#I mean Jim wasn’t really recognizeable at all

[avirxy]

In Tulips of Time since Claire has the shard and she's not a troll, what will it do to her when they return to the future?

The shard preys on fear, it latches onto whoever it’s infecting’s insecurity and internalization, and in turn makes that worse, just a big bucket of dark magic poisoning, at least that’s what I’m going with and boy howdy does Claire have a lot of that.

While they’re in the past Claire’s biggest fear starts off as becoming Morgana, and worrying about the darkness taking over, because who she meets in the past is not the same woman that tried to literally tear apart the world for the Eternal night, if Morgana can fall that far who’s to say she can’t either or further? However by the time they get back to the future it has grown out of simply becoming Morgana, but I can’t spoil all the fun.

So what Claire becomes when she pushes the shard into her heart will be a-lot worse than just a human fueled by dark magic.

[jesbelle-writes]

The Gift

After his failed attempt to reach kohlinar,  Spock found that the rhythms of life aboard the Enterprise were somehow different.  He had reached a hard-won détente between his Human emotions and his Vulcan logic, and it cast a new light on even the most familiar of rituals – such as the one now playing out in Kirk’s quarters.

“So Bones – your birthday’s coming up...”  Kirk opened this conversation just as he had every year about this time.

“I don’t want a big fuss,” said McCoy, with the same frown as usual.

“How about a little fuss then?” asked Kirk, the customary amused smirk playing at the corners of his mouth.

“I suppose I could tolerate it, if I had to,” came the reply.

And so some small celebration would be agreed upon.  A place and time would be chosen for a quiet round of drinks; Scotty, Chapel, Uhura, Sulu, and (now that was no longer “the kid”) Chekov would be invited; and they’d all spend a quiet evening getting mildly inebriated and swapping reminiscences.  Spock would attend, of course.  McCoy was his friend, after all.

But this year, Spock couldn’t shake the feeling that something special was in order – something to acknowlege the shift he sensed in his relationship with McCoy.  He couldn’t really name the nature of that shift – it was different somehow to the way his other relationships had changed – but he felt a need to take some kind of action nonetheless.

He wanted to give McCoy a birthday present.

His mother had explained gift-giving to him when he was a child.  She had provided him with an exhaustive lesson on the rituals and obligations involved, including a list of the types of gifts that would be considered appropriate to each occasion.

“But sometimes,” she said, “a person wants to give a gift from the heart – something that shows how much regard they have for another person. The best gifts on these occasions are something the recipient can experience.  A happy memory is worth a thousand objects.”

Spock understood that these “little fusses” that Jim put together were exactly that – another in a collection of happy memories for McCoy.  Spock wanted to give McCoy something like that.

The bulk of his meditation time was dedicated to solving the puzzle of how to do that.

He considered the activities that McCoy engaged in during his rare breaks from work. He spent the bulk of his time simply “hanging out” with Spock or Jim or Christine.  He enjoyed reading a genre of books he called “dimestore trash” that Spock had no idea how to even begin to obtain.  And he enjoyed music.

Music seemed promising.  McCoy’s tastes were eclectic, but Spock had a good ear and he was reasonably certain that he could find something that would please McCoy.

It was in this frame of mind that he noticed the humming.

There was a little snippet of a tune that McCoy hummed when he was trying to unravel any particularly thorny problem.  Spock had heard it hundreds of times when sharing laboratory space with McCoy.  It had long ago been relegated to the background noises of the lab.

It was a pretty tune, and obviously a favorite.  He asked Dr. Chapel about it that afternoon.

“You mean the one that goes hum de dum dum dum hum de dum dum dum?”  She mangled it completely, but it was still recognizable as the same tune, if only barely.

“Yes,” said Spock.  “Do you know the title of the piece?”

“Sorry, no.  I asked him about it once.  He got really self-conscious and said it was just something his mother used to sing.  Then I didn’t hear it for about a month.”

Jim was no help.  “I don’t spend much time in the lab,” he pointed out.  “And his mom was some kind of music historian, so she probably knew a lot of obscure songs.”

Spock made a recording of himself playing the tune on his lyre and fed it into the ship’s computer, but it matched nothing in the database.  Finally, he sent the recording to the library at Memory Alpha and waited.

The answer came almost fourteen hours later – a song from the mid-twentieth century, lost for nearly 200 years before it was discovered in an archive on the North American continent at a place called Muscle Shoals.

The tune was sweet, and the song was short.  But the lyrics...

If Spock had searched for years, he couldn’t have found a song more suitable. He decided that the piece should be performed live.

“It’s beautiful, Spock.  Where did you find it?” asked Uhura.  “It’s just so… Dr. McCoy, isn’t it?”

“I believe it is a favorite of his,” said Spock.  “I would like to play it at his birthday.  I was hoping that you would agree to sing it.”

“I’d love to, but I think you should do it.  It would fit your range.”

“My musical range, perhaps.  It is a very emotional piece,” said Spock.

They practiced the song every night.

McCoy’s birthday was in the forward observation lounge.  It was busy tonight, and when Spock picked up his lyre and Uhura stood next to him a hush fell over the crowd.  

“If I needed you Would you come to me, Would you come to me, And ease my pain?” sang Uhura.

“If you needed me, I would come to you, I’d swim the seas For to ease your pain.”

“In the night forlorn The morning’s born And the morning shines With the lights of love.”

Spock spared a glance toward McCoy, but Jim was seated between them, blocking his line of sight.

“You will miss sunrise If you close your eyes And that would break My heart in two.”

Spock tried twice more to catch a glimpse of McCoy to no avail.  It wasn’t until the final chorus that he saw him.  

McCoy looked stunned, overcome, but with what emotion, Spock couldn’t tell. There were, however, most definitely tears in his eyes.

The song ended to enthusiastic applause and several people came to pay their compliments – mostly to Uhura.  McCoy was among them.  He took Uhura’s hand in his and said, “Thank you so much, Nyota.  That was lovely.”  He nodded toward Spock.  “You played that… very well – as usual, Spock.”  He raised his glass toward the others. “I want to thank y’all for coming tonight.  I know the night’s still young, but I’m not so much, and I’ve just had a week and a half of long shifts.  So if y’all’ll excuse me, I’m going to head on out and get some shut-eye before I have to deal with the next torn rotator cuff or targ bite or what-have-you.”

There followed the usual well-wishing and congratulations as McCoy left.  Spock, feeling unsettled and having no desire to feel unsettled in public, picked up his lyre and retired to his own quarters…

… where he was surprised to find Dr. McCoy leaning against his desk.

“I used my medical code,” said McCoy.  “I hope you don’t mind.  I promise I’m not planning to make a habit of it.”

Spock nodded. “I apolo--”

“I’m sor--” McCoy shook his head.  “You got nothing to be sorry for.  Just… let me say my piece and I’ll get out of your hair.”

“Go ahead.”

“Thanks.”  McCoy took a deep breath.  “I… what you did tonight, Spock – that was the nicest, most thoughtful gift I’ve ever gotten.  I couldn’t say this with a bunch of people around, but I need you to know what it meant to me.

“My mama used to sing me that song when I’d have bad dreams.  She’d come sit on my bed and… stroke my hair… and sing that song.  And it worked every time.

“She sang a lot of songs.  She had a beautiful voice and she played guitar.  She made a lot of recordings of those songs, and after she died, I’d play them all and pretend she was still there – just in the other room, singing.  Well, I was just kid...  

“Anyway she never got around to recording that one.  So I’d sing it to myself when the bad dreams woke me up.  I forgot most of the lyrics.  I forgot what it sounded like when she sang it.  I forgot what her fingers felt like in my hair.  But it always made me feel better.

“I guess I got used to singing it.  It was the tune I’d whistle in the dark, and it became the thing I turned to whenever the going got even a little rough.

“That’s what you gave me tonight.  You gave me back her song.  I don’t have words for that.”  McCoy swiped at the tear that had fallen onto his cheek.  “If you weren’t a Vulcan I’d hug you.”

Spock didn’t know what to say.  He was experiencing a rush of emotions too powerful and too complex for him to even name, let alone express, not that he wished to express them.  He didn’t even want to experience them.

Did he?

“And on that note,” said McCoy, standing up,  “I’ll just see myself out.”

“Leonard.”

McCoy had nearly reached the door when Spock put out his hand to stop him.  He took him by the wrist, his fingers curling around the warm, soft skin above McCoy’s pulse.

The sensation cut through some of the turmoil in Spock’s mind.  This was… good?  It was… fitting.

It was right because Spock had wanted to touch McCoy, hadn’t he?  He’d wanted to give a gift that would touch McCoy’s heart.

And now he was touching his skin and that was also what he’d wanted, wasn’t it?

He pulled McCoy closer, put his arms around him, held him.  And holding was also what he’d wanted.

And then McCoy’s arms wrapped around his waist…

...and there.  This is what it is to fit, thought Spock.  This is what it is to be exactly where he belonged.

McCoy drew back a little, enough to look Spock in the eye.  “You sure?”

Spock nodded.  “I am now.”

And then he kissed him.

Just a little note -- the song is “If I Needed You” by Townes Van Zandt.  I’ve used it in fics before because it gives me serious Bones vibes.  I actually had this scene in mind for one of those fics, but ended up using something else, so now you get it here.

[beastars-takes]

Zootopia Takes: Darker’s Not Better

The Shock Collar Draft

So, it sounds like people are largely positive on me doing some Zootopia posts on this blog, and I wanted to talk about this tweet I saw the other day:

I’ll punt on explaining why Beastars isn’t “Dark Zootopia”--that’s a great topic for another post. But I would like to talk about why this popular yet stridently uninformed tweet is so, so wrong. Why the shock collar draft was not better, actually.

And obviously, I’m not writing several pages in reply to a single tweet--this is a take that’s been around since the movie came out, that the “original version was better.” It’s been wrong the whole time.

Let’s talk about why!

Part 1: “Because Disney”

Let’s start with this--the assumption that the film’s creators wanted to make this shock collar story and “Disney” told them to change it.

That’s not how it works.

I try to keep stuff about me out of these posts as much as possible, but just for a bit of background, I’ve worked in the animation industry for about half a decade. I know people at Disney. I have a reasonable idea of how things are there.

There is this misconception about creative industries that they’re constantly this pitched battle of wills between creative auteurs trying to make incredible art and ignorant corporate suits trying to repress them.

That can happen, especially in dysfunctional studios (and boy could I tell some stories) but Walt Disney Animation Studios is not dysfunctional. It’s one of the most autonomous and well-treated parts of the Disney Company.

The director of Zootopia, Byron Howard, isn’t an edgelord. He made Bolt and Tangled. He knows what his audience is, and he’s responsible enough not to spend a year (and millions of dollars in budget) developing a grimdark Don Bluth story that leadership would never approve. It wouldn’t just be a waste of time--he would be endangering the livelihoods of the hundreds of people working under him. Meanwhile, Disney Animation’s corporate leadership trusts their talent. They don’t generally interfere with story development because they don’t need to. Because they employ people like Byron Howard.

Howard and the other creative leads of Zootopia have said a dozen times, in interviews and documentaries, that they gave up on the shock collar idea because it wasn’t working. They’ve explained their reasoning in detail. Maybe they’re leaving out some of the story, but in general? I believe them.

But Beastars Takes, you say, maybe even if Disney didn’t force them to back away from this darker version, it still would have been better?

Part 2: Why Shock Collars Seem Good

I will say this--I completely sympathize with people who see these storyboards and scenes from earlier versions of the movie and think “this seems amazing.” It does! A lot of these drawings and shots are heartbreakingly good, in isolation.

I love these boards. They make me want to cry. I literally have this drawing framed on my wall. Believe me, I get it.

But the only reason we care this much about this alternative draft of Zootopia is that the Zootopia we got made us love this world and these characters. You know what actually made me cry?

Oh, yeah.

So let’s set aside the astonishing hubris of insisting Zootopia’s story team abandoned the “good” version of the story, when the “bad version” is the most critically-acclaimed Disney animated feature in the past SIXTY YEARS.

“But Beastars Takes!” I hear you say. “Critics are idiots and just because something’s popular doesn’t make it good!”

Fair enough. Let’s talk about why the real movie is better.

Part 3: The Message (it is, in fact, like a jungle sometimes)

This type of thing is always hard to discuss, in the main--a lot of people don’t want to feel criticized or “called out” by the entertainment they consume, and they don’t want to be asked to think about their moral responsibilities. But it’s hard to deny that Zootopia is a movie with a strong point of view. Everything else--the characters, the worldbuilding, the plot, grows out from the movie’s central statement about bias.

And the movie we got, with no shock collars, makes that statement far more effectively.

To dive into the full scope of Zootopia’s worldview and politics (warts and all) would be a whole post on its own, so I’ll just summarize the key point of relevance here:

Zootopia's moral message is that you, the viewer, need to confront your own biases. Not yell at someone else. No matter how much of a good or progressive person you consider yourself to be--if you want to stand against prejudice you have to start with yourself.

That’s a tough sell! For that message to land, we need to see ourselves in the protagonist.

Judy’s a good person! She argues with her dad about foxes. She knows predators aren’t all dangerous. She’s not speciesist. Right?

Ah fuck.

Let’s fast-forward to the pivotal scene of this movie. In an unfortunate but inevitable confluence of circumstances, Judy’s own biases and prejudiced assumptions come out, and she shits the bad.

Nick, who’s already bared his soul to her (against his better instincts), is heartbroken. But not as heartbroken as he is a minute later when he tries to confront her about what she’s said, and she makes this face:

Whaaaat? Come on, Nick. I’m a good person. Why are you giving me a hard time?

People like to complain about this scene. That it’s a hackneyed “misunderstanding” trope that could be easily resolved with a discussion. They’re wrong. Nick tries to have a discussion. She blows him off.

This isn’t Judy acting out of character, this is her character. Someone who identifies as Not A Racist, and hasn’t given the issue any more thought. This is not only completely believable characterization (who hasn’t seen someone react this way when you told them they hurt you?) it’s the film’s central thesis!

Yes, Nick somewhat provokes her into reaching for her “fox spray,” and her own trauma factors in there, but she’s already made her fatal mistake before that happens.

(As an aside, people also make the criticism that the movie unrealistically deflects responsibility for racism onto Bellwether and her plot. It doesn’t. All the key expressions of prejudice in the film--Judy’s encounter with Gideon, her parents’ warnings, the elephant in the ice cream shop, Judy’s early encounters with Bogo, Judy's views on race science--exist largely outside of Bellwether’s influence. She is a demagogue who inflames existing tensions, she didn’t invent them. Bogo literally says “the world has always been broken.”)

So, anyway. But we love Judy. She’s an angel. She also kinda sucks! She’s proudly unprejudiced, and when her own prejudice is pointed out to her she argues and doesn’t take it seriously. This is bad, but it’s also a very human reaction. It’s one most of us have probably been guilty of at one point or another.

Look at Zootopia’s society, too--it’s shiny and cosmopolitan, seemingly idyllic. Anyone can be anything, on paper. But scratch too deep beneath the surface and there’s a lot of pain and resentment here, things nobody respectable would say in public but come out behind closed doors, or among family, when nobody’s watching. It’s entirely recognizable--at least to me, someone who lives in a large liberal city in the United States. Like Byron Howard.

Wow, this place is a paradise!

Wait, what’s a “NIMBY”?

Part 4: Why Shock Collars Are Bad

So, with the film’s conceit established, let’s circle back to the shock collar idea. Like I said, it’s heartbreaking. It’s dramatic. It’s affective.

It also teaches us nothing.

If I see a movie where predator animals are subjected to 24/7 electroshock therapy, I don’t think “wow, this makes me want to think about how I could do better by the people around me.” I think “damn that shit’s crazy lmao. that’d be fucked up if that happened.” At a stretch, it reminds me of something like the Jim Crow era, or the Shoah. You know, stuff in the Past. Stuff we’ve all decided couldn’t ever happen again, so why worry about it?

The directors have said this exact thing, just politely. “It didn’t feel contemporary,” they say in pressers. That’s what it means.

If anything, the shock collar draft reifies the mindset that Zootopia is trying to reject--it shows us that discrimination is blatant, and dramatic, and flagrantly cruel, and impossible to miss.

And...that’s not true. If you only look for bias at its most malicious and evil, you’re going to miss the other 95 percent.

The messaging of this “darker version” is--ironically--less mature, less insightful, less intelligent. Less useful. Darker’s not better.

Part 5: Why Shock Collars Are Still Bad

So what if you don’t care about the message? What if you have no interest in self-reflection, or critical analysis (why are you reading this blog then lmao)? What if you just really want to hear a fun story about talking animals?

Well, this is trickier, because the remaining reasons are pretty subjective and emotional.

The creators have said that the shock collar version didn’t work because the viewers hated the cruel world they’d created. They agreed with Nick--the city was beyond saving. They didn’t want to save it.

The creators have said that Judy was hard to sympathize with, not being able to recognize the shock collars for the obvious cruelty they were.

Fuck you, Judy!

But we haven’t seen the draft copies. We haven’t watched the animatics. We have to take their word for it. Anyone who’s sufficiently invested in this story is going to say “well, I disagree with them.” It doesn’t matter to them that they haven’t seen the draft and the filmmakers have. The movie they’ve imagined is great and nobody is going to convince them otherwise.

But the fact remains that the shock collar movie, as written, did not work. And, if behind the scenes material is to be believed, it continued to not work after months and months of story doctoring.

There’s even been a webcomic made out of the dystopian version of Zootopia. It’s clever and creative and well-written and entertaining and...it kind of falls apart. The creator, after more than a little shit-talk directed at Disney, abandoned the story before reaching the conclusion, but even before then the seams were beginning to show. How do you take a society that’s okay with electrocuting cute animals and bring it to a point of cathartic redemption? You can’t, really. The story doesn’t work.

Does that mean people shouldn’t make fanworks out of the cut material? That they shouldn’t be inspired and excited by it? Hell no. This drawing is cute as hell. The ideas are compelling.

But I suppose what I’d ask of you all is--if you’re weighing the hot takes of art students on Twitter against the explanations of veteran filmmakers, consider that the latter group might actually know what they’re talking about.

See you next time!

[leverage-commentary]

Leverage Season 2, Episode 9, The Lost Heir Job, Audio Commentary Transcript

Peter: This is Peter Winther, the Director of episode...

John: 209.

Peter: 209.

John: John Rogers, Executive Producer.

Chris: Chris Downey, Executive Producer and Writer of this episode, entitled The Lost Heir Job.

John: There you go. Chris, where did this episode come from?

Chris: Well, there was a different episode, very different episode, that didn't come together, and uh, I called Dean, Dean Devlin, our Executive Producer, and I kinda asked him, ‘What kinda bad guys are you thinking about, we haven't done?’ And one of the things he said was, ‘How about an evil lawyer?’ And me being—

John: And you used to be an evil lawyer!

Chris: And me being a former evil lawyer, I thought okay, I can work with that. And it kinda sprung from there.

John: The uh, Peter, uh, this is a lovely affecting scene. Is this in our hospital set that we get enormous mileage out of, or are we in a hospital today?

Peter: Ah, no this is the hospital set that we redesigned to look like a different hospital set.

John: Nicely done. This is very touching. Peter, let me ask you, this is the first episode of Leverage that you've directed, and there's Peter Reigert as the evil lawyer.

Peter: Yes.

John: When you're coming onto a new show to direct for the first time, what's your prep? What do you do?

Peter: Well, you know, first of all, you read the amazing script by the writers. And yeah, I cried, I laughed. Yeah, then you do the normal stuff, you location scout, you find anything that you need to find, and you kinda work with—I mean luckily for me, like a lot of the guys that worked on Leverage, I've worked with before, whether it's through the Dean Devlin world of Independence Day and Godzilla, so...

John: And Librarian, you directed the first Librarian.

Peter: And the first Librarian.

John: A big thing about this episode is- Uh, and that's London. A big thing about this—

Peter: We went to London.

Chris: If you can't tell, there's Big Ben right there.

John: Ah, we like to assume that whenever we find Sophie, she's standing in front of the most recognizable landmark ever. 'Who's dead?' I love that reaction by the way. This was a challenge. This was the first episode where we knew that we needed a female grifter for the team; we had to introduce her, we wanted to check in with Sophie, and kind of establish why we were going to introduce a semi-permanent character. A lot of struts and bolts had to be thrown up here.

Chris: Yeah, yeah.

John: That was the real challenge. We had to have a scene that made us not think this relationship was broken, but that she wasn't coming back.

Chris: Well, I mean, the hard thing is when you're introducing a new character who's gonna take over, you wanna make sure that the audience understands that that character has been approved of by the character that she's replacing.

John: Yeah, to a great degree you need—it's weird—you need Gina's character to be the initiator of the replacement in order for the, you know-

Chris: And there's kind of a story about the Mary Tyler Moore pilot, that I heard from Jim Brooks, who wrote- the great Jim Brooks, apparently when they tested the Mary Tyler Moore pilot, the audience initially hated the Rhoda character.

John: Really?

Chris: Absolutely hated her. And the network said, 'You gotta get rid of her.' And Jim Brooks re-shot a scene in which Phyllis's daughter, Phyllis the neighbor upstairs, hugs the Rhoda character, just gives her a hug in one of the scenes. They tested again, went through the roof. And what they realized was, all they needed was someone on the cast that the audience liked to give their approval of this character. And Dean really was the driving force here because he said, 'We have to make sure that the audience buys into this.'

John: Yeah, a lot of shows replace people in between seasons, but coming up with a substitute person in the middle of the season has—I've never seen it successfully done.

Peter: Until now.

John: Until now. And this is interesting, this was tricky, is, essentially we talked about bringing the Tara character in, we'd beaten out the backstory of the character, given it to Jeri Ryan, so, you know, she could consider it, and consider signing on, and then we originally were talking about her coming straight in, and then realized we'd need at least—particularly since this episode is kind of a classic Rockford mystery—that we needed to throw a little spin on it.

Chris: Yeah, this episode doesn't have a— doesn't really have a con in it, but what— and I think this was your idea, John—was to make Tara's presence in the episode the con. That she cons the rest of the team.

John: At least engaging so we could get ahead with the story rather than the audience like, 'Wait, who's she? Why am I watching her?' Instead it's- we're playing this as if she could be a character on a, you know- And you stage this beautifully, by the way, putting her on the same side of the table, you know, really locking in for the audience who that is. And we know that most of the audience thought ‘Oh, they're gonna take this lawyer character and corrupt her.’ And the twist worked right up until the end; it was nicely done.

Peter: And especially when you see Jeri Ryan come in, you assume that something's gonna happen with her. So the whole game is to make it seem like she's just playing this part. Nothing else.

John: TV audiences have seen a lot of TV; it's very hard to fool a TV audience.

Peter: Yeah, exactly. They're like, ‘Ooh, she's a special guest, there's something significant's gonna happen with her.’ So we have to keep clouding that and make it seem like nothing's happening with her, and she played it great.

John: Yeah, this is just the guest star, yeah.

Peter: Just the guest star, that's it.

Timestamp: [5:00]

John: That's a nice shot of the bar I don't think we've done before, with the light coming in, like it's 4 o'clock, 5 o'clock in the afternoon.

Peter: And this is Anna Campbell, by the way. She actually is a local actress, and she did a terrific job. She's on Mad Men, as well.

John: Oh yeah!

Chris: Was she on Mad Men? Wow.

John: That was a great vic scene, by the way. That was really- when I was watching this the first time, I'm like, wow, dragging away the nice young woman, helping the old alzheimer guy, this is a dark one, man. You know what? I hate that guy. And getting Peter Reigert was a stunning bit of casting.

Chris: And that we have to give credit to Tim. Tim, who has lots of friends who are terrific actors in New York, and he suggested Peter, who, you know—I didn't even think was on the list of our casting people to even consider. Peter Reigert of course, you would know from Animal House, played Boon in Animal House, and my favourite movie of all time, Local Hero, which I asked him about incessantly about during the week of filming.

Peter: Yeah, see, Chris was stalking Peter, pretty much. On the weekends, Chris would track him down and keep asking him stuff.

Chris: [Laughs] There's not a frame of that movie I didn't ask him about.

John: The, uh, this is a nice conversation, the whole way that she digs in here, and the way she gets very righteous. And what we're kind of doing here, is making her be the way Nate Ford used to be before his fall. And that was—that's pretty much how this worked.

Peter: And it was very interesting. She was like, she had a hard time of it, because she's used to playing very strong, independent, powerful women, and not naive at all, and that's who she is as a person too. So she was really going and taking a risk by playing this person.

Chris: She was- she was very—and she said, 'Is the audience gonna buy, me, you know, an adult woman in—'

John: Paragon of virtue.

Chris: Yeah.

John: But you know, that's a role that people played in the 40s and 50s all the time. You know, this is very much kind of our take on a classic con, classic con movie. Ah, and that's 'we never let Vicki Vale in the Batcave.' That was my big beef from the original Batman movie, is, 'No one must ever know I'm Batman! Except for the nine or ten women who've wandered through here at any given time.' C'mon man, that's the whole point.

Chris: This is a tricky scene too, to do, because you- Uh, Peter, maybe talk about the kind of emotional—you gotta cover a lot of emotional ground here.

Peter: Well these scenes, I mean, it was interesting for me, being the first time I've done these episodes. They've all done, you guys have done these informational scenes in front of the screens before. This scene scared the hell out of me, 'cause how much, like the explainer scene can you do, you know? And uh, but it was great because, the way you guys wrote the script, we could play the comedy of him getting busted, going there, and then lead into it. So it took a little bit of the curse of trying to explain it, you added some comedy, and like—

John: I also like how you've got them appearing around him at first, so he has to keep turning and looking.

Peter: [Laughing] Yeah, exactly.

Chris: And these little, kind of, photoshopped shots look great. I mean it really does look like he's in London.

John: And what's a lot of fun about the—and they're tormenting him, this is very much the family vibe. What's really kinda fun about this is, you know, we dread these scenes as writers too. And the fans love them.

Peter: Oh no, I know, it is. But that's because every time you do a little twist on it, you know, and this scene had a lot of emotional beats; there's the fun of teasing him, and then they find out she's not coming back, which you have to really then transition into a big emotional moment there, and then he's gotta rally everyone back, and now they gotta get it.

John: Yeah it's like three or four emotional beats in one one scene, yeah.

Peter: So it's really tough. But it turned out really well, I thought.

John: And then you let the screens go to black, to show their mood. That was a nice choice. I'm sure that was totally intentional.

Peter: Oh yeah, exactly. I'm a genius like that. I'm an accidental genius.

John: You are. And, uh, Eliot knowing this is not a good idea; everyone knowing this is not a good idea, and...what was I gonna say? Oh, that's the key to these scenes also, is, get somebody pissed off in it. Someone in one of these informational scenes has to either not like the con, or not like the—

Chris: By the way, I need to interject, this is one of my favorite montages ever. This is an industrialist, and I think there's a picture of a, of like a drum of oil—

John: Look, there's a drum of goo poisoning children, and then an oil well fire, and him drinking a whiskey. [Evil laughter] I like, also, that this is a magazine called Lawyer Monthly. Is there a Lawyer Monthly? Is there an evil Lawyer Monthly magazine? I would like to get a subscription to that. And again, this was kind of the thing that we were learning, is that, you know, the lost heir, and the lost will, is a crime trope from the 1600s, that has been done on a lot of different crime shows, a lot of different con show, and so the fun is taking it and finding the variation that fits your show. You know, that's one of the great things about working in a genre that has a long history. To a great degree, you're almost like—it's more like what your variation on this theme is than the actual theme itself.

Peter: It's your homage.

Timestamp: [10:00]

John: It's more than an homage, it's uh, you know. Homages are more accurate.

Peter: Yeah it's more like folk music, you know, like—

John: You're supposed to put a little spin on it, you know, and your spin adds to it.

Peter: Yeah, you're updating it, that's what it's all about.

John: Exactly. God this is a long informational scene.

Peter: I know.

Chris: This is a big one; it's a lot.

John: We gotta do the character beats, we gotta do the—and that was the other thing we found, is, you know, that you can hang out—even in like, really fast moving episodes—you can hang out for half an act in this room.

Chris: Yeah. I mean, that's what we learned.

John: As long as there's emotional beats, or you open it really strong, and, you know, uh, taking away alzheimer dude's only hope really lands it. Now this is amazing. Where are we here, guys?

Peter: Uh.

Chris: Well, we're at a jail that was built outside of Portland, and then they ran out of money. So it's basically been just sitting there, and really, this whole act was designed because we knew we had this jail. And here is of course, we wanna introduce—

John: The 'pan up legs' shot.

Chris: The pan up from the pair of legs.

Peter: We had a slow motion version, but I didn't [mumbles] time to shoot. It was a little, a little too much.

John: It was a little buttery.

Peter: Yeah, you know, I've got, I like buttery though.

Chris: But the happy accident was that, like, whatever that stuff was in the air that was blowing—

John: Gave, like, a view.

Peter: I had a guy there, he was sorta—

John: You just had a big thing of pollen?

Peter: Yeah. We did it in the Patriot actually once, where it was like, we had—it was all this stuff and there was no really apparent reason for it, but it was up in the air.

John: Looks really pretty.

Peter: Yeah, exactly. That's the reason.

John: 'Put some more schmutz, put schmutz in the air. I want schmutz, Peter.'

Peter: Yeah, pretty much.

John: And this is again, you know, outside our character, different attitude, lot of fun. And not being able to tell the truth—this is another thing where we—

Chris: This was Guys and Dolls, it was when we were breaking it, this was- we're gonna see if we can corrupt her.

John: And that was the idea, is originally, you know, we didn't know how Tara was gonna come in, and who the character was. We talked about a Guys and Dolls variation, where we would corrupt the character, and then realized that would take too much explanation, and wouldn't be approved by Sophie... but we used every part of the animal.

Chris: Yes.

John: Wow, Chris wound up really rocking those 70s sunglasses this season. He really looks like he's come out of um, Grand Theft Auto there. Ah, this shot.

Chris: Oh this guy. This guy, uh, is this actor, Tobias Anderson, is a local actor in Portland, and is just fantastic. As a matter of fact, when we were looking—when we were doing this shot, right here, I went up to Tim afterwards and I said, ‘I wanna—can we do Chinatown? Can we remake Chinatown with you in the Jack Nicholson role, and him as.. not Walter…

John: Walter Huston?

Chris: The Walter Huston role, 'cause he really just had that perfect, kind of patrician accent.

Peter: And he was the last guy I saw, like, cast. Everyone else I was like, ‘eh, I dunno’, and then finally he came in.

John: This was kind of a recurring theme this year, to. We were really busting on the whole white collar, minimum security jails, 'cause I'm like seriously man, if you steal a billion dollars, your ass gets sent to the pen. Why do you get a vacation? It was also probably tied into the fact that at this point, we were working fourteen to sixteen hours a day, and a stint in a white collar jail sounded really good to me. I was like 'so I can't work at all, I gotta sit in there and be in jail.' Oh, this was my favorite character we did all year. This is very Rockford, this is Jimmy Joe Meeker.

Peter: I have to say, when he first came in with that blue suit, I wasn't too sure about it, but [snaps fingers] his character, he totally pulled it off, like after the first scene I'm like 'Okay, I get it, I totally get it.'

Chris: Well the thing is that in the cons, essentially when Nate is in these roles, his job is to get under the skin of the mark. I mea,n that's really what it is, because that's gonna lead the mark to make bad decisions, so that's what— there was actually more to this whole sequence too, where he actually—

John: This sequence, he gets dragged out outside and beaten up.

Peter: Oh yeah, yeah, because he's that irritating. Or the suit was that blue.

John: And also, you haven't done a Rockford homage until you had the gut punch.

Peter: And this was my first shot on Leverage; right here, this is where we started.

John: Oh really, great, nice. Look at this production value in Portland, wow.

Peter: And I have to tell you, these guys are the right guys to start your career on Leverage with, these two guys, because they are so hilarious–

John: It's really just, roll the camera and get out of their way, isn't it?

Peter: It's roll the camera [laughs] and like, let the guys play.

John: Look at that!

Chris: Look at that, isn't that a great-? Look at that shot. I mean, this pristine jail. Yeah, I mean the key we've found with them was to give them a funny attitude to play. If you find an attitude for them to play, it doesn't really matter what the script is, they know what to do.

Peter: Right, you just give them, like, guidelines and a goal at the end, and where to start, and then you roll. And these guys just go—especially these two together are like, amazing.

John: And nicely enough it's a happy blend, because it's not totally improv, they really do go off the dialogue, but there's always a little twist right at the end.

Peter: Absolutely.

Chris: Oh, but boy, him playing the traumatized prison guard just killed me.

John: Yeah, just the panic—he does panic very well. [Chris laughs] And again, Hardison, Hardison always goes over the top, always a little up.

Peter: But his over the top works, because every time I was watching him I was 'he's almost–he's not quite over the top, he's just at the edge of it, he keeps it right there.'

John: Well, cause the whole point is to make you so uncomfortable you're distracted. That's a lot of—

Peter: It's all sleight of hand.

Timestamp: [15:00]

Chris: And also to sell to him the idea that to go to maximum security prison would be the end of his life.

John: Is an unspeakable nightmare, yeah. Oh, I forgot, that’s our nurse, right, that's, um...

Chris: Yes, uh, in the picture.

John: We shouldn't say her name actually so she's not stalked, but yeah. And this is a lovely ventilation shaft scene, um, really, you can't go more than two episodes on Leverage without a ventilation shaft scene.

Peter: You would think that when people make buildings they would, like, stop making ventilation shafts, because that's how everybody steals the stuff, you know what I mean?

John: Well they tend to make them small, but Beth is very small.

Chris: By the way, she's just adorable in ventilation shafts, just the childlike wonder that she has.

Peter: Just goes together.

John: I also love that Hardison's managed to find Orangina even in a prison. He's just found an orange drink, even there.

Chris: And this is Doug Brookes, who was great also.

John: Yeah, he's the other guard here.

Peter: He was hilarious. I mean there was so much stuff—this was one of— I could have shot this for three day straight, this scene, because we were cracking up the whole time.

John: And what's really interesting here is, this is something that if you're going to shoot comedy, don't over complicate comedy. Your best friend on a comedy shot is a locked off comedy shot. It's just like—you see how often we just go back to this wide right here? 'Cause all comedy plays—well that's a Woody Allen rule, comedy plays on a two shot. And this is all attitudes and reactions. You know, there's no fucking camera movement, yeah, exactly.

Peter: Because you see two different reactions in one shot that's why it works.

John: Oh, and he's so hurt. He's so hurt.

Chris: And I love him yelling ‘clear’, I mean he just digs in.

Peter: And then usually, as you guys know, we just roll the camera at him and he just keeps talking. We'll keep rolling for another two minutes, he's got—he will never stop, we have to cut.

John: I love that this is what was—this is the worst frameup in history. I remember we were pitching this in the room, we came up with stuff like, like an M16 he'd assembled out of bed parts—

Peter: But it's the tone of the show, you can get away with it.

Chris: It's all he needs, it's a Nazi armband and a picture of Hitler.

John: But why the picture of Hitler??!!

Peter: But what about the first Nazi armband they gave me? It was like, yellow and white, I'm like...

Chris: Kudos to the wardrobe department, who quickly, maybe a bit too quickly, sewed a Nazi armband when we needed.

Peter: Maybe they didn't sew it; maybe they just had one.

John: But this was also, it's pretty amazing when you think, alright we're a cable show, we're in Portland, our wardrobe department had to come up with all these prisoner outfits, because random outfits are much easier, people often wear their own clothes when they're extras. All the uniforms, all the prisoner outfits, on like half a week of prep, by the time they get the script and everything, you know for blocking. And, the bookending scene.

Peter: And I will say, Tim's suits, they pulled out of their derriere as well, because that was kind of a last minute addition, and they went to some pimp store, and found it in Oregon.

John: There's a pimp store in Oregon?

Peter: I think so.

John: Wow, I wouldn't think there'd be enough pimps to support a mini culture like that.

Peter: I mean if you look at his jackets, there's like a little button that you can hang it on from the back on, it's like, really a great jacket.

John: And she's being great, she's really selling the whole innocent lawyer. There was a moment, when we were doing this, watching the dailies, I was like 'I'm gonna miss this character'. I kinda like Jeri as this—

Peter: As the earnest...

John: Yeah, as the earnest lawyer, because she usually plays so aggressive. Because she's a very good looking, powerful woman, and, uh, it was really great. That suit's magnificent. 

Peter: Yes.

John: And this is another one, when our guys—the only way to put pressure on our guys is, things are moving too fast, they're constrained in time and space, you know, it's—

Peter: Here's one I love; I love this shot. Whoop, and then—

John: Aaand, that's.. you're right, there it is.

Peter: The button—

John: And ripping out the pages, and here, here's what I love about Reigert here, if I may, and we wrote it a little like this, but really, most of our bad guys are like, 'what the hell are you doing here?' Reigert has, in theory, been an evil dude for thirty five years. He has buried a lot of bodies. This Papadokalis—this Tim Hutton character is not gonna throw him.

Chris: No, that was really the key, the key was for him to underestimate him for the entire episode, and this, this scene to me just epitomizes the whole episode. These two guys—

John: This is one of my favorite bad guy scenes, absolutely.

Peter: And these- we put them on opposite sides of the table for obvious reasons, but then these two guys really just—again, it was like the prison scene, but in a different way—these guys really, I mean, ad libbed, and played off each other the whole time. And it was pretty amazing, it was fun to watch.

John: That's a lot of craft at that table, right there.

Peter: A lot of craft. And it really worked, there was like, they were kinda playing with each other on an actor level, and on a character level at the same time, and it worked both ways.

John: Kinda trying to one up each other a little bit in the scene. That's a great set—what is, what offices were those?

Peter: That was a real lawyer office.

Chris: Yeah, I mean we—

Timestamp: [20:00]

John: Look at that deadpan, just that total dead-eyed—

Peter: Yeah and it's great, it's really like a fire and ice kinda scene, because Jimmy Papadokalis is all over the place, and he's like this, and Peter's just cool as ice.

John: And that's another thing, and you'll see it—we kinda found the rhythm as we went into the back half of second season, the bad guys get progressively scarier. And more competent. I like to think that the Leverage crew has cleaned out all the easy white collar dudes. Like in their first year, they got all the easy marks.

Chris: Well, I gotta give credit to Peter Reigert, I mean, he so inhabits this character. I remember being on set and people talking about, ‘I think this guy's killed people before’. Like, literally, when people debate about the backstory, you know you've hit a home run.

John: Now this one I like, is that we go out, and we're strung and we have no answer, and you're watching Nate Ford play chess here in his head. He's putting the facts together, he's doing detective work. And again, this is the thing we mention in a couple of the commentaries, a lot of second season was realizing, criminals are like detectives - they know crime, they can put stuff together. And Nate Ford was a detective, so you know, when he throws this together, it's using the available facts in a convincing way. And he's reading Reigert.

Chris: Yeah.

Peter: And the way Tim plays it, he was really brilliant in the scene, because you really feel like he's making this stuff up as he goes along. You do. I mean, you're like—like I'm watching, like we were watching and we were like, like what's he gonna do now? It was, like, it was amazing.

John: How is he saying the words, they seem fresh.

Peter: Yeah, and you just get sucked in, he's like, I mean he's—those looks, those blue eyes he's got man, they're just a killer.

John: And that's, again, structurally, this episode really is, we need X information, we do a mini con in act two to get X information. That information is not what we think it is, therefore we have to change the plan in act three. In act four, the violent ramifications of that changed plan comes to the fore. It's the template, it's the one comforting blanket...

Peter: What I love about this episode—besides 'I directed it'— was that I really felt, even when I was watching it, as a fan, later, I was like 'I don’t know how they're gonna defeat this guy', you know, like he's not gonna get ruffled.

John: He's a good bad guy.

Peter: And even like, in the scene that's about to happen, when she comes in, it's like, he doesn't buy that for a second either.

John: That's a big difference on shows, is, uh, a lot of times for us it's not are they going to defeat this guy, because meta structure—again, TV audiences have seen a lot of TV—it's how. This is one of the few times it's like 'I don't really know— I dunno if they're gonna do this.'

Chris: Well, I mean, that's what was so nice about introducing The Lost Heir Con, fairly deep into the show, I mean you know, there could have been an episode where that came out of the briefing scene, but because it became a development...

Peter: Right, because a lot of the episodes I saw, like that— they figured out the con at the end of the first act—

Chris: This is the con, this is what we're gonna do.

John: And that's really tricky, 'cause we really know we're not a detective show, because we have broken some episodes where there's like an investigatory first and second act. We always wind up throwing out those outlines. You know, it's gotta be a weird mix of investigation first and second act—

Chris: Well...

John: Because you do. If you introduce the con too early, you run out of steam.

Chris: But I think what we learned here was, that what the audience wants at the end is a twist. And you can give them a detective twist if we put it, like with the Tara character, if there's a con shell around it.

John: Yeah. You could easily do this as a private investigation episode, on any other show. 'Bye bye. Out. Get out.' And Parker's utter inability to act now.

Chris: 'Are we gonna go get meth?'

Peter: Dude, the meth line, we were all in tears. And there's like four different versions, and they're all awesome, and uh, yeah.

John: It's really hat-rific in there today, look at that. That's one, two, three, that suit's really a hat. [All laugh] Uh, that's three hats in there. And I remember breaking this, and going over like, women's names, or what we could possibly do, we had to look up and see uh, what had been, what could wind up on drivers licenses, when the drivers licenses were digitized—

Chris: Well the tricky thing here was, and you came up with it, was finding ways to bury the colorblind... because if you kinda like, if they they keyed up on colorblindness here, really we're tipping the ending, and it was just, trying to find a way to throw it in.

John: But that's one of those times where writing is really, we describe it as making the license plates, you sit in the writer's room for six hours, staring at the ceiling, until the answer comes, you know and just throwing out crap.

Peter: Yeah but it was a great 'gun in the drawer' kinda thing, you know, where it's like, he really—

Chris: He saw it up there, it landed visually, he mentions is—

Peter: Yeah, it's right in front of your face, and then it comes back later and no one sees it coming, and that's the best way. I always hate shows where it's like, suddenly they come up with a magic answer, and it was like, we never saw it. Here, you put it in front, but it's all sleight of hand.

John: There's a—Dean Devlin's father had a great thing, which is 'there are no drive ups in the third act', and we have the same thing. There's no new information in the fifth act. You're not allowed to give anything new, it has to be something, a version of what we've already seen.

Chris: That's a nice transition, too.

John: Yeah it is, a nice whip over to her. And there was actually an original scene, another scene in this, too, where he's kind of talking her into doing this? But the fun—it turns out this is much better, just knowing that somehow he's conned her into this.

Chris: The audience, you should know, this episode was eight minutes long when we finished it, and we kept—and it was a real hard thing to edit it down—

Timestamp: [25:00]

John: Oh, there's a lot of good scenes on the floor, in this one.

Chris: But I still feel like in the end, the final edit was the best edit. I mean, you've really like- when you get into it, you find out that you really didn't need all this stuff.

John: Yeah, a lot of the other stuff were grace notes.

Chris: And the eating stuff was Peter's—Peter likes eating scenes. [All Laugh]

John: All actors like eating scenes.

Peter: They do, it gives them some—they need business.

John: By the way, that's one of Spielberg's tricks.

Chris: Really?

John: One of Spielberg's tricks is to show, if he wants you to like people, he shows them—he shows them cooking.

Chris: That's interesting. Well, I guess it also shows how little, you know, disregard he has for everything.

John: And this was another trick, was to figure out a way to involve the lawyer character in the con, in a way that didn't violate the character, and the idea is, we were sitting there, 'but she's supposed to be scrupulously honest,' and we realized, well, we use that, that's the point.

Chris: And also it answers the question as to, wouldn't this guy just ask for a DNA test? Well, we always find—

John: Oh that's right, that was the big argument in the room, is, how do you get him to not want a DNA test?

Chris: Well, you convince him it's the worst possible option. Ah, and this is a great scene, too.

John: And, a couple months afterwards, it was in the news, a way to fake DNA tests. We killed ourselves, we killed ourselves to figure out some way to get him to not ask for the DNA, and then a couple months later in the news there was a way about how to fake it.

Peter: They probably saw the episode and —

John: Yeah, I sent them all the research. This is a very classic, this is, we could stamp a Quinn Martin production on this scene.

Chris: He looks like the, uh, actor here, who I'm gonna look up his name quickly—

Peter: David.

Chris: Is it David?

Peter: I think so.

Chris: Yeah. He— right out of a Quinn Martin production.

John: Actually I — He could play in Spencer as the, uh, the heavyset Boston sargeant that's his buddy, yeah. And this is, a good, uh, good showdown on the docks scene. This was originally an alley, in a parking garage,

Chris: Yeah, wasn't it, it was a parking garage, and what was—what led to you guys scouting out here?

Peter: You know what, it was just, for me, I'd watched all the episodes, and I just felt, you- There was this whole river thing, and in Boston there's a river even though, you know- 

Chris: It worked great.

Peter: But I just wanted to open it up, you know, give some size to it, and I dunno, the parking garage, there was no good alley parking garage in Portland. So, we went into this scene. And it opened it up a little bit, 'cause we were in a lot of rooms, up until then.

John: Yeah, there's that whole, that whole second act, to a great degree, is prison, lawyers office, and that's a good- you know what, any act break where a dude's aiming a gun at you is a good act break.

Peter: It's always good.

John: You know what, I'm gonna—I'm gonna stand by that. Now, what happened is, people were wondering, how did Eliot see this guy? This is Eliot's job. Eliot's job is to walk the perimeter and beat the hell out of people.

Peter: He showed up with them in the car, and then like, got out earlier—

John: They dropped him off so he could— now this is great.

Chris: This is great, there we go.

John: This is not CG. [Referring to Eliot chucking a rock at a guy's head.]

Peter: This is not, this is real, and this was- this was Christian's idea, you know, to throw the rock, because we had played softball that weekend, and he was shortstop and he was so good and then he came up "Dude, you saw how good I was at shortstop, right? I can do that, I can throw that." And he kept it in frame and everything.

Chris: And his, uh, his baseball skills become in evidence later in the season, I'd say.

John: Yeah, exactly. This is also a nice fight, because it really showcases something that Kevin Jackson really tried to do this year, which was, all of Eliot's fight style, because he's, you know, he's fast, is getting inside your reach and just working the ribs; it's not big kicks, his job is to get in there, break your ribs, and make you lay down. Yeah, maybe break an elbow, uh, and this was also great. We had to figure out how to get a time constraint on it, having him shoot the tires out, it was just a nice bit of work.

Peter: Yeah.

John: We should have used the Hyundai Genesis for this, though. Why the hell didn't we do that? Oh, we shot the tires out, that's right. That's right, you can't really do an endorsement for a car that you shoot.

Peter: Right, exactly.

Chris: Aww.

John: Aww, this is fantastic.

Peter: Oh, this is the best.

John: And Reigert's acting—

Peter: And by the way, we were in a mad rush right now, because the sun's going down.

John: Yeah. And just, gimme the gun. There you go. Thank you. Boom. Oh god!

Peter: And he's so blasé.

Chris: [Laughing] He says thanks!

John: Ahh. Dude, he has so put a bullet in a junkie, like in 1985 in an alley.

Peter: We had a great moment there, too, where he drives off and the guy's left in the dust. But it's really extra.

Chris: And I can say that this episode, in the earliest versions, one of the earliest nuggets of it was this fourth act, which was a race to the courthouse. It was one of those things we always knew was, there was gonna be Eliot and Parker, racing to the courthouse, and cops trying to shoot them, and it was the gauntlet.

John: Yeah, and that's, again, very simple goal, one goal per act, you can make—

Peter: I just love, like they think 'Oh I'm gonna put on some shades, no one will recognize us.' 

[All Laugh]

John: And this, this is really my favorite Eliot-Parker run in the entire two years. Because it's one of the times that we're really reminded of the fact that they are the two most dangerous people on the team, and then when they're not with the others, they can sometimes allow themselves that.

Timestamp: [30:00]

John: You know, they pretend to be normal humans around Hardison and Nate and Sophie, because they know they're not supposed to be, you know, like, not supposed to enjoy this. And now a good gloat from Reigert, that's nice.

Peter: Yeah, exactly.

Chris: 'Crawl under a rock.'

John: Yeah, so the entire thing was us sitting around like, what are the three or four locations, if you're trying to get to the courthouse, you know, what could the possible obstacles be? And I think this, this whole run was uh, I think this one's mine just because I did the key bit, remember?

Chris: Yeah the key bit, I think that was gonna be something with a ball bearing at one point?

John: Yeah, we played around with it, and just um, it was... oh, it was jury duty. It was like, the only thing that's keeping you from getting into a courtroom, really, is a metal detector. I love this push in on the reverse by the way,

Peter: Yeah, this was great, this was like, we really blocked this out big time, but then Mark shot-

John: There you go!

Chris: Oh, that's an iconic shot.

John: Yeah it is. And what's kinda interesting there is, he's not looking forward to it, and she's smiling, she genuinely is looking forward to it. And there's our naive lawyer, completely hung, and we've just said this girl is not part of it.

Peter: But this is the scene that, like, I think people really believe that she really is that person, and really is naive. She really sells—

Chris: Yeah, she did.

John: She sold the hell out of it. Now, she was—you know what, you get a new actor to come to your show in the middle of your season, it could be a disaster in a lot of ways. Jeri was nothing but a professional, and she was sweet and she's funny as hell, seriously, it couldn't have gone better.

Peter: And so, so prepared, you know when she's so prepared, you can play around a little bit.

John: You know what, this also comes from - my mom, when I was eight, we flew down to see friends of hers in San Antonio, she was taking kielbasa from this deli in Worcester with us—

Peter: This is already a good story.

John: But we go through the x-ray—it was one of the first times they'd had an x-ray machine—so there are three, uh, tinfoil wrapped cylinders that looked like explosives in my mother's luggage. And I remember at eight, like the guards just descending on us.

Peter: I love that. That's like, let's be blatant shall we?

John: You know what, television is not [???]

Peter: No, no, no. But here's what's great about Peter in this scene - he really made everyone around him feel nervous, like he was like really doing that thing. He did like, you know, acting-directing, you know, which I always love.

John: Okay—THERE, THE CATCH!

Chris: The catch! By the way, after he did that, he came up to me—because I wasn't there for this—and he said 'You gotta call Rogers and tell him I caught the bullet.' I mean he was like a little kid, talking about that.

Peter: He did it on three different takes, he caught the bullet.

John: He did it on three takes without—and she tasers him without looking. And the little smile...

Peter: Loves it. And then she gives him another one as she bails.

John: And just the look back to him, like, 'What? What? I'm supposed to not do that?'

Peter: 'I just went to the dark side for a second.'

Chris: And just one little *zzz* jolt on the way out.

Peter: It's so great with her, 'cause she's so sweet looking, and then she's got this little dark side which is awesome.

John: And that was the other thing, you really see that coming out in the back half of the season. Like from here on—it was nice because things had slowed down and we were like, 'Alright, what are some beats that we haven't hit in a while? Oh that's right, Parker's crazy.'

Chris: Yeah, she's crazy. That's a beautiful entrance too, that sweeping camera.

John: Great courtroom. Was this the same courtroom we shot yours in?

Chris: Same courtroom we shot in.

John: Nice. But they're not in Belbridge, they're in Boston proper.

Peter: It is the best, it's like the peacock, you know, he's totally got his mirror out, and—

Chris: Well that, I'll tell you where that was from, Gerald Shargel, the great mob lawyer. I remember there's a famous story where he was doing a mob trial and opened his briefcase before he was about to do a cross examination, and it was all hairbrushes. [Peter laughs] it was like, there was not one file folder...

John: Yeah, you think anybody else is gonna wander in here, no. She’s—and now we're doing our courtrooms. Oh, look at that. Was that a federal courthouse?

Chris: It was a former federal courthouse, and you know, I said this, I think, in the earlier one, there are, in a lot of American cities, there are beautiful federal courthouses built in the twenties and thirties. And then, you know, they decided 'no, they don't work for us anymore', built brand new federal courthouses with your tax dollars, and these things are sitting there—

John: Just sitting around empty.

Chris: Just waiting for television shows to arrive.

John: We could do a courtroom drama, we could just live in this place, yeah.

Peter: And by the way, Jeri feeling very at home in a courtroom because of Boston Legal. She was like, she had that down, but in a different way. She was playing, more of an innocent...

John: Yeah, not the shark. No the, uh, and then the show becomes a courtroom drama. The show really is, like, four different episodes, you know? There's kind of an early Rockford, then there's the gauntlet—

Chris: And then becomes a courtroom drama.

John: —and now it's Perry Mason.

Chris: It really is, that's it.

John: Except Peter Reigert is much more formidable than Hamilton Burger. Hamilton Burger, a reference only five of you will get. Oh no, and now he's really starting to get pissed off. No it was interesting, we actually played around a lot with, like, how evidence is admitted, and what the...

Chris: Yeah, you know me, I get very...

John: No, it was interesting, it was one of the few times that I've been, ‘I wanna make sure I get this right’. And you were explaining that what is allowed as evidence is pretty much up to the judge. 

Chris: It is, yeah. I mean, this was all, I vetted this, this is pretty much all on the level. 

Timestamp: [35:00]

Peter: What I love about this scene is like, on one level, we have no idea how he as a character, Tim as a character, is gonna, like, pull this off, because we're not thinking about the color blind thing. But on another level, Tim is like ad-libbing a lot in there, and so the actors are also like, they don't know what's gonna come at them. So everyone's like on their toes, which worked really perfectly for the scene, because you really had to listen to everything he said, because everyone had to react to it. And all the actors, including the judge, the local actors, they all rose up and like, really handled it well, and it makes the scene work terrific. 

John: This was interesting, I just, looking at these shots, because this is not a designed courthouse but a real courthouse, a designed courthouse would have more gack on either side on those sight-lines. You know, there'd just be like high risers, or wouldn't be quite so deep, you know.

Chris: But this was, I remember, there's a few times when you're watching, you know, filming something, when you're like, this is something special. And there was a take here where it was like, between the two of these guys ad libbing, that was really something special. And I remember the three of us looked—it was you, me, and Dean—were like, wow, that's it.

Peter: No, it really was.

John: The, uh, and then now the launch. The whole unraveling, and she's really sympathetic; that was good casting on our part.

Peter: So sympathetic.

Chris: She was fantastic.

John: 'What color?'— that was the moment in the room when we got it. Because we're trying to figure out like, what's the moment? What's the one thing that'll lock it in? Because we were doing the lost heir con, and we hadn't come up with the idea that she was the lost heir yet.

Chris: Yeah that was a fairly late addition.

Peter: And all this stuff that Tim does, where he's like, it looks like he's trying to—but now as a character, he's playing Peter Reigert's character, like, 'Oh I don't really know what I'm doing,' but his character totally does.

Chris: It's the typical like, ‘I'm just a country lawyer. I dunno about you big—’

John: It's very Columbo.

Chris: ‘—you big city lawyers, I mean all I know is this.’

John: 'Pardon me, just one more thing before I leave, my wife's very excited that I met you, I gotta ask—'

Chris: 'Now, maestro—'

John: 'Maestro, when you doing one of these orchestra things? Exactly how long are you playing here?' And that's when we do the revelations of observation.

Chris: Here's where he figured it all out. Colorblindness, trying to play fair.

John: See, if you go back on the DVD, right there, it's right there.

Peter: All those shots are there.

Chris: There was a lot of debate about how much to see of the flowers in that scene, it was—

John: No, because you're focused on Jeri Ryan.

Peter: But the whole thing for me is, you have to see all that stuff, but not see it at the same time. But it has to be there, else you're cheating.

John: I'd forgotten that. That's one of my favorite moments in the room this year, where we're just sitting there, staring at the ceiling, and we've just been beating at this for hours, and all of a sudden, 'what color is my tie?' and you just saw like the walls fall into place, like, bang bang bang bang.

Chris: And a great choice of Tim here to drop the Papadokalis character. Like by now, by now he becomes Nate Ford, lawyer.

John: And sympathetic dad. You know, he kinda, he genuinely, he's figured out that there's a massive tragedy at the center of this, you know? And we had a big talk about, like, redemption and what the- why this guy would try to change, and... lovely. It's a nice little episode. I think everybody dug this one. Yeah. And she's working the hell out of that, look at that, she's tearing up.

Peter: She's so good. No, and she totally gets it, you know, for me, acting's all about transitions; it's all about, that's the most important part, the change. And she really gets it, she's like, really... and Tim really helped a lot, like on the off camera stuff, 'cause he would just start rattling off all this different stuff to help her get there.

John: I gotta tell you, that was kinda cool, when you're up there in Portland, and you're watching, like, local actors get a seminar with Tim Hutton. Because he worked with the girl who played the victim's daughter in the opening one. I'm like, you're a fifteen year old Portland actor, and you're working with an Oscar—

Peter: She, by the way, was fantastic.

John: She was fantastic. Yeah, and you're working with Tim Hutton. I mean, you're not gonna get this anywhere else. No, we loved the Portland actors. We love shooting there, it's a great place. Now, he's losing it.

Chris: Now he's completely unhinged. [Laughing]

Peter: He's suddenly realized. And it's only now that you realize, he's gonna lose. And it took this long, and that's what's great, is like—

John: 'Papadokalis!!'

Peter: Yeah, dude. That was the best. 

[All Laughing]

John: And he's gone, now Nate's gone from the clown to the guy in charge. And it's, yeah, utterly unmanned him. And I love the fact that, if you go back and watch this now, knowing what Tara is, she's running, like, a double con at this moment.

Chris: Yeah.

Peter: But at this point, you would never guess it, because the Papadokalis character is so big, it camouflages everything that Tara is doing, you know what I mean? And uh, and that's what helped it, her performance and Jimmy Papadokalis being so big, makes you not think about it.

John: I like that wink he threw her, too. That moment, it was a really sweet moment. And uh, a little gloat.

Chris: Oh, here's the gloat. Dean loves the gloat.

John: Dean's rules, the villain must suffer, and there should always be a gloat, if you're going for optimal. I love that she kisses stuff when she gets—she kisses money, she kisses—this is her, she gets pleasure from stealing. No other way around it.

Peter: I gave her like, what that was, in the thing, what's in the paper, and then she kissed it, but I wouldn't tell you what it was because it's private.

John: What? Aww.

Timestamp: [40:00]

Peter: I'll tell you after the DVD thing.

Chris: Oh, and he's dragged away.

John: Dragged away! Ruined! That, my friend—

Peter: I love how she perches up there; she's like a percher. She likes to perch on things.

John: Actually, in another episode, you know, we note the fact that you almost never see her enter a room. Usually the camera comes around, and she's just sitting there. You have no idea how she got there.

Chris: And here this really sells that; you think this is the end of the line for her.

John: Oh, special guest star Jeri Ryan.

Chris: This is like, you know, 'I hope you learned from me.' 'I think you learned something from me.' Like, the audience goes, ‘Oh okay, that's the end of Jeri Ryan.’

Peter: That was a good part for Jeri. That was a good thing for her.

Chris: Now this is very much a Rockford scene, because in every Rockford, there's usually a scene with the girl at the taco stand at the very end, when Rockford surmises why what happened happened. And he doesn't really know why, he just, he's taking a guess with his Rockford wisdom, and that's what Tim is doing right here. I felt very much writing this, that this was the quintessential coda Rockford scene.

John: Yeah. And the sort of, you know, the universe is a disordered place, and our job is to bring order to it. And you really have to read Harlan Ellisons—

Peter: I always love that entrance, these guys 'eh, we all happened to come in and enter right at this time.'

John: They wait around for each other outside, they know the effect they have when they walk in. And now the flip. And look at each one of them locking it in in a different way.

Peter: This is the zoinks moment; that's the zoinks moment.

Chris: And there she is, rocking the boots.

John: And she looks a little different there.

Peter: Slightly.

Chris: That's no librarian!

John: This was great. And it was a great way to introduce the character. Because again, the team is hypercompetent, you really have to... there's only so many ways you get a character to come in here and ordinarily, if you're bringing in a new character, as most shows do in the pilot, it’s the rookie story. We can't have this be the rookie story, because we're in the middle of a season. So, you know.

Peter: I just love, I love the interplay between her, Jeri and Beth, it's great. Because like, you know, that's the two girls and she's the biggest defender for Gina's character.

John: Yes, exactly. And they, by the end, they became really fantastic friends over the course of the season. And it really started being a lot of fun just putting the two of them in scenes together, because they'd found a really nice rhythm between Parker and Tara.

Chris: And I think the actors hung out a lot, they had a really nice—

John: They did; that's what I'm saying, they really were very good friends.

Peter: Well, especially because it's such a guys club, you know. [Laughs]

John: Especially since Gina wasn't, by that point, not in the [mumbles] because of her pregnancy, so this—and we had a bigger scene here and this was just a nice look. This is just—

Chris: That smile!

Peter: And that's her like, in her full like, 'Oh, this is gonna be great.'

John: And it was. We had a great time with her. And the turn, and ‘Dad, make it stop’, and there you go.

Chris: 'What did I just do?' That's—we went out on our summer season finale.

John: On that. Exactly. And this wasn't supposed to be the summer season finale, and it turned out to be a great one. It really was a great, solid, sort of back to basics episode.

Peter: It just makes sense, when you're introducing that new character, now it's like, a whole new change, and then you make 'em wait to get the next ep.

John: Uh, anything you want to say to the nice folks before we wrap it up?

Peter: Well for me, I had a great time doing it. It was a great time in Portland, except for the writers on the set—

John: I understand. Nothing but trouble. 

[Chris Laughs]

Peter: Yeah, nothing but trouble. But otherwise, I mean, great cast, great crew, everything was a lot of fun.

Chris: We had a good time.

[lovelyirony]

'i’m the best worst thing that hasn’t happened to you yet' - for winter13 please? :)

Winter Soldier is a freelancer now. It’s surprising given the ironclad grip that Hydra had held over him, but it was...nice. To escape from their grasp, to be on the run and choosing jobs for himself. There was no RSVP checkpoint, no orders that had to be exact. 

He got a job, executed it well (forgive the pun), and sometimes had coffee afterwards. 

Of course, he took jobs from all over. As long as payment was discreet and so was the job, people were happy to pay a man who had once been a machine. 

Jobs from all over meant that there were always requirements. He had no problem disposing of members of Hydra, but SHIELD was a bit trickier. Winter Soldier reserved the right to refuse a job, and had countless times now. 

(Countless. Almost made him giddy.) 

Agent Thirteen. The newest assignment. 

The hit came from someone inside SHIELD. Which isn’t as suspicious as most would think. SHIELD is many things, but thorough is not always one of them. There are people that slip through the cracks because they get a second chance, something that Barnes thinks they could learn from ever since Jasper Sitwell has become...ill-disposed of. And Pierce has died mysteriously with files about Hydra’s involvement plastered to his chest. 

But Agent Thirteen is born-and-bred into SHIELD. Her great-aunt was the leader of it all, and she ruled with iron in her bones and a heart that cared genuinely. She stayed late nights at the office, kept a knife on her at all times, and was...surprising. 

There was a reason Hydra laid as low as it did throughout the years. 

He had heard that Agent Thirteen lived up to the expectations set upon her. But he wasn’t sure that she was deserving of the fate that someone else had in store for her. 

So he decides to move next door. Whoever was living there has moved out, so he’s moving in as Jim Wetzel. Typical first name, not last. SHIELD is the absolute queen of taking generic names, having a “just-moved-in” neighbor that’s a little too tense, a little too observant. 

Jim Smith wouldn’t do. Jim Smith is too generic. No one names their kid Jim Smith anymore, it’s like sirens wailing loudly. 

So he’s Jim Wetzel. He shakes with his right hand, smiles at the woman who says her name is Kate--it most definitely isn’t--and they exchange pleasantries. 

“When did you hear about the place? It seemed awfully...fast,” Thirteen says. 

“A friend of a friend knows some people a couple floors down, got the message from them,” Jim says with a shrug. “And now here I am. How long have you been here?” 

“Almost a year now,” she responds kindly. “Keep an eye out for the washer on the left, I don’t trust it.” 

“Good advice,” Jim says with a laugh. “See you around, Kate.” 

Kate. What a bad name in the mouth. He’s not sure if it just sounds fake or if it’s because he knows she’s not a Kate. 

He has never really moved in before. Not at this level, not for this long. He has furniture, and he went to the thrift store and bought an eclectic collection of plates and mugs, most of which are very weird. One mug might be cursed, he’s not sure yet. 

Then he sets up shop. SHIELD’s hours run from six a.m. to about eight at night, or later if you’re a very good employee. Or a very bad one. Either way, Sharon may stay later. So he has ample time to place bugs. 

The problem is that she will know all the typical places. Under the television, underneath the bed. (Which he wouldn’t do anyway, because you get...interesting noises.) 

So he has to be sneaky with places, think outside the box. 

Her apartment really is quite nice. Tasteful decorations, small portraits that are obviously faked. He finds her guns and knives, and one set of poison darts that are innocuously disguised as toothpicks in a jar. He thinks it’s cute. 

- 

Meanwhile, “Kate” is pretty fucking sure that her next-door neighbor is either a spy or a model. Potentially both. But no one that hot just “surprise” moves in, and no one can hold two boxes with one arm unless they’re Natasha, but Natasha would be smooth if she was struggling. This guy didn’t even look like it was a problem. 

So she is suspicious. 

But she is also interested in this guy. He’s her type: a little bit dangerous, nice smile, and probably looks good in navy blue. 

So when she comes home at eight-thirty, she does check her home. 

She finds one bug. She’s sure there are more in places that she would never check, and this means that this guy has been in the business a hell of a lot longer than she thought. It also means she’ll have to run facial recognition on any chance that he’s recognizable, and those chances are slim. 

But she cannot dismantle the bugs yet. She has to leave them there until she has enough evidence to be a nice neighbor and confront him with a nice dish of brownies. 

It’s odd, living in a place that you know is bugged. She knows that he didn’t touch the bedroom. Hmph. She would have. 

She smiles at him in the hallway when they wake up the same time. 

“Where you off to, Jim?” She asks, holding her briefcase. 

“Gym,” he answers. “Gotta get it in somehow, you know? What about you, work?” 

“Boring office job,” Kate answers easily. Kate does have a boring job. It’s all paperwork and accounting and the classes she would have failed if she had taken them in college. “Where do you work?” 

“Private security firm,” he answers. Which is kind of true. He is independent. “Just making sure people stay safe from threats.” 

“Important work,” Kate says lightly. “Ever go wrong?” 

“Rarely.” 

She nods, stepping forward as the elevator door opens. “Good luck today, Jim. Hope the workout goes as planned.” 

Okay. Bucky knows she’s onto him now. 

Shit. 

-

Sharon has important shit to do. 

But she is not an art student. 

So she is trying to convince Agent Jenson to draw someone for her. 

“I will buy you the good donuts,” Sharon begs. “You know I wouldn’t be doing this for any other reason.” 

“One time when you were bored you made Thea on third floor photoshop Clint into a McDonald’s ad just to see if you all could get it to Times Square and you did,” Jenson says, deadpan. “I’m not sure how Barton doesn’t get recognized, he’s gotten on national news twice.” 

“The marketing team describes him as a Florida man, we got lucky,” Sharon argues. “And Barton isn’t involved in this.” 

Agent Jenson cannot be convinced. 

But Sharon gets lucky because Coulson loves history. 

James fucking Barnes. 

Jim. 

Goddammit. She’s screwed. And it’s only Thursday. 

-

When she comes home at ten o’clock (yes she did procrastinate going home, it’s not like you can’t procrastinate death), she has a gun trained on her door. 

Right on Jim, who has a knife raised. 

“You know, why aren’t we both rational about this?” Sharon asks. “I’m sure you can talk diplomatically, Barnes.” 

“I can. But I find more truth in threats and statements rather than diplomacy. Politicians aren’t known for telling the truth.” 

“Good thing I don’t have a plan to go into politics,” Sharon says. “So let’s sit down. I’m not gonna hold this gun for twenty minutes.” 

And then they sit. That’s awkward. 

“I need to know something,” Barnes says. “And I’ll know if you’re lying.” 

“Of course you will. I’d be concerned if you didn’t,” Sharon says. “So. Why were you sent to kill me?” 

“There are rumors of you being disloyal to SHIELD. I need to know if you’re working for anyone else.” 

“No. Not ever.” He nods. 

“Who hired me?” she asks. 

“A man who goes by Crossbones,” Bucky says. 

“Oh my god,” Sharon groans. “Of fucking course it’s Rumlow...” 

Bucky freezes. He knows that name. He remembers that man. 

“New plan,” he says. “You’re gonna help me get rid of Rumlow.” 

Sharon blinks. 

She’s used to decisions being made over a series of days. This is...this is new. 

“This is personal, isn’t it?” 

“You’re smart,” Bucky says bitterly. “He’s an asshole. And I hate him a lot.” 

“Got it,” Thirteen says. “Then let’s switch it up. Draw him to where I am. I’ll take care of the rest. You’re on clean-up.” 

“I’ve never had a team-up before,” Bucky says. “But I usually think we know each other’s names.” 

“Sharon,” she says. “Bucky, right? Or do you seriously go by Jim?” 

“Not like Bucky is any better,” he mentions. “But yeah. Bucky. Pleasure doing business with you, Sharon.” 

“Better get started,” she says. 

(Oh, he’s in love.) 

[letterboxd]

Wigging Out.

Australian director Shannon Murphy on her artful debut, the screaming intensity of Australia’s bird-life, and the genius of Jim Henson.

Like a rush of blood to the head, Shannon Murphy’s Babyteeth is a coming-of-age film that takes hold of your heart and refuses to let go. The Australian filmmaker makes her directorial debut here, from a script by Rita Kalnejais (based on her own play of the same name). It’s at once familiar and unbelievably fresh: loveable, immediately recognizable characters in situations so conflicting, painful and euphoric that it’s very hard for your heart to not break when theirs do.

We follow Milla (Eliza Scanlen, Little Women), a fifteen-year-old who is navigating her first love. The object of her affection is Moses (Toby Wallace), a low-level drug dealer and sofa-surfing addict, who is a few years older. Milla has cancer, which makes her adoration of Moses seem all the more threatening to her parents, the type of passionate-yet-complicated couple that Australian films excel at depicting. The parents are played by Essie Davis (The Babadook, The True History of the Kelly Gang, Miss Fisher) and Ben Mendelsohn (Captain Marvel, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the lovely Aussie comedy Cosi). There’s also a pregnant neighbor (Emily Barclay) with a wayward dog, a lot of pill-popping, many wigs, and the intertwining of love, fear and stress that comes with a family illness.

With a background in theater and television directing in Australia, Murphy’s eye is so strong that she was flown to London to direct episodes of Killing Eve off the back of Babyteeth’s 2019 Venice International Film Festival premiere. (She was one of two women, alongside Haifaa al-Mansour with The Perfect Candidate, to be selected in Competition at Venice—the film went on to London, AFI Fest, Rotterdam and others).

Babyteeth has captured the minds of countless viewers, entranced by the singular world being offered. Writing on Letterboxd, Isaac Feldberg calls the film “deliriously, jaggedly alive, so full of broken and beautiful people struggling not to break each other in the midst of their own existential crumblings”. This sense of all-or-nothing was also felt by Emre Eminoglu, who points to the way “it whispers to your eyes and touches your heart with words that it puts on screen”. And Savina Petkova remembers its first screening and has just one request: “Please let me live in the alternative universe where this won Golden Lion instead of [Joker] please.”

Chatting about devastation, drugs and the punk ambitions of fashion when you’re a teenage girl, Shannon Murphy speaks to our London correspondent Ella Kemp.

How did you first come across Rita’s play? Shannon Murphy: I didn’t actually see the play, which is crazy because my theater career started in the theater that it was on at, but I missed it somehow. When I came on to Babyteeth, the screenplay was already ready to go. I went back and read the play just before we started pre-production, and the thing I really loved in the play—not actually in the production but on the page—was the title chapters, and the through line of these whispers written in, of what the dead said to Milla.

What did you feel when you first read Milla’s story? I was really distraught at the end, but not for the reasons you might think. It was more because I couldn’t handle the idea that I couldn’t spend any more time with these characters. It just devastated me that my time with them was over, like with a really amazing novel, you just don’t want your connection with them to end. I thought that was a really great sign. I’d been looking for a first feature for some time, but I knew it had to truly represent my tone, and the kind of artist I wanted to show the world I was. It’s a really difficult thing to do when you’re not a writer yourself.

I felt so distraught when the film ended, and it does just give you the urge to rewatch immediately—it makes you wish it was longer. That’s so great to hear, I’ve had a few people say that they rewatched it more than once and it’s so exciting to me. That is the aim, that you make something that is worth watching again, because you know you’ll get even more out of it the more you watch it—it’s somehow gotten into your bones.

Shannon Murphy with Ben Mendelsohn on the set of ‘Babyteeth’.

One of your actors, Ben Mendelsohn, said Babyteeth is both “delightfully bent” and “beautifully Australian”. What do these terms mean to you? The offset humor is what I’d say he’s talking about, and also the idea to really push through the pain. Australians are really great at saying, “You’ll be alright, chin up.” There’s quite an optimism in our culture. In many ways I really focused on the sound design being really Australian. We shot in February, which is summer, so it was really hot, the cicadas were going crazy, and the birds—our birds sound like people screaming, they’re really intense. It brought such an Australian essence to it.

Could you recommend any Australian filmmakers or specific titles for Letterboxd members? Shirley Barrett’s Love Serenade is amazing. The Last Days of Chez Nous by Gillian Armstrong. And of course Sweetie by Jane Campion is a brilliant piece. I also love Samson and Delilah by Warwick Thornton. [See Shannon’s other Australian film recommendations.]

Moses is such an untraditional love interest, yet so charming. How did you build that character from Rita’s writing, and work with Toby to bring such a physicality to life? It was so important to me with all the characters that you didn’t judge them, despite the behaviors they’re showing because they’re under stress. With Moses it was really important that it wasn’t just about the drug abuse, that it was really about understanding the behavior behind that and why that’s happening. We worked closely with a friend of mine who is a drug and alcohol specialist, and he was always saying, “Don’t talk about the drugs, it’s not what is actually behind this.” We did detail his poly-substance abuse and what he was taking, so that at least Toby and I knew as we were charting the journey.

Toby, in his audition, was just so generous to all the other Millas in the room. Not once was he really thinking about himself, although the stakes were really high and I knew he really wanted the role. I love that, because to me Moses is a really generous person to Milla. I knew I’d have to transform him physically quite a lot, because he’s a very good-looking guy, and we also wanted to break Moses down a lot. With his skin we did that, with his tattoos, and each of his tattoos has a lot of meaning for Moses. Toby and our make-up artist Angela Conti crafted that together. And he’s a very physical performer, very in his body. Who else can pull off shorts like that, quite frankly? I just loved that about him. He’s fearless.

“Who else can pull off shorts like that?”—Toby Wallace with Eliza Scanlan in a scene from ‘Babyteeth’.

Toby gives such an amazing performance. I hadn’t seen him in anything before but a friend said she’d seen him in a Netflix show recently in which he was so despicable, whereas he’s totally transformed here. He’s really my kind of actor because you can throw anything at him and he’s up for it. He’s got an incredible range. And the same with Eliza, they can shapeshift so easily. They’re two very intelligent people, they’re able to get out of their heads and into their bodies quite easily.

I have to ask more about Eliza. How did you create Milla with her, physically, specifically in terms of her clothes, her style—I have the image of the blue wig in my mind. How did aesthetics feed into Milla’s psychology? You know what’s so funny? Everyone calls it the blue wig, but it’s totally green. I don’t know what happened in the [color] grade there, but everyone calls it the blue wig. Even Eliza in an interview the other day said the blue wig, and it was totally green! Anyway, hilarious. Everyone is calling it the blue wig so we can stick with that.

At that age, you are constantly reinventing yourself. Particularly when you meet someone you’re falling in love with, you’re like, who am I going to be to this person? Because this person is also changing who I am and how I see the world. And also she’s completely being a punk, and she’s pushing against her parents, pushing against the world. With her outfits, we spent a lot of time talking about that with my amazing costume designer Amelia Gebler. She’s so bold. We were like, at that age, you just don’t give a shit. You’re trying out different things. Also, the new generation is experimenting with fashion in a way that I think is really impressive. So we wanted to make sure that it felt timeless, and so we did the big pattern clashes for the night out, and also she’s wearing that great unicorn T-shirt, it’s so childlike, but also a bit punk-y when she’s in her home. But then she transitions from the more feminine, girly colors to lilac, which is Moses’ color for the night out. We loved the idea of them both being in the same color for that night.

And then the different wigs, we called the blonde one the Amy Winehouse wig. We would call it “wig-gate” on set, because you always had to make sure you had the right wig on during the transformations. We talked about how initially she has that cancer wig, which is the long blonde one, which is a real cancer wig from a company that makes them specifically for that. Then we moved to Amy Winehouse for the night out, and then we’d go to the blue wig. It always felt like we were doing it at points when she was really shifting emotionally, and playing different versions of herself in many ways.

What was the first film that made you want to be a filmmaker? Is it okay if it’s not a film? I was quite obsessed with Jim Henson’s television series The Storyteller. It was such a dark fable that I watched at such a young age. I remember John Hurt being the narrator, I would just get so sucked into these stories. Even still today I can remember so many of them so vividly. They were really creative. Jim Henson was someone who was so out of the box, really pushing our imagination in ways that have stayed with so many of us.

Related content

Shannon Murphy’s Favorite Australian Films

Jacob’s list of Australian Films Worth Your Time

Movie Maestro’s Teenage Wasteland: A Comprehensive List of Coming-of-Age Films

Dana Danger’s Directed by Women list

[soul-heart-and-beyond]

(Development Meme) What are your headcanons for Jim Starling/Negaduck in DT17 post-TDKR?

Well, since I’m finally popping out of my small break since I’ve been feeling so fatigued lately, I’ll drop off a few stuff for this. Can’t say I’ll remember everything I had thought of when it first came out, but I’ll give it a try! (I don’t even remember if I reblogged the development meme at this point so this was a bit unexpected.)

First of all, I think it’s good to start off with Jim and his whole life before the accident happened as usually the past does help explain the present, and the future. Gotta say that he probably doesn’t have the best house in Duckburg, since we haven’t seen St. Canard yet to really make something of it, and he’s barely making ends meet to keep that place to himself. 

Those meetings and conventions that he goes to are pretty much his main source of income, which definitely fluctuates given the amount of people in the area that actually care about his work. So whenever he isn’t about to make a decent amount there from the charges he gives, he’ll try to find some manual labor or an advertising gig to scrounge up a few bucks.

With that one season being cancelled and overall the show just not getting a reboot or sequel series, it left Jim pretty much heartbroken that his series that he put so much dedication and heart into just wasn’t going to get a proper finale. And that’s pretty much been in the recess of his mind ever since as he loved playing the character, being something that children and perhaps even adults could look up to as a source of vigor and inspiration.

And that goes to saying that whenever he wasn’t in character, he definitely had his problems, being too whiny and wanted things to be done absolutely well in a way that wouldn’t damage his likeliness alongside with doing his own stunts to truly get into character. However he wasn’t really fond of those he had to work with that didn’t like how he did his work, mainly due to the injuries that he would inflict upon the actors. It was nothing personal against them, but he was trying to give his audience a good show.

Another thing is that Jim used to be pretty fit in his prime, which is another factor in why no one would want to do the stunts with him or action scenes as his blows would pack a whallop. Even to this day while he may be a little out of shape, he still has that strength but just slower now due to his lack of maintaining all parts of his body.

He’s been trying to get some acting parts to work in after the show was cancelled, but most of the time they don’t tend to work out so well because he still has traces of that Jim Sterling, that Darkwing Duck character he grew so used to in other portrayals and it can be a bit weird to have to see it. Nothing like a split personality, but just moments that seem all too recognizable to a character from a cancelled show.

Like how it’s done in the episode, Jim already had shown signs of degrading into Negaduck before the explosion, so it’s really safe to say gradually his mental stability and moral standards were being lowered constantly every time he kept getting pressured in a way that wasn’t to his liking. 

While Jim does like attention and fame as it really is something that can be quite intoxicating and he can’t really help himself with it, there are times where he can push that back to take a look at the bigger picture, decide what is truly right for him and others, and go through with it. It’s been one of those small things that has fended off the mental degradation for so long.

Now for Negaduck, which is pretty open ended given how the episode just ends right around his reveal.

For the time being, it’s a good bet that he’s probably gonna be a wild card that runs off to St. Canard and start trouble there as for one: he won’t have to deal with Gizmoduck and Scrooge until it gets to a point where he’s obtained a lot of power or made his presence very clear, and two: it does have attachment and resemblance to the city he used to protect in the fictional show of Darkwing Duck, so it might be just dramatic themes being displayed here and there.

So far, like most others have said before me, Jim still thinks fondly of Launchpad, as he still cares about him, and is probably gonna want for him to either not be hurt by his actions or wanting to bring him over to his side of things. Obviously not many people are going to break through to him and Drake definitely won’t given how he detests the guy.

Most likely he won’t have most of the stuff OG Negaduck is known for outside of chainsaws and firearms, but that’s due to other factors. He’s probably not going to get a gas gun or multi purpose gun of his own, and will be using close quarters combat mostly unless it deals with sci fi weaponry.

Probably gonna make a bunch of small hideouts and stashes for himself all over St. Canard from pillaging some of Scrooge’s or Flintheart’s delivery trucks with stuff that he finds suitable for himself.

He may try to band together his own Fearsome Five or Four as a means of trying to deal with Gizmoduck or F.O.W.L. should the latter make themselves aware of his activities and try to contact him. 

And we may get a Negaverse special/centric episode this season, so there is a chance that he may meet the alternate versions of himself, Drake, and Launchpad. It’s small, but I think it might be pretty interesting if he found a version of him that actually was what he wanted to be, yet to find that his biggest fan was doing things that he is currently doing yet seemingly not like the one Launchpad that had been there to see him at all of those conventions and gatherings.

[lalaurelia]

Quick Gotham 5x11 thoughts

FINALLY WE HAVE GOBBLEPOT CONTENT IN THE EP!!! Sorry about going all caps, but I’ve been thirsty for this stuff for far too long XD

To summarize - good action here, actually nice/professional Jim, badass Babs, sweet BatCat moments, and Gobblepot scenes. Did I mention Gobblepot? Well, we have it. Now let’s get to the deets.

Oh, and sorry, but I just can’t like Ed lately. And Lee. And I’m being mean about it. Sorry.

Things are looking grim for Gotham’s green zone with the army closing in, but Jim’s being all tactical about it and hoping to stall the army enough to actually reverse the criminal orders. Criminal orders - I’ll be mentioning these several times here, because really now. But for the opening scene I love Jim and his allies being all to the point, very focused, very professional, it just makes sense and is so pleasant to see them all working together for Gotham.

Then we have Oswald abandoning the submarine plan for the sake of following his heart, and oh, Oswald, my dear, you’re so romantic. Because... who does Oswald follow throughout the episode? Jim. Jim’s his heart, his half of Gotham, his everything.

Do I love the scene where Oswald comes to Jim? Oh do I? I LOVE IT TO PIECES and yes, sorry, all caps again XD Because - you just look at it.

Jim recognizes Oswald’s presence before he sees him. He claims it’s his “recognizable odor, part dandy, part snake” but come on, he just can’t flirt to save his life, this man, and when he does it comes out this awkward XD Jim teases Oswald before offering him a drink. Now, forgive me if I’m wrong here, but he never did it before. So this is Jim’s acknowledgement of Oswald as an ally, at least, if we remove the shipping goggles no can do, I think I was born with them.

And Oswald’s monologue about Gotham, about how his life is in Gotham, how he is part of the city as much as Jim is. Seriously, when the trailer was out I was afraid they’d make the line “it’s part of you too” be addressed to Ed with the amount of screentime that mutated broccoli was getting and so many scenes that Oswald had with him. God, I’m so glad it’s Jim that hears this. They both acknowledge what Gotham means to them, and they’re always going to be united through that more than anything. Their version of being married, so to say.

Oswald is so breathtakingly beautiful in that scene too, I just can’t.

Then Ed shows up, hogs the blanket, eh, you’re barely more than a civilian at this point, Ed, and you were always a crappy shot. Do you think you make a difference? But as far as symbols go, him standing alongside the heroes is a nice touch.

Loved Jim teasing Oswald about if he still wants to fight, and him shooting back about his full pardon. Lovely banter between husbands

Then we get the good guys of the GCPD on the barricades with Bane’s soldiers down there. I’m not sure if they still had any advisors at this point, with the show’s situation being what it is, but if they wanted us to buy that Bane was ex-military and knew what he was doing, tactics-wise, they kind of… failed. I might go out on a limb here and consider this to be intimidation tactics on his part, but in the sutuation where your troops and resources are limited… that’s not the best idea.

Also. The way Bane took command was by force, sure. But first he and Nyssa made the general issue a criminal order. And the thing about criminal orders - you don’t follow them. The soldiers caved there, for plot, and because you have to know about it, you have to keep your thinking critical, to recognize the order as criminal, and well, army’s not known for a lot of that.

Jim though, I do buy (and headcanon) as having a head for tactics. First his plan to stall the army at a certain point, then him securing the higher ground for his troops - that's good thinking. But then Jim goes and also issues a criminal order, by opening fire on the army soldiers. He gets a bit of leeway there, since they’re actually protecting civilians, but - well, I guess my issue there is that they should’ve waited for Bane’s side to shoot first.

The way Bane’s soldiers were situated in that little square, though… no cover, no nothing, they just stand there like scarecrows - Jim's side could’ve taken them out in minutes. But okay, plot. And it wasn’t all bad, I guess, just kind of stupid, and I don’t like Gotham to be stupid, it’s too good a show for that.

I didn’t enjoy another scene of Oswald getting hurt, and that’s all I’m going to say about it.

Then Jim goes to save Babs and the baby and get the general too, for stopping all that. He’s being all stealthy XD And Babs helps him, distracting the guards, taking them out herself, man, girl just needed a good opportunity to. Also I was angry a bit for Jim not even asking if she was alright, but I guess he didn’t want to anger her more XD So I’m gonna be thinking he just knows Barbara enough to not ask her stupid questions.

Loved him and Babs working together in this scene, period. Now that’s a badass parents couple, if we’re talking hetero romance - and seriously. All Lee scenes were so extra and useless here. I just can’t, they make her so superficial it’s annoying. First her treatment of the Narrows in S4. Then her reverting back from it here in S5 and seemingly not giving a damn about the Narrows. The way she never sees Jim for the person he is - the only hint of her understanding him was when she was saying goodbye to him in S4, of all things. And so here, we get her saying “oh, this person needs this, this person needs that, someone do it” - you're a doctor, goddamit, DO THAT YOURSELF. Because by the time she’s arrived at the GCPD, it’s past triage time. And she only remembers the Narrows when she needs to look all concerned - and then DUMPS the people to just go do whatever she wants. Yeah. Stellar leadership skills. You couldn’t have made me dislike the character more if you tried. Or maybe you did try. I dunno.

I loved how Jim goes all soft when he holds the baby, it’s so damn sweet. Him, Babs, and little Barbara actually look like a very sweet family, and you know, since we’re not getting canon Gobblepot, I’d rather they ended up together instead.

Because Lee makes no sense. Ugh. I’d prefer not to waste any more time on this cardboard cutout of a character, so I’ll just get it all out here at once. When Jim relies on her to lead the people of the Narrows to safety, she doesn’t show any conflict, about how she wants to stay with him instead, and she just goes. Then she dumps them, people who actually rely on her too, who look up to her (poor souls), and abandons them to go die with Jim. It could’ve been a touching scene, with her feelings all in turmoil, her conflicting desires to do good and be with her loved one at the same time… but we never got that. She’s emotionless and empty in those scenes, and all we get is her being stupid, whimsical and superficial. Ugh. I don’t like hating on female characters, but I do hate on this version of Lee. And Jim also goes all stupid with her, and it doesn’t seem as he respects her, either. What was that line about her disobeying him becoming a habit? Women aren’t property, Jim, even if you’re married, and since I decided to ignore that filler ep, you’re not even married, so shut up about it, Jim. You seriously need to continue your relationships with people you respect instead.

I wonder how Babs convinced all those people to go and risk their lives though - that must have been quite a speech. And it was indeed very moving, and enough for the soldiers to finally realize the orders they’ve been given were criminal, and turn on their commander instead. GOOD.

The scene with Babs and Jim at the GCPD after that is again so soft. So cute. I love seeing that soft smile on Jim, and I like Babs being soft with him too. Seriously, I love Babs in this episode.

Then we get Oswald and the mutated broccoli scene. Kind of cool I guess. But I don’t like how he blatantly tries to manipulate Oswald when he’s emotionally vulnerable. AGAIN.

Oswald, my prettiest bird, you should’ve stabbed him. But you keep giving people second chances, and that’s a trait I love about you. Too bad I don’t enjoy that narcissist with a fondness for mirrors and would prefer for you not to waste time on him. Nothing good will come from that, only negativity, and the knife pressed to your back.

Also the scene looked too dragged out and their interactions too forced. They’d be a fun comic duo, but if you want us to buy the tension between them… it’s not working. Also - you just can’t rely on Ed for anything. Oswald trusted him with Martin and we never saw the kid. Oswald trusted him with a dog, and he abandoned it in the submarine. What the hell, Ed.

Oswald is so pretty in that last scene, I’m crying. Of course he dolled up for such an occasion with Jim! And Jim’s eyes, they flit to his side, is it any surprise even? XD

I kind of realized I completely left out BatCat scenes here, but I’ll just say they’re good and sweet and touching, and what the hell, Bruce! You don’t treat Selina like that! Stupid, stupid boy! You had half a brain to say goodbye to Alfred, at least, but man, you owe Selina big time.

This episode could’ve been made better. But I still enjoyed it a lot, mainly for good Babs content, Jim being nice, and finally, finally some premium quality Gobblepot.

I live.

[slashthedice]

Be Mine Forever (Ch. 2)

The next six weeks were hell. Rescue teams worked day and night to uncover the men buried beneath the rubble. You had initially tried to join the men that donned the mining gear and removed debris, but they turned you away, saying it was no place for a woman. Still you showed up at the mine everyday. You and Rhonda stood by, holding hands and watching the maddeningly slow pace of their progress. There was no means of communication with the men down below, no way of knowing if Harry was still alive, if any of them were still alive. You begged them to move faster, to let you help, but every time you were told that they were doing the best they could and that you needed to stay out of their way.

You couldn’t sleep. You could barely eat. Harry was alive, you told yourself. He had to be. But you knew that he and the other men did not have access to food, they would have very little water if any, and eventually they would run out of air.

The other girlfriends and wives of the men down below showed up to the mine too, their friends and parents as well. You all wore nearly identical expressions of anxious fear and worry. Yet, as the weeks dragged on, the number of people that showed up began to dwindle and thin. People began to lose hope, to give up on finding the men alive. The fear was that there would be no rescue, that they were now just trying to recover bodies. Soon enough, it was only you and Rhonda there to watch the rescue workers come in and out of the mine, and you suspected that she was only there to support you. 

She talked about what she would do without Jim, how she and the kids would get by. You tried to listen and commiserate, but you couldn’t understand how she could just give up. You knew that Harry was down there just waiting for someone to find him and bring him back to you. You knew he wouldn’t give up, so you refused to let yourself give into hopelessness. You tried to express this to Rhonda, but she just gave you a sad smile.

Finally, after four weeks, Rhonda told you she couldn’t come with you the next day as you dropped her off at her home. 

“I have to look after my kids and get back to work. I need to put food on the table somehow,” she explained, with a sheepish look.

You understood, of course, and you told her as much. Still, you couldn’t help the cold feeling that swept through you, making you shiver. Hugging your coat tighter around your body, you pretended that it was just that cold late-winter air making you feel this way.

She squeezed your hand between her chilled fingers in what was supposed to be a comforting gesture before wrapping her hand-knitted scarf around her neck and opening the passenger door. You felt very alone watching her retreating form shuffle up to her front door. She waved as you pulled away and headed for home. You forced yourself to return the gesture.

 You pulled into the garage and trudged into the house, turning on the lights before stripping yourself of your coat, hat, and boots. You weren’t sure which you hated more, waiting around helplessly at Hanniger Mine all day, or coming home to an empty house where everything was a stark reminder that Harry wasn’t there. 

Every day you ate at the little yellow kitchen table that you had found second hand and the two of you had fixed up and painted together. Harry had hated the yellow, but you thought it was cheerful. His towel was still hanging on the back of the bathroom door, and a little pang went through your heart every time you caught the faded navy blue in your peripheral. Even seeing his soap and shampoo in the shower was difficult, resulting in tears on more than one occasion.

The worst room in the small house, however, was the bedroom. Most of Harry’s things were in there, untouched and unmoved. You wanted everything to be just where he had left it when he got home, but this frame of mind just made you miss him more. You had taken to bringing one of his shirts with you to bed at night, burying your face into the garment clenched in your hands. You barely slept, but the familiar smell of him on the soft fabric offered some comfort and helped you to get what little rest you could.

As the sixth week of helpless waiting passed you by, you were suffering a particularly rough night. Unable to bear being in the bedroom alone, you had migrated to the old couch in the living room, wrapping yourself in an afghan and trying to get as much sleep as possible. You were in and out, tossing and turning with terrible nightmares and unable to get comfortable on the admittedly lumpy sofa. This went on for the majority of the night, and the sky was beginning to grow pale with the impending sunrise when you finally began to doze off.

That was when the phone rang.

You jolted upright. The afghan was flung off to some far corner in your mad dash to get to the phone. Its shrill, screaming ring filled the whole house. You nearly tumbled as you all but dove to answer the shrieking machine.

“Yes? Hello?” You answered breathlessly before the cool plastic had even hit your ear.

“(Y/N),” you recognized the voice to be Deputy Newby.

Your heart was in your throat. “What’s happened?”

“We broke through, (Y/N). Harry is alive.”

What happened next was a blur to you. You dropped the receiver and ran around the house like a chicken with its head cut off, grabbing and putting on clothes and your keys as you went. You somehow managed to put your boots and coat on before you found yourself in your truck and flying down the road that you had become intimately familiar with over the past six weeks. The tumbling gravel was like a routine now, but for once it didn’t fill you with dread.

Had you been paying more attention, you would have noted the strain in the deputy’s voice. Had you stayed and listened, he would have warned you that the Harry Warden they found in the mine with the barely recognizable corpses of the rest of his crew was not the Harry you knew and loved. He would have told you that the man they found was near deranged, delusional and violent. He would have told you not to come to the mines.

But you hadn’t heard any of that.

As you pulled up to the Hanniger mine, the first thing you saw was the ambulance. You rushed towards it, hoping to find Harry inside but seeing nothing. Then you heard the commotion happening over by the entrance to the mine. You followed the sound with your eyes, spotting a group of men seemingly struggling against each other, almost like there was a fight happening.

Looking closer, you realized that it was really just a number of men trying to hold onto one man. Harry. He was covered head to toe in black soot and dirt. His dark hair was matted to his head with sweat and what looked like blood. He pulled violently against the people holding onto him and leading him forward, wrenching his body this way and that, thrashing his head.

You let instinct take over and sprinted towards him, your heart soaring with the knowledge that he was alive and here in front of you. You could think of nothing but your intense need to wrap your arms around him and just feel him against you, almost like you needed that tangible proof that he was really here. You were just a few yards away when a different pair of arms yanked you backwards.

“No, (Y/N)!”

You struggled against their hold like your life depended on it. “Let me go! I need to go to him!”

“Not now. He’s dangerous.”

The rational part of your brain recognized that the owner of both the voice and the arms was Deputy Newby. The irrational part of your brain couldn’t care less. Harry would never hurt you.

“Harry!” You cried, continuing your attempts to wiggle free of the officer’s hold on you.

Harry’s head whipped towards you with such sharpness that you thought it would fly right off his shoulders. He was close enough now that you could see the wild look in his wide, dark eyes. They looked like the eyes of a cornered animal, too scared to do anything but lash out. For a heart stopping moment, he looked at you like he didn’t even know who you were. He stopped struggling against the plethora of hands pushing him, and just stared at you with that crazed look.

Then he lunged.

You recoiled as he dove for you. The men surrounding him just barely managed to regain control as one of Harry’s soot and blood-stained hands clawed through the air in your direction. He shrieked and he howled as they dragged him towards the ambulance and away from you. He was yelling and yelling and yelling, the words incomprehensible to any present, but ceaseless and vehement.

You were frozen in place, unable to resist as the deputy dragged you backwards towards your truck. “Don’t look, honey,” he advised.

But you had to look. You stared on with wide-eyed shock as they all but tossed Harry into the back of the ambulance, strapping him into a gurney even as he cursed and yowled, fighting them every step of the way. Your heart broke a little more with every animalistic sound that came out of him. The doors to the ambulance closed, muffling the sound of him.

As soon as your line of sight to Harry was severed, you felt all of your exhaustion from the past few weeks crash down upon your shoulders, nearly crushing you beneath its weight. You leaned heavily against Newby, eyes never leaving the closed doors of the ambulance. You felt dazed, like this was all some horrible dream. You didn’t even realize that you had spoken until you heard your own voice.

“Where are they taking him?”

“Hospital, for the time being.”

You swallowed hard. You wanted to ask what was wrong with him. Why had he lashed out at you like that? Didn’t he recognize you? You had known that he wouldn’t come out of the experience unscathed, but the man you had just seen, the man that had tried to attack you, was not even a shadow of the one you knew.

Newby pushed you up so that you were standing on your own, but he kept his hands on your upper arms. “Listen, (Y/N). I tried to warn you, but Harry is the only one of the men still alive. He did some things to survive that just aren’t human.”

Your head was spinning but you tried to focus on what he was telling you. It didn’t make sense and it didn’t seem that he was going to explain further. 

Harry was the only one that survived? You thought of Rhonda and her now fatherless children, and guilt swept through you when you thought of how glad you were that that was not you. Harry may have been changed, he might be acting strangely, but he was alive. Rhonda would never have Jim back.

You slowly focused back in on Newby standing in front of you. He was staring at you with more pity and concern than you cared to see. You wouldn’t say that you were close with the deputy, but had become familiar with him through the course of the rescue effort. You shrugged his grasp off, sliding away from him and walking towards your truck. Unsurprisingly, he followed close behind.

“What hospital are they taking him to?”

“(Y/N), I really don’t think-”

“What hospital, Newby?” You asked again, more firmly this time.

He sighed and ran an agitated hand through his hair, but he told you what you wanted to know.

You thanked him with a quick word and a nod before driving off, more than happy to watch the mine recede in your rearview. If you ever saw it again, it would be too soon.

When you got to the hospital in the next county, you explained to the nurse at the front desk why you were there. She asked how you were related to “the patient”. You told her that you were his girlfriend and that you desperately needed to see him. She gave you a look of barely concealed disdain and explained that only spouses or immediate family members were allowed to visit patients. You explained through gritted teeth that Harry didn’t have any other family, even throwing in a lie about how you were engaged and set to be married in the spring. She looked pointedly at your empty ring finger and gave you the ever infuriating “It’s out of my hands” speech. 

You went back everyday for the next few days, until they told you he had been transferred to the state mental hospital under court order. Your brows had furrowed at this. Why had no one told you? Surely Newby had known about the transfer.

It was a great deal further to drive to the state mental hospital, but you were more than willing to do so. Still, when you got there, you were stopped at the gate and they told you the same thing you had been told at the hospital, but under much stricter terms. They refused to even confirm for you that Harry was actually there at all.

You were sent back home with nothing to show for it, and you felt further from having Harry back than when you began.

While you were focused on gaining access to Harry, the town had recovered the dead. At least, what was left of them. A couple of the men had been killed by the initial explosion and subsequent collapse of the mine shaft. The other two bodies were torn apart and mutilated almost beyond recognition. The sheriff did his best to keep the details quiet, but Valentine Bluffs was a small town, and like most small towns news travels like wildfire. 

Unbeknownst to you, the already gory details were being further sensationalized as the rumors spread from person to person. Almost over night, in the eyes of the town Harry Warden went from reserved but not disliked miner to bloodthirsty, cannibalistic serial killer. People were in mourning, their grief driving them to look for someone to blame, and it was easy to turn a traumatized survivor into the Boogeyman, especially when his rescue could only be described as nothing less than antagonistic.

These newly formed opinions were split when it came to you. To half the town you had always been a loose woman, living with a man you weren’t married to. Those that had been of this opinion were the first to proclaim you guilty by association. The other half pitied you, there were whispers that you would have been better off if Harry had died like the others.

The following weeks were dark ones in the sleepy little town of Valentine Bluffs. There were four closed casket funerals in rapid succession, only one of which you were invited to. Seeing Rhonda and her little ones dressed all in black chipped away at your already broken heart. Then there was the memorial service for all the miners. You went to show your support to the friends and family members of the men who had died, but it felt wrong for you to be there.

Both of Harry’s old supervisors spoke at the memorial, talking about how hard-working and brave all the men who worked in the mines were. They said the lives that were lost would never be forgotten, how it was unfair that they were taken from the community before their time. You seethed listening to their hollow words. It was their fault that this had happened in the first place, but everyone seemed to forget that. As far as you could tell, the whole thing had been chalked up to some freak accident, an act of God that couldn’t have possibly been prevented.

After that, life just sort of continued on. You refused to say that things went back to normal, because they didn’t. Your life was irrevocably changed, shaken to its foundation, but you had no choice but to continue living it. You went to work, you came home, you tried to get used to sleeping alone. You still never touched any of Harry’s things besides the shirt that had become a permanent fixture in your bed. It tore your heart to shreds when you realized his smell on it was fading.

The months came and went, each one no more remarkable than the one prior. The seasons shifted as time continued to pass you by. The cold winds of winter slowly warmed into spring, chased rapidly by the muggy heat of summer. The dog days faded away into crisp air and crunching leaves, followed once more by the harsh bite of winter wind, snow, and ice.

You and Rhonda continued to see and support each other to the best of your abilities. She was one of the few people that neither pitied nor disliked you. You helped her with her children when you could, welcoming the time away from the lonely time capsule that was your house. You became a regular fixture at their dinner table. You tried to help out with groceries and the like when you could, but Rhonda was a proud woman and refused anything she considered charity from you. 

When the final days of January gave way to the beginning of February, you felt yourself grow apprehensive. When the first red and white decorations appeared, that anxiety continued to bloom within you. Cupids and hearts littered the homes and storefronts of Valentine Bluffs, and each addition to the preparations for the town’s namesake felt like another weight on your already heavy heart. 

You became reclusive as the anniversary of the accident drew near, wanting to avoid the reminders of that night as much as possible. Thankfully your boss was a fairly understanding and reasonable person, giving you the 14th off. However, not being at work meant that you were at home. Alone.

You spent most of the actual day in bed, clinging desperately to Harry’s flannel shirt, though it had long since lost any traces of his scent, and sobbing intermittently. You had heard nothing about him or his well-being since he had been sent to the state mental hospital. You had at one point thought that perhaps Deputy Newby would be able to inquire on your behalf since Harry was there under court order, but all of your pleading had ultimately proven fruitless. When he had finally given into your begging and called, the only information he could gain was that Harry was indeed committed there.

As the afternoon rolled on, you dragged yourself out of bed to get dressed. The widows and families of the men killed a year ago were gathering together before the Valentine’s Dance to have a small service in honor of the dead. You, of course, had not been invited, but you were watching the children for Rhonda. She felt that they didn’t need to be reminded of such a tragedy and decided to go by herself.

When you arrived at their small house, you were struck by a twisted sort of deja vu. You had been to Rhonda’s home many times since the horrible night that seemed so long ago, and yet on its anniversary you could hardly look at the yellow siding or the old wood of the front door. You knocked lightly, trying not to imagine how it had felt when you were desperately slamming your fists against the cool surface.

When Rhonda answered the door she looked worn-out. You could still picture her in her curlers and housecoat, haloed by the hall light. She wore a black dress now, and her red hair was shorter. She had cut it a few months prior, claiming that she needed a change. Wordlessly she drew you into a tight hug, a gesture you returned. You weren’t sure if she was trying to comfort you or herself. Either way, you were starving for the physical reassurance the embrace provided.

“Thanks for doing this,” she said quietly. You suspected that the children were in the kitchen just down the hall and she didn’t want them to hear your conversation.

“It’s no trouble,” you replied.

She laughed humorlessly. “I wish you could come with me.”

You both knew that you couldn’t.

She excused herself quickly after your initial exchange, telling you that she wouldn’t be gone for more than an hour. You told her to take her time, that you and the children would be fine.

The hour passed quickly, uneventfully. You fed the children their early dinner and sat with them in front of the television. Staring blankly at the moving pictures on the screen and fighting off the thoughts that were swarming your mind, you barely heard when your friend returned.

She looked more tired than she had when she left, and the tears staining her cheeks were apparent. You were struck then, not for the first time, how different your situation was from hers. This woman that had been a beacon of strength for you over the past year, had welcomed you into her home and into her family, had suffered such an unimaginable loss. Harry was still living and breathing, and as long as that remained true you had hope of seeing him again. Jim was gone forever, buried beneath six feet of impassive earth. She had to live with his loss and remain strong for the sake of the children that she was now raising on her own.

You felt a wave of guilt for feeling so sorry for yourself.

She thanked you again for watching the kids. You said nothing, but now it was your time to initiate a tight hug. You hoped it was enough to communicate all you felt. You wanted her to know how much you admired her as well as how sorry you were. She squeezed you back and buried her face in your shoulder, tears silently soaking the fabric of your sweater.

You wished her a good night and said goodbye to the children. You drove home in silence. Even your normally restless thoughts were quiet.

You pulled into the garage and killed the truck’s engine. A long sigh flowed from your lungs and through your lips. Ahead of you was an evening of silence. You would shower and go to bed, you didn’t think that you would be able to stomach any food that night. The truck’s door swung open lazily, and you exited the vehicle with that same sluggish energy. Your keys clinked against each other loudly in the silence of the garage, and when you had finally retrieved the house key you reached towards the lock.

The door swung inwards when your fingers met the knob.

You froze in place, pulse racing in your ears. You were sure that you had locked that door behind you when you left. It was a habit, the garage was far from secure and you wanted to make sure that no one would be able to get into the house. At the very least, you were sure that you hadn’t left the door ajar.

You took a cautious step inside. The house was dark, illuminated only by the light of the slowly setting sun. You felt around the wall for the lightswitch, flicking it on when your searching fingers found it. But nothing happened. You flipped it up and down a few more times just to make sure, cursing under your breath when the lights still did not turn on.

Your tongue darted out to lick your dry lips nervously as you shuffled further into the house. You strained to listen for any sound at all, but there were none that you could detect. For all intents and purposes, it seemed that the house was empty. Still, you couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.

You headed towards the bedroom, intent on checking the lights in there and then grabbing a flashlight if your fears were confirmed and the power was out in the whole house. As you neared the door, you heard an odd sound. It almost sounded like someone breathing, but it was off. More labored, almost mechanical, distorted. You approached the opening as slowly and quietly as you could. You were almost close enough to see into the room, just a few more steps. You pressed yourself against the wall and leaned towards the doorway. Just a little further and…

And the coat closet behind you burst open.

You shrieked in a mixture of fear and surprise, turning just in time to see a dark silhouette charge towards you, the light from the headlamp they wore blinded you until they were within an arm’s length of you and by then it was too late for you to run. The gloved-hand that was not gripping a pickaxe clamped down on the back of your neck, catching some of your hair and nearly ripping it out of your scalp. The stinging pain was eclipsed by the adrenaline and pervasive, unadulterated terror flowing within you. You stared in horror at the soulless gas mask glaring down at you.

Harry’s thoughts were pure chaos and his heartbeat thundered in his ears covering the sound of his harsh breathing reverberating inside the mask. He had been thinking about this moment all year. You had abandoned him, just like everyone else. You, the person who had been most important to him, the one that professed to love him, the one he had trusted above all others.

He had almost a full year in the state mental hospital to think about your betrayal. He needed to make you feel what he felt, you needed to answer for your actions. The only way justice could be served, the only way he could deliver the full force of his revenge, would be to take an eye for an eye.

You had ripped his heart from his chest, now he would return the favor in kind.

Of course, he knew that you wouldn’t let him exact your punishment without a fight. He was almost proud of you for the struggle you put forth. You kicked and you screamed and you clawed at any part of him you could reach, but his death grip on the back of your neck never wavered as he pushed you back towards the wall. His hand choked up on the neck of the pickaxe as he used it to keep your chin raised and your wide, fear-filled eyes on the impassive face of his mask. Your body hit the wall hard, and he heard you wheeze as the breath was slammed from your lungs. He pushed his weapon further into your throat, preventing you from recovering the lost oxygen. Your eyes bulged and your face turned red as you gasped for air, hands clutching and clawing uselessly against the thick fabric protecting his arms.

So focused was he on holding you in place, slowly crushing your airway with the rounded head of the pickaxe, that he failed to notice your dominant hand reaching towards him. At least until he felt your fingers pry underneath the mask. He tried to jerk his head away, but it was too little too late as you ripped the facade away.

In trying to escape your grasping hands, he had loosened his hold and the pressure on your windpipe just enough for you to greedily suck in a lungful of air, which summarily froze in your throat as you glimpsed the oh so familiar face underneath the gas mask.

Part 1

Part 3

[pedanticat]

Thoughts and realizations on MLP season 1 and 2

With MLP ending I’ve decided to start watching the series from the beginning. Before I started watching season 3, I wanted to talk about and point out all the things I find interesting about the show early in its early years, things I didn’t realize the first time around, questions I never really thought of until rewatching the first two seasons and how things are different in the show now compared to season one and two.

It’s kind of weird how we don’t see more Luna and Twilight interactions since Twilight helped Luna reconnect with her subjects and how to fit in with modern Equestria. By the end of Luna Eclipse, Luna and Twilight become friends, but not only do we never really see the two interact with each other that much after the episode, there’s also that weird scene in the season 3 premiere in which Luna doesn’t seem to think Twilight is up to task at the Crystal Empire.

I never really realized how weird it was for Luna to not show up again till season 2. Like, the second episode of the series ends with the revelation that the villain was actually Princess Celestia sister, yet she doesn’t make another appearance till season 2.

Luna punishing herself for her actions in Do Princess Dream of Magic Sheep make zero sense when you consider the fact that the whole point of Luna Eclipse was that she wanted to be forgiven by the ponies of Equestria and be friends with them

It’s never explained what Luna did as Nightmare Night or how long she was Nightmare Night. Like she’s regarded as this terrible villain according to myth, but it’s never really explained what terrible things she did. All we know that in the show, Luna grew jealous of Celestia, became Nightmare Moon and was then banished to the moon.

Pinkie Pie Pinkie sense really isn’t utilized that often and is barely even referenced. Like with Pinkie Pie having her own version of spider sense you think the writers would utilize it more, but they don’t. Like there have been numerous times in the show in which Pinkie Pie Pinkie sense would have come in handy but they didn’t since the writers seem to have forgotten about it for the most part.

Despite being capable of speech just like ponies, Cows and Sheep are treated like farm animals even though creatures like Buffalos and Yaks have their own culture

We have no idea what’s the deal with Donkey’s and mules are. Like its never really explained if they are from another country like Zebra’s or if they’ve always been part of Equestria. You got to imagine that Donkey’s would feel jealous of ponies since they don’t seem to have any magic at all and are just plain. Plus, a mule is a combination of a horse and donkey, so it honestly would be interesting to see an interspecies relationship between a horse and donkey on screen.

It's interesting how the Everfree forest became less of a threat as the series went on. Early on its regarded as this scary and dangerous episode but then in season 8, you see the Mane Six and Starlight planning a camping trip in the forest

I find it very weird how despite saving Equestria twice by the end of season 2, barely anyone seems to recognize the heroes of Equestria. In Suite and Elite, you would think the fancy ponies of Canterlot would recognize that Rarity is one of the six ponies that helped saved Equestria from Nightmare Moon and Discord. Like, you would think that the ponies who saved Equestria would be very famous and recognizable yet there have only been a few moments in the series in which a pony will recognize them for that. Rainbow Dash and Rarity seem to be more well known for their respected careers in later seasons than their aid in saving Equestria. This is made even weirder since every time Spike steps foot in the crystal empire, all the ponies treat him like a celebrity due to saving their empire twice. I’m not saying that the mane six need to be treated like celebrities but just like how everyone knows who Kim Possible is because of her exploits, you would think every pony in Equestria would know who the Mane Six are.

The fact that Twilight wasn’t revealed to have a brother until the season 2 finale is comes out of nowhere. I mean yeah, the show goes on later to introduce siblings of other members of the mane six without any notice and other shows have pulled the same thing, but the fact that they never revealed that the main character had a sibling until till the end of the second season is just bizarre.

With the final season approaching, I still can’t believe we don’t nothing about Zebra culture. Like Zecora haven’t talked about her homeland, her homeland hasn’t been shown, why she decided to leave her home is unknown and we haven’t even seen another Zebra at all.

On the topic of Zecora, not only did she get the short end of the stick since the original plan of her becoming a second mentor to Twilight was scrapped, but we also never really see her and Apple Bloom interact anymore. Like the show set up this plot line of Zecora teaching Applebloom how to make potions and such yet that haven’t been referenced since season 4 I believe. Heck, in the season 6 episode, On Your Mark, why didn’t Applebloom just hang out with Zecora and practice potion making when the other CMC was doing their own thing?  

There are some episodes that are much better then I remember them being such as Stare Master, A Dog and Pony Show, The Best Night Ever, Cutie Pox and Hearts and Hooves Day.

For all the worldbuilding that has been done in the show, I find it weird how we haven’t gotten to learn or see more of Buffalos, Diamond Dogs, Minotaur’s or Bat Ponies in the series. Heck, why don’t we see any members from those species attending the school of Friendship?

It's kind of a shame that we don’t really see Spike interact with other members of the Mane six beside Twilight and Rarity. Yeah, there’s some interaction between Spike and other members in the first two seasons but even then, you see him interact with Twilight and Rarity the most. I know one interaction I really enjoy is his and Pinkie and you would think one interaction that would have stayed prominent would be Spike and Fluttershy considering hoe Fluttershy fawned over Spike in the series premiere.

I know the reason Luna wasn’t at the Grand Galloping Gala in season 1 was that she works night’s but this ends up being contradicted when there have been several instances after the season one finale in which we see Luna at night.  I suppose she could be taking a short break but still

It's funny how Celestia was seen as this very incredible powerful character early on but after being defeated by Chrysalis it just started this trend of her and all the other princesses beside Twilight almost always being useless whenever a villain tries taking over/destroying Equestria.

Speaking of uselessness, don’t even get me started on the Royal Guards. Despite being around since season 1, they have never been useful in any situation besides the apprehension of Cozy Glow in the season 8 finale. Heck, they weren’t even around during the Storm King invasion for some reason. Jim Miller, the supervising director of the show, answered my question about why they are never helpful in times of crisis with him explaining that if the guards were competent then the Mane Six wouldn’t be needed which I don’t agree with. You can still have the guards be competent and help out and still have the main characters be the ones to save the day. You see this in stories involving superheroes in which cops and firefighters are competent and helpful while the superhero deals with the major crisis.

Sweetie Belle living situation is confusing and has never really been cleared up. We know she goes to school in Ponyville and she seems to normally live with her parents, so does that mean Rarity parents live in Ponyville? Also, Rarity parents are the only parents of a member of the mane six that haven’t been focused on that much which I think is a shame. Hopefully, they’ll get a moment in the spotlight in the final season

The show can’t seem to figure out what the Wonderbolts. It switches between them being fliers who perform air shows to a military branch that, like the royal guards, are useless during times of crisis or when danger is happening

I find it hard to believe that no one knows anything about Spike origin even though someone must have found the egg, documented it with it then being used for Twilight entrance exam for some reason. Surely Twilight could have asked Twilight where Spike was found at as an egg

In Heartwarming Eve, it seems to be confirmed that the planet Equestria is on is called earth

[bismillah-nooo]

Hi! For the fic requests, I always find fics in which someone stands up for Freddie, and I'm kinda hoping to read always some fic in which the opposite happens: someone is talking shit about the band, or some of the band members, or they are in danger and it is Freddie who saves the day! Sorry if it's a bit vague😅 Thanks for your time, have a nice day!!

Author’s note: Hey! I really loved this request and it even made me emotional It is a bit large but I hope you guys like it! It is my first attempt and I tried my best. 

Warnings: a bit of swearing

By the time of the late  ‘70s, Queen had become amazingly successful across the globe. Their gigs were well known for the extreme energy they were able to share with the crowd, as well as for the outstanding performances they served.

''People are still calling out our names, that's insane!'' said John right after the end of another concert. He still couldn't believe that the band had become one of the worlds biggest names. This seemed so unreal to him.  ''How are you guys, are you okay?'' he asked the others who at that time were getting backstage.

''I am overwhelmed'' Freddie answered, ''even though I'm a bit exhausted''.

He looked at Brian. He was sweeping his forehead with a towel as he was gently leaving his guitar in its case. He really cared very much about his Red Special baby. At the other corner of the room, was Roger, being still extremely energetic. He put his jacket on and fixed quickly his hair with his fingers. He was a handsome young man that every girl would want to have.  

''Would you like to go have a drink somewhere?'' he asked the rest. John raised his shoulders,  he really wouldn't mind going anywhere if it meant that he would be with his friends.  

''I'm in!'' said Freddie immediately.  ''Come on Bri, we're gonna relax after all!'' he tried to persuade Brian who seemed a bit bored.

''I don't know. In fact, I feel like something bad is going to happen if we go out now, '' he mumbled, but he already knew that his argument wasn't strong enough. ''Oh, come on now, nothing will happen, stop having silly worries!'' laughed Roger and teased his hair playfully. ''We'll have fun.''

Eventually,  they all went to a pub. Slightly recognizable among the rest of the customers, they ordered their drinks at the bar without getting disturbed by anyone.

Or almost anyone...

'Oh boy, you look so good, let me take you home tonight''  a girl said out of the blue, pointing out to Roger. She came closer to the band, holding a glass of beer and almost fell down, as she was attempting to walk properly. She was totally drunk. However, she started touching shamelessly Roger's back, trying to get his attention.

'' Uhm... who are you?'' he told her with embarrassment.  He looked at the others awkwardly, without knowing what to do. The only sure thing was that he needed some emergency help from them.

''I always wanted to do things to you, Roger Taylor. Now I've found you and I'm not gonna let you go!" she continued saying gibberish to him.

''That's enough, call her a taxi Freddie! Deacy and I are going to remove her'' said Brian, and Freddie did so.  

''Okay young lady, leave my precious friend alone!'' John told her

''Noo, I don't want to! Roger's mine now!'' she continued screaming as the boys were trying hard to ward her off. Roger finally escaped from her hands and looked at her with a bit of disgust, as Brian and John were still holding her back.

''Well, I don't even know who you are and I'm sorry, but I ain't sleeping with you tonight sweetie, you're extremely drunk!'' he told her, trying to be polite at least.  He couldn't do anything but laugh nervously at the end though, to him this moment was far more than awkward. Thus, he left as quickly as possible and ran to find Freddie.

''So, you handsome guys won't take me home tonight either?'' she murmured and turned to Brian and John. She started rubbing herself on the last one's body with lust, as her feet were trembling.

''Take her Bri, what am I gonna tell to Veronica if anybody sees me like that?!'' said Deaky and almost threw the drunk girl to Brian, who felt completely embarrassed. The girl, being much more shameless than before, as soon as she felt Brian's hands keeping her, began to kiss him wherever she could. The situation was entirely out of hand.

''Fred, what the hell are you doing there? Where's her taxi?'' he yelled. Freddie and Rog came back to them, and even though they were also ashamed and worried, they couldn't help laughing with the whole circumstance.

''It should be here by now! Go out, I will pay. ''' responded Freddie. The other three went outside with the drunk lady still on their hands, who meanwhile, had started crying.

''Please, please, don't let me go, I want to stay with you, sleep with all of you!''

''It's dangerous here sweetheart, you are going home now!'' John replied.

''But...'' she tried to insist as soon as the taxi arrived.

''Get in!'' Brian demanded. ''We're sorry to do that but we can't let you stay in these terms. I hope to see you soon, sober!" he continued.

''I will sue all of you! You are really assholes, you cocky bastards! Shame on you, you can't do me the simple favor!'' she started yelling insanely.  

''Please darling, get in!'' Freddie said more calmly.

''I will contact the press as soon as I get home!'' she carried on with her paranoia. When she finally agreed to get into the taxi, a huge relief sigh throttled out of their lungs.

''I told you that something was about to happen, '' whispered Brian, still in confusion.

''Do you believe she's going to sue us for real?'' asked Roger.

''Nah, she is too drunk to remember to do such a thing'' concluded Deaky. ''Isn't she Fred?''

''Of course. Relax everybody. Let's go back to the hotel.''

Next morning, Freddie woke up first. The phone in his room was ringing persistently. It was Miami and he was totally anxious.

''Freddie, what the hell did you all do last night?'' he asked upset,  as soon as Freddie picked the phone up.

''Last night? We were at the gig, of course, darling! '' he responded still sleepy.

''After the gig I mean. Have you read the press?  

''Not yet, Miami, in fact, you just woke me up.''

''Fred, did Bri, Rog, and John rape a woman last night?'' Jim Beach asked disarmingly.

Rape? Freddie's mind was suddenly blown away. He couldn't remember such a thing. ''Of course not!'' was his first thought. His friends would never behave like that to anybody and he definitely knew that. He certainly knew that this news was fake!

Abruptly, he remembered everything about last night. This girl. She was shouting that she would contact the press. This was surely her job. Freddie felt like he was losing the world under his own feet. His soul brothers were in trouble, his own bandmates were now portrayed as awful creatures who would treat women like shit. He shouldn't let this happen. He had to do something but he didn't know what...

''Are you still there? Is it true? '' asked Beach. Freddie sighed and then he narrated everything, from the beginning. He felt so confused. Brian, John, and Roger didn't deserve to be attacked by some fake news a drunk woman had spread.

''Have you spoken to them yet, Miami?'' he asked.

''No, I wanted to talk to you first. But I'm sure they already know what's going on.''

Miami was right. The rest of the band had received thousands of calls from journalists who would die to select some extra info in order to have an article exclusivity. That incident had turned them inside out. There were already some people out there who were talking shit about the band, and this article made the situation even worse.

As soon as the night came, they all met backstage before another gig. But this time, everything was so different. Roger wasn't in the mood for giggling around, neither John was smiling like before. Brian was anxiously walking in the room, without being able to relax. And Freddie could only look at them with his heart aching.

''Guys...'' he tried to speak to them, but he took the same answer from three different mouths. ''Not now Fred.''

It was time for them to get on stage. A strange feeling was all over them. How could they perform in front of so many people who now considered them as rapists, even though they weren't? Roger started playing the intro of ''We will rock you'', but it was clear that he hadn't the same energy. He wouldn't even look at the crowd, even though people were cheering to them. Brian still seemed so concerned, while Deaky was standing still, without breaking into one of his cute dances. Freddie knew that this wasn't Queen. Not at all.

He held the microphone tight in his hand and surprisingly he decided not to sing. He took a deep breath and glanced again at his bandmates before he started talking.

''Hello everyone..!'' he said energetically, and the crowd started applauding. The other three had no idea of what he wanted to do, so they just stopped touching their instruments and let him continue.

''I know that most of you were ready to sing with me. I ensure you that this will happen, but a bit later, because now I have something really important to tell you, my darlings. '' he carried on, causing everyone's query.  Deaky, Roger and Brian remained silent, and even though they didn't know a thing about what he had in mind, put their trust in Freddie, who was ready to save the day.

''So, I am sure that some of you, beautiful people, have read some strange things about us on the newspaper today, right?''

The crowd responded with a boo. Not for the band - but for the press-. This made the four of them grin. It was more than comforting knowing that people were still supporting them at that time. For sure, their fans were more dedicated than they thought.

''Hey, you wanna know something? I have been known these dudes for such a long time. They are my brothers. Yesterday night we were all together at a pub celebrating our friendship when a drunk lady approached us. She was in a dangerous condition so Brian, Roger, and Deaky had her home by a taxi. These boys might be asses sometimes, but no, darlings, they would never hurt anyone in any way. I will let nobody talk shit again about my family - because they are my family. - You know, they have been there for me uncountable times. The less I can do now, is to stand up for them here, in front of all of you and in front of the bloody press''. Freddie finished his monologue and looked at his friends. They couldn't believe in their eats. They suddenly had felt so relieved, so loved, thanks to Freddie who defended all of them at once. Most importantly, they all felt so thankful.

''I am with you. Everything will be fine''. he added and glimpsed at them.  John, Roger, and Brian wiped some tears of joy as they were now getting closer to Freddie. The band merged in a group hug, as the crowd burst into cheers again.

''I love you guys,'' Freddie whispered during this warm embrace.

''We love you too Fred. Let's do this now!!'' they all answered. They were now ready to let the show go on, as a Queen show deserves to.

hope you enjoyed it! @deakysgurl @dianx365 @crazyweirdocalledfriday @i-padfootblack-things @pinkdreamcollectorsworld @jeejeefromthesee @getdownmakeluv @littlesherlockrainbow

[ayankun]

GOTHAM

insanely rambley HUGE spoiler-ridden seasons 1-4 thoughts under cut

FIRST OFF LET ME TELL YOU I GOT CHILLS

Secondly, let’s think back to how I felt about season one.  A little loose in the narrative, not so much weaving threads as having threads, ones that you keep expecting to pull tight but more often than not just get dropped for other, shinier threads.  All leading to a surprisingly effective character-driven season finale that hopes to prove to you that a few meandering plot points can still add to a sum greater than the parts.

(Oswald goes from umbrella boy to King of Gotham, Bruce Wayne starts at the site of his parents’ murder and ends up taking his first steps into the Batcave, Jim enters as this black-and-white idealist and winds learning from a mob boss that even good men sometimes get their hands dirty to get the job done.  A socially awkward unrecognized genius has a psychic break, leading ultimately to the fall of Edward Nygma and the rise of the Riddler.)

Season two is a blur.  A period of transition from Jim “Good Cop” Gordon Fistfighting Corruption into... Gotham City: Arkham Asylum’s Backyard.  Think how much season one was about only Fish Mooney vs Falcone vs the GCPD and Cobblepot doublecrossing everyone he meets, and how much seasons two and three and four were about the Riddler and Valeska and Tetch and Ra’s al Ghul (and Valeska).  We have the bring-everyone-back-to-life at Indian Hill period to thank for the sudden left turn into the Strange.

WHICH IS NOT A COMPLAINT.

There are so many types of Batman stories, and there’s a time and a place for both Joe Chill and Killer Croc.  Gotham started in one and always knew it was headed for the other.

And B.D. Wong as Strange is a DELIGHT and I really appreciated his dynamic with Miss Peabody.  Speaking of, the bomb defusing scene was a real gem omg lololol give the woman some damn water already.

At the same time, the Fish storyline was like WHOA what EVEN is haPPENINg at any given moment.  And it ultimately didn’t amount to much?  There’s so much waffling between the surviving gang camps where everyone’s either got a kill-on-sight order or a owed-life-debt to each other and the pendulum swings back and forth so quickly it’s not really worth holding onto how anyone feels about anyone else.  That dead/MIA character will come back or the rivalry will be revived or the long-held grudge will be recalled if and when that plot point is going to be drafted, but other than that everyone’s friends and that’s ok.

And like.  Ivy??? Ivy Pepper???????  Why is that ride so wild???  There is no cause and effect, only next next next.  It’s insane.  Maybe watching this all at once rather than over the course of four years lends a different perspective, but holy cow.  Such a ballsy way to do whatever with a character you never had a plan for.

Which brings us to Barbara Kean?!  Season one she was there because they knew she was a Mythos Character but then they were like, wait, whateven is she for though?  Which is a fair question, since having her be the Little Lady Trophy Fiance meant she was a boring and needless character wasting space, not standing on her own and hardly informing Jim’s character either.  So what to do, what to do.  How about we kidnap her, put her through some insanely cruel physical and psychological abuse, make her a psycho-revenge-bride, put her in a coma, have her come back as a 100% Arkham Villain, give her a hench(wo)man, have the henchman KILL HER, have Ra’s al Ghul waltz up out of literally nowhere and say “lol, borrow this arcane mojo for a minute, I’ll want it back later or will I” and now she’s a kingpin of Gotham’s underworld with her own mini League of Assassin?!!!!!!!   !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Like.  Even if they never had a plan going into it, I’m pretty okay with most of what they came up with.  Better than the lil wifey hanging out at home and having one passing remark about curating a gallery that we never saw and was never mentioned again.

Better off a once-crazy, once-dead mafiosa than the less inspired handling of Miss Kringle.  I won’t even get into that trainwreck I-only-exist-to-validate-manpain-of-my-murderer wait I said I wasn’t going to get into it.

So Nygma!  Like I said when I got started with the show, the season one Edward Nygma was crafted as this painfully unsympathetic offbeat loser and I think they fully succeeded with that characterization.  The emergence of the Riddler persona was a welcome change, an upgrade, a spit-shine into something clean cut and confident and stylish.  But I like that, compared to the Penguin, the posterchild for evil-psychotic-villain!Protaganist, for example, they held on to a lot of Nygma’s unlikeablilty in that he’s still an ass, even more of an insufferable egoist, and SO CRAZY he can’t even read himself (which was a big thing about the character before he split in half, so in itself that’s pretty great).

I don’t know.  Maybe you like him and I’m supposed to like him.  I think he’s exactly what he ought to be, and while I'd never want to see him marched off a peer with a bullet in his back, I’m more than happy to see his fellow villain-Protagonists knock him around once in a while.  Penguin and Mooney and now Lee (?!) and Zsasz even are the kind of villan!Protagonist you really root for.  But if it’s any one of them vs. the Riddler, they’re definitely not going to lose.  Nygma’s like in his own category of villain!Protagonist Antagonist.

Of course, the post-Arkham-proto-Riddler who was running Oswald’s mayoral campaign, now HOT DAMN that was a storyline I could get behind.  I almost actually believed they were going to do something great in the Nygmobblepot arena and that was a magical moment.  I think the resulting blood feud, as painful of a 360 as they come, was a sounder storytelling decision and more in line with the show’s Schroedinger’s Frenemies mentality.

And his season four storyline with the Ed Nygma persona challenging the Riddler was a nice full circle.  Sort of closing the gap between this raging banana nutball and the razor-sharp criminal mastermind he could be if tried.  Not SUPER THRILLED with his creeping on Lee but, with all due respect, that’s par for the character so again I say I don’t think I’m meant to like him??

I just spent half this rant on the Riddler so I guess they’re doing something right.

Ok so Cameron Monaghan’s VALESKA TWINS.  Let’s get right into it, shall we.

Holy smokes they did everything right on this one.  Loved the Primal Fear treatment of his introduction, and the way this random circus kid just so happens to start displaying jokey traits that astute viewers will start to suspect that this could be the big bad we’ve all been waiting for --

and then they kill him.

WOW

I was so ready for this kid to grow up to be the Joker, and they rip that dream away and replace it with an idea that anyone can grow up to be the Joker, and damn if that isn’t the nicest treatment of the character’s fractured and obfuscated origin story.  But.  THEN!

THEY BRING HIM BACK and it’s everything you wanted him to be.  He’s just so good.  There’s just the right amount of (IMO, anyway) Hamill-homage in what is otherwise a fully imagined Character who is instantly recognizable as one of many iterations but at the same time outclasses them all.  The high-level narrative and dialogue stuff, the stuff they create for him to do, I mean, is all great.  And then Monaghan brings this manic A++ game to the table and blows it out of the water.  Best Joker performance?  Arguably so, especially when you consider

JEREMIAH VELASKA because this kid can’t stop having stellar Joker performances.  He’s like, two and a half, three of the best Joker performances on the books.  Jeremiah’s distinct visual style, the characterization, AGAIN with the obfuscated we-are-legion origin story hocow.  NO COMPLAINTS HERE.

Anyway so if that’s what we get in return for sending Fish Mooney through a narrative meat grinder, then I guess it’s an even trade.

Pengiun.  What to say about Penguin.  I loved what they gave him in season two, a ton of character stuff because his plot stuff of rags to riches had played itself out.  I felt real bad for his mom, but I really liked that he went and made himself mayor, and even while his story arcs tend to go riches to rags and back again, it’s never not a pleasure watching him claw his way up to where he thinks he ought to be.

For the most part they do a good job stringing together these different Protagonist story-groups, keeping in mind that most of these groups serve mainly as antagonists amongst themselves (when they’re not being buddy-buddy to serve some winding end).  So when you get the villain!Antagonists you can really tell the difference.  I got a little yawny while we were setting up Fries, and by the time we finally locked Tetch up for good I was very grateful.  These will never be main characters and the show knows it and wants you to know it, too.  So while they’re the main on-screen villain, it can get a little stale because the same effort isn’t being put into their lasting appeal.

Um.  Jim Gordon.  Another thing I liked about season four was a strong return to GCPD bidniss.  Season two there was a lot of GCPD, but with Captain Barnes and the strike force and Galavan, so it was a completely different narrative animal than what Gordon was throwing down with in season one.  Then Gordon goes to prison and after that he doesn’t go back to GCPD until well into season three, and by then the story’s about Mario and Tetch and Lee and omg I forgot about Valerie Vale until this very moment whoops.

As was hinted in the season one finale, Jim Gordon went on a very twisty path through the mud before he figured himself out again.  Killing Galavan was like WHAT JIMBOY and that wasn’t even the worst of it.  What I liked most about his stint as a PI was the character’s eventual acceptance that the law isn’t the be all and end all of righteousness, and that there are other means available when enforcing peace and justice.  Not necessarily by killing every evil mayor you come across with your own two hands, but the eye-opening to the virtues of vigilantism is super important when you realize he’s going to be Batman’s main ally down the line and this time in his life is going to be what ultimately allows the future police commissioner to legitimize this kind of shadowy ninja behavior.

Anyway, in season four, Jim kind of comes back to roost at the GCPD, and finally ousting Bullock as Captain was rough but obviously warranted, and with only one season left that was a good time to do it.  Harper was a nice addition and I’d like to see more of her as a standalone character.  (Similarly, Fox has fit in nicely with the cops, but I’m not overly hankering to see more of his day to day antics.) 

What was my real point?  I really liked the Gordon vs the GCPD dynamics of season one, and while obviously that’s not a story you can tell forever, it did inform the sense that the police force is a living entity that can serve you very well if it trusts you, but before that can happen you really have to jump on its back and break its will LOL.

Also, remember Renee Montoya and Harvey Dent?  Yeah, I don’t either.

SO BRUCE WAYNE, MY FRIENDS.

Gotham is my very most favorite Bruce Wayne story, and much as Batman: TAS is my forever-reference for most Batmany things, Gotham is going to be my heart-canon for Bruce Wayne origins.

It’s one thing to say, “ok so this rich kid watches his parents get murdered in an alley, and from this moment on he vows to do something about it and makes himself a master detective/martial artist who puts on a mask and a cape and runs around at night smashing thugs’ heads in for justice” like it’s a foregone conclusion, a straight-forward A-to-B process, and a wholly other thing to show us, step by step, how he learns to become the thing we all know he’s going to become.

In season one he was this quiet, morose but driven child who didn’t know what to do with this crisis he’d been handed.  He’s a kid who sits in a pool with his whole clothes on, trying to hold his breath for as long as possible because he has no idea how else to become better prepared for handling his issues.  But he has Selina and he has Alfred and he has Fox and he has Jim Gordon, and he will have the Court of Owls and the Valeskas and Ra’s al Ghul who will all play a part in handing him pieces of himself until he has a full set.

He started with this strong sense of right and wrong, a deeply seated desire to put his talents and his money to some sort of use, an earnest diligence towards bettering himself in all ways, and little by little he gets shown just how much of a fragile and defenseless baby he is.  That time Alfred accidentally-on-purpose clobbered him in the eye -- that was the moment Bruce found out they’d all been pulling their punches with him and that he still had so so so far to go.

Of course, at the particular moment, he was going through a well-earned rebel without a cause phase (which will do him well when he calls on those behaviors for the benefit of a wider audience), so I don’t think that realization hit him at the time.  BUT I NOTICED.  Sure he’s got a bulletproof suit and he can look Jim Gordon straight in the eye now and he can fling himself off rooftops like a champ (and when Alfred gave him the keys to the Batmobile I cried a little), but he’s no Batman.  Not yet.  Not quite yet.

But you can see without a shadow of a doubt that he’s gonna be!  Instead of this “Bruce Wayne woke up as Batman” story, we get a look at all the day by day choices and experiences that inform, shape, and depend on Bruce Wayne’s core identity and the way that they will collectively create Batman.

Now, David Mazouz may not have the character acting chops of a Pinkett-Smith or a Taylor or a Monaghan, and he may not be as comfortable living in a everyday character like Pertwee and Logue do so effortlessly, but there’s a steeliness a Bruce Wayne should have, a hauntedness, an idealistness, that Mazouz emotes in spades.  Sometimes his Bruce Wayne does a stunt or pulls a pose that Mazouz KNOWS is Batman territory, and while his awareness of “I’m doing a cool thing look at me doing it” is a little distracting--it’s also SUPER EFFECTIVE and I fall for it hook, line, and sinker.

I’ve always been one of those fans who’s way more interested in the lives and characters of the secret identities (compared to the heroics of the super identities) so hot diggity dog is this the show for me.  All Bruce Wayne all the time.  When we he does put on the mask, it’s all the more powerful for knowing who exactly is wearing it and what’s driving him to do these borderline insane things.

Not 100% sold on Ra’s’ “I saw this in a dream” strong-arm prophecy, feeling like it steps on four years of Bruce Wayne’s self-determination.  Not 100% on how they introduced him and his aims and his baffling reincarnation(s).  But I am 100% on the pronunciation of “Ra’s” because I’m aware that Kevin Conroy et al figured it out somewhere between TAS and Arkham Asylum, but it’s something that they never quite got in Arrow.  (Oliver consistently uses “raysh” but everyone else is a grab bag between that and “rawz”.)

For that matter, David Mazouz consistently pronounces Ra’s with two syllables, so there’s also that.  Wait, hold on.  In Gotham they also draw a hard line between Ra’s al Ghul, the man, and “the demon’s head,” some sort of mystical power of time travel and flashlightiness.  Give one point to Arrow for not being that bizarre.

Long story short, the shot at the finale where Gordon’s waiting on the GCPD rooftop with the spot light and Bruce Wayne stalks up behind him was BEAUTIFUL.  (They also did the thing some episodes earlier where Bruce peaces out on Gordon when Gordon’s mid-sentence with his back turned and I laughed a lot)

Looking forward to their take on No Man’s Land.  Here’s a short story for you at the end of this long story:

One time I was reading No Man’s Land volume by volume from the library.  It was tough because I checked the first time and they had the full set, but then you never knew that the next one was going to be available when you went in for it.

So I get out of the car one day and look there’s a quarter on the ground.  Neat.  It’s mine now!

Going into the library, there was a cart of used books for sale by the door.  25 cents each.  Hell, I’ve got a quarter now, let’s see what they got.

What they got is the No Man’s Land novelization.  For 25 cents, or, in my case, free.

So I read that instead, and turned out I liked it way better than the source comics.  I have a hard time reading comics?  I tend to not look at the pictures, and certain art styles aren’t my jam.  Also when it comes to narrative capabilities, there are different tools and effects inherent to each form, and I appreciated the literary treatment and the internal voice it brought to the table that the comics couldn’t.

Also the author said in the note that his method was to sit down and jam out minimum 2000 words a day and that’s still a feat I admire.

Anyway, that’s my long winded take on Gotham.  Not perfection, but certainly a respectable and authoritative representation of a subject matter we all know and love.  I give it my second favorite Batman portrayal (behind Kevin Conroy and above Adam West) and my absolute favorite live-action Bruce Wayne, hands down.

[deliverydefresas]

masters of the scene

This has been on my drafts since June yet I’m only writing (and posting it ofc) now. The idea came out in the middle of the night, and somehow I managed to wake up and tell Pau before it erased from my mind completely. 

Shout out to cupcake and my baked goods bc without them I’ll probs would’ve have never managed to do it, and probs would never written it lol 

It’s an au i think you’d like so I really hope you do <3 

AU: Matteo Balsano is a famous singer who has been crushing on this one girl he saw every day behind a window many years ago, back when he first started recording his debut album and inspired his first big hit, “Princesa”. Luna Valente, professional Olympic skater turned actress is at a local (and very popular) talk show to promote her breakout movie. This is where it all starts. 

ITALIAN POP PRINCE OFF THE MARKET?

RUMOR HAS IT MATTEO BALSANO, ARGENTINA’S FAVORITE ITALIAN BOY HAS FOUND HIMSELF A NEW GIRLFRIEND. SEEN LAST NIGHT AT A POPULAR CLUB IN BUENOS AIRES, WITNESSES AFFIRM STRANGER’S SINGER WAS ACCOMPANIED BY A ‘BEAUTIFUL BLACK-HAIRED BEAUTY’ AND THE COUPLE COULDN’T KEEP THEIR HANDS OFF EACH OTHER.

IS THIS THE END OF HIS PLAYBOY ERA? READ MORE ON PAGE 26!

“Why do you even bother reading that bullshit, bro?”

“It’s amusing how they’re so sure you’re dating your cousin.” His best friend told him, sipping on his coffee while flipping over the pages of the tween magazine that had been delivered that morning on his doorstep.

He groaned, disgusted. “It’s not amusing, it’s fucking gross.”

“If you had let me clarify since day one who Flor was to you, this wouldn’t be happening.” Gastón reminded him, taking another small sip of his cup. He resumed his reading once he found the page with that article; “hey look, they say her name is Clara and that you’ve been dating for over two months; ‘a whole new record for our Italian Casanova Balsano!’” Matteo flipped him off.

“First of all, ‘day one’ would mean you were my lawyer at 19, without even finishing one year in Law School, you dumbass. And second, it was you who gave me the idea of protecting Flor’s privacy.”

“I was very smart at 19, thank you very much.” Gastón threw the magazine at him, which he dodged easily and got into the kitchen and prepare himself an espresso, but smiled fondly at his friend anyway.

It was hard to believe so much time had passed since he was discovered in that small bar years ago, when all he had left were his songs, his guitar, and the support of his best friend for over fifteen years. Going against his father’s wish of a diplomatic future for him hadn’t been easy, especially when you’re an eighteen-year-old boy with no working experience or a survival plan. Having had his parents’ back his whole life, the abrupt change of living alone and financially supporting himself was a challenge he hadn’t foreseen for at least another four years; but it had been an experience so groundbreaking, and so eye-opening that he wouldn’t dare to have it any other way, at all. Gastón had helping him a lot by letting him crash in his room multiple times, as well as approving and correcting his songwriting before he even presented it to a crowd.

His way of repaying had been hiring him as his lawyer as soon as he was out of law school, even if it went against his management’s ideals. Matteo would rather have someone he trusted 100% and minded his interests first, than a stranger whose decisions would favor anyone but him. Call him stupid, or naïve, but he had blind faith in Gastón, and knew it had been for the best. His friend hadn’t been first in his class for nothing. (He did like to joke it had been because of his pretty face and good hair, though).

"At least now they'll drop that 'Mambar' crap, since I'm 'off the market' and whatnot."  

"I don't know, bro;" Gastón laughed, "they're capable of saying you're cheating on Flor with your ex." 

Matteo groaned again when he realized Périda was right. Dating Ámbar back in the day had been proved to be a mistake, even when they'd never confirmed their relationship to the media (or anyone outside their circle of friends); because the rumor hill and theories didn't disappear to this day. Gastón liked to joke that he could get married and have ten kids, and even then Ámbar would get mentioned as the mistress at least once. It certainly didn't help that he shared management with her, since they always made sure they were photographed at any event they happened to be at the same time. They were lucky they didn't hate each other or were dating anyone else yet, because it'd make everything more annoying. 

"She still in town?" Gastón passed him his cup, and he dropped it in the sink for them to clean later. He nodded. 

"Yeah, she's got a promo interview for her movie with Jazmín tonight, then she leaves for promo tour past-tomorrow morning. She invited us to the show, by the way." 

His friend arched his brows, questioning, "to Ja Jazmín? She's not trying to set me up with Delfi again, is she?" 

Matteo smirked, "how did you know?" He laughed when his friend's face turned white, "don't worry, stud, I heard she's seeing Pedro now; you lost your chance with her. Ámbar just said she wanted to say her goodbye's since they're leaving right after the premiere tomorrow night, and will be out of the country for a month and a half." 

"That's never stopped her from disappearing before without telling you, though. Not even when you dated." The italian shrugged. It wouldn't be the first time Ámbar planned something for her convenience without explaining it to him first; and he trusted her enough to be sure it wouldn't put him in a bad place to the public. She could be a mean bitch, but she wasn't one to hit that low. 

"Beats me. Maybe she just wants more promo, since the RB guys will be there, too." 

"Her name isn't enough, now?" Gastón joked, grabbing his portfolio from the couch, arranging his tie with his free hand. It was almost nine, and he didn't doubt his friend was late already. Frankly, he didn't even need to work at his dad's firm, since he paid him more than enough to be his only client; but his best friend wouldn't dare to leave his family's business to a stranger once his dad retired. 

Matteo shook his head, "more like, her name's the only recognizable one. The protagonist and her co-protagonists are all professional skaters; Ámbar's the only professional actress turned skater for the film." 

Gastón whistled lowly, "blondie really knows how to pick challenges, doesn't she." 

"She did date me, y'know." 

"Sure thing, casanova. I'm leaving now, don't miss me too much, darling." Jokingly, he blew him a kiss, which his friend caught in the air and, with a wink, left him to go to work - already late. 

Since he'd finished his latest tour a month ago, and was procrastinating songwriting, Matteo decided he'd spend the morning sleeping. He'd order pizza in the afternoon, maybe sleep some more and then shower so Gastón and he could leave some time after dinner. 

For now, though, his bed was calling to him. 

“Luna, we’re on in twenty.”  

She nodded, smiling as nicely as she could with her nerves doing flip backs in her belly. Ámbar had reassured her Jazmín was nothing but nice, but there was a little voice in the back of her head that was screaming with excitement. She was not only going to be in national TV, but also in one of the most popular (if not the most popular) talk shows in the last decade. Ja Jazmín was it when you wanted your name to be out there. Her background wasn’t in the film industry by any means, but she knew very well what this opportunity meant for her and her career.

Even if she didn’t plan to leave skating like, ever, her dream was opening her own rink and teaching people her passion, and she was working very hard to achieve the recognition she needed to make it happen one day.

Her parents laughed that with two Olympic Medals in her bag, she still chose to go out of her comfort zone and pursue an acting career; but how could she not, when the Marissa Mint, the three times gold medalist asked her personally to play her in her autobiographical movie? Her idol, the one person she had looked up to in her professional life, asked her to play her, a legend in the skating community. Luna couldn’t say yes fast enough.

And so it began; after winning her first gold in the 2020 Olympics, she took a break to start her new career move. She spent a whole year with Juliana (as she had asked to be called), learning and practicing all the moves, steps and choreographies that had made her what she was to date; the best female skater known. And even then, she still didn’t feel like one year had been enough to learn everything she had to offer, but rehearsals and filming schedules were approaching, and her one-on-one had to end.

Soon she was joined by Ramiro Ponce, a silver-medalist male skater that was to play her love interest; Jim Medina, bronze medalist that had been only decimals away from silver, and a close friend she’d made since they were both in the 2016 Olympics, and who played one of her team mates. Then there was the only professional actress turned skater in the movie, Argentina’s princess, Ámbar Smith. Luna had to admit she’d been intimidated by her in the beginning, her icy attitude and proud personality made her a little hard to get to know her, but the girl took a challenge and surpassed it. By the end of her training, if Luna hadn’t known she had never skated before in her life, she wouldn’t have guessed it. After all, she had had to learn how to skate Olympic-worthy, not just professionally. She played the rival’s team’s captain, and she was splendid. Luna admired her a lot for that, since Olympic skating was very hard to achieve after just one year of training.

Once group training started, the small group formed a nice relationship. She could say, honestly, that these people were her friends and she appreciated them a lot.

A year later, months after filming had ended, it was time to start promoting the movie all around the world, sharing with the public what Luna liked to call ‘a new side of a legend’, since the movie itself wasn’t just skating, but also the aftermath of one of the most heartbreaking falls in sport’s community.

“Earth to Luna?” her best friend’s sweet voice called, gaining Luna’s attention to the real world again.

“Is it time already, Nina?” She asked, shaking her hands, wishing it were that easy to calm herself and get rid of her nerves. Her friend smiled, but shook her head in negative.

“Jazmín’s team came to say Ámbar wanted to introduce you to some of her friends before the show started, since they’re making a brief appearance to show you and the movie support.”

“Her friends?” She repeated, trying to remember if the blonde girl had told her about it before. Her mind answered with silence. She knew Ámbar had asked her to invite the Rollerband, since Simón was her best friend and she knew it, but beside that, Ámbar hadn’t spoken about inviting more famous people with her.

Nina shrugged, “I heard she invited Matteo Balsano and Delfina Alzamendi, but you already know Delfi. Maybe Matteo invited someone else, too?”

“She knows Matteo Balsano?”

Nina laughed, most likely at her lack of knowledge in popular culture. “He sang with her in that musical years ago, ‘Prófugos’, I think.”

“Oh, the one where she played an Asylum escapee, right?” Nina nodded, extending her hand to help her stand up from her chair, “I didn’t know Matteo starred there, too.”

“He didn’t, he just sang the promotional song with her.”

Luna nodded, flattening the skirt of her dress while she stood up, stumbling a little thanks to the height of her heels. She loved Yam to death, but her choosing on heels could be her death. Besides, she wasn’t that little, she really didn’t need that much additional height.

“Well, my dear Watson, shall we go meet Princess’s friends?”

“We shall, my dear Sherlock.”

“You finish my cupcakes and I swear to anything you find holy, Balsano, your balls will be decorations for my car’s mirror.”

Matteo gulped his last bite of a strawberry cupcake, not out of fear but because if he didn’t, he’d probably choke on laughter. Gastón, sitting beside him, wasn’t as thoughtful and choked on his chocolate cupcake.

“You say the most endearing things to me, Ámbar. Why did I let you go, again?”

“I let you go.”

“To-may-to, to-mah-to.”

His friend scoffed from her make up chair, “I didn’t invite you to eat my food, you ass.” Matteo rolled his eyes, grabbing another cupcake from the food table, and licked the top of the icing.

“Then why did you? We both know it’s not because you’re leaving after tomorrow, as I’m going to the premiere tomorrow.”

Ámbar smirked, turning away from the mirror to look at him, “I have a surprise for you.”

He was immediately suspicious, “it’s not another song about mirrors, is it?” Her smirk turned into a scowl.

“You know what? I changed my mind. You can choke on that cupcake and die, Matteo Bastardo.”

Gastón, who had finished choking by now, gave her a thumbs-up. “Nice one, blondie.”    

“Eh, I give it a seven. Not very original.” A voice called from the door, taking them by surprise. Jazmín winked at them, leaving the door open as she walked into the dressing room. She kissed everyone on the cheek as a greeting before she spoke again, “why do we want Balsanito to die?”

“Isn’t existing a good enough one?” Ámbar said, gaining Matteo’s middle finger in response.

“Is this the way you greet your hostess? I came here to greet you, and this is what I get. Shame on you, I should just say a monologue on how much you suck.” Jazmín joked, and put her hands on her hips in mockery. Her words, of course, fell on deaf ears.

Matteo was about to respond when a knock on the door interrupted them. The first one to turn was Ámbar, and when she saw who it was, smirked again in his direction.

“Surprise.” She mouthed at him, standing up. Matteo frowned, confused as he wasn’t sure what she was talking about; then, he turned to look over where she was looking, too.

He froze.

In a couple seconds, he was taken back to six years ago, outside a recording studio; watching her smile, laugh, beaming at a person who wasn’t him.

“It’s you.” An affirmation in a mere whisper. Green eyes blinked at him once, twice, confused.

“I beg your pardon?” A question in a polite, yet stunned squeak.

Matteo could barely make out Jazmín’s amused call.

“Well, well, well… Isn’t this interesting?”  

[obeydontstray]

Jopper "please don't touch the human remains!"

(TW: death, gore, violence, accident)

Joyce was perched on the corner of Jim’s desk, legs crossed and the top one swinging. “You’re turning down a cup of coffee at the diner?” She asked, just a little bit hurt.

“I can’t right now Joycie, I got work to do.”

“And since when have you had actual work to do since we got Will back?”

He stopped rifling through the paperwork in his side drawer and swiveled his chair in her direction.

“There’s been an accident.” Her eyes widened. “You think it was the mon-” he gave her a serious look with his pointer finger pressed over his lips. “No. Car versus train. Chrissy Carpenter.”

“Are you going to see the crime scene? I’m going with you!” He glared at her. “No, you’re not.”

-After much debate and, as per usual, Hopper giving in, he and Joyce pulled up near the train tracks. They met with Cal just outside the taped off scene.

Cal looked a little green around the gills with his eyes trained on the ground. “Chief, you knew Chrissy pretty well, didn’t you?” He asked. “It’s pretty gruesome.”

Joyce looked up into Hopper’s face, readying for whatever emotion might rise up in him. It was no secret that he and Chrissy had briefly rekindled their high school fling about two years ago. True to their form, things ended nasty again. She’d barely spoken to him since.

Jim’s face went taunt but unreadable of any recognizable emotion. It occurred to Joyce that was probably a look he had developed as a big city cop, schooling his emotions. “Stay here.” He told Joyce, knowing very well she wouldn’t listen.

-Jim strode past Powell interviewing the conductor of the train. He caught only a clip of the conversation. “I think the car was inoperable, the lights were off. And the car is black and it was so dark. I just didn’t see her in time.” He said sadly.

Jim walked past with big strides, causing Joyce to nearly have to run to keep up with his pace. He stopped just outside the crumpled up Chevy.

Chrissy lay face down half in and half out of the car, her badly damaged arms splayed out on the gravel in a pool of blood. Her once beautiful blonde hair was barely recognizable in the blood and her face…her face was unrecognizable. Chunks of viscera down the tracks made it evident the train had skidded her car forward, scraping her downcast face across the tracks.

Jim turned away, clamping his eyes shut tight before he started walking away. When he realized Joyce wasn’t behind him he wheeled around to see her over the body. “Joyce, the fuck? Please don’t touch the human remains!”

He realized she had been attempting to pull Chrissy’s dress down. In the violence of the accident, it had draped up around Chrissy’s waist and exposed her.

“Joyce the scene hasn’t been photographed. I mean we know what happened but we still have to do an investigation-”

“Really? What difference does her dress arrangement mean? I would hope that if I died tomorrow and ended up with my business out in the world, you would do the right thing and cover me up. Afford the poor woman some modesty in death. With all you men about-”

He swallowed hard. “Alright, alright. I see your point. Carry on.”

Joyce steeled herself and stepped around the gore. Ever scenario from every horror movie she had ever seen involving a dead body moving ran through her mind. She managed to find a scrap of fabric that wasn’t bloody and yanked the dress down. She then jumped back and ran from the body to Hopper. She caught him unprepared and nearly tackled him over when she wrapped her arms around his waist.

He kept walking, leading her a good distance from the wreck before he leaned against a tree and pulled her against his chest. “I tried to tell you not to come.” She buried her face in his chest. “I came for you, I thought I could be of some comfort. I didn’t know it would be this…gory. You deal with this kind of stuff much?” She asked, looking up his chest and into his face.

“A good bit in Indianapolis. But it’s always harder when it’s someone you know. Especially…intimately.” Her grip tightened on his waist. “That was a pretty noble thing you did, Joyce. You and Chrissy never were exactly friendly.”

“I would have done it for anyone. And she was okay, I just didn’t like who she dated back in high school.” She teased darkly, patting Hop’s lower back.

“You always were the jealous type.” He said, giving a light chuckle. “Tell Cal to give you a ride back to your car. He needs some air anyway. We’re going to be here a while.”

“Are you going to be okay?” She asked, looking back up into his face. “Believe it or not, I’ve seen worse.” He said, a jaded tint to his voice. He bent low to brush his lips against her hair. “I’ll be okay.”

She buried her face in his chest one more time. “Stay with me tonight. I’ll keep the whiskey cold for you.” He nodded. “Give me something to look forward to.” He kissed her hair again. “Go home, Joycie. This is no place for you.” She nodded and squeezed him one more time before she turned and walked back to Callahan.

[jimhcwkins]

☆ VERSE: A FUTURE; 

An old cyborg once told Jim that he needed to chart his own course. So that's exactly what he did when the young spacer returned home. Dooming Treasure Planet after Silver's incursion left him filled with remorse. He couldn't stop thinking about it. His head just wasn’t in his studies...& eventually, he quit.

Disappointing his mom was inevitable. According to her, he had wasted Captain Amelia's 'glowing recommendation'. His withdrawal from the academy would be irrevocable...but he made his choice & swore to stick to it, no matter the squalls. There were mysteries yet to be solved, questions left unanswered.

WHO built it? WHAT was the purpose of that planet-sized mechanism? WHY did they need portals? And WHEN did such a scientific feat become a legend met with scepticism?

Libraries throughout the Etherium held only remnants of the information Jim sought. Scarce literature spoke of ancient beings called the Forefathers. They were highly intelligent, but their knowledge was never shared or taught. After centuries of living in seclusion, dedicated to their research, it was told they evolved until they faded into the Ether. But what were they really working on? The idea made him eager. It was rumored they were searching for the meaning of existence. Others believed they were looking for something else. He knew finding the truth would require going the distance.

Futher he traveled, alongside his chatty bioelectronic navigator, visiting galaxy after galaxy within their air-filled space. His search led him to a lone MOON, close in coordinates with ( what used to be ) Treasure Planet. That's when he knew he was in the right place. Once they landed, B.E.N went to work analyzing the markings that were etched into the dusty metal floor. Eventually they came across a cryptic grid, similar to what was found on Jim’s old ( destroyed ) map. Memory guided his fingers to unlock the puzzle, swiftly freeing a door.

Panels slid to the side to reveal an elevator descending deep within the core of the moon. Without hesitating, Jim jumped on, dragging the nervous robot with him. Down they went, both ( ONE not so silently ) hoping they wouldn't run into trouble any time soon. Honestly, Jim had no idea what to expect down there. What if the Forefathers didn't leave anything else behind? What if their leads were wrong & the unlikely pair were actually on their way to a pirate's lair? There was only one way to find out.

The platform lurched when it hit the bottom, tossing the two to the ground. Darkness surrounded them, aided only by B.E.N's luminescent eyes...& what lay before them, resting among moon rocks & debris, caused the droid’s jaw to literally drop. It was covered in markings & round. Leaping to his feet, Jim rushed towards the bronze ball. It was the MAP...or at least, another quite similar. How did it get down here in this metallic pit?

The genius within the rebellious spacer had unlocked it within seconds. Green lights swirled around the room, filling it with hundreds of stars, planets, & solar systems, found right there in their very own Etherium. Standing there encompassed by the cosmos, it was as if they were peering into the heavens.

Jim soon learned his universe wasn't the only one he could see. The more he scrolled through the slides on the sphere, the more excited he became. Suddenly, his finger slipped & accidentally hit an unused key. Within moments, the walls began to split, unveiling an enormous door. It was another portal! Just like before! Except this time, the scenery before them was disorienting & blurry. Looking back to the map, he continued to experiment with the buttons. He wouldn't be walking through a questionable portal in a hurry.

He managed to return the image to a recognizable place. Montressor space port- better known as Crescentia. The man-made moon shined brilliantly as it hung in glittering space. Something seemed a bit off about it, but he couldn't figure out why, even as he zoomed in on his chosen destination.

Assuming it was nothing, Jim clenched the map tightly & approached the gateway. He took a tentative step forward until he emerged on the other side. B.E.N soon followed, leaving darkness behind for midday. The port was busy & as always, shoulders were bound to be checked. As they turned towards town, a young feline turned right into Jim. The jolt caused their foreheads to connect. Stumbling backwards, they scowled at each other, rubbing fiercely at their own brow.

As soon as the fiery-headed cat began her onslaught of highly articulated insults, the droid quickly matched her voice to one all too familiar. Jim had also drawn the same conclusion at the exact same time.

      ❝Captain Amelia...!?❞

❝WELL...sort of.❞ B.E.N clutched his buddy's arm & leaned in close to whisper before ending in a shout. ❝Say, uh, Jimmy? I was just thinking, maybe we made a slight error? Y'know, cuuuz...WE'RE IN THE PAST!❞

[dreadhaus-literature]

{A/N} ٩(♡ε♡ )۶

I~ have been playing (and just finished!) Batman: The Telltale Series, and I want to talk about it, because I just have...a lot of feelings about it.

So uhm, be mindful below the cut. (♡´艸`)

First things first, I will admit I wasn’t expecting to...get into this game, lol. I decided to play it on a whim, just to sorta...I consider myself “toes wet” with DC (I know Bunny tends to give me more credit than that because she’s a peach ♥) but I figure, this’ll get me more ankle deep, even if it’s not like “canon” or anything--which, comic canon is weird and fluid so whatever, I’m not being real strict with the Telltale TL being canon.

Anyway.

So I figured I’d just play it and see some babies and enjoy that...but I got into it. Being able to be in the driver’s seat, making decisions as Bruce and really simulating his life endeared me to him and his universe more than I anticipated.

It’s one thing, to read comics and see writer’s words coming out of character’s mouths and being all, “Yeah, okay,” but when you’re making the decisions, it personalizes it. And unsurprisingly, I played a compassionate, empathetic, emotional Bruce Wayne, not some stunted machismo machine in a bat cowl like some writers and fanboys want him to be.

So I guess it’s safe to say this made me love him more.

I noticed something, playing--and it’s true Telltale style, like the Walking Dead games, where you have a wheel of sentence choices that determine your path--and it’s that Bruce runs into the same sort of problem that I see with Steve Rogers. I don’t see it quite as much with Tony, but Steve has a problem with writers wanting him to be some white bread, bulging bicep “JUSTICE FOR BREAKFAST LUNCH AND DINNER” machine when there’s so much more to him than that. It’s like uh, like the recent Civil War re-read that I did with Monica, that line where he’s criticizing his soldiers by calling them “Nancies” and basically comparing them to women--but Steve Rogers, MY Steve Rogers, guzzles his respect women juice because he respected and loved the absolute fuck out of Peggy Carter. But it’s writers who put that shit in his mouth and make him say and do things that then make me side-eye the fuck out of him.

And I’m realizing Bruce has the same issue, and I realized that playing this game, and seeing how he talks to people and really playing up the fact that he does have a heart and he does have feelings--and don’t get me wrong. I’m fine with emotionally stunted characters, I think it’s cute, but I’m on about those buttplugs who like, don’t write Bruce treating his sons like his sons because it makes him “soft” or when they make him treat Alfred or Clark/his teammates like shit or when he openly beats his own kids, like??? Fuck off, that’s not what I’m interested in and to be honest I don’t think that’s who Bruce Wayne is supposed to be.

So playing this game and going the compassionate route, going the route of making Bruce appreciate Alfred and Lucius and Harvey, people who support him and are his friends/family, it reminds me when we were reading the War on Jokes arc and seeing Bruce initiate the “I love you’s”. That shit about melted my heart and to be honest was right up there with his penchant for adopting kids that really made me notice him. To make me give a shit about him and not just because he’s Batman.

Which, by the way, I fucking love that he says that? Like Tony says it, “I am Iron Man,” and it’s cute they share a catchphrase or whatever, but I love that Bruce says it with a straight face and at the most ridiculous times.

I won’t go into like, a full rundown of the game or anything--to be honest I wasn’t going to talk about the game at all, but I surprised myself being so into it and full of feelings about it that I just wanted to talk about it somewhere.

I think I’ll start with the character designs, because it was real hit or miss.

Hit:

Harvey Dent*

John Doe/Joker

Bruce Wayne (...eventually)

Miss:

Selina Kyle

Alfred Pennyworth

Oswald Cobblepot

Now, take my criticisms and compliments with a grain of salt, please~ My tastes are eclectic at best and I like things that are different/out of the norm, so. And it has nothing to do with the character, this is strictly aesthetic.

Let’s start with the hits--Harvey.

I’m sure my love for him here is unsurprising~ But lemme talk about it anyway.

He was a big beefy boi in this game and I was 👀 from freaking jump. I went into this game blind so I had no idea he was even in it, but he was noticeably the biggest boy (okay well almost, there was this one bigger Frankensteinesque dude I didn’t recognize and whose name WAS NEVER GIVEN TO ME) on the block--haha lemme give him Brenn’s title as the Buffest Boy on the Block. He filled his suits OUT and I was here for it. I loved his facial structure, which surprised me considering I didn’t think I’d be keen on Telltale’s art styles.

As for the * up there on his name, I want to say that I went the route of saving Harvey from himself, so I didn’t let him turn fully into Two Face (this go ‘round at least) but I did see that ridiculous mask they gave him and that’s a huge thumbs down for me.

Lemme see them beautiful scars pls.

He looks delectable as Two Face so the only negative is that mask they tried to give him for whatever reason. 0/10, would take that off immediately.

Next up is Mr. John Doe, aka Joker.

And I have to say, like Bruce, he really surprised me--one, because I didn’t know he was in this either (IDK SHIT ABOUT DC STUFF, SO) but two, because I wasn’t prepared to really pay him all that much attention. Harvey’s a given; he, like Arthur, I had a soft spot for anyway because of Kayla’s rampant hatred (thus, giving me a need to love them as unloved characters) but Joker? Everyone loves Joker, so I was tipping toward, like, patting him on the head and sending him on his way kinda thing.

Nope. No. He showed up and I was like ???? WHY ARE YOU SO CUTE ALL OF THE SUDDEN.

Seriously, this art style fucked me up when it came to him. He’s stupid adorable in this game.

I MEAN WHO WOULDN’T WANT TO KISS THIS FACE?????

I’m fucking annoyed by it, I think because I was prepared to just breeze by him, but like I don’t wanna slap him or anything but it gives me the same cute aggression small humans and kitties do. I wanna squish his face and just coo over it, that smile is infuriatingly infectious.

Idk why I find him so cute in this particular style but it was like getting punched in the chest, like he showed up and saved me/Bruce and all the sudden I’m like, murder whoever you want just keep...smiling?

And don’t get me wrong, I’m all for his edgy styles, there are some where he’s almost monstrous-looking, grotesque and the like and you know that tickles my fancy but this particular Joker tickled another fancy of mine. He was almost like a puppy, here.

Eager.

So yeah. I guess I have a crush on Joker now.

And last but not least on the Hit list--Bruce Wayne.

And I’ll admit, as I did up here, that this look took me a little while to come to appreciate. Reminds me a lot of how I felt about Peter from ItSV, but I love that look on him now and that’s how I feel about Bruce. This grew on me the more I played, although when I started I thought he looked way too much like Archer.

And it seems I wasn’t the only one.

And while, like with Peter B., this particular incarnation won’t be my favorite Bruce Wayne look, there’s a softness to this particular incarnation that seemed to really suit the way I played him--which might be why I liked it.

There was a nice touch, though, because when he slipped on the cowl, when he became Batman, there was a decided shift not only in his personality but his physicality, too--

Which reminded me of something I’d read where Clark does the same thing.

So yeah, this incarnation took a little to grow on me, and it may not be my favorite, but I did come to at least appreciate it.

Now let’s talk about the Misses, starting with Miss Kyle.

And it’s weird, because as Catwoman she was stunning and there’s this one scene with her eyeliner on fucking point and it was SENDING ME. Good fucking god I was a dumb dyke through the whole scene, I doubt I could remember a word she said.

But there on the left, her hair was like some weird mix of a bob but too long and uneven to be one? And don’t get me started on her baby ponytail; it seemed too...childish? Sloppy? For her.

And something was off about her mouth. Idk if it was Telltale’s style or if the graphics were a little stiff but her mouth bothered me the entire freaking game.

I feel bad about saying Alfred was a miss but again, this is just from an aesthetic point. The man is a saint otherwise and I won’t say a cross word about him.

It’s not even that I dislike this particular look of his, it’s just, I have a favorite look of his and this is so far from it (and most of his normal looks) that sometimes through the game it would take me a half second to remember this is supposed to be Alfred.

It was like with Bruce, only it didn’t grow on me quite the same.

Like I said, I just have a favored look of Alfred’s (I’d dig up the picture but it’s on my phone and I’m lazy) and this just didn’t make the cut.

Uhm and lastly, Oswald.

Out of the Rogues of Gotham I feel like I don’t know Victor Freeze and Oswald Cobblepot...nearly well enough to be talking about them. But the game dealt with Oz so...I’m here talking about him.

And really my issue with him is that...to me he was barely recognizable because I only know Penguin by his typical outlandish look--short, round as a goddamn beach ball, and with that insane curved/hooked nose.

So I may be wrong in that he does look like this sometimes? I really wouldn’t know, like I said I don’t know Mr. Cobblepot very well at all. I just was surprised he looked like this and when Bruce was all, “Penguin?” I was also ?????? but for a different fucking reason, lmao.

I didn’t put Jim up here because he’s always on point regardless of what he looks like, so. 10/10, no notes for you, Jim. ♥

So moving beyond eye candy, the actual game itself, like I said, it was a surprisingly endearing way to be introduced to Gotham. It’s one thing to read the comics and see this particular writer’s vision of what Gotham is and who Bruce Wayne is, but with me in the driver’s seat and getting to make decisions, I got to shape Gotham and Bruce/Batman the way I would like them to be (at least as much as the game allows, lol) and there’s definitely something to be said about that.

I made sure to try and stick at least somewhat to how I think Bruce would have reacted to some things--especially as Batman. I like to stay true to superheroes’ brands (in terms of gameplay, writing is another story) so I kept the no-killing and tried to be...less violent than I might have been if I were, say, Frank. Which helped me win over Jim, so~ Haha but I uhm, I went the compassionate route with Bruce as Bruce Wayne, I was supportive of those around me and appreciative of them.

Unsurprisingly there was a Bruce/Selina aspect to the game, and I played that more as myself, because like Bunny I don’t really like them together. Selina is fine on her own, I see what she was saying about that, but seeing the way Selina is with people--she says things to hurt Bruce just to do it, and I’m...not down with that. Emotional maturity is a thing, lol, maybe she could steal some of that.

Ha-cha~ That joke isn’t funny but I said it anyway.

But I get it. I...palmed Bruce’s face out of the way and just gave the emotional answers as myself and I could see beyond Selina’s words to what she’s hiding--or trying to. You hurt others to keep yourself from being hurt, I’ve seen that sort of behavior before and I get she’s hiding her feelings by lashing out--a lot like a kitty with her claws out. So I have respect for her as a character because of the complexity, it’s just not how you go about having a relationship with someone, lol.

Like she stole some shit from Bruce, was fine to do it, so I retaliated by stealing some of her tech because i’m a petty ass bitch and she got bitey with me about it.

Like girl.

I also, like I said, went the route of supporting Harvey...because of course I did. I defended him every chance I got, funded his campaign...even after he told me he was distancing himself from me (let me LOVE YOU) and when he started to snap and Two Face was trying to get out, I refused to fight him and encouraged him to get help.

In the end, when Harvey turned on Bruce and literally tried to kill Alfred, Jim asked Batman if Harvey should “rot in prison,” or be sent to Arkham to get help.

I...know Arkham is corrupt and that’s a whole thing in and of itself but I went the compassionate route and sent Harvey to get help.

In the end, I saw Harvey in a cell. He refused to come out and help the inmates during a riot, but the poor baby actually looked kind of afraid?

And not to like, go off on a rant or anything but it was interesting seeing this take on Harvey/Two Face. I could relate to it, in a way, because it reminded me of my Alters and how I created Drette and especially misi to sort of allow myself to be and feel things that I typically try to hide.

Two Face started to show himself and though he...wasn’t nice to Harvey, he did defend him and insist he was there to protect Harvey, that “no one will ever hurt or take advantage of him again”.

Touched my heart. ♥

Selina was also playing Harvey, 100% using him for her own means and she said, about him, “Poor guy just wanted to fall in love so bad.”

AND THAT BROKE MY HEART.

He did seem very lost in this game, like this need to be Mayor and to be this big shot attorney was trying to fill a void, make up for some inadequacies he felt he had.

I’ve always been a sucker for broken toys.

And speaking of broken toys, Joker’s whole deal really wasn’t touched on much in this game (it is in the second one, which I’ll probably start after work) but I want to talk about the fact that I was like one of like 15% of people who promised Joker a favor and I’m fucking weak over it.

Lemme set the scene--Bruce, stuck in Arkham, befriends Joker (because I fucking made him) and Joker says he’ll get Bruce out of Arkham “but you’ll owe me a favor~ When I get out of here.”

And you had a choice, to owe him a favor or not.

I was 0% hesitation to shake his hand, lmao, and I didn’t think much of it until I got to the end of the chapter and it was like, “You and 15% of others agreed to owe Joker a favor.”

And I was like...? Oh shit that probably was a bad idea, lmao.

HE’S CUTE, LIKE I SAID. TF YOU WANT FROM ME.

And Bruce’s little Codex journal (which was adorable, btw) updated to include the favor I promised and he wrote, “Not a big deal to owe a favor to a psycho who will never get out of Arkham, right?”

Which- 1) You’re adorably naive if you think he’s not getting out. 2) I legit didn’t consider it being a bad idea.

So I owe Joker a favor to be collected later and I should probably be concerned because the end of the game showed Joker out and fanboying over Bruce in a bar.

SO. (oﾟ□ﾟ)o  YEAH. TBC.

There were other highlights to the game, like getting to comfort and protect a little boy (BE STILL MY MATERNAL HEART) and for FUCK’S sake, Oswald taking over Wayne Enterprises for a bit.

The entire thing was infuriating as fuck, like I mildly wanted to kick Oz in the face repeatedly by the end of the game, but the scene where Bruce gets his company back and he’s looking at all the shit Oswald did while he had it--I was absolutely in hysterics.

First of all, Oswald used COMIC FUCKING SANS to cross out Bruce’s name and write “Cobblepot Enterprises” on the website. I fucking lost my mind. It was so childish and petty and the YELLOW font looked SO OUT OF PLACE WITH BRUCE’S SRS BUSINESS FONT EVERYWHERE ELSE.

But it gets better.

Oswald had his team hack Gotham’s public records and not only did he change Bruce’s Ivy League diploma to Sociology BUT HE FUCKING CHANGED BRUCE’S MEDICAL RECORDS TO SAY HE HAD SEVERAL STD’S.

WHEN I TELL YOU I FUCKING SCREAMED.

I had to pause the game because I was laughing so hard I couldn’t hear Alfred.

AND BRUCE FACEPALMED AS HE READ THE LIST and my god. I lost years off my laugh, laughing that hard.

I’ve talked quite a bit more than I intended to so I’ll wrap this up but before I do, I want to touch on one more thing and I think it’s that DC really did a good job with making Alfred the reason Bruce is a good man, a hero.

I haven’t read or seen or consumed all the Batman media that’s out there, but this is the fourth or fifth time I’ve seen Bruce’s parents turn out to be absolute shits. I mean this time it was only his father who was a dickhead, but the times his parents turn out to be garbage people vs actual decent human beings is like 6 to 1. And the one time I’m thinking of was some alternate dimension so I’m not even sure that counts.

So as someone who has pretty fucked up parents I think it’s nice to see a story where your parents don’t make you who you are. That timeline where Bruce’s parents lived and he turned into this spoiled, entitled brat, where it really showed that Alfred was the one who molded and shaped the good man who grew up to be Bruce Wayne, Gotham’s Golden Son...I think that’s so important. I really like that side of Bruce’s backstory, I think it’s something that isn’t as touched on as much as it should be.

There wouldn’t be a Batman without Alfred and it isn’t just because Alfred is always there at the end of the com when Bruce needs him.

And you can bet your sweet butt I made Bruce say that to Alfred at the end of the game. And Alfred got all teary and I got all teary and this is that qUALITY CONTENT.

Also? I’m super ashamed at the amount of people I saw in the stats who turned on Harvey and abandoned Alfred. I was in the minority a lot of time for shit I def shouldn’t have been in the minority for.

Half the time the stats would roll and I’m left looking at the PISS POOR CHOICES OF THE COMMON MAN LIKE

Y’all some worthless motherfuckers.

So yes! This was a lot of fun to play and I’m absolutely giddy to start the next game, especially since I get to see Puppy!Joker in it. And he’s going to be friends with Bruce because I’M IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT NOW, BATMAN.

Buckle up, Brucie, we’re full speed ahead toward Crazytown. ٩( ᐛ )و