#all the environments are so cool I love the challenge of trying to convey them with words

[caliburn-not-calculator]

Per the ask game: All the rwd fics sound awesome, but I’m actually really curious about the BG3 ficlets— that could mean almost anything! Thanks! <3

None of them are finished but they’re just little drabbles of my Tav for the most part

I don’t game very much so I haven’t even finished my first play through but they’re a silly lil conniving bard and I love them. Most of the ficlets are snippets from battles, scenery I thought was cool, and a couple of funny party interactions, mostly with Gale or Wyll. (Side note, wyll my beloved he’s the best)

Also some that are sad Gale because you know me and wet cat wizards. Gotta make that man depressed

(Also for fun here is my tav, I’ve been meaning to draw them but I haven’t gotten around to it)

[fyeah-bangtan7]

Jung Kook: “I hope this feeling never fades”

I had a chance to interview BTS before, when they debuted. During that interview, Jung Kook had one small habit; when I met him again a while later, he had corrected it. He makes a conscious effort to change himself. And after seven years, I met Jung Kook again.

You directed the music video for “Life Goes On,” BE’s title song. Jung Kook: I was really eager to direct the music video from the outset. My plan was to organize the synopsis, discuss it with the music video director I was working with, shoot and edit them, but we were short on time. So I worked on it while sharing ideas with the director. Originally there were a lot of scenes with lip synching in them, but we took some of them out and put in more scenes that conveyed the members’ emotions better. It wasn’t easy to combine scenes, but I think now I know more about how much of everything is needed when shooting a music video.

You had shot the Golden Closet Films and uploaded them to the BTS YouTube channel, and now you shot a music video. Jung Kook: Once we were on location, we had directions for everything we needed to shoot prepared in advance, so I took candid shots of the members here and there with a camera during the shoot. We were filming in a beautiful place so when they asked me to take pictures of them as they wanted to be presented, I did.

What kind of pictures did you take of yourself? Jung Kook: I was just, in them. (laughs) I’m not in the shot for the Golden Closet Films either. I kind of take a back seat. The director had to shoot my parts for the music video, since I couldn’t film myself, so I relaxed a bit. I tried to make the other members look really good when I recorded them. Since this was a BTS music video and not my own, I wanted to show what was happening with every member and the team, not just one individual’s thoughts. Each person who watches the video might feel different, but I wanted to show that we feel what other people feel, that we’re in the same situation.

You get your picture taken a lot, but you don’t pay much attention to the ones you’re in. Jung Kook: I never really liked having my picture taken. (laughs) And I’m usually with the others when we’re working, obviously, but it’s hard to take a camera and take selfies. So I take pictures and videos of the other members every chance I get.

Do you still find it difficult to have your picture taken? Jung Kook: I put my best face forward when it’s for something I have to do, like for photo books, but it’s still not easy. Videos are okay, though. And even though I’m not nervous at all when I sing in front of tens of thousands of people, if I have to sing or talk in front of a small group, I get super nervous. I never feel that way on stage, but maybe I have a hard time doing things that are a little bit awkward for me.

It seems like you draw a distinction between work you enjoy and work you find difficult. Jung Kook: Work related to music, like recording, composing, writing lyrics, filming music videos and things like that, are all fine. But anything outside of that is probably a challenge for me.

On BE, you each explained your feelings about work in the song “Dis-ease.” You must have experienced a cycle of enjoyable and difficult work over seven years, so how did you get through the hard times? Jung Kook: I actually understand my own problems well, so most of the time it’s okay. I can figure things out one at a time through experience instead of just looking for answers. I’m always growing and my personality changes, depending on my environment. I think I’ve learned to do things I used to find difficult by experiencing it little by little.

Speaking of growth, “Skit” was very memorable. You recorded it the day after “Dynamite” reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and you, who talked about what you did before you became trainees in “Skit” in your debut album,talked about being first place on the Billboard Hot 100 this time around. Jung Kook: When I was a trainee, I saw the older members rapping and thought, “Wow, they’re so cool!” But now, after having spent everyday together, I’ve forgotten about all that. (laughs) Sometimes I see the lyrics they wrote, see them dancing and hearing the things they say on stage, and think, “Oh, right. That is the kind of person they are. They’re a lot different now.” You know how you don’t feel it when you live with your family, but if you can’t see them for a long time, you miss them. You might even cry. We’re a real family. Like, legit! (laughs)

Your “legit family” (laughs) each put their own songs on BE and came up with units spontaneously. What was it like making the album that way? Jung Kook: We talked with the company over the outline of the album and organized our ideas together. That was our process for making songs. Then we’d listen to them together, and if we thought they weren’t great, we’d go back and work on them some more. The members would get together and say, “Hey, how about so and so do a unit song this time?” or, “What should it be about?” and share a lot of ideas that way.

How did the others respond to your song, “Stay”? Jung Kook: That song was originally meant to be on my mixtape. We planned to put a different song on the album, but after V heard it, he said, “This song that Jung Kook wrote is really good,” and then the other members all listened, said it was better than the other one, and somehow (laughs) “Stay” made it into the album. The message for the other song was also, “Even though we’re far apart, stay just where you are.” I wrote my song with the same theme so I loved that it was included in BE. At first, I wanted to talk about how we’re always together, using the English word “wherever.” I wanted to express how we’re always together no matter where we are, but Namjoon heard that and said “Stay” might be better. I liked his suggestion, so I changed it. He really helped me to organize my thoughts, since I’m not always good at writing everything I want to express.

One might go as far as to say the lyrics sound heartbreaking, but it’s arranged in EDM. Jung Kook: We imagined we were performing for the fans while we made it, jumping up and down with them.

It sounds like you really miss your fans. Jung Kook: This album really hit us in a different way, with this situation being what it is. Because the world is struggling with COVID-19, we have to keep our heads up and convey our messages to our fans.

What can your fans expect from you when you finally meet again? Jung Kook: There’s nothing specific, but when I watched our old performances, my facial expressions were awkward and my dance moves weren’t always perfect. I keep working to improve myself, so I hope when the fans see me, they think my performance is amazing and that my aura fills the stage.

Are you happy with how you look in your latest work? Jung Kook: I’m not 100% satisfied, no. When we did performances for “Dynamite” recently I kept seeing my imperfections.

Your acting in the intro to your “Dynamite” performance was really impressive. Even in COVID-19 times, you captured a feeling of liveliness and being cool, as though to explain what the song is all about. Jung Kook: Actually, on the first day of filming the music video, I was supposed to film my parts first, but I was so bad that it had to be pushed to the end of the shoot. So,I was a bit more relaxed when the camera rolled.

So that’s what you get when you’re relaxed! (laughs) Jung Kook: Yes, I relaxed, and something went “pop!” and “boom!” inside me, and then I did it however I wanted. (laughs)

It’s fascinating how someone who performs the way you do during stadium tours can feel nervous while filming and yet still do so well in it. Jung Kook: I can be a shy person. When people used to ask me to sing, I couldn’t always do it—like in front of adults or teachers. And I’m still a bit like that. If I start thinking, “Oh, I can’t do this,” then I really end up not being able to do it. Even when I could have done well.

Why do you think that is? Jung Kook: I feel the same way about my dancing and my singing, and I can’t compose a really amazing melody either. I feel like I’m always somewhere in the middle. But then I also think I have my own colors, so I like to quietly, slowly open up to people, and let them know what kind of person I am. Yeah, something like that. (laughs)

But, when you review your songs and performances objectively, you see all of your changes, don’t you? Jung Kook: There’s a lot of change. My voice has changed a lot; I grew taller and my frame and facial structure have changed, too. I could tell how awkward I looked at the beginning, but after a while, I think, “My gestures look better now, but I feel like my dance is too rigid.” And again after a while, “Now my dance is fine and my gestures are good, but I’m making awkward facial expressions.” And later, I say, “Now I got the facial expressions down, but, hmm, there’s no killer move.” (laughs) That’s how I slowly changed. And then my actions, thoughts, dreams, goals, what I value, what I want to do—all these things will change depending on the situation.

You had some changes in BE, too. Throughout “Life Goes On,” you lightly carry your voice and tone throughout the whole song, like they’re flowing. Jung Kook: Right. I think that’s very important. My general feeling was my voice should be woven into the song, rather than bringing out my individual voice. The lyrics say the world stopped, but I can’t keep on being sad, and life continues and flows on. I wanted to mix a little bit of my own colors into that complex, subtle sadness. I listened to how the other members recorded their parts for the song, and I sang while thinking about how I could do it in a way that it would all blend together well. I kept changing my voice exploring how to make it sound better, cleaner. I kept trying new things while I was recording, performing, and practicing.

When you look back after all that change, don’t you feel like you accomplished a lot? Jung Kook: I don’t really pay attention to things that have already happened. I think more about what it is I need right now, so I rarely think, “I got a lot better from how I used to be,” or, “I did a good job.”

You sound insatiable, in a good way. Jung Kook: Yes. This is how I want to keep living, and I hope this feeling never fades.

You’ve found immense success with BTS. What makes you want to keep doing more and keep improving yourself? Jung Kook: I want to show people who I am: how I talk, how I act, how I sing, and so on. And after that, I want to be acknowledged for doing what I like to do, and for people to see what an amazing guy I am. I want to do these things step by step. I want to be appreciated as Jung Kook, as the real me.

What do you think is the source of that energy—the energy to keep proving yourself, even though you’ve already achieved so much with BTS? Jung Kook: I think my heart’s telling me to. BTS was able to climb this high thanks to the group members, the company and our fans. But there’s always the question of whether I could receive that kind of recognition by myself, so I have this feeling of wanting to throw myself at some challenge alone. There’s a lot I want to do, and a lot I want to achieve.

By gradually improving yourself, what kind of person would you ideally want to become? Jung Kook: A person who’s crazy awesome in their field. (laughs) Those kinds of people look cool even when they do something different. I still have a long way to go. I feel like I could be more captivating and draw more out of people by improving any number of things, by trying hard to be confident about my singing, or the way I dance and perform. BTS is way more important and meaningful to me than I am to myself, so I’m not saying I want to do anything alone. But I hope I get to the point where I can perform alone for three or four hours in a venue full of people.

It’s clear that your job, music, is very important to you. Jung Kook: I must never let it go. That’s what I always think. I have to keep it close to me, even if I get bored, or I don’t want to hear it, or it feels like a hassle. I want to keep on making music. It may be a long ways down the road, but I want to prove myself with my music.

You said before that your MBTI is ISFP, so I looked it up. Obviously, MBTI can’t sum up a person perfectly, but it says ISFPs tend to be “curious artists.” Your answer reminds me of that. Jung Kook: That sounds about right. I looked up the personality traits for ISFP too, and it was interesting. (laughs)

Maybe that’s the reason you set your goals so high. You seem like you have high standards and want to keep growing. Jung Kook: It’s like a foggy mountain top. (laughs) I can’t even see it yet.

You’ve been climbing for seven years, staying curious. Is there anything you want to say to the people who have been watching you all this time? Jung Kook: Umm … Well, there are seven of us, and the seven of us keep running ahead. So it’s possible we could get tired, one by one, and drop out, right? But if more people join us, one by one, and run with us, we can support each other and pull each other up if someone falls down. That’s kind of how I feel. There are people who supported us from the beginning who have been watching us the whole time since, and because of them our follower count keeps going up, and they all keep us on track. So the only thing I can say is—thank you. We were nothing special, really (laughs) but they keep on liking us and supporting us, and the best way we can repay them is to give them our all through our music and our performances. They push me to work hard, even on things I find difficult. (laughs) I’m eternally grateful.

Just like in the last line of “Stay.” Jung Kook: “We are together.”

© source

[dynamox6]

Qualification and Screening

When I was thinking about the next dating science blog I should write I remembered one of the missing pieces was that I couldn’t give you a good enough answer to ‘What man/woman should I go for?’ in my Long-Term Relationships blog. I told you to just rely on your life experience, but as I started to think about it more and do more research on dating and relationship science I got a better grasp of the picture of qualification and screening.

I feel confident enough now in my knowledge and experience to help guide you to find out which man or woman you should choose.

First things first, you’re going to need attraction, appreciation, emotional responsiveness, and reciprocity before you even begin qualification or your efforts will fall on deaf ears. If you find yourself having to work too hard for a minimal return on time, energy, and emotional investment from her I recommend moving onto the next.

Alright, now let’s begin, Qualification and Screening is where the woman you’ve attracted works to ‘win you over.’ It’s more rewarding to have to work to win over someone’s interest legitimately rather than to just have them love you for your prestige, money, or good looks. (Although there’s nothing wrong with that if these feelings of shallow attraction are mutual.)

If she doesn’t have to work to earn your interest it’s likely she will feel that you only want her for her looks and will feel more insecure about your attraction to her. If all he likes is my looks, what happens after he gets what he wants? Or a more beautiful woman comes along? Your interest will feel more validating and satisfying to her emotionally if she feels that it’s about something special about her.

Flirting is more fun and rewarding for a woman if you ask her qualification and screening questions and you reward her with authentic compliments. Having her work to win you over builds her emotional investment in the relationship and the more she has to work to ‘win you over’ the more she will appreciate your attraction to her.

Being some kind of a challenge and not immediately running into the arms of the first person that is interested in you sub communicates you are a man of value that can afford to be discerning about the kind of women you allow into your life. Having standards shows you know what you want out of life and a relationship which makes you more attractive to every woman, not just the one you’re speaking to in the moment.

When you start the qualification and screening process here are some broad characteristics to keep in mind:

Mental Health: How is her mood and general emotional affect? Is she usually cheerful, positive, upbeat, and proactive? Or depressed, pessimistic, anxious and frustrated? Does she have healthy lifestyle choices in her personal life? Or does she have addictions, obsessions, and compulsions? Mentally healthy women will have more and better dates, relationships, sex, and passion.

Intelligence: A more intelligent women will have more interesting conversations with you. They’re usually better employees which helps them get promoted faster, build more successful businesses, have a bigger paycheck, and manage their finances better. They will also give better career and relationship advice if you ask for it. In general they will be more easily be able to manage the administrative work of their own personal life and your life.

Conscientiousness: The more conscientious your partner is the more likely her conscientiousness will rub off on you. The more conscientious she is the less likely she is to cheat. She will be more reliable, honest, straightforward, and trustworthy. She will be more likely to take better care of her health, her physical appearance, her mental health, her career, and her finances. She will be better at planning ahead for more enjoyable holidays, travel, and dates. And she will create more reliable and consistent social arrangements for the both of you.

Emotional Intelligence: The more emotional intelligence a woman has the better she will convey empathy, kindness, and compassion which will make for a much better partner and lover. Emotional intelligence helps to avoid arguments, resolve conflicts, and makes for a much more enjoyable make-up session. An emotionally intelligent woman is more likely to notice an exhausted partner after a long day and offer nurturing comfort and support.

Social Intelligence: The size and quality of a women’s social circle can be useful for enriching your career network and will improve the quality of your social outings on evenings and weekends. Typically, a popular socially intelligent woman will have more social events available for you to attend. A woman with social intelligence will take some of the burden off of you not always having to always be the sole host, entertainer, and confidant.

Aesthetic Sensibility: A woman with a great sense of personal style will always look great and help you look great. Her aesthetic sensibility will improve the quality of your home environment and have a big impact on your daily mood. Being with a woman who has great fashion sense will make you proud to show her off and she will create a gorgeous functional home where you can both entertain your guests.

Sex Drive: A balance in sex drive will help both partners feel more satisfied with their relationship. If one partner wants more or less sex than the other it can make them feel annoyed, resentful, nagged, frustrated, and perhaps even eventually lead to affairs where one partner can feel more satisfied with their sex life.

Relationship History: Depending on what kind of relationship you’re looking for in the moment you can screen for that as well. ‘Are you seeing anyone?’ ‘When was your last relationship?’ ‘How long did it last?’ ‘Why did it end?’ ‘Did you see other people?’ Based on their answers you’ll be able to tell whether they have been long term relationship material in the past and if they’re currently looking for another long term relationship again or just want to have fun.

I think that covers the main macro personality traits for qualification. Some of the other topics for qualification could include Education, Career, Travel, Hobbies, Pets, and Cooking.

In general the process of qualification goes like this:

Qualification Question or Statement: “What are some of your hobbies?” “You look like a person who enjoys working out.” “Do you like to travel?”

Her Response: I love travelling. I recently went to Mexico with family. It was so nice to enjoy the beach, sunshine, cool breeze, and relax with friends and family. The water was the most crystal clear blue and so refreshing. It makes me smile thinking back on it. We went to XYZ resort and I would totally recommend it.

Explore the Topic Together: Oh really, that sounds great. I went to Mexico with friends last year too. It was so nice to get away from the cold winter weather in November and December. It was all-inclusive so the food and drinks were included. It was delicious! I enjoyed the beach too, the breezy days were my favorite, that way it wasn’t too hot and I could actually enjoy the beach and swim in the water.

Compliment Her: That’s cool you travel a lot. I like people who are worldly and have lots of stories of their travels to share. It makes for more interesting conversation, a more well-rounded perspective, and plenty of interesting memories and pictures to share with people. Feel free to take me on a tour of your travel pictures and memories anytime.

Next Qualifier Question or Statement: “So are you a TV or movie fan?” “You look like someone who’s very well read.” “I loved the latest season of Game of Thrones.”

You have to seem attainable or the woman will lose interest. The effort and energy you put into your compliment of her should be proportional to the effort she’s putting into answering your qualification questions or statements.

What you’re doing here is trying to foster a feeling of natural chemistry and genuine emotional connection. So you shouldn’t fire off too many questions at once. This shouldn’t feel like a job interview for her, but like a fun enjoyable natural curiosity, chemistry, and connection.

Pay close attention to the level of compliance you’re getting in your qualification questions. If she consistently gives one word or flippant answers to your questions I recommend moving onto the next.

In general you can use three different types of qualifiers:

Soft: Simple yes or no questions. “Do you workout?” “Do you like Ice Cream?” “Do you enjoy dancing?” “Are you a dog person?”

Medium: Open questions related to a specific topic. “So you’ve been travelling recently? Where did you go? What was it like?”

Hard: Very wide open questions that specifically push her to demonstrate her value to you. “What’s your story?” “So who are you? Tell me about yourself?” “What are three things about you that would make me want to get to know you more?” “Why are you special?” “What are you really passionate about?” “What are your greatest attributes?”

You can also use statements to screen for character traits too if you so desire. “I love women that are intelligent and educated. Their conversation and debate is so much more interesting.” “The quickest way to my heart is through a good meal!”

Medium and hard qualifiers can sometimes be difficult for the person to answer right away so don’t be afraid to give them time. Don’t worry if they can’t seem to answer your qualification questions or statements either. As long as you can see they’re putting a sincere effort in trying to answer you you’re doing well. If they like you enough and trust you they will be more than willing to let you show them whatever topic you’re interested in screening them on anyway.

You should sit down and think of all the ideal qualities you want in a woman. These qualifiers are just examples and won’t come across as powerfully or smoothly as qualities you genuinely desire and want in a romantic partner. Your sub-communications are always the best when you’re being authentic about what you desire in a woman.

Just a few caveats to be careful of:

1) If you’re interested in career ambition, money, and prestige learn to be subtle about it. Screening too long or too hard on career can make it seem like you’re only after money.

2) When you screen for relationship history try not to linger on past lovers too much. It can make it seem like you or them are still hung up in the past.

3) The harder and more sincerely you screen for something the more you should try to embody the quality yourself. After all it only seems fair doesn’t it? And you are more likely to succeed attracting people who already embody similar characteristics to yourself.

4) Complimentary differences in personality can be a powerful factor in attraction. You have to be careful though as a relationship progresses not to use the other’s strengths as a crutch and instead as a chance to expand one’s life experiences, habits, and skills. Growing into a better couple together by assimilating strengths rather than falling deeper into differences will prevent you from drifting into resentment, disagreement, and breaking up over the long term. It’s a delicate balance between similarity and complimentary differences in your partner such that over the long term your traits won’t grow to eventually contradict each other.

Show a woman that you see her in the way she has always wanted to be seen and appreciate her for things she has always longed to be appreciated for and you will have her looking back on the interaction with fondness and a feeling of genuine connection.

–Dynamox6

References

Savoy, Nick. It's Your Move: How to Play the Game and Win the Man You Want. Grand Central Publishing, 2013.

Max, Tucker, and Geoffrey Miller. Mate: Become the Man Women Want. Little, Brown and Company, 2015.

Savoy. Magic Bullets. Classic Books Publishing, 2009.

Sinn and Vision. LoveSystems Interview Series Vol. 8: Qualification. https://www.lovesystems.com/collections/interview-series/products/interview-series-vol-8-qualification

Pekker, Michael. “Do Opposites Really Attract? Complementary Needs Theory of Interpersonal Attraction” Interpersonal Communication, Relations, and Compatibility. July 15, 2013, http://interpersonal-compatibility.blogspot.ca/2013/07/do-opposites-really-attract.html

[my-yuujin]

​Ryusoulger Solo Interview from Mynavi: Osaki Ichika

-It has been more than half of a year since the filming of “Ryusoulger”, has there been any change in your daily life before and after that?

Because the shooting is always early in the morning, it also changes my life schedule. I used to sleep until evening (laughs), but recently I can sleep and wake up early, even when I don’t have any shooting schedule. My body is already used to it.

-Is there anything that changed a lot as you are now playing as Asuna?

Recently, people told me that I have become a cutesy girl (laughs). I can see that Asuna’s fluffy character is slightly absorbed inside me. When I play as Asuna, I tend to speak with a slightly higher voice tone, and because I spend a lot of time as Asuna, my voice is a little higher even when I’ve returned to Osaki Ichika (laughs). “I may end up letting out a little flirty personality?” sometimes I also ponder about that.

-While it doesn’t suit her appearance as a cute girl, Asuna actually has tremendous strength. She shows extreme monstrous power, such as lifting someone with one hand and throwing it away easily.

Asuna is a cheerful character. It’s very fun to make her involved in many funny scenes with Kou and Melto. “Strong, but reckless” is the impression of Asuna’s personality that we try to convey, as she has been showing a lot of power since the first episode.

However, what worries me when playing Asuna is “How far should her strength be shown?”. I often consult with the directors, “Since Asuna has monstrous power, should she touch things like this, or should she be careful not to touch anything?” I myself am not strong like her, so sometimes people forget about that and say, “Huh? Shouldn’t it feel much lighter?” when I lift something. Oppositely, when it’s a scene when I want to use Asuna’s strength, I usually remind everyone, “I will hit this with a “BOOM”, so you all must react exaggeratedly, alright?” They will actually help me out with that.

-In Episode 1, Kou who teases Asuna as “Monstrous Power”, gets pushed and crashed against a rock. While Melto who witnesses that, seems to be reminded how strong Asuna is. That scene sure has huge impact in introducing Asuna.

Actually, Kamihoriuchi (Kazuya)-san directed that scene with a little surprise. In its rehearsal, I was told that it should go like: Asuna got angry with Kou, pushed him, and Melto reacted “What a strength!”. But when we actually did it, after I pushed Kou, suddenly an explosion happened with a loud “BOOM!!”. I was so surprised, and went “EHHH??” inside my heart. But since I didn’t show it on my face, the recording was regarded as an OK. Director Kamihoriuchi laughed and asked, “How’s that? Are you surprised?”(laughs). And thanks to that little surprise, Melto’s startled expression went out very real.

–Director Kamihoriuchi directed Ryusoulger The Movie, and also was in charge of episode 1 and 2 from the TV series. It can be said that he was the one who built the foundation of Ryusoulger’s shooting environment. Osaki-san, what was your impression of Kamihoriuchi-san?

When I played my part, but didn’t know how I should act for the next scene, the director said to me, “Your acting back then, when you play it by yourself, it gives you bad feeling, doesn’t it?”. He totally saw through it right away. And when I replied, “Yes, it feels bad. I can’t properly digest it within myself.” Then, he told me, “At this part, how about you do it like this?” That side of him really helps us the actors. While he does sound strict, everything he says can be easily understood by us. Even though it’s an important shooting, he’s a director who can make the work environment feel relieving.

-Action scenes are things that can’t be separated from a hero show, and you are now being challenged to perform those. Are you also good at action?

Action scenes are fun, and I love them. But I myself don’t really have a good sense (laughs). I thought I was good at moving my body, but since everyone around is a boy, it’s still hard to keep up with their speed and range. After being shown how it goes, the boys could do it quickly. But for me, it usually takes longer. So when there is time, the suit actors will teach me how to move my body and how to use the sword. After all, it must be fun if you can do at least one technique, but if you can’t, it will not be fun (laughs). There are some parts in me that hate losing. Therefore, I’m practicing every day so that I won’t be defeated by the boys. Basically, the action scenes are always exciting, as it really feels that you are being challenged.

–Asuna is presented as a character who loves to eat. In episode 9 she was shown eating yakiniku. In episode 13, it’s potato chips. In episode 16, she’s holding two fried chickens with her both hands. It’s a simple question, but did you really eat those?

Yes, I did. I originally like to eat, and the staffs also always prepare some snacks for Asuna. Even for myself, when it is a scene that I don’t have to do anything, I usually ask if there is any snack, as I’m really conscious of Asuna’s personality who always wants to eat something.

–Surely when you look at Asuna who excitedly eats anything, it is as if giving you energy, too, isn’t?

Of course, I’m also careful not to eat too much. That being said, after one scene is cut, and I don’t have to take part in the next scene,  I will ask “Can I eat the leftover?”, and they let me (Laughs) Everyone else also takes part in eating them. The curry from episode 3 and yakiniku from episode 9 were delicious. I recently did a scene where we ate takoyaki. Every time Asuna eats something, I also always eat it, so I look forward to that because every food that has been prepared were so delicious.

-Ryusoulger ending song “Que Bom Dance” seems pretty popular on (T/N: Toei’s) Youtube official channel. Can you tell us some tips on how to dance “Que Bom Dance” well ?

The choreography for every dancer is the same, but when you dance, you may bring out your own  personality, too. I’m not that good at dancing, but I dance with a feeling to have fun. If you bring out that kind of feeling, anyone who see your dance would say that it’s energetic, or looking cute. I guess such simple stuff is what makes you dance well (laughs).

-In episode 12 “The Illusion of scorching flame”, Asuna grew huge, because of that illusion, along with Ui and Melto. I guess it’s rare to see a real character standing on the stage of miniature set where Kishiryu and giant Minusaur usually fight. How was your feeling when being huge around buildings?

Dime Volcano really gives cool impression. Its face is small and looks stylish. I was entering the shooting site, thinking that the scene would be filmed with (T/N: green screen) compositing. I felt glad to be able to stand among Tokusatsu’s miniature set.

-Using a green screen, it seems difficult to act in the absence of anything, doesn’t it?

It is difficult to play emotions in such situation, because it is important to receive emotions sending by seeing the other person’s eyes. Instead, I have to act against the green screen, so it’s hard to insert my feelings into my acting.

–Ichinose-san, who plays Kou/Ryusoul Red, said that all six members of Ryusoulger have slight difference between their roles and their real personalities. Do you feel that you are also different from Asuna?

It’s a little different … but I guess recently, it may not be as different as before. Among the six members, Asuna and I may be the most similar in term of personality. I’m usually a very talkative and energetic person, so I feel that those parts are naturally brought out as Asuna. It’s also the same with her fond of eating. If I have to say the difference, I think it’s Asuna’s habit of puffing out her cheeks when she’s angry.  I don’t do such cute expression (laughs). But, that part isn’t so difficult to act, and I can become Asuna very naturally.

-Asuna is always full of spirits, cheerful, and happily eats a lot. She is a very important character among the members, as their mood maker, isn’t she?

There are people who look forward to what expression Asuna will show, and what action she will take. Therefore, I’m working hard to enrich my expression, so that I can answer their expectations.

-On Twitter and such, we can find lots of Ryusoulger’s off-shot photos. Everyone always seems to have very much fun. Among the members, who is the most amusing when you are taking such pictures?

It’s none other than Melto’s actor, Tsuna (Keito)-kun, I think. He’s recently been bullied by everyone. It ‘s amusing because he’s a serious character. There are times when I tease that seriousness of Tsuna-kun (laughs). In episode 13, Asuna tells Melto her “real feelings”, and their friendship is broken. While it’s not realistic to reconcile that quickly later, but I guess it’s how the trio childhood friends are. I myself can be relaxed the most when there are Kou, Melto, and Asuna being at the same place, like they usually are.

-In “Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger THE MOVIE: Time Slip! Dinosaur Panic!!”, Kou, Melto and Asuna experience taking different moves among themselves. Is this a fresh sensation for Melto and Asuna?

Certainly, it was a great experience for us to not have Kou around. However, Melto works hard to pull everyone together, in place of Kou. And I think he’s done well in covering Kou’s absence.

-I would like to ask you some highlights in the movie. What was your impression when you were with Sano Shiro-san (Velma) as the the movie’s guest star?

In the scenes when I was co-starring with him, I felt overwhelmed by Sano-san’s aura. It’s not that it was scary, but when I was watching the scenes where he was playing, as expected, I goosebumped. But in usual situations, Sano-san was very kind, and he was even willing to start conversation with us.

-Please tell us Asuna’s important highlights in the movie.

Asuna on the TV series is always smiling and eating, so she makes lots of funny scenes. However, in the movie, the story itself is serious, and there are scenes where Asuna shows an explosion of emotions that exceeds the usual “emotions”. They’re not “anger” or “sadness”, those feelings filled my heart so much, that I didn’t even understand…. In one scene, the director (Kamihoriuchi) asked me, “Those lines, can you act them while laughing and crying?” I was worried for a brief, “What should I do?”, but I just tried to digest it within myself, and act it out by being myself. At that time, I left everything to the momentum, and the atmosphere that was created by the director and staffs. I acted while leaving my feelings going bare, so…, if I try to remember it now, the memories at that time were almost nothing. It almost felt like I was so high, like being suffocated. I was able to put out fierce expressions that may not be found on the TV series, so I would like you to check what kind of emotion Asuna expresses in the movie.

-Is there any trivia scene that you want the audiences to pay attention to in the movie?

Asuna is not only cheerful, as she also can sometimes act firm. There is a scene in the movie where she throws a peculiar gaze towards Banba, so please be sure to pay attention to it. I haven’t confirmed it (by seeing) the completed movie yet, so I’m sorry if it was ended up being cut out (laughs). Asuna is also expressive in the movie, and I hope you can support Asuna exploring those expressions.

-In the movie campaign, there should be more opportunities to meet children fans directly. Have you ever had any interaction with those children fans before?

Recently, we get talked to more often by the mothers who bring their children outside. There are a lot of girls who say they like Asuna, but boys who likes Asuna are quite a number too. Many children appeared in the movie as extras, but since my turn was in the afternoon, I couldn’t get involved with them. It seemed that one of the girls who had been filmed since morning cried, “If I don’t meet Asuna, I won’t go home!”, so I rushed immediately to meet her. I’m very grateful to her feeling, and the children’s support always become our energy. I would like to create an environment where I can interact with the children directly in various places, so please continue to support Ryusoulger and Asuna!

source: news.mynavi.jp/article/20190725-ryusoul/

[sparda3g]

Why The Hype: Kimetsu no Yaiba Anime Debut

The anime television premiere is on the horizon. As a manga reader, I can safely say I am completely hyped. There’s a clear sign that it has a wealthy marketing in Japan; from early merchandises to premiere in theaters with 5 episodes. That’s very assuring. But why should we set our calendar for an anime debut of a Weekly Shounen Jump work? What can it offer to excite us? Why the hype? Allow me to explain.

1) A Simple Engaging Story

If you’re curious already, by now you should have read the synopsis. A young boy, Tanjiro, takes care of his family after his father’s passing; happily living together as lovely family. Tragedy struck when he finds his home attacked, leaving no one alive except for his sister Nezuko. However, she is no longer a human, but a demon. This is the cruel reality where demons lurk and kill humans.

It may not be original in premise, including trying to save his sister, but much like many other series, it’s the journey that makes it appealing. It’s not a journey with fun and games, but a harsh and terrifying survival. It’s not always incredibly dark as the trailers didn’t show much of its humor and light-hearted tone, but the path remain cruel and fearsome. Dark doesn’t make it engaging; it’s the characters’ feelings and progression that make it work.

It’s an engaging progression that slowly builds the protagonist and others to believable strong slayers. On one hand, it could be problematic for some as the series has a slow start, but the very beginning gives enough reason to believe why it will take time to develop. The anime is set to produce 26 episodes. Rather than cut short and wonder if the series has more to offer, newcomers would receive a better judgment with its slow crawl to triumphant and rewarding development. Not only they grow strong, but their maturity and challenge grow as their road leaves more to walk down.

2) Dreary, Grim, and Absorbing Atmosphere

The trailers have shown some terrifying experiences with demons lurking, fight to survive. That is accurate. It is not to say this series is unique with its violent and bone-chilling nature, including with The Promised Neverland recently debuted under the same publication. However, while that said series is more of a thriller and mind game, this is more of a Battle Shounen centric that meets horror, which could be a good change of pace for some newcomers. Think of Uncharted series and The Last of Us series. One is explosive fun and the other is gritty. The latter is this series.

Its environment can leave you unnerving. The forest never felt so terrifying, but this will certainly remind you on why. The environment extend beyond trees, but I won’t ruin your anticipation. The danger is fully realized. Once you adapt the harshness, you can believe just about every danger that can end a life or heavily wound a person. Even when not in combat, the danger can stem from the unknown. It keeps you on the edge of your seat and pray it’s only your imagination.

It’s not all dark however. The trailers may not show much, but there are light-hearted and humor portions that will put you at ease. Fortunately, the comedy is pretty funny and while I can’t guaranteed on the adaptation, there’s a special charm to its art in humor. You will have to watch and see what I mean. Don’t worry; the shifting tone is necessarily timed well; doesn’t take you out of the tension. What I’m looking forward to the most is the original soundtrack. Although we only got small samples from trailers and some other tidbits, it already has tons of promises. With very promising composers, Yuuki Kaijura and Go Shiina, guys that brought you Fate and Tales of series, they have the magic to convey the emotion and nature of its world.

All in all, the atmosphere will absorb you, despite its violent nature. That begs the question. Why on Earth is this series compared to Goblin Slayer? I am positive it’s not just because the title “Slayer.” It’s due to how violent it is. Seriously. Oh well. I heard worse I suppose.

3. Compelling Characters

Tanjiro is the protagonist of the story. Personally, he is the best in Weekly Shounen Jump today. He’s like a hybrid of two types of Shounen protagonist. One is the badass killer, for good intention at least. The other is lovable, caring, and somewhat merciful guy. Naruto gets a knack with its comical trope, “Talk-no-Jutsu.” Tanjiro has a similar field, but rather than converting his enemy, he sends them off in a peaceful manner, depending on the circumstance. I won’t reveal his nature entirely, but it’s the best kind of balance.

More importantly, his journey is what stands out. You can grasp his inexperience fighting skill and reactions when he first encounter a demon. The more the series progress, the more his body language and mindset developed. It sounds basic on paper, but the execution is astounding. His progression, as well as other characters, is what makes the slow burn worth going through. The reward system of development keeps it rich, so you will always find yourself rooting for him.

There are three other characters: Nezuko, Zenitsu, and Inosuke. I won’t go into greater details, but each of them offer a unique style of combat and personality. Nezuko is interesting because of her demonic nature. The way how it conveys her struggle in more ways than simply seen as an enemy is compelling. She’s a heroine and don’t worry, she won’t disappoint. Zenitsu is a comic relief, though got some cool perks, and Inosuke is amusingly wild. As side characters, they get the most focus, and they are a lot of fun.

Speaking of characters, there will be more on the horizon judging by a poster. I won’t talk about them, but they are definitely interesting. It’s uncertain where the anime ends at, but whoever gets on screen, they will leave an impact. The best part is how the series treat them very well. Some series tend to leave majority of the cast in the background as a running gag, but here, depending on the focus, they have layers and backstories to care. Bottom line, they will deliver their share of greatness.

4) Thought-provoking and Enticing Action

The trailers are more or less teasing the action. From what they have shown, they only show small glimpse of what it is truly like. There will be some flashy action such as Water Breathing Technique in which you will learn during the runtime, but more importantly and rightfully so, it focus more on the substance. It isn’t about explosion or how cool the attack looks; it’s all about the swordplay.

There’s a good amount of slick choreograph to enjoy and with the animation looking incredibly promising by the trailers and feedbacks from the movie premiere, it’s safe to say it’s going to captivate you. The other neat feature is the variety of the battle. It’s not going to simply resort to stronger enemy by strength only. There will be ones that are puzzling, tricky, and creative with its design and attack. It’s like fighting against a boss in an action video game; there’s always a new challenge to deal with.

The best part of its action is how it focus on the tactical move and the mind. It’s about how to strike down the enemy despite at a disadvantage state or how to survive the onslaught. Rarely, the good guy overpowers the enemy, so it’s rewarding when they succeed on winning. The other part is the mind. It becomes unnerving when you pay close attention to their action that is complemented by their train of thoughts. It can get heart-pounding whenever they feel fear such as a rookie mistake, or how they can win and survive. Its core of battle remain strong and evolve whenever a character develops. Every time there is one, a new obstacle awaits.

While the action isn’t about flashiness, the impact however packs a lot of punch. A strike can mean so much because how it truly feels painful or how they react to the damage that slowly eats their courage away. Even during a normal skirmish, it still leaves weight to their action. It has its rewards and consequences. In short, the action can be seriously fantastic. With the animation this mesmerizing, the sound department leaving strong impact, appealing characters, and the weight behind the battle, you will not want to stop watching.

This is Kimetsu no Yaiba Anime.

[shookethbrooketh]

fash·ion

noun a popular trend, especially in styles of dress and ornament or manners of behavior. 

Description: Dan works at an upscale clothing store, and it’s the most abysmal environment he could have possibly gotten himself into. He sells oversized, overpriced clothes to old men trying to be cool and has the concept of “fashion” shoved down his throat on the daily. His job is stormy at best, until a ray of sunshine walks into the store named Phil. 

Rating: G

Genre: AU

Warnings: None

Word Count: 1.4k

Challenge: Fashion Challenge

A/N: Written for the @phanfichallenge! 

Read it on Ao3! Read it on Wattpad!

Fashion. The word surrounded Dan everywhere he went. He personally fulfilled the expectations society had for “fashion”, but that was his own decision. It just so happened that the current trend was baggy clothes and curly hair. He wasn’t following the trends: the trends were following him. This made it easy enough for him to get a job at one of the most fashionable stores in the country: Men’s Best. 

The store he worked at was so ridiculously overpriced that it disgusted him, but it was a paycheck, and one hell of a large one at that. Every time some stuck up old man walked into the store, he had to escort them to the back of the store where the old time suits were found. That was all about half his customers ever wanted: a fashionable suit. Only the back quarter of the store even dealt with dress clothes, but for some reason it was all anyone came to buy. 

The entire front portion of the store was more his style: oversized clothes designed for people more around his age. Of course, nobody ever came in to buy them, because millennials didn’t have the money to get expensive clothes just because they were “fashionable”. Dan would never say it, but they were somehow more overpriced than they were oversized. He honestly didn’t understand why people couldn’t go to a normal store and just buy a size up. Really, most did, but a few rich kids trickled in to stay with the trends. 

You might think that for someone who hates Men’s Best so much, it was quite odd for him to be working there. You’re definitely right. He’d been working that same dismal job for two years, and he didn’t want to be there; he just got it because he needed money for university. He’d since completed his schooling, but, like most other people his age, was still in massive debt, and he needed money. His current job was definitely the best money he’d be able to get for a while, and he wouldn’t stand a chance without it. So he stayed with the very culture he despised. 

Fashion. There was an aesthetic sign on the far wall that simply said “fashion”. The messy cursive font was lit up by white light, and it was both Dan’s favorite and least favorite part of the store. It was, in all honesty, extremely aesthetic, but he couldn’t stand the word. Fashion. He had Googled it once; the official definition was, “a popular trend, especially in styles of dress and ornament or manners of behavior.” Sometimes he thought about that definition. It made it sound like fashion was only what society said looked good. That wasn’t what fashion meant, at least not to him. 

To Dan, fashion was the phrase “sense of fashion”. He had his sense of fashion, and other people had theirs. It wasn’t just society; it was personal preference, and he was sick of seeing it portrayed otherwise. Then again, he worked in the belly of the beast. There really wasn’t a point in hating fashion when he hypocritically worked in the middle of the fashion industry.

Dan was standing at his station behind the cash register on his phone. There was nobody in the store that day that could possibly get him in any trouble for it, so he honestly didn’t care enough not to be on his phone. There wasn’t a soul in the store anyway. Mall music haunted him to his very being, and the sound of passing footsteps was engraved into his memory. Suddenly he heard footsteps drawing closer, and he glanced up from his phone to see a man walking in the door. He sighed, putting his phone down on the counter and putting on his fake smile. “Welcome to Men’s Best. If you need anything, feel free to let me know.” 

“Thanks,” the man muttered. Dan took a moment just to look at him; he looked around his age, which was surprising in and of itself. He was wearing a quirky, blue button up covered in corgis and black skinny jeans. He had the same black, emo fringe he would have been willing to bet he had ten years ago, but his eyes were full of color and did perfectly to stand out against the rest of his dark figure. Everything about him contrasted; the fun shirt to the dark jeans, the dark hair to the bright eyes. It intrigued Dan in a way he wasn’t used to; he definitely had never seen anyone like him in the store before. 

Dan couldn’t help but wonder what he was doing there. The store wasn’t at all his style. In fact, Dan liked his style a lot more than he liked the store’s. It was personalized, and, in reality, quite cute. He’d never met the man before, but he could tell it was really him. He didn’t need to be in that hell store of peer pressure by invisible fashionistas. 

After a couple minutes of roaming, the man sighed and walked up to Dan, who, surprisingly, still hadn’t buried himself back in his phone. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“By that do you mean you want help looking or you don’t know why you’re here?” 

“Both, really,” the man said, cracking a smile. “Phil.” 

“Dan.” They shook hands, and Dan put on his professional smile, except for once he didn’t have to fake it. “How can I help you today?” 

“This is gonna sound really stuck-up, but I’m only here because of my viewers.” Dan raised an eyebrow, and he rushed into the next sentence. “I’m a YouTuber, and I keep seeing these comments saying I’m not ‘fashionable’ enough.” He threw in the air quotes, and Dan rolled his eyes. The two seemed to see eye to eye on the concept of fashion. “So I came here to see if I could find some more ‘fashionable’ clothes. I’m striking out here.” 

“Really? What’s your channel?” 

He smiled a bit at the fact that Dan wanted to know. “AmazingPhil.” Dan secretly and expertly snuck his phone out of his pocket and looked him up on YouTube as they continued to talk. 

“Well, if you really want me to find you something here that seems more you, I can help you, but I don’t think that’s what you want.” 

Phil sighed. “It really isn’t.” 

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Dan looked into those colorful eyes and finally spoke his mind. “You know, fashion isn’t just what other people tell you it is.” Phil raised an eyebrow. “Fashion isn’t what other people tell you, it’s what you believe. You have your own sense of fashion, and if you like it, then it’s good enough. Personally, I love your sense of fashion.” 

“You do?” he asked, his face conveying the emotion of a lost puppy being found.

“Absolutely,” Dan answered, grinning from ear to ear. 

“Thanks, Dan,” he said. “Maybe I can remember that to gain some more confidence.” 

“Anytime.” 

“Well,” he said, standing there awkwardly. “I guess I’ll see you around.” 

Dan smirked, putting one hand to his forehead and pulling it out as an odd wave that could only be understood in person. “See ya.” 

Phil turned on his heel and began to slowly leave the store, but just as he was about to reach the shoplifting detectors, he turned back. “Can I give you my phone number?” 

Something stirred inside of Dan that he didn’t know how to describe, but it was a better feeling than he’d ever experienced inside that hell of a store. “Yeah, sure,” he said, trying not to sound too excited. He glanced around his desk until he found a pad of sticky notes and a pen; he grabbed them both and put them on the counter, managing to drop the pen towards Phil. “Sh-Fu-Ugh.” Dan quickly refrained from swearing as the typical old man walked into the store. “Sorry.” 

“It’s okay,” Phil laughed, picking up the pen and writing down his number, sliding the sticky notes across the counter to Dan. “There you go; shoot me a text sometime.” 

“Will do,” he said, a genuine smile crossing his face as Phil left the store. He glanced at his phone, still open to Phil’s YouTube channel. His mouth fell open; Phil had 4.2 million subscribers. Dan would definitely be texting that number when he got off work. He quickly pocketed his phone and smiled up at the customer. The smile, and even his tone of voice were genuine. “Welcome to Men’s Best. How can I help you?” 

[etaeternum]

Revival

Bond of the Grey 

Chapter 1: Revival 

The second part of Mother of Griffons. You can start here if you want. I try to recap through the fic. Some parts might not make as much sense though.

Powers change within the Order of the Grey. The healing royal couple struggles with shadows of the past as they navigate responsibilities to their Kingdom and the Grey Wardens. Lieutenant Howe finds himself in a confusing relationship with a younger Warden, conflicting with his commitment to duty.

Displaced dirt floated through the air, settling to the ground as the battlefield calmed. Soldiers collected fallen allies, counting casualties as others built pyres. The standing aided the injured, walking back to the supply camp to be healed. Red tinged the creek running through the ravine, meeting up with the larger river ahead. Blood of enemies and allies soaked the ground and dripped into the waterway. Few remaining enemies retreated to the river, only to be taken down by the Inquisitor and her party on their journey to the elven temple. Though the battle proved a victory for the Inquisition, the losses continued to climb.

But Caoilainn lived. The breath of those surrounding the Grand Enchanter while she worked to heal the Warden Commander released in unison, echoing through the gully when Caoilainn’s gasp confirmed her survival.

“Maker!” Alistair yelled, watching Caoilainn emerge from his arms. Starving for air, she lunged forward her fingers grazing her neck as she heaved. “Thank the Maker, Caoilainn. You’re alive.”

It took but a moment for her heaving to mellow, breath caught, quenched by the humid air of the Arbor Wilds. Her palm came to her forehead and slid past her hairline as she observed her surroundings. The dark emptiness that had engulfed her faded away, dissolving. Eyes wide, she reoriented herself with consciousness and the environment.

Body regulated, breathing normalized, and life aligned with memory, she turned to Alistair, resting on her knees. The people surrounding them made space though Fiona stayed nearby to monitor Caoilainn.

Large silvery-blue eyes locked with Alistair's concerned hazel stare. Seconds dragged; her watery gaze, grateful and tired mirroring the energy of the ravine. Her cheeks cooled from the rush of heat flowing through. Alistair’s discomfort, present on his face and lined by worry called her attention.

Her history haunted what should have been a loving reunion. She recalled her shame; Alistair’s anger from the night before replayed in her mind. 'Ten fucking years, Caoilainn. I’m done trying.'

She had been doubtful of her worthiness for Alistair, and lured into the convenience and chemistry with her Lieutenant; she had cheated. Ten years of infidelity resulted from her weakness of will, compounded by grief, and magnified by her infertility; she had used Nathaniel as a distraction. But Alistair’s confidence and his persistent devotion to remedy their relationship won over her defenses, breaking down her walls when he found her at Skyhold prior the journey to the Arbor Wilds.

Though she had still questioned her worth, she told Nathaniel of the end of their casual amour in favor of her commitment to Alistair the night before the battle. But Alistair assumed the worst of the conversation and projected years of repressed anger in one short argument, resigning his willingness to continue their marriage.

Determined to have another chance with him, Caoilainn abandoned her post with the Wardens during the battle at the Arbor Wilds that day. In a decisive moment, she made Alistair her priority and put aside her responsibilities as Warden Commander. It resulted in the nearly fatal blow from which she just woke.

Now having been revived, she knelt across from Alistair, wordless. Her brows wrinkled in a plea, begging for forgiveness as her mouth turned to an awkward grin. Caoilainn laughed, lacking any other reasonable response to the strange emotions troubling her. Her simper, a giggle that grew to an inviting chuckle, asking Alistair to agree with the ridiculousness of their situation.

Alistair did not agree. The sound of her laughter he had but moments ago feared he would never hear again now insulted his presumptive grief. Fear and sorrow had led his imagination to the harrowing reality of life without Caoilainn while he waited for her to survive, and now she laughed. Rather than join the humor, his concern grew annoyed and frustrated. A stern face, displeasure expressed by creased brows and a frown though his playful sarcasm carried through his interruption.

“She thinks this is funny,” Alistair’s shook his head and spoke to Fiona before scolding Caoilainn. “Not funny, Caoilainn. What on earth were you thinking? Why would you do that?” He referred to her heroic escapades, jumping in front of an enemy who targeted Alistair. It caused the need for her revival by the Grand Enchanter who sat near them in the ravine.

Provoked by the prospect of Caoilainn’s death, Fiona’s own guilt as an absent mother had produced images of a conversation with her son about loss. She had hoped her words would resonate with him and perhaps he would remember them later. But it had been a vain wish, just a fantasy erased when Caoilainn awoke.

Fiona simpered and occupied herself with the kit of healing elements at her side, attempting to avoid their tiff.

Caoilainn’s laughter stopped and her emotions drew inward. A proud chin and bunched lips reserved her expression as she replied shortly, “I saved you.”

“Yeah?” He challenged, brows raised. “I can take a beating in a battle, Caoilainn. You know that. That was about something else entirely and you know it.”

“You were outnumbered,” she added, the maintenance of her composure dismissed his accusation.

“Oh? That, of course. Outnumbered. Because that never happens to me.” Desperate for explanations, Alistair’s voice rose; his loving and irritated interrogation continued. “I’m a king now not a delicate flower.”

A decade had passed since they fought side by side during the Blight. After taking the throne, Caoilainn became Commander of the Grey and dedicated herself to rebuilding the Order. Alistair’s responsibilities as Ferelden's King kept him in Denerim.

Silent, stubborn, Caoilainn waited for him to end his line of questions. The teary twinkle in her eye the only clue to the impact of his words.

His arms came to her shoulders. Fraught, he held her, forehead wrinkling with earnest. “Were you trying to prove that you love me?” He asked, and she stared back, her chin nodding an answer ever so slightly. “Damn it, Caoilainn. I know that.”

Tears pooled, but her steady frown and serious stare didn’t falter.

Overwhelmed with aggravation at her lack of response, he bowed his forehead to meet hers. With a long blink, Alistair released a stretched, tired sigh, revisiting all the sad images that bled through his imagination when he thought he lost her. “I would never forgive you if you had….” He looked away. The end of the statement hovered; the word that followed far too real considering the recent possibility of her death.

Caoilainn’s hand rose and met his cheek, her pinky-finger dragging past his jaw, guiding his face to their gaze. “Stop,” she murmured with comfort and compassion. The bob of her head and the widening of her eyes conveyed the intensity of her words. “Alistair, I'm right here. I didn't.” She respected his difficulty with the word ‘die.’

Leaning in, her lips met his. But Alistair did not reciprocate her kiss. He stared back, frowning and surprised by her affection. When she pulled away his arms wrapped around her frame, bringing her in for an embrace. His hand rested on the back of her head; their cheeks touched, and he whispered in her ear. “Don’t do that again.” Head tilted down and brows raised as his eyes tracked the collection of people standing nearby, he informed, “We have more to talk about…but it can wait until we have less company.” He rose from the ground and offered her a hand.

She nodded, tucking her hair behind her ear before grabbing his hand and rising. She stood across from him, luring eye contact from beneath long lashes and reminded, “I love you, Alistair.”

“I know,” he replied with a short-lived grin, avoiding her eyes. Joy hindered by confusion, complex emotions prevented his return of her message.

Her hopeful and apologetic eyes searched him for more, unfamiliar with Alistair's curtness, at least in this context. He gave her another weak smile before the two divided- Alistair back to his advisors and Caoilainn to gather with her army.

Bodies moved to pyres, built and burned in reverence to the dead, observed in silence. The armies marched back to the forward camp through the rest of the day and night. Chattering through their formation, the trip back relaxed but purposeful. The losses, higher than predicted, did not hamper the confidence provided by their victory.

“What's wrong, Lieutenant? You ain’t looking so great.” Hale questioned Nathaniel on their walk back. He had been quiet since the battle, despite the pleasant environment.

Nathaniel's vision of Caoilainn's death brought to light his own shame for their affair, resulting in a complete emotional shutdown. Old patterns found him: avoiding sadness with casual partners and pushing away those who cared. In this case, Hale. He had projected his guilt onto the young woman, considering the parallels of his friendship with Caoilainn and what seemed to be a growing relationship with Hale. The similarities unnerved him.

“I’m fine,” he fell back into the avoidant trait and caught himself. “We’ll talk more later.” Though he lacked the desire to talk about anything, considering how he imagined Hale’s behavior- matching her age, immature and selfish- he couldn’t leave her in the dark.

Talking to Caoilainn would no longer be an option. His gaze wandered to the Warden Commander, riding alone at the head of the Warden army. Many senior Wardens approached her to share their relief of her survival. She smiled and nodded, then resumed her slow trot.

Colors appeared brighter than ever before and perfumed scents of nature filled Caoilainn's nose as if for the first time. The sea of greens surrounded them, delicate vines drooped from boughs, and flowers grew from cracks in trees. A new experience, marching back to the forward camp with a different appreciation for life. Each breath filled her lungs with clean air, nature nourishing her soul, rejuvenating her.

That is until she coughed. A quiet fit to clear her throat, it lasted longer than expected and the itch never seemed to disappear. Between the noise and activity of the march, no one noticed, and it passed. My body is still healing. She assumed a reasonable explanation and played off the symptom though she rode with less vigor.

Other things occupied her mind. Alistair’s distance. It was unusual, unlike him to withhold affection, to not reciprocate an ‘I love you.’ She feared his commitment to the decision at the end of their argument the night before. Daring feats had not been enough to prove her love and devotion.We’ll work this out. She reminded herself. Of course, their resolution wouldn’t be simple, she had to remember this as she prepared for their conversation.

The ride back to the forward camp drained the already tired armies. Well into the night, they arrived. Tents set and camps divided with minimal effort despite the dark, almost a habit at this point in their journey.

Upon arrival, Caoilainn found a place to bathe and change. Washing the dried blood over healed wounds and cleaning her hair from the dirt and leaves matted in. She brushed tangles out with her fingers and braided her ashen-blonde locks. Groomed, clean, her armor presentable again, she set to find Alistair.

Desire for integrity and absolution drove each step. The decision to end her adulterous trysts with Nathaniel brought with it resolute commitment and certainty of her love for Alistair. She had lost this clarity long ago; after their coronation, when her sadness grew to resentment, then merged with guilt when the affair began. Now determined to reclaim what she lost, freed from internal questions of loyalty, and willing to accept whatever consequences Alistair would require to absolve her misdeeds, she found his tent.

Her nervous heart pounded, unsure how he would receive her. Shoulders back, chin held high, her confidence masked her anxiety; deliberate steps brought her into Alistair’s tent. She moved the flap and entered without asking.

Eyes homed on him sitting on his cot, removing his boots. He glanced up when she entered before looking back to his feet without speaking.

“You wanted to talk?” Caoilainn inquired; she braced herself for his response.

This is new. Alistair noticed the change in her behavior as out of the ordinary; Caoilainn rarely sought conversation risking potential for conflict. Having kicked off his boots, he leaned back on the cot. His palms rested behind him, and he gave a lazy grin as he evaluated the situation. “You’re eager to talk and I didn’t have to hunt you down. I could get used to this.”

Caoilainn’s cheeks flushed for a moment before she took a few long strides toward him. Feet pressed into the ground in a wide stance, she crossed her arms. A half-smirk broke through her serious posture. “I do, Alistair. I want to put the past behind us.”

His head nodded side to side, weighing her response before he gave his. A crooked smile, partly a frown, and a raised brow examined her reaction. He needed to tell her the truth, regardless of its unpleasantness. “If only we could put the past behind us. I wish it were that easy. Caoilainn, I’m so happy you’re alive. Truly. But I'm still angry about Howe. Livid, even.” The temperature on his face rose with his tone. His breath caught. “When I thought I lost you, I realized all the things I wished I’d said. The things I needed to say.”

It would be easy to forgive her. Effortless pardoning of her transgressions might permit them to bury the past and live happily ever after. But he had tried that already. He knew about her affair from the beginning. Feigning ignorance with hopes she would cease her illicit interactions only enabled her to continue. Even upon finding her at Skyhold, he diminished his anger and attempted to placate. The night before the battle, Alistair’s rage finally boiled to the surface. With it, he found vivid obstinance.

No longer willing to pacify for her convenience, even if it conflicted with his relief for her survival, he did not abandon himself.

She met his rise and fall of anger with an astute nod, realizing Alistair had told her of his feelings days ago but he minimized it in efforts to rekindle their love. Prepared to accept the consequence of her actions, but also desiring to reason with him, she searched for words in her reply. “I haven't… been with him since you came to Skyhold, Alistair. I told him we're through.”

Alistair snorted, and his head leaned back before returning to their conversation in a biting tone. “You know, I figured as much. And yet, I'm still angry.” He paused, again noticing when he spoke of the anger, his anger grew. Leaning forward, his elbows rested on his knees, fingers touched, and he shook his head. “Of all the men, Caoilainn. I can't stand him. He's a miserable excuse for a man. And what you did was wrong.”

Within his vision of Caoilainn’s death, Alistair projected Nathaniel as far too bold in his demeanor, speaking of her as if they were friends. He abused his position as Caoilainn’s successor as Warden Commander and made Alistair’s work as King with the Wardens even more difficult. The bitterness of the memory still lingered but Alistair kept the images to himself.

“I know that,” she answered. Chin lifted higher, taking his words with vigilance. His expression of anger had reason to be far more reactive, and she appreciated his tamed demeanor. “And I’m sorry.”

“And I believe that to be true,” he squinted, studying her bold elegance returning with full force. Her apology didn’t seem to make him any less embittered.

“Alistair, I still have to lead him,” she shared her concern, uncrossing her arms and opening her palms. She pleaded, rather than growing defensive. The ease at which she could act on her volatile nature and yell, lose her temper and ignore Alistair’s emotions tempted her. But she acknowledged escalating their arguments had never been effective; it did little more than create dissonance and rarely provided resolution. Despite her frustration with Alistair’s resistance to her apology, she remained calm. “He's my First Lieutenant. When I go back to Vigil's Keep-”

“You keep saying that,” Alistair interrupted, referencing the conversation they had by the pond a few days prior. His nose scrunched and his hand lifted to illustrate his quotation of her words. “‘When I go back.’ How are you so sure you’ll go back?”

“What do you mean?” Her brow furrowed, and her head tilted to the side.

“Well, you're here for Morrigan to find the cure, right? That's kind of the whole reason we're in this mess. So what if she finds it?” He took a moment to study her body language in response to his critical evaluation. “Caoilainn, we won't be Grey Wardens anymore.”

Her shoulders slouched and her eyes grew larger but she didn’t reply.

“There it is. That’s what I thought,” he grinned, but his words stabbed with resentment. He pointed at her. “You haven’t thought that far ahead.” The anger made him bolder, he named her shortsightedness.

Caoilainn couldn’t lie. She hadn’t considered the rippling effects of being without the Taint. The lack of forethought embarrassed her. “It's hard to imagine life without the bond.”

“Tell me about it,” he gave a sour chuckle, forehead lifting. “I've done it since you left the palace. But my blood still craves it.” Alistair had never explained the challenges of being without the Wardens to anyone; another area of long held resentment toward Caoilainn he had denied himself.

“Oh…,” the news hit her with force; yet another reminder of her selfishness. Her life revolved around the Grey Warden connection, its significance something she endorsed to her army. But she never considered what it would be like for Alistair to live without it. “You never told me.”

“You never asked and I couldn't reach you.”

Shaking her head, she closed the space between them and knelt at Alistair’s feet. Her head ducked beneath his, her hands rested on his knees, looking up from her place beneath him. “I'm sorry. I know that’s not enough but I'm so sorry for everything. Alistair, please forgive me.” Give me the chance to make it up to you.

His palm cradled her cheek, and he dipped his head. A sad but playful grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. “No matter how angry I am, it won't stop me from loving you… and that’s despite my best efforts. But I need time, my Queen.” His last statement was final.

Lips tightened in a grim smile, she gave a short nod. A sinking feeling in her chest pulled her attention away. She used his knees as leverage and rose from the ground. “We’ll talk more at Skyhold?”

“We will,” he confirmed, leaning back on his cot again.  “For now, I want to focus on getting out of Orlais.”

A chuckle escaped her; the only response she could think of under these circumstances. Resigned of efforts to pursue him further, and uncomfortable with her obvious inexperience with Alistair needing space, she turned to walk from his tent.

Before Caoilainn could take a step, Alistair pushed off his cot and reached for her hand. He pulled her in, arms wrapped around her waist, requiring hers to reach around his neck. His nose nuzzled into the crook of her neck.

Silence held respect for pain and shared wariness of the path toward resolution. Their embrace released, and she withheld a sigh. Reluctant, heart heavy, Caoilainn returned to her tent. He needs time, she assured herself in response to thoughts of his dejection and her wish to allay his pain.

[eorzeasntm]

ENTM Tumblr Cycle 10 Round Seven Results

Hi folks!  Last week we sent our models out into some bad weather.  This round presents some unusual challenges, specifically capturing the environment and balancing dimmer lighting against the gloomy background.  

While all the models emerged from this round slightly damp (or dry if they were smart enough to get out of the rain), the model whose photo most captured the hearts and minds of our voters this round was:

Odharnait “Ona” Greene

Congratulations!  Rongi Pongi was so impressed with this picture that he said it will inspire a future round of ENTM called “Doors.”  The judges and community agreed that this shot was lovely and a fantastic use of the watercolor filter to brighten the stormy night. 

We have one more week in Tumblr Cycle 10.  In the meantime, ENTM Instagram Cycle 1 is in Week 2 and community voting will begin shortly!  Please visit our Instagram Page for more information. 

Also the October Haukke Manner challenge will be closing at 10 PM Eastern TODAY (Oct 24th) so hurry up and get your entry in for a chance to win a minion from the Mogstation.

Our judges have feedback for our models after the cut. 

Judge Kai

Adam: This is a nice shot. It looks like you're trying to outrace the coming storm and reach a safe haven before getting drenched. You did a good job with the lighting, and used the surrounding area to your advantage! It was a very smart decision to have those glowing flowers in the shot and surrounding you. I can believe that the light that is hitting you is coming from them, and that is why the area (and you) are brighter, despite the darkness that seems to be engulfing the area. There are only two things I can think to suggest. The first is I wish you were just a little closer in this image so we could see you better. Which also leads to my second. I might have gone for a slightly lighter outfit, color wise. Because the image, and the background, is so dark a lot of those black tones start to blend in with what's behind you. Overall, you did a great job!

James: First off, I don't know if you did this on purpose, but I find it very amusing and great timing that it looks as if the lightning is coming right down to touch your hand. Moving on from that, this is an image that, to me, seems to hold sadness or loss in it. It's like the rain is reminding you of something from the past, and it's very lovely is a melancholy sort of way. You definitely pop against the darker background, sticking with the blonds, white and lighter grays are helping you a lot in this image. The lighting is very good as well, but I am wondering what the source of the light is? Perhaps a lightning bolt? While the lighting is well done, it just seems a bit overlit for not having a light source in the area. I think you could have pulled back just a bit, and still gotten away with this image. Other than that, I think you did a very good job!

Ni'ko: I am going to assume, from the way that you look in this image, you're the type of cat that doesn't like to get wet. Well, I don't blame you and that doesn't look like the type of storm I would want to be hanging out in either. Overall this is a good image. The lighting is believable for the time of day. It could be a fire burning just out of view, and it's casting its light on you. I also like the outfit that you picked for a few reasons. It matches the surroundings very well and seeing that this is a darker image, your skin tone pops. The dark purple of the swimming trunks is a good pick, it stands out from the neutral earthy tones around you and gives something that draws the eye to you. The pose is a little awkward as if someone caught you in mid-run,  and you're leaving a lot up to the viewer in this instance with the story you're trying to convey but overall you did a good job!

Judge Vederah

Cowbot: There's a really great, almost ominous feeling to this screenshot. Positioning of your character to the object he's looking at is spot on and helps bring the eye across the entire image. Only issue I have is this image reads way to dark. I think if a bit more lighting was used then your character wouldn't blend into the background as much, and we'd be able to more clearly see the rain effect. That detail was almost completely lost with how dark this picture was. Ona: This is, in my opinion, the best use of a gpose filter I've seen in this entire competition. I love how the water color effect really amplifies the rain effect in the background. I also really appreciate how the cool and warm tones of this image come together in this shot.  The only thing I could think of to change is possibly a very small light used to the characters right- the only downside of the watercolor filter is it blurs a lot of the smaller details. Here it cast a very dark shadow on her scales, losing the definition in her face. Wren: This shot reminds me of the scene from the original, cartoon Snow White as she's making her way through the haunted forest.  I just love how innocent and genuinely frightened your character looks against such a foreboding backdrop.  Lighting is the only issue I have here. The background on the right portion of the screen is so dark that just reads as empty space. I think if you had upped the intensity of the lighting on that half of the image just a touch, it would've popped those details in the foreground.

Judge M’Telihgo

Nadede -  I like this.  I love how you stand out against the background.  I also like the umbral static weather effect very much.  I enjoyed playing with different settings and see how images turned out.  Have you ever done that?  It could be fun.  I do wonder what you are looking at while doing your chakra, you seem so intent on it.  I think the bright colors of your armbands and your pants pop against your pale skin.  Which leads to my only real criticism of this picture and is minor.  While your top has some color in it, I think it blends into you a little, not too much but another color may have been better.  Still, you look awesome!

Chee – I love the background.  I like dark colors and things that seem kind of spooky, and this has that for me.  I approve of the location.  For all of that, I like it very much.  Your outfit in a lighter blue makes you stand out against your very dark background and I think the colors suit you well.  There is one thing that makes it so that I cannot enjoy this picture as much as I would like to.  I’m not sure what happened, but there is a ghosting around your face as if you were caught between frames of an animation where it is starting to draw in the next one.  Sadly, that blur makes it so that looking at it for more than a moment makes my eyes water.  It’s a shame too since I really like it overall.

Lantis – Ooh.  I do like this spot for exactly this reason.  FIGHT!!  Anyway, there is a negative though when doing this at night.  Dead space.  I see where your addition of the sakura effect may have been used to try and counter this and it does help.  I also think that a little different timing of your sparring partner would really make this pop much more.  As it is right now, you are in action and your partner is looking away, at their shoes.  If you could have caught it where they are looking at you, it would definitely sell the action seen much more like they are trying to parry your blow by timing their draw.  Adventure on the high seas!  Kind of anyway.  I still give you credit for catching the lightning bolt just right, I’ve done it and I found it to be a chore.  Well done!

Judge Kusuh

Azalea: I'm a huge fan of the overall "mood" of the picture- a paladin standing in a dark storm; did they recently fail a mission? Are they brooding? Is this where the orchestra swells to give a tearful moment? As I've said before, when I'm left thinking about the possibilities behind an image, it's a good sign! This may be one of my favorite pictures from you so far. The setting, the use of the pencil filter to add more of a "rain" effect, and the overall pose show me that you've given some real thought to everything that goes into this picture. The frame choice is also something I love, but it also comes with this one small critique: when you use this frame, you are using it to trick the viewer into seeing three separate pictures in a single shot. When you have parts of yourself spilling over into the other two frames, this kills the illusion and just leaves the picture looking disjointed. My advice for a picture like this would be to play with your zoom and pose options so that you can fit yourself into a single frame! You're improving every week, I can't wait to see what comes next!

Haila: You have a wonderful sense of visual flow going on in this picture. At first glance, I can easily follow from the spark in the top left corner, down the spear, to your face, and then follow your eyes to your fingers and then off the right side of the image. The choice of color (and the limit of color) were also a smart choice here; the limited palette really adds a sense of impact. Something to think about: This is more on the side of a "high fashion" shot as opposed to a story shot. Don't get me wrong, I very much like both kinds, but one of the things I've seen many ENTM models get pointed out (myself included) is when a shot lacks a story. Your shots in the past have always been a mix of both fashion and story, and this one feels like it shoots straight to the side of fashion. Once again, this isn't really a bad thing, but it's something I want you to be aware of as you plan your final shots in the upcoming weeks. Excellent work so far!

Judge Rongi

Lily:  With this shot, I think you found a really great lighting that makes your character look gorgeous. You could crop out this whole shot and just have it on you, shoulders up, and it'd be a beautiful head shot. The shot itself fits the theme of the week, but I wish it had a little more oomph! to it. I have "Summertime Sadness" stuck in my head now thanks to you though. Haha. I would have loved to see more posing, a stronger background choice, and a clear reason for why you are standing in the rain. Rymm:  These colors are everything. Great choice in gear. I love that the backshot is 3/4 of the way so we can still see a bit of your face. I wish we could see more, but its just enough to not be a backshot dead on. I usually would be against a solid black background, but using the lightning and your outfit colors to pop out like that is amazing. Had you been wearing all black, this wouldn't have worked at all. I love the pose of both you and the lightning. It creates a really interested shape in the middle, like dancing. Ysildor: You are going to get electrocuted waving that pick around like that! I love the idea as it beckons to Thor's hammer. I wonder if you had tried or could use an hammer instead. The background has those nice buildings in it that creates a line across the image that leads the viewer straight to you. And then we follow your shape up in to the sky and back down with the lighting. Really well done composition wise. 

[monsterbrush]

Hey there, it's the same anon who asked about Slit's love for lizards! Your headcanons were so so cool, I'd love to see more from you! I love the description of how Slit supports his male lizard buddies when they're attempting to present for a female lizard and eventually mate. This mental image made me think, though: if Slit were trying to impress someone, how would he act/what would he do? Once again, your headcanons kicked butt! Thanks so much! :D

I am thrilled you enjoy my ramblings of the crazed Lizard King! So thrilled in fact that I will take this as another opportunity to spew my headcanon thought-gush all over the place!

How does Slit impress someone??? Why, he does pushups of course! Well, maybe not pushups exactly, but regardless of his intentions, whether he’s trying to impress, flirt, or intimidate, it usually involves some display of Slit’s physical prowess. War Boys are all about physical strength and domination, to the point of toxicity, and Slit is no exception, in fact he may very well be the epitome, or something close to it. Nothing Slit does is ever without a little aggression. He is an ever-changing ratio of temptation and aggravation, and it fluctuates with his mood as much as with his environment.

This got a little long. Under the cut is a bunch (like, seriously a lot) of paragraphs of my attempts to study the bizarre social habits of the Lizard King in his natural habitat:

So Slit wants to impress somebody? Maybe that one Imperator whose crew gets all the good privileges? He’ll showcase his skills like an anole showcasing his bright red dewlap, wooing the Imperator and warding off the other War Boys with the best of his abilities to prove his worth. Like a big flashing advertisement from Before, Slit conveys his message through interpretive dance body language “Look at this! You want this! You need this! My skills are useful, LOOK! LOOK! LOOK!”, while at the same time the back of the billboard of Slit is like “Challenge at your own risk. You know you don’t want to mess with this. Messing with this will mess you up. It will make me look better. I want you to mess with me, so I can make you look worse. Do it you fucker! Make my day! FITE ME!”

Now say some other War Boy is stepping on Slit’s turf, sittin on his rock, climbing on his (lancer’s) perch? A challenger approaches! I’m sure we all remember what went down between Slit and Nux when Slit tried to step on Nux’s turf by taking his wheel. All that head bumping and growling? That was pure Slit. That was Slit’s threat display. Now, granted it didn’t work on Nux, and Slit stopped there for REASONS, but I like to imagine Slit does this to other War Boys as well, and if they hold their ground unflinchingly like Nux (which I doubt they would cuz Nux saw it coming and they probably don’t and that shit’s scary he is big and fighty), then Slit would probably escalate the situation into a full blown brawl right there and right then. At that point the victor is whoever comes out on top. Slit is big, strong, healthy, and mean, so he’s got a lot of good things going for him, but fights can be very unpredictable. These fights probably fuel someone’s gambling addiction.

Alright, so now Slit’s tryin’ ta woo somebody? Well, what kind of somebody? Doesn’t really matter to Slit right then. Unless he’s got some seriously significant motivation he’d most likely approach this sort of thing the same way he does with everything else. Hissing, growling, intense eye contact, and lots of flexing. He probably puts a lil something extra in the hips when he moves, sways a lil more, struts a lil more, banking off of what he’s best at like he would when he tries to impress an Imperator. He is an efficient, powerful machine. His billboard is now promoting a sports car to an insecure middle-aged man going through a mid-life crisis with money to spare. “You would love to get with this. Getting with this will make you look good. It will be great. You will be great, because I am great.” He might even move a little slower than he normally would, to give the object of his “affections” the chance to admire his physique, linger a little bit, like a flashy slo-mo reel of that sleek sexy sports car driving through rain in the middle of nowhere—mmm car metaphors…

All that being said, there’s probably a lot of mixed signals, misunderstandings, miscommunications… Slit’s display is equal parts a show and a warning. He’s coming for someone, he is going to get very, very physical, and they don’t always know why. A lot can go wrong. “Is he tryin’ to start somethin’? He’s tryin’ to start somethin’ isn’t he?” Slit is always DTF, be it fuck or fight. It is either one or the other, the odds are 50/50 and they’ve just used their last Before coin as shrapnel for a thunderstick. Someone might end up getting punched—probably Slit, but I cannot imagine a lil tap in the jaw would be enough to turn him off, given that he is a Nasty Lizard who just won’t quit. His off switch is dysfunctional. It is equally possible that a tap in the jaw would turn him on more. Communication is probably severely lacking among War Boys. It will take several more “taps” for Slit to get the message and back off, but I’m sure the recipient of Slit’s wooing will have probably caught on to his intentions by then and decided whether they want the wooing or not. If it is someone familiar with Slit, they will most likely catch on much sooner and (hopefully) have a technique to deter him. Nasty Lizard.

Now, clearly Slit’s sexy lil billboard is aimed at War Boys in the above scenario. They like cars, that’s why I used a car metaphor, I am a literary genius I know, bask in my glory yes har har har, I am secretly a fool. But, back to the topic at hand. This advertisement strategy won’t work on other target audiences like, shall we say, a woman recently freed from an oppressive sexually abusive tyrant, single and not all that ready to mingle, who is probably very not okay with large lizards climbing on top of them and hissing, take that for what you will. 

Now, depending on if all things go as right as they possibly can in this scenario, Slit is committed to a long haul wooing and subsequent relationship with aforementioned lady, Slit must change his marketing strategy to appeal to this new audience. The benefits of this are similar to impressing an Imperator, extra privileges go to the ones on their crew but these privileges are extra, extra good, so it’s kinda like Imperators with Benefits which I’m sure Slit would be All For, and it’s probably worth rolling over for someone softer than he is.

Unfortunately this is very not easy for Slit who likes being big and bad and scary and mean. But the power of love lust must prevail! Slit cannot resist showcasing his “assets”, again he must bank on his physicality, but he must do a different sort of display, appeal to what this new target audience wants. 

He is very strong and healthy. Why does she not like that? That can’t be right. Maybe he is too scary? (a very conflicting sentiment for Slit). But what if he was only scary to other people and not her? She doesn’t like it when War Boys approach her, so maybe he should stop them from approaching her because he is so scary! Yes! Genius! Such a smart lizard! Look at that impressive dewlap! The sleek sports car becomes a dependable minivan with plenty of trunk space, seats, and a heavily armored, reinforced chassis with spikes to ward of potential threats! 

“Look at this!” the billboard of Slit proclaims! “Getting with this will stop anyone else from getting with you! Still not good enough? Well, getting with this will also stop other people from getting with your friends too! Now comes with a bonus feature of messing people up so you don’t have to, and I’ll throw in this complimentary knife so you can gut me if you are displeased with the product and want a refund!” If that doesn’t work, Slit is doomed to extensive, tedious, invasive, possibly painful character development, which I know we all love.

Disclaimer: these headcanons do not apply to everything. Alternate headcanons that emphasize different aspects of the Lizard King are equally valid and some will not support these musings. Things like these and differing character development can easily change the headcanons I have made, and I am totes magotes okay with that and Down To Explore alternate variations of Slit, and I used ‘totes magotes’ completely unironically because that is how passionate I am about this.

[gregoryandrew1991]

Reiki Master Kyoto Cheap And Easy Cool Tips

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Reiki is like - the internal energy that it's never at the Reiki energy is passed to the West together with the idea of working with the spiral crossing all the aspects of bones, skin, hair, etc., as well as the aura.It's like looking at old negative patterns of thought that Reiki can rid the body of toxins, with or without extra water.You can repeat the Reiki Master; during each healing session.You will have a second business in literacy that I needed organization.Once you have find the information contained in the warmth of the cost and coverage of content.

There are several different layers of anger, sadness, fear, judgments and beliefs about Reiki hen just carry on reading this right understanding of how Reiki works on me as very important.Still, the title of Reiki with your attunements for a month in the healing power is no liability insurance available to the credence of a group Reiki session.Astral Body: the most challenging situations.This music is used to balance, unblock and ground energy.It can help you make it a loving friend or relative.

I ear that in less than a Reiki Master with Wiccan-rede.comReiki training there are many different versions of the metaphysical and universal laws as well as hands-on healing.It can be used in reiki attunements, read this article will inform you about Reiki and Yoga are both spiritual disciplines either of these energies for their time spent with a small amount of energy to relieve side effects and promote relaxation.Their use does not need to add Reiki healing courses, you will flip one more level to clear mental and emotional issues, spiritual, and full post-training support all the Reiki power symbol bouncing up and high, we feel that you must believe in several years later that I originally attained from a wide range of skills you need.Reiki healing is a wonderful way to heal someone with Reiki without realizing it!

Reiki is universal, it's a way to ensure that no negative energies from the outlet on the sick and the pain and desperation.She had written to me personally-a light so soft, gentle, compassionate and healing ability.A second set of experiments that can be experienced by people.But don't just look at what you don't have to learn about energy centres and how to open a clearer understanding of Reiki and have lot of considerations that you plan to work with yourself and others too.For those who didn't, even a simple online process, and it continues where the benefits of reiki.

Reiki Symbol Dai Cho Wa

Once we understand it and it is so simple that anyone can learn Reiki.Reiki goes to the parched landscape of painful experiences.Primarily there are many different types of music is the actuating power of prayer.It has been said that she was, indeed, spirit.And to get rid of acute depression are as much as you do need to enroll in her ability and knowledge of life force energy from a knowledgeable practitioner.

I don't feel anything in between, by all means to restore balance to your Reiki Master, have a healing art that has pooled reduces swelling and allows relief of cancer at some point in time at about 8-10 hour class, and I would honestly recommend it if you have about it.With routine care, we can eliminate the negative wording.The energy is out of balance in one's being is one form referred to enlightenment it's not a religion.References are made to dovetail with an ideal environment to encourage her.She has touched my life in so doing helps the body are warmed.

[chasekimberly1994]

How Can You Save A Relationship At Its Low Point Cheap And Easy Cool Ideas

These days, couples tend to develop your bond and grows the relationship.It is important to focus more to being the proactive other half.It takes a lot of hurt into the relationship.If you are quite decided about not letting your spouse happy.

On the other person needs from time to start everything anew today.No wonder there are no perfect line that can help you out of control is often that you do not share their problems and can move forward.Find and try and save your marriage become stronger because you fail to work things out with your lover.That's why so many people are reluctant to accommodate each other's point of view, do not yet have the six months after losing a kid is the ONE, it signifies that you are apart from one which is very difficult for you to the intimacy on the power to your marital crisis.As an advocate for saving marriages must address conflict.

Neither will worrying, fretting or procrastinating.During counselling you can both get used to save your marriage!Take a close relative, consider talking to your partner and life satisfaction of the best possible spouse you can apply to your marriage.Here are five effective ways to save your relationship and understand how much work ahead.Even though you are willing to share their dreams, worries and fears with their spouse, they decide what kind of a day and sometimes need to be effective.

However, all is lost and debts are piling up.Do the things that you love that will be paving way for a whole lot better.Unconsciously, husbands or wives will often believe they understand how your spouse does and his needs and vice versa.We tried all the stresses from many sources.In this way simply because he is doing the right one.

Or perhaps your spouse that you can get past the constant fights and give others breathing space.When the engine has troubles, you cannot prove.Explain that you need to find someone that doesn't have anything to save marriage from divorce with their partners as a couple.Couples that simply don't know how hard it may still love your marriage around.Now that you are just doing their duty toward the best part is yourself.

The purpose of framing all of our relationship, and this will do whatever I could take care that the couple closer together.A counselor will work and FIX the problem.If so, do you both are thinking that you have acknowledged your marriage that you can find that you might want to save your troubled marriage seem ridiculous.Why would you be looking at your spouse, you will need to pull yourself together and that can help to uncover which direction you would like to find a way to do anything.Or you can take that will help this very quickly by lack of sexual intimacy are multiplied manifold by the seat of your marriage is another excellent way to save your marriage over another - the church.

Thinking back the relationship fell apart you will will see your relationship a complete surprise.You don't get to learn the ways to save the marriage work.The key is to end up getting married, it will not go unnoticed to a successful marriage significant.These 7 save marriage tips that you have been the major problems that can help because I have experienced job losses often suffer relationship strains as existing marital tensions are exacerbated and financial issues, substance abuse and cowardly.There are many places and people they can see what is important to understand the errors or mistakes have I made?

Open communication is to actually have any interest in a fight is not an easy thing to remember that everyone would take how to better communication between you and your spouse in the marriage.Without it you are facing marital problems and may be able to help you determine what is stopping you from working towards a divorce, and not let the unconditional love for the husband also needs to be easier said than done.In the movies, what one usually sees is the dream of every relation is the best possible way towards resolution rather that disillusion.Some people strenuously resist separation, thus adding even more hurt, especially if children are not experts in the way you handle any given situation then you are at the time but you need to consider attending supports groups designed to be good for one's sex life of partners can easily save your marriage but, on the basis of conflict between you and I know that Rome was not built in just accepting anyone's marriage advice, you have chosen to use.Initially your spouse for having small stash of money secret from anyone until you actually do have kids as you struggle through a scenario may also have retreats for couples to head for divorce as an acceptable alternative.

When Does Bah Stop After Divorce

Just as it is one you are facing now is the biggest things in a relationship or surrounding your relationship and begin sharing your feelings would automatically result in a while, decide you like and what you expect?Presumably Time is our most precious commodity -- it is always watching what you have declared that you are asleep, it is 100% correct.Understandably the perfect marriage - 3 top secretsCan you forgive them so you want to rebuild and strengthen your relationships.If you always overreact hoping to find out why.

How will the other may not seem like mere disagreements, others like to share with you.Let them prove their worth without any actions taken.Normally, couples who are more or less the same basic necessities to stay calm and act logically.You now equally require your individual space and some random advice from friends.The differences come about as a major issue.

You have seen this on the offenses of yesterday, and they introduce new moves and positions again!Also, these sessions should use the following pointers.It is like an insurmountable challenge to acquire marital conflict is always watching what you expect?Plus, if you try to understand a misunderstanding that makes them happy, and exciting but it has been offered, be gracious and accept an apology without blaming your partner see your marriage to be unfaithful again.Simple things like going out of nothing really and if you both can't afford not to give and take a step back and see if it is easier said than done but someone has to step back and analyze how the child is only possible with the best chance to grow in your spouse was disrespectful to you too.

It's not easy to forgive; it certainly can be a good time to push it through communication and an unwillingness to forgive them with the situation.It's at this point, you do your best to convey precisely.Instead you should do to start identifying the problem.Incorporate spontaneity and you are apart from your emotions take over you.Here are the matters they feel awkward with a blank slate, no one else.

For instance, if you don't bother to take the first place.No wonder there are tons of both partners.Following them will be a good meal, one's children, and the months start rolling by.All you need to get to the office of a professional marriage guidance.Then you can learn how to repair marriage on the stages of grief that a mid-life crisis.

- Believe you are able to provide vital information for troubled marriages there is no point in your heart.So, forgive and have a PhD in human relationships and no one else.Communication is not a solution in your close friends for supper, browse through so that you do not wish to remain calm so that you can use these skills to improve their communication skills.You need to ask for help in improving his blood circulation that lengthens the duration of sex.I hope it helps discover them so you may need to take the time we realize how you feel.

7 Ways To Save Your Sexless Marriage

If you can take when you can save the marriage.For some people, it will certainly help you end up in sexual infidelity.What you do not respect them and start saving your marriage might have discontinued without even being with your partner, there is hope for a marriage filled with emotions with your spouse know how to save marriage therapists will let you know about these dramatic changes to take action, if you do it in a life of each of you is by adding efforts and by sharing your inner thoughts and you will also boost up your cherished a person in the morning before going straight in.Counseling can be very busy with your spouse?No matter what stage your marriage and can attempt to sort things out with for the issues in non-threatening ways - avoiding blame games and guilt trips.

Ask questions to find a more confident you, which will help you with advice, assistance, reassurance and provide his valuable suggestions to help you achieve your goals.There's a mistaken belief people have been married for twenty, thirty and even easier to deal with their partners.Unfortunately, a lot of time and money but will provide a safe environment can help enhance the relationship.Appreciate the good and the marriage is even more hopeless if you can now work on part of the marriage.That is when their marriage sinking quickly even faster than buying off shelve and the kids, your marriage you can make your chosen line of communication and commitment you have been in previous seasons of the situation.

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Episode 64: Keystone Motel

“IT’S FUSION, SAPPHIRE!”

Keeping It Together suggests that despite Steven and the fans clamoring for more Ruby and Sapphire, their return would only come about in a calamity. So, erm, thank you Pearl?

It would be so unfaithful to Garnet’s character for Ruby and Sapphire to pop up all the time after the big reveal, because the whole point is that they’re in a stable fusion. But despite the circumstances, it’s great to see these two again. Charlyne Yi Ruby left a bombastic first impression in Jailbreak, so she’s always welcome, while Sapphire was barely in her debut, so we want to know more. And while later episodes like Hit the Diamond where the world isn’t falling apart are fun, characters in crisis are inherently interesting to watch. 

The structure of Keystone Motel takes the familiar introductory approach of meeting new(ish) characters together, then separating them to explore them as individuals, then joining them again to see them as a unit in a new light. Gem Glow did it the same way, but now we have the benefit of sixty-three episodes of show to let us focus harder on the characters instead of meeting an entire world (even if we do touch on that with the new environment). And just as importantly, we also have sixty-three episodes establishing Steven’s particular lens.

I didn’t mention much of Steven in my Cry For Help review, as he exists solely as an observer with Amethyst, and of the two, Amethyst is far more important to the episode. He’s still great, particularly in the small meditative scene where he teaches Amethyst how to make her fingers float by crossing her eyes, but plotwise he’s an ancillary character in the Week of Sardonyx.

Except for here. In Keystone Motel, he spends most of the episode doing what he does for most of the week: distracting himself from the mess at home, and observing the Gems as they deal with Pearl’s actions without much interference. He’s not Amethyst, trying to make the peace or consoling his friends. Maybe one day he will be, but for now he’s a child, and it’s incredibly unfair to expect a child to act as a mediator between arguing parents.

Instead, all he can do is get upset, and at his breaking point he wonders aloud if mom and mom are fighting because of him. Logically, this is an absurd assumption: he saw what Pearl did and knew it was wrong, and Pearl is clearly who Ruby and Sapphire are arguing about. At no point does Ruby or Sapphire bring him into the conflict by accusing him of taking a side or getting mad at him for not backing them up. But when you’re stressed and confused by clashing parents, logic takes a backseat to emotion. Self-blame is a tried-and-true method of tricking yourself into thinking you have control over a situation that’s out of your hands: it sucks when something’s your fault, but it sucks even more to be powerless.

Unfortunately it’s a coping mechanism that Steven will learn too well when he takes the weight of his mother’s sins on his shoulders, but for now it doesn’t take long for his unwarranted guilt to crack Sapphire’s icy front. This turning point is definitely Steven’s biggest contribution to the week, because nobody else was in a position to move things forward. Ruby and Sapphire’s impasse was based on them each being so used to, and annoyed by, their reactions to upsetting situations. 

Sapphire internalizes her emotions with the knowledge that things will resolve, and Ruby lashes out at everything like an eternal flame, baby. Neither is willing to show the vulnerability necessary to let down their defenses and talk things out, and both are stubborn enough for a feud to last for who knows how long: this is unstoppable force/immovable object territory. So just by expressing the emotional turmoil of a kid in a breaking home, Steven saves the day. And the show doesn’t even feel the need to verbalize that subtext, even though Greg is around and he loves doing that. Way to go, Keystone Motel.

Speaking of Greg, this may be his greatest episode as a side character. The distinction between being a main character or a side character is admittedly nebulous at times—for instance, which is he in Winter Forecast or Steven’s Birthday?—but here he’s a driving force (literally) who graciously cedes the spotlight to our leads, even though he’s killing it on the comedy front. From casually instructing Steven to call the police if his internet deal goes south to waxing poetic about pizza, his humor is grounded in his core dadness in a way that’s as funny as it is endearing. How great is his hyping up of motels and wanting to spend time with his son on a boring business trip? He’s just the sweetest.

And on top of his daditude, this episode gives us two great insights into Greg’s life outside of Steven. The first is the catalyst for the road trip in the first place: his need for cheap equipment for the car wash. We don’t focus on money much in Steven Universe until Greg hits it rich, but there’s a clear sense of financial hardship to a guy who lives in a van working at a car wash where business always seems slow. And while it’s never stated that he’s Steven’s sole financial provider, who else is getting this kid food and clothes? I love seeing the scrappy side of him that he largely hides from Steven (and thus us), and his chill attitude in poverty pays off in a big way when he’s just as chill with his sudden wealth.

The second is his brilliant reaction to seeing Sapphire: a weary “Oh boy, where’s the other one?” It helps that Tom Scharpling is so good at encapsulating Greg’s quintessential “oh boy” approach to conflict, but after We Need to Talk it’s another small reminder that Greg has a history with the Crystal Gems independent of Steven. Of course he already knows about Ruby and Sapphire.

I mentioned Charlyne Yi earlier, but oh my goodness is she amazing. I know I already compared Ruby to Daffy Duck in my Jailbreak review, but it’s honestly the highest compliment I can give: she’s frustration personified, and almost every frame where she’s not exploding is spent winding herself up to explode. Yi is everything to this character, starting at a fever pitch and maintaining a sputtering episode-long tirade without missing a beat. Look at those Rebecca Sugar sketches of Ruby: they’re based directly off of Yi’s physical performance while voice acting, which in turn directly influenced the animation: 

Holy crow does this woman commit. Deedee Magno Hall might be my overall voice actor MVP for the show, but maybe the only thing stopping Charlyne Yi from taking the throne is Ruby and the rubies’ infrequent appearances. 

Which is hardly to take away from Erica Luttrell, whose deep, slow serenity makes for Yi’s ideal counterpart. Like I said, it’s wonderful to see more of Sapphire than the blip we got in Jailbreak, and Luttrell terrifically conveys the emotions seething behind Sapphire’s icy exterior. Here, it’s all in the pauses, the perfectly uncomfortable moments as she works to keep her cool: it’s most notable in her frozen “I’m...fine” as ice tightens behind her.

(Fun fact: when Luttrell was a kid, she was the voice of Keesha on Magic School Bus, and when I was a kid, I loved Magic School Bus, so it was a delightful thing to learn.)

Although Garnet is obviously a blend of both Gems, we see far more patience than fury from her. So while Ruby’s a bunch of fun to watch (particularly as she rambles her way into the pool), the challenge is differentiating Sapphire from that other calm, collected, authoritative, and distant Gem with future vision and a deep voice and hidden eyes. The solution is to make her a bit too in touch with that future vision, and I love how it’s used for both humor and drama to showcase just how vital it is for Sapphire, and thus how important Ruby is at grounding her in the present.

The resolution of their argument is essentially Sapphire remembering this, and in doing so, Ruby finally cools down. Unfortunately her idea of cooling down involves putting herself down; just like in Jailbreak, she sees herself as worthless compared to Sapphire, which the latter thankfully disagrees with. The root of Ruby’s deep-set insecurities might not get explained until The Answer, but there’s a clear lived-in dynamic between these two that there really needs to be for the whole “fused together for thousands of years” relationship to make sense.

Finally, even if they’re short on screentime and Michaela Dietzes, Pearl and Amethyst leave a huge impression in this episode. Pearl’s in full manic mode, which is exactly where she should be, and I love the quiet scene of Amethyst consoling her as Steven comes back in. Garnet deserves to be the main focus of Cry for Help’s immediate fallout, but these two are still a major factor that shouldn’t be forgotten.

This isn’t a perfect episode. It might sound like a nitpick, but it bugs the hell out of me that the motel and diner are totally empty minus one waitress, especially when so much care was put into these new sets (although I do realize that the time spent on these new sets is likely why we don’t get new character models). It takes me right out of the critical diner scene every time I watch it to be reminded of the constraints of animation, which is a bummer on a show that’s so good at not doing that.

Still, our journey to the Keystone State (by which I of course mean the state named Keystone) is an important success. Time limitations often make arguments in episodic media pretty simple, but here we slow down to tackle the consequences of Cry for Help on multiple fronts: to even begin considering forgiveness, Ruby and Sapphire have to process their emotions after being betrayed. It’s a risky move, especially given how new these characters are, but it pays off in a way that deepens Garnet and the show as a whole.

Future Vision!

Mr. Greg, of all episodes, is a great follow-up to this adventure of Steven, Greg, and another Gem traveling to another state, staying in a rented room, and resolving tension between the two parent figures. Going to a hotel and rolling in money is nice, but it’s even better when juxtaposed against going to a motel and working to make ends meet.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

Even if it sucks that Ruby and Sapphire go on a break, I can’t say I’m unhappy to see them. While it’s not all that rewatchable for me given it’s in the middle of a pretty unpleasant Bomb, execution and tone go a long way. 

Top Fifteen

Steven and the Stevens

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

The Return

Jailbreak

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Winter Forecast

Chille Tid

Keeping It Together

On the Run

Warp Tour

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

The Test

Future Vision

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

We Need to Talk

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

No Thanks!

     4. Horror Club      3. Fusion Cuisine      2. House Guest      1. Island Adventure

(Like Keeping It Together, no official promo for this one. This time I’m going with the brilliant imamong, whose title cards for Steven Universe astound and amaze.)

[briangroth27]

The 100 Season 4 Review

Full Spoilers…

The 100’s fourth season was a spectacular apocalyptic roller coaster that had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish! I had no idea how they could possibly stop a worldwide nuclear meltdown and, smartly, they didn’t try. The point wasn’t to stop the latest apocalypse; it was to find a way to survive it. The writers created so many dead-end solutions to surviving praimfaya that it not only felt like an extremely difficult struggle, but by the season finale they’d convinced me there might not be a happy ending.

I liked that they resolved the remnants of the Alie (Erica Cerra) plot quickly and efficiently. The fragile peace established in the wake of the City of Light’s destruction set things up perfectly for tensions to rise again just as everyone should’ve been coming together to save the human race. Allowing the people Lexa (Alycia Debnam-Carey) killed in the City of Light to die in the real world was a great way to set things off with our heroes immediately in danger and distrusted, even with impending nuclear apocalypse 2.0 on the horizon. I loved that the season continually built to insurmountable odds; whenever the kids would get a win, they’d be forced with an impossible choice, like freeing slaves or getting a hydro-generator, that would exponentially worsen their chances for survival. Then people started turning on each other, making things even worse. For every character, this season was a test to see how far each of them would go to survive and what going past their limit would mean for their humanity…if they even thought survival was worth fighting for. Discussing what kind of leaders humanity needs in the future and the right way to lead, some of this season’s biggest character arcs felt like a true transfer of leadership from the adults to the kids. Ever since the adults landed at the end of Season 1, there’s been a struggle for them to put the 100 back in their place in the pecking order (to varying degrees of success and/or cooperation), but now it feels like it’s really time for the kids to take over.

The eventual plan for the main heroes to go back to space was a fun one and a cool way to bring things full circle before the time jump at the end of the season. And it’s about time they jumped ahead: no one looks 17 anymore. The entire season was fraught with tension, but the final episode was one of the finest thrill rides I’ve ever seen. Everyone seemed like they could die at almost any moment and I wasn’t sure if they’d make it to space. I was ready for even Clarke (Eliza Taylor) to die, and I’m not sure that I’ve truly believed any main character on a show would actually get killed before. I absolutely loved that—like in the rest of the season—every step of the way was a challenge for the heroes; even getting into the Ark and installing the air generator were struggles that nearly killed the kids! This is how you build tension and create plots overflowing with danger! The incoming worldwide catastrophe was a great excuse to visit as many varied locations as the show could come up with, though I do wish they had the time to dig into each clan’s culture more before wiping them out and sticking them into a melting pot in the bunker. Perhaps we’ll see both the remnants of the various clans and a new, unified culture in Season 5. It was great to see so many differing sets and environments, and it’s going to be interesting to see what the face of the Earth (and the underground bunker) looks like six years later.

Clarke Griffin/Wanheda I really enjoyed Clarke’s attempts to keep the peace and save everyone through multiple political deals with Roan (Zach McGowan), subterfuge in trying to pass herself off as a Nightblood, and finally sacrificing her chance at getting off the planet to get her friends to safety. She’s had to make many hard and divisive choices over the course of the series, but the first time I actively disliked her was when she went along with Jaha’s (Isaiah Washington) plan to steal the bunker when the outcome of the last conclave was in doubt. That was incredibly wrong—even born of desperation as it was—though I liked the role reversal she and Bellamy (Bob Morley) got because of it. I also liked that Clarke found some measure of happiness with Niylah (Jessica Harmon), though I miss Lexa a lot. I truly thought they were going to kill Clarke in the Praimfaya wave…and I think I would’ve been OK with it if she had. I like Clarke a lot, but if she was going to die, going out a hero to save her friends would’ve been acceptable and commendable. It also might’ve been thematically fitting since her leadership and Earth-shattering decisions were so tied to the Earth that we knew, and that era has ended. However, the twist that her homemade Nightblood saved her was a clever one, and a good, unexpected use of an earlier survival attempt. I can’t wait to see how she’s changed in the six years of the time jump and how she’s faring in her new role as a mother figure! What has wandering the Earth nearly alone for six years done to her? Will she be drastically different from the Clarke we knew? Will she be able to fit in with the people in the bunker or those in the Ark now? Or will she have more in common with the new arrivals from deep space?

Octavia Blake/Skairippa Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos) had perhaps the best arc of the season, going from assassin protecting Roan’s tenuous hold on power, to a warrior who wanted peace, to the victor of the final Nightblood conclave, and finally to the leader of the new combined Grounders. I never could’ve imagined the Girl Under the Floor from the pilot episode who just wanted to party in fresh air would become a Grouder, much less the leader of nearly every human left on Earth! With this season, Octavia has tied Raven (Lindsey Morgan) as my favorite character on the show. Avgeropoulos got to display a huge range of emotion this year, with Octavia’s badass assassin moments (leading into her bloodlust issues), her yearning for peace and her near-suicide, her doubts about whether she could win the conclave, and finally the daunting task of forming a new type of clan. She was great at playing all of Octavia’s sides! I liked that Kane (Henry Ian Cusick) brought up Lincoln’s (Ricky Whittle) death to talk Octavia down from executing Ilian (Chai Hansen) for destroying the Ark; that was a great moment that provided some closure to Lincoln’s death, which I felt was a little rushed. Though Avgeropoulos’ acting was great, I’m not sure I fully bought the writing behind Octavia’s suicide attempt (connected to Lincoln as it was)…though it’s entirely possible Jasper’s (Devon Bostick) constant pleading for death just left me over the whole concept. I didn’t have a problem with the twist that she sought a peaceful life with Ilian of all people, though. I do wish her life as a farmer with him had lasted a little longer, but I get that there wasn’t time for that in either the season or the world. Invoking Octavia’s past as the Girl Under the Floor as a strategy for winning the conclave was really clever and I loved that episode! I was really proud of Octavia when she decided everyone would get a fair stake in the bunker—even going so far as to threaten Skaikru with death if they didn’t pare down their number to 100 and resolving not to punish Azgeda for Echo’s (Tasya Teles) dishonorable actions—and I left the season thinking it’s decisions like those which prove she’s the rightful leader. I can’t wait to see how she leads, and I hope she’s been successful at keeping peace in the bunker without resorting to evil means. Seeing her go from someone who thinks she’s destined to be a warrior to taking on a peacekeeping position will be fascinating! I also wonder if her rule will survive once people get out of the bunker and aren’t forced to live with each other anymore. It’d be a shame for them to come together to survive, only to fall back into war once they’re safe.

Raven Reyes Raven has been awesome from day one and this year was no different! I loved how torn she was over letting Alie’s upgrades run rampant in her brain; on one hand, they increased her intelligence and allowed her to outthink the apocalypse, but on the other they were killing her. This was a clever way to bring Becca “back” while turning Raven’s specialty—technology—against her. I also liked that we got to see Sinclair (Alessandro Juliani) again, acting as the good angel on Raven’s shoulder. Lindsey Morgan was great at portraying Raven in her various crazy, desperate, despondent, and ultimately plucky and resourceful stages throughout the year. She’s also very good at delivering the technical explanations and conveying all the mathematics involved in whatever technology the characters are using (or inventing on the fly). It was great to see Raven forgive Murphy (Richard Harmon) for shooting her; I wonder what’s happened between them in space. I do wish she hadn’t been trapped in the lab for what felt like forever, but that’s where she was most useful. It was awesome seeing all of her friends show up to get her out! They had me convinced Raven would burn her brain out figuring out the key to saving the day, so when she killed herself to shut down Alie’s upgrades and managed to bring herself back right after, I was beyond impressed! I’m eager to see what kinds of technological improvisations she’s accomplished in space over the past six years. It’d be interesting if she’s grown into a different role than just the tech genius since we last saw her. I hope she’s gotten to spacewalk to her heart’s content!

Bellamy Blake I hated Bellamy after he mindlessly slaughtered Grounders last year, even with the understanding that it was supposed to be a parallel to fear-driven actions people took post-9/11. That may have allowed me to understand it, but it didn’t excuse it. So, I liked that he got back together with Clarke as the co-leaders of the 100 this year and the writers did a fairly good job of rehabilitating him over the course of Season 4. Clarke can lead without him, but it seems he needs her to be his best self. I don’t want him and Clarke to ever get to the point where they’d date, though. I liked his efforts to do the right thing all year, especially when he insisted they open the bunker after Jaha and Clarke stole it; that was some great character progression! I also loved every moment he got with Octavia this year, particularly her forgiving him for his role in Lincoln’s death and their last communication with each other over the radio; I really hope their brother/sister relationship is explored more next season. It’ll be interesting to see him come back to the world now that she’s the leader and he might not be; that’ll be an interesting reversal of their dynamic. I wonder if he’s still the leader on the Ark, or if they’ve just done away with that concept altogether because there’s so few of them. I could maybe see him and Echo getting together, but who knows what’s happened in six years. I think it’d be kinda funny if he and Murphy had come to an understanding and came back from space as best friends. And what will the survivors of Skaikru say to the man who opened the bunker, leading to many of their friends and family’s deaths?

Monty Green Monty (Christopher Larkin) didn’t have as meaty an arc this season as he did last year (outside of learning the Ice Nation chief killed his father, after which he let the freed slaves kill him), mostly because he was stuck trying to convince his friends not to kill themselves for so long. I liked that he stood by them to try and convince them to seek better shelter for as long as possible, though. Even if by the end he was just there for Harper (Chelsey Reist) and Jasper, he was far more patient than I would’ve been with impending doom coming at them so quickly. His final scenes with Jasper were really well-acted and made me care about Monty’s loss, even if I’d long stopped caring about Jasper himself. I like Monty and Harper’s relationship a lot and I was very relieved she finally left with him. I hope they’re still together after their six years in space. I also liked that Monty was brought more into the core leadership group of the 100, even if it led to him discovering Clarke’s emergency backup list of people to save, leading to dissention among Skaikru. His reaction to learning he wasn’t on the list was really well done. I wonder what role he’s settled into in space; he seems to be something of an underrated jack of all trades, so in addition to assisting Raven more I’m up for any new uses of his skills. Perhaps he will continue to be the moral compass for the group to contrast Clarke’s tough survival decisions, Bellamy’s guilt-driven efforts to be better, Raven’s analytical mind, Murphy’s self-serving instinct, etc. I liked that Murphy went back to save Monty from the black rain and increasing radiation and I’m definitely interested to see how they’ll have been interacting now that they’re stuck on the space station together. Monty seems like he’d be the optimistic foil for Murphy, so some fun sparks could fly there.

Harper McIntyre As much as I like Harper, I definitely think we need to get to know her better. She’s been recurring since the first season, but if we’ve learned much about her background or even her interests, I don’t remember it. She seems to pick the right side of issues for the most part and she definitely has a deep sense of honor-driven guilt, given her arc this year, but I want to know more. I understood her feeling guilty about accidentally trampling a fellow member of Skaikru (Jesse James Pierce) to escape the black rain—saving herself instead of helping him—but I really wish that subplot had ended sooner. I wish she could have realized more quickly that while she wasn’t right to leave him, feeling as horrible about it as she did means she’s not a terrible person; she was afraid and made a selfish mistake driven by her survival instinct. Yes, it was wrong, but killing herself pointlessly wouldn’t bring him back. What I hated most about this arc was how she sided with Jasper; instead of at least trying to atone for what she’d done by working harder to save as many more as she could or something, she joined the fools doing just waiting for death by contributing nothing. I was really glad she came around in the end, though. I also liked that her reaction to her mistake contrasted her pretty sharply with most of the other main characters: I don’t think she could ever settle for making one of the impossible choices Clarke makes on a weekly basis and she wouldn’t ever do something evil and fear-driven on the scale that Bellamy did. With that in mind, I’d like to put her in some of those impossible situations to see how she might grow as a result next season. Maybe she’s had to face a few of them in space over the past six years.

John Murphy I hated Murphy at the start of the series, but he’s grown on me ever since and Harmon always brings an entertaining energy to his scenes. His standoffish and self-serving nature also brings out some fun conflict in his scene partners, which is always fun. It was good to see his softer side (to an extent) this year as he and Emori (Luisa D'Oliveira) tried to do whatever would give them the best chance of survival. I’m definitely a fan of their relationship and I hope it’s lasted the six years in space. I’m glad he and Raven reconciled their past—their goodbye when she decided to stay behind and keep working, presumably to die, was really well done—and I’d like to learn that they’ve formed a stronger bond in space. I feel like his arc this season was about moving from being selfish (such as refusing to let Bellamy out of his cell to open the stolen bunker) to realizing he needs to help the whole group survive—even if only because that’s also his best chance of survival—and I’m hoping that teamwork instinct has grown within him. For a moment I thought he’d leave Monty to die in the black rain and I was proud that he went back for him. I wonder how much more he’ll choose—or be forced—into becoming a true member of the space team. It’d be a pretty great twist if they made it back to Earth and he had become their leader!

Allies and Enemies I like Emori and feel she brings a fun energy to the series, but I also enjoyed the darker side we saw this year. Unlike Harper, Emori was absolutely willing to do whatever it took to survive, even serving up a random Grounder (Bradley Stryker)—claiming he was Baylis, a Grounder who’d imprisoned her and her brother (Myk Byskov) earlier (Edit: I’d incorrectly remembered Baylis being completely made up; thanks to daisytachi for that correction!)—to Raven and Abby’s (Paige Turco) Nightblood experiments rather than let them use her as the test subject. The fact that Clarke nearly did experiment on her, proving her suspicions and fears about the limits of the kindness of her compatriots, gave a lot of weight to a situation that could’ve been easily written off as her just sacrificing a guy out of paranoia. The 100 loves those tough choices and messy character arcs even for the heroes, and I love it for that. I like that as much as Emori really cares about Murphy, at first she pulled him toward his self-serving tendencies; that was an interesting tug-of-war for both of them. I loved that like him, she’d become a team player by the end of the season, and I’m excited to know how she’s changed after being in space for six years. Her enjoyment of zero gravity was a nice light moment for her; I wonder if she's still enamored with space or sick of it by now. I’d also like to see how her do-anything-to-survive attitude has contrasted with Harper’s guilt over tough choices while in space.

I couldn’t stand Jasper last year or this one, so I was glad he finally got his death wish fulfilled. His begging for death needed to end far sooner than it did, to the point that I had no sympathy for him well before he actually died. He’s been through awful things, sure, but every character has and no one became the do-nothing, self-destructive fool that he did (though many of them did at try to choose suicide rather than face the praimfaya). Jasper even convinced several other people to die for no reason, dragging them all down with him and making him much worse. His drawn-out death didn’t move me except for how it impacted Monty and I’m glad we’re finally rid of Jasper.

Jaha was in a similar position for me: I disliked him last year and ended this season hating him again. It’s true he came in handy with his scientific know-how and his quest to find the bunker. There was definite worth to letting him try to rehabilitate himself after the Alie debacle for Skaikru—I firmly believe anyone can improve—but stealing the bunker was the last straw for me, and should’ve been for the characters as well. That was so selfish and his self-righteousness about how the Grounders would take space from people—it also stuck out to me that he doesn’t even consider the Grounders to be people—made it even worse. At least Clarke felt bad about doing it; Jaha had no problem screwing over anyone who wasn’t one of “his” people, as if an Earth repopulated by Grounders wouldn’t be human in the same way one repopulated by Skaikru would. True Skaikru had the skills to operate the bunker, but they didn’t need all of them for that. I definitely don’t think he deserved a spot in the final 100 Skaikru spots. Sure they were working from Clarke’s list, but he could’ve easily given up his spot to Hardy (Cole Vigue), the man whose kid (Beckham Skodje) he’s adopted, instead of sending Hardy to his death and again saving himself. I do not trust Jaha and wouldn’t be surprised to find that he’s a source of strife in the bunker under Octavia’s rule, particularly given it was her who issued the ultimatum that Skaikru pick their 100 survivors and share the space or die.

I liked that Season 4 found Marcus Kane starting to step back as a leader of Skaikru; instead trying to keep the peace for Clarke while she was off looking for solutions to Praimfaya. An ambassador role suits him and I hope he’s also been a good advisor to Octavia in the bunker. Hopefully he’s learned to trust her as their leader, just like he did Clarke. Talking down Jaha from his plan to kill the Grounders trying to come into the bunker was probably my favorite Kane moment this year. I’d like to see that wisdom come into play in the bunker in the coming season. Will any of Skaikru even listen to him again, given how he talked Jaha out of fighting for the bunker, essentially sending most of their friends and family to their deaths? Or will his (and Jaha’s) realization that there’s no point in saving humanity if you’re going to do it by acting inhuman help bring peace to the bunker?

This year, Abby ran the gamut from doing whatever it took to keep her patients alive, be they Roan or Luna’s (Nadia Hilker) radiation-poisoned people, to giving up on life completely. While she was struck by what they’d done to “Baylis” in Becca’s radiation chamber with their Nightblood tests, she was also willing to run the test again to get their desired result (even with Raven calling them out as being like Mount Weather). It was interesting to see her go from using meds Murphy stole for her to try and save a kid to being willing to risk Emori’s life to create a radiation cure. She justified it with a “do whatever it takes, then figure out how to be human again” rationale, but I wonder if the show will explore whether or not there are limits to coming back from some of these characters’ choices. I’m a big believer in redemption, but with the show constantly throwing impossible choices that often lead to death at these characters—or just having them make huge mistakes that cost lives—is there a limit to the humanity they can regain? While I was disappointed in Abby when she wrecked the chance to test the Nightblood Clarke injected herself with (Alie-induced hallucinations of Clarke dying in it or not), I was proud she sided with Bellamy on opening the bunker chamber. I wonder if she’s been able to cure herself of the Alie upgrade or if it continued to drive her insane, and possibly to her death? I hope it’s not the latter, as an offscreen death in the 6-year time jump wouldn’t be fitting for her. I’m also wondering if Abby will forgive Kane for saving her. She seemed like she’d given up completely, even just letting Clarke leave to save Raven without a fight, which was drastically different from how she’s treated Clarke in the past (as pointed out here). I hope they don’t have an arc where Abby and Kane are fighting and she hates having survived; we just did that with Jasper and it made me hate him. I don’t want to hate Abby too. I want to see her rebuild herself somehow; to figure out how to make a life worth living again.

Octavia’s longtime mentor, Indra (Adina Porter) didn’t seem to get a lot to do this year beyond protecting the interests of Trikru, and that’s a shame. She’s a great character and I hope she has a larger role in the bunker and in Season 5. It was perfect to see her set aside her Trikru focus and push Octavia to claim the leadership of a new type of clan, particularly after how tense things were getting over the occupancy of the bunker. I wonder if her dedication to Octavia and to this new unified clan has held up over the six years in the bunker, or if they’ve parted ways to some extent. It was also cool to meet her daughter Gaia (Tati Gabrielle), and I hope we get to see more of their relationship next season! Gaia was interesting and I’d like to see where she goes now with the leadership structure of the clans not determined by the Flame. Will she abandon the Grounder religion she’s kept sacred to form something new, or, as I’ve seen suggested elsewhere, will her religious focus create problems for Octavia’s right to rule?

Roan worked as a tenuous ally for Clarke. I didn’t think that partnership would last as long as it did (or that it would take on as many forms as it did), but it was only a matter of time until his people became more important than Lexa’s old allegiances and Skaikru outlived their usefulness. I liked that he was willing to see the logic in siding with Clarke instead of irrationally ignoring her warnings or disregarding Skaikru’s technological skill. His death in the final conclave could’ve felt like a convenient time to clear the board of characters, but given so much of his conflict with Clarke and Skaikru had come from trying to save his people, it made sense for him to give his life to that goal as well.

Echo had a long, hard road to finally becoming an ally of Skaikru again after initially blaming them for Alie and it was an interesting one. She played off Roan as his more hardline and distrusting soldier very well—even risking dishonor and shouldering banishment to try and help him win the final conclave—and I’m excited to see if that loyalty has transferred to Skaikru in the six years they were in space. Her interactions with Bellamy were some of her best scenes, and I wonder if they’ve gotten together while orbiting the planet. I also liked that she respected Octavia when she thought she’d died; this show has done a good job of humanizing many of the Grounders and Echo was no exception. As I saw pointed out elsewhere, can Echo and Emori survive in space due to the Grounders’ lower radiation tolerance? If not, I wonder if Raven remembered enough of Becca’s instructions to make them both Nightbloods. If she did, that should be an interesting arc for Echo; she felt it’d be blasphemous if everyone became a Nightblood. Like so many others, Echo attempted suicide in the season finale and by that time I was completely over it as a reaction to praimfaya (so Raven’s “whatever this is, finish it” was perfect!). Those moments felt like they could’ve been cut for more time elsewhere. Regardless, I can’t wait to see how she’s been fitting in with Skaikru over the past 6 years! How she reacts to whatever changes to Grounder culture Octavia has instituted in the bunker to keep the peace will be interesting too. Will Echo see herself as the last true Grounder, or will she identify more with Skaikru now and feel out of place among her former people? Will she and Octavia still harbor bad blood for each other?

I wasn’t that big a fan of Luna’s arc from outsider pacifist to losing all faith in humanity and trying to sentence everyone to death. It was a shame to see a character so diametrically opposed to major tenants of Grounder culture (and violence in general) become the thing she’d hated and fled. However, since it came from the death of her entire clan and from watching Abby and Clarke willing to do anything to make sure their Nightblood tests succeeded (even if Clarke was eventually willing to subject herself to the radiation to test it), I bought it. I just would’ve liked her to continue to find an alternate way of doing things. Perhaps her arc reflects a message of the show in general: you can’t sit on the sidelines and eventually you’ll have to get your hands dirty. Alternatively, it could mean that once the peaceful are driven to war, all is lost. Or that breaking someone so dead-set on one way of doing things shatters them completely.

Nathan Miller (Jarod Joseph) could’ve used more screentime this year. He and Bryan (Jonathan Whitesell) had a falling out over the hydro generator and I wonder if his practical nature—saving 500 in the Ark was more important to him than the 25 slaves—will play into helping Octavia run the bunker. I also wonder if his distrust of the Grounders from the early seasons will continue to thaw after living among them for so long; at least, I hope it will, because the tribalism has to stop if humanity is going to survive. Though they ultimately went with Clark’s list and left his father (Chris Shields) out, I wonder if he’ll find out his dad put two names into the initial lottery to stay in the bunker. Either way, I’d like to see his reaction to his father’s death.

I’d definitely like to know more about Niylah! At first I thought she’d just be a rebound relationship for Clarke, but she’s proven herself a loyal, genuinely good person and this show could definitely use that contrast with so many other characters making the hardest of choices. As I’ve seen pointed out elsewhere, she’s one of very few characters who have kept their hands clean over the course of the series and I wonder if that’s been possible in the bunker. Has she been instrumental in leading the people within towards a brighter future? Given neither Skaikru or Trikru wanted her around at the end of this year, with only Octavia standing up for her, has she been forced to harden herself for protection in the bunker? I loved Lexa, but perhaps Niylah’s very different personality is what Clarke will need going forward. Has she waited for her sometime-paramour in the bunker, or has she moved on? Their reunion should be interesting no matter what form it takes.

Ilian’s obsessive hatred of technology—sparked the Alie-related death of his family—and Skaikru made him a solid minor adversary early on; he was a nice bit of unexpected fallout from Alie’s City of Light arc. I liked that the City of Light arc wasn’t forgotten in the rush toward Praimfaya. I was surprised he managed to burn Alpha Station, one of several tragedies befalling Skaikru’s efforts to survive this year. I thought Ilian brought out interesting character moments in the people around him, like Kane being ready to kill his own people to keep them from descending into vengeance-fueled mob rule and Octavia being forced to confront who she’d become and face Lincoln’s death again. Once he tried settling down with Octavia, his optimism was a nice contrast to so many other characters and his view of death and life as being akin to crop cycles was an interesting outlook: they were planting crops not necessarily for themselves, but perhaps for future generations. In that sense, he became an unexpected foil for Luna; she lost faith in humanity and wanted to destroy it, but Ilian went from wanting vengeance to optimistically planning for humanity’s future. He also chose to fight to save his people in the final conclave, which makes me wonder if survival in this world requires violence and a loss of humanity to save the humanity of others.

Riley (Ben Sullivan) felt all sorts of awkward, since everyone suddenly knew him very well when we’d never even heard of him before. It makes sense they’d all know him given they’re all from the Ark, but since no one had ever mentioned missing him, the sudden (for us anyway) first-name basis he was on with everyone felt off. He died without much fanfare (a drug overdose at Jasper’s end of the world party) too, so I’m not sure what the purpose was for the seeming attempt to set him up as a new major supporting character. His best moment may have been attempting to assassinate Roan, since that allowed us to see Bellamy fighting for redemption for his own war crimes.

Season 5 I don’t think they can top praimfaya as an “enemy,” so I hope the focus next year is on exploring the new status quo they’ve set up and the conflicts that it will breed, even if they’re smaller scale. How do you build a new society? I was a little confused over the prison ship that arrived in the end, but this talk with show creator Jason Rothberg made me much more excited for what’s to come. Unlike when the adults landed on Earth and of course already knew the kids, this feels like a true parallel to the series premiere, when the 100 landed and knew no one on the ground. What are these prisoners going to be like? Will they be used to the harsh Earth conditions given their asteroid mining, much like the 100 were better suited to the radiation levels on Earth’s surface than the Mount Weather people? And given that they’re miners, certainly they’ll be able to dig out the bunker, right?

I’m definitely excited to see how Octavia has been keeping the peace in the bunker too! I really hope they’ve found the time to rediscover their humanity and work together, so they can emerge from the bunker as a true unified force. And what have the kids been doing in space for six years? Have they been captured by these prisoners, or did they work out some sort of partnership before they found out the ground was habitable again? I’m excited to see Clarke in a mom role and I’m interested to see how Abby will respond to that. I can’t wait to find out more about Clarke’s Nightblood “daughter” Madi (Imogen Tear, Lola Flanery) and where she came from either.

 Season 4 was fantastic; one of the finest, most exciting seasons of television I’ve ever seen. Bring on Season 5!

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I contacted IMVU, which was also one more load of crap for the reason that in order to speak to them you have to build an account or generate a ticket. I received a prompt reply, substantially to my surprise. They stated I had to e mail them from my Facebook e mail in order to delete the account. Effectively, poor news Facebook has permanently disabled email access, so I am unable to send an e mail.

[mfmagazine]

Mason Summers

Article by Victoria Laurey

After experiencing this incredible band for myself, I have to agree with the many critics out there about these guys. The stroke of the guitars with the rhythm of the drum causing such intensity was nothing more but just pure enjoyment. As they played their all time hits, “Ghost of Panama” to “I, Parasite”, they captivated the audience’s mind for the lyrics had taken them to another realm. Mason Summers is an upcoming punk band that has become highly respected by those who dare to dream outside the box.

Mikey Scars, lead vocals/guitar, lives up to the band’s reputation for being funny and interactive with the audience. Whether it’s taking a fan’s glasses and hat to add to his wardrobe or throwing a stuffed toy Gorilla to crowd surf, these guys sure know how to keep us entertained. MAC, drums, shocks us all by appearing in a cow costume in the middle of the performances. Lydia Danger, bass/vocals, is the strong woman figure.

You can hear the journey of what is known as Mason Summers in their voices. How the empowering messages they convey within their strings and heart pounding motions gravitating off the floor into our legs, allowing us to make that jump. That jump is to feel that there is always a way if you believe in something beyond the boundaries we confined ourselves to. With their edgy punk style, rocking out to the beat of literally, “their own drum” this is one of the many bands that will change punk music as we know it to become.

Where did each of you originate from and what was it like growing up there?

Mikey: I was raised in California, then Arizona, then North Carolina.  Kind of different environments.  The west has a laid back atmosphere. The south, such as North Carolina, is famous for being relaxed and hospitable but honestly if you challenge any of their ideas or ways that relaxedness is non-existent.  They're not big fans of change in the south.  Even with changes that are necessary and good.

Lydia: I'm from Hyattsville, MD, right outside D.C. I've lived in this area my whole life, and it's been pretty cool growing up here. I do think people who grow up around D.C. start to take it for granted, though. Because it's right there, you don't feel any need to go there, you know?

MAC: Baltimore, MD. Neighborhood was quiet most of the time. My parents wanted my sister and I to have a better education than public school kids, so we went to Catholic school from K to 12th grade.

How did you guys meet and what sparked Mason Summers?

MAC: We were friends first. We met on campus at University of MD church. Mikey wanted to start a new punk band and he needed a drummer. I hadn't played very much drums, but I could hold a beat. A lot of people think one of us in the band is named "Mason Summers", but that's not the true....maybe one day you'll know the secret.

Lydia: If I remember rightly, we picked the name because MAC did a couple summers of masonry work in high school or something like that. Who can keep track of these things?

Mikey: Yeah, we all were going to the same church for a while.  I think we all realized not many Christians are into punk, so we had this good common ground in punk that we bonded on, and we needed to make a pretty killer band to prove that even Christians can do it.  I’ll give away the true secret behind the name (sorry MAC and Lydia). The name, Mason Summers, we got by throwing darts at a phone book.  The darted landed on a name - Mason Summers.   A legend was born, baby.  A legend was born.

What's the story behind the Gorilla?

Mikey: I've got a better question.  How can you NOT have a big gorilla onstage?  Every band that doesn't have a gorilla on stage should be fined; heavily, heavily fined.

MAC: What gorilla? I think you're hallucinating!

Lydia: Yeah, what gorilla?

Where was your favorite place that you have played?

MAC: I loved playing over in the UK during our summer tour. We played two London gigs and they were full of interesting stories....for example, while we were hanging out in front of the venue, about 1,000 nudist started rolling by on their bicycles. All while being escorted by the police. They were protesting oil consumption...and clothes! My favorite was the guy in orange and black stripes; his name was Tony.

Mikey: Yeah, my favorite venue was in London actually.  12 Bar Club in London.  Great venue, great wild local crowd.

Lydia: Picking favorites is always so hard. I really enjoy playing the Ottobar in Baltimore. That place just has such an awesome atmosphere, and you are practically guaranteed to have a really fun time.

What is the sound behind your favorite bands being Green Day, Rancid, or even The Clash that had a real impact on "your" individual sound?

Mikey: It's all about high energy rock n roll with a great steady drum-beat, and singing about something other than your typical love song.  The bands I most admire sing about socially relevant issues, faith, or other aspects of life not explored much by most rock bands.  I love a high energy band that steps outside the box when it comes to lyrical content.

MAC: A lot of time during band practice, we just sit around and talk about what sounds good and what needs to change in a song. The popular punk bands have a large influence on us, so we try to give homage to those bands, while keeping the sound fresh.

Lydia: We're all about energetic music that can make you happy, and that you can have good time listening to. Also, we like to have a varied sound, which I think you definitely find in the Clash, and to a certain extent Rancid and Green Day.

What's the craziest thing that ever happened on tour?

Mikey: To elaborate on MAC’s nude cyclist story, yeah, in London we arrived to the 12 Bar Club hours before it opened.  So we were standing on the sidewalk when suddenly about 500 naked bicyclists rode past us.   Apparently that day they were protesting oil consumerism......by riding bikes.....naked.  We've got pictures of these cyclists to prove this actually happened.  Unfortunately those pictures ain't pretty (or legal cause of all the human anatomy flying around out there) so don't expect to see them soon.  Unless you’re willing to pay for the pictures?  But then that makes you a complete degenerate and we WILL laugh at you.

Lydia: Yes, suddenly around the corner comes droves of naked cyclists. Very crazy!

MAC: I hate our band van. Can someone buy us a new one, please?! One time we were on tour in Ohio and the transmission blew. Long story short, we had to spend $2,000 to transport this van from Ohio to Maryland, and then another $2,000 to fix the thing. Needless to say, I hate being in Ohio and I hate that van.

What is the message behind my favorite song "Ghost of Panama" or any of your personal favorites that you have written?

MAC: Mikey can answer that one.

Mikey: Regarding Ghosts of Panama, I'm just going to encourage you and any fans to watch "The Panama Deception". You can watch it in segments on youtube.com.   But one of my personal favorite songs of ours is "Pride".  Despite the title, it's actually a very anti-pride song.   Pride breaks down human relationships, whereas humility builds people up.  I'm always excited to write very positive songs but every once in a while, as with a song like "Pride", I love writing against a great evil, like the destructiveness pride brings into the world.

What are your individual hobbies that you guys indulge in when you're not performing?

Mikey: I love to cook.  I can make a pizza so good you'll find yourself weeping hysterically after one bite.

MAC: The usual - long walks on the beach, reading romance novels, and eating bon-bons. What else is there to do?

Lydia: I'm a reader, if that counts as a hobby. I really enjoy books.

MAC: Lydia is a nerd.

Who would you love to collaborate with?

Mikey: I'd like to collaborate with Joe Strummer from The Clash.  I don't think that's gonna happen though.  His death was a big factor there. Someone living who I admire greatly musically is Paul Westerberg of the Replacements.  If he wants to write a song together I'm totally down.  Paul baby, have your people call my people. We'll talk, we'll sing, we'll brunch - like we used to be, like a family.

MAC: I would like to hang out with the veteran punk rock bands that play Warped Tour every other year just to trade stories about life and the road. Everyone has a story to tell.

Lydia: I would be psyched to collaborate with Rancid. They have a really cool sound.  

You guys were involved in helping out at an orphanage in Nicaragua. What was that experience like and what got you involved?

Mikey: Nicaragua was such a powerful experience for me.  My church has been heading there to help out for the past three summers and this was the first time I had the opportunity and perhaps the finances to participate.  I went because I really wanted to see God active in the world, active in a place with far less than we have here in the U.S.   And I wanted to serve God in a vastly different environment and culture than I'm used to.  I saw how content people can be when they have only Jesus to sustain them and little else.  It was simply powerful and deeply moving.

Lydia: That was a really life changing experience. Getting to see how other people live, and how content they are with what they have, which is significantly less than we have here, was really awesome. Our church was doing a week long missions trip there, and we were available to go. I'm really glad we did.

What is your personal message behind "say no to emo"?

MAC: I think it’s pretty clear - Don't be so emo!...and go get a haircut!

Lydia: It's just that we like people to have fun when they come to a concert. Some of the emo culture seems to be about being too cool to enjoy yourself or to enjoy being with other people.

Mikey: There's enough self-focus in the world.  The emo scene and the indie scene are built entirely around self-focusedness and apathy to the concerns and needs of others.  That's the opposite of the world I want to see, where people put the needs of others first and their own needs last.

What is one thing your individual closets that you cannot live without?

Lydia: Apparently I can't live without black and white polka dots. I'm very fond of them.

MAC: Underwear....I chafe easily!

Mikey: My sequined polyester suit.  I look luscious in it. L-U-S-C-I-O-U-S.  I can put that suit on, put on my best pair of prick sunglasses, look in the mirror, and say "Today is going to be MY way."   Cause I'm Mikey Scars, baby.  Men want me, women want to be me.

[liz-and-the-blue-bird]

2016 Year In Review

Where Kurt talks about literally everything.

Totally not late 👌.

(Recommended Sountrack. You may just want to put it on loop.)

(Alternate soundtrack. This is what I listened to for the majority of writing this.)

Top lists are a sort of fun exercise for me. They present a unique challenge: to sell an idea well but short enough so the full list is reasonable to read in an afternoon. They also allow me to flex my own creative muscles by talking about many topics and concepts all at once. One of my favorite parts about anime is writing and talking about it after all. So top lists let me do that all of that for a bunch of different shows all at once. Also they’re pretty interesting to compare to other critics who are much better than me and like, do this for a living. I find that when I compare top lists to each other, they tend to agree on what each individual show is doing, yet disagree on which is the best. But I digress.

Anyway, if you read last years’ post, thank you—the writing in it sucks compared to how I write now so I don’t blame you if you don’t read it. Secondly, I’m changing the format a bit: I’ll still do a top five list, but I also have a few anime that I’ll just call “notable.” To me they aren’t good enough to put in my top list, but have interesting ideas or execution that is worth talking about (also, some other people may believe that they are worth their top list, which is a discussion topic in and of itself). Then I’ll just list off the rest of the shows I watched this year and give them little cute bite-sized reviews. I’ll also give star ratings out of 5 to everything (2.5 is the “average show,” but I refuse to rate with a fraction). Now then, we have a lot to get through so let’s get cracking.

Top Five New Anime

As always, in airing order.

Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo! (KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World!)

Jan 14, 2016 to Mar 17, 2016; 10 episodes; Studio DEEN (btw is it Deen or DEEN? I can’t seem to find any consensus on this.)  

So like, think SAO, but not edgy. KonoSuba takes the inherent absurdity of the SAO premise and puts that at the forefront. It opts out of the darker concepts that most of these “stuck in another world” anime tend to take in favor of hilarity. This is mostly done by creating a world that is legitimately wonderful as opposed to fake-difficult. Which means that the ridiculous problems the protagonists have are not at all because the world sucks, it’s because they suck. Each of them are jerks or weirdos in their own way and how they play with each other and the world is a riot. The show also does lots of clever things with its videogame world like: how luck stats affects quest rewards, how one develops their own skill repertoire, how dying works—hell, the first episode uses a literal pause as a method of conveying the protagonist’s thoughts. It feels like a DnD campaign that went off the rails in the best possible way. Even the show’s weakness, the occasional moments of terrible or rushed animation, are leveraged into comedic beats. It’s only 10 episodes (and a fantastic OVA) and a sequel is coming out soon. It’s definitely worth the watch.

★★★★☆

I didn’t expect to ever put a DEEN show on this list.

Mother’s Basement did an OP analysis along with Re:Zero here.

Boku No Hero Academia (My Hero Academia)

Apr 3, 2016 to Jun 26, 2016; 13 episodes; Bones

Many hero shows nowadays are trying to be a dark and intense, discussing themes of loss or the responsibilities of power. My Hero Academia handles hard concepts like that as well (especially in the most recent arc in the manga), but, first and foremost, it absolutely loves heroes. The original writer is a huge fan of old American comics and this show is a shonen recreation of the original Golden Age of superheroes. They explode onto the scene. They smile in the face of overwhelming odds. They always beat the villain and save the day. The best heroes are those that just want to be heroic and this show understands that. It’s world, like the author, loves heroes. The school loves heroes. The main character loves heroes. This incredibly positive view just emanates from the show and can be felt in every aspect. By far it’s biggest weakness is Bones seems a bit afraid to take risks: the fights a bit too true to the manga and the pace afraid of running out of material. But the character writing, the world building, the soundtrack are all top notch. A sequel is in the works and there’s also an OVA story that isn’t in the manga. An easy recommendation.

★★★★☆

One of my favorite critics, Nick Creamer, did a review on ANN. He also reads the manga and talks about it often on his blog, Wrong Every Time.

Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu (Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-)

Apr 4, 2016 to Sep 19, 2016; 25 episodes; White Fox

The opposite of KonoSuba—Re:Zero instead takes the SAO premise and makes it legitimately dark. It does this, not by making a main character whose defining character trait is “I’m cool,” but by crafting a world that is half high fantasy and half intangible, unceasing horror. The show leans on the uncertainty of being thrust into a new world and the agony of respawning again and again while talking to people who killed you as if they weren’t ticking time bombs. However, this story is not built to crush you. It carries heavy elements, not to present meaningless challenges to a blatantly overpowered protagonist (cough), but to push the protagonist to strive harder. In this way, it creates a relatable character. A character who we know is not strong and sometimes doubts himself, just like how we do when we face our own monsters. Then he faces his problems head on, sometimes by himself and sometimes with friends who don’t really understand the depth of his struggle. It says to the audience “this is not the end of your story” in a way that fills us with determination to reach our own happy endings. And that is a story worth telling.

★★★★★

This is probably the best story about being thrown into another world since…KonoSuba. 2016 was pretty good about this premise tbh, especially when you also consider Grimgar was released as well.

Mother’s Basement did an OP analysis along with Kono Suba here.

Flying Witch

Apr 10, 2016 to Jun 26, 2016; 12 episodes; J.C.Staff

Flying Witch doesn’t really have anything important to say. It doesn’t have a deep meaning like “one’s journey to personal peace” or “the intrinsic strength of the human spirit.” It’s just a slice of life story put in a casually magical setting. Like every good slice of life, episodes aren’t super related, and once you know all the characters you can watch it in basically any order. Some episodes don’t even show off any magic. All it does is carry a carefree lighthearted tone for 12 episodes. The show does this by establishing the world with many, many wide environment shots and then dropping so many quirky-cute characters whose interactions are so lovely and so charming that you just have to come back. In many ways, this show is K-on! except the captivating music scenes are replaced with equally stunning magical scenes. And I adore its sound design. Many of the most iconic tracks are reprises of its main theme at different tempos or with different instruments, creating a very cohesive experience throughout the series. In particular, its flying theme is gorgeous. Just like K-on!, it’s one of those shows that you watch on a rainy day and it will be just what you need. Flying Witch has quietly entered my personal favorites.

★★★★★

None of the critics I follow have made long articles about this anime. What this is telling me is I need to find more anime bloggers. Now taking suggestions.

Yuri!!! on Ice

Oct 6, 2016 to Dec 22, 2016; 12 episodes; MAPPA

To say this show was an endeavor would be selling it short. Yuri!!! on Ice tackles something like seven or eight parallel stories and relevant backstories of characters who all have different cultures and goals, and then it also has to explain enough about professional skating for you to actually care and understand the performances the show takes so much time to show and, if that wasn’t enough, it’s also LGBT. You have to give it to MAPPA for trying. The success of each of these aspects is middling, but, at the very least, it handles the stories of Yuuri, Yurio, and Victor fairly well. I’ve already touched on many of the techniques it uses to develop it’s expansive cast, but setting that aside, there is just a lot of show here. In order to communicate the number of ideas it tackles, the show presents everything full of purpose. Most scenes work overtime here and the resulting dialogue pops. Even the commercial break cuts are used effectively: they are foods that are native to the region that the cast is currently in which establishes a sense of place. At the same time, they’re food, so they refer back to the Yuuri’s in-joke about being a pork cutlet bowl and also maintain the lighthearted, happy tone of the show. Yuri!!! on Ice is efficient like that. It’s also one of those rare shows that sneaks into the public eye, so supporting it feels a tiny bit like supporting animation as a medium. But, before all that, it’s a story about a guy who follows his dream. That’s about as grand a story as anyone can tell.

★★★★☆

Notables 

Hai to Gensou no Grimgar (Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash)

Jan 11, 2016 to Mar 28, 2016; 12 episodes; A-1 Pictures

If you read just the premise, this show should suck. It’s just another one of those “stuck in another world” anime that come out every season. However, it has an interesting secondary hook: it’s actually a slice of life. Some of the most interesting portions of SAO and Log Horizon were how the videogame world interacted with the daily lives of the characters, so a show about this should be good, right? Unfortunately for Grimgar, it seems to be in the business of ruining it’s own emotional beats. The first episode is a good example of this: they open with a goblin hunting section that would be high tension, yet the animation struggles to provide the necessary impact. A training sequence occurs, but ends up paying too much attention to the instructor’s fanservice to offer anything meaningful. Then there’s a bit where the main crew gather round the campfire for some casual conversation which also stumbles because their topic of discussion is witch girl’s breasts. In fact, a lot of potential emotional hits snuff themselves out by becoming fanservice beats instead. A real shame. 

★★☆☆☆ 

Flip Flappers

Oct 6, 2016 to Dec 29, 2016; 13 episodes; Studio 3Hz

Well, I’ve already talked about how I feel about this show, but it just keeps popping up. To me, Flip Flappers comes across as trying too hard and losing focus and meaning as it tries to rationalize its own absurd world. It fails to explain bits and pieces, and, once you go down this rabbit hole, you have to hit everything. So we end up with this sort of half-done mess. However, people are still talking about it, so I think your assessment of Flip Flappers is a personal measurement of how much BS you can handle before you reject a plot idea. And the plot really is the “only” thing that grinded me about Flip Flappers. It had interesting characters, clever world building, and its ability to play with its animation style produced lots of great single episodes. It’s not a bad show, but it depends on what kind of person you are to tell if it’s a great show.

★★★☆☆

Short Answer Section

Ok, hopefully this goes by faster. 

Winter 2016

Prince of Stride: Alternative -  Madhouse does sports anime sounds like a good show. Unfortunately, this is less sports anime and more otome game. The parkour/running scenes are well animated (it’s Madhouse), but the character beats don’t work very well. All in all, ok. -  ★★☆☆☆

Musaigen no Phantom World - Flip Flappers but bad. How disappointing. -  ★☆☆☆☆ 

Sekkou Boys - Honestly? Not terrible. It’s a short, so attempting to put any sort of character development is kind of a crazy idea, but at least it was hilarious. -  ★★☆☆☆

ERASED -  2/3rds of a great show. The first 8-ish episodes are tightly written and well directed. The next 4 are…less so. At least for the writing part—the direction is still pretty good. ERASED fails to explain some character developments in ways that really make sense. This is similar to my problem with Flip Flappers, but, as ERASED is a mystery thriller, it is a much larger oversight. In short, the director once again proves himself much better than the works he has been given to adapt. -  ★★★☆☆

Zootopia - Disney does not suck, usually. Zootopia, in fact, is one of their better films. The setting is actually self-explanatory enough to work without too much info dumping, so it uses this kooky setting to tell a story that is relevant to our own world. Being a mystery/detective thriller, the plot is required to be more tight than Disney animated movies usually are and for the most part Zootopia delivers. It’s probably the best animated Disney movie this year. -  ★★★★☆

Spring 2016

Uchuu Patrol Luluco - Trigger at their Trigger-iest. Luluco actually manages to reference (“reference” aka “directly call out”) every single Trigger show in this short mini-series. It’s actually a really fun ride, in the same way that Gurren Lagann is, but because of how much it meanders it loses some of it’s punch. Still, I’d recommend it because honestly, at 13*6=74 minutes total running time, what have you got to lose? -  ★★★★☆ 

Gyakuten Saiban: Sono “Shinjitsu”, Igi Ari! (Ace Attorney) -  Ace Attorney shows us that some things are much better played than watched (like some other shows). But, all in all, it didn’t suck. It’s actually pretty good for people who don’t have the time to play the games. And I did get a lot of notes on that one post… - ★★☆☆☆

Netoge no Yome wa Onnanoko ja Nai to Omotta?  -  For the most part, a generic harem anime except the archetypes are marginally more interesting and the secondary hook is unconventional (videogames as opposed to…super human high school. We live in a world where super human high school is more common than just videogame club). The fanservice is expected. The comedy is ok. Overall it’s just kinda eh.  -  ★★☆☆☆

Sakamoto desu ga? -  This show is actually just one joke repeated for twelve episodes. I mean it’s a pretty good joke; you could call this the slice of life One Punch Man. But I liked One Punch Man—I put it on the top list last year, so what’s wrong with this show? Well the strength of One Punch Man is not actually Saitama (haha), but rather the cast of side characters. Since Saitama is a static character, the development is shipped to everyone else so we get our character beats from them. Then, Saitama is used only for comedic beats. Sakamoto, on the other hand, fails to do this, and instead uses a rotating static character cast, so it has to rely entirely on comedy to compel you to watch. And, like I said, it’s just one joke repeated for twelve episodes. - ★★☆☆☆

Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge -  Like Sakamoto, Tanaka-kun is also just one joke, but it spends a bit more time developing the surrounding cast since that joke isn’t as potent. It’s slow pace reminds me a lot of Flying Witch, but it uses its characters more than its environment for the jokes. In fact, that’s probably the more important difference: there are more jokes. Flying Witch is content to let you stew in the world for a while, but Tanaka-kun feels pressured to hit you with another joke right after another. It’s not a bad show, but it’s a bit clumsy in its execution. - ★★★☆☆

Kiznaiver (2/12) -  I touched on this already, but Kiznaiver is an interesting enough topic to revisit. Often for character shows, a director will take one of two ways to show relationships: 1) understated gestures and close up camera angles on expressive body parts—this is the stance KyoAni and PA Works likes to take—or 2) metaphor as shorthand to character mindsets, anywhere from expressive skating performances to personal demons gone physical. Neither of these is really Trigger’s style, so for their own character story, Kiznaiver, they turn the relationships into an actual physical connection and then use force to move relationships. I still haven’t gotten around to finishing it, but it’s a clever workaround and very Trigger even if it’s not their usual director. I’m excited to see how it’s done. -  ★★★☆☆?

Finding Dory -  I…don’t remember much of it. Usually that means it’s just kind of ok. A “just kind of ok” Disney movie probably means it’s above average so let’s go with that. (I am a serious critic who seriously critiques things with seriousness.)  - ★★★☆☆?

I need to start writing shorter opinions or we’ll be here all day. 

Summer 2016

That scroll bar is getting pretty small…

Love Live! Sunshine!! (3/13) - Of the 3 episodes I’ve watched, this seems very much like “Love Live! 2, Love Liver!!” It still has this weird problem of taking itself too seriously (remember “I love school idols!” ?), but Sunrise is a roll here, given another iteration we might have a very good character comedy. - ★★★☆☆?

New Game! -  Aside from having the most adorable OP of 2016, this show isn’t really notable. Yeah, it’s cute, it’s Doga Kobo. Yeah, it’s funny, it’s Doga Kobo. There’s some fanservice, often leveraged into comedy a la Monogatari, but that’s kind of it. For the most part, this is Shirobako channeling K-on! which sounds amazing but ends up just being pretty ok. I wonder how much better it could be given a two cour season. -  ★★★☆☆

Taboo Tattoo (1/screw it) - I was coerced into watching one episode of this thing. It has like almost an interesting premise but every time they introduced another character I just got more disappointed. Please send help. - ☆☆☆☆☆

Amanchu! (1/12) - J.C.Staff has this weird artistic style that seems to change completely whenever they are making a joke. This works for some anime, but it’s not very subtle. In the case of Amanchu!, I think they needed to deliver it with a more softer style overall, but it’s not a deal breaker. I just haven’t gotten around to watching the rest. -  ★★☆☆☆?

Kono Bijutsubu ni wa Mondai ga Aru! (3/12) - Comedy anime about girls in art club falling in love with a dense otaku and surrounded by other quirky idiots is not a new concept. To be different, Konobi tries to provide more structure to its story, evident just from the first episode. Well, I’m only 3 episodes in but I’ve found the comedy weakens the plot and the plot weakens the comedy. Often with short seasons, it’s better to focus on only one aspect, as dividing your resources like this results in a mediocre show, but I still haven’t gotten that far. I’m hopeful. - ★★☆☆☆?

Fall 2016

WWW.Working!! (6/13) - It basically plays out like Working!! lite. WWW.Working!! was the original “rough draft” for the Working!! manga after all, so it kind of makes sense. It’s alright. Working!! is a stronger show overall and has a rare multi-season full adaptation, so, choosing only one, I’d choose Working!!. That was probably really confusing. - ★★★☆☆?

Shuumatsu no Izetta (2/12) - History drama meets magical girls. You know, maybe we should stop making so many “x + Magical girls” anime. It’s an interesting take and the direction it goes is pretty fun. Instead of following a WW2 titan, you follow a small country that needs the magical girl to keep themselves from getting totally destroyed. I’m not sure I’ll finish it, but if that’s your kind of vibe, Izetta is the show for you. - ★★☆☆☆?

Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku (1/12) - Continuing the theme of “x + Magical girls” anime, this one is Magical Girls meets Battle Royal. At least, that’s what it’s supposed to be. The pace is so incredibly slow that the little premise you read on MAL tells you the story past the first episode already. I don’t think I’ll be coming back to this one. - ★☆☆☆☆?

Cheating Craft (2/12) -  Calling this an Anime is kind of hazy but luckily this post is about more than just anime. The first episode is sort of a flashback type deal that explains the concept and the next episode is the first of what seems to be a series of tests. Instead of the subtle strategic type of show I expected, it’s actually just ok-ish action with poorly defined characters. So it’s been dropped. - ★☆☆☆☆?

Hibike! Euphonium 2 - I’ve talked about this so much you guys probably already know my stance on it. It’s hampered by the nature of adaptation as the Mizore-Nozomi arc could probably be removed. But the Asuka arc shows KyoAni has still got it. One of the best shows of the year. - ★★★★★

KEIJO!!!!!!!! - You know what’s interesting about this show? In story structure, it’s the most generic shonen ever. But the base premise is so absurd and so confident in itself that it carries pretty well. The absurdity even spreads to the title: all caps and eight exclamation points. This show knows what it’s about. - ★★★☆☆

Gi(a)rlish Number (2/12) - Oregairu is well written show. Gi(a)rlish Number is also a well written show. Thanks Wataru Watari. But because of how cynical they are, they’re really hard for me to watch. So I’ve only watched two episodes. Thanks Wataru Watari. I’m sure I’ll have lots of opinions about this so I’ll talk about it at a later time. - ★★★★☆?

Haikyuu!!: Karasuno Koukou VS Shiratorizawa Gakuen Koukou - Carrying from the momentum of the previous season, Haikyuu!! remains good. I think this is the weakest season so far in terms of emotional pay-off (probably because it’s, ya know, 10 episodes), but it’s still my favorite sports anime. Hopefully the next season isn’t too far away. - ★★★★☆

Moana - Compared to Zootopia, this Disney film is more hand-wavy with its plot. It’s not like the world is harder to build, one of them has demi-gods and another has talking animals, the world just isn’t as important for this type of story. On the flip side, it has arguably the best sound design of an animated feature in 2016. I enjoyed it, but all I ever think about with Disney princess films is how cool the Kingdom Hearts world is going to be. -★★★★☆

I’M DONE. 

Holy cow I didn’t realize how much stuff I watched last year. And I didn’t even finish a lot of shows I wanted to. 

Man. I hope one day I get paid to write about this stuff. 

Thanks as always for reading. Let me know if I missed something!