#because if they don't explain it that's just a huge plot hole man.

[kyouka-supremacy]

I find it interesting how Dazai pointed out how Dostoyevsky's ability is something that is “activated against people he touches”, and then just a few pages later we see Dostoyevsky touching someone and killing them... With a gun. Idk, I'm probably overthinking it, but it's like they were saying “that's not exactly how it is”. I wonder if there's a reason if Dostoyevsky killed the girl with a gun this time instead of using his ability or making Chuuya do it like he did with the guards. Why didn't he use his ability this time? Is it to not give Dazai any more hints on how it works? Moreover, why didn't the girl use her ability? She can arrest time in prison, she was doing it until a second ago. Why did she stop? What did Dostoyevsky do to make her stop?

[niobiumao3]

Okay separate from 'who is Clone X' let me make an explicit list of reasons I think it's not Tech.

This is NOT to say I think Tech isn't alive. He definitely is IMO. Just not as Clone X.

So. Problems that arise if this Clone X is Tech, and would require some sort of explanation or at a minimum handwave:

Why is Pabu still standing? The moment Omega and Crosshair get away, a Clone X Tech would be activated so Hemlock can ask where they're going. Full stop. It's been way too long and that hasn't happened. An argument here could be he has amnesia. This works to explain not knowing where Pabu is, but now we're to, why was this Clone X not activated when Omega and Cross escaped? He was only activated once the other one was lost. That seems like a huge oversight. An added meta-issue here is so now we have a Clone X Tech who ALSO has amnesia. That's pretty convoluted and honestly I don't see how that gets dealt with alongside our other awaiting plot threads in the remaining episodes.

Why didn't Crosshair know? There's literally NO way Cross wouldn't have told Hunter, Wrecker, and Echo that Tech had been indoctrinated and needed rescuing, that would have been the first thing out of his mouth. He clearly doesn't do that. Possible explanation: Cross doesn't know. But these guys are clearly trained in cohorts and groups, we see Cross being rotated through with them frequently. So if Tech is a Clone X he has to have been trained completely separate from Cross. This seems odd because now two separate Clone Xs have known who Crosshair was the moment they laid eyes on him. It also adds another convoluting layer to the above: Tech has amnesia, and had to be indoctrinated fully separately from Crosshair with a totally different group or groups. Certainly Tantiss seems large enough for this but we're getting to a lot of folding layers to make this fit.

Why did Cross not break while Tech did? Crosshair talks about Clone Xs like they have a 'choice', but ofc that choice can easily be 'convert or suffer eternally'. Certainly that was implied by Cross' no good very bad time. This indicates Cross didn't break and Tech did. The man who hobbled around on a busted femur and shot out a connecting hinge without hesitation nor a waver in his hand and had the nerve necessary to race against droids. Cross says he thinks his resilience is because he's defective. He could be wrong about that, but if he's not, okay then once again, why Tech and not Cross? We could go with, well maybe Tech was badly injured and had serious trauma. Okay so NOW, he has amnesia (to explain why Pabu is still intact) and a traumatic injury, which makes him susceptible to indoctrination. Once again, that's a lot of shaving to fit this square peg into the round hole.

How did Wrecker, Hunter, and Crosshair all fight him not realize it was Tech? These guys grew up together, trained together, fought in the war together, and Hunter and Wrecker have been with Tech since then as well. How would they not recognize Tech in a fight? If we want to claim his style has changed, that runs counter to the Clone X's per Cross' description--they're not mindwiped, their memories aren't gone, their personalities aren't gone, they're just indoctrinated. Their personalities are still there, they've just been distilled into True Belief. Tech would ultimately still have Techlike tendencies, yet showed almost none of them. For example:

This guy is athletic as hell and never slips. If you go back over S1 and S2, Tech is slipping on solid unmoving surfaces all, the, time. It's an amazing bit they do for him. This guy? None of that.

I'm only slightly joking when I say, he does not one single completely unnecessary roll or flip. Tech did those all the time. He was born to be extra.

He tries fruitlessly to use his suit controls for his ship, never once makes an attempt to fix them.

Why was the throwdown with Crosshair and this guy so very personal if it's Tech and Crosshair doesn't know, having never met him? The Clone X is busy echoing Crosshair's own words to Hunter from S1 right back in his face during their brutal fight. Chances, choices, etc.; it's the same things Crosshair said once upon a time in an uglier life. This guy is a Shadow!Crosshair, in effect, which really does NOT work as a plot point if he's actually Tech (because per above, Tech would have to have all agency and choice stripped away to become this--he really, really would). This fight is personal; this person watched Cross go through the program and refuse it. This isn't someone who 'heard about' Cross denying them. Crosshair would then know this is Tech.

It is possible they can somehow explain all of this, I just don't see that happening without it turning into some sort of marlinspike-worthy twisting of the rope to work in amnesia and succumbing when Cross didn't and Cross not knowing AND Hunter and Wrecker not recognizing his fighting style. That's a lot.

Separate item:

What if it's Tech and Cross feels guilty and isn't telling anyone?

My main reason for thinking this doesn't work is that when Howzer stunned the Clone X off Cross and over a waterfall Cross failed to react about it in any way. I just do NOT think that would have happened if it was Tech and he knew. He'd have wanted to capture him at all costs and hope for SOME kind of solution, any kind.

Instead it's 'let's get the fuck out of here after we talk to Wolffe who is being a himbo about things'. Not a single thought to that guy.

I personally suspect Clone X is either a Named (Dogma, Slick, Cody, whatever) or, a random reg that Cross went through indoctrination with. They both tried to hold out, desperately. They were both about to slip. This other clone did; Cross was thinking of giving in ('I belong in here'), when Omega announces they're escaping. She saves him from that fate.

[rudnitskaia]

Just finished to watch Wish. Have thoughts. A lot of.

Actually, I have a lot of not-so-pleasant thoughts about the modern scriptwriting in general, and for a long while already, but Wish made me sigh so incredibly deeply that I woke up my cat. The concept of Wish is wonderful, brilliant even. But in my opinion, unfortunately, it wasn't developed right. At all.

So, I decided to share my usual mental gymnastics in fixing the script. It's only my personal try, nothing else.

There's a very wordy text under the cut.

I warned you. Very. Wordy.

For the start, in the original script there was no motivation for Magnifico to become a villain. His ability to make EVERY wish come true ANYTIME is a HUGE hole in the plot. Instead, the gaining of this ability must have been Magnifico's main motivation. It immediately sets the conflict with the Star, who has such an ability, but uses it improperly (in Magnifico's opinion).

At the same time, make Magnifico the man who will be extremely dutiful and tired ALREADY in the beginning of the story. A wizard who lost everything once and wants to build a safe haven full of happiness for everyone so desperately that it twisted his nature.

Don't make the main problem in him taking away others' wishes. Set the main problem in Magnifico's twisted rationality and the fact that the weight of responsibility broke him. Remember this passage: this will be important later. For that let me slightly change the concept: instead of Magnifico's rule of taking away the wishes to set the rule of forbidding to tell it aloud to anyone except the King of Rosas himself. It also gives us a wonderful parallel with the “wish upon a star” concept, a wish that you should make silently and not tell anyone after that or it won't come true. Like, if you live in that country and tell the wish to Magnifico, it casts a spell on you that forbids you to talk about the wish. It's explained by the fact that it forms a bond between the wish maker and the wizard, and that bond is the seal for magic to work, since the creative source of the wish itself gives the wizard the power to fulfil it. But Magnifico can fulfil only one wish at a time and it takes a lot of his own magical powers/lifetime/[insert any other difficult ritual], so people must wait in line. Simple. Sets the logical boundaries to his powers and explains why there’s a rule of “one wish per person”. Optionally, maybe there can also be Genie-like rules of “no wishes to make someone to fall in love or to be killed/revived” etc. People can come to the King and change their wish if they want, they can still make attempts to make other wishes come true if they want, but they're just happy with the fact that if they wait in line long enough someday their dream will be fulfilled with a 100% chance without ANY effort. So why bother?

Make Asha Magnifico's dutiful apprentice for a while, a year or two, already at the beginning of the movie. Give her some magical powers and make her struggle with the fact that Magnifico can't fulfil any wish at any time, too, make her desperately wanting to fulfil every wish without waiting for that for a long period of time. She helps people, she's in contact with them, she gives them minor magical things daily, like to help someone with gardening or wiping away dust with magical broom. But she wants more. She wants to be as powerful as Magnifico and to serve people. And her curiosity when she searches for a way to gain powers to fulfil any wish, her desperate desire to make all people in the Kingdom of Rosas happy summons the Star, who can't go back to the sky until he fulfils Asha's wish.

Show us the Star as a carefree eternal being; a trickster because of their lighthearted attitude. I saw the concept arts for Wish where the Star was a “Jack Frost”-type young man, and still think that's a pity they changed it. I get that by such a change scriptwriters eliminated the romantic subplot with Asha, but I guess many would be much more intrigued with the silent young man who's curious to everything around him and isn't attached to the real life on Earth due to his god-like nature. So, further I'll refer to the Star as a young man.

Asha truly believes that fulfilment of her wish can be reached only if the Star fulfils all the wishes of people in the Kingdom of Rosas. And the Star truly carelessly fulfils any wish of anyone he meets on the streets, and so far, we see a good fella in him. But soon enough Asha and the Star see the consequences of their wish-fulfilment raid. In a short while people seem not so happy. The people of the Kingdom of Rosas start to suffer with jealousy to each other, start to become greedy. For example, there were two guys who wanted to become the best bakers of all, and they become ones, which causes them argue and ruins their friendship, since there can't be two "the best of the best". Others start to fight, to be anxious about their own wishes, to constantly ask for more and more in a way of “they have it and I want it, too!”, and so forth. The more wishes are fulfilled without any effort, the more people wish for. And such scenarios are everywhere. Literal chaos on the streets.

Moreover, the “fulfilment” of Asha’s wish seems to not help the Star to return home. That's why Asha goes to Magnifico in search for his wisdom and help and acquaints him and the Star fella. Magnifico convinces Asha and the Star that everything can be fixed.

With the Star’s help he performs his magic and makes people of Rosas to forget their wishes, returning them to their “normal state”. That's when we and Asha will accidentally know that Magnifico's rule not to tell anyone but himself about the wishes was because he didn't fulfil the real wishes: using the power of the wish he fulfilled something that he considered safe instead that won't harm anybody and made those people forget that they wished for something else. Asha is horrified by the revelation, at which Magnifico tells her that this is the necessity and the ruler's duty, since wishes can be dangerous and controversial, just as he does in the real animated movie, but now with the evidence that Asha sees herself on the streets. People fight with each other and wish each other bad things. Some could wish to destroy the country. Some could wish to harm someone. Moreover, wishes can argue with each other, just as it happened with those two bakers before. Someone will inevitably be miserable in the end. And the only way to prevent that chaos, to make everyone truly happy, is to make the fulfilment of the wishes controllable.

Asha is utterly broken, thinking that maybe Magnifico is right. Maybe it is better for people to live in a happy controlled oblivion. She leaves the Star with Magnifico, telling the Star to listen to Magnifico since he knows better how to make everyone happy, and walks away.

Meanwhile Magnifico goes through his final arc. What happened on the streets because of Asha and the Star makes him remember how he lost everything in his childhood because of some intruders, and gets the horrifying idea to make the whole world similar to the Kingdom of Rosas. So, he finally decides to take away the Star’s power. Magnifico convinces the Star that he can arrange a magical ritual: that a spell can create a portal in a magical mirror that reflects the sky on a sunset, and that portal will lead the Star home. The Star asks (in gestures) to invite all the people to see him depart, since he got attached to them. Magnifico agrees to that, since no one will suspect that the Star will vanish and not depart.

That's how we get a villain with a God complex: a villain whose greatest desire is to make everyone happy, but in a way he sees happiness himself. Good intention at the beginning, that was awfully twisted. But it's a real motivation. That's why he wants to take away the Star's power. He wants to make everyone in the world happy. In exchange for their free will.

To make everything what I stated above work properly there must be ONE supporting character who silently works to fulfil their dream themselves during the whole movie. And they become the one who'll tell Asha: “I can make it on my own. I don't need any miracles. What's entertaining in gaining what I wish for so easily? Will it be a wish if I get it so easy? It gives my life the sense, the taste; the goal is good, but the way itself is as much valuable. The small help you and my family gave me, Asha, was enough.”

And for Asha, suddenly, it clicks. She understands that people don't need all of their wishes to be immediately fulfilled. They just need to have some support on the way. To share their wishes. To be together through thick and thin. That’s the happiness. That’s what was wrong with fulfilling her wish and why it didn’t help the Star to return home. She gains information from the supporting character about the ritual on the square and rushes back to Magnifico's castle, since she is Magnifico’s apprentice and she knows that the ritual with the mirror is not what it’s seems. It's the evil magic. The one who charmed the mirror gets all the magical powers of the one reflected in it, and the reflected person will be trapped in the mirror forever until the death of the mirror’s creator.

That sets “the final fight”. Asha runs to the square in front of the castle and stops ritual. She reveals what Magnifico was about to do and what Magnifico did the whole time with controlling their wishes. She tells them a heartfelt speech about her revelation of true happiness and asks people how many times they wanted to share with each other what they wanted the most, but were supposed to stay silent, how many things they could have done together, but didn’t because they simply waited for the wish to come true in complete lonesome instead of making memories on the way to fulfil it themselves. No one believes her, since everyone loves Magnifico, but the Star opens the hearts of the people, making everyone’s wishes visible, and everyone see their own wishes and Magnifico’s cruel wish, too. Frightened with the rebellious crowd, Magnifico quickly sets a magical barrier and tries to finish the spell he started to perform to take away the Star’s powers, but Asha interrupts and turns the mirror to reflect in it Magnifico himself on the last words he says.

Magnifico becomes trapped in the mirror (yeah, yeah, I preserved that reference :D). The Star grants Asha with access to his powers through the magic wand, showing her that he trusts her and believes that she’s the golden middle between careless himself and “the control freak” Magnifico. That she has wisdom “to give people the rod and teach how to use it”. Then the Star can either stay on Earth, because he simply enjoyed the life there, or walk away to the sky. Optionally, with Asha herself. The End.

All of that sets the main idea and the final moral: there are good wishes and bad ones. Not every wish can come true. You must work hard yourself to make your wish come true, and the harder you work, the more valuable the result is to you. The true happiness is not only the final destination, but a journey to it through the life itself. And no matter what, there's always a place for a miracle, even a small one.

If you read it to the end, first of all, WOWIE, THANK YOU 😳, and second of all, sorry, it was truly wordy. It's just... I don't tell what I wrote is flawless, but at least I tried to do my best to fix the literal holes, eliminate lack of characters' motivation and make the characters work for the story, because God knows how tired I am to see good-but-underdeveloped concepts in the modern media.

I wish it changes someday.

[amphibifish]

question. whats maloki??

terrifying ask to wake up to (/silly)

so, in short, maloki or Matantei Loki or Mythical Detective Loki is a animanga series based around the cool and epic adventures of little kid detective Loki who solves mysteries ! and also he is trying to not get assassinated everytime because odin wants him DEAD and keeps sending down the other gods to kill him.

i'm going to preface this by saying it's not good. not at all. like i can't defend this here. it's not good. if you want something like good to enjoy i would turn away now. there's so many plot holes and bad plot twists and then just general increasing misogyny as the (manga) series progresses. the anime is like fine but most of it feels like filler except for the last six episodes which were kind of good actually.

beneath the read more is just a huge essay of me complaining about specifics, and then explaining the reason i like it (it's really just heimdall)

uhh there's also a big tone difference between the anime (very much made for children) and the manga (the last installment has so many deaths and is generally just not a good time for ANYONE) that's not really an issue but anyway.

it's Anime Thing TM is that it gets weird about the teenage girl character that is lokis sidekick. it's not there in the anime but in the manga loki is heavily implied to be in love with her and they are heavily implied to be endgame (though it never actually happens) . this is a weird endgame ship because mayura is 17 and loki is simaultaneously at most 13 and also 3000. or if he's in his adult form he's implied to be old enough for mayura is say "you're kind of weird for an adult" which makes me think he's a notable amt older than her. but i guess i could just be nitpicking that one since it's never really confirmed

among my list of complaints is the weird incest hel joke that gets referenced at least one other time. it's ignorable but it's been scarred enough in my mind for me to complain here because there really was no need for hel to straight up make out w loki on the lips in front of her mother and then play it off like a silly haha prank. thankfully it's ignorable outside of that one page

i can't really complain plot wise because of spoilers but it does introduce interesting concepts that just. fall flat. i do want to mention heimdallr's evil brain washing casino that he owns at eight years old though that is relevant exactly one time and then is immediately forgotten about just because it's really funny to me

i do like the second installment (matantei loki: ragnarok) simply because i find what they did with spice and utgard loki to be half interesting. and also its generally not too dark of an installment and its pretty free of like. the aforementioned weird stuff i mentioned earlier. ending was shit though

character portrayal wise it's fine. i like lokis family i don't find much interest in loki himself. idk he's boring to me and he's like this strict straight laced kid in the anime idk man he's supposed to be loki i don't get it anyway.

i like thor. he's a teenager with like fifteen jobs and he raids lokis pantry all the time and they're best friends. no notes.

i think they did freyja fucking dirty and she deserved better because she's introduced as being in love with loki but being hurt by him because he abandoned her . that is then used as a joke and her defining trait for the rest of series. the manga was better about this one in all honesty but it's like half an upgrade because they tone it down only slightly.

freyr is silly and i honestly do like him in both versions. he is unfortunately apart of the Anime Thing TM because he also madly in love with mayura. this is slightly more excuseable in the anime because he is explicitly a teenager there. which is not true of the manga where he is explicitly. Not. he's also part of an odd couple dynamic with heimdall and i do like their dynamic in both anime and manga. this is because i like odd couples in general though

really though im here for heimdallr because kinoshita's heimdallr unfortunately is very interesting in the scheme of heimdall portrayals and his story keeps falling flat in turn for whatever other bullshit keeps getting written in.

he's a wrathful god sent down to earth as an assassin in the form of a school child who kind of weirds out his classmates and keeps writing songs about how much he hates this one guy. he hates loki because loki stole his eye and he lost everything and then there's this whole thing where odin basically never saw him as a person and was using him and the point is that i like him

honestly in the end the anime did him better in my opinion but manga!heimdall just keeps getting worse morally and. sometimes also maybe character writing wise especially at the end. as the series goes on but that's still entertaining to me.

ANYWAY the point is that it sucks so bad really bad actually but just enough for me to be like "oughhhghghgh something GOOD could've been there..." and that's the whole reason i'm obsessed with it and i think about it all the time

[alicepao13]

S06E10

For a golf episode, okay. For a filler, also okay. Not that much going on.

Let's get one thing out of the way first:

Episode title says caddy. They liked that pun, I guess. As the grammar website I checked explains it further, it's not considered a huge error.

CityTV has such a nerve to put their logo in there after all their scheduling changes and general lack of interest for this show (I have no beef with that interview man, I forgot his name, but his interview with Diesel and John Reardon before the season premiere was actually fun).

I absolutely had no idea that women's golf was so lucrative.

"All I heard is sandwich" Thank god for Sarah. I only like Sarah from now on. Not even Rex, he seems too into golf, although there are too many balls involved for a dog to stay indifferent.

Joe joined the golf club when Camilla was born? Didn't he, like, adopt her after he married her mother? Or is my recollection false?

Charlie had worked as a caddie. Well, certainly some backstory there. And of course he's like, the best of them at it even if he doesn't want to join the club.

Seriously, we can't take them anywhere. Especially Rex, whose nose doesn't take a single day off. Boom, one more day off ruined.

I tuned out in every single golf talk, which is unfortunate because it was mixed with the plot (still found the culprit as soon as they appeared on screen). It's just really hard to follow when I don't care about it at all. Since I like almost all sports, I consider those I don't like as non-sports. Mainly golf and formula car racing.

They cut the chase scene? What?

That scene where Charlie drives a golf cart and Rex runs alongside him does not deserve a cool music lmao

Charlie playing golf as he's interviewing a (at the time) person of interest. I can't decide if this is unprofessional or I just don't like golf.

Ah, please someone tell me how many shots they did for that uninterrupted shot of Charlie's short putt that went pretty close to the hole. I know that the guys actually golf in real life but this had to be close but also not go in the hole for Rex to grab it.

Amazon! How the hell can you put an ad about fast delivery in this show, when you consistently fail to deliver the actual show on time in your streaming service? Am I the only one seeing the irony here? Last season it was too early, this season too late.

Also, Jesse, don't you dare wear that. Charlie's orange jumpsuit was actually a better shade of orange than this one.

Okay, maybe there were a bunch of chase scenes in this episode so they felt they could lose one. Acceptable.

Poor Rex's head. I'd have liked more of Charlie's worry please, although it seems like we might get this in a future episode.

This might be the first time we see Rex's teeth as Charlie checks for god knows what. Come on, show, let Rex bare his teeth just once while growling at a bad guy!

*gasps* Skeletal remains! On a family show!

They shouldn't have spoiled Jesse's shirt in the end scene on their promotional pictures. Not that it's such a big thing, but they should actually stop uploading promotional pictures from the final scenes altogether, or post them after the show has aired.

I liked the teamwork in this one. I believe the golf episode had been brewing since S2, where they had to scrap the idea due to a heavy snowfall, which turned the golf field into a ski slope. There is no avoiding golf, apparently!

Promo: What the actual fuck. Charlie and Rex combined whump? Charlie thrown out of a moving truck? Rex missing? Charlie having temporary amnesia? Hospital? Is it my birthday? (Well, it's actually pretty close to my name day instead.) Please squeeze a scene in there with a worried Sarah, and I take back every single bad thing I said about this season (the show only, I don't take back anything about CityTV). Yes, even the whales.

Of course this would be the episode that they'd take a break on. Oh, well. After that terrible hiatus, I can stand to wait a few days. A day had passed already as I was looking for the episode (turns out that they knew what they were doing lol).

[jamieedlund]

What's ur favorite hc for Aaravos?

This is a surprisingly hard question to unpack for a lot of reasons- but I'll do my best to articulate myself (ง •_•)ง

I think this spoke for itself but just in case, here is a short elaboration: if I had to pick a favorite, it would have to be this.

He is someone who - despite all of the odds, despite how the world treated to him, despite being ridiculed, subjected to the worst torture known to man(yes solitary confinement is considered one of the most inhumane methods of torture) for over 300 years and had his name dragged through the mud for literal centuries-

-could still smile so brightly and sincerely like that, affirming that he does, with all of his heart, still very much love this world. However twisted that love might be, however difficult it was for him to learn how to use and express that love in a healthy way, it still speaks volume about who he is as a person.

Now if you have the time, allow me to explain bellow. If not, stop here, the question is basically answered 🙏💗 Thank you for reading!

Hello, if you're reading this that means you are willing to listen/read more about my thoughts and therefore I expect you to have a leveled head and a polite attitude to what I'm about to say.

If not then why are you here there was LITERALLY A STOP BUTTON. Please click off this post, what are you doing with your life wasting it hate watching me? 

With that being said, hello! fellow polite person who is reading this - - - Spoiler there is no illust down here because I'm running low on time on my thesis I'm so sorry ;;A;; Here is the elaboration to why this is my default favorite headcanon!

While I am aware of the amount of WILDLY different headcanons that exist out there for him, which are very popular within the fandom and even taken as gospel, I strongly feel that mine isn't really aligned with some, if not most of the hc out there at all.

Personally, I don't even agree with the canon version of in him ss4.

I'm assuming that you are asking me about my- personal favorite headcanon for him so for now, my answer will be: Ignoring the terrible characterization of him in season 4, my absolute favorite thing about him has to be: Despite everything, despite what everyone says about him, despite how the world perceives him

He is

without a doubt

Someone who loves this world very much.

Again this all ties in with what I'm going to present in my thesis, so I can't elaborate on it too much without giving any spoilers to the case I'm going to present for him. But for now, and especially right now at the time of writing this, they just released another vaguely worded and filled to the brim with plot holes short story regarding his past ... I-- hm I sincerely have no intention to keep up with the series... Therefore my hc will definitely contradict vastly with the horrendous plot holes ridden pre-established canon

-which then made the act of answering to this question exceedingly difficult due to the way I personally perceive him.

To wrap it up, all I want to say is, we could have had it all, a character who would make us cry, laugh and want to root for, had they written him with love and care, rather than trying to stuff him into the shoes a villain, which just felt forced and unnatural. Villains who are terrible only to be stopped have been overdone, and for tdp to be another generic show is a huge waste of potential

Wouldn't most of us have killed for, finally, an antagonist who isn't actually the antagonist but rather the very system that these people are experiencing is the actual villain ? ? ?

Best of all, they could have contrasted this with Callum, our protagonist. In Callum's case, despite being portrayed as one of "the good guys" or "heroes", he has all the reason to hate the world. This in turn create a complex narrative about the nature of people - Or in this case, the hero acting morally righteous despite hating the world vs the guy who was deemed evil and terrible by the world and yet still loves it with all of his heart. It could have been a heart-warming story about how two individuals find their way in this messed up world-- but nope~ non of this is canon :DDD

When in the history of television has any shows have a twist with the "hero" and "villain" ditching their role immediately to become a neutral party to reflect all the flaws in the world they live in? ? ? TDP had the perfect setup, but then proceeded to drop all of the balls spectacularly in ss4...

I always try my best to not touch ss4 but it feels almost impossible to talk about Aaravos w/out addressing the disservice that it did to his character. And that is all, I have to say for now~

Sincerely, thank you for reading.

[afniel]

Hi there's really vague (but kinda heavy?) Third Novel stuff under the cut, so don't spoil yourself if you don't want to know anything. Because there's a liiiiittle something something in there plus some art.

Man I'm like. Writing on chapter 2(?) of I Can't Believe It's Not A Trilogy (ICBINAT...world's worst working title) and this story is gonna need such a ridiculously huge content warning for suicidal ideation, way more than the first two, and the second has more than the first, so you know this one has got it bad.

And yet this is just kinda Where X Is At Right Now at the start of it, for Reasons (that I can't say further shit about until Outcome Unpredictable is all online, lol). I have a chapter and a half of, I dunno where or when it fits, just kinda disconnected noodling, and they were hard to write in the kind of way that's warning me that I don't really know what I'm doing with a character, just kinda slapping events together without much emotional weight to any of them or any real direction.

Then I kinda had a few revelations in a row, realized I was trying to lean way too hard on X to Just Be Better Already Dammit, and he was just coming out flat because he's not better already, dammit. Reploid Grandpa is 100% a fucked-up old veteran who's barely out of the hell he came from so yeah, he makes huge strides in his mental health, but he started at the bottom of a really deep hole. That's not a quick climb! It takes real life people decades to escape that hole, and they usually didn't go through it for 80+ years without a break. He's just gonna be down there, even if he's a lot higher than he started. (IRL veteran suicide rates are absolutely dismal too, and yeah, X's mental state very much reflects this at the point that I'm writing.)

Once again all I can actually do is write down the words as they happen and trying too hard to steer it myself only makes it stop working. Am I ever going to stop writing about this old man's mental health struggles? Uhh. Well, I've tried to stop twice, if that tells you anything. I swear he does get a happy ending and keep recovering. Well, maybe not that much physically, because Protagonist Who Stays Disabled And Isn't Magically Fixed is still a primary goal, here, and the story agrees with me on that, but even given that he could stand to be more comfortable even if he's not magically fixed. I dunno why this is where it's going but I think it's just my extreme commitment to What If This Stupid Video Game Plot Was Realistic Though. It's definitely realistic now! Maybe sometimes a little too much, but honestly, that's what makes it work, I think. It would never stick the landing if I stopped short of 100% painful sincerity, even if it's hard to look at sometimes. Feeling a bit like you're being invited to see and feel vulnerabilities that maybe aren't entirely your business when you're reading fiction is the secret sauce, if you ask me.

(At this rate I'm gonna have to update the author's notes at the end of Outcome Unpredictable because I'm making myself a goddamn liar. I straight up say I have no intent of writing a third one, but here I am, evidently doing that before the author's notes even hit the internet.)

I'm not gonna explain shit past that at the moment, so just feel free to conjecture amongst yourselves at the one thing I've kinda drawn in the ICBINAT era. This is about a year and a half from OU and 2 years from FtC, for the record. It is a truth universally acknowledged that if you leave an AU running unattended for long enough, even the canon characters will eventually turn into OCs.

(Also that if my coloring style gets any more rim light I'm going to be in Sonic Adventure style coloring territory...which would fuck severely, actually.)

[blackstarchanx3new]

Creations AU, But I obnoxiously over explain it PT 1

Pages 1-30

We are introduced to the man who ruined my life:

Currently nameless night guard with pale as fuck skin and pretty dead inside eyes. Weirdly grey hair for how youthful he is and blonde eyebrows.

Bro dyes his hair grey for some unexplainable reason.

forgive the art looking goofy it is over 2 years old lmfao.

I was too lazy to draw shit on a lot of the walls. I hate drawing backgrounds. Still do they are annoying. So BGs barely exist in Creations. It allows a lot more character focused shots but it is also very annoying looking back. X'DDDD

Though it means if I bothered with a background thing it's IMPORTANT.

Mike suspiciously eyes the things I bothered to draw on the wall because: Oop Springtrap.

Which you think would be a plot hole but this comic fucks with your sense of what reality is in the comic's own logic.

Mr. Nightguard still refuses to talk, but is intrigued by the robots on his cameras.

You'll notice: I tend to draw a LOT of panels for smaller details.

My comics have now been compared to "Storyboards" and I feel like that is more accurate. Like a lot of comics STUFF dialogue and actions into tight panels but as an indie comic creator: I don't have page limits lmao.

So I can make them do smaller actions and have the pace be a little slower.

I think this is why a lot of people get impeccant with my comics but I kinda like showing off more small simple actions.

Freddy appears!

And Mr. Nightguard is flabbergasted and checks his cams. Sure enough Chica and Freddy are both gone.

There's an error in this page lmfao but we're not gonna talk about that.

Freddy seems friendly enough...Maybe TOO friendly...

Freddy wants to fuck the nightguard lmfao and makes it very obvious.

So this is a running gag in Creations: you think a character will be one way and they just...Aren't. (Because of pre-established AU concepts like..."Freddy's a good leader")

This Freddy, is distinctly "a hoe". And I love him.

If it isn't extremally obvious...but just for those who are REALLY dumb: Most of the robots aren't possessed by kids.

This AU takes ideas from the FNAF series and ignores a lot.

Because it's an AU.

And I can do whatever I want lmfao.

People accepted Freddy was a slut but then got REALLY ANGRY about random semantics like what a certain character's name was.

And I'll never understand how you could accept Freddy being HIMSELF here, but would get mad about like...NAMES.

Someone explain that to me???? X'D

Either way Mr. Nightguard isn't ready for Freddy and locks him out of the office.

Freddy responds rather childishly by getting angry and proclaiming he is the most important person here.

Mr. Nightguard just points to the camera wordlessly as if to say "I am watching the place/you"

Freddy gets pissy and decides to go to SOMEONE to sort the nightguard's rude behavior out.

Freddy is seemingly more bothered about the Nightguard being rude than the rejection itself.

Bonnie the Bunny is a smoking tough guy in this comic.

Why?

Because the most accepted Fannon Bonnie was a weak little shithead that didn't do much so I made mine a tough guy. X'D

He's a stoner because comedy.

Distinctly one of his eyes are busted and he is not a fan of Freddy plowing into him.

We learn immediately Freddy whining to Bonnie is normal and while Bonnie acts annoyed he goes to sort things out immediately showing his loyalties do lie with the bear.

Also bonnie is huge if Freddy's height is anything to go off of.

He yanks off Mr. Nightguard's hat and is generally a rude fellow himself.

Asking bluntly if Mike has a second to hear what he has to say.

Mr. Nightguard stares blankly at this action.

Bonnie has no clue what personal space is, getting more and more into Mr. Nightguard's face and doesn't even let him respond.

Bonnie's the one who seemingly keeps the peace around here via thinly vailed threats of violence.

Freddy's whining fest is again linked to the rude behavior of slamming the door and Bonnie isn't a fan of hearing it.

Bonnie continues not to let Mr. Nightguard get a word in and is ready to leave getting ready to smoke another cigarette.

Mr. Nightguard recognizes Bonnie prompting my favorite lines from any character in this comic:

"What a freak"

because Mike being considered a freak is a running gag in this comic for reasons that become VERY apparent.

Bonnie's eyes shift a different color too. How odd. :)

I was lazy with this one lmao.

Someone with the initials "F.S" is a big fan of Freddy.

And other doodles have a lot of references to broken hearts.

Mr. Nightguard can hear Mike coming, he DID something that pissed Bonnie off. This presumably had to do with Freddy Mr. Nightguard seems unphazed and rather silly in his mannerisms and dialogue despite his blank expression.

Saying "Boop" as he presses the button and obviously lying when he claims he doesn't know how to use a knife in a fight.

Why is Mr. Nightguard carrying a suspiciously large kitchen knife around on him exactly?

Bonnie is ready and WANTS a fight, but Mr Nightguard is very hesitant to do so.

Bonnie is rude and blows cigarette smoke into Mr. Nightguard's face, repeating he is pissed off.

asking if Mr. Nightguard knows how people die there.

Golly gee. I can finally stop calling him "Mr Night guard"

This is Mike Schmidt. We are introduced to the idea there is ANOTHER Mike in the building... If you are familiar with FNAF lore you know exactly who that is.

Bonnie proclaims Mike Schmidt's new name is "Baby boy"

a very rude and condescending nickname for a grown man.

Bonnie has an odd device in the back of his throat when he opens his mouth wider. If you've noticed up until this point: Bonnie doesn't open his mouth to speak, that thing in the back of his throat is an air filter and he keeps his mouth shut until the air he smokes is clear.

This is never stated directly in the comic, rather smth you gotta infer yourself at some point. Which lead to MANY people asking "Wtf is that thing in Bonnie's mouth"

It's an air filter.

Mike gets tossed into the backroom area.

There's a cheeky reference to my OC comic Falling Cards with some art on the wall. There's a LOT of Falling Cards references in at least a few of my FNAF animations I know that for sure. X'D

Mike is disturbed by the blood on the spare empty Freddy suit.

Bonnie not so subtly threatens "That's where he's going"

Implying someone has most certainly DIED in there.

I have joked with just about everyone that scene is kinky.

And that joke only gets funnier when smth about Bonnie is revealed later buuuut I digress.

Mike is prepped for death.

Mike actually shows some emotion here being disturbed as the suit is tossed besides him and Bonnie lifts up the Freddy head.

Mike shows off a package of SOMETHING that captures Bonnie's attention.

People assumed that was chocolate.

But considering we've seen Bonnie obsessed with ONE THING and ONE THING ONLY...you can kinda infer what that packet is...

Mike's attitude intimidates even Bonnie.

This kinda gives the vibe nobody's been this aggressive, at least in this particular manor towards the animatronics before.

Mike comes off as an incredibly unstable individual given what we know about him so far:

He carries around a kitchen knife and will quickly snap if you act in a way he deems inappropriate.

It's revealed in case you didn't realize: This was a package of cigarettes.

Which leads to the fun question: Does Mike smoke?

This would seem silly on first glance. He HAS a pack of cigarettes of COURSE he smokes...Right?

Notice: He doesn't use the previously mentioned knife through this scene but would rather use bribery...

This shows Mike would rather manipulate/intimidate than actually fight physically. Which makes sense considering Bonnie's size and strength.

Or perhaps he is avoiding a fight with Bonnie for emotional reasons. As it's implied Mike has some connection.

Either way he cuts a deal with Bonnie that he will give Bonnie a few cigarettes for work. And Bonnie agrees.

We start off in the office, it is unclear if this is a new day or the same night.

Bonnie happily has his cigarette and Mike remarks he didn't think Bonnie NEEDED to smoke.

Bonnie just responds Freddy's bots are weird.

There's a help wanted easter egg here with the faz token in the lockers.

Mike is searching for "anything of interest" and establishes he's interested in the bloody suit.

Bonnie seems amused by this outright stating he just wanted to scare Mike. Delighted in getting a reaction out of our so far very stoic night guard.

Bonnie seems clueless about the actual death surrounding that suit, just that he knows SOMEONE died in it at SOME POINT. But can we really trust his word at this point?

Bonnie also says ANOTHER favorite line of mine, because it's so stupid

"Hah...Blunt"

get it. because weed-

Anyway Mike mentions a person named "Jeremy" to Bonnie and Bonnie confuses this person with another Jeremy in a different department.

This evidently isn't who Mike is talking about.

Bonnie's SHOCKED Mike would DARE leave the office but Mike's full of sass and says as long as he has the tablet to watch the cameras he IS doing his job.

Bonnie shows an odd level of concern, voicing Mike is putting himself in danger.

Mike not so slyly brings up he can bring Bonnie more cigarettes as a way to keep himself safe.

Bonnie's vision gltiches as Mike smiles and Bonnie is very freaked out by this, weirdly apologizing for nothing.

Bonnie has a moment of clarity realizing he has seen Mike before somewhere too.

Something about this man is FIMILAR.

Bonnie catches on Mike's method of self preservation: His blank expression.

It's a lie.

One Bonnie can see through easily as Mike's actions don't reflect a state of someone who is calm.

Asking Bonnie to stay close and holding his hand, coming to the realization Mike feels safer with Bonnie for whatever reason.

He purposely does a creepy at the cameras freaking out Jeremy Fitzgerald, who isn't interested in "Being a witness".

A hand pokes out from behind Mike. One that isn't Bonnie's.

OH HI GOLDEN FREDDY'S MASSIVE BLEEDING FLOATING HEAD. HOW THE HELL ARE YOU!?

Mike and Jeremy seem to not notice their presence.

Jeremy is terrified of Bonnie however. Mike reassures Bonnie is a non issue as Bonnie pats Mike's head firmly mockingly saying "Hi Jeremy"

Bonnie continues to mess with Mike's hair rather childishly while Mike seems unphased. Bonnie's antics aren't something he really seems to mind.

He bribes Bonnie with more cigarettes to watch the cams while he discusses things with Jeremy. Jeremy himself lamenting Mike is WEIRD.

Jeremy quickly realizes Mike isn't completely insane and starts rambling about his terrible experiences at Freddy's.

Noting the Nightguards are really redundant considering the robot security.

His comment about the robots being "Evil" pisses Bonnie off.

The person who shares Mike's name is brought up again we now know him as "Michael". Jeremy is eager to get onto dayshift with this individual and Mike also wants to get in touch with him.

This "Michael" figure apparently works in the rental place below the main building and not much is known what goes on down there...how odd. Jeremy seems a bit upset by this fact.

[usagi-zakura]

Fandom sometimes needs to sit their ass down and chill... part 2

Decided to put this one in a separate post because its directed at a different fandom.

Hazbin Hotel.

No its not about expecting demons to be decent people this time...and its mainly criticism directed at the subreddit where some fans have decided to find a bunch of plot holes where there are none because they didn't actually watch the show...

Or something I've been seeing more of recently... people expecting this to be a direct adaptation of the Bible.

A question that keeps popping up is "How is Adam the first human soul in Heaven when he had a son who died before him??"

Referring of course to Abel, of Cain and Abel fame. God's favorite boi because he scarified meat instead of vegetables...so his brother got jealous and murdered him. Presumably Adam was still alive a this point as he went on to have another child.

Hazbin Hotel makes no mention of this... so there's no reason to belive it even happened. Hazbin Hotel borrows some characters from Abrahamic myths, but it has never advertised itself as a 1 to 1 adaptation of the Bible.

It would feel kinda awkward if Sera referred to Adam as "the second human soul in heaven after his kid who got brutally murdered by his own brother but we're not gonna talk about him ever because he's not important to the plot", that'd just be confusing to any fan who isn't familiar with that particular story. Making the bible required reading for an adult cartoon is a little weird.

Its easier to just ignore that story entirely if its not gonna be important to the plot.

Lilith isn't in the bible either.

Shocker I know... She was invented way later, maybe as a reason to explain why in Genesis 1 God creates man and woman at the same time but afterwards he creates Eve separately... Any mention of the name "Lilith" in the old testament doesn't seem to refer to a human, but is mentioned more like the name of a species... some scholars belive it was a bird, or possibly even some kind of demon that may or may not have been important to early Hebrews...or they borrowed the word from some other religion. Happened a lot back on the day.

I look at it more like Disney's Hercules. It borrows the names and general concept of the Greek Pantheon (but changes Hercules' name to the Roman one for some reason...) but does the story in a widly different way...I've never seen someone call out the lack of Hercules/Heracles's brother Iphicles as a huge plot hole in that film... yes he had a brother... or the fact that it features Zeus not as a massive perv with no respect for marriage, whether its his own or his great-granddaughter... Yea that's right... Harecles' mother was also Zeus' great-granddaughter... and that's not even the worst case of incest committed by the King of the Greek Gods...

Same with Hazbin. It borrows some of the characters, that doesn't mean they'll borrow the whole mythology... even if it sometimes would be interesting if they did.... they had 8 episodes... probably wouldn't have time to touch on Adam's messed up sons. Its too busy focusing on how bad both his marriages went.

My point is if you keep expecting creators do do something specific that they never promised they would...don't get mad at them when they don't do that thing... Its not their fault your expectations were wildly different from their plans.

[natsspammityspamspamham]

I read a bunch of isekai manga of the villainess subgenre so you don't have to!

Bro, procrastinating during finals season looks different for everyone. Ugh... Okay, so I'm going to go through some of the ones that have already been adapted into anime and what I think of them.

Hamefura

Hamefura is the pioneer of this subgenre of a subgenre when it comes to getting an anime adaptation. This show is what taught me that the whole "isekai" and "villainess" genres were not inherently bad if adapted correctly; in fact, they can be quite good! With an enjoyable cast and an amusing setting, this anime is a lot of fun to watch, and it's no wonder that it keeps getting continuations.

Akuyaku Reijou nano de Last Boss wo Kattemimashita

It's not good after episode 5. I went off about it here. Just read the manga or watch the first five episodes and dip. You're not missing anything.

Manga Territory

Akuyaku Reijou no Tsuihougo!

Ah yes, this is the one that started off this rabbit hole of absolute terror. If you want more information about it, I did talk about it here when asking what the reception of it was (in case people really wanted it scanlated). Anyways, it's cheesy and corny, but the voice-over comic sold me on it. I like how they really incorporate her previous life into the decisions she makes, but they should probably explain why she's so dense to romance (or whether she's rebuffing him), in my opinion.

The decision on whether I'd want it scanslated will probably be determined by both reception and how the story moves (because if they ain't together within the next few chapters, I'm leaving. Sayonara losers)

Tensei Majo wa Horobi wo Tsugeru

This one was fun and all, but it felt really standard out of the batch. It also borrows a ton of ideas from Akatsuki no Yona. While it's about as plain as the previous entry, I actually read this one last, so along with the parody, I got this one. Speaking of Akatsuki no Yona, here are some similarities: Special girl has her life turned upside down by a tragic event and has difficulties with trauma. Boy (non-dragon) comes in and takes her to some place different. Dragon boys start showing up and being added to the... what is now a harem I guess. It's like "Hold on. I've got an idea. Akatsuki no Yona mixed with isekai. The girl is a previous hikikomori too." I mean, I will give credit where it's due, the art is good, but I just feel like reading it was just a deja vu experience.

I find it funny how two male leads in media I've consumed recently have identified as "mothers" of the MCs. Does this mean that girls want someone that will essentially be a mom to them?

Watashi no Oshi wa Akuyaku Reijou.

Now this is a good parody, but I'll have to get back to everyone if it ends up keeping my interesting. Unlike all of the other entries, this one doesn't have a huge "plot". It's basically just a girl pining for the villainess of an otome game, and the result is a mushy, corny, cheesy pile of "What the heck? That's cute!" It does exactly what it needs to do, and the art is amusing! I also appreciate the approach of "Imagine having an otome game where you're not interested in the guys but a side character"

Seijo no Hazu ga, Douyara Nottoraremashita

This one was saved for last because it was a darn blast. This one has the weakest, most disproportionate art I've seen in a while in a manga (where frames don't really move). Unlike manga such as Mob Psycho which has an art style that complements the disproportion, this one does not. The characters look like their eyes need to be reoriented sometimes. Or maybe just start again? But man, what it lacks in art it makes up for in story and humour. This may be listed down as a romance, but it takes a good 16-18 chapters to really get going, but it isn't one of those "slow burn" sort of things. It progresses when it wants to progress, and when it doesn't (or even when it does), it will just full-on mock the situation its in with a heroine who reacts in a way that we probably just might. Also, the fake marriage in this one makes a lot of sense from a plot standpoint. Overall, it was enjoyable and stuck out from the rest, but the cover art is extremely misleading (it makes you believe it will be what it is essentially trying to parody sometimes).

I'm looking forward to that villainess anime with the tsundere and whatnot, so I'm going to read that (hence, I'm reading everything else). I was half-asleep when writing this and reading some of these, so this may have skewed my perception.

[virtue-and-beneviolence]

Tokyo Revengers unpopular opinion: I'm a huge fan, or was a huge fan. But I can still be brutally honest about the quality of something regardless how much I love it. I dont make excuses for it knowing there are huge flaws. With that said I know I'm not the only one that doesn't understand what the hell is going on because the manga still has gaping plot holes that are left unanswered and seems they probably will be especially this late into it, when it's about to be concluded and finished. Many chapters were boring and convoluted and there's no reason to still have this many unanswered questions.

I've seen many people say "oh its all coming together now" but yet they fail to explain why or how because they also have no idea what the fuck is going on but don't want to appear stupid and aren't admitting that shit makes no sense or there was no point to some things that happened.

Too many characters were under used or overused, some were given clues to have a bigger role than they actually did which just was nonsensical. A good chunk of it was boring and it felt like pulling teeth at times. Especially with Takemichi's pea brain dumbass standing around like a mule. I forget that he's mentally supposed to be a man in his 20s in his younger body cause he's such an idiot. His character progression is flat and tbh he hasn't learned a damn thing of value.

I could go on and on but I'll stop here cause I'll get too worked up about it

It's just a bit of a mess tbh. It's a fun mess but a mess none the less. I think there was no reason to have so many named characters imo. It convoluted an already complex story so severely. Maybe it was bound to happen in a time travel type story. Maybe it's overcomplication. Idk idk. But takemichi is the most childish and he's the "oldest" in the past. He's just so...mid...and you're right he hasn't learned shit. I don't think of him at all when I think of the series.

[wack-ashimself]

The worst background actors ever...

(Or the worst director).

Disclaimer: I have a theater degree and worked (past tense: thank god) in hollywood, so I AM a prissy bitch about this. Sorry.

Discalimerer: The main actors are pretty fucking bad too. I mean with the OVER THE TOP melodramatic background music guiding the scene, it's like a CW show almost. Just so fucking much. And for so fucking little.

"Childhood's End" 2015, Syfy show. A lot of syfy shows seems to slip thru the cracks, and I think it's cuz fewer people stream them.

<I am watching for the story because part of this concept I thought of writing years ago (good aliens saving earth and some of us hating them for it), and it was a trilogy. But they changed a few big aspects, so mine would still be quite different. I want to post it, but it's so different that if I posted it, and saw another movie closer to in a few years, I'd lose my shit. Get out of my brain!>

So I am not even done with the first of 3 parts, and I swear to god, at least once in any scene with the general public, one of the fucking background actors says the most 'thank captain obvious, you did nothing but comment on the scene before us all' shit, CONSTANTLY. So either they were told to do that, didn't care, or it was actually WRITTEN which....it's so fucking annoying. No matter what, tho, it still ends on the director to notice that shit.

"What is that?"

"What is she doing?"

'What's going on?'

'Oh, look, it's so and so.'

And they're not faint, barely heard asinine comments. NOPE! They come up on subtitles, so yeah...probably scripted also. Was this a writer was the director thing? Filler till the next scene*?

I just...it's easy to ignore this in bigger budget movies, cuz of other sounds, and other better actors acting, but NOT syfy. God, they are the single hit or miss channel ever. When it's a hit, HUGE hit. But when it's bad, you're like.....did you even try?

<I wouldn't mind a "Happy" new season. That show was fucking wack nutso crazy!>

*Here's some of my lines I would've said.

'Hey, it's THAT guy!'

"I heard he's in love with a mirror." (In show reference...the alien talks from behind a mirror. Now that I explained it, it's ruined!)

'Can't get enough of those NY penthouse hotel suites that small town regular folk can afford on a whim, let alone for THREE FUCKING NIGHTS WITH FULL ROOM SERVICE INCLUDED! IN NO REALITY DOES THAT EXIST' (I have already tons of plot holes. SO SO many.)

"When the aliens came down, instead of a dead person, I saw someone that's still alive. ...Are they now going to die?"

'Man, I remember when the head of the secret service was in charge of entire the government. Best of times.' (SO SO MANY PLOT HOLES.)

'Gasp. WOW. Geez whiz. That is just neato.'

"I heard about them Missouri boys. All about women and spaceships that take them to even bigger spaceships. It's a shame..."

And this one I would be running into the house of the lead and his fiance:

"Why the FUCK did you lie to her about seeing your dead ex? Who gives a shit? And you're staying in the 3 night hotel room slutsgiving bender on repeat with the alien!? You don't deserve her you smug son of a bitch. BACKGROUND OUT!"

[pondwatergulper]

Bandersnatch

My family is completely done with hearing about this movie and putting my friends through long-winded movie rants feels cruel, so here is me over-explaining Bandersnatch to the void that is Tumblr. Don't feel the need to read this, I just need to get my love of this movie out of my system for a little while, and that's all that tumblr is to me.

Huge Spoiler Warning From Here On:

The Plot

Let's get the hardest part out of the way first. The movie opens as our socially awkward protagonist, Stefan Butler wakes up on July 19th, 1984 to "Relax" by Frankie Goes To Hollywood and starts his day with Breakfast and the in-story choose your own adventure book "Bandersnatch." Stefan's father (Peter), comes into frame and asks Stefan what cereal he wants, Frosties or Sugar Puffs?

quick side tangent:

This is where one of the best and most genius aspects of the movie comes into play: Choice. Bandersnatch is a movie where your choice down to what cereal Stefan eats effects the plot and details. Every time a choice is presented to Stefan, you are given two choices and must answer in a few seconds or the movie will decide for you. If you make no choices, the movie goes for 1:30 and has a linear plot.

Back To The Plot

Depending on what cereal you choose later on in the movie there will be a commercial for that cereal. after this, Stefan's father asks him what he is reading and where he got it, Stefan explains it was a book he found in a box of his mother's things and it is a multiple choice story that he's actually made a game based off of that he is going demoing today. Stefan's father briefly acknowledges this and then goes on to complain about the neighbors dog digging holes in their back garden.

We then cut to Stefan riding on a double decker bus to his demo and we get our second choice of what music Stefan puts in his Walkman: That's What I Call Music 2 or Thompson Twins? This only plays the music until we make it to Tuckersoft and Stefan briefly mentions it when asked what music he likes.

Stefan walks into the building and after walking around for mere seconds he is bombarded by the excited Mohan Thakur who happens to also be the founder and namesake of Tuckersoft. Thakur introduces Stefan to Colin Ritman (Played by Will Poulter). Colin Ritman is a famous one-man game creator, Stefan is a huge fan.

After a few quips and an awkward conversation, Stefan demos the multiple choice game while explaining it's relation to the book who he says is by fictional author Jerome F Davies, who everyone humerously seems to only know because "he was that crazy bloke that did a bunch of drugs and cut his wife's head off" to which Stefan usually responds with an annoyed "well that's what people know him from". We learn of the main enemy of the book, Pax (also called the Bandersnatch, Pax Demon and the thief of destiny/choice). Regardless of Stefan's awkwardness and unfinished product, Thakur's interested. Thakur offers Stefan a spot in the studio with a small team for the game.

This becomes our first big choice: accept or refuse? If you accept, Stefan doesn't have enough time or freedom to finish the game and a popular television game reviewer gives it 0/5 stars when it comes out. If you decline the offer, the movie continues, becoming more and more unhinged with every new choice.

My Favorite Endings

The Meta ending:

After some time and a drug trip, Stefan starts to realize that he really isn't making decisions on his own. Someone is controlling every little thing he does, Whether he accepts or refuses the game deal, what music he listens to, and even whether or not he bites his nails or pulls his earlobe. He goes to his therapist whilst simultaneously trying to keep himself in control after we decide to put a message on his computer that he is a program on "Netflix" and he has a breakdown. The therapist starts out not believing him, saying "If this was some kind of television program, why is your life so boring? Why are these situations so mundane? Wouldn't you want to see more action?" This gives us a choice: Yes or Fuck Yeah. either choice causes a fight scene between the therapist and Stefan to break out, once this happens you get another rapid choice: Fight her or Leap out the window? Trying to leap causes someone to cut and move to a shot of the film studio while a director walks up with a script and explains that isn't a part of the movie, calling Stefan's actor "Mike," but Stefan's actor corrects her, saying "Stefan." This freaks everyone out and it is apparent that the actor is no longer the so called "Mike" but he is now confused Stefan who doesn't understand why he is currently on the set of his life. This gives me chills.

PAC (a semi ending)

After a rough day of therapy and throwing away/flushing Stefan's newly prescribed medication and coding difficulties, we get the choice: Pick up book or Family Photo? The book is on programing multiple choice and the family photo is a framed picture of little Stefan on a picnic with his parents. Stefan sits down with on his bed with the chosen item and then falls asleep. If we pick up the book, when Stefan wakes up late at night, he gets the insatiable urge to go into his father's room, steal his key ring, sneak into a never seen before locked room and go up to a password secure cupboard. This gives you two randomized choices, but you should get: Toy or Pac?

This is a good time to explain the meaning of these words.

Toy is easy, when Stefan was little, his mother was killed on an 8:45 train derailing because his father had hidden a rabbit that Stefan refused to separate from. His father thought this was "sissy" and hid it. Stefan refused to leave until he found his rabbit, so eventually his mother has to leave without him because she is already too late to get on the original train, so she must go on the train that crashes because Stefan's father hid his toy. PAC is a little stranger. After being coaxed out of the house and taken to his therapist's building without him knowing, Stefan sees Colin Ritman and we get the choice: Go to Therapy or Follow Colin? If we choose to follow Colin he takes us to his apartment flat and either drugs or convinces Stefan to take LSD tabs. This triggers a rant from Colin about how he basically knows he has no choice and how they are like PAC-Man, who is stuck in a maze of ghosts, unable to escape. He then claims PAC stands for "Program And Control" at the climax of their high.

Back to the ending.

If you input PAC, the cupboard unlocks and reveals a bunch of documents labelled "Program and Control Study" that Stefan starts to read. While he reads, we are shown flash backs to his life where it turns out everything was staged. His entire childhood, the Rabbit, and even his Mother's death on the 8:45 was staged and the experiment was lead by his father who was moving Stefan from memory to memory by drugging him with basically roofied pastries. After reading, Stefan looks to see his father in the door, claiming Stefan was never supposed to know or find out the way. Even his therapist was in on it. Stefan starts to cry and then kills his father. The movie then restarts. This scares me some nights and even weeks. I'm a bit vulnerable to these things.

The 5/5 ending

we are back at the scene where we put a message on Stefans computer. now we have the choice of a symbol that looks a lot like the symbol on a flowchart that represents choice. If we pick this, Stefan has a mental snap, starts running around and mumbling about how he is not in control. His father does not understand and we get the choice: Kill Dad or Back off? If we choose to kill dad, Stefan tries to hold back, but ends up grabbing a cigarette tray and smacking Stefan's father over the head, killing him. We then cut to a very calmed down Stefan, walking around his father, looking up (acknowledging you) and asks "What do I do?" we can choose either: Bury body or Chop up body? If we chop up the body, Stefan is no longer bothered by his father and has enough time to go to his therapist and finish the game. We then cut to the game reviewer reviewing Stefan's game a 5/5 but then we receive a news story-esc narration that shortly after that review, Stefan was arrested for the murder of his father and the game was taken off of shelves, where a girl named Pearl Ritman (Colin Ritman's "legacy" daughter) who found a copy of Bandersnatch and decided to make a modern recreation of it for Netflix. after the news interview and narration end, we center of Pearl working on the project, (which is the game we are playing right now) not realizing she has become a part of it. The game crashes due to a glitch when she tries to run it and we get the choice: Destroy computer or Poor tea over computer? no matter what we do, Pearl destroys her monitors and computer and credits roll.

My Irrelevant Critiques

I hate that this is a Black Mirror piece

I don't know why, but this movie occasionally feels cheapened by it's references to the main Black Mirror Franchise. The cute little references to Black Mirror episodes in Colin's game titles are cute, but the news articles, play test references, the White Bear symbol, the hospital name, everything is just so grounded in reference. I wish that the White Bear Symbol wasn't so grounded to that episode, because I swear to God I think I'm the only one that didn't like that episode and honestly Black Mirror isn't all it's chopped up to be. It's mostly good, sometimes great and sometimes SUPER CRINGE and superficial. I think this movie should have been mostly stand alone.

Final Words

There are so many other endings and tidbits that I love and adore about this movie, like Colin's hallucinogenic speech (which is off-putting, hilarious and interesting all at once), Kitty Ritman (Colin's wife I didn't even get to mention), the replay value of every ending and the amazing cinematography, acting, etc, but that would make this very long. I hate to say it, because this is probably a bad opinion, but this is probably my favorite movie ever. I wish this was just like a post concert depression type thing where I'll go back to thinking Coraline or Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy are the be all end alls in a month or two, but it's been over three years and I am still completely obsessed with this movie, it's program and it's actors and writers, so I don't think I'll ever stop loving it. It's also pretty surprising that I like it this much, because I'm more of a comedy/satire guy, so I think you can take it from me.

I can't recommend this movie enough, and if you are interested, you're gonna wish you went in blind.

Rating 5/5 Stars, and the creator hasn't even been put in prison for manslaughter yet!

[anasticep]

Why Julie and the Phantoms is a masterpiece of a show. Part 2. Heroes and Villains or Let that foil shine

NOTE: Thanks again for your kind response to Part 1. I never expected that. It being my first tumblr post and a first meta in quite a long time I was blown away. I read all the tags, some were really hilarious. About having more than one brain cell xDDD I laughed so hard. It means a lot.

NOTE2: Please remember that the gifs are made by me, so don't crop, edit or give as yours.

Part 1.

Before diving into meta, I have to mention that the Villain of the story is actually one of the best in the decade. He’s cool, evil from the start, we understand his motives and we certainly are not supposed to love and make excuses for him. The writers made sure of that. So back to the main topic.

A foil is a character who contrasts with another character; typically, a character who contrasts with the protagonist, in order to better highlight or differentiate certain qualities of the protagonist

Foils in literature are not necessarily antagonists. A friend can be a foil or sometimes even a thing, a song. Whatever can make a good and real contrast to the protagonist. But it’s not very simple to use this author’s device and not fall down a deep hole. Because you have to make sure you did just the right amount of work to make it understandable for a reader, the things you want to contrast are definitely there and still you don't waste a character. On TV it can be even harder given limited air time. And, well, I don’t come across this device being used in full very often nowadays. It’s usually good and evil fighting for the plot. That’s why I personally appreciate JaTP so much.

Caleb is clearly a foil to Luke. As much as I’d love to say that Julie also has one, that’s not entirely true, at least not this season. Carrie is not her foil though it may seem so, and I really think that’s cool as Julie’s journey is being presented through her own demons and I'm going to cover that next. That being said, of course Caleb doubles as an antagonist plotwise, but I personally consider him being written more as a contract to Luke so we could see and appreciate his character and journey better.

1. Origins

Caleb and Luke have extremely similar backgrounds. They are both natural performers. They know how to deliver, because c’mon, “Now or Never” is something and so is “The other side of Hollywood”. Stage is their natural habitat, their element, power. Although they channel this power from completely different places.

Let’s start with our little ball of energy. It’s emphasized TWICE that he doesn’t care about the money aka the physical side of art.

All Luke wants is to make music. Connect with people. He is so happy just to be heard despite him loving to perform. Making music is what makes him feel alive and basically that’s enough. I think if there was no “hologram” magic at all, Luke would have still been extremely happy to make music with and for Julie. Because that’s the way he is.

But Caleb doesn’t know that. He knows, and I’m standing by that, right away that Luke is the one to aim at. Because we always feel the similarity in people. If Luke said yes, Reggie and Alex would have followed. So Caleb recognizes the passion and shoots at them what he thinks is appealing. And, oh boy, he delivers.

“The Other Side of Hollywood” is a perfect song to emphasize Luke and Caleb being foils for each other. Follow me here:

But these lines come from very different places. For Caleb the only thing that matters is himself. He owns the show, he IS the show. It’s about being famous, drowning in applause, admiration. Look at how he performs. Confident, yes, but still very much in control. He must keep his perfect face. No flaws, no real emotions, no real connection (Did you miss ME? I did too // This band is back). Whereas Luke is simply living the best time of his life each time he performs. Is it just jamming? Bring it on. Doing fun riffs? He’s all for it. He doesn’t care how he looks (though who could deny gorgeous sweaty Luke), he owns the show just because he is a natural.

So back to the business. Caleb immediately puts the boys in his own shoes:

On the other side we live like kings // Your soulprint on the walk of fame on the boulevard of your wildest dreams // I got your glamour, got your gold, got all you’ll ever need

And, I mean, he is not that wrong. You can see the appeal on the boys’ faces. They are young, passionate, handsome, talented musicians. Of course they wouldn’t deny fame. Of course they would want all that to some extent. And Caleb is very sure he pulled the right strings.

Watch me make a move, I’m your number one choice

Also I have to mention, as we are talking about TOSOH (IKEA name again) and it being a foil for Luke, thy lyrics still don’t forget about what is important for Reggie and Alex (we’ll talk about that just a bit later):

Welcome to the brotherhood -> Reggie

Where you won’t be misunderstood -> Alex

Then again, lots of foreshadowing in the song, if you listen carefully the lyrics are stressing the true colors of the offer:

A tomb with a view

Man, what a metaphor. I would have run out of there the minute I heard this line. But our boys share one brain cell (I can’t get over how funny this is) and it’s currently taken by Julie, so I don’t blame them.

Disappointment is huge. Caleb read it all wrong. So we are moving to the next point in our Heroes and Villains essay.

2. Recruitment

It’s very cool that Caleb offers the boys to join his band right after Luke offers Julie to join Sunset Curve. They both are going out of their ways to get that (although have different budgets apparently. But look, they live in a garage). Luke made a hit with a bunch of Julie’s not very well structured lines (I love Flying Solo with all my heart as a song, but as a poem it just looks weird to me) to impress her, and we all saw the show Caleb had thrown to impress the boys. Plus food. And fancy dancing. But here is where contrast comes again.

Caleb offers to join the band, yes, but only as backup singers. It’s his show, remember? It’s only about him. He doesn’t care if they are even good. He wants their magic under control.

Share the spotlight with ME / How do you like MY new band?!

Luke offering Julie a spot in the band is a completely different story. He saw what she is capable of. He instantly knows she must be the key to a new sound, a new level. And he, a natural performer, frontman, lead guitarist, steps back and gives the spotlight to Julie. To think about it, he could have just got her magic under control by giving her simple lines, incorporating piano in the songs and that’s all. They would be visible, he would still be a center of attention, and Julie herself wouldn't mind that much. But that’s not who Luke is. Yes, there is a funny scene of “Hey, I’m your lead singer” and “you don’t have to be mean”, but it’s just messing around. Because right after that he finishes Flying Solo, writes several other songs with Julie, seeks her approval of Sunset Curve songs and basically follows her around like an adorable excited puppy.

Moving on and back to the rejection. Again the writers are mirroring them. Julie quits the band & the boys decline the offer. What does Luke do? Well, he tries the way he knows: books a gig, makes Reggie and Alex sing in perfect harmonies and does his puppy eyes thing. And it doesn’t work. And Luke goes to reflect and then probably try to come up with a plan. But something tells me he would not have haunted Julie until she joined them.

What does Caleb do after the initial rejection? Puts a cursed stamp that leaves them no choice but to join HGC. You don’t need to say more.

But in fact the more I think about it, the more I suspect Caleb also not possessing enough mental capacity for a human being. Like, if it wasn’t for Willie, how would they even know? Has Caleb planned to simply show up one day and casually explain? Look, foils in everything.

“You’re in a tough spot… So, you wanna join the band?” | “Looked like it hurt… you know where to find me”

But we sidestepped a bit.

3. Pulling the strings

After the song Caleb comes out to consolidate his success. What he does is clever and, btw, that’s the only time he becomes Julie’s foil. They are stating basically the same thing.

Again, Julie is concerned about the band and the boys, while Caleb is only concerned about having them under control. But they both are pulling basically the right strings.

What is interesting, Caleb actually impressed the wrong person (and that person is our sweet Reggie). Luke follows the string Julie pulled. Although the offer is tempting, he insists twice that they are in a band already directly to Caleb and then in Eats&Beats he says "It's like Julie said, we have a new band, a new sound». No matter what Caleb promised, Luke is not affected at all although Caleb’s offer is a very-very safe choice.

Speaking about using friends as foils, Alex and Reggie also serve as contrast characters for Luke at some points. Luke’s indifference to money is first stressed through Alex who is clearly the chief accountant for the band. His lines about not getting tips, living in a garage and «it’s a little bit about the money» are waved aside by Luke. Reggie is clearly the most affected by the whole Bobbie thing. His lines «I don’t care what Julie said, I’m glad we scared Bobbie», «So we’re gonna forget about getting back at Trevor?» are getting a clear contrast by Luke’s «It’s what Julie said, we have a new band, a new sound» and «He has to live with that guilt».

While editing the article I realised a very cool thing I haven't noticed before. How badly Luke wants to go on tour. And again that's another thing Caleb offers as if reading his mind. That's actually brilliant, to think about it.

Caleb is a VERY good reader. He tests the waters with a speech about disappearing from stage and going around the world and all dreams coming true. Still he doesn’t know the boys and especially Luke, so his phrase “no real connection” doesn’t register that much.

But he learns. Remember the lines I’ve marked before?

Reggie is afraid they will not be together after they cross over. He is in desperate need of a family. So wouldn’t it be nice to spend the rest of your afterlife with your brothers? (Reggie's main insecurity is loneliness, feel of a broken family. That's why he is the most concerned about crossing over. Will his family stay intact?)

Alex is insecure, and not being understood by the people closest to him will always hit hard. So welcome to a place where you won’t be misunderstood. And actually we know there is a guy you like and find comfort in. (Alex's insecurity is growing up in times when he could not truly be himself even with his family and for sure not believing he would ever be able to find someone meant just for him)

That mirrors the whole Luke’s beach speech perfectly. Only comparing them we can truly appreciate why Luke is the leader. He shuts down his own demons to make Alex and Reggie remember that they are not alone (“and I believe in you”. sorry. Olicity fan).

Caleb makes them suffer to get what he wants. But this time he is careful with the words aimed at Luke. Yes, he repeats his words about vanishing and applauses BUT he makes sure that his words about CONNECTION are the key words for Luke. Intense look, calming voice, touching - these are all elements of hypnosis. And Luke is in a daze. (Continuing the parents' thing, for Luke the main insecurity is not managing to connect with his mom. Maybe that's such a big thing for him: through all these people he wanted to find that connection with her)

4. The Hero’s journey

That’s the best part actually but I won’t be saying anything new or that you don’t know. Luke is made of lyrics and music. That’s his soul, heart, that’s the feeling running through his veins. He doesn’t need anything other than that in his life. Playing for eternity is “a gift no musician would ever turn down”. But he actually does turn it down. As well as his dream to go see the world with his band (is there covid in jatp universe?). He is the one who resists the hardest to the pull. Luke, who always has a guitar in his hands, doesn't want to play. Because it’s not only about the music now. He has this amazing girl in his afterlife who was willing to accept them for who they were, helped Luke battle his own demons, eased his pain and made him open up. And it doesn’t make sense any longer without her anymore. “And you’re a part of me now till eternity”.

Caleb, being Luke’s foil, completely misses the whole point of connection. It’s not in his nature. His house band are just recruits (Just so happens you’re in luck we’ve got a vacancy). For Luke his band is his family (We are the only family we ever gonna need). The Connection theme is one of the main in the show. And it’s so cool to show it focused through Luke whose best way of interaction is a touch. But not being able to touch Julie Luke has to find other ways, although it’s not that simple for him. And Julie backs that up: We connect in so many other ways. They literally touched each other's souls. Without knowing she put a stamp of her own on Luke, Alex and Reggie. They’ve never felt loved enough, appreciated enough, supported enough. They’ve only had each other. And Julie’s stamp is love. And for Luke (as well as Reggie and Alex) from now on this girl is worth dying for all over again.

_______

So yeah. I hope you enjoyed it, as I for sure enjoyed writing. There is gonna be a part 3 about Julie and a few honorable mentions of parallels of the Pilot and the Finale (I hope at least to do all that). I’ve also figured very very cool connections in the songs and I can’t wait to share.

Also as I was heavily speaking about The Other side of Hollywood, @catty-words has a wonderful meta on rain metaphors here (sorry for tagging, if you don't want to be tagged), check it out if you somehow missed it. It's super clever.

[helloprettybb]

i don’t want to set the world on fire

The other Steve Rogers fic did surprisingly well. I have so many more ideas, so look out for those. Also, Peter Parker may come soon, but who knows. While writing this, I realized that I could probably write a part two, so would you all like that? Also, just warning you, I lowkey insult rock, but it’s only for the sake of the plot. Rock is great. I’m also writing a prequel for ‘i’ll be back’ which will be posted after this hopefully.

I have a plan to make this a series all inspired by old music. This first part is inspired by this song:

Warnings: almost rape

word count: 3.9k

“I didn’t mean to,” were the first words you uttered to the Avengers. Laying next to you was a man whose body was burnt to a crisp. Yet you, small and innocent-looking, were perfectly fine. Of course, they had some questions.

Your father was never in your life and your mother died from childbirth, so for most of your life, you were raised by your great aunt. Life was great, even normal, until she died when you were thirteen. Since you were a minor, you were placed in an orphanage while the house was up for rent. When you turned 18, you were allowed to move into her house. Although rather lonely, you were safe  and inherited a decent amount of money. Still, you had a part-time job to stay financially stable. 

You were walking up to your car when you noticed a piece of paper on your windshield. You knew what that meant so you quickly turned the other way but were too late. A man appeared out of nowhere and grabbed you. As much as you struggled, it was useless as he was much stronger than you. Before you could pull out your pepper spray, the man knocks you unconscious.

The first thing you see when you come to is a man hovering over you. He must have noticed you woke up because he cooed, “Don’t worry, I won’t take long,” You start to scream for help, but survey your surroundings and realize that you’re probably in the middle of nowhere. 

You panic as the man starts to unzip your pants. You can feel a heat burning inside of you. It feels like a volcano was erupting from within, extremely hot, but not uncomfortable. All of a sudden, a blast of fire erupts from your hands and shoots through the roof. You’re so taken aback that you don’t even notice the man burning to death until his screams of agony cut through your train of thought. You pull back instantly but it’s too late. The man is dying before your eyes and you are stuck frozen. Your brain starts up again and you look for something to put the fire out. You find a blanket and eventually put out the fire, but he is already dead.

All you could do is cry at the fact that you just killed a man. You’re so caught up in your tears that you don’t even realize that all your clothes are burned off. Shivering, you try to think of what to do. Noticing a dark bag in the corner, you hesitantly touch it and hope that it doesn’t burn to a crisp. Luckily, nothing happens so you rummage through it to find anything. You pull out a long shirt and clean boxers. Before you could think of an exit plan, you are startled by a blast through the door. 

You cower in fear as Iron Man flies and lands right in front of you. The rest of his team follow suit. They look at you, the burnt man and then back at you. Iron Man’s hand is glowing and pointed right at your face.

He towers over you, causing you to scoot back. He starts to say something when Captain America put up a hand and says, “She’s just a kid, Tony.” He squats down so that he’s eye level with you and asks, “Can you tell us what happened?”

You could barely talk since you were so nervous. Seeming to sense your fear, he removed his mask. You’ve seen him on television, but only as Captain America. But crouched in front of you, he didn’t seem like a superhero, but just an ordinary man. You rack your brain and finally remember his name: Steve Rogers. 

“H-he was trying to attack me. I don’t know how it happened, but one moment he was on top of me and the next he was on fire. I tried to put it out, but he was already dead.” you stutter, still shocked beyond belief. You start to hyperventilate as your actions finally sink in. “I didn’t mean to, honest. I didn’t even know I could do that. You have to believe me!” you cry unprompted. Steve moves to touch you soothingly before you quickly scoot away.

“Please don’t touch me! I don’t want to kill you too.” you exclaim, scared of your own body. Steve’s eyes are filled with what looks like sympathy and he glances at Tony.

He speaks up, “She’s right, Cap.” You suddenly notice the scanner on his suit. “Her temperature is off the charts. How are you alive, kid?”

Before you could attempt to answer his question, Steve speaks up, “We have to take her to the lab. Banner will know what to do.” With no further questions, you are escorted toward their ship, careful not to touch anyone. 

On the ship, you hear their muttered whispers and assume it’s about what they should do with you. After all, you’re just a stowaway. The ride feels like an eternity until the jet finally lands. The other Avenger separate, leaving you alone with Steve and Tony. They guide you inside the giant complex and you try not to gawk at the high ceilings and large staircases, but you’ve never been in a building this huge. 

You are directed downstairs to a high-tech lab. Tony types on a keyboard and does a retinal scan before the door opens. A smallish, fidgety man is in there and greets Tony. When he notices you, he asks politely, “Who’s this?”

Realizing he never caught your name, Tony turns to you and asks in an almost comical way, “Who are you?” You say your name and Tony continues, “Anyway, she uh, has some special abilities.” Bruce quirks an eyebrow at his wording and does a biological scan. His eyes widen when he sees your vitals.

“You have a temperature of 160 degrees Celsius.” he explains. You watch as he interacts with the projected screen.

“She also burned a hole in the ceiling.” Steve states, purposely excluding the part about you killing someone.

“This may sound like a stupid question, but can I touch people without hurting them?” you ask hesitantly. You don’t want to live the rest of your life in constant fear.

Bruce pushes the screen down and responds, “Well, I’ll have to do some tests before I know for sure. But seeing as you’re clothes are still intact, I assume that you are safe.” Bruce walks over to his lab table and starts typing something on his computer. You feel Steve’s gaze as you fidget uncomfortably.

“We’ll do the tests tomorrow. Let her get some rest,” Steve’s voice booms above you. Bruce just nods as you, Tony, and Steve leave the lab. As the three of you walk up the stairs, Tony’s phone goes off. 

He looks down and tells Steve, “It’s Pepper. Can you show Y/n to the residential area.” Steve nods and you two part ways with Tony. You’re silent as Steve guides you around the building and towards the elevator.

He presses the third button and you two stand in silence as the doors close. A familiar tune plays on the speakers. You smile after recognizing it. Steve catches your small grin and asks, “You know this song?”

“Uh, yeah. ‘Stop Pretending’ was one of my great aunt’s favorites. Personally, I prefer ‘I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire’” you comment lightly. Steve opens his mouth to say something when the doors open. He steps out and you follow him down the hall.

He stops in front of a door at the far end and says, “You can stay here for the time being. My room’s the first door on the left if you need anything,” Steve doesn’t know why he added that last part, but something about your wide, innocent eyes intrigued him and your affinity for old music sure didn’t hurt.

You open the door and start to walk in before turning around and tell, “Thank you, Steve.” He gives you a glowing smile before you close the door. You didn’t realize how tired you were until your head hit the pillow and you instantly fell asleep.

-

You’re woken up by a muted, yet pestering, alarm. “Miss Y/n, Dr. Banner requests your presence.” a disembodied voice says. You look at the clock and see that it’s nearly ten o’clock. You step into the elevator and expecting to hear smooth jazz music, are extremely caught off guard by the jarring rock music. Never a big fan of rock, you cringe slightly as the speakers blast the loud electric guitars and intense drums. Luckily you are spared when the elevator doors open to the living room. You see the Avengers, now in normal clothes, lounging on the couches.

They all get up and walk towards you. A man with only one arm goes to introduce himself, “I’m Bucky. Who are you?”

“I’m y/n.” you reply sheepishly, feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the new faces. You vaguely remember them from tv but an introduction helps. They go around and say their names. You remembered Natasha and Clint as Black Widow and Hawkeye but you didn’t know the man named Sam Wilson. You shake everyone’s hand and you mentally sigh in relief that you didn’t burn anyone.

They start a conversation with you and before you could respond a voice calls, “Y/n, aren’t you starting with Banner today?” You look over Natasha’s shoulder to see Steve. He’s wearing a fairly tight grey shirt and sweats that if you were in any other situation, would distract you greatly.

“Yeah, I was heading down there now.” you reply with a curt nod.

“I’ll walk you down.” he states, walking towards you. The others part so that Steve could get through. You follow him towards the stairs that lead to the lab.

“Sorry about them. They can be a little intense at first, but I promise they don’t bite.” Steve jokes and cracks a beautiful smile.

“No, it’s alright.” you reply with a smile to assure him, “They seem nice. I’m just not the best with people.” You realize how sad that sounded and it seems that he did too. It looks like he’s about to say something when the lab door opens.

“Y/n, come in.” Bruce insists. You and Steve walk in the lab and Bruce closes the door behind you. He leads you over to his work area and starts, “Before I test your abilities, I want to understand how your abilities work. I’ll do a couple blood tests, take some skin samples, and do a DNA test.” He pulls out a needle and you instantly stiffen. 

Steve notices and you half-joke, “I’m not the biggest fan of needles.” You expect Steve to leave when Bruce starts preparing the needle, but he stays. The more you think of the needle, the less you can control your shaky hands. You close your eyes to try and block out the image of the needles piercing your skin.

You feel a panic attack coming when you feel a hand slipping into yours. You open your eyes and look down at Steve’s outstretched hand. Before you could say anything, you feel the needle prick. Almost out of instinct, you grab onto Steve’s large hand. His calm, blue eyes ease your tension and divert your attention from the blood. Steve starts lightly caressing your knuckles and you feel yourself warm up. 

It’s a different type of warm than in the warehouse. It feels like a warm hearth spreading through your body. Your mind wanders 

“Okay, I’ll have the results in a couple days.” Banner states, interrupting your thoughts. You look down and see a band-aid on your arm.

“It’s done already?” you ask, surprised that you actually did it without passing out.

“Yeah, you did it, doll.” Steve replies with his hand still wrapped around yours. Doll. You wonder if you were just imagining that, but you have to admit, that nickname made you feel a certain way. 

You glance over at Banner who is dripping the blood into a tube. You start shaking again and start to feel the urge to throw up. Steve’s solid hand lightly squeezes yours and he asks Banner, “Does she need to do any more tests?” 

“No, not today at least. It’ll take me a couple days to perform tests since I have Tony’s side project to work on. You’re free to go.” he replies. 

Steve lets go of your hand and it immediately feels colder. You hop off the stool and follow Steve out of the lab. As you walk, your stomach grumbles and Steve asks, “When was the last time you’ve eaten?” 

You think back to the past 24 hours and realize you haven’t eaten since that man abducted you. “Not since yesterday,” you reply. 

Steve furrows his brow at that and states, “I’ll make you something.” Before you could protest, Steve walks into the kitchen and looks through the cabinets. “What would you like?” he asks politely.

“Um, anything. I’m not picky.” you respond, pulling out a stool from under the counter. Swinging your legs, you watch Steve as he begins to make you a sandwich. Something about Captain America making you a sandwich is so odd that you laugh to yourself.

You didn’t realize you actually laughed out loud until Steve looks up at you. “Sorry, I just think it’s funny that Captain America is cooking for me.” you explain. Steve responds with a small smile and light chuckle and continues cooking. When he’s done, he pulls out a plate and hands you your food.

You smile widely, surprised that he’s so nice and caring, “Thank you, I’m starving.” He hands you the plate and you sit on a stool by the counter. Steve stands on the other side, waiting for you to take your first bite. You moan with delight and mumble with food still in your mouth, “It’s delicious.” Steve smiles as you continue eating.

A comfortable silence forms around the two of you. When you finish, you wipe your mouth with a napkin and get up to put your plate in the dishwasher. “Hey, uh, thank you for not mentioning the guy dying.” you note awkwardly as you throw the napkin in the trash.

“Don’t mention it.” He replies, turning to face you and shooting a short smile. He sees you look down, presumably too ashamed to look him in the eye, “Hey,” he starts, drawing your attention, “If you ever need to talk, I’m here.” He adds an assuring smile that makes you melt a little.

“Thanks, Steve.” you convey before heading upstairs. You take the stairs to avoid the rock music and although it’s a tiring three flights, at least it’s quiet.

-

It’s not that you don’t like the Avengers, but being alone for nearly a decade gave you some certain habits. One distinct habit was eating alone, which you didn’t realize how odd it was until Natasha asked, “Hey, Y/n. Do you want to eat with us?”

You wanted to say yes, but your years of self-isolation made you reply, “Oh, uh, I’m just going to eat in my room. Thank you, though.” Steve gives you a brief wave before looking back at his crossword puzzle like a true old man. 

Natasha watches you walk out and hums a short, “Hm.” 

“What is it?” Bucky asks, eyes flitting over to Natasha who has a confused look on her face.

“I wonder why Y/n insists on eating alone.” she takes a bite of her food and thinks again, “Are we not inviting enough?”

Tony laughs and replies, “You’re about as inviting as the green guy.” Luckily Bruce is down at the lab or else he would have stared daggers at him.

Nat rolls her eyes and says, “Well, I showed her my knife collection and she seemed pretty entertained.” Tony, Bucky, and Natasha present multiple theories.

“Maybe she just likes her personal space.” Tony shrugs, proposing the most logical explanation.

“Yeah, I guess. But I don’t know, there has to be another-” Natasha starts before Wanda interrupts her.

“It’s because of her great aunt.” Everyone at the table turns to Wanda. 

“How do you know that?” Bucky asks skeptically. Wanda rolls her eyes and simply points at her head. “Oh, yeah.”

Wanda continues, “After she died, Y/n was left alone and stayed that way for years.” She takes one last bite and adds, “I think she isn’t used to all this company.” Everyone seems to accept this answer and they take their last bites before picking up their plates. 

Wanda remembers one last thing and states, “Oh, yeah, and because Steve held her hand.” Bucky wolf whistles and Natasha’s eyebrows shoot up.

Steve had been listening to the conversation, but after hearing his name, he speaks for the first time since dinner started. “Bruce was drawing her blood and she looked really nervous.” Steve explains with an eye roll. He walks away before they could bully him anymore.

-

Throughout the week, Banner performed a skin biopsy, MRI, and DNA test. While none of them were as bad as the blood test, you wished Steve had been with you for them. You knew he was busy, being Captain America and all. Occasionally, you’d see him around the Compound but you haven’t had a full conversation with him since that one time.

On your fifth day, you find yourself wandering the Compound yet again. It seems that no matter how many times you wander, you still find a new room to discover. You open a door on the first floor and see a vast ballroom. It isn’t the ballroom that catches your attention, but what lies in the corner.

A beautiful grand piano is tucked away next time a guitar, drums, and microphone. Strolling over, you remove the keyboard cover and press a key. The piano sings, sounding prettier than your great aunt’s old upright piano. Smiling to yourself, you sit on the bench and begin to play. You become so lost in the music that you don’t even hear the footsteps walking closer.

You come to the end of a song and a voice behind you asks, “You play?” You turn, even though you already knew who it was. Steve’s blue eyes are so intense that you falter a bit before responding.

“Yeah, or at least I used to. My great aunt taught me before she passed away.” you sigh and turn back to the piano. Steve sits beside you on the bench and you start a slow, pretty tune. “I haven’t played since.” you admit sadly. 

“I’m sorry,” Steve says, not knowing what to say at the moment.

You smile a little sadly and remark, “You would have loved her. She’d always have her record player on and it’d fill the house with The Ink Spots or Al Bowlly.” 

As you reminisce, Steve studies you. With everything going on, he hasn’t had the chance to truly see you. You’re beautiful, but Steve already knew that. He noticed all the little imperfections that seemed to make you even more flawless. He can tell that you’re scared and he admires your calm disposition with all of this. 

He focuses on your hands, elegant and graceful across the keys. You apologize a couple times for your mistakes, but Steve doesn’t hear them. Even if he did, he wouldn’t care. Everything about you seems effortless and beautiful. When he first met you, he thought you were just a kid, but now he couldn’t be more wrong. You didn’t look old, but you had a mature beauty and something about your essence tells Steve that you’ve seen things.

Your hands slow and Steve sees a sly smile spread across your face. When you start again, Steve recognizes the introduction. He matches your smile and asks, “I’m Beginning to See the Light?”

“Yes, it’s one of the first non-classical songs I learned.” you respond. Steve nods and you return your focus to the music. You get so lost in it that you don’t even realize that you’re singing quietly. 

Your trance-like state is interrupted when Steve says lowly, “You have a beautiful singing voice.” You blush a little since no one except your great aunt has heard you sing.

“Thank you,” you respond, a little embarrassed. He already heard you sing so mind as well continue. A little louder, you sing, “Then you came and caused a spark. That’s a four-alarm fire now.” When the song ends, a sudden thought strike you.

“Why does the elevator only play jazz when you’re on it?” you ask curiously, trying to change the conversation.

He chuckles lightly and responds, “The elevator is programmed to play certain music for each of us. For guests, it plays Tony’s rock playlist.” You roll your eyes and close the fallboard.

“It was awful. How could anyone enjoying something that loud, especially in the morning?” you joke and Steve laughs.

“You’ll find out sooner or later that there’s a lot of things about Stark that can’t be explained.” Steve jests and you laugh. 

“I’ve been avoiding the elevator ever since.” you admit and Steve chuckles. 

F.R.I.D.A.Y breaks the conversation and announces, “Y/n, you’re test results are in. Dr. Banner requests your presence.” Trying to hide your disappointment, you get up and Steve follows suit. The two of you walk out of the ballroom. 

At the top of the lab stairs, you tell Steve, “Well, I guess I better get going.” 

“Yeah, see you later.” Steve says, giving a quick wave. You give him a final goodbye before heading down to the lab.

-

“You said that was the first time it happened?” Bruce asks and you nod in response. For the past half hour, Bruce explained the many discoveries he made. Turns out, not only could you produce fire, but your body can withstand such high temperatures that you could walk through fire. 

He continues, “Well, it seems there was a stimulus that triggered your body to increase its temperature so high that you were able to produce fire.” You nod as he continues, “I think with proper training, you could learn to control and use your abilities.” 

You raise your eyebrows in shock. Obviously, these new abilities would change your life, but you never thought you could actually achieve something with them. You ask, “Well, um, how do we go about this training?” 

Bruce thinks a bit and responds, “I’ll ask the team and we’ll put something together.” Bruce turns to work on something else and you take that as your cue to leave.

You remember a distinct detail from when you used your abilities and ask, “Can you design a suit that doesn’t result in me being naked every time I set on fire?” 

Bruce blushes a bit out of embarrassment and replies, “I’ll tell Tony.” You walk out of the lab and up the stairs. Too tired, you grit your teeth and decide to use the elevator.

Bracing yourself for heavy rock, you plug your ears. But when the elevator doors close and you don’t hear anything, you remove your fingers from your ears. You smile to yourself as the song ‘I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire’ starts playing. 

[cosmiciaria]

In defense of Detroit Become Human (spoilers marked - long post!)

I know I arrived late at the party and everything that could've been said about this game has already been said – but I do want to add some things I haven't found in some reviews I’ve come across, while addressing all the flaws and giving credit where credit is due. And believe it or don't, this game is due a lot of credit. Yes, a game by David Cage is due credit, what has the world come to?

I must admit I'm not the greatest of fans of Cage's works. I can see all the flaws and plot holes in his games/interactive movies, but unlike others, I'm not that bothered by them. Hell, there are plot holes in many good stories and even the greatest games have some flaws, sometimes it feels people like picking one director and hating on them (cof cof, Tabata from Square cof). This doesn't mean Cage is free of sins, since that's far from reality: I still remember the Ellen Page's controversy with her naked model inside the game, and the creepy things they did to Madison in Heavy Rain for no reason whatsoever. Man, I think you should revalue some of your fetishes.

But aside from that, his games are heavily narrated focus, straying too far from the ordinary hero path and 'saving the world with the power of friendship'. He's stated there are so many things we can do in the videogame industry, and that most developers stick to the usual formula, just because they know it works and it profits. And I can understand his point of view, and even support it, that's why I always try to find something good in his games, even when the dialogues are bad and some acting leaves much to be desired – that happens in every game, in every movie, in every series.

Detroit Become Human is, by far, the best work by Cage. I can say so with full confidence: it's the first of his stories whose plot seem cohesive, coherent, whose characters undergo a visible and palpable development throughout the whole game, whose decisions and paths actually cross-impact later chapters and your choices do shape the way the story unfolds. I stress this because, for example in Beyond, your choices didn't matter much – even the QTE's were pretty useless. You just decided how the game would end in the last ten minutes of plot and that was it. Detroit, on the other hand, is so well planned that things you've done in the very first chapter have repercussions later down the line, and it's not like there's just two endings, but a lot of them, and lot of combinations that I'm still discovering. Your choices affect the during of the story, not just the ending. You can have good relationship with someone, or a bad one, and that will affect each scene those characters are in. You can have a good reputation with a group, or they can hate you, and so you will be ejected from the team. You can act irrational, or stay forever a machine, and the last big choice regarding that will depend of your actions across the whole game.

Just the decision making is a huge step up from previous works. And I can only compare this game to Until Dawn, but even in there, there are less decisions and less impact. Detroit is overwhelmingly huge when it comes to different paths and different versions of the same story. So much so that I told a friend who was also playing it about a scene, and she said 'wait, when does that happen? I didn't see it!'. It was as if we were talking about different games.

Detroit is about androids. It's the year 2038 and androids have flooded the market. They're like your usual vacuum but, hey, they can cook, take care of your children and even satisfy you sexually. They are such a common thing to see in the city that people ignore them. Most families have at least one android in their household, becoming completely reliant on their features. This is a future not so far away from our present.

But, lo and behold, because this game will explore the idea of 'freedom'. And, as you could've expected, some androids suddenly realize they don't want to work for humans anymore. Some androids are mistreated by their owners and suddenly they know they're in an unfair situation. Some androids have ambitions, dreams, ideas – some androids have the desire to be free.

And so, they become deviants. An artificial intelligence, capable of billions of simultaneous operations, young forever, and with conscience. Afraid, yet?

We will follow three main characters who happen to be androids: Connor, Markus and Kara. Connor is a prototype designed to assist investigators and police officers with cases, and he comes with many features that will facilitate all the analysis of clues. Markus is an android designed to care for an old man who has lost his mobility, and lives with him and cares for him as if he were his son. Kara is a housemaid android, who specializes in cleaning and taking care of children, but her owner is a drug-addict who forgot what it means to be a father.

Markus and Kara realize their unfair situation pretty early in the game, so they become deviants well at the beginning. Connor, on the other hand… well, it's in your hands to decide his fate.

Their stories will be intertwined: Connor will investigate cases involving deviants, alongside his sidekick – I mean, his partner, Lieutenant Hank Anderson, an old, anti-android human whose past is yet to be revealed; Markus will be falsely accused of aggression towards his owner or his son (depending what you choose), and he will come back from the dead, ready to lead a revolution against humans, demanding androids' rights; Kara will realize she wants to be a mother, and she will save the daughter of her owner from that hellhole they live in, only to travel from one corner of the city to another in search for an escape route. While Connor's and Markus's stories are well entangled, Kara's always felt a bit separated from them, which can be a huge let down. Personally, Kara's story was the one I enjoyed the least, but it has to do with something that happens at the end – that stupid plot twist – besides, it's more than clear in Kara's plotline that all the BS Cage loved from his previous games makes a return in here. Sometimes it felt like he left blender open and all the disastrous ideas he had for her story were spilled all over his kitchen. I can't think of anything else for that, because her plotline is a Frankestein of a story – uneven, irregular, although it has some touching moments, and Valerie Curry, the actress who plays Kara, delivers some guuud acting and lines.

I know the main message this game is trying to send is that androids are equals to humans. This is the most controversial aspect of the game: Cage, whether he says he did purposely or not, has compared the androids' struggle for freedom to that of African-American people, mixing together slavery and segregation. It's funny because Cage stated it wasn't his plan to allude to actual historical events that did happen not so long ago, and still we can see the segregation of androids in public transport, in public places, and the fact that Markus, with a bunch of other androids as well, demand freedom and the end of slavery from the humans. I like it more when he asks for fair compensation for their work.

And I say it's controversial because it's sending a wrong message. Slavery and segregation weren't contemporary, one came after the other; and the fact that they make a clear comparison to that social movement is criticizable. I'm not the most expert on US history – hell I'm from Argentina, guys – but even I know that the bloody history behind the fight for equal rights is far from over and has put the country on the brink of breaking down many times. That someone deliberately compares the android's fight that took only a few months to develop to that monstrous side of US history is, uhm, questionable in the least.

BUT let's just say that it's an awful coincidence (I'm looking at you, Cage) and leave it aside for a moment. That's the main message the game tries to send. But I believe the game actually sends another message, that is better executed, better fleshed out.

Androids and humans can love each other.        

[SPOILER scroll down until you see the end of the spoiler section]

This is obvious at the beginning with Markus, if you decide to endure Leo's bullying. Carl, Markus' owner, dies from a heart attack, and Markus, crying, desperate, falls to his knees and embraces the man who's been acting like his father for years. He yells Dad, no! in front of the real son, provoking a reaction in him and in the player. Just in this tiny moment, which I think most people slip by without paying too much attention, is enough message. It explains everything.

If you decide to push Leo, the scene plays out differently, and we learn this message towards the end, still in Markus' branch. Later in the story you go back and visit Carl, who doesn't die, but is instead stuck in his bed, connected to cables and such. He regards Markus with love and tenderness, and holds his hand, saying You're my son, Markus. Your blood is a different color, but I know that a part of me lives in you. Thank you, you made me cry.

This message is also well developed in the friendship you can form with Connor and Hank. And notice the 'you can' because you can also make them hate each other. But why on earth would you make Hank mad, if not only for the trophy? Because I can't bear the idea of disappointing that good old man. I need him to be proud of me – I mean, of Connor! Their relationship is wholesome, with some instances in which Hank calls him his son, which melted my heart obviously. Knowing that Hank had lost his real son prior to the events of the game makes all this even more touching and moving.

This message is not well conveyed with Kara and Alice, and you might guess why – yes, the fact that towards the end we learn that Alice isn't a human but an android too, utterly destroys the whole concept the game has been trying to build up for this moment. I don't know why Cage thought this was a good idea – maybe trying to explain that androids can love each other as family just like humans do, but that kinda breaks the rules here, because the idea was an android discovering they can love thanks to a human, who has all the real feelings whereas the androids have this emulations and… alright you get me. How can we truly know if they love each other for real if they are two androids? How can we make sure it isn't just some emulation and chemicals inside their metal bodies? Alright I'm going too deep here? Maybe?

[END OF SPOILER SECTION]

All in all, this is the message that stays with me after playing the game. I don't know if Cage did it purposely (suddenly all his messages are casual), but this is what I can save and treasure from this story. Oh, and also, save your fucking planet, polar bears are going extinct.

Characters are really well created. Their interactions are believable and natural, the acting (specially Bryan Dechart as Connor and Clancy Brown as Hank) is flawless, and you can appreciate when they become deviant and when they start thinking for themselves. Some lines delivered by Markus felt a bit forced, but I've heard the actor talk and he talks like that so maybe is the way he speaks. There are some secondary characters that became my favorite really quick, like Luther, Kara's companion in this journey; Simon, one of the first members of the revolution Markus meet; Hank, of course, although I deem him as a main character at this point. Others, well… Gavin is your well-known bully, whose lines are so stupid I can't believe his character made it into the game. Like really, he's taken straight out of a 90's high school movie. I could hear Henry Bowers from It laughing at his attempt of being a bad boy.

On the technical department, this game is stunning. Visuals are a delight: sometimes you couldn't differentiate if it was filmed or if it was CGI. Hint: it was all CGI! Faces, expressions, animations, I can't complain of any of those. The character's eyes, which are the only thing the motion capture can't record, were all added digitally, and I'm bound to say that they're perfect: they make each character feel real, alive. You know when you're staring at something, that your eyes regard everything and your pupils have these tiny, micro, slight movements? That was in the game, and I loved it. Clothes get wet when it's raining, they get frozen when it's snowy, and lights reflect every surface so realistically that you can tell the texture of each object and piece of cloth.

Music is also a great asset in this game. Each character had a different composer, which brought a distinct and unique aspect to each of their stories. I know I've been hating on Kara until now, but I must admit her theme song is the best out of everything in this game. Even when I watched the cutscenes back when the game was released, I had her theme buried under my skin, for it's melancholic, it reminds me of rain, and it makes me wanna cry.

Another aspect I want to address is the gameplay. You know Cage loves his daily doses of QTE's. But this time, though, they're well executed. I recommend playing the game in Experienced difficulty (which is the normal difficulty), because it truly offers a more immersive experience. The use of the controller in all this was clever, and they used everything they had at their disposal to make you feel you're there in the story. For instance, the use of the vibration system of your joystick: when you pet the dog at Hank's house, you can feel a very slight vibration in your hands, as if the dog was breathing, what you would feel when you pet a dog, of course; but when you're driving a truck that leaves the sidewalk and falls into the street, you feel the sudden rough movement and the way the engine is speeding up; or you can feel heartbeats when Markus is trying to repair himself. All these instances of breaking the fourth wall to make you feel part of the story are implemented in such an intelligent way that it works wonders.

And speaking about breaking the fourth wall… In your main menu you'll have an android that will be your hostess. She will comment on the discoveries you'll be finding in your storyline, but she will also play some tricks to you or talk to you all of a sudden. And if you reach the good ending… well, there's a surprise with her. Let's just say that she's a great addition to the game and a fan favorite.

In conclusion, this is by far Cage's most polished and well thought game to date. And I've been hiding my obsession with Connor up until now so you wouldn't think I'm crazy but, I can't believe Cage created a character like this. I love him. Protect this sweet summer child. Don't make him a machine, please :'( Connor Army here I go.

If you have doubts about this game, buy it on sale. You will at least have a good time playing it and discovering the different paths. But if you like heavily narrated games, and you have at least enjoyed some of his previous works, don't miss on this one. It's really better. And it's really more worth it.