#and BOTH of them were the MAIN villians in her stories. so. do with that what you will. because it might as well just be a coincidence

[kelean]

replayed commander lilith and the fight for sanctuary recently and now i'm thinking about all the lost potential and it's actually making me so, so sad.

like! if they would've just continued from where the pre-sequel left off we could’ve had athena somewhere on sanctuary because you can't tell me that after hearing the watcher's words about the incoming war she would just go and become the ceo of whatever (fuck you ntftbl) instead of staying and helping the little people. because yes, janey did ask her to step aside from the vault hunting business, but, you know, there is plenty of work to do without needing to kill anyone – and athena wouldn’t be alone now. or at least she wouldn't be working with some questionable people

also, can you imagine what athena would've felt like after going to the helios ruins? the exact place where her life took a 180-degree turn? all the memories - the bad and the good ones - that would've flooded back? especially with the fact that lilith - one of the people who tried to kill her here the last time - is fighting alongside her. they are allies now. friends, even. (also, there is a thing to say about cassius - we don't know if she canonically spared him, but in this dlc she would've had the chance to see that it was actually the right choice. yes, he was manipulated to work with the bad guys again, but he atoned himself in the end, making a sacrifice for people he barely knew - something she could definitely respect)

and athena would be here with janey, too, because at this point they are quite literally married. and because janey is a damn good mechanic she would definetly be besties with ellie, with them bonding over some mechanical stuff (and i’m still convinced that janey should have been the one to build a spaceship for sanctuary 3. you know, considering her specialty). and she was also the one who had been working with scooter for some time so. she would probably have some stories to tell

besides, i just can’t stop thinking about how awkward the first meeting between janey and bl1 vhs would be. with lilith, brick and mordecai going "yeah sorry we kidnapped your girlfriend and sorry that we tried to kill her. we are on good terms now tho. she's a really good storyteller and everyone loves her. tina is probably her number one fan" while janey would be standing there staring daggers at them

oh and also consider this - athena and brick becoming friends on the basis of both of them needing to find a less... uh... murderous hobby. maybe doing some (real) gardening together as was suggested by mordecai. or cooking! or knitting! i don't know. there are just so many possibilities. and they would also spar in a free time. and athena would win every single time (becaue it was stated that if not for the vallory's interference, she would have taken both him and mordecai down so. yeah. she might be short but she is extremely deadly)

and i'm not saying that she should've been the dlc's main focus because in the end it is a story about lilith becoming a true leader for the crimson raiders, but still. having athena around would've made so much sense

[rainybraindays]

I don't like making posts like this, I don't like opening my blog up for people to come and harrass me but oh my god, why does the fandom allow posts like this to get away unscathed?

You don’t have to like Marina. I'll never claim that. You can like or dislike whoever you want.

But I do wonder, if Marina was played by a white woman would we get nearly as many posts like this? Would everyone be as okay with it? Would we have been so quiet about the fact that Ruby Barker was harrassed for this role? Or would there be way more people defending her? Would she suddenly be sympathetic when now shes not?

Why are we all so okay with taking this character with a nuanced story, put in a horrible situation with almost no options and turning her into a villian?

Like did we watch the same show? Did you miss the bit where she doesn't want to find a husband at all and only starts when she thinks shes been abandoned, which she only believes because she gets a forged letter saying she was? Did you not see Portia slap her? Did you not also watch a man old enough to be her grandfather being forced on her?

Lying to Colin wasn't okay, I'm not defending that, but literally tell me what her options were?

The man she loves is dead, but she doesn't even know that she thinks he abandoned her, so she can't reasonably assume Phillip will take responsibility when his brother won't. The only people Portias interested in introducing to her are those she wouldn't introduce to her own daughters. She can't reasonably think Colin will be open to her as a wife since shes pregnant becausethats not the norm. But Colin is, he says he would have married her even knowing. And Colin also doesn't view Marina as a villian, in season two hes sad yeah, but he’s also guilty because he doesn't think she deserved what happened.

This is a nuanced messy situation but no one wants to look at that.

Like you all make it very clear you view her as a whore, because she did a very normal thing and had sex. You all view her as a manipulative snake of a person, when if she was even the Whistledown article wouldn't have been a stop for her because she would have tried to get out of it. You conveniently forget that she almost killed herself in an attempt to abort her children because of her mistreatment post Whistledown article because that takes away from the idea you've concocted that shes some villainous bitch.

But then you turn around and want Penelope to have sexual knowledge that she realistically wouldn't and canonically doesn’t. You praise her for her Whistledown work even though it keeps hurting people she loves and shes lying about doing it.

This is weird, posting about how you can't wait for a character to die, and how you hope the death is - lets be honest here- humiliating, is a bizarre thing to do.

Its even more bizarre to do that, tag the character, and then also tag two ships that really the post really isn't about.

Like why is Polin tagged? Because they're both mentioned? This isn't a polin moment. You don’t talk about them at all in the meat of the post. Why is Philoise tagged? Because she's an 'obstacle' for them? They haven't even met, they aren't mentioned at all, they have nothing to do with this.

And on top of tagging these things you say "don't try and defend her to me" which why would we you clearly wouldn't listen. You follow that with saying "If you like her you probably suck" and claim to have tagged this as anti marina when you didn't. You put this in her main tag and then added "death to marina".

Theres no respect to your peers in the fandom, and clear disrespect to people who do like this character and are actually willing to engage with the character beyond fanon portrayal. Because thats what this is its not even taking her at face value anymore.

You wonder why people dislike this fandom, specifically the polin side of it, and do things like this. We as a community need to improve because stuff like this isn't uncommon, this is just one of the most blatant I've seen.

I'm going to be entirely honest if you follow quotegirl19, or don't see the issues with Marinas portrayal and treatment by the fandom this is not the blog for you.

[misrepresentedmorallygrey]

PROPAGANDA

Basil

In Omori, Basil used to be your best friend up until the tragic events 4 years ago, where Sunny accidentally pushed his sister Mari down the stairs. Basil was the one who found Sunny action-paralyzed, realising that his sister was dead because of him. Basil panicked, thinking the police would take his best friend away forever. Thus, he orchestrated making it look like Mari hung herself, worsening the events of the game. Pretty fucked up stuff. Did I mention both Sunny and Basil were 12 years old at the time? Basil is often portrayed as either irrevocably evil or a pure soul who did nothing wrong. Both of these interpretations ignore the central issue that he COVERED UP A POTENTIAL MURDER because he was 12 AND DID NOT KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO. Prior to meeting Sunny and his group of friends, Basil was said to be isolated and alone. Finally creating this connection with others seemed to have made him terrified to lose these connections, and he's portrayed throughout the game to be haunted by guilt and characterized by his loneliness and fear of losing his friends, but especially his best friend, Sunny. He seems to understand now that he's older that the whole situation was incredibly wrong, and lives in denial mostly about his friend's hand in the events. Nothing seems to suggest that he doesn't realize what he himself did was wrong by the time of the game. He doesn't speak up, though, for the player's sake. After all, Basil has no idea that Mari's death was an accident, and Sunny has retracted into himself and refused to communicate on the issue. The creator themselves descriped the character like this: "OMOCAT describes BASIL as caring and thoughtful in regards to the friends he so deeply cherishes. However, his loneliness and insecurities are what make him dependent on others, sometimes to a dangerous extent." "In fact, OMOCAT adds that BASIL feels deep emotions for those he cares about, and this sometimes places him in situations where he unintentionally hurts others and himself." An additional moment that occassionally garners criticism, is that sometime in the course of those 4 years, Basil marked out Mari's face from his photo album, which he kept of him and all of his friends. This creates conflict between him and another character in-universe. What many fans seem to miss about this issue is that Basil himself is engaging in the same destructive tendency that most of the other characters also are - trying to deal with overwhelming pain with some form of denial and alienation of his old relationships. At no point is there shown any sort of hostility towards Mari from him as a character. Basil is overall a character who used to be a pure small bean but ended up doing something incredibly serious because he was a scared child, unable to deal with the situation at hand rationally. The horrendous guilt and consequences of the tragedy that happened when everyone were too young to process it make up the central themes of the game. By trying to morally simplify Basil's actions, we're also ignoring the overall point of the story; The deeprooted consequences of something extremely traumatic happening to children at an age where they're not able to handle it, and the permanent consequences it's going to have on their lives going forwards.

There's definitely a chunk of the fandom that likes to over-villianize Basil, I suspect to make the main character seem better. A lot of them say Basil forced Sunny into doing something bad, which given what we know about Basil's character seems highly unlikely. And they also give him a lot of flack for (admittedly bad) actions he takes during a mental health crisis.

Yuno Kashiki

She's far more morally grey than folks want to admit. She's not evil, not by a long shot, but she's not exactly innocent either. She's innocent of her (perceived) crime in her media, but in terms of her attitude and outlook on life, I feel people downplay her incredibly grey actions. She uses / used compensated dating as a way to feel "warm" without forming emotional attachments. She hasn't killed anyone, nor has she manipulated anyone into killing for her, but that's why she's a good representative of a more everyday morally grey person. Her actions aren't outlandish or extreme, and if anything she can fade into the background with relative ease, yet I still firmly believe she's morally grey. tldr; Yuno has far more depth than the (general) fandom sees her as having. She gets misrepresented and her voice as a character is often unheard.

Yuno Kashiki is an 18 year old rental girlfriend and sexworker in Japan. She was incarcerated in Milgram for murder at the start of the series in 2020. Since then she has been repeatedly dehumanized by the fandom. Having her agency and statements on her own life overwhelmingly ignored in order to give her a sob story she has consistently rebuked at every turn. Stating from the beginning even if she had to beg for forgiveness like her life depended on it she would. However, it's simply been handed to her as the audience continually goes she was too young and stupid to actually be held accountable for her actions. The same audience that later tries to vote a 12 year old child abuse victim guilty because she has to learn her lesson and she knew what she was doing. Yes the fandom interprets the eighteen year old who chose to work in the profession they did simply because they wanted to something they have no qualms admitting as having less agency than the twelve year old. They treat her like a stupid baby who's only error was not knowing how a condom worked as a sexworker. They say her only crime is an abortion despite her overtly getting upset at other individuals alluded to be clients throughout her songs. Having the literal lyrics of her second song go, ""Poor naive little girl"? So off the mark, what's it to you? It's absurd. Like really who do you think you are? Don't weigh me meassure me against your morality. Just shut it, will you? You know it all." And "Carrssing me with your "good girl". Who needs your self-righteous pardon?" They're so committed to the abortion equating to the murder she's in here for idea that fans got mad at the writer for even writing it that way when at least several other very not fetuses are alluded to throughout her songs and at points literally shown. Her first song even highlighting her clients belongings throughout it with inverted coloring. But instead of thinking she may have just killed a client who was bothering her they've convinced themselves that she's just a silly little outlier who's not meant to be here because abortion isn't murder her body her choice which fair if it wasn't for the fact the only people putting it on the table to compare to murder is the audience themselves. Despite everyone else in here very literally killing actual people with lives, professions, etc as they frame her case as a feminism issue and say if you vote her guilty you just hate women or are anti-abortion. In response to the framing of her situation as she can hear the audiences thoughts on her she's only gotten more depressed and closed off as tge series has progressed blatantly stating to hurry all this up so she can go home. Because it doesn't matter what she says about her situation the audience and the guard by proxy will just end up creating whatever story they want about her so it doesn't matter she's over it. Which in all honesty fucking fair- Wouldn't anyone be after getting treated like that for going on four years.

[liaa--qb]

do you think that team black Stans takes this hotd war topic too much And They are very much hypocrite ?? I was new in this fandom and stand with team black. I hate to say this many of them spoil whole fun on Twitter debate.I have seen their jealousy alot at Aemond getting more attention than some of their characters by audience.They made stories about him like he r@ped Alys.They would have hated daeron if he was there since first season lmao. What's your take on team black stans. Don't mistake me as a Aemond wife. I am against team green but admitting I kinda liked his character only as villian. Helaena is the only person I love in team green

EXACTLY ! This..... EXACTLY this.. see firstly m not a team supporter or stan here. I am just enjoying d show till it's tolerable😅. I just want a good show dat's it. I am not on Twitter thankfully, I am well aware what goes on there n you can hate Aemond all u want. He's a villian ofcourse 🙏🏻

Fire and blood was boring but show has chance to be better atleast though if they ever want to try😑... Regarding ur take , it's gonna be bit long now as I don't do this long stuff unless it's a fic😭

lemme tell the truth now.... ik many dumb ones are not gonna like it 😂

yes there are majority of hypocrite team black Stans who would make up these bullshits mainly with Aemond like "they gave Jace's qualities to Aemond, Aemond r*ped Alys". Jace's one was the most random 😂

bitch... like where you thought after reading the book n watching show that they gave Jace's qualities to Aemond 💀😭 ??? Where... I read the book too😂. My friends who actually introduced me to hotd who are book purists too , even they laughed on this theory when I told them.

" Jace and Aegon were adapted exactly the way they were in the books ! " It's a fact Listen I love Tom Glynn Carney too (like how can you not🥵) but sorry to those Aegon girlies who were just saying that they forcefully made Aegon a r*pist. He was like this in the book very much. They both were shown correctly how they should have been in s1.

Both green and blacks were given some good and bad shots equally in show. Bad n good shots for God's sake doesn't mean one is Angel and other one being devil. It's about writing or storyline regarding both teams. N this whole jealousy or hypocrisy towards Aemond of some team black stans is nothing but a childish stupidity to me and it's obvious that Aemond would get alot attention in show than many N y not ? 🤦🏻‍♀️

[ top 3 characters from both teams will get attention. Show will be divided into two teams from Team black it's Rhaenyra, Daemon , Colrys n (someone with corlys) who would be focused more N from team Green it would Alicent, Aegon, Aemond. Majority of Attention would be given to Rhaenyra, Alicent n Aegon as they are main 3 . It should be very much clear to every person who read the book , to me it was as I read only after watching the S1 trailer. Wasn't this very much obvious in the book. ]

Also Aemond never r*ped or assaulted Alys in the book. We never got inside of their relationship in book. He can in the show though🤷🏻‍♀️.... if makers want to. He took her as war prize which was very much common for every guy winning war.

Honestly Alys was far yrs older fucking powerful witch😭 she would eat Aemond alive be fr if she wanted to. She would have killed him way easily in starting itself . Yes there relationship was problematic n it was power imbalance both sides. They both were using each other. Aemond was clearly under her spell or either for her powers and so was Alys. Who was taking her best from Aemond's position whatever she could get from both sides.

If Grrm lit wanted to show that Aemond r*ped Alys he would have done it very well like he does this with his all other characters who were actually r@pists but he didn't. On the contrary side he wrote Aemond as evil goth twink who never wanted to scare the ladies at court n wore eye patch bcz of that😂. Same guy was making out with his floris and fell hard under spell of strong bastard witch calling her 'my lady !'

Let me clear that also Aemond not being a r@pist doesn't make him a less bad person either. He was a sadist tyrant n murderer psychopath in book. This is what made him a villian or bad guy. But the problem with some team black Stans is that they knew that audience will start giving him the ' typical Kylo ren' treatment which he's getting. ( Idk how one cannot see this coming after reading dance of d in FNB, it was very much predicted I knew it). They don't want to give any good points to any team green characters in their silly game. Like as if audience don't hype bad guys more than good guys😑.

Same way when same audience hyped Daemon more than Harwin then they don't have any problem but if audience likes Aemond n Daeron more than team black kids then their ass hate to see this n would write whole new made up reasons for not to like any team green member while cheering any other character which they like for same thing.

Funny thing is that many team black daemon lovers would write how he was right man, he killed all r*pist from city while this is the same daemon who fucks literally little girls who are prostitutes n loves it which is very much written in book. Ofcourse mysaria was with him since her childhood. As prostitutes have no other options. Taking prince like daemon and Aegon was better for their survival.

He is canon p*dophile in book but yes if Aemond is r@pist then Daemon's account of doing r@pe is way higher than Aemond even before when Aemond was born. Now why would those black Stans admit this ? 😂 never....... Believe me when I say that some of them are that level of jokers who would say that Maegor is good and daeron is bad just because he is from team green.

I really like daemon too n daemon had his bad qualities n good qualities both 🧡atleast I like the way he is . It clearly shows that some Stans they cannot even like or hate the character for what they are. They are dumbass kids watching some cartoon fight with two team. They just want to hate one team for any reason n like other team for any random reason

Mind you....many of them even hate Helaena unnecessary but same time would love Laena and for what ????🤡🤡

what I hated regarding Aemond in show :-

now things I accept that Aemond not killing Luce was very much wrong and I hated that too. Because it was not good for plot tbh for me. It's just messing up with already messed up world building. Aemond as a villian got a very much reason to Luce n y should he not ? now that's thing I genuinely think that was done wrong regarding Aemond's character, people hating it is very much justified because it very much makes luc's death stupid rather than sad.

But making up reasons like they gave everything to Aemond like they didn't made Aemond totally bad during drift mark scene as we get sympathy for rhaena n we understood her reason for being angry on Aemond atleast n Aemond insulting her. but in books it's lit Nyra's kids who were not minding their own business n Aemond was just beating them n throwing them far away from him instead of killing them with rock like in the show but ofcourse this wasn't visible to team black Stans. Because in the book honestly Aemond was very much correct during drift mark scene.

They removed viserys's taunting Aemond regarding dragon which was very important.

They showed Harwin beating Criston but we all know it was Criston who took both Harwin and Daemon easily and so many of I started to count regarding team green were done equally wrong.

just see the dumbness and hyporcrisy I once saw Darkling and rhys Stans saying bullshit about Aegon and Aemond 😂😂. Same Darkling who physically assaulted Alina, abused her. The one who gave little girls like Genya to get r@ped by the old hag king for his benefit n

the way LB wrote him I can very say that she hated him as well. And Rhys is whole another level bullshit 😂if started to write. They were not even a good written bad guys. These same idiots would typing whole ass reasons to like them. It's funny that Darkling supporters would hate Otto hightower as if they aren't the same thing 🤣. Otto slays more as compared Darkling.

many of them pretend to care about representation saying that 'Jace should not have Sara n it would hurt baela n would make her unwanted ' while same time giving thousand reasons of there was nothing bet Nettles and Daemon so that it would not harm their Daemyra. So many of them were happy when there wasn't any news regarding nettles. ( It's not only team black , many of team green stans r equally hypocrite here you asked me of team black )

[popculturebuffet]

Uncle Scrooge: The Secret Santa Spell Review (comission by WeirdKev27)

Happy Holidays all you Happy People. It's that time of year again, time to haul out the holly and the breadcrumbs because we're talking about ducks again. Yes while I haven't talked about ducks nearly enough on this blog as of late, finding a Ducktale for christmas has always been a priority.

This year though Kev took the reigns on this one after realizing this was a tradition, and found me TWO. We were originally going to do the darkwing duck christmas special, something I didn't know existed and still know little about on purpose and still plan to next year.. but then... he found this. See back in 2021 I reviewed the Carl Barks comic a letter to santa. You can find the review here.

But the main takeaway is it features THIS iconic scene

Look saying i'm a simple man would be a boldfaced lie, but sometimes it's the simple things like an absurdly rich duck and his nephew fighting to the death with heavy machinery so one of them can give their nephew's the remaining machine as a christmas present that bring me joy on this holiday season.

That said after years of basking in the warm glow of having randomly found a comic about Scrooge and Donald battling to the death with steam shovels, I found something just as holly jolly.. and just as gloriously, wonderfully nuts. My friends it's time I introduced you to the Secret Santa spell.

Again Kev, my producer of sorts, deserves the credit here: he found this in Disney Christmas Parade, IDW's christmas anthology they printed every year for a while, and god bless him for it as this story is gold. It's a genuinely good, well done Magica story that thanks to taking place on christmas and involving a claus somehow less thought out than the one where if you kill Santa you become Santa, figgy pudding, a murder tree, and a volcano finale, is also completely bonkers and I love every second of it. This is a geninely fantastic scrooge story and one worth taking a look for yourself if you can find it online since it's out of print. For those of you who can't or simply don't wanna, come with me under the cut as we explore the hap happiest christmas since bing crosby tap danced with danny fucking kaye while Donald and Scrooge tried to pummel each other with steam shovels.

This story comes to us from writers Fransico Artibani, Lello Arena and artest Silvio Cambolli. I hadn't heard of any of these people before this as i'm not really up on my itallian duck comics but they do an excellent job here and I certainly will be looking out for more of their stories.

For this story we open at the bin a few days before christmas as everything's winding down for the holiday and Donald's doing one of his last bits of slave labor for Scrooge when two Scottish obviously suspcious carollers show up. Scrooge apparently gets so many that both are and aren't villians in disguise he's worked up a bit of an extreme solution.. granted he wanted to just pour oil on them but then legal got involved.

So he has to go with the Virtuetron 3000, an elaborate setup he had gyro work up that puts MIND READING HELMETS

Yup i'ts magica.. I mean I can't blame Scrooge for being suspcious, turning her shadow into a teenager to sneak into the mansion only for said teenager to fall in love with scrooge's daughter, this ain't, but i'm less concered with Magica and Co's half baked scheme and more concered a man who underpays his employees, quite literally owns the town, and already has a fairly sketchy moral compass has MIND CONTROL technology.. and giant killer robots

You'd think this would be an out of character expendature... but he got it from a reliable presidental source

Scrooge did all this so he could have a restful christmas. Magica.. isn't having the same as she has some uninvited guests.

Okay so some introductions are in order as i'm sure some of you had the same reaction I did

Thankfully Inducks also indexed who they are. Starting with the one I DID recognize, the little tyke is Magica's niece Minima, the basis for Lena and Magica's exact oppisite: kind, selfless, cheery. The only thing she isn't inverted on is magical talent, as Minima has a knack for it.

The two strangers are Rosolio and Gramma DeSpell. Yes GRAMMA, that's magica's grandma. What's intresting is there's two distinct versions of the character that don't really contradict each other, with this one in the 90's becoming a bigger fixture, and there being nothing to say this isn't the same character given a Sabrina the Teenage Witch style makeover, just a few years BEFORE Zelda and Hilda's got there's in fact. Go figure. She's a bit of a hippie and tries to talk down Magica from her schemes.

Her sidekick here, and sexual harasser, is Rosolio, a mildly inepet magician who followed her from italy to hit on her.

So Magica's about ready to just abandon her magic shop and go.. fuck off or whatever when Minima innocently brings up something...

Yes folks, this is indeed our premise: Santa put in a clause in his magic that's somehow weirder than "If tim allen shoves you off a room tim allen become santa claus" or "If tim allen dosen't find a wife in time he ceases to be santa claus" or.. let's just say anything tim allen adjacent. If you wish for something seven times and happen to be some sort of spellcaster, you get it, regardless of morality, intent or what it actually is. Which DOES mean good news for one little boy man robot

But still raises a LOT of questions. It's not a bad concept, that asking for something enough means santa will take pity but why isn't their restraints? Why has Magica, someone Santa would objectively not liked asked 7 times? why have we only heard about a magic version of the junior woodchuck guidebook this once? why didn't we get a fourth season of ducktales so Frank could adapt this? These are the things that keep me up at night. This is also a thing that keeps me up at night.

Donald just admit you need glasses instead of taking it out on your children, for all our sakes!

So Magica goes to the north poll to deliver letter 7 personally while Gramma.. only stops Rogoilo from going with her then hopes she'll be okay.

Magicia isn't as an elf being pulled by a sleigh full of pengys and getting there late notices her. Honestly we wouldn't have this plot at all if the best boy pengy wasn't busy.

Magica is frozen solid and is revived by 30 cc's of hot chocolate. I don't know if Tom Hanks sang to her, he was also busy that christmas

Magcia repays this kindness by busting up the north poll, going on a rampage to find Santa since the elves handle letters. Keep in mind this ENTIRE act of the story, her getting frozen, her going on a rampage, her bringing an evil dead tree to life before fighting an army of teddy bears and snowman

YUP. You didn't think the insanity stopped at mind policing, killer robots, santa clauses and improperly placed penguins did you? Nope we get a full on offscreen lord of the rings battle complete with ents simply because Magicia wants to gloat in person. And despite this section being padding.. it works. of COURSE magicia would want to gloat to santa, of COURSE she coudln't wait for Christmas day. It's totlaly in character and her singing oh christmas tree or spitting out hot chocolate are just.. such nice character touches. Of course she's so dedicated to being evil she hates something sweet. OF COURSE.

It's something neat about this comic: i'ts bonkers, no question.. but it's also simply fantastic on it's own merit. The idea of Magica getting a santa wish is neat on it's own, but the story then uses Minima to anchor it: she's frustrated it seems her aunt will never be happy and always obess over the dime, and thus teleports to the bin to take it from her, not understanding WHY it's precious to scrooge or WHY her aunt wants it, simply wanting to make her aunt happy. No one even knows; the thought police helmet's don't scan ill intent.. because there isn't none. It's just an innocent child wanting to bring her Aunt christmas. This version of Minima reminds me a LOT of 87 webby, and it's in the best way: innocent , kind, selfless.. all the good things.

Anyways Santa finally goes to confront magica, wondering why she's doing this the answers no.. and forgetting his own stupid policy until it's too late, with her asking for the dime and him entering a trance to go get it.

It's christmas eve and Scrooge is bored as nothing's going on. Disturbingly he wants to know how litigatoins are going. Those orphans aren't going to be forced out into the snow themsleves, ghosts of past buisness partners be dammned!

Scrooge is interuptted from taling to Mrs. Quackfaster byt he arrival of santa. Thinking it's magica in a disguise , he sicks a robot guard dog on her he turns into a sheep.

But then we get the crowner, the weirdest, best, and most wonderful thing in this story.. I present...

I"ll level with you all, while holiday shopping was easy this year, i've still been dealing with a lot of seasonal depression and regular ole depression. It's been a long month with loved ones in the hosptial (nothing serious but also nothing you need to know about in full), work piling up and me not even taking the time to enjoy some of my gifts. I've had plenty of kind people, thoughtful gifts, and wonderful friends but sometimes the stress of this job, as much as I love it, and the world can get to you. So getting to just relax and review a comic where Santa turns Scrooge's bin into a giant figgy pudding while under hypnosis.. it helps> it warms the spirit and reminds me why I do this. For the joy of good stories.. and for the wonder of nonsense.

For those who like me wondered what Figgy Pudding actually even is, wonmder no more: it's a traditional british pudding made out of animal fat. You no doubt have more questions but we have more story

So Santa snaps out of it once he gives Magica the time and she teleports out. Scrooge asks santa to go get it.. but despite you know having TURNED SCROOGE'S BIN INTO PUDDING and stolen his prized possesion, he's .. less than helpful.

I just.. dude... man.. santa dude man claus... Christmas is important. It brigns joy to children and it's why youd o this. I get that. But how does "I need to return the dime I stole while BRAINWASHED due to a stupid bit of magic I never bothered to undo or work up a backup plan for", equate to "greed begats greed'.

For starters the Dime.. isn't just a dime.. and you should know this. Your santa. You know everything about a person, it's your deal. This dime was the first bit of honest money Scrooge ever earned, a reminder of what he started, something he dearly loves and treasures not because it's MONEY but because of what it means. And even not knowing that Scrooge didn't start any of this shit. Scrooge has to constantly ward off Magicia's crap, something you DO for a fact know as you rejected her wish till your dumbass magic kicked in. She's not trying to steal his hoarded gross amount of money, she's trying to take the dime and she's trying to do it for an evil plan. YOU KNOW BETTER SANTA.

Granted this could be a christmastime grift as Santa gets Scrooge to promise a big dinner and bonuses for everyone in duckburg, so he could've simply been fleecing scooge.. and I prefer that interprtation as it fits santa better: Santa would WANT to make up for what he did with magica and WANT to stop her because Santa is a kind, caring person. And even if she hadn't used the santa spell against him, she still attacked his elves out of spite. I prefer to think he would've helped anyway but knew Scrooge deserved to be taught a lesson which, fair play to the big guy.. Scrooge ABSOLUTELY did.

So they go to stop him while Magica goes to show off her dime.. and minima realizes Magica didn't open her present and thus dosen'jt know and is about to make an oopsie.

So Scrooge and Santa go to stop her, but can't... luckily thanks to Minima giving Scrooge a chocolate coin instead of giving her the midas touch, the spell gives her...

It's an excellent brick joke on Magicia hating chocolate, and a great visual. it temproarily makes her the sweetst duck in the world.. which leads to some shipping bait

But a genuinely sweet ending for Minima who, if for one moment and only thanks to magic.. gets to enjoy her aunt. I mean Magica becoming sweet thanks to choclate magic is KINDA Messed up.. but it's hard to not enjoy a child who simply wanted her aunt to be happy.. getting that for one breif moment.

I still feel bad for her as this won't lass, Magicia will be back to her abuse hateful self.. but I can't begrudge a kind, innocent little witch her happy ending. I just don't have it in me. It's not forever, Magicia gets herself back.. but for one day.. she'll treat her family how they deserve. And Rogilo how he really dosen't but you can't have everything now can you?

So because we can't just end on the sweet moment, Santa assures Scrooge the figgy pudding bin will turn back after christmas.. but until then.. he has a promise to fufill.

Every christmas story should end with the whole town eating a rich man's property. Hell EVERY christmas should. Eat the rich's buildings kids!

This story is excellent. Really werid? yes. Having a pretty bonkers ending for no reason? Yes. Is said ending hilarious, the throughline of Minima heartfelt, and the zanier stuff also really funny? Entirely. It's a well done Scrooge story set around christmas with santa's indgiance at helping scrooge being the only thing I really don't like. Had he phrased it less as "you brought this on yourself" and more "you don't deserve it after how you've treated your employees" it'd make more sense. Still one little bump dosen't ruin the figgy pudding.. I think. I don't know how figgy pudding works. I do like this story though and highly recommend it. Thanks for reading.

[lackablazeical]

Okay yall I was fucking LIED TO. I fucking hate the movie Bones And All and I was told it was good. Yall just see a man covered in blood and say it's good and look I understand that but the actual movie is fucking terrible.

Like why are cannibals just a whole fuckn. Species in of themselves. Bffr. It would've been so much more of an amazing love story if it was just the main girl who ate ppl, and this boy finds her and loves her even past the eating ppl part and like. Helps her and shit. Not this weird fucking cannibal subspecies thing. It didn't need lore and shit. She could've just fucking ate ppl to do it (see the movie Raw)

Also why were they just eating ppls bodies like dogs casually. Like I get it to show animalistic tendencies but then have there be contrast between how she eats WHEN she does. They don't need to be on their hands and knees eating when they ARENT desperate for food.

And not to be het-phobic but WHYYYY WHY WOULD A MAN BE THERE. CANNIBALISM METAPHORS ARE FOR THE GIRLIES GET THAT FUCKING TWINK AWAYYYY. Would've easily been a better movie if it was 2 girls btw. Just. Just EASILY.

Also this is just me but clearly they don't NEED to eat ppl. All I can think the entire movie is 'these people have no basic self control'

Also how she was mad at the guy who wasn't one of the cannibal ppl but still ate ppl. Like yeah I get the metaphor, someone idolizing what makes you suffer yeah yeah, but like. She Doesn't Need to eat people. They can eat non human-flesh food and get nutrition from that. She really was pissing me off yall

Also stop with that stupid guy who was like creepy and stuff that she didn't like. Like what. First, he's definitely coded as being special needs which. Very ableist to make the creepy cannibal villian coded that way when no other characters are.

And that also just muddles the theme of the movie. Like is the theme supposed to be about how women are unable to express their deep desires? About eating disorders? Like what the fuck is it even supposed to be cus it changes and isn't even consistent in the like 20 it decides to take a stance on. Pisses me off

Also they try in the movie to villianize the mom and dad of the girl in the movie but comma. They were literally both so valid.

The dad abandoning her? YEAH. He saw what happened to the mom. He didn't really understand her like subspecies. He could literally be charged as an accomplice to murder, assault, messing w/ a crime scene, hiding evidence, etc. Not even counting identity fraud and more. She could've easily turned and tried to eat him. He's so real for dropping her honestly

And the mom is so real for wanting to kill her daughter. Her daughter is killing innocent people for no fucking reason and clearly doesn't care that she is. Like I was hoping the mom would succeed so hard UGH. That's a whole plot, that the guy doesn't care he ate a guy that had a wife and kids but like. Even if he didn't you shouldn't eat random fucking people just Because. Bffr.

Also why they so wasteful of the people they do eat? Part of the movie is eating someone 'bones and all' (ikr) is a big deal but like. She SHOULD be saving these bodies and like. Processing the meat for later. All we see is them take like 2 bites of these people and move on. Like It's not hard to make jerky. I get she's from America and the idea of eating guts/bones/eyes/etc isn't popular but humans have so much muscle to eat and she just. Never does. We only see them ever take like a few bites and that's it????

If yall wanna argue feel free but don't expect shit from me abt my opinion changing cus I truly enjoyed watching A Serbian Film more bc at least it knew it was a shitty concept and story and acted accordingly

[scarlet--wiccan]

How do you feel about Tommy being back in Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver - what do you hope for his interactions with Wanda and Pietro and his place in the story? Bonus: this might lead to his first interaction of significance with Vision 🤣

I'm pretty excited, any interactions between Pietro and Tommy are bound to be fun and I wonder if Tommy and Luna will ever meet. I do worry with all the extra characters involved and two villians (not to mention the Wizard's army) that this 4 issue series may be overstuffed and suffer from pacing issues. The advertised core of the story is the Maximoff twins relationships but depending on how early the fight is in issue 1 and the point at which they meet up again in issue 3 they might actually spend half the series separated (not keen about Wanda potentially spending more time with a former love interest than her own brother in a book which is heavily advertised to be about siblinghood and family).

Yeah, I'm actually a little nervous about the pacing. I really, truly, do enjoy Orlando's writing and the work he's done with these characters, but the pacing has been a consistent problem. To be fair, the short run of Scarlet Witch and unconventional structure of Darkhold weren't his fault-- those are editorial and publishing decisions-- but I felt like both titles were overstuffed and it caused him to elide or rush past moments that really needed more page time. The back half of Scarlet Witch #10 is low key sloppy, and it left me feeling kind of sour on the whole second arc of the series. I really hope SW&Q doesn't repeat that experience.

I'm kind of assuming that #2 and #3 are going to be more self-contained-- I don't think that Wanda, Vision, Tommy and Pietro are going to actually end up all in the same place. I hope that Tommy at least gets to see his mom, but I won't be surprised if he doesn't. Sorry to be a downer, but it's like you said-- we've got a lot stuffed into four issues, so we need to keep things moving fast. No pun intended.

Anyways, my main concern for Tommy is addressing the fallout of the Hellfire Gala and David's apparent death. Presumably, Tommy just got back to Earth and is going to be processing a whole lot of grief. Orlando collaborates regularly with Steve Foxe, so even if SW&Q doesn't spend a lot of time on this, I do expect there to be good continuity for Tommy's relationship and the time that he's been spending in outer space.

I do have a lot of ideas about what kind of dynamics Tommy should have with Wanda and Pietro, and ordinarily I would want to focus on developing those relationships-- him having a fun rivalry with Pietro and being able to connect with him about their unique mental and emotional wavelengths; him actually having a fulfilling parent-child relationship with Wanda for the first time in his life-- but I just don't feel like it would be right for Tommy to show up in a lighthearted mood right now. It sucks, because he already gets so little page time, but I don't want fun, sweet Tommy content. I want someone to actually take this character seriously, and I think right now, that means he's going to be in kind of a bad place, emotionally.

Who knows, maybe he'll be the one to push Wanda and Pietro-- but especially Wanda-- to do more in the fight against Orchis. I doubt it, since this is very much not an X-Men title, but it would a clever way to loop them back in.

[musubiki]

taffy: my wife is mad at me. i hope i die.

seriously though, that comic really made me sad. i want coffy to have the fluff too. i would also love to hear your coffy hcs too because i'm so in love with them too (please).

THATS LITERALLY HIM AFTER EVERY FIGHT!!!!!!! and coco has to go and be like "I still love you just let me be mad. we're not breaking up"

and dw they will!!!!! eventually!!! but for a long time its a lot of *gestures to coffy* ....this. just by the nature of enemies to friends to lovers....wereas limochi have known each other for so long....good to have different flavors of romance stories...

anyway heres some headcanons (canons??) including some times they run into each other during pre-timeskip before taffy is a guild member (long post about their interactions/history):

every morning, coco goes for a run. its part of that little bucket list her parents made her, to "live a healthy lifestyle." this is also the origins of her magic item quick shoes power!!! much like how limes baseball hobby turned into the thunderbat, cocos running hobby turned into her magic item (she named "the talaria") (this is relevant i promise)

anyway, she runs around the area where she lives which happens to be near the docks. taffy works at the docks (weird that one of the main villians of the pre-timeskip works a normal 9-5 but he gotta feed himself somehow. mochi never knows this because she never goes to this area (too close to the water for her taste. only ever to visit coco occasionally, and even then she doesnt venture down to the docks)

this results in coco just. running into taffy. at the small-business grocery store a block away from where she lives. shes just running one morning like "La di da, taking a jog~ its been a few weeks since that weird guy kidnapped me and tried to kill mochi, at least i never have to see him again-" and then hes there buying fucking apple juice at the checkout counter

when they see each other, taffys whole body is a mixture of panic and ... something??? he thinks. why is my heart beating so fast, he thinks. the old lady behind the counter is like "Oh taffy is this a friend of yours?" (she has no idea) and coco and taffy just looking at each other in tense silence ready to throw down at any second

"I thought you were dead!" "Just let me buy my apple juice in peace, I have to clock in soon." "Clock IN- WHAT???!!!"

that little small business grocery store becomes neutral ground. apparently taffy is a regular enough that the owner (the old lady) knows him, and has no idea hes a water magic bad guy, and they both agree starting a magic fight with a bunch of innocent people around who have nothing to do with it benefits no one

"Aren't you like...evil? I thought you'd be into the whole killing innocents thing." "...what?"

this is a good place to actually get taffy to talk. during these encounters this is where coco gets to actually ask him what his deal is and try and talk sense into him, none of which works

cocos social resiliance is insane, eventually gets to the point where theyre there at the same time, and she doesnt have enough money to buy eggs so she turns around and looks at him and says, in all seriousness, "I need five dollars." and taffy, after a long period of silence and a face that says "????????????" just. places a 5 dollar bill in her hand. why am i doing this, he thinks. why is SHE doing this?

coco never tells mochi she runs into taffy like this. the reason is that in the few conversations shes has with mochi about taffy, mochi seems incredibly stubborn on the idea of trying to help him. shes under the mindset of "Hes trying to kill me, and i intend to protect myself from him, and thats it." and to be fair, she has every right to think that

but coco, who has had at least some interaction with him, thinks hes not necessarily 100% evil and some part of her wants to help him. (he did save her after all, even though hes the one that kidnapped her in the first place, and apparently hes not evil enough to just wreak havoc anywhere he goes)

Im not totally sure why coco is so willing to help him. maybe she feels bad for him, or some part of her thinks helping him will make her a better person, like the kind of person her parents wanted her to be. maybe its because when she was all alone and at her worst point, she had people who believed in her and helped her and wouldnt give up on her and she wants to be that kind of person for this man, who has no one.

he isnt reliably at the docks working. sometimes she cant find him, shes not sure where he goes.

the second time they encounter taffy is when coco gets the talaria. in a fight where mochi actually gets downed by the water magic for the first time, and lime almost gets fucking GOT by taffy, mochi uses whatever magic she has left to infuse magic into cocos shoes and leaves it to her. this is the first time coco absolutely kicks his ass, 1) because its his first time fighting her and 2) he has a VERY hard time bringing himself to hurt her.

after this fight, he realizes he has a serious problem

he actually kidnaps coco a second time afterwards (LMFAO)!! shes like "SERIOUSLY?!?!?" and he goes "Maybe next time don't be so easy to kidnap." this attempt at getting mochi also fails

they run into each other occasionally between main confrontations. taffy doesnt attack directly one after the other, theres usually a good amount of time that lapses between encounters for him to regain his strength and strategize.

another time they run into each other is at this little food festival at the docks. coco goes because hey free food!! and taffy goes because "Oh my god...free food." when they run into each other taffy is like "........since we're both here.........do you wanna maybe.....walk around....together...." and she goes "Are you for real" (she does it anyway because he offers to pay for any games she wants to play. when she asks why hes trying to do this, maybe get her to lower her guard so he can kidnap her again?? and he gets really quiet before responding. "I dunno. It's lonely to walk around by myself." and she stares at him for a bit and says "Yeah I guess so.")

anyway this is a really soft night for them. at the end coco asks "So heading home, huh? What does home look like for you?" and he doesnt respond. its only at this point she learns he doesnt actually have a place to stay. he just wanders around to find the nearest warm place to sleep, sometimes breaking into cars or under overpasses or something.

so she offers like "Hey...I have a couch. Wanna sleep there tonight?" and his fucking weak ass says "...yes."

anyway he gets a taste of the warmth of normal life here (he is insanely awkward when he stays with her. she gotta be like "Dude please chill out you are making me anxious"). his heart is racing the whole damn time and gets nervous anytime he looks at her. why is she nice to me? what does she have to gain? he thinks. this must be some kind of weird strategy to get me to lower my guard. why am i falling for it? and then she hands him a bowl of popcorn and turns on a soap opera and hes even more confused.

he wishes would never have to leave but by the next morning, hes gone without a note or anything. she doesnt see him for a while after this.

at one point, coco also gets kidnapped by the coattails. she goes "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?" banging on the rails of her cell, and they go "What? You're easy to kidnap." (cocos running joke is that any kidapping/hostage situation, she is always the one to get stolen lol)

THIS is the time that TAFFY GOES TO GET HER!!!!! at the same time mochi goes to get her. and it turns into "Okay truce until coco is safe then we can kill each other." and taffy begrudgingly goes "....fine."

at the end of this quest mochi actually does get knocked out. either in combat or by using up all her magic, and taffy HAS the opportunity to kill her. right there in front of him. coco doesn't have the talaria, and mochis out cold. but he doesn't because coco is there pleading and crying for him to not hurt her.

after THIS he realizes okay, this problem is more serious than i thought.

amanita also takes note that because of coco, taffy is no longer useful in the fight against the cat witch, and after this point is where she starts getting involved directly.

anyway ill stop there cuz its already a long post but here are the taffy/coco pre-timeskip interactions!!!

[literali1110]

Rookie 6x01 thoughts

(these are just my first thoughts as I watched, before looking at any reactions)

The Villian

Please tell me someone here has seen Orphan Black - all I can think off when I see Boyd is that Donnie/Alison money twerking bedroom scene and the opening scene of 6x01 didn't help with the flying money LOL

Did not expect them to get caught so fast - didn't know you could visual tap phones, interesting. Surprised these guys weren't using burners or something more sophisticated.

I thought Donnie (Boyd) would be around for longer, too bad, we needed a new villain. When Monica appeared I hoped it didn't mean Elijah will be back. Although hmm is Monica the new villain? Interesting.

Aaron/Angela/Nyla

Yay Aaron is back! Wow maternity leave is short. And so is recovering from a GSW apparently...missed Aaron's rich kid stories. And is there any wedding he can't save? haha

Nurse Lisa got a big part this episode!

They have an opportunity to deal with mental health for both Aaron and Nyla this season. The minute they focused on the card for Dr. Blair London I wondered if something might be happening between them and looks like I was right! (I generally am not a fan of the patient/therapist trope - looking at you, Suits - but given that she's not his main therapist...I'm open to seeing what happens.)

(Is it just me or was that first talk in the call room odd because none of the regulars were even sitting there?)

Chenford

Ok, I'm going to start with the end - the very last conversation they had was important, and of course Tim is going to struggle with this and I do want to see them explore it.

HOWEVER, the way I viewed the 'fight scene', I honestly don't think Tim's comment was that bad. He was supportive of her taking the test at the beginning of the conversation but when she said maybe she would wait, he was also supportive of that. I'm not sure in this case specifically his comment was something subconscious - he even said, you can do UC while you wait for the next test. And his problem is more with the UC, not the detective part.

I didn't love seeing Lucy so flustered, I missed seeing her confidence. (And I didn't love how they had her interact with Aaron and Wesley, although I'm sure it's not her first time seeing them.) Either way, for the sake of their personal relationship, maybe they shouldn't be riding together anymore if it puts Lucy back in this place of second guessing herself?

Basically, I want them to have a conversation about UC, I do think Tim is not OK with it deep down and it needs to be addressed but I don't think that one moment was connected to it, if that makes sense. It almost seemed like it was highlighting Lucy's own reservations with it! I'm interested to see other's thoughts.

P.S. What is the baby's name??

P.P.S. They're really giving us that Tim on one knee with Lucy holding a wedding ring next episode? cute.

[so-long-soldier28]

if you could omit a storyline from the tvd show. which one would it be and why???

okay to complete this ask, i had to recall the main storylines from each season. this is what i produced. i will stick that below along with my decisions and thought processes.

also, i say it in the notes, but if this form of answering asks is too chaotic, i can switch back to the neat paragraph format i used in the avengers x kai post. i can cut out my gibberish and actually capitalize my sentences again 😅 just let me know which you prefer!

no tw except for spoilers all the way to season 8

the seasons & their storylines

1 - damon + kath / tomb

2 - stefan being a dick (+ wolves)

3 - mikaelsons

4 - shane + cure

5 - silas + travelers

6 - kai + geminis

7 - heretics + rayna cruz

8 - fucking sirens + stupid donovan family reunion

now... to judge them all and remove one...

alright… tbh, it took me way too long to remember the second villian of s7, because post-lily, my mind went blank

then it went, ah, yes, that stupid hunter storyline

and then i immediately selected that one bc i hated watching bonnie get abused again

this storyline was so stupid; the seven year time jump was so confusing

we were also given NO CONTEXT and MINOR HISTORY into bonnie and enzo's THREE YEAR RELATIONSHIP

like i love both these characters, but them together came out of nowhere

also… damon caring so little for enzo and vice versa in seasons 7 & 8 after all the history they had together PISSED ME OFF SO BAD, like they don't care for each other at all?? not even romantically, just platonic care / trauma bond, NOTHING?

anyway that's aside the point

i loved early season 7

nora, val, and mary louise were funny; matt being angry all the time was funny; bonnie and damon coming back from europe and immediately killing a heretic was funny

bonnie had so much sass in this season

but then plec had to drive her underground again with the magic pills & nearly killing her & all that shit

and i liked rayna, to some extent; she was pretty cool

but there was no reason to drag bonnie in the mix and make her kill her friends just because she took some stupid pills, just because some relative of enzo wanted her to open a vault

that st. john stuff was insanity; i still don't understand it

i don't think the characters did either; probably not the actors, either

i also don't like that the rayna storyline killed off nora and ML, like, let the lesbian heretics live, fuck off julie plec

and bonnie and nora should've had a fling but that's a different story

so yeah… the 7 years into the future storyline + hunters is the storyline i would erase

also… i don't know why caroline kept showing up with blood on her face and ranting about stefan, like, i was genuinely confused

it kept reminding me of season 2 when damon dated that newscaster but then stefan killed her.. or whatever happened...

anyway, let's take a look at a close contender… season 8 - donovans

why… the fuck… did the donovans have to have a family reunion?

i do not care about his dad, i do not care about his mom, i do not care about vicki, i don't care about matt, and i certainly don't care to see them all in one place

matt only survived bc zach and julie plec were hooking up i stg

this man and his whole family are weak links

the sirens didn't bother me all that much, compared to the donovans fucking existence

i actually liked seline, ish

[unless i just liked the actress bc she's in that containment series so i associate her with chris 💀]

but i liked that she was playing games with alaric

i think she and kai would get along well… fucking with alaric, nearly killing twins… plus his comment about wanting to fuck hot cannibals…

this post isn't about kai moving on

the sirens were hella annoying at first and i hated them, but as soon as they released damon & enzo, i started to like them

then they died

speaking of death, stefan's death was so stupid

i have a lot to say about that but that's for a different time

kelly ruining steroline wedding was so stupid

gtfo woman

another contender… the stupid travelers of season 5

what tf was happening bc i genuinely don't know

i have no idea what happened when tyler was possessed

i don't even know what to say bc i was so lost the entire time

but i wouldn't omit the storyline bc the spell that eradicated them is what kai sucked up later

and then he became all hot & dangerous

but where did they go after the spell kept them out??

where did they come from, where did they go??

i liked liv & luke, they were both grumpy & slightly dickish

the travelers shit introduced them so that's cool... bc they had to stop the dopplegangers or something, i have no idea

liv has a vendetta against life for no reason. she's just so angry

she doesn't even remember the Great Sibling Slaughter of 1994, she was 4. why are you so bitter, liv?

we'll never know ig

idk tho living with joshua parker post-1994 doesn't seem fun. doesn't seem fun pre-1994, but i feel he'd be even 10x angrier after, so maybe it's just the childhood trauma. sorry, liv

also i might've shipped her with bonnie just a little bit… just a smidge… thought bon would be real cute with another witch

aside the point

stefan's dopplegangers were great… i like both of them more than i like stefan

but the kill the dopplegangers thing was confusing and if not for early s5 with silas & quetsiyah + blonde twins in later parts, i would hate s5

other seasons' notes

season 4... i hated shane bc he was creepy, but i found it funny that bonnie was so into him. damon was so perturbed at this

oH! not a storyline, but omit them killing kol bc fuck elena. that's my other man

but i know why they did it

and i adored davina bringing him back

so ig not omit, but fuck them for killing him, especially for their own personal gain

kol died so that jeremy could dramatically yell while ripping off his shirt

season 2... so i just remembered that s2 was more than just a precursor to klaus / middle part elijah; it also had wolves

i forgot about them initially, bc i don't care about most the wolves

tyler, i have so many mixed emotions; hayley, hated in tvd, liked in s1-2 of the orginals, didn't care for her later on; mason, nice to look at, don't care about him; jewel, or jade, idk, blonde girl that was looking for mason and found tyler, hated her; the random apperance of stephen amell… gtfo off my screen

wouldn't omit the wolves bc they had a point (ish) and grew the show, but i just don't care

not to say i don't like werewolves bc i fucking love the werewolves (cough twilight cough) but i don't care for the tvd wolves - the originals included, fuck off jackson

that was mean… he was a good man, good husband… i just don't care, i'm sorry

oliver was way worse, let's focus on him instead. he can fuck off; jackson can stay

so yeah, the hunter curse thing in s7 needs to go

unless you're kai and there's sexual tension involved & you're mutually causing each other pain, don't hurt bonnie

the magic pills were confusing, don't hurt my lesbian heretics, either

st. john stuff made no sense; probably just an introduction to the armory so alaric could feel important again

one final note

i hate that the beautiful salvatore mansion was turned into a school for weasel-y children to destroy

children are messy, that thing's an antique

i hate alaric

oh, i know i also made a post about wishing kai didn't kill jo so that alaric wouldn't have feelings for caroline, but i don't know if i fully stand by that post

as much as i wanted kai to have a redemption arc, him being a heretic was fun (while it lasted)

if they were dedicated towards keeping kai alive (therefore omiting his death storyline), he'd be a great time

i can see him and damon becoming buddies & being absolute menaces together

damon fights it sooo hard at first, but can't help wanting to dive into kai's bad influence

he makes vampirism feel like vampirism again… raising hell and not being afraid to be the bad guy

while simultaneously getting bad looks from all his friends and promising he's trying to be kai's good influence, but we all know he's not trying that hard

jo would survive and raise her twins with her creepy husband

she'd live in fear of kai coming after her kids any given day, but would try to ignore the thought

maybe they move away & free us from ric for good

but while this sounds really fun, i don't know where the story would go from there

kai would definitely get stuck under lily's control with the rest of the heretics & he'd have a big fucking fit about it

if enzo got with bonnie with kai still alive, that would be ugly

he would totally fuck a siren… and then help them kill the twins

but…

him killing jo & raising absolute hell was very fun & i loved it

his sudden return in s8, effectively pissing off damon & ric was hilarious

loved that he got back & immediately killed a grill employee

just like old times

i really wished they didn't kill him off, but i did like his pop-up later on

so… the storyline I would omit:

hunters. as explained.

back-up omissions:

kai death

stupid legacies

[seaghosst]

For the ask game, imma spam you with questions :3

🏙️ What is the main setting of your au?

🧫 Were your turtles mutated intentionally or on accident?

💉 Do any characters get mutated during the main story?

🦹 Who is the main villain?

😡 What is your villain’s motivation?

☠️ Does anyone die in your au?

😍 Are there any romances in your au?

👤 Are there any oc’s in your au? 💛

🐇 Is there a Usagi in your au?

⚔️ Is there a Karai in your au?

Sorry for so many, and answer as many or as little as you like! :]

Hope you have a great day/night!!!!

YIPPIE I LOVE YAPPING

🌃 the main setting in san francisco, california :D that’s why it’s called bay area

🧫 both! donnie and leo were mutated on purpose (specifically to imitate kappa >:)) and raph, mikey, and splinter were mutated on accident

💉 yeah! mutagen is once again created during the third arc in which stockman makes mutants to serve the shredder. alongside that i wanna include some mutant allies. though i haven’t decided exactly which mutants i’m including, most likely leatherhead, mona lisa, and mondo gecko cause i think they’re silly :)

🦹 the main villian is oroku saki who is the current shredder, though different arcs will focus on different villians

😡 shredder’s main motivation is wanting to fufill the foot clan’s goal of conquering the world. the foot clan believe that they are the strongest and therefore should rule over the world, this is a worldview saki somewhat inherited when he joined the foot clan and later when he became the shredder

☠️ so far i don’t have any plans to kill any major characters cause i’d feel bad 😔 i’m pretty attached to them. shredder will die when they defeat him but other than that no. oh wait actually shredder is gonna kill hun when his plan fails after arc 3

😍 yes and no? there’s nothing concrete but i have ideas… mainly i want to ship leo and usagi cause i’m insane about them in every universe. i want to give april a girlfriend at some point and that’s looking like it’ll be karai but we’ll see. mona lisa and raph will also probably get into a relationship but i haven’t decided how it’ll work yet since i need to decide mona lisa’s role

👤 i think when i get to the battle nexus arc there will be, cause i think i’ll make an original chaarcter to be in charge of the nexus as well as original characters to fight in it :)

🐇 eventually yes… i’m torn between making the usagi a crossover from another universe or an usagi who is from the turtles universe… leaning towards it just being srtuc yuichi usagi cause i love him so much

⚔️ yes! she’s the adopted daughter of oroku saki and next in line for the title of shredder >:)

here’s a drawing a did of her :)

[pink-strawberry-kissess]

Unpopular opinions? Okay, let's see how these go.

RE6 was the perfect opportunity to retire the original main heroes and make a new generation starring of Jake, Sherry, Helena, Piers, Sheva and others.

The femme fatale trope is long overdue for a serious dissection and deconstruction regarding its impact on women, both fictional and real. I also think doing this with Ada in a truly feminist lens that centres her would really help the character.

I think I've said this before but "Leon the lovesick puppy" is mostly an invention of fans. I'd also say cold, calculating, right steps ahead Ada is a very simplistic view of the character.

HELL YEAH

THAT WAS THE PLAN for at least jake. but since yeah, re6 did "so poorly" they scrapped any future extensions of the story and also scrapped that one early re7 that was supposed to have leon and sherry.

YES

im so tired of the way ada is seen and perceived in media. especially with the misogynistic way of writing her as the villian and the amount of purity culture surrounding any talk of leon and any other potential love interest. the idea of ada and the idea of her "not being seen as valuable," needs to be dissected and analyzed because honestly, the way that

"men" talk about feminists, misandry, and dating culture- is like, you let them talk enough and all they want is

virgin- almost a virgin, doesn't talk back, doesn't fight back, docile, mother figure, feminine

and while ada's sexuality is mostly assumed to be that she has used sex for her career, it's never fully confirmed if she does this. she did have a "boyfriend" in prior iterations of re2, but she was written to still hold some sort of feelings for him. and ada fights a lot of the stereotypes of the "perfect woman for a man."

it's almost always a red flag to me, if a man, HATES Ada. same for women or anyone tbh.

you have said this before, and while i mostly agree, i think it can be boiled down to, if leon were a woman, and ada was a man, this archetype wouldn't be questioned. it's mostly the gender reversal that throws people off and labels leon as lovesick because, "a man," wouldn't tolerate a "woman," doing this to him. while this, what ada does, is SO COMMONLY written as a male character in the romance genre, and you would NOT see a female character perceived as love sick puppy in this manner.

yes i agree, ada is so much more than that as well. she's so often reduced down to these set rules for a "villian" in their world. it's sad really, to see her character changed and character assassinated like that.

[theultimatenonbinarynerd]

Doctor Who Blood Of The Daleks Part 1 + 2 Review

Introduction

New year new me, some might say but as a whovian for me it's been New Year New Desires To Binge Classic Who And Big Finish. It took me only five minutes to fall in love with Paul MacGanns after watching the Camp, Bizarre and fun Doctor Who TV Movie. I wanted more and when I found out some of big finish was free on Spotify it was my lucky day. I aim to listen to 20 Big Finish stories this year and will not back down.

So get strapped in as I briefly review Blood Of The Daleks Part 1 + 2 as a whole story.

What I Liked

As a separate individual stories I'd rate them both 4 Stars but together this is another peak Dalek Story.

I don't know what it is about Doctor Who extended media but Dalek stories just slap so much better outside of the main TV Show. They're actually scary to the point you understand The Doctors fear and caution with them. Especially when it comes to Martez's Daleks as it shows a good example of The Daleks eugenics and supremacist nature. Even with only exclusively the voice of Nicholas Briggs the Daleks are still nerve wracking. I applaud Steve Lyons for his writing here.

Next I have to praise all of the performances, Paul MacGann shines as The Doctor. Without the amnesia and post regeneration symptoms we truly get to know his Doctor. He's not the romantic dreamer in this story he's more like a Tired But Wise Old Sage. Through only a voice performance he impressively manages to show The Doctors old age but also his compassionate nature when it comes to protecting people. I really like his Doctor, his story reminds me of a Greek Tragedy and I'm really excited to listen to more of his performance. I'm do happy and glad Big Finish gave him a second chance as The Doctor. Sheridan Smith As Lucie Miller is an absolute icon. She is super expressive in her performance and brings a lot of personality to the character in so many brilliant ways. If it wasn't for Sheridan I wouldn't be sold on her sassiness and fearless courage. Anita Dobson, Kenneth Cranham and Haley Atwell also give incredible performances and round up the casting well. Nicholas Briggs as well voices The Daleks better then everyone. Everyone is at the best here and because of it the atmosphere it generally feels like visually watching an episode of the show.

The world building especially in part one is so much fun as the planet of Red Rocket Rising is brought to life incredibly despite their being no visuals which is not an easy thing to achieve at all. Through Steve Lyons writing alone I immediately became attached to the planet and routed for The Doctor to do the right thing especially when you realise who is responsible for the state of the planet.

Dislikes

I do not like Lucie And The Doctors dynamic as well developed as the characters are individually their dynamic feels incredibly stale. Lucie and The Doctor are downright nasty to each other for no reason to the point even the characters in the story call it out and say their bickering is becoming unbearing.

I hope other stories are not let down by this dynamic, I infact not only hope but pray because the idea of the timelords forcing Lucie on The Doctor is interesting but not when the pair are downright brutal to each other for no good reason. It falls into tons of tropes with no substance.

Other issues including pacing and the fact that if you put the parts as individual stories they don't stand as strong.

Apart from that I did enjoy both audios though quite a lot and it was a perfect introduction to big finish as I'm now obsessed.

Conclusion

Overall a fun two parter with great villians, great twists, great performances and wonderful world building. I'm really glad that these two were my first ever big finish listens as their an absolute blast.

My rating for both audios would be 4 Stars out of Five

Paul MacGann might become one of my favourite Doctors if I keep binging more of his stuff. So glad Big Finish picked up and gave him his own area.

February Listens are The Horror Of Glamrock And Immortal Beloved. Since its most like New Who I thought and heard S1 Of Lucies adventures free on Spotify would be best to start.

I'm generally excited though especially since Bernard Cribbins is apparently in Horror Of Glamrock.

Bonus:

My user name on Storygraph is melsage1823 and I have a Big Finish listening challenge set up open to any fans who want to join me.

Since this is my first ever year listening to big finish I thought I'd fancy setting a challenge for myself.

Link to challenge:

https://app.thestorygraph.com/reading_challenges/a76cebd1-0101-47da-9da9-8d4c21e326f2

[mantisfriendd]

THOUGHTS ON THE FNAF MOVIE

Take everything I say here, positive or negative with a grain of salt, because I'm a massive fan of the FNAF series, like embarrassing so.

Should go without saying but SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE AHEAD

THE GOOD

The sets and the animatronics, both in costume form and in robot form look absolutely fantastic, there is no doubting that, Jim Henson's and everyone else who worked on the sets and costumes did great.

While you might consider some of the acting cheesey, I think everyone knocked it out of the park on their given roles, including the YouTuber cameos, there's no denying everyone here LOVED filming this movie. Josh Hutcherson really nailed the subtle emotional beats of Mike as he's trying to grapple with both the mysterys of Freddy's and learn the identity of his brother's kidnapper. I also particularly love the moments where we are reminded that even though Mike is Abby 's caretaker, they are still very much siblings, the moment Mike carries her back to her room over his shoulder is a perfect example.

While all the actors absolutely killed it at their roles Piper Rubio as Abby was an absolute joy, both the writing and her performance brought so much humor and levity to what could have been a very dark film if they wanted it to go that way

Speaking of that darkness, Matthew Lillard absolutely shreds in his role as William Afton, he steals the spotlight in every single scene he is in. The problem with him is he only appears in like 3 scenes! pretty long scenes granted, but I was really hoping to see more of him, in either the Steve Raglan persona or as the unmasked William Afton. I suppose there's room for that in FNAF 2.

The shots are all incredibly lovingly crafted, it feels like much thought and care was put into every camera turn, and lighting choice.

This movie is armed to THE TEETH in Easter eggs, I remember when I saw Mike holding a book labeled "Dream Theory" and I felt myself taking psychic damage, especially as that book becomes vital to a main plot point later, I just know Scott was grinning knowing the reaction people were going to have to that.

While all the films jokes didn't land, quite a few of them got a chorus of laughs from both me and the general movie audience in my theater, Abby in particular gave a lot of fun moments that got consistent chuckles out of me, and in my experience at least, was one of the most accurate depictions of a young child I've seen in media.

THE MEH

While FNAF has almost always has humorous moments, especially the later into the franchise we get, I feel like this movie stays in the silly zone for longer then I'd like, espicallly for a movie about FNAF 1, a game with very little humor in it, say for the infamous Rule 4.

The movie, simply put, isn't scary, the only thing that got me even a bit was the balloon boy figure jumpscares (something about the joke jumpscares are always hit the hardest, talking to you Mapbot!) Although I will say the occasional brutal or gorey scenes did occasionally stun the people in my audience into silence (even if Max getting bit in half was a bit cartoony)

The film itself, despite going the required five nights, did feel a bit stunted, it felt like it could have gone on for another 30 minutes, the climax does feel a bit rushed, with Afton going down without much of a fight after Abby turns the animatronics on him, but the final confrontation with Afton does have a very palpable sense of tension as everyone fights to keep Afton away from Abby

While Elizabeth Lail plays her role very well, Vanessa 's role in the story is a bit muddled. In my predictions for the film I said that unlike most people, I didn't think Vanessa would be a twist villian, and I was right on the technicality that the movie never tells us she was on Afton's side until AFTER she double crosses him. The only way a character like this works is if she actually gets to betray the protagonist first before having a chance of heart. The closest Vanessa gets to doing that is threatening Mike very awkwardly. I'll chock this up to the screenplay giving her awkward phrasing but little things like her saying she will "shoot Mike if he ever brings Abby back" and that the guy who killed a bunch of kids is a "Bad, cruel man" really take the seriousness out of a scene, none of this being Elizabeth's fault of course.

The absolute dedication to using as little CGI as possible is impressive and works pretty well most of the time but you can see some of the cracks where the physical costumes and robots fall short of what the script demands. I think in a potential fnaf 2 considering some CGI for some shots, sparingly of course would help with the unintentional goofyness. The shot that really jumps out the most as not looking the greatest is Foxy running at the camera, they did a lot to try and hide it but it's very clear he is just being pushed on a little cart or something. that of course is because Foxy is the only animatronic who only has a puppet, and not a human in a costume as well, cuz he just too skinny.

THE LOOOOOOREEE IMPLICATIONS

The biggest fallout I can imagine from this film for the game lore, is the dream world interactions. I'm all for writing this off as movie lore only, but given how the community is open to taking concepts from the books and applying them to the game universe I don't see why this one should be considered any different. I don't know what, if anything that effects but I can't imagine it doesn't do nothing to the game lore.

The other heavy lore effecting thing, is possibly the Ella (baby?) springlock suit in the backroom. I don't know what that means for the lore, but it certainly means something?

Overall I very much enjoyed this film, and I'm going to see it again in theaters. I really think that if Scott and Blumhouse can iron out the rough edges for a sequel, we can have some real horror gold on our hands.

[doctorwhocrossovers]

I think it would be fun to see desire x male! reader who is like a famous painter or like a writer.

Desire x GN!Reader

Hope you like it

MASTERLIST 1

My little Wisdom writer

You were friends with Death after your very close to go for walk with her, but she push you out of the way. Ever since you to become friends and she give you inspiration to write about Horror and dark fantasy novels.

One night you were sleeping and met Lucania

Soon after you guys became friends and you kept her company when the Dreaming was in ruins and all of the residents fled.

In which cause Desire to seek you out during the time you were in the waking because Death gifted you immortal for your birthday and you were one of the very few who knew Death's name, and you kept her company during her work.

When they show up to your place, you didn't get scared or yell. You simply said hello Desire and introduce yourself to them,

Few months past since you guys first met. Desire mostly sees you always writing something down and you always are asking questions to them, Death and Lucania.

One day Desire came by to see you since you both been very busy with business for you, one of your supernatural -horror - thriller book franchise is coming to the big screen.

And you were in the middle of working on a new book fantasy series and working on a character that reads a lot like Desire, Death and Despair as their very own characters

You were making them seen as the villian of the story. Then you came back home, you saw Desire reading your laptop.

Hey there DeDe, they look up to you

You know that your world building and characters are very well expanded, problem for the main character.... could you please tell me about the three siblings and they sound like me and my sisters?

And why we ate the villian to your world?

You sat down next to them and explained that the characters in the new series are based off of them and their siblings but the plot twist is that they are the true "hero". The thing about your work is that there are no truly good people or bad people or beings for that.

You explain that the books that come out after this one is going to focus on them and their siblings each book is going to expand on their way of thinking and why they did what they did in the first book.

Desire's character is going to go through so much pain and learn thing from what happened to them in the past.

Desire love the idea that you got inspired by their family, they ask you questions about what they are and what lessons or what is the moral of the story with Desire's Character.

"Desire" you said " I know something children don’t. "What's that " they asked. That no one bad is ever truly bad and no one good is" ever truly good. Every being is morality grey we all are the evil villian to someone else story and sometimes even to our very own stories Desire sometimes we need to change the way we see the world and the Cosmos. Sometimes some being are so stuck in their ways of doing things that they can't change it not up to you or anyone else from the outside they have to choose to change and to heal from what happened to them.

They just look at you with a soft smile and pull you into them, " my little Wisdom writer" when and how did you get so smart and full of that wisdom. I know some being who still doesn't get it bit you my sweet do get it.

[popculturebuffet]

Tal'Dorei Travelogue: Dragonic Nightmares, Beyond Any Measure, Will Friedle Daydreams To Treasure Forever (Rise of the Chroma Conclave, Trials of Vasslehiem, The Sunken Tomb)

Hello all you happy critters and welcome to a new feature on this blog: Tal'Dorei Travelogue, where I take a look at each batch of Vox Machina episodes as it comes out. For those new here, I review comics and animation and i'm a MASSIVE fan of this show, to the point that despite having tons of other work i've decide to give a try to covering it every week simply because I love talking about it that much and didn't want to miss out again like I did last year. While I haven't seen much of critical roll...

I know, I know, I've bought the book, and deeply loved season one of this show, an epic fantasy about vengance, accepting who you are.. .and pulling on scanlans motherfucking beads. It nicely blended the kind of bullshit i'm told is normal for a DnD campagin with the epic fantasy that's just as normal, gorgeous animation and made it's main cast personal faviorite va's of mine.. except Ashley and Sam. They were already there since childhood. So my anticipation was through the roof for season 2 and after a VERY rough year for animation and a rough start to go along with that... I really needed this and the show not only didn't disapoint but somehow topped itself from the high it left off on. So join me under the cut but be warned.. there be dragons.. and also full spoilers for this weeks episodes.

Rise of the Chroma Conclave: So kicking my 2023 in animation (As I haven't yet watched the one Great North i've gotten yet and i'm not getting near Velma till me and my friend @jess-the-vampire (Who I also swept into this very show), are good and ready) with one hell of a bang, The Scouring of Emon, as i'm calling it as a big nightmarish fantasy event needs a cool name and I need something to call this to my therapist after this whole thing gives me nightmares for month, is easily one of the most tense events i've seen in animation. The first ten minutes of this episode is a mixture of the Chroma Conclave killing everything in their path in the most brutal way possible, and our heroes running for their lives and BARELY surviving. It sells just how BIG an event this is and just what a full power DnD dragon can do, something I really wasn't aware of not playing the game no matter how badly i've wanted to: it only takes what seems like MINUTES in story and seconds in real time for them to utterly destroy emon, kill most of it's people, and for Thordak to grandly delcare they scan serve them.. or they can die. There is no other option. The dragons are also played well, with Lance Reddick, who I previously saw play a villian masterfully on Ducktales with Lunaris utterly top himself with a deep terrifying growl, and continuing a trend of using a voice acting legend for one of their main villians instead of a guest star, Cree Summer nicely follows up Grey with her turn as Raishan, something they set up last season and i'm glad they followed through with. I haven't seen her play a villian in a while but god does she do as amazing as you'd expect, and with just a few lines she sells our heroes are fucked and why they barely escape her alive. Matthew Mercer and in a surpise as the voice was so diffrent from Vax, LIam O'Brian, do wonderful as Umbrasyl and Vorugal, completing the quartet. The CGI is also leagues better than last time: While Brimscythe was intimidating and all, the crew outright said that Titmouse worked overtime to make sure the dragons felt like the full characters they are instead of just beasts and it works, and thus the CGI instead helps sell that these beasts are BEYOND our heroes, beyond strength, and beyond hope.. and all they can do is run and HOPE to survive for now a Thordak hyper beams emon to cinders.

Our heroes are thus less terrfied as the king dies (Tragically, and with dignity, simply smiling that his family lives on as he bleeds out his eyes) and their left simply running, seperated and scared. And we get some close calls to show just how outclassed our heroes are: Percy nearly DIES. While obviously given both the trailers and how early it is this wasn't going to happen, the show doe swhat good fiction does and still sells you on the danger and it still utterly jarred me to see my faviorite of the group's skin melt off and Pike BARELY save him in time. Meanwhile the other half of the team.. faces Raishan... and in nice final boss preview fashion... their best efforts do NOTHING. Grog's move that served him so well last time, raging then splitting a dragon open... looses him his faviorite head chopper, simply breaking off on Raishan, and the most Scanlan can do is literally put a foot in her mouth, which only delays her for a moment. We also see Gilmores, one of the best locations of the last season... as burnt out husk. Gimore himself barely lives and it's telling that he's so shaken he offers them anything they need at a discount.... then just says fuck it and lets them loot whatever he has left. Scalan gets stuck with a broom, but everyone stocks up well for the rough road ahead. I also like how the lance of epic dragonslaying from last season isn't forgotten.. but also isn't allowed to make our heroes quest easy, being smashed quickly with Percy just sighing "of course".

This leaves our heroes retreating and welcoming in refuges, with some wanting to fight.. but Percy suggesting fleeing to whitestone instead.. and being you know.. right. And not just because he's my boy: they BARELY escaped with their lives, the dragons will be on them soon, and it's the only safe haven they have. These dragons just took the captial of the land hostage in a second. The rest eventually agree... though Keyleth wonders if this was their fault after Brinscythe, though while that's a neat question i'm glad they don't dwell on it as Percy ultimately points out it isn't: Emon had the best army in the world before him, so it was clear this was in motion a long time and while it goes unsaid, them stopping him likely meant as many survivied as they did rather than have Brinscythe destroy the entire army outright and possibly start the invasion sooner.

What I like is that the castle bit gets you a few seconds of breather.. before VORUGAL comes dowon on them, kills most of the refuges, and once again proves our heroes have no chance as they are as Scanlans gambit from last time.. is dispeled in seconds as Vorgual can see through illusions. It's another nice bit of storytelilng: As keyleth said earlier "Do they have magic?" And it proves they do. Brimscythe was not only have the size.. but also a brute in combat, simply using his sheer strength as a dragon. His allies are stronger, smarter, and our heroes can only hope to run and get stronger , get help and get out alive, barely escaping with maybe 20 people tops. So with some help from Cassandra and the Keeper our heroes keep them safe. And it's also telling for her leadership that Cassandra wholeheartdly agrees to keep the refuges safe here as Whitestone's isolation, which helped the briarwoods keep their iron fist on the place, is now working for the city as it's not a major target. It dosen't mean they have forever though: our heroes need a plan and having seen the pilot again recently... it's a really nice subtle show of character growth: in the pilot when just facing ONE dragon sacking emon eventually... our heroes response was...

Only turning around because they saw the people they'd just seen moments ago dead, all dead at Brimscythe's hands. Here there once again backs to the wall, now by FOUR dragons who are all smarter, stronger and deadlier than the dragon they BARELY defeated a few months ago, just likely weeks at best days at worst after they again barely (if not by as close a margin) beat a powerful necromancer, a god and rid their friend of a smoke monster. It's not only more understandable to run completely this time but almost expected.. and yet it takes little convicing for most of the party to agree. Vax and Vex are mildly reluctant but agree quickly, with Vax being skeptical.. but also likely understanding this is their duty. It's heartwarming to see these guy go in just a few month from scoffing at the idea of doing something heroic... to all but two fully agreeing to leap into this and find some way to defat the dragons. Their the defenders of the realm and while the guy who gave them that title just melted, it still means something. The only holdouts make sense: Grog is unsure of his strength after the axe thing, and Scalan being the most cyncial .. is the one just outright saying...

The speech that follows is also inspriing as the team join scalan.. and have also gotten closer as instead of laughing, or anything they just simply find him and Vex and Percy point out what they've acomplished and what whitestone has: in just a few days to a week they already have their surrounding wall almost repaired, and it shows what our protaganist have become: true heroes. Because a hero... inspires people. There someone to look up to and to whitestone they see not fuckups.. but people who risked their lives to save them, freed them from a nightmare, and did more than they ever could've dreamed of. Their heroes wether they like it or not and in this dark time SOMEONE needs to act like it. And if they die.. at least they die gloriously. Scalan caves with the instant classic line of "Can't do my world tour without the band" and it's off to the holy city of Vasslehiem for help. This episode is a tightly packed thrill ride I love to death: it only lets the audeince catch their breath twice to really sell just how fucked Emon is, how much our heroes have lost, and how dire everything is. There's still some great jokes, but the humor is kept either to the quiter moments or simply kept brief as it should: The show knows when to be hilarious as fuck... and when to really sink in how dark things have gotten and how far away the dawn is.. granted in this case the dawn is another year away as they seem to be splitting this arc over two seasons, but it sets up an epic world tour for our heroes, and that they need to take some serious levels in badass , and as we've see their already pretty high up, if their going to survive, much less win.

The Trials of Vassleheim Our heroes manage to enter a tree with Yennins vauge directions and after a hilarious bit that was released to promote the season with Kiki saving the twins and pike by flying like the wind and Scalan saves the rest of the party with a giant ass.... percy... takes it suprisingly well

Vasselheim itself.. ends up being no better. Percy suffers some humilation with his wheeling and dealing failing (Vex assures him it happens to all the nobles), and Pike trying to appeal to their council... fails because Highbearer Vord and co.. are your standard council of assholes who won't do anything if ti dosen't effect them. Insert your own politics joke here but i'ts one of the most common jokes in fiction and despite the fact that you know, their going to come for them eventually, they decide not to help.. the despite the fact that they don't even need to send an army or something, they could you know have given our heroes weapons, knowledge you know... on the sly. Anything besides "Gee that's rough buddy". Thankfully one of the guys working for them actually has a working soul and directs them to the Slayers Take, some bounty hunters who are rough tumble.. but their patron deity can help. Also all the while Vax is seeing creepy visions of death and is thus more protective of Vex than usual. Well not exactly death but for those who haven't read campaign spoilers a book or what have you, I shan't tell you what he's seeing, though you can likely guess after the next one.

The story then splits in half as Craven Edge, Silas' creepy sword starts talking to Grog who mistakes it for his stomach and thus wonders off for a fun grog solo adventure. And after eating and suprisingly without visting a whorehouse , Grog wonders his way into an arena where he finds Earthbreaker Groon, a badass monk played by Ike Amadi, a va I hadn't heard of but whose had tons of rolls from Martian Manhunter in the Tommorowverse to Aaron fucking Davis Prowler in the insomniac spider-man games. He's awesome here and the traning sequence... as it is here is one that will stick in my head for a while. Groon simply breaks down Grog asking where his strength comes form.. and suprisingly to me and Grog it isn't the typical "heart" answer I thought he was going for. It also nicely shows how utterly outmatched grog is in a way I always love seeing: Grog gives everything he has from craven edge, to raging.. and never even gets CLOSE to landing a blow, often never even drawing a punch. Groon meanwhile simply uses a few strikes. It's one of those things I just love when I see, to signal the begining of a heroes climb up to that level: that someone can outclass them that easily. Being used a lot in manga, it's likely not a suprise a bunch of nerdy va's who love anime used this trope and bless em for it. Grog finally stops getting made into hamburger when he admits he dosen't know, and that's the first step. The next ones are his. While an old man beats up Grog, the rest of our heroes head to the slayers take, which Vax says is a bad idea and refuses to explain why... until they get in there and we find out the take is pissed at the twins for stealing a bounty on a hydra from them, a nice nod to the origianl stream where VM first met the take fighting a hydra they had marked and had to join them to avoid arrest. It was a whole thing I have not scene. Point is our heroes are mostly marked for death by voice acting legend Will Fredle!

Yeah it's been a while since I heard him though he DID play Star Lord in that guardians of the galaxy show I forgot existed, so he hasn't stopped working, he just hasn't had any high profile gigs for a while is all. If you don't know him

And second I don't qutie mean that but it's still weird as he's played Terry Mcgunnies,Doyle Saturday Jamie Reyes, and of course the one the only best boy of all boys Ron Stoppable. He's been in this buisness a while with many more under his belt. He's not here because of that though but because Will Fredle actually guest starred on Critical Roll along with Mary Elziabeth MCgleenn as Zahara, a warlock and fellow take member whose just as eager for said revenge. It was part of that arc I mentioned, which was heavy on guest stars, including Felica Day who I hope gets more of a roll down the line, either as her character or just as someone period. To explain to people like me who only watch the cartoon, Critical Roll will occasionally have someone else sit at the table, bring in a character for the session that sort of thing. It's the tabletop equilvent of when someone TECHNICALLY joins your party in an rpg but you either have no control over them or their only there for the dungeon. Zahara and Kash were some of the most popular, so it's no suprise they made it over eventually, simply compressing thing: most of the party meets the take here instead of in the past, and one part of Kash's story, his flirting with Keleyth, was moved here. I won't say what I know backstory wise, as it may be revealed here later.

Anyways the take is overulled by their patron, who has them drop the party into her sarlac pit. It's there we get my faviorite sequnece of the episode: the fact it dosent have boy meets world's brother sucks but instead we get Allana Ubach, aka Manny Rivera herself, as Osysa, an ancient sphinx who quickly sets out to test our heroes.. and how is simple: break their spirit and see if they get back up: being a sphinx she apparently knows everything and thus needles our casts weakensses: Pike is afraid she wont' be good enoguh to save her friend smuch less the world, Percy is still wondering if he can ever earn back his friends trust after what he's done or evne forgive himself, the twins have seperation anxiety with Vax being afraid of loosing his sister and Vex having tried desperatley to please a father who will never love her back, Kelyeth faces the fact she's been avoiding doing her armante, and Scalan gets the biggest put down of all "No one cares about you and i'm no exception". She offers to let the heroes leave.. but PIke is steadfast standing up and refusing to leave , even willing to die to prove a point, and everyone is behind her.. and that, in classic fantasy fashion.. was the point. It was a test of resolve. To see if they were worthy and if they can do what's necessary: to fight even in impossible odds and be ready to sacrifice anything to succeed.

Their tools.. are something awesome that was ironically, thank you book for this knowledge, cooked up to solve a common dnd problem, and one that plauges video game rpgs too: you often get cool weapons, rely on them, come to value them as part of you.. ,but due to it's nature as a game you have to give them up eventually. Matt's solution? The Vestiges of Divergence. While there's KIND OF an explination in the show, here's the short version of teh long version: Long ago there war between the good gods and the evil betrayer gods. To help save humanity the gods gave their various patrons the vestiges, weapons embued with the power of gods from weapons to armor to cloaks. The weapons were either lost or hidden after the war, and thus wait for new bearers. When the bearer undergoes an emotoinal turning point, the vestige becomes awawkened and thus stronger. So in short a characters development... makes the item stronger and thus keeps it around, and nicely translates to tv storytelling. They can give our heroes the leg up to fight the dragons

The first is in a tomb in the lake to the west, The Deathwalkers Ward. We'll learn more about it in a moment but for now our heroes have ana ctual plan: get the vestiges, kill the dragons and then profit.. that's.. literally how vex puts it suprising no one. Our heroes decide to spend a night getting good and hammered first, before preapring to set out Edit: Crap on a crap cracker! While i'm not going to kick myself too much fo rmissing something most of the time I nearly didn't mention victor. He was a recurring charcter in the stream apparently tha tnaturlaly matt not only reprised here but they found a way to include.. and he's every bit delightful as he was built up to be, casually exploding his place by the end of his apperance, talking jolliy,.. and still being nicely integrated as a random shop keep is easy to put in a stream but here not only does Percy getting some black powder before he heads off make sense.. but it reveals Ana ripley is not only around.. but got some herself. percy decides to keep this to himself but there's no way this can possibly end well.

The Sunken Tomb

Or as I call it

Yeah even knowing what's ahead.. didn't help. This episode hurt. And for the first third or so it's just okay: Pike is a bit wory about the pitch black sword made of pure evil wielded by a spooky vampire Grog is using, Scalan indulges in his foot fetish, Percy's only suggestion when some creatures from the black lagoon attack him is "KELEYTH TURN INTO A BIRD OR SOMETHIGN" i'ts normal. The only diffrences are Zahra and Kashaw, who are commencing with operation "steal the vestige out from under them" an d"Get into kiki's tunic dress whatever" respectively.

This does lead to one of the shows funniest moments so far and one I had to replay at least twice before I could move on: the tomb as it turns out is the temple of Purvan... which for some reason Matt insisted be prounounced pur-von.

Yeah as you can probably imagine the original livestream, which I luckily found a clip of this moment on youtube so I didn't have to dig for it, went off the rails for a second after this as the entire cast laughed at it for some time while Matt vainly tried to both restore order and defend the purv. So i'm delighted the gang's knee jerk and entirley justified reaction of chorttling like middle schoolers was kept, with the entreity of vox machina bursting out into laughter, and with the best two jokes given to their actors respective characters with Scalan wondering if his last name is Pedo Bear and Vax admitting we all need to get our perv on sometime. IT's somehow made better with Kash's deadpan "You guys are the worst", which is clearly echoing what Matt was thinking in the moment. The rest is a prettty standard dungeon crawl, though spiced up with the sense of impending dread: the mysterious figure of the raven queen keeps stalking vax, his paranoia at his sisters death is hightned.. and then they get seperated. It's also telling he's hung up on this as he only reacts maybe once to Kiki moving on to someone else... whic is refreshing as you can only see so much scooby doo before your sick of "Daphne gets mad at fred despite them not being together" #87, so good on him. Worry about his sister now. Admitely i'm not on team Vax because it's the clear endgame. Being the clear endgame.. does not necessarily make a ship good. For instance i'm mostly supporting the main ship of miraculous ladybug out of fatigue at this point. Just because the writers want a relatoinship dosen't mean the audience is rooting for it. But the two have genuine chemstiry, to the point it just happened organically in the game, while Kash.. just seems to be hitting on her because he thinks she's pretty. Which.. she is. I mean this entire team is a smokeshow. Even grog who I kinda put to the side last season has gone up a notch thanks to him getting a breard. Also him getting his beard was comedy gold, from him putting on the belt of dwarvenkind to Kash sarcastically brushing it off.. only for Grog to get in his face. As for why this is a big thing apparently Goliath's, Grog's race, are naturally smooth let's say.

At any rate, we get two parties, and a nicely tense fight scene with the fish man, as well as Vex's exasperation that one of them is a wizard. It's a fun fight, and we even get trinket eating some guys then letting pike ride on his back.

And more disturbing and plot relevant.. grog gets a bit too into murdering which starts funny (it's because his beard was half shaved off, a nod to a prank from the stream i'd heard of), and .. then gets creepy as he gets very slasher villian into his bloodshed to Pike's horror. No time to talk though as the slayers booked it and went down a hallway to possible doom.. as it turns out when Vox machina enters and finds out the secret entrance they found is not the one they need. Instead Vax goes investigating instead of vex.. which proves to be a fatal mistake. Not for him, he's fine and finds out where their informant is. But Percy flirtly egging Vex on with "your brother wouldn't like it", which is also what he calls oral, finds them the grave and the vestige. Which normally would be great: magic item found, flirting between my faviorite pairing on the show, a good time for all.. but well... this show likes to hurt us and matthew mercer like sto hurt his players so .... Vex .. is well....

An arcane bolt hits her, and she disturbingly just.. htis the floor.. her eyes dead. Probably not the best time to see this given my cat died two weeks ago and had the same look. It's well done and makes you think for a second it might not be undone. All the party can do is scramble to her while Scalan, despite being often at odds with both twins, screams for him to get up here. And just to twist the knife further, the episode spent a good chunk of it's runtime somehow making us feel worse as we get some backstory for vax and vex. It's one of the nice thigns about the medium: instead of just saying the backstory, which is a necity in tabletop and still can be done hauntingly well as, having seen the first episode of the whitestone arc, Talisen Jaffe did a soulcrushing performance of percy telling everyone his. But here you can flesh it out an dhave the players actually act out their tragic pasts.

So going back a bit, we focus on the day Vax and Vex left their abuse father. IT's been mentioned their mom was killed by a dragon but what hasn't come up till now.. is their father. See their dad Sygorn is..

He's a racist asshole who basiclaly abucted the twins from their mom.. then proceded to emotoinally abuse them, being cold distant and feleing like they were an embarssment for being half human. He is a giant back of fuck you good sir and his first scene has him getting overly pissed at Vex for trying on and accidently breaking a diadim, then calling them out on their "Muddled" blood. Vax has enough and says their getting the fuck out of there and while Vex hestiaties, badly wanting her dad's love... the fact her dad dose n't put up a fight crushes her enough to go along with it. The two end up fighting with Vex, feeling vax needs her too much, leaves. She succesfully hunts and is fine on her own... but finds a sobbing Vax. As it turns out his clingyness wasn't because he felt she needed him.. but because he felt worthless and needed HER. They reconclile and promise to mever be apart. It puts a LOT of Vex's clingy behavior in season one in a more sympathetic light: she's utterly horrible to Kiki, true, and it's still not okay.. but given her brother is easily hurt, she just wants to, if entirely misguidedly protect him. It also explains why despite Vex being openly flurtatious with percy so far Vax hasn't returned the same: While Vex likely worries her brother can't handle himself (he can), Vax knows she can and only got scared and overportective when he kept getting portents of death.. and given said portent caused her death, I can't blame him. TH eending is just.. liam doing som heartbreaking sobbing. And true to form that's where we leave the week.... Mercer you bastard. I'll hopefully be here next week but if not catch me on twitter @lanternmogo and thanks for reading.