associations it should be building: Using some structured markup is also a good idea to help Google connect all the dots. You can point Google to your organization’s details (date it was founded, founder’s name, type of company, etc.) as well as some more details including official social media channels, awards, associated books, and more. Here are a few useful Schema generators to create your code:

Technicalseo.com

Hallanalysis.com

For Wordpress users, here are a few plugins to help with Schema integration.

3. Include your CTA

Most About pages I’ve had to deal with so far have one issue in common: It’s unclear what users are supposed to do once they land there. Given the page role in the buying journey (customers may be entering your site through it or using it as a final research touchpoint), it is very important to help them proceed down your conversion channel. Depending on the nature of your business, include a CTA to:

Request a personal demo

Contact you

Check out your catalogue

Talk to your chatbot

Opt-in to receive your downloadable brochure or newsletter

Apart from your CTAs, there are helpful ways to make your About page easier to navigate from. These include:

Breadcrumb navigation

“Skip” navigation links (which are essential for accessibility, too)

Whatever you do, start treating your About page as a commercial landing page, not just a resource for information about your business. Turn it into a conversion funnel, and this includes monitoring that funnel. On Wordpress, you can set up each link or button on your About page as an event to track using Finteza’s plugin. This way, you’ll be able to tell which of those CTAs bring in more customers and which are leaking conversions. Finteza allows you to keep a close eye on your conversion funnel and analyze its performance based on traffic source, user location, and more. For example, here’s us tracking all kinds of “Free Download” buttons. It’s obvious that the home page has many more entries, but the About page seems to do a better job at getting its visitors to convert: You can absolutely use Google Analytics to analyze your conversion funnel and user journeys once they land on your About page, but it will require some setup. For help, read about Google Analytics Attribution and Google Analytics Custom Dimensions — both resources are helpful in uncovering more insights with Google Analytics, beyond what you would normally monitor. Like any other top- and middle-of-the-funnel pages, you’re welcome to reinforce your CTA by using social proof (recent reviews, testimonials, featured case studies, etc.). Here are a few ideas for placing testimonials.

Takeaways

Creating and optimizing your About page is a fairly low-effort initiative, especially if you compare it with other marketing tasks. Yet it can bring about several positive changes, like more trust in your brand and better conversion rates. You should treat this page as a business card: It needs to create a very good impression in an instant. Put something attention-grabbing and engaging in the above-the-fold area — for example, a quick video intro, a tagline, or a photo. Consider using links, semantic analysis, and structured markups to help Google associate your brand with other niche entities, and put it into its knowledge base. Add CTAs (and experiment with different kinds of CTAs) to prompt your page visitors to follow your conversion funnel. An About page is often an underestimated, yet a very important part of your customers’ buying journeys, so make sure it’s clear where you want them to proceed. Thanks for reading, hope it was helpful, let me know your thoughts/questions in the comments. Let’s discuss! Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

https://www.businesscreatorplus.com/three-steps-to-a-better-performing-about-page/

#googlesearchranking #localseo #onlinemarketing #dailydoseofmarketing

0 notes

isearchgoood · 5 years ago

Text

Three Steps to a Better-Performing About Page

Posted by AnnSmarty

Somehow, many businesses I’ve come across online have one glaring problem in common: a very weak and unconvincing About Us page.

This doesn’t make any sense in my mind, as the About page is one of the most important brand assets, and unlike link building and social media marketing, it doesn’t require any ongoing effort or investment.

An About page is often part of a buying journey. It can drive people to your site and help convince them to deal with you. And, in these uncertain times, you can use it to help build trust in you and your business.

Creating a solid About page is a one-time task, but it will boost both brand loyalty and conversions for many months to come.

Why is your About page so important?

It is often an entry page

Or your mini-sitelinks:

This means your customers will often enter your site through your About page. Is it making a good first impression to convince them to browse your site further (or engage)?

Let’s not forget that branded queries have high intent, because people typing your brand name in the search box already know you or have heard about your products. Failing to meet their needs equals a missed opportunity.

It is often a conversion trigger (and more)

How often have you checked a business’s About page before buying anything from them? I always do, especially if it's a new brand I haven’t heard of before.

Or maybe it’s not even about buying.

Anytime someone approaches me with a quote or an interview request, I always check their About page. I refuse to deal with bloggers who don’t take themselves seriously.

Likewise, I often look to the About page when trying to find a press contact to feature a tool in my article.

On a personal level, I always open an About page to find a brand’s social media profiles when I want to follow them.

A lack of a detailed, well-structured About page often means leaked conversions as well as missed backlinks or follows.

It is an important entity optimization asset

First, what we know: An About page is mentioned in Google’s human rating guidelines as one of the ways to determine the “expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness”, or E-A-T, of any page.

Human raters don’t have a direct impact on search results, but their assessments are used to teach Google’s algorithm to better rank pages. So if the About page comes up in their guidelines, it’s likely they use it as a ranking signal.

Second, Google is using information you choose to put on your About page to put your business inside their knowledge base, so it’s important to include as much detail as you can.

With all of this in mind, how should you put together a great About page?

1. Start strong

This step is not unique to this particular page, but that doesn’t make it any less important.

Treat your About page as a business card: People should be willing to learn more as soon as they see it. Your page should be eye-catching and memorable, and grab attention at first sight without the need to scroll down.

For example, Cisco starts with a powerful picture and message:

Nextiva starts with their main tagline:

Slack tells us exactly what they are doing and sums up its most impressive stats:

Telling your brand’s story is a great way to make your About page more memorable and relatable. Terminus does a very good job at starting their page with some history about the company that leaves you wanting to know more:

And Zoom starts with a video and a list of the company’s values:

Starting your page with a quick, attention-grabbing video is probably the best idea because video has been proven to convince visitors to linger a little bit longer and start engaging with the page.

You can create a short and professional video within minutes using web-based video editors like InVideo (in fact, InVideo is probably the most affordable solution I’m aware of).

To create a video intro using InVideo:

Pick a template

Upload your images and videos (or use the ones inside the platform)

Edit subtitles to tell your brand’s story

Add music or a voiceover

It’ll take you just 30 minutes to create a captivating video to put on your landing page:

2. Link your brand to other entities

More than that, Google needs links to:

Understand how well-cited (and hence authoritative) any page is

Create a map of sites, entities behind them, and concepts they represent

This is where linking out to other “entities” (e.g. brands, organizations, places, etc.) is so important: it helps Google identify your place within their own knowledge base.

To give you some ideas, make sure to link to:

Your company’s professional awards

Your featured mentions

Conferences you were/are speaking at

For personal blogs, feel free to include references to your education, past companies you worked for, etc.

To give you a quick example of how useful this may turn out to be, here’s my own Google Knowledge Graph:

How did I get it?

To start, “Shorty Awards” is Google’s recognized entity. When I was nominated, I linked to that announcement from my blog, so Google connected me to the entity and generated a branded Knowledge Graph.

This nomination is hardly my only — or even most notable — accomplishment, but that’s all Google needed to put me on the map.

Google may know you exist, but without making a connection to a known entity, you can’t become one yourself. So start by making those associations using your About page.

To help Google even more, use semantic analysis to create copy containing related concepts and entities:

Register at Text Optimizer and type in your core keyword (something that describes your business model/niche in the best possible way)

Choose Google and then “New Text”

Using some structured markup is also a good idea to help Google connect all the dots. You can point Google to your organization’s details (date it was founded, founder’s name, type of company, etc.) as well as some more details including official social media channels, awards, associated books, and more.

Here are a few useful Schema generators to create your code:

Technicalseo.com

Hallanalysis.com

For Wordpress users, here are a few plugins to help with Schema integration.

3. Include your CTA

Most About pages I’ve had to deal with so far have one issue in common: It’s unclear what users are supposed to do once they land there.

Given the page role in the buying journey (customers may be entering your site through it or using it as a final research touchpoint), it is very important to help them proceed down your conversion channel.

Depending on the nature of your business, include a CTA to:

Request a personal demo

Contact you

Check out your catalogue

Talk to your chatbot

Opt-in to receive your downloadable brochure or newsletter

Apart from your CTAs, there are helpful ways to make your About page easier to navigate from. These include:

Breadcrumb navigation

“Skip” navigation links (which are essential for accessibility, too)

On Wordpress, you can set up each link or button on your About page as an event to track using Finteza’s plugin. This way, you’ll be able to tell which of those CTAs bring in more customers and which are leaking conversions.

Finteza allows you to keep a close eye on your conversion funnel and analyze its performance based on traffic source, user location, and more.

For example, here’s us tracking all kinds of “Free Download” buttons. It’s obvious that the home page has many more entries, but the About page seems to do a better job at getting its visitors to convert:

[I am using arrows to show “leaked” clicks. The home page us obviously losing more clicks than the “About” page]

You can absolutely use Google Analytics to analyze your conversion funnel and user journeys once they land on your About page, but it will require some setup. For help, read about Google Analytics Attribution and Google Analytics Custom Dimensions — both resources are helpful in uncovering more insights with Google Analytics, beyond what you would normally monitor.

Like any other top- and middle-of-the-funnel pages, you’re welcome to reinforce your CTA by using social proof (recent reviews, testimonials, featured case studies, etc.). Here are a few ideas for placing testimonials.

Takeaways

You should treat this page as a business card: It needs to create a very good impression in an instant. Put something attention-grabbing and engaging in the above-the-fold area — for example, a quick video intro, a tagline, or a photo.

Consider using links, semantic analysis, and structured markups to help Google associate your brand with other niche entities, and put it into its knowledge base.

Add CTAs (and experiment with different kinds of CTAs) to prompt your page visitors to follow your conversion funnel. An About page is often an underestimated, yet a very important part of your customers’ buying journeys, so make sure it’s clear where you want them to proceed.

Thanks for reading, hope it was helpful, let me know your thoughts/questions in the comments. Let’s discuss!

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

via Blogger https://ift.tt/3d6Qbec #blogger #bloggingtips #bloggerlife #bloggersgetsocial #ontheblog #writersofinstagram #writingprompt #instapoetry #writerscommunity #writersofig #writersblock #writerlife #writtenword #instawriters #spilledink #wordgasm #creativewriting #poetsofinstagram #blackoutpoetry #poetsofig

0 notes

pacoteemagrecer · 5 years ago

Text

Three Steps to a Better-Performing About Page

Posted by AnnSmarty

Somehow, many businesses I’ve come across online have one glaring problem in common: a very weak and unconvincing About Us page.

Creating a solid About page is a one-time task, but it will boost both brand loyalty and conversions for many months to come.

Why is your About page so important?

It is often an entry page

Or your mini-sitelinks:

This means your customers will often enter your site through your About page. Is it making a good first impression to convince them to browse your site further (or engage)?

It is often a conversion trigger (and more)

How often have you checked a business’s About page before buying anything from them? I always do, especially if it's a new brand I haven’t heard of before.

Or maybe it’s not even about buying.

Anytime someone approaches me with a quote or an interview request, I always check their About page. I refuse to deal with bloggers who don’t take themselves seriously.

Likewise, I often look to the About page when trying to find a press contact to feature a tool in my article.

On a personal level, I always open an About page to find a brand’s social media profiles when I want to follow them.

A lack of a detailed, well-structured About page often means leaked conversions as well as missed backlinks or follows.

It is an important entity optimization asset

Second, Google is using information you choose to put on your About page to put your business inside their knowledge base, so it’s important to include as much detail as you can.

With all of this in mind, how should you put together a great About page?

1. Start strong

This step is not unique to this particular page, but that doesn’t make it any less important.

For example, Cisco starts with a powerful picture and message:

Nextiva starts with their main tagline:

Slack tells us exactly what they are doing and sums up its most impressive stats:

And Zoom starts with a video and a list of the company’s values:

Starting your page with a quick, attention-grabbing video is probably the best idea because video has been proven to convince visitors to linger a little bit longer and start engaging with the page.

You can create a short and professional video within minutes using web-based video editors like InVideo (in fact, InVideo is probably the most affordable solution I’m aware of).

To create a video intro using InVideo:

Pick a template

Upload your images and videos (or use the ones inside the platform)

Edit subtitles to tell your brand’s story

Add music or a voiceover

It’ll take you just 30 minutes to create a captivating video to put on your landing page:

2. Link your brand to other entities

More than that, Google needs links to:

Understand how well-cited (and hence authoritative) any page is

Create a map of sites, entities behind them, and concepts they represent

This is where linking out to other “entities” (e.g. brands, organizations, places, etc.) is so important: it helps Google identify your place within their own knowledge base.

To give you some ideas, make sure to link to:

Your company’s professional awards

Your featured mentions

Conferences you were/are speaking at

For personal blogs, feel free to include references to your education, past companies you worked for, etc.

To give you a quick example of how useful this may turn out to be, here’s my own Google Knowledge Graph:

How did I get it?

This nomination is hardly my only — or even most notable — accomplishment, but that’s all Google needed to put me on the map.

Google may know you exist, but without making a connection to a known entity, you can’t become one yourself. So start by making those associations using your About page.

To help Google even more, use semantic analysis to create copy containing related concepts and entities:

Register at Text Optimizer and type in your core keyword (something that describes your business model/niche in the best possible way)

Choose Google and then “New Text”

Here are a few useful Schema generators to create your code:

Technicalseo.com

Hallanalysis.com

For Wordpress users, here are a few plugins to help with Schema integration.

3. Include your CTA

Most About pages I’ve had to deal with so far have one issue in common: It’s unclear what users are supposed to do once they land there.

Depending on the nature of your business, include a CTA to:

Request a personal demo

Contact you

Check out your catalogue

Talk to your chatbot

Opt-in to receive your downloadable brochure or newsletter

Apart from your CTAs, there are helpful ways to make your About page easier to navigate from. These include:

Breadcrumb navigation

“Skip” navigation links (which are essential for accessibility, too)

Finteza allows you to keep a close eye on your conversion funnel and analyze its performance based on traffic source, user location, and more.

[I am using arrows to show “leaked” clicks. The home page us obviously losing more clicks than the “About” page]

Takeaways

Consider using links, semantic analysis, and structured markups to help Google associate your brand with other niche entities, and put it into its knowledge base.

Thanks for reading, hope it was helpful, let me know your thoughts/questions in the comments. Let’s discuss!

0 notes

sohmariku · 8 years ago

Text

My thoughts on the issue...

It appears that while I was asleep quite a big scandal found it way into the open.

At this point it appears three shares of mine have been uploaded to VK’s streaming service (I can’t actually check, because I’m not about to give that site my phone number), but other than that I’m glad to see none of my private links seem to have leaked. I’m really sorry though for those who have been affected more gravely by this situation.

Oh my, I actually found a fourth just now! Well, at least it still links to the original youtube video, so I suppose it doesn't really count as stealing xD

It also appears my Saiyuki subtitle files ended up being shared around on some Chinese site, but since those are files I share in public I’m not going to make a fuss about it. (Although, it would’ve been nice if they had linked back to the original post.) Besides, that link is already dead anyway, because Mega removed it due to copyright violations! Guess I know why that happened now...

What else can I say about this situation. I’m from a “generation” where people uploaded everything to streaming sites left and right (like 7-10 years ago), because yes, downloading was a big issue for a lot of people at that time and buying Japanese DVD’s was nearly impossible. On top of that, the miracle of being able to upload videos longer than 10 minutes was a godsend gift! In all honesty, I’ve uploaded plenty of files to streaming sites that weren’t mine. ^^;; But I suppose those were other times, when people didn’t request specifically to not upload their files to streaming services. (Did they?) God, I sound old! ^o^// (May I add, I was always ready to take down anything if someone had come to me with complaints!) But trust me, I’ve long stopped uploading anything to streaming sites that doesn’t belong to me!

In no way am I implying that what these people do is good, (nor do I want to imply that what I did years ago was good), but it has happened. Whenever I upload or share anything on the internet, I do this with the knowledge that someone is eventually going to steal it. It doesn’t make it right, but in my mind that’s the way the internet works. You can ask a person as many times as you want not to share a file, but eventually they’ll give it to a friend, who’ll give it to a friend, who’ll give it to a friend and soon all knowledge of any rules made by the original owner are lost.

On the other hand we have the over-exited fan girl added into the mix. When you don’t have the money or means to buy these DVDs, finding a link on the internet is a miracle. And of course you want to share you amazing find with all your friends, especially if they love the same things as you. If your English is limited however, it’s not unlikely to miss the point that direct linking or re-uploading the download isn’t allowed. Or maybe they are aware of the rules, but decide to take the chance. I mean, what are the odds some English person is going to find a link you share on a Chinese or Russian site? What are the odds they can even prove it’s their file? Especially DVDs rips are hard to proof. Screen-recorded files however, those are a bit easier...

Then I’d also like to remind everyone I happens (or at least happened) the other way around too. And why do we do it? Because we can’t find that file anywhere in our own community. Navigating for example a Chinese site can be quite a challenge, especially when you don’t know any Chinese. Google is making it easier and easier to navigate sites that aren’t in our own language, but still... The nice and kind fandom we are, we try to make things easier to our fellow fans and thus we take from the foreign site and share it among our own. Without asking permission, because we don’t know how to even contact the original owner. (And I think this is something we need to keep in mind.)

Again, I’m not saying that what these people did is right! Don’t get me wrong! But I’d like you see it from another perspective too!

Yeah, this turned into quite a rant and I seem to be mostly protecting the actions those who have done us wrong. xD But yes, really, I think (or at least, I’d like to believe) this whole situation arose because people were trying to be kind to others and somehow that makes this whole situation a little less “terrible”, at least to me.

I suppose the only way you can really piss me off concerning these matters is if you steal my SUBTITLE FILES and start claiming you’ve created them yourself. If you share them without giving proper credit, or steal the subtitles, re-translate them to your own language and share them claiming they are yours, I won’t give a crap. (I can’t remember who I’ve given permission to re-translate my subtitles anyway.) ^^;;

Lastly I’d like to add I completely understand everyone’s decisions to take down their download links and to stop sharing anything new, although it greatly saddens me (of course). And again, I’m really sorry this happened, because I shouldn’t have happened! Everyone should’ve just stuck to the rules!

And (if people wonder) for as far as my sharing habits are concerned , nothing is going to change at this point.

85 notes · View notes

evempierson · 5 years ago

Text

Three Steps to a Better-Performing About Page

Posted by AnnSmarty

Somehow, many businesses I’ve come across online have one glaring problem in common: a very weak and unconvincing About Us page.

Creating a solid About page is a one-time task, but it will boost both brand loyalty and conversions for many months to come.

Why is your About page so important?

It is often an entry page

Or your mini-sitelinks:

This means your customers will often enter your site through your About page. Is it making a good first impression to convince them to browse your site further (or engage)?

It is often a conversion trigger (and more)

How often have you checked a business’s About page before buying anything from them? I always do, especially if it's a new brand I haven’t heard of before.

Or maybe it’s not even about buying.

Anytime someone approaches me with a quote or an interview request, I always check their About page. I refuse to deal with bloggers who don’t take themselves seriously.

Likewise, I often look to the About page when trying to find a press contact to feature a tool in my article.

On a personal level, I always open an About page to find a brand’s social media profiles when I want to follow them.

A lack of a detailed, well-structured About page often means leaked conversions as well as missed backlinks or follows.

It is an important entity optimization asset

Second, Google is using information you choose to put on your About page to put your business inside their knowledge base, so it’s important to include as much detail as you can.

With all of this in mind, how should you put together a great About page?

1. Start strong

This step is not unique to this particular page, but that doesn’t make it any less important.

For example, Cisco starts with a powerful picture and message:

Nextiva starts with their main tagline:

Slack tells us exactly what they are doing and sums up its most impressive stats:

And Zoom starts with a video and a list of the company’s values:

Starting your page with a quick, attention-grabbing video is probably the best idea because video has been proven to convince visitors to linger a little bit longer and start engaging with the page.

You can create a short and professional video within minutes using web-based video editors like InVideo (in fact, InVideo is probably the most affordable solution I’m aware of).

To create a video intro using InVideo:

Pick a template

Upload your images and videos (or use the ones inside the platform)

Edit subtitles to tell your brand’s story

Add music or a voiceover

It’ll take you just 30 minutes to create a captivating video to put on your landing page:

2. Link your brand to other entities

More than that, Google needs links to:

Understand how well-cited (and hence authoritative) any page is

Create a map of sites, entities behind them, and concepts they represent

This is where linking out to other “entities” (e.g. brands, organizations, places, etc.) is so important: it helps Google identify your place within their own knowledge base.

To give you some ideas, make sure to link to:

Your company’s professional awards

Your featured mentions

Conferences you were/are speaking at

For personal blogs, feel free to include references to your education, past companies you worked for, etc.

To give you a quick example of how useful this may turn out to be, here’s my own Google Knowledge Graph:

How did I get it?

This nomination is hardly my only — or even most notable — accomplishment, but that’s all Google needed to put me on the map.

Google may know you exist, but without making a connection to a known entity, you can’t become one yourself. So start by making those associations using your About page.

To help Google even more, use semantic analysis to create copy containing related concepts and entities:

Register at Text Optimizer and type in your core keyword (something that describes your business model/niche in the best possible way)

Choose Google and then “New Text”

Here are a few useful Schema generators to create your code:

Technicalseo.com

Hallanalysis.com

For Wordpress users, here are a few plugins to help with Schema integration.

3. Include your CTA

Most About pages I’ve had to deal with so far have one issue in common: It’s unclear what users are supposed to do once they land there.

Depending on the nature of your business, include a CTA to:

Request a personal demo

Contact you

Check out your catalogue

Talk to your chatbot

Opt-in to receive your downloadable brochure or newsletter

Apart from your CTAs, there are helpful ways to make your About page easier to navigate from. These include:

Breadcrumb navigation

“Skip” navigation links (which are essential for accessibility, too)

Finteza allows you to keep a close eye on your conversion funnel and analyze its performance based on traffic source, user location, and more.

[I am using arrows to show “leaked” clicks. The home page us obviously losing more clicks than the “About” page]

Takeaways

Consider using links, semantic analysis, and structured markups to help Google associate your brand with other niche entities, and put it into its knowledge base.

Thanks for reading, hope it was helpful, let me know your thoughts/questions in the comments. Let’s discuss!

0 notes

thanhtuandoan89 · 5 years ago

Text

Three Steps to a Better-Performing About Page

Posted by AnnSmarty

Somehow, many businesses I’ve come across online have one glaring problem in common: a very weak and unconvincing About Us page.

Creating a solid About page is a one-time task, but it will boost both brand loyalty and conversions for many months to come.

Why is your About page so important?

It is often an entry page

Or your mini-sitelinks:

This means your customers will often enter your site through your About page. Is it making a good first impression to convince them to browse your site further (or engage)?

It is often a conversion trigger (and more)

How often have you checked a business’s About page before buying anything from them? I always do, especially if it's a new brand I haven’t heard of before.

Or maybe it’s not even about buying.

Anytime someone approaches me with a quote or an interview request, I always check their About page. I refuse to deal with bloggers who don’t take themselves seriously.

Likewise, I often look to the About page when trying to find a press contact to feature a tool in my article.

On a personal level, I always open an About page to find a brand’s social media profiles when I want to follow them.

A lack of a detailed, well-structured About page often means leaked conversions as well as missed backlinks or follows.

It is an important entity optimization asset

Second, Google is using information you choose to put on your About page to put your business inside their knowledge base, so it’s important to include as much detail as you can.

With all of this in mind, how should you put together a great About page?

1. Start strong

This step is not unique to this particular page, but that doesn’t make it any less important.

For example, Cisco starts with a powerful picture and message:

Nextiva starts with their main tagline:

Slack tells us exactly what they are doing and sums up its most impressive stats:

And Zoom starts with a video and a list of the company’s values:

Starting your page with a quick, attention-grabbing video is probably the best idea because video has been proven to convince visitors to linger a little bit longer and start engaging with the page.

You can create a short and professional video within minutes using web-based video editors like InVideo (in fact, InVideo is probably the most affordable solution I’m aware of).

To create a video intro using InVideo:

Pick a template

Upload your images and videos (or use the ones inside the platform)

Edit subtitles to tell your brand’s story

Add music or a voiceover

It’ll take you just 30 minutes to create a captivating video to put on your landing page:

2. Link your brand to other entities

More than that, Google needs links to:

Understand how well-cited (and hence authoritative) any page is

Create a map of sites, entities behind them, and concepts they represent

This is where linking out to other “entities” (e.g. brands, organizations, places, etc.) is so important: it helps Google identify your place within their own knowledge base.

To give you some ideas, make sure to link to:

Your company’s professional awards

Your featured mentions

Conferences you were/are speaking at

For personal blogs, feel free to include references to your education, past companies you worked for, etc.

To give you a quick example of how useful this may turn out to be, here’s my own Google Knowledge Graph:

How did I get it?

This nomination is hardly my only — or even most notable — accomplishment, but that’s all Google needed to put me on the map.

Google may know you exist, but without making a connection to a known entity, you can’t become one yourself. So start by making those associations using your About page.

To help Google even more, use semantic analysis to create copy containing related concepts and entities:

Register at Text Optimizer and type in your core keyword (something that describes your business model/niche in the best possible way)

Choose Google and then “New Text”

Here are a few useful Schema generators to create your code:

Technicalseo.com

Hallanalysis.com

For Wordpress users, here are a few plugins to help with Schema integration.

3. Include your CTA

Most About pages I’ve had to deal with so far have one issue in common: It’s unclear what users are supposed to do once they land there.

Depending on the nature of your business, include a CTA to:

Request a personal demo

Contact you

Check out your catalogue

Talk to your chatbot

Opt-in to receive your downloadable brochure or newsletter

Apart from your CTAs, there are helpful ways to make your About page easier to navigate from. These include:

Breadcrumb navigation

“Skip” navigation links (which are essential for accessibility, too)

Finteza allows you to keep a close eye on your conversion funnel and analyze its performance based on traffic source, user location, and more.

[I am using arrows to show “leaked” clicks. The home page us obviously losing more clicks than the “About” page]

Takeaways

Consider using links, semantic analysis, and structured markups to help Google associate your brand with other niche entities, and put it into its knowledge base.

Thanks for reading, hope it was helpful, let me know your thoughts/questions in the comments. Let’s discuss!

0 notes

drummcarpentry · 5 years ago

Text

Three Steps to a Better-Performing About Page

Posted by AnnSmarty

Somehow, many businesses I’ve come across online have one glaring problem in common: a very weak and unconvincing About Us page.

Creating a solid About page is a one-time task, but it will boost both brand loyalty and conversions for many months to come.

Why is your About page so important?

It is often an entry page

Or your mini-sitelinks:

This means your customers will often enter your site through your About page. Is it making a good first impression to convince them to browse your site further (or engage)?

It is often a conversion trigger (and more)

How often have you checked a business’s About page before buying anything from them? I always do, especially if it's a new brand I haven’t heard of before.

Or maybe it’s not even about buying.

Anytime someone approaches me with a quote or an interview request, I always check their About page. I refuse to deal with bloggers who don’t take themselves seriously.

Likewise, I often look to the About page when trying to find a press contact to feature a tool in my article.

On a personal level, I always open an About page to find a brand’s social media profiles when I want to follow them.

A lack of a detailed, well-structured About page often means leaked conversions as well as missed backlinks or follows.

It is an important entity optimization asset

Second, Google is using information you choose to put on your About page to put your business inside their knowledge base, so it’s important to include as much detail as you can.

With all of this in mind, how should you put together a great About page?

1. Start strong

This step is not unique to this particular page, but that doesn’t make it any less important.

For example, Cisco starts with a powerful picture and message:

Nextiva starts with their main tagline:

Slack tells us exactly what they are doing and sums up its most impressive stats:

And Zoom starts with a video and a list of the company’s values:

Starting your page with a quick, attention-grabbing video is probably the best idea because video has been proven to convince visitors to linger a little bit longer and start engaging with the page.

You can create a short and professional video within minutes using web-based video editors like InVideo (in fact, InVideo is probably the most affordable solution I’m aware of).

To create a video intro using InVideo:

Pick a template

Upload your images and videos (or use the ones inside the platform)

Edit subtitles to tell your brand’s story

Add music or a voiceover

It’ll take you just 30 minutes to create a captivating video to put on your landing page:

2. Link your brand to other entities

More than that, Google needs links to:

Understand how well-cited (and hence authoritative) any page is

Create a map of sites, entities behind them, and concepts they represent

This is where linking out to other “entities” (e.g. brands, organizations, places, etc.) is so important: it helps Google identify your place within their own knowledge base.

To give you some ideas, make sure to link to:

Your company’s professional awards

Your featured mentions

Conferences you were/are speaking at

For personal blogs, feel free to include references to your education, past companies you worked for, etc.

To give you a quick example of how useful this may turn out to be, here’s my own Google Knowledge Graph:

How did I get it?

This nomination is hardly my only — or even most notable — accomplishment, but that’s all Google needed to put me on the map.

Google may know you exist, but without making a connection to a known entity, you can’t become one yourself. So start by making those associations using your About page.

To help Google even more, use semantic analysis to create copy containing related concepts and entities:

Register at Text Optimizer and type in your core keyword (something that describes your business model/niche in the best possible way)

Choose Google and then “New Text”

Here are a few useful Schema generators to create your code:

Technicalseo.com

Hallanalysis.com

For Wordpress users, here are a few plugins to help with Schema integration.

3. Include your CTA

Most About pages I’ve had to deal with so far have one issue in common: It’s unclear what users are supposed to do once they land there.

Depending on the nature of your business, include a CTA to:

Request a personal demo

Contact you

Check out your catalogue

Talk to your chatbot

Opt-in to receive your downloadable brochure or newsletter

Apart from your CTAs, there are helpful ways to make your About page easier to navigate from. These include:

Breadcrumb navigation

“Skip” navigation links (which are essential for accessibility, too)

Finteza allows you to keep a close eye on your conversion funnel and analyze its performance based on traffic source, user location, and more.

[I am using arrows to show “leaked” clicks. The home page us obviously losing more clicks than the “About” page]

Takeaways

Consider using links, semantic analysis, and structured markups to help Google associate your brand with other niche entities, and put it into its knowledge base.

Thanks for reading, hope it was helpful, let me know your thoughts/questions in the comments. Let’s discuss!

0 notes

whitelabelseoreseller · 5 years ago

Text

Three Steps to a Better-Performing About Page

Posted by AnnSmarty

Somehow, many businesses I’ve come across online have one glaring problem in common: a very weak and unconvincing About Us page.

Creating a solid About page is a one-time task, but it will boost both brand loyalty and conversions for many months to come.

Why is your About page so important?

It is often an entry page

Or your mini-sitelinks:

This means your customers will often enter your site through your About page. Is it making a good first impression to convince them to browse your site further (or engage)?

It is often a conversion trigger (and more)

How often have you checked a business’s About page before buying anything from them? I always do, especially if it's a new brand I haven’t heard of before.

Or maybe it’s not even about buying.

Anytime someone approaches me with a quote or an interview request, I always check their About page. I refuse to deal with bloggers who don’t take themselves seriously.

Likewise, I often look to the About page when trying to find a press contact to feature a tool in my article.

On a personal level, I always open an About page to find a brand’s social media profiles when I want to follow them.

A lack of a detailed, well-structured About page often means leaked conversions as well as missed backlinks or follows.

It is an important entity optimization asset

Second, Google is using information you choose to put on your About page to put your business inside their knowledge base, so it’s important to include as much detail as you can.

With all of this in mind, how should you put together a great About page?

1. Start strong

This step is not unique to this particular page, but that doesn’t make it any less important.

For example, Cisco starts with a powerful picture and message:

Nextiva starts with their main tagline:

Slack tells us exactly what they are doing and sums up its most impressive stats:

And Zoom starts with a video and a list of the company’s values:

Starting your page with a quick, attention-grabbing video is probably the best idea because video has been proven to convince visitors to linger a little bit longer and start engaging with the page.

You can create a short and professional video within minutes using web-based video editors like InVideo (in fact, InVideo is probably the most affordable solution I’m aware of).

To create a video intro using InVideo:

Pick a template

Upload your images and videos (or use the ones inside the platform)

Edit subtitles to tell your brand’s story

Add music or a voiceover

It’ll take you just 30 minutes to create a captivating video to put on your landing page:

2. Link your brand to other entities

More than that, Google needs links to:

Understand how well-cited (and hence authoritative) any page is

Create a map of sites, entities behind them, and concepts they represent

This is where linking out to other “entities” (e.g. brands, organizations, places, etc.) is so important: it helps Google identify your place within their own knowledge base.

To give you some ideas, make sure to link to:

Your company’s professional awards

Your featured mentions

Conferences you were/are speaking at

For personal blogs, feel free to include references to your education, past companies you worked for, etc.

To give you a quick example of how useful this may turn out to be, here’s my own Google Knowledge Graph:

How did I get it?

This nomination is hardly my only — or even most notable — accomplishment, but that’s all Google needed to put me on the map.

Google may know you exist, but without making a connection to a known entity, you can’t become one yourself. So start by making those associations using your About page.

To help Google even more, use semantic analysis to create copy containing related concepts and entities:

Register at Text Optimizer and type in your core keyword (something that describes your business model/niche in the best possible way)

Choose Google and then “New Text”

Here are a few useful Schema generators to create your code:

Technicalseo.com

Hallanalysis.com

For Wordpress users, here are a few plugins to help with Schema integration.

3. Include your CTA

Most About pages I’ve had to deal with so far have one issue in common: It’s unclear what users are supposed to do once they land there.

Depending on the nature of your business, include a CTA to:

Request a personal demo

Contact you

Check out your catalogue

Talk to your chatbot

Opt-in to receive your downloadable brochure or newsletter

Apart from your CTAs, there are helpful ways to make your About page easier to navigate from. These include:

Breadcrumb navigation

“Skip” navigation links (which are essential for accessibility, too)

Finteza allows you to keep a close eye on your conversion funnel and analyze its performance based on traffic source, user location, and more.

[I am using arrows to show “leaked” clicks. The home page us obviously losing more clicks than the “About” page]

Takeaways

Consider using links, semantic analysis, and structured markups to help Google associate your brand with other niche entities, and put it into its knowledge base.

Thanks for reading, hope it was helpful, let me know your thoughts/questions in the comments. Let’s discuss!

from The Moz Blog http://tracking.feedpress.it/link/9375/13569890

#The Moz Blog

0 notes