#danny really wants to scale that mountain | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mrs-luigi-vargas · 1 year ago

Text

50 of My Favorite Fics from 2023

Did something like this last year on Dreamwidth and it was fun so I’m doing it this year, on Tumblr this time! These are all fics I read last year and loved a lot!

It’s 50 fics because that’s about how many recs were on my list last time by happenstance so I decided to just roll with it. Especially because I read so much fic this year, between the comment bingos and the explosion of Mario fic in the months before and after the Mario movie, for example. Thus, I probably forgot some good ones, somehow (I was mostly going off my AO3 bookmarks for the year + what I’d reblogged on Tumblr) so whoopsies if some quality fics slipped through the cracks! ^_^;

This list ended up being

50% Super Mario Bros,

18% Ace Attorney,

6% Danny Phantom x DCU,

4% Professor Layton, Pokémon, and Linked Universe each, and

14% comprised of other assorted fandoms,

which is obviously a way different distribution from last year, haha!

Regardless, if you’re going through the list and wondering about an author showing up more than once (or maybe even four times) then that’s your cue to go check out the rest of their fic catalogue because it all slaps! That's why they're on here so much! (^o^)/

So, without further ado:

Super Mario Brothers

A Dream of Sunny Skies by Skippy_Watts Rated T | M/M | No Archive Warnings Apply Bowser/Luigi, Luigi & Mario, Bowser & Mario, Bowser & Peach 11 chapters | 62,474 words | Complete A strange affliction is causing Luigi to sleep more and more each day. Worried about his constant collapses, Mario enlists Princess Peach’s help in looking for a cure, leaving Bowser to play nurse and watch over the dreaming brother. To Bowser, this is just an easy favour to make Mario owe him in the future. However, he soon starts to find himself getting much too invested in the wellbeing of a man who may soon never wake up again.

a gentleman by MrSpockify Rated E | F/M | No Archive Warnings Apply Mario/Peach One-Shot | 4,568 words | Complete Peach spent her nights longing for Mario to touch her, to grab her with a passion she knew he possessed. She had seen him scale mountains with ease, punch his way through brick walls, and beat down enemies while hardly breaking a sweat. He was strong and sharp and so, so capable of taking whatever he wanted from her. She wanted to give it to him, whatever it was that he wanted. He just… wouldn’t take it.

All the Gold in the World by peaches2217 Rated G | M/M | No Archive Warnings Apply Luigi/Prince Peasley One-shot | 2,647 words | Complete The quality of one’s character based on the fabric they clad themselves in. The notion made little sense to Peasley. "What constitutes a 'real man'?" ~ Or, "Peasley Doesn’t Acknowledge Gender Norms and Wants to See Luigi in a Pretty Dress."

Coming Down by MrSpockify Rated T | Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply Mario & Luigi 20 chapters | 70,245 words | Incomplete “You can tell me anything,” Mario tried again, leaning over to look at his brother, but he couldn’t quite catch his eye. “You won’t like what I have to say.” “Tell me anyway.” ~ The brothers face the realization that one of them is unable to cope in the aftermath of Bowser. They just never really thought it would be Mario.

Cooking Mama (Luigi)! by Little_RedHots_Riding_Hood Not Rated | F/M, M/M | No Archive Warnings Apply Bowser/Luigi, Mario/Peach, Luigi & Bowser Jr, Luigi & Koopalings 27 chapters | 83,036 words | Complete Luigi was having a perfectly peaceful stroll through the Toad Market - the sun was shining, he'd just found a lovely handmade blanket, and was on his way to the bakery before heading back to his and Mario's home. Only... what was that sniffling noise from that dark, scary alleyway? Of all the creatures he was expecting to find, the littlest prince of the Koopa Kingdom certainly wasn't it.

Day Forty-Two by Useless19 Rated G | M/M | No Archive Warnings Apply Bowser/Luigi, Mario & Luigi, Bowser Jr. & Luigi One-Shot | 7,119 words | Complete Luigi returns to Bowser's castle. Somehow he's the only one who isn't surprised by this.

Father Koopa by Razzbarry Rated G | No Archive Warnings Apply Bowser & Kamek One-Shot | 1,457 words | Complete Something’s sent Bowser into a furious rage, and it’s up to Kamek to calm him down.

Growing Pains by JupiterRainstorms Rated G | Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply Mario & Luigi One-Shot | 4,946 words | Complete It’s something he shares with his brother, a connection that feels almost tangible if he thinks about it hard enough—he’s always been the green to Mario’s red. For as long as either of them can remember, it’s always been the two of them off in their own little world.

I Diagnose You with Crocodile by KnightOn Rated G | Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply Luigi & Mario 4 chapters | 4,833 words | Complete Alternative title: The Id and the Ego Walk into a Bar… Luigi has a chat with his other half.

Koopa Princess by Esperata Rated G | Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply Bowser & Wendy O. Koopa One-Shot | 687 words | Complete Boy things, Bowser understands. With girl stuff however, he struggles. He tries his best for his little princess though.

Linguistically Challenged by Krackaroo21 Rated G | Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply Mario & Peach One-Shot | 4,768 words | Complete It was nothing short of a miracle that someone came to rescue Princess Peach. But she would never expect a language barrier to make her getaway so frustrating.

Looking the Other Way by Istadris Rated T | Gen | Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Bowser’s Army, Bowser, Mario One-Shot | 1,500 words | Complete All around them were the loyal, the fanatics, the enthusiasts, the fatalists; the ones who followed King Bowser out of worship and the ones who wouldn't care if someone challenged the status quo. Ears which could listen and report any signs of dissension. Their companions, their friends, their family, all would turn on them if they voiced their doubts. King Bowser was the strongest. Therefore King Bowser was right. That was all there was to know. The best thing to do was to look the other way.

Nobody’s ever heard of a girl Toad by wordbending Rated G | Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply Toad, Peach, Mario One-Shot | 2,092 words | Complete Nobody’s ever heard of a girl Toad, least of all Toads themselves. If you asked a Toad what pronouns he used (it was always “he”), he’d just stare at you quizzically for a moment before answering “I just check the dictionary!” Still, as one Toad stares into the mirror, looking back at a Toad indistinguishable from the thousands that look exactly like him, he wonders if it was always like that.

Pay No Mind to the Man in the Mirror by h0moquixotic (h0moneurotic) Rated T | Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply Kamek One-Shot | 511 words | Complete Kamek cherishes his opportunity to look like the Princess. Until he doesn't.

Plateau by peaches2217 Rated E | F/M | No Archive Warnings Apply Mario/Peach One-Shot | 3,803 words | Complete “A spell that does what?” “‘Prevents contractions of the bulbospongiosus muscle and withholds resultant bodily and neurochemical emissions,’” Peach repeats directly from the page before her. That’s an unnecessarily complicated way of saying ‘This spell makes it physically impossible to orgasm.’

Super Bowuigi Odyssey by ProtoChan Rated G | M/M | No Archive Warnings Apply Bowser/Luigi, Mario/Peach 102 chapters | 166,306 words | Incomplete When Luigi and Bowser find themselves stranded together in the Lost Kingdom after a turbulent windstorm sends them flying off Bowser’s airship, a busted up Odyssey becomes their unlikeliest of saviors. Now reluctant traveling companions, doomed to remain marooned without the other’s help, the two gather power moons and embark on a globe-trotting adventure home. However, as they fly and hunt for moons together, encountering and overcoming any and all conflicts in their way, their reservations about each other wither away while a fondness forged through their travels grows into something neither of them ever thought was possible.

tethered by MrSpockify Rated M | F/M | No Archive Warnings Apply Mario/Peach One-Shot | 2,214 words | Complete Mario woke with a knot in his throat and a soft cry on his lips. His eyes shot open, and as he lay struggling for breath and clutching his own chest, his eyes darted around rapidly, trying unsuccessfully to see through the darkness that surrounded him. The only thought on his mind was Peach. Peach, who he had just seen die before his very eyes, burned alive by his greatest enemy. ~ When Mario wakes from a terrifying nightmare, Peach takes care of him and sooths his worries.

Little Events by Vegebulluv Rated G | Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Toadsworth & Peach 2 chapters | 5,115 words | Incomplete Expansions on little moments of Peach's life following my other fics.

The Mushroom Kingdom’s Unconventional Line of Defence by Amethyst_Goldwind Rated T | Gen | Graphic Depictions of Violence Mallow & Bowser One-Shot | 3,665 words | Complete That Toad remembers his bazooka at a time nobody needed him to.

The Quiet of Night by Istadris Rated G | Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply Mario & Luigi One-Shot | 954 words | Complete It was true, Mario preferred to travel alone. But never for the reasons everyone expected when they looked at the brothers.

This Blazing World by SelanPike Rated T | Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply Kamek, Geno, Fawful, Ludwig von Koopa, Wendy Koopa 8 chapters | 14,462 words | Complete Even the Star Sprites had questions about the Dark Star. Surely they knew more about what the Dark Star was, but maybe they were in the dark as to what exactly happened to it, and what it left behind. If that was the case, then Kamek was at an advantage. He had something they’d want to see.

Three Times Toad Broke In And One Time He Didn't Have To by BlueJay2 Rated G | Gen | Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Mario & Luigi & Toad One-Shot | 8,810 words | Complete After the bros move into the Mushroom Kingdom, their new friend Toad is excited to show them things in his world. Unfortunately, he gets a little too excited and also knows how to pick locks. There are shenanigans.

Traduzione, Per Favore? by peaches2217 Rated G | F/M | No Archive Warnings Apply Mario/Peach One-Shot | 1,682 words | Complete "I’m named after a fruit. Surely you have a word for ‘peach’." ~ OR: Peach asks a silly question and Mario falls a little harder.

Untitled Dimigi Smut by lizadale Rated E | M/M | No Archive Warnings Apply Dimentio/Luigi One-Shot | 3,905 words | Complete You’re not trying to be rude to him. It’s unintentional, this time, but at this rate you may be lucky if he ever lets you leave the house again.

Whatever the universe is made of. by TheMusicalCC Rated G | F/M | No Archive Warnings Apply Luigi/Rosalina One-Shot | 4,908 words | Complete "They do say butterflies can’t see their own wings.” She muttered. (Super Mario Galaxy but Luigi and Rosalina get to interact.)

Ace Attorney

An Insecure Turnabout by Red_Acted (96percentdone) Rated T | Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply Miles Edgeworth & Larry Butz One-Shot | 2,178 words | Complete Crying at the drop of a hat is a quirk of Larry's that you get used to after spending a few minutes around him. Miles has spent several years, and yet despite all those years, all those horribly loud bars and messy break ups, he's never seen anything like this. Larry is crying, and it appears it's Miles' fault. In which Miles Edgeworth has had enough of being dragged to clubs, but his annoyance is the least pressing issue.

atroquinine girl and the fox with the hole in his heart by kbots Rated G | F/M | No Archive Warnings Apply Vera Misham/Wocky Kitaki One-Shot | 7,724 words | Complete After a beat, the boy shrugs. “S’cool. You don’t gotta talk if you don’t want. Ma always says I can do enough talkin’ for two.” He pulls a box out of the pocket of his hospital gown - the box of pocky - and offers it out to Vera. “Name’s Wocky. Want a pocky?” ~ where Vera Misham meets the strangest boy of her life while recovering in the hospital and somehow, against the odds, makes her very first friend

Cold Case by RockettoMusashi Rated T | F/F | No Archive Warnings Apply Maya Fey/Franziska von Karma, Maya Fey & Phoenix Wright, Maya Fey & Miles Edgeworth One-Shot | 9,489 words | Complete Deep into a strangely cold LA winter, unseen from prying eyes... the most despicable, most uncouth, most heinous crime has been committed. Of all the hardship the young Maya Fey has seen since leaving her quaint little commune in the mountains, truly no horror has trifled her on such a level as this. Someone... has gotten her sick. Ever the determined truth-seeker, and with years of (totally legit) legal experience under her obi, Maya is going to find out who.

come dine with me by pheenick Rated T | M/M | No Archive Warnings Apply Dick Gumshoe/Phoenix Wright, Phoenix Wright & Maya Fey One-Shot | 5,715 words | Complete “It’ll be a long drive,” says Phoenix, cautiously toeing the waters. He spares a glance at Gumshoe and ends up staring openly. Gumshoe smiles. That’s all he does, but Phoenix swears he sees the afternoon sun rising above the clouds. ~ Or, how Gumshoe gets the guy.

Leopard Lily by frogs_in3_hills Rated T | Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply Viola Cadaverini & Maggey Byrde One-Shot | 3,564 words | Complete Wright frowned, straightened, and looked her in the eyes. “It’s not like that. I won’t pretend to know what it’s like having brain surgery, but… in therapy, you’re the one in control, not the doctors. You don’t have to tell them anything you don’t want to, they’re just there to help you out. This woman specializes in trauma and abuse recovery, so just… please consider it, Miss Cadaverini. You’ve been through a lot, and I think it could really help.” Well, that did sound a little better than being put under anesthetic so that a stranger could lobotomize you. ~ In which Viola enacts her vengeance through community gardening.

my crown i am by zombiekittez Rated M | Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply Rayfa Padma Khura'in, Pearl Fey, Nahyuta Sahdmadhi, Apollo Justice 3 chapters | 6,367 words | Complete Pearl Fey cleans the temple like the lowest devotee. She helps translate foreign records into Khurainese, for she is nearly fluent. She stands beside children and frightened women in the docket, helping Apollo and his newly trained lawyers coax testimony from the anxious and weak. They call her the Golden Pearl for the way her light hair catches in the hot Khurainese sun and Rayfa hates her more each passing day. ~ Or, Pearl Fey comes to Khura’in.

the only love i ever found by jambi_cafe Rated G | M/M, Other | No Archive Warnings Apply Miles Edgeworth/Phoenix Wright, Miles Edgeworth & Phoenix Wright One-Shot | 1,571 words | Complete "Have I not made myself clear? I do not spend my time idly. If I am with you, it is because I want to be." Edgeworth speaks with the thoughtfulness and commitment that he brings to everything he does, declaring the above statements as if they are courtroom evidence. Incontrovertible. Phoenix's heart does an odd sort of thing, filling his whole body with warmth. ~ a queer-platonic love story for phoenix and miles. set sometime after aa2.

The State of Spicy Noodles in Southern California by RokettoMusashi Rated T | F/F, Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply Maya Fey/Franziska von Karma, Franziska von Karma & Miles Edgeworth One-Shot | 6,317 words | Complete “Maya Fey,” she says, “I regret to be the bearer of bad news, but it seems as though my living space is woefully unprepared to properly nurse you back to health.” “Are you drafting me a fucking work email right now?”

Turnabout Substitution by pictureswithboxes Rated T | F/F | No Archive Warnings Apply Maya Fey/Franziska von Karma, Pearl Fey & Franziska von Karma, Pearl Fey & Maya Fey, Franziska von Karma & Miles Edgeworth, background Phoenix/Miles 8 chapters | 54,776 words | Complete '“I must have misheard you,” Franziska said, almost surprised by how flat and cool her voice sounded as she spoke. How easy the words escaped her mouth, forming into the voice of someone cold and clinical, without a hint of the anger she felt in her words. “Because I could have sworn you’d just asked me to act as a defense attorney.”' ~ When one Maya Fey is in need of legal help, once again, and neither Phoenix Wright nor Miles Edgeworth are available, there is only one person they trust enough to take on the case. And that person is Franziska von Karma, the prodigy prosecutor.

Danny Phantom x DCU

The Health and Wellbeing of Hybrid Entities by Faeriekit Rated T | Gen | Graphic Depictions of Violence Danny Fenton & Justice League 17 chapters | 25,604 words | Incomplete Adrift in an unknown space, his transportation lost, his body a wreck, and only half-conscious, Danny has to find himself somewhere safe to recover. Now, if only he can convince the locals to leave him alone while he does...

those who serve. by aryelee Rated T | Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply Danny Fenton & Alfred Pennyworth, Tim Drake & Danny Fenton, Danny Fenton & Bruce Wayne, Danny Fenton & Damian Wayne, Cassandra Cain & Danny Fenton 6 chapters | 49,024 words | Incomplete Running away from Amity Park—from his entire dimension—Danny takes refuge in the streets of Gotham. It's hard, suddenly being a homeless teenager in such a crime-ridden city, but it's better than dying a second time. Enter Alfred Pennyworth, a kind old man who works as a butler and, for some reason, has decided to befriend Danny. His future is still up in the air, but he's hopeful that things will work out. After all, Alfred isn't getting any younger and someone needs to help him with his butler duties. Danny's just the right person for the job. Or: Alfred Pennyworth sees a homeless teen who looks like he'd fit right into the Wayne family and decides to take matters into his own hands. It's not like he's just going to leave this very sad, possibly meta teenager alone when there's more than enough space in the Manor to house one more child in need.

Throwdown Therapy by gamma_radio Rated T | Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply Danny Fenton & Jason Todd, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne 12 chapters | 30,715 words | Complete Danny hears about a suspicious character lurking around Gotham and decides to befriend him. Jason has no thoughts on the matter — mostly, he has a lot of empty-head green-tinged rage on the matter. This is less of a roadblock than one might expect. Danny thinks he might even be able to help the guy, if he can form enough of a relationship to bring up sensitive topics like "you have the ghostly equivalent of lead poisoning or maybe rabies, we aren't quite sure".

Professor Layton

Breaking News: 12-Year-Old Kidnaps Himself in an Effort to Make Local Professor Attend High School Reunion by DawnCloud Rated G | Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply Hershel Layton & Randall Ascot & Henry Ledore & Angela Ledore, Hershel Layton & Clark Triton, Emmy Altava & Luke Triton, Hershel Layton & Luke Triton One-Shot | 19,081 words | Complete Hershel Layton, feeling rather out of place, made his excuses and left Monte d'Or as quickly as possible, with little to no intention of returning. Unfortunately for him, his apprentice had other plans.

In your rearview mirror by MagicWhiskers_29 Rated G | Gen | Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Aurora & Flora Reinhold, Hershel Layton & Flora Reinhold, Flora Reinhold & Luke Triton, Emmy Altava & Flora Reinhold, Flora Reinhold & Claire, Don Paolo & Flora Reinhold "And... Not at all robots die when they're supposed to, right?" softly, she responded. ~ Having the spirit of a deceased Azran golem show up in her tower was one way to make it less lonely for Flora...

Pokémon

Goodknight, Sweet Prince by EmeraldSands Rated T | M/M | No Archive Warnings Apply Tracey Sketchit/Gary Oak One-Shot | 3,149 words | Complete Gary, a loyal knight, is injured while protecting his prince from a pair of dangerous bug-types. Tracey does his best to help his knight--it's the least he can do.

Stun Spore Detour: The Threequel by EmeraldSands Rated G | M/M | No Archive Warnings Apply Tracey Sketchit/Gary Oak One-Shot | 2,200 words | Complete On a trip to Kalos, Tracey gets hit with a stun spore... again. It's up to Gary to find a cure.

Linked Universe

The Wondrous Sword of Legend by ImperialKatwala & PolynomialPandemic Rated T | Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply Hyrule & Legend, Four & Hyrule & Legend & Sky & Time & Twilight & Warriors & Wild & Wind 21 chapters | 59,581 words | Complete “Well,” the boy said to it as the sun dipped closer to the trees, “your hero didn't show up yet, but I bet they're coming! I bet they're real nice, too. You’re probably going to save the world together.” He was borrowing it. He was borrowing the Sword of Legend, and… what, checking in to see if it was needed? Waiting for a hero to come for it? It wasn’t sure what to think. It wasn’t supposed to think about its wielders. But it found itself looking forward to the stories, keeping an eye out while the boy slept, memorizing as much of the information he gave it as it could. Its job was to protect the innocent, after all. Or: Hyrule finds a sword. The sword has opinions about this.

Warriors says by Zarvasace Rated G | Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply Hyrule & Warriors One-Shot | 1,635 words | Complete Hyrule covered his face, feeling it burn in shame. "It's fine, they're just old. It'll be a while until they're entirely unusable." He heard Warriors exhale, then stand up again. Warriors took Hyrule's hands and held them up to try and sign into them again. Hyrule did his best to focus.

Other Assorted Fandoms

An Arm and a Leg by AzuraJae Hi-Fi RUSH Rated G | F/F, Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply Chai & Peppermint, Chai & Korsica, Chai & Macaron, Chai & CNMN, Chai & 808, Peppermint/Korsica One-Shot | 6,004 words | Complete "That hurt. Like really hurt." Chai was looking down at his leg in disbelief. "Are you okay?" Peppermint asked again, now seriously worried once more. “Ow, ow… It’s fine, I’ll just walk it off,” Chai managed to say, voice strained with pain. A moment later, there was another crash as Chai fell right back into the pile of debris. “Okay, you know what, nevermind… I think I’m just gonna… lie down.” Peppermint narrowed her eyes, sending off a command to 808 to give her a reading on Chai’s vitals and see what’s wrong. His heart seemed fine, though his stress levels seemed quite high. It wasn’t until Peppermint saw the scans for his leg did she finally understand what was wrong. “Your leg’s… broken, Chai,” she said, unable to believe what she was saying.

Art Exercise by cucumbet Rhythm Doctor Rated G | Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply Maximo "Lucky" Jonronero & Lucia Moon One-Shot | 3,327 words | Complete A few nights into his stay, Lucky is having a particularly rough time. He can't get himself out of his own shoulder, but you can always trust Lucia to do it for you. Just, maybe in the most Lucia-way possible.

I Can't Accept All This by MeaslyFurball Sonic the Hedgehog Rated G | Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply E-123 Omega & Sonic the Hedgehog One-Shot | 4.869 words | Complete It was all fun and games until the roof collapsed. Sonic finds himself buried alive with the one Badnik who doesn’t want him dead. . . . . . maybe.

Peering into Shadows by Menolly5600 Kingdom Hearts Rated T | Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply Donald Duck & Goofy & Sora One-Shot | 6,825 words | Complete Sora, Donald and Goofy learn why its maybe not a good idea to play with Drive Forms too often.

Perfectly Reliable by chantolove Fallen London, Mask of the Rose Rated T | Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply Mr. Pages & Griz Smith & Player One-Shot | 6,292 words | Complete The first thing a new citizen of the Neath gets accustomed to is the daily occurrences of impossible phenomena. The second thing they get accustomed to is said impossible phenomena mixing with ordinary, daily occurrences and inconveniences. Relatedly, you are beginning to suspect that something might be up with your boss.

Things We Don’t Say Aloud by TheGoliathBeetle Hetalia Rated G | M/M | No Archive Warnings Apply China/India One-Shot | 1,830 words | Complete “Don’t.” Kabir fights down something panicky in his heart and reaches out, a hand on Yao’s thigh. “Don’t say such things. Don’t invite such rotten luck. What will I do without you on my doorstep?” “My country will live on without me. There’ll be a new personification.” OR, They are old countries. Sometimes they get tired.

Trial and Error by ApatheticRobots Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Rated T | Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply Casey Jones & Leonardo, Donatello & Casey Jones & Leonardo & Michelangelo & April O'Neil & Raphael, Donatello & Leonardo & Michelangelo & Raphael, Leonardo & Splinter, Leonardo & Leonardo 21 chapters | 104,123 words | Complete The world ends. The Krang win. Leo failed. It was supposed to be on Casey's shoulders (and his shoulders alone) to go back and make sure the invasion never happened in the first place, but apparently his student had a little more inherited stubbornness than he'd thought. (Leo ends up in the past. This changes some things.)

#mlv.txt #fic recs #smb #ace attorney #aa

12 notes · View notes

anxiety-thyme · 2 years ago

Text

It's time for this month's first Friday fic night!

For a refresher you can find out what this is here.

Last month we looked at Attack on Titan.

According to the poll we are going back to Teen Wolf. Poll for next month's fandom at the bottom.

Fandom: Teen Wolf

Ship: Sterek

Last time we looked at Teen Wolf we were at 40k words or less with a focus on healing and recovering from Trauma.

This month: BAMF Stiles

with bloody feet across hallowed ground, by owlpostagain

"There were no last words. No more pleas, no more screaming. Just the sound of Stiles squeezing the trigger, the explosion of a second shot rocketing out of the revolver, and the hunters bursting through the open doorway just in time to see the bullet slam squarely into the center of Derek’s chest."

In The Afterimage, by clotpolesonly

"Jackson sat heavily on the riser beside Scott, knocking their shoulders together. “This is weird and I hate it.”

"What's weird and why?"

“This whole situation,” Jackson said. “With the Ghostriders and the missing dude you’re so obsessed with.”

“And why do you hate that?”

“Because now I can’t stop thinking about it!” Jackson bit out, and he really did sound supremely irritated by that. “I keep thinking that if even Danny’s forgetting shit because of this guy, then I must be forgetting shit too, and that is so not cool. So now I’m running over everything that’s ever happened in my entire freaking life looking for moments when the Ghostriders could’ve fucked with my head.”

Scott had to admit that Jackson had a point. He’d been doing the same thing ever since that first memory with obvious pieces missing. Honestly, it was hard for him to find a memory that did feel whole. Even sitting on the bench alone didn’t feel right."

I'm the ghost of my mistakes, by GreyHaven

"Stiles hasn't been known as Stiles for the past six years. He's Mitch Rapp, a CIA assassin with 117 kills under his belt. When he gets a late night call from Scott, saying Derek has been taken, he's on the road back to Beacon Hills in less than ten minutes. He's going to get Derek back, even if that means adding a few more kills to his ledger.

An American Assassin/Teen Wolf fusion. Rated E for violence which is canon typical for AA but might be considered extreme for TW. If you're familiar with the plot of AA, please be assured that no female or beloved TW characters have been fridged in the making of this fic and pairing."

i'm here in search of your glory, by EvanesDust and spaceprincessem

"And standing there, in the dim light of the office was the all powerful emissary whose name had been whispered across the country. The one who could move mountains and part oceans. The one they all called Void.

Standing there was Stiles fucking Stilinski.

There were so many things Derek wanted to say - needed to say - and Stiles arched an eyebrow, like he was waiting, like he fucking knew. Derek opened his mouth, but the only thing that came out was, “Are you fucking kidding me.”"

As a reminder, always check the tags!

I hope you enjoy. Let me know how much you love them on a scale of surprise badass to faulty memory.

I'm leaving off both Attack on Titan and Teen Wolf for next month, they'll be added back into the poll after that.

12 notes · View notes

izzys-issues · 21 days ago

Text

62. "Marvel Premiere # 4~ 61"

September 1972 - August 1981

[This review repost identifies the problem of designing this blog for Instagram. A handful of reviews I staggered over 3 posts to make a bumper, and even more I did individual books back to back just for padding. Migrating these will necessitate some more rewriting and reformatting than I initially wanted to, but hopefully it prevents clutter]

(Marvel Premiere # 4 ~ 28)

"Spawn of Sligguth/Lurker in the Labyrinth/The Doom That Bloomed on Kathulos/Portal to the Past!/Time Doom"

RATING (overall): 5 🌭 Ordinary Hot Dogs out of 10

Issues 4&5 are just The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and if I was more familiar with Lovecraft works I'm sure I'd see that some more of the following were pretty similar too. Pretty jarring shifts happen in the missing issues, but I don't mind how it sets up and fleshes out Shuma-Gorath and his ilk. Sise-Neg might be the first I've seen that concept as a villain since Crisis didn't come for another decade.

FAVORITE: seeding the "magic is finite" concept

LEAST FAVORITE: these faces

"The Fury of Iron Fist!/Heart of the Dragon/Citadel on the Edge of Vengeance/Lair of Shattered Vengeance/Death-Cult!/Batroc & Other Assassins/Daughters of the Death-Goddess/Death is a Ninja/The Name is...Warhawk/Summerkill/Morning of the Mindstorm!"

RATING (overall): 7 ✊🏻 Smoldering Glowing Things of Iron out of 10

The second-person narration captions are unusual and it really helps this to stand out among the rest of all these.

The narrative in these issues is so tight and well written but I also noticed that #chrisclaremont had a hand in them so that explains itself.

Also, the really narrow time scale is conveyed super beautifully by the fact that Danny's costume retains tears and such between issues until he replaces it on panel

FAVORITE: Danny Rand? More like Danny's Stand.

LEAST FAVORITE: how crowded the 16 panel page is

"There's a Mountain on Sunset Boulevard!"

RATING: 3 Monster Mashes out of 10

Surprisingly this has the CCA stamp on the front, I didn’t think that the Legion of Monsters would’ve fit their criterion. This was pretty confusing and felt like they were either trying to establish or clarify something with the plurality of pantheons happening and it just led to a very muddled story, and according to the wiki this issue is the only reference ever to Starseed.

Who else is ready for the Midnight Suns game?

FAVORITE: Really engaging and efficient character setup

LEAST FAVORITE: Really underwhelming fights and dialogue

(Marvel Premiere # 46 ~ 49)

"Otherwar, pt. 2"

RATING: 3 🏔️ Sky-Mountains out of 10

Why is nobody clamoring for MCU references to Stargod? There's still plenty of wacky mystical & cosmic nonsense to introduce! Maybe they bring John Jameson through the Ramiverse so he can find a new MJ to marry and he gets kerbobbled going through spacetime and ends up with the Godstone and it turns out that Man-Wolf is actually that one frame character in the background that we’ve been arguing about for a week

FAVORITE: These costume designs are something

LEAST FAVORITE: You do you, Kristine

"To Steal An Ant-Man!/The Price Of A Heart!"

RATING (overall): 5 🔫 Little Squirts out of 10

I didn't expect Scott Lang's first appearance to be as close to the movie version as it is.

Am I surprised that Hank Pym is okay that Scott killed someone? Not at all

FAVORITE: This version of Scott's valuable connections are the DMV

LEAST FAVORITE: I don't think this is what Cross' investors imagined when he proposed his initiative to reduce the homelessness rate

"Sound of the Silencer"

RATING: 6 🎙️ Propaganda Raps out of 10

I love that this is apparently Sam's first solo adventure, but I'm not sure whether the commentary in it is intentional or if I'm reading contemporary meaning into 40 year old text.

I also totally forgot that Redwing used to just be a regular bird.

Cap is only in 4 panels and he looks like he's just skipping and frolicking and I'm not sure if that's a plus or a minus.

FAVORITE: Somehow dialogue from 2021 ended up in this book from the late 70s

LEAST FAVORITE: Foreign dignitaries being allowed to murder with impunity

(Marvel Premiere # 51 ~ 61)

"The Killing Of Windeagle!/Journey through the Past/The Ending, In Anger!"

RATING (overall): 7 💺Embassy Thronerooms out of 10

I really assumed the Dragon Cult was supposed to be a Klan stand-in but alas are apparently two distinct entities. These are probably the oldest Black Panther stories I’ve read and I’m glad I have them. The T’challa vs the Klan cover is pretty iconic. There are some great worldbuilding elements in my opinion, but it all comes to a really abrupt halt with no resolution about the Soul Strangler whatsoever.

The day I'm reading this, the last major Confederate monument is coming down about 1.9 miles from here.

FAVORITE: Either Falcon's original gear or at least a very early iteration of it was Wakandan tech and I didn't know that

LEAST FAVORITE: The Klan has a PR department?

“The Big Top Barter Resolution”

RATING: 5 🔓 Exploding Safes out of 10

Who is this dude and why have I never heard of him and what is with that outfit? At least this was a pretty inconsequential and light standard action adventure, if a bit underwhelming.

FAVORITE: Dum Dum Dugan started a circus after retiring from the Howling Commandos

LEAST FAVORITE: Why are Glory’s eyes cursed like that?!

“PLANET STORY”

RATING: 7 ⚫ Strange Orifices out of 10

Ah, a return to when Star-Lord’s costume was absolutely awful looking and indistinguishable from generic sci-fi heroes that predated him, I say completely unironically as a huge fan of Adam Strange’s outfit. This started off feeling like a Johnny Quest era Saturday morning cartoon but by the end of it was like an unsettling cosmic version of the Giving Tree with a surprisingly morbid ending.

FAVORITE: This poses some surprising philosophical and ethical issues and I was definitely not anticipating that

LEAST FAVORITE: Sloppy, wet sounds

#comic review #comic books #comic collector #marvel comics #marvel premiere #doctor strange #iron fist #midnight suns #legion of monsters #star lord #ant man #black panther #falcon #dominic fortune #doc savage

1 note · View note

peacehunted · 7 months ago

Text

Danny's condition was noted, drawing out a more calm and collected demeanor out of the outlaw. Stoic and protective, he stood his ground as Max approached, staring daggers at the giant.

"Go. I'll handle this." A near whisper as a gloved hand gently nudged Danny's shoulder. And he could, he's toppled plenty of mountainous opponents before back home, his first towering over three-story buildings at least. The catch was that they all had a weapon he could easily exploit. This one, as far as he was aware, was unarmed. Time for a different approach...

A quick glance around revealed that the intersection was now at a standstill, which could prove handy in avoiding any injuries and even more damage... hopefully. He then scaled the pole of the nearest streetlight and walked to the space in between the lights themselves with ease in order to perch himself more at Max's eye level--or close to it, at least.

"Hey, c'mon, big guy! I dunno what your full gripe is with this cat fella, but you can't go dragging your issues out into the open where it becomes a problem to everyone else just trying to go about their day, er--evening. You almost really hurt somebody! And, best case scenario, you'll just end up embarrassing yourself! HEY--"

Jeez, this guy was dead-set on his revenge mission... and not much frustrated the blond more than getting completely ignored when offering 'advice'. He didn't want to hurt the guy to stop him, but he was getting dangerously close to where Danny was. A rather drastic (and incredibly entertaining) idea flashed in his mind to trip up the giant in a pinch.

Any attempt Max may have made to clear this noisy new obstacle was in vain with Vash effortlessly leaping to his shoulder. There were a number startled yelps out of the smaller man in the chaos that followed from Max trying to shake him off, but he did manage to produce a secret weapon: a knife previously hidden within the sole of his boot. A smile formed on the blond at its swift and successful deployment and followed up with sliding down the giant's back, executing inhuman precision to cut only the belt of those dress pants, grabbing the waist of those pants, and using his momentum to pull and bring them down with him--all in one fell swoop! Once he was securely on the ground again, those yelps from before shifted into an almost hysterical fit of cackling at the exact same grating pitch.

"Well, what did I tell ya? At least you didn't go commando today, superstar!" he taunted, referring to the boxers now revealed for all to see. He then darted over to where Danny was, ready to scoop up the feline to make a run for it.

"...He's coming this way."

Why yes, Max was walking into oncoming traffic. Cars slammed on brakes, quite loudly, as the beast of a man who was, maybe still was, Darla's attendant came closer and closer. Having no means of self defense, Danny was trying not to be terrified, but he was shaking like a leaf. Even the situation at that theater all that time ago, Max had totally beaten him up. If not for the ropes holding the massive Darla balloon, and the luck in that Max was on it when it poked into a sharp edge, the feline wasn't sure he'd even be alive right now.

He would never forget the sheer physical pain of being slapped by one of those massive hands. Gave him a black eye, ruined his tux, thank goodness Tillie had been there to quickly sew the sleeve back onto it or the total performance would have been ruined!

The feline could only mutter two words, quietly.

"...I'm dead."

#⚘》 .in #adreaminmyheart #long post #kinda want this to be my legacy in my fandom ngl #The Silly One(tm)

10 notes · View notes

painted-piggy-ships-archive · 3 years ago

Text

Going to answer all my Liminal Space Asks w/ Jack Torrance bc that seems fitting ✨😌

The Empty Office - The classic “Backrooms” image; how does your f/o feel about liminality? Does it make them uncomfortable? Nostalgic? Do they not really “get” the whole thing?

Jack is of course familiar with liminality but doesn’t give it too much thought. He’s fascinated by the concept, much like myself, but is less inclined to seek it out and “has more important things to focus on.” If he does take the time to get absorbed in liminality, it ends up making him uncomfortable and sad...

Hotel Hallways - How does your f/o feel about travelling, anyway? Is it stressful? Welcome? Do they like to plan or go with the flow, or do they put you in charge of things?

Jack likes to take vacations, but the travelling part tends to irritate him. If it’s a road trip, he feels like nobody on the road knows what they’re doing but him, if it’s a flight, he complains the TSA is too nosey. If we can make it to our destination without any major incidents, it’s usually smooth sailing from there! We usually plan together and Jack insists on doing the packing himself, but I end up pitching in, too.

Old Commercials - What do you find most comforting about your f/o? What do they find most comforting about you?

As much as it is concerning to say, I see a lot of myself in Jack. Like with a lot of other characters, I find myself comforted by his imperfection as well. For him, it’s comforting to know there’s still love in this world, even for someone like him.

Childhood Bedroom - What would a “Childhood Friends” AU be like between you and your f/o?

Knowing what we know of Jack’s childhood; angsty. I would probably be one of the few positive things in his life at the time, an escape from home, and honestly he’d probably be my own escape if I keep things somewhat accurate to real life. We’d have each others backs until we part ways after high school, only meeting again after Jack had divorced from Wendy, by complete coincidence, probably in some bookstore or cafe...

The Poolrooms - Assuming your f/o can feel fear, is their greatest fear something common like spiders, or something more abstract, like being forgotten? How do they cope, and how do you help them cope?

Jack fears becoming irrelevant, along with becoming like his father, the latter of which he has consequently faced. We simply look out for each other, having similar fears. (His “fear of irrelevance” going hand-in-hand with my “fear of being forgotten.”) Reassurance is key.

Suburbia - Describe the ideal living situation between you and your f/o(s)! What kind of house, location, what kind of family you want to have, etc.

A cottage-style home in a Colorado suburb would be our main abode when we can get away from the hotel. Otherwise, though, we live and work at the hotel all-year-round as the groundskeepers. It’s an alright deal, besides the ghosts! Jack has partial custody of Danny, but it’s hard to see him with us living in the hotel, so we usually go back to our cottage on the weekends when we can. Danny has mixed feelings on myself as a step-parent, but little by little gets used to if not warms up to me with each visit.

Dead Malls - Describe your f/o’s aesthetic. Where would you shop for them, if you could?

Dadcore but like Cozy Dadcore. I don’t really know specific stores but I would totally keep an eye out for his style of clothing in thrift stores and the like.

Open Roads - Describe a roadtrip with your f/o(s)! Will you be taking your romantic partner, or travelling with family or friends? What are some highlights of the trip? Can you agree on tunes to play on the radio? Snacks?

As mentioned above, travelling isn’t Jack’s favorite activity and he prefers to avoid road-rage... when I’m around. On a smaller scale, however, Jack does drive me around the neighborhood/up and down the mountains when I’m upset or I’m having trouble sleeping, and with that we usually have the top 40 radio station on low and might stop at a gas station for a quick snack and, well, gas.

#piggy oinks #piggy rambles #🪓Darling - Light of My Life🪓#self shipping #self shipping community

5 notes · View notes

dumdrop · 4 years ago

Text

Songs For The Remembrance of Unus Annus

Part 6 || Part 7 || Part 8

I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For by Ninja Sex Party (Cover)

"I have climbed the highest mountains

I have run through the fields

Only to be with you

I have run, I have crawled

I have scaled these city walls

These city walls

Only to be with you

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for"

Danny Don’t You Know by Ninja Sex Party

"Danny, don’t you know that you are hot as fuck on the inside?

Everybody knows the best bananas will be ripe with time

Danny, don’t you know that you kick so much ass on the inside?

Danny, don’t you know?

Danny, don't you know?

Danny, don't you know?"

City Boy by Calpurnia

"I am a city boy

You are a city girl

You date the city tool

I am a city fool

I am a

City boy

(One, two, three, four!)"

Semi-Charmed Life by Third Eye Blind

"I believe in the sand beneath my toes

The beach gives a feeling, an earthy feeling

I believe in the faith that grows

And the four right chords can make me cry

When I'm with you I feel like I could die

And that would be all right, all right"

Prom Queen by Beach Bunny

"Maybe I should try harder

You should lower your expectations

I'm no Quick-Curl Barbie

I was never cut out for Prom Queen

If I get more pretty, do you think he will like me?"

All I Wanted by Paramore

"I could follow you to the beginning

And just to relive the start

And maybe then we'll remember to slow down

At all of our favorite parts

All I wanted was you"

Strawberries & Cigarettes by Troye Sivan

“Long nights, daydreams

Sugar and smoke rings, I've been a fool

But strawberries and cigarettes always taste like you

Headlights on me

Racing to 60, I've been a fool

Strawberries and cigarettes always taste like

Blue eyes, black jeans

Lighters and candy, I've been a fool

But strawberries and cigarettes always taste like you”

House of Gold by Twenty One Pilots

"She asked me, 'Son, when I grow old

Will you buy me a house of gold?

And when your father turns to stone

Will you take care of me?'

I will make you queen of everything you see

I'll put you on the map, I'll cure you of disease"

Livin’ On a Prayer by Bon Jovi

“She says, we've got to hold on to what we've got

It doesn't make a difference if we make it or not

We've got each other and that's a lot for love

We'll give it a shot

Woah, we're halfway there

Woah, livin' on a prayer

Take my hand, we'll make it I swear

Woah, livin' on a prayer”

Jump Then Fall by Taylor Swift

"Whoa oh, I'm feeling you, baby

Don't be afraid to

Jump then fall

Jump then fall into me

Baby, I'm never gonna leave you

Say that you wanna be with me too

So I'ma stay through it all

So jump then fall"

P.S, I have plausible reasons for choosing each song for this playlist, even though some don't make sense or really have any relations to Unus Annus. I'm okay with questions and asks if you're curious.

12 notes · View notes

love-takes-work · 5 years ago

Text

The Art of Steven Universe the Movie: Outline & Review

The Art of Steven Universe The Movie was released March 3, 2020. It's a wonderful journey through the concept art, character development, and experience of fashioning these ideas into the movie we all love.

Nuts and bolts: The book is published by Dark Horse, and it was designed by Ryan Sands (a zine specialist), with commentary by Takafumi Hori, Kat Morris, and Rebecca Sugar. It includes art by Rebecca Sugar, Kat Morris, Takafumi Hori, Alonso Ramirez Ramos, Angie Wang, Ashley Fisher, Becky Dreistadt, Chromosphere, Danny Cragg, Elle Michalka, Hilary Florido, Ian Jones-Quartey, Jasmin Lai, Jeff Liu, Joe Johnston, Julian De Perio, Katie Mitroff, Leonard Hung, Miki Brewster, Patrick Bryson, and Paul Villeco.

Full review below with low-quality images.

[SU Book and Comic Reviews]

An introduction explains the same origin story that Rebecca Sugar told us in the movie DVD's commentary: that she accidentally restored her phone to factory settings and lost years of important stuff, and she ended up applying that devastating premise to her movie. That combined with the concept of "breaking" the main premise of a TV show to make a movie was how she got started developing the story. The opening of the movie styled like a storybook is blocked out with some great drawings and breakdowns of which narration would go to what storybook pages. This is combined with some partial sheet music for "The Tale of Steven." Rebecca writes about how she felt having to wrap pre-production on Season 5 only to take on this even bigger movie challenge. The biggest challenge was writing all these songs in such a short time--six weeks--and having to deal with the stress, being crushed under all that pressure while still wanting to do this story so badly, and it was humbling to still have to work so hard to sell the idea. The feeling of relief to finally be done that Steven expresses in "Happily Ever After" is very similar to what Rebecca went through feeling like she wanted to be finally done but still knowing what she had to do to climb an even bigger mountain. Some very cute Steven-at-age-16 and Connie in Space Camp clothes follow. Notes indicate that Steven and Connie are the same height now, but his poofy hair is just slightly higher than her head.

Notes from 2017 also give us the "Neckstravaganza": design notes on Steven's new form, with a neck and a jacket. It's very cool.

Some beautiful Joe Johnston boards follow, with sequences from the "Happily Ever After" song. We also get Angie Wang's final design (with Ashley Fisher's color) of the injector, including some sketchy concept art for it from Rebecca Sugar and Hilary Florido. In the rough concept notes, they call this the "Mega Injector," with notes for Takafumi Hori to use for scale. It looks beyond huge in a Leonard Hung drawing.

Spinel concepts are next. Some notes explain that aivi & surasshu (the usual composers) were involved very early since it was a musical, and Rebecca included them when pitching the story to the Crew so they could organically develop the sound. The heart shape was central to Spinel from the beginning, and early versions of her had an entire heart shape to her head.

(There's a doodle of what looks like a cartoon dog in the pile of drawings shown in this section. It's not clear what that was.)

Spinel was given the heart imagery partly because Rebecca had learned early on about the importance of symbols, and when it came time to assign one to Steven, the star was chosen because it's so positive and is read as gender-neutral. Rebecca still hadn't used hearts for anything, so it was time. They also incorporated really old, dated character design ideas to make Spinel feel like an outdated cartoon from the rubber hose era.

The aspect of her design with the running mascara versus cute eyelashes predated the rotation of her Gem. Rebecca likes to start with more realistic sketches when she's figuring out a character, and then she'll move to making it more cartoony. A quote from Miki Brewster is shared: "Spinel can do anything, as long as it's entertaining!" Her "best friend" form is described as "a doll for friendship fun & games! Of a different era--hokey, charming, weird...super gullible and trusting. Incredibly loyal, constant entertainment machine!"

When it comes to developing her "worst enemy" form, Rebecca explains a bit that she has a really complicated relationship with old cartoons because nostalgia is not compelling to her--the animation from the 1930s is so neat, but considering the social limits and the way the industry was at the time, Rebecca doesn't think she could have participated. Especially considering nowadays she even had to struggle to be allowed to tell the stories she needed to tell and it would have been impossible five years ago. The norms of the time aren't entirely extricable from the art itself.

Takafumi Hori weighs in with commentary on how fun it was to animate a scary but fun character on top of Miki Brewster's boards for the "Other Friends" fight sequence.

Next, moving on from the central new character, they also spend some time discussing Steg. Rebecca first explains "Steg Multiverse" as a character so uplifting he can make you fly, combining Greg's unending support and Steven's positive power. She makes reference to the early "stegosaurus" concepts they had for his look, but they didn't want to lose the opportunity to have his hair flow. Rebecca confirms that the pompadour idea was established in "Steven and the Stevens" so they wanted to give it to Steg, and she credits Paul Villeco for really finalizing his design and bringing him to life.

And of course the poofy hair from Steven and the double-necked guitar was essential for Steg.

Next, the book gives us a whole page of handwritten notes about "Drift Away." Kat Morris explains the intentional duality of the scene--how Spinel should be shown seeing her own past with new perspective, being embarrassed, blending together who she was with who she is. The partial lyrics to the song and some sketchy boards are offered.

Rebecca shares her personal connection with the subject matter--how she once left a stuffed animal in her garden and the side facing the sun faded. It really made a mark on her as a child that things changed without her, because of her actions, and that she'd left this treasured toy alone without thinking about it all that time, letting it be affected by the elements without her interference. She wrote "Everything Stays" for Adventure Time based on that plushie, and realized that she was writing about it again for the Steven Universe movie.

Many beautiful miniature boards are shown in this section.

Partial sheet music for "Drift Away" is also offered here. It's credited to Rebecca Sugar and Aimee Mann. The music sheet is followed by some lovely images of the garden by Julian De Perio, Patrick Bryson, and Leonard Hung.

Takafumi Hori returns for a discussion of the final fight sequence during "Change," which he animated from Jeff Liu's boards. He discusses trying to keep the fight feeling dramatic and serious even though Spinel's fighting style is funny. He wanted to keep her tension. Hori-san throws in a word of thanks for being allowed to work on his favorite show again, praises Jeff and Miki, and compliments Rebecca Sugar's demos. He hoped we'd get a soundtrack album. (Of course, we did.)

Some final boards by Rebecca Sugar and Becky Dreistadt of the characters in their show gear descending the steps close out the book. There are also some cute little doodles at the end on the credits page, like a head of lettuce with caption "lettuce adore you" and Spinel in a drifting go-kart laughing, captioned "drift away."

The back cover pictures Steven with his arm around a heartbroken Spinel, comforting her.

Overall, the book is wonderful--the accompanying information is generally not new to anyone who watched the DVD's documentary and commentary, and many of the sketches have been released one way or another directly by the artists through Instagram, Twitter, or Tumblr blogs. There was still plenty of wonderful new concept art that wasn't already out there, and looking at some of the iterations Spinel and Steg went through was particularly captivating. There was no new insight into the development of the plot beyond the premise and the Spinel-related conflict, though; nothing about how they decided to focus the Garnet storyline, the Pearl storyline, and the Amethyst storyline for how they would each get their memories back, and there was no spotlight on their movie versions--modern Cotton Candy Garnet, copycat baby Amethyst, and factory settings uncustomized Pearl. I was hoping especially for some Amethyst stuff because the movie was the first place we got to see her with the simple default outfit and segmented limbs. It was primarily an art book with commentary on some of the most definitive movie aspects--it didn't reach the depth that Art and Origins gave us. It has a start-to-finish feeling in a sense, but it's mostly just splashes of information that are fun to know. It's a great companion and definitely should not be missed by any fan of the movie. I recommend it heartily!

[SU Book and Comic Reviews]

#steven universe #steven universe the movie #the art of steven universe the movie #movie art book #myblog

147 notes · View notes

orderofthedyingstar · 5 years ago

Text

RECAP: SESSIONS 12-13

SESSION 12

After an hour of pacing and avoiding the subject, Jun finally starts talking about his past in So’Joh: how he was raised in an orphanage before being taken in by a wizard (Toji), then came to work at the Cobalt Keep when he was twelve years old. He notes that he caught the attention of the Royal court by predicting an assassination attempt (doesn’t specify on who) and ‘blowing the assassin up’. Jun also supplies the name of the Emperor (Qu’ni-lihil) and his advisor, Nirah, a warlock. He clarifies that he traded his heart when he was fourteen years old to Nirah’s patron, the Faceless One, in exchange for access to powerful divination magic. When he was sixteen, he spared Inigo and Umbra from a death sentence at one of the entrances to the Underdark (Death’s Road), something he’d done with a few other prisoners. He then says that he the left the keep a while after the Emperor’s youngest child died at ten years old after following him to the entrance to the Underdark, something he failed to prevent. When Rhododendron asks Jun more about his heart, he says that the Faceless One having a piece of him means that they can scry on him at any time, and says that even though they’d always kept up their end of the bargain he isn’t a very good diviner any more - because he ‘tried to erase his own memories’ and destroy his old spell book.

Jun: “It didn’t work, so I put myself to sleep for five years.”

Rhododendron: “Five years?!”

Verrix: “How are you still so tired if you slept for five years?”

Jun hedges around a definitive answer when Rhododendron asks how he got in touch with the Faceless One, and continues to insist on accompanying the party to So’Joh. Rhododendron runs through the list of everyone in the party who is wanted in So’Joh - which is everyone but her and Marlee.

Rhododendron: “Nice. I’m also not wanted in So’Joh…that I know of?”

Verrix: “Yet.”

Marlee: “The fact that you had to specify So’Joh is a little worrying, but I don’t care enough to ask any questions.”

Verrix: “We’ve all been wanted in multiple countries, it happens.”

Marlee: “EVERY SINGLE COUNTRY on the continent, Verrix. EVERY. SINGLE. COUNTRY.”

Rhododendron continues to ask Jun about the danger of him coming along with them, but he insists that he’s fine, and points out that he doesn’t look the same as he used to. (Rhododendron and Jun spend like five minutes sort-of-not-really-flirting until she realizes that they’re wasting time. I really don’t know how else to word it they’re really that ridiculous.) The party leaves the cave and heads down the mountain, Rhododendron and Verrix unsuccessfully trying to get more information out of Jun, with Rhododendron trying to get him to understand why he’s so insistent on staying with them. The party rests about two hours away from Brackenwood, with Inigo taking the first watch. Unfortunately, he isn’t paying very much attention and the party gets attacked by several large lizard-like creatures (they can’t identify them but I’m pretty sure they’re drakons?). They manage to finish them off but Marlee and Rhododendron sustain quite a few injuries, and the party returns to their rest.

The next day, the party heads to Brackenwood, but are unsure where to begin looking for traces of Umbra and Raz. They also decide to try and buy/steal some horses and a cart, pooling all of their gold together and attempting to come up with a plan. While discussing Umbra, Marlee asks Verrix if they’d seemed like they were using ‘wizard magic’, to which he says that the blood magic looked learned but the rest of it didn’t. The party walks through the town, with Verrix ripping down some posters of himself in various disguises; he keeps an eye out for posters of tieflings, but there aren’t any with the name ‘Jun’ on them (Jun catches him looking). There aren’t any wanted posters of Inigo. The party checks a few of the shadier areas/taverns in town for signs of Umbra, going into a tavern Verrix recognizes as the ‘Blue Goat’. Verrix and Rhododendron try to ply some information out of the bartender, who plays coy until they bribe him after which he tells them that Umbra and a dwarf passed through a few days ago but didn’t stay, and that they have ‘special spell components’ for sale if the party’s interested. Rhododendron notices that Jun is distracted by some painted depictions of a figure holding worn and broken weaponry on the back wall of the bar, a set of scales in the background (Zelia). Marlee is also looking at the pictures with some interest, although not with the same apprehension that Jun seems to be; Inigo is squinting at it with some confusion/recognition.

Marlee asks about seeing the temple in town, which is an old one dedicated to Laoteng. Both Rhododendron and Jun are less than excited about this, considering how the last temple went. Nonetheless, Rhododendron wipes the visible blood off of herself and the party enters the temple, which is much nicer than both of the previous ones since it is neither abandoned nor previously buried. The temple is fairly large, lined with statues where people used to pray including a massive statue of Laoteng herself before a big pool of water at the back of the temple. Marlee splits off from the party to sit in a pew by herself for a while. When Rhododendron asks, Marlee says that the temple does kick people out during the time when it used to be night, as a way to honor the old traditions.

Rhododendron, looking at the pool of water: “I’m morbidly curious. It probably wouldn’t work, right?”

Jun: “It definitely wouldn’t, and I’m not just saying that because I don’t want you to do it. It’s cause…I don’t want you to do it.”

Despite what happened in the other temple, Rhododendron still wants to try to explore this one because she knows that there’s something about her bow that still isn’t working right. Rhododendron fills Marlee in on how her bow has affected temples of Laoteng in the past, and says that she wants to try and use it on the pool in the Brackenwood temple. Marlee isn’t opposed to the idea, but doesn’t see any real benefit to it, although she is impressed that the bow was stolen from the Queen. Marlee insists on taking Rhododendron shopping before they do anything else, and they get her three fancy outfits - including one really pink, frilly dress. While the party is in the rich district, Verrix swaps his old cloak for a brand new fancy black cloak (“pristine”, 23 sleight of hand) and absolutely nobody notices. The party gets some horse feed and Verrix wheedles a deal out of the cart salesman - although Verrix almost forgets about the feed until Rhododendron reminds him (this leads to several horrible feet jokes and Verrix being a little concerned that that horses are going to try to eat his feet). The party gets ready to go to the temple, but elect to leave Marlee and Inigo behind - Marlee because she’s too loud, and Inigo to keep her company.

Marlee: “Ugh, FINE! But we’re not bonding!”

Rhododendron, Verrix, and Jun sneak around the back and Rhododendron picks the lock, berating Verrix and Jun for not being able to do it despite being arguably shadier. This time when Rhododendron aims an arrow at the pool, it takes all of the light in the entire building with it, blinding everyone. As the three of them descend the staircase, they see that the walls are lined with eerie, faceless humanoid statues.

Danny: “These vibes are rancorous, bro. Like, rancid. Straight up.”

SESSION THIRTEEN

Upon further examination of the humanoid statues, the group sees that they have strange straight lines sticking out of the tops of their heads, and that they’re in a crouched position…

Rhododendron: “What do you think is sticking out of the backs of their necks?”

Verrix: “I dunno, I’ve never made a statue. I don’t know if that’s required or not.”

Rhododendron: “Jun, I don’t like these.”

Jun: “O-oh, yeah, I don’t either, they’re very creepy. Let’s just leave.”

Rhododendron: “N-no. No! We are here for a reason.”

Jun: “The lights flickered out, all these weird body-shaped things, we’re still in the first hall continuing on…Nyvarstra, if you can hear me, I know I don’t really pray, but uh…”

Rhododendron: “Isn’t that sacrilegious in a Laoteng temple?”

Jun: “……What’s she gonna do, be mad?”

Rhododendron: ”I…I feel like there’s a point there, but it seems kind of rude.”

Jun: “I mean, she’s never offered me her protection.”

Rhododendron: “Well, you took a deal with a devil.”

Jun, obviously annoyed: “A lot of us have made deals with a lot of different things, haven’t we?”

Verrix takes a good look at the statues, finding them long undisturbed and…softer, than normal statues, along with a faint magical aura to them. Rhododendron tries to look around for traps, but only senses something horribly off with the creepy not-statues.

Rhododendron: “We should be careful around the statues, obviously.”

Jun: “Uh…are they statues?”

Rhododendron: “Please don’t say things like that. Like, clearly, yes they’re not statues, but keep that to yourself.”

Jun: “They almost look like, um…(failed INT check) well, I don’t know what they look like, actually. Magic?”

Rhododendron: “I think even Verrix parsed that one out for himself.”

Verrix: “…Thanks. How many spell slots do you have again?”

Jun: “Not enough.”

Rhododendron: “He was talking to me.”

Jun: “I know.”

Rhododendron: “Hey!”

The group takes a moment to desperately wish they’d brought Inigo and/or Marlee for a meat buffer/extra healing, especially considering how this temple already seems worse that the previous temples. They also get concerned about how dangerous all of these temples have been, seeing as they were supposedly made in Laoteng’s honor. The group tries to sneak down the hall, but Verrix (CRIT MISS) tries and spills everything out of his bag, also ripping his BRAND NEW cloak.

Verrix, tearfully: “My expensive new cape…I worked so hard for it…”

Val: *cackling*

At the noise, four of the statues stand up, and the things on the back of their necks light, making them look like big human-shaped candles. Verrix shoves everything back into his bag and puts out the Light he’d cast for Rhododendron. Watching the candles, he army-crawls over to the other members of the party and away from the lit statues - Rhododendron refuses to turn around and look at the statues Verrix has disturbed. They manage to sneak down the rest of the hall without disturbing the other statues, and enter a new room with a pool of water in the center and a statues of Laoteng looming over it. There are three exits from the room, two doors to the right and left and a doorway in the back with a staircase leading downwards, the faint sound of rushing water in the distance.

Rhododendron wants to shoot the pool last after investigating the other rooms, finding the one to the left full of bookshelves and tapestries. The books aren’t written in a language Rhododendron recognizes, and most of them are in poor condition. Rhododendron manages to sneak around the animated suit of armor patrolling the room, and finds that the tapestries depict a Holy Knight wielding a silver bow - and that an empty silver quiver is stored in the room. The knight in the image is a mid-height drow wearing some sort of leather armor…they’re depicted slaying drakes, owlbears, and a cluster of sick-looking people. They have red streaks coming out of their eyes and mouths, but Rhododendron cannot remember what the name of their illness is, although it’s a common horror story told to children across the continent.

In the next room, the group finds crafting supplies that seems as though the people who once frequented the temple were trying to make another silver bow unsuccessfully. Verrix is able to recognize the illness despite depicted on the mosaics in this room as the Crimson Death: during the first week you get feverish and sick, then you start bleeding out of your mouth/nose/eyes for two days, and then you die. It was a horrible plague that occurred a while ago, said to be a curse from Nyvarstra. The group decides to go through the middle doorway and down the stairs, which are once again flanked by the creepy humanoid candle-statues on one side all the way down. A large waterfall rushes not too far from the staircase down to a pool far below.

Jun: “Don’t trip.”

Rhododendron and Jun spend a few minutes arguing about whether or not you should die trying to help someone else in the party, and then the party tries to sneak down the staircase. Rhododendron fails to sneak, alerting five candles to her presence - Jun tries to put them out but this just aggravates the candles further, and the trio scrambles down the rest of the staircase as the candles’ heads turn towards them. The candles explode just as the party gets to the bottom of the staircase, obliterating their only means of escape. The party stands near a small cave entrance at the base of the waterfall, at the edge of a small pond there doesn’t seem to be any outlet for all of the water.

Jun: “We’re done going downstairs. No more downstairs. No more downstairs.”

Rhododendron: “The downstairs could lead upstairs though?”

Jun: “Downstairs could also just keep leading downstairs until it leads to the Underdark.”

Rhododendron: “What is it with you and thinking that things lead to the Underdark? That’s so far down, you know that, right?”

Jun: “…Right.”

The party finds a Ring of Water Walking around the cave entrance, and then proceed onwards to a larger room in the back. It has a large pool of water with statues of Nyvarstra and Laoteng on the far side, and between them is a figure kneeling their head bowed, arms chained to both of the statues. They have a large pair of skeletal wings.

Rhododendron: “Maybe he’s nice…”

Jun is very against waking the chained angel, and Rhododendron sneaks around the angel to take a look at another mosaic behind them, but is unable to decipher anything. Verrix suggests swimming in the pool to figure out its properties - and then the trio realizes that the water in the pool is completely black. Rhododendron throws a piton with Light cast on it into the pool, which gets completely submerged in the darkness, the light snuffed out. Rhododendron lies to the group that they’re just going to turn around and leave the pool and the angel alone, and turns to shoot the pool right as they’re leaving - causing the room to plunge into pitch black darkness. Before Verrix can cast Light, the angel breaks free of their chains and summons a magical sword of fire, spitting out something vulgar in Celestial.

Verrix: “Uh, he sounds mad…”

Jun: “Oh, he doesn’t sound mad at all Verrix, he sounds very friendly.”

The angel beheads both statues of Nyvarstra and Laoteng, crumbling the heads to dust.

Verrix: “They’re just statues, they’re not gonna hurt you. Do you just really not like statues, is that it? I swear we didn’t put those there.”

In broken Celestial the angel cusses out the goddess and any who would help them. Rhododendron and Verrix try to put on brave faces and snark back at the angel as they back away from the angel - who is much taller than even Marlee. The angel accuses Rhododendron of pretending to be a Champion of Dilong, saying she lacks purity. Rhododendron suggests that they try to swim across the pond, but Jun says that he can’t.

Rhododendron: “Why are all of the angels we’ve met just huge fucking assholes?”

Verrix: “Hey.”

Rhododendron: “Like you’re not a huge fucking asshole.”

Verrix: “What about Inigo?”

Jun: “So no exceptions.”

Without any other choice, the party engages the angel in combat. Rhododendron sends up a prayer to Dilong for guidance in combat, and the arrow strikes true causing the angel to howl in pain. Verrix makes the mistake of getting within melee range of the angel, who practically gores him with its greatsword (instantly halving his health), baring its fangs at him. Jun turns Verrix invisible, and the angel chases the group to the edge of the pond before releasing a wave of necrotic energy at them. Jun is knocked prone but Rhododendron and Verrix manage to stay standing. Rhododendron tries to talk the angel down, but they’re too far gone. Verrix senses that the fallen angel might be weak to radiant damage (too bad they didn’t bring someone with Divine Smite, huh), and he pulls out his wings to deal out some extra radiant damage to the enemy. After a few more attacks from the party as they whittle down its health, the angel gets annoyed with Verrix’s radiant damage and tries to attack him, but cannot reach him - so they grapple Rhododendron instead out of sheer desperation.

Rhododendron, choked: “If you wanted a hug you could have just asked.”

Verrix and Jun try to hit the angel, but Jun’s spells keep fizzling out. They spend a few rounds unable to do any real damage to the angel without risking injuring Rhododendron, who keeps making jokes at the angel about taking her out to dinner first as she’s slowly choked out. Verrix casts Burning Hands directly in the angel’s face, melting and crumbling their face. The angel shatters in a hail of light, covering the party in goop. After cleaning off the angel goop, Rhododendron gives both Verrix and Jun a chocolate - Verrix ends up not having any immediate effects, while Jun screams and coughs up blood.

Rhododendron: “Are you okay??”

Jun: “No. I think that chocolate tried to cast a love spell on me. Tastes like coconuts, though.”

Verrix: “Is that gonna happen to me??”

Rhododendron is able to get a better look at the mosaic, which depicts the sun and the moon in balance with one another, equal in their power. Nyvarstra is shown empowering other deities while Laoteng is show in temperance to that, cleansing those that grew clouded by the power. The pool seems like it was restorative at one point. Rhododendron takes the Water Walking ring to scope out the area, but is unable to find anything. Verrix tries to use the ring to walk up the waterfall, but fails miserably. Rhododendron also attempts it but fails in the same way. After several more minutes of unsuccessful investigation of the waterfall, Rhododendron tries to use her bow to shoot at the waterfall. She debates praying to Laoteng or Dilong, since the angel mentioned something about him. She decides to pray to Dilong for help and guidance…(CRIT MISS)

The arrow snaps in half and falls into the water. Rhododendron, out of desperation, decides to try again - Jun suggests making a deal with the god, since powerful entities usually want something in return. Verrix suggests throwing a coin into the water, like making a wish.

Rhododendron, embarrassed: “I fell asleep most of the time when I went to church with Raz. I tried to stay awake, but he has a very soothing…voice…And there’d be hymns. Really, really long hymns. Everybody’s lulling you to sleep.”

Rhododendron tries another prayer, admitting that she doesn’t know what to offer Dilong. After five long minutes with no response, the group sees a shooting star streak across the dark (underground) chamber, hitting the waterfall and submerging the entire chamber in water - Rhododendron opens her eyes in a bright white room, dry and glowing with a faint silver light. Rhododendron asks aloud if she’s dead, to which an unfamiliar voice tells her she isn’t. Dilong says that aren’t really interested in making a deal with her since they aren’t some hag or fey. Dilong advises Rhododendron to be careful about offering to make deals with strangers.

Dilong: “Not everyone’s that nice.”

Rhododendron: “Are you..nice…?”

Dilong: “Depends who you ask.”

Rhododendron: “What if I’m asking you?”

Dilong: “I dunno. Some people say neutrality isn’t really nice, but I say walking in the middle isn’t so bad.”

Rhododendron wakes to find herself standing in the middle of the pool in the room with three doorways above the broken staircase, Verrix and Jun passed out on either side of the pool. They’re all dry. Rhododendron sends up a quick prayer of thanks to Dilong, and looks through the bookshelves for information on Dilong. The only book she manages to find is written in Primordial, which Jun says that he can read but that it will take a while since it’s a difficult language to translate. The party finally leaves the temple, going to reunite with Inigo and Marlee. Rhododendron puts on her bright pink dress and Verrix uses his disguise kit to make her look like Donny.

They head back over to the cart, and Inigo has trouble remembering Donny’s name. Marlee tells Rhododendron that she looks ‘pretty bad’ before asking how the temple went. Rhododendron tells Marlee to get in disguise as well, and Inigo tries to come up with a fake name for Rhododendron.

Inigo: “Uh, Romeo?”

Rhododendron: “Romeo is just me. Romeo is just Rhododendron.”

Inigo: [CRIT MISS INT CHECK]

Rhododendron tries to check in on Inigo and the status of his memories, but he keeps dodging around her with cryptic and confused-sounding responses. He does manage to remember Donny’s name, and Rhododendron realizes that Verrix made her look like Donny - he ducks behind Marlee. After Verrix finishes Marlee’s disguise, she and Rhododendron come up with fake names and a backstory, with Marlee less than pleased to be on a date with fake-Donny (‘Barbra’).

Marlee: “Ugh, you couldn’t have been, like, hot?”

Rhododendron: “Hey, I’m not like, ugly.”

Marlee: “Okay. Couldn’t we be, like, siblings instead?”

Rhododendron: ”No, we look nothing alike.”

Marlee: “I know, I actually look nice.”

Marlee pouts as they start their fake-date, heading towards the stables. The stable master seems unswayed by their act, until Marlee (like every time she lies) starts strong and then takes it a little overboard with her threats by the end of her semi-lovelorn speech. She definitely implies they’ll be doing, uh, things on the horses. Marlee ends up taking two of the horses from a completely speechless and embarrassed stable master, and Rhododendron is torn between being impressed and mortified by Marlee’s insinuations. The two of them decide that their meet-cute is that Donny/Barbra/Rhododendron is a clumsy waitress who spilled some sort of non-hot beverage on Julia/Marlee and that they’re engaged with a very specific proposal scene courtesy of Marlee; they spend the rest of the horse ride figuring out the details of their fake couple as Rhododendron tries to bond with Marlee, and the end up circling back to where the rest of their party is waiting with the cart.

The party debates leaving - there is one major city left, and then just the Long Road between them and the capital of So’Joh. Rhododendron asks Marlee for information about Dilong, and she says that he’s the god of the Underdark, the stars, and guidance. She also lists of his holy days, like the Night of Wishes (in the middle of winter). She also supplies that his symbol is a falling star. Rhododendron fills her in on what happened in the temple, and Marlee sounds mildly impressed with most of it - but points out that she should have checked the quiver for a curse before picking it up and using it. When Rhododendron recounts the fight with angel Marlee tries to write an impromptu enemies-to-lovers story about it while she talks. (Verrix pretends like he isn’t eavesdropping the entire time while he guides the horses.) Rhododendron says the Knight/Champion of Dilong had the same bow as her in the temple’s depictions, and that every time she’d tried to pray to Laoteng she never really seemed to get a response.

Marlee: “What made you think it was Laoteng’s bow, anyway?”

Rhododendron: “It’s silver. And I found it in the palace of the Queen.”

Marlee: “Oh, you’re so lucky to have me.”

Marlee also supplies that gods are ‘not a one way street’, and that their relationships with mortals tend to be give-and-take. Rhododendron finishes detailing her strange encounter with Dilong to Marlee, who claims that there’s some ‘romantic tension’ in that. Rhododendron wonders if there’s a possibility that it wasn’t Dilong, to which Marlee says that a Trickster might have tried to interfere but gods like Zelia and Sabio wouldn’t resort to that. She does warn Rhododendron that Nyvarstra wouldn’t be pleased about her meeting with Dilong, and repeats the well-worn mantra that she’s ‘always watching’.

Rhododendron: “There was this shooting star that hit the waterfall, and then we were all drowning.”

Marlee: “Oh, are you dead? Wait, you’re not dead - if you were dead I would sense it, and then I would have to kill you, ‘cause, you know, undead - can’t roll with that. You’re an abomination against nature and Nyvarstra doesn’t like that, so I’d have to Smite you.”

Rhododendron has Jun cast Identify on her bow again, to which he finds that her bow feels much stronger, not quite awakened but definitely not as dormant as it was before.

#s12 has been written up since June....but i stopped playing ac so I haven’t been listening to sessions since then lol #also i love that every time the chocolates are used i forget that they’re scaled and i go ‘OH THATS SO NICE’#dndas #dnd another sunrise #dndas recap #they play I spy w Inigo at the very end of the session and he keeps picking trees

3 notes · View notes

aftermathdb · 5 years ago

Text

DEATH BATTLE review: All Might vs. Might Guy

First Atlantis^2, then Widow^2, then Marvel^2, then ONE^2, and now Might^2.

(Holy Hell! I have exactly 100 screenshots for this episode!)

All Might′s Preview.

We open on a world where superpowers are common.

A world where schools are everywhere so that people can harness their powers.

These “Quirks” are varied, and some are… not that great.

But one aspiring hero would rise up to be the greatest hero around. Toshinori Yagi, who was given the greatest Quirk of all: One for All.

The hosts go over how badass this Quirk is. But more specifically how it’s the Quirk that can be passed down to other users.

Toshinori got his from Nana Shimura, and he became the ever-smiling All Might.

All Might keeps that smile on his face to ensure that everyone around him feels safe.

Thanks to All Might’s Quirk, he’s got everything from Super Strength, speed, stamina, and durability.

Aside from Boomstick’s apparent ability to manifest seafood, the hosts go over All Might‘s main powerset.

Interestingly enough, All Might’s tendency to name his moves after the US is kinda accurate.

For example, the Texas Smash and Oklahoma Smash both create forms of tornadoes. And guess what states are smack-dab in the way of those things?

But All Might can combine those States together in one extremely powerful attack: The United States of Smash. PLUS ULTRA!

The power of the USoS is actually quantifiable. Given the size of the storm compared to the buildings around it, the force would be over 11,000 tons of TNT.

All Might can also move at speed around Mach 29.

Now, here’s the thing: All Might’s doing a lot of this with a handicap. So these moves are still impressive. Since DEATH BATTLE takes a look at these characters in their prime, those are the stats that would be used. In his hayday, All Might would be 60 times more powerful.

He’s on par with many a fighter, like Nomu, whom he had punched 300 times in ten seconds.

Even when crippled, All Might’s proven exactly why he’s been the number one hero for years.

Might Guy′s Preview.

In the world of Naruto, there exists schools that train the best Ninjas around. These schools would essentially teach Ninjutsu and Genjutsu, or in Boomstick’s terms, Ninja Magic.

But one ninja doesn’t really have that. Rock Lee was never really that good at the whole “Ninja Magic” thing, so when he found a mentor, it was a good thing for him.

Enter: Might Guy.

Despite not having that great of skill when compared to the other guys, Might Guy and his dad opted to focus on one thing and become the undisputed master of it:

Punching people (Thanks for the description there, Boomstick).

Strong Fist is a subset of Taijutsu, or hand-to-hand combat. A hard martial art that is focused on breaking the bones of the opponent.

Only the toughest people can really use Strong Fist according to the hosts, and it comes with it’s own set of skills.

But it’s a really big double-edged sword.

And we get more into that double-edged sword by an animated segment.

Regardless, the technique Guy and Duy developed was the Eight Gates.

With these Gates, they can unlock a whole slew of crazy abilities by way of removing limits on the body. From mental inhibitions, to physical limitations.

Some of these Gates are safe to use. Numbers 1-3 are good to go, but once you go past that, you’re in trouble.

At Gate numero six, Guy moves so fast that his fists ignite the air around him and can be used as projectiles.

In order to ignite the Hydrogen in the air, Guy’s swinging at speeds at 40000 km/h.

For reference, that’s nearly five times as fast as the X-15 Rocket Jet, the fastest man-made jet that has been made so far.

Gate Seven is still relatively safe for Guy, according to the hosts, but the final Gate is a fatal attack.

That’s not some sort of “Battle Aura” you’re seeing around Guy, that’s his blood burning. With this, he can use… “Night Guy.”

Yeah, I’m a little unimpressed too.

This form was able to decimate Madara. You should know that guy by now. He’s the deadly villain that could take on Naruto and easily defeat him in base mode.

Naruto’s super modes are definately better that Guy’s best mode, but it’s also way better than Jiraya’s best move.

Guy is also a match for Kakashi, who could catch lightning.

Kakashi’s speed clocks in at around 763000 m/s, so Guy is definitely in that ballpark.

And with all the feats he has, he’s proven to be a badass through and through. It takes a lot to bring down this Mighty Guy.

… Yeah, the end quote doesn’t exactly inspire greatness, but eh, it’s probably iconic (Really sorry, not a Naruto fan).

The Battle Itself.

Torrian is back to head this project, All Might will be voiced by Kaiji Tang, while All Might was voiced by a guy named “Dick Splitter” (No, I’m not making that up). "Mighty” by both Brandon Yates and Therewolf sprite artist (If there are any), and audio lead by Chris Kokkinos.

Our fight starts with Guy sitting in a park, reading a bit of Manga. For those eagle-eyed viewers, you’ll notiice that he’s reading a My Hero Academia book. I’ve circled it for you.

Anyways, All Might drops in and does his dramatic enterance. After geeking out, Guy challenges him to…

An ARM WRESTLING CONTEST!

Which All Might readily accepts.

I want to go on record and say that this initial explosion is in essence, them just starting.

And can I also point out the absurdity in the ground being cratered before the table? Like what is that table made of?- Adamantium?

Well, my accusation is unlikely. The table breaks, and then the two duke it out. Not out of jealousy or because one of them accused the other of sabotaging the contest, but because they’re just that hammy.

So with the fight underway, these two go at it. It’s readily clear that All Might has the edge up in strength over Base Guy, but Guy is certainly faster given how often he dodges the attacks that All Might dishes out.

He even gets a perfect 10 on his dodging!

I want it to be known that Might Guy actually dodged this attack. He clearly has the speed advantage.

And these two just keep complimenting each other! Like, come on! Who am I supposed to root for here?

Anyways, Guy opens his Sixth Gate, which gives him an edge up over All Might.

And you want to know what’s better than a beam struggle?- A Barrage attack struggle.

What’s better than that?

When the barrages are fire vs wind!

They make an explosion that brings Guy to the ground, and he opens the Seventh Gate.

He unleashes his Daytime Tiger, and actually puts All Might on the defensive.

Here’s my question: How is it that all that power is being condensed in that one park? Those buildings should have destableized by now!

Anyways, Finishing Blow in

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

Might Guy gets impaled! Well, it was a good run, and he certainly put up quite the fight…

And he’s also not done yet. We still have one more Gate.

REAL finishing blow iin

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

You gotta wonder what the report by the authorities and news is going to be like.

Verdict + Explanation.

So, right off the bat, this fight actually is close. Guy’s Gates were really the big thing that was letting him keep up with All Might and his speed was certainly nothing to sneeze at.

Now, As for All Might, since DEATH BATTLE was looking at him in his prime, they had to scale accordingly.

All Might himself claimed that a fight he finished in 300 punches could have been done in 5. So that means that the All Might that is being used is 60 times stronger.

Take this feat for example, All Might’s foe Gigantomachia, once blew a hole through the mountain. Adding in the X60 multiplier, and All Might’s batting in the 154.8 Gigaton range.

However, Guy is still way faster, add in his better training and more versatile arsenal, Might Guy just needed to hit All Might harder than All Might could hit him.

All Might’s feat of changing the weather clocks in at about 1462 Gigatons of TNT.

Now, that’s impressive and all, but Guy hasn’t really shown his full power.

So we have to compare him to another person that we’ve seen all too many times before: Naruto.

Now remember: Base Naruto < Madara, and Night Guy > Madara.

As we’ve seen all too many times before, Naruto’s Base Chakra was enough to blow a hole through the moon.

How much force is that?

About 480 Petatons of TNT.

How much is a Petaton?

A million Gigatons. Simply put All Might > Might Guy, but Night Guy > All Might. Sure, Guy goes down not too long after using the attack, but he wins in the moment, and that’s what matters.

The winner is Might Guy.

Overall impression.

I came into this thinking “This feels more like season premiere material.” Something to hype up the crowd for the upcoming season. And I was right in the absolute most wrong sense of the word. The fight is spectacular, and it makes me want to read up on MHA. In all honesty, if this were a season premiere, everything after it would feel boring in comparison.

Now, admittedly, this was basically just a fistfight. A battle of who could punch harder than the other guy. Which isn’t very exciting on it’s own, but is still interesting given the characters.

Plus, given that no sane parent would ever give their kid the name “Richard” if their last name was “Splitter” I’m going to take a shot in the dark and say that this is the official VA for Guy.

I’m not going to link to his twitter, I’d rather he not get in trouble, but it’s still pretty cool.

Then again, my dad knew a guy named “Richard Head” so I guess the name “Dick Splitter” isn’t that farfetched. Who knows, maybe this is a real name.

Tangent aside, this battle was epic in all sense of the word. I’m sure there are a lot of references that I missed because of my lack of knowledge on these two, but it was a joy to see, and the music is awesome. Definitely looking forward to downloading it.

9.6/10.

Next Time…

I’m calling…

… Well shit. I don’t know what to call. But I recognize Miles Morales, Beerus, and Danny Phantom, so who knows?

Though the end colors for the start of Season 7 makes me think of… Harley Quinn.

Is there a fight that you want me to review? - Send an ask/request, and I’ll look into it!

Do you want to read my fanfic based around DEATH BATTLE itself? click here!

Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you next time for…

A DEATH BATTLE.

#Death Battle #Deathbattle #review

6 notes · View notes

torestoreamends · 7 years ago

Text

Two (+) things from this weekend at Cursed Child

First thing – I got to see Franc Ashman as Hermione for the first time and I fell in love. She’s entirely different to any of the other actresses who have played Hermione before (they were all arranged on a sliding scale from Noma as the most restrained at one end through Nicola who was somewhere in the middle to Rakie who had zero restraint and had the potential to do absolutely anything on stage). Franc does not fit the scale, she’s completely her own thing, and it’s amazing.

When my parents came to see the play, my dad’s one comment on Hermione was that she was the only one who wasn’t recognisable as the character from the books. In her older form she was removed as a character from her younger self. Aside from her natural authority and cleverness that comes out through the script, there was something about how she was played that didn’t inspire that instant recognition, and I agreed with that.

Hermione was always my favourite character in the books – she was the character who I most identified with, like I think so many people did. I saw so much of myself in her, and I always wondered if maybe that was why I could never identify what it was that I wanted from her in the play. If your identity and a character are closely conflated then you don’t have the objectivity to analyse that character, surely? I saw Hermione as myself, so I didn’t really know who she was outside of that.

Since then I’ve reread the books a lot and learned a lot about Hermione as a character. It has never helped me to recognise her in any of the performances I’ve seen in Cursed Child – the closest I’ve ever got was with Nicola’s fiery authority, her softness around her friends, and her bitterness in the second timeline. I always found Nicola’s performance comfortable and familiar to watch. Everything was pitched just right, and she became the Cursed Child Hermione that most made sense to me.

So when I saw Franc for the first time this weekend, I had a wonderful moment when I realised that she was the Hermione that I’d been waiting for the whole time. I recognised the character that she was playing very much as the Hermione I got to know in the books.

There’s this bossiness to her authority that’s absolutely perfect. She’s so curious, getting sucked into examining the Time-Turner when it’s given to her so she almost seems to be talking to herself about it instead of to Harry. She shines when she’s around her friends – the smile she gives Harry on the station is glowing; you can see the history between them in every moment, especially in Act Four when they’re in Godric’s Hollow and she asks if he remembers when they were last here.

Her presence is so strong. I love her voice, and I love how the way she speaks changes when she becomes Delphi. She feels like a naive girl in the second timeline, broken and on the verge of tears in the DADA lesson, and she looks so young on the staircase with Ron. In the Voldy timeline she has so much power. She’s basically everything I could have ever wanted, and I can’t wait to see her again. We’re lucky to have her.

Also, it should be noted that the strength and embodiment of character she brings is an absolute miracle considering how little rehearsal she’s had. You’d never know that she essentially didn’t rehearse at all with any of the rest of the cast. She’s truly incredible and deserves all the support and success in the world.

Second thing – I had a long conversation with one of the ushers before Part Two (talk to them, they’re amazing founts of knowledge), who mentioned that Jonathan developed his version of Scorpius with anxiety and panic attacks in mind. This new information then proceeded to ruin the show for me, because once you know, it’s everywhere.

Scorpius spends the whole Voldy timeline on the verge of a panic attack. It’s like there isn’t enough air in the world. He kept clawing at the top of his robes like he wanted to undo them to try and breathe, but he knew he couldn’t because the Scorpion Kind wouldn’t have had them open. His breathing is so shallow and desperate, and he has to keep trying to calm himself down. When he talks it’s not fast, it’s slow and measured, surrounded by more careful breaths, and the words sound difficult and tight, like he can barely get them out. In short, he doesn’t breathe properly again until he comes out of the lake and Albus is there.

But it doesn’t end with Scorpius’s emergence from the lake. There are hints of that bit of back story throughout the rest of Part Two. When McGonagall says that Scorpius must have been brave, Albus nods emphatically, because he knows after years of friendship what it must have been like for Scorpius (all this throws the little arc with Scorpius being desperate to be recognised as capable of bravery into even starker emotional territory).

I also found that it bound this version of Scorpius and Albus together for me. It gives their friendship a history – this is something they must have had to deal with together for a while – and it helped me see Albus’s respect and love for Scorpius, like in that moment when he nodded in agreement that Scorpius is brave. One of my favourite things that Joe and Jonathan do is when Scorpius is freaking out about Bathilda, and Albus goes up to him and they breathe together. Yesterday I was left thinking about how many times they’ve breathed together in less light-hearted circumstances.

One of the hallmarks of Jonathan’s Scorpius is just how bold and brave he is. There are times when he leads Albus through the darkest moments, like in the torture scene he embodies so much strength and he’s willing to put himself in danger for the world – there’s a moment when Albus mouths ‘sorry’ to him, and he replies that it’s okay right before Delphi tortures him again. I love that even more in the context of a Scorpius who has anxiety. It adds an extra dimension to his resilience and unshakeable bravery. Scorpius’s inner-strength is so impressive, and I always enjoy it when he’s the one who inspires Albus through those scenes with Delphi on the Quidditch Pitch, but even more so this time. I do feel a real level of respect for Scorpius from Joe’s Albus. He’s an Albus who is very clear that Scorpius is braver and better than him, and I’m going to have entirely too much fun thinking about the history behind that, especially in this context...

Other fun things from the show:

Franc is a hero who makes the new lines in the scene between Harry and Hermione in Harry’s office feel like an actual part of the story, rather than awkward new lines.

I’m still not sure if this was a deliberate prank on Joe’s part or if someone else was to blame, but for some reason Albus presented Scorpius with an enormous mountain of Gillyweed (confirmed to be chopped up green laces, which Jonathan has to finish eating before he emerges from the lake). There was SO MUCH of it. It was genuinely ridiculous. Jonathan’s attempt to eat it all did not go well. There was Gillyweed everywhere... Apparently Joe was mildly apologetic at least.

Jamie B’s Harry is such a dork. He is not a cool dad, even a little bit. There are multiple examples of this, but my favourite from yesterday came in the final scene. When Albus said ‘so am I like you?’ he did this awkward little point at his dad, and when Harry replied ‘No, you’re more like your mum’ he paused afterwards before doing the awkward little point right back at Albus. It was ridiculous. He also did kissy noises when he presented Albus with the Love Potion. (Jamie bringing out Harry’s awkward, funny side gives me life. It was the one thing I missed when I first saw him, but now there’s so much balance to the way he plays Harry. It’s perfect.)

Jamie and Tom had to have a fun improv session (it was not fun) at the start of the baby or a holiday scene, because Franc’s robe got caught on the sleeve of her cardigan, so she was trapped in the wings trying to free herself for a while.

James has changed how he says ‘my son is suffering’ and now I’m suffering. It’s gone from being a sharp bark of a thing to being as painful an admission as the ‘and Astoria hasn’t been well recently’ that follows it. Draco spends so much of the play weighed down with pain now. It’s made everything so much worse, thanks James.

Jonathan has discovered the fun of being Floorpius. He spends so much time on the floor, and when he’s down there he’s all flailing legs. The best example of this is on top of the train, which might actually be his and Joe’s best scene – it’s hysterical. He lies on his back and his legs are all over the place, like he’s trying to find a way to stand up but can’t. He also spends the whole scene trying to assure the Trolley Witch that yes they will definitely go and sit back down, and then of course Albus fucks that up by jumping off the train.

Josh stole the show in ‘Nicola’s track’. He should be banned from that track. He and Danny did a ‘drug deal’ at one point, and in the library he walked up to Albus and Scorpius and made an ‘I’m watching you’ gesture at them.

Oh the library scene. Oh my heart. They’ve reached that point where they’re captivating with it. I’m really feeling Scorpius’s pain about his mum, and he’s so painfully angry that he can’t stand still, and there are tears dripping off his chin, and Albus is heartbroken by the whole thing. (I’ve also finally started to get their Hogwarts through the trees scene, which I lost for a while, but I love what they’re doing with it now; I love their inter-play.)

Albus repeating the line ‘your father loves you’ will never not destroy me. And afterwards he looks at Scorpius and does a hopeless little ‘I had to say something... there’s nothing else we could do’ shrug, which makes it even worse.

In the second timeline, when Ron gives Albus the quills, Albus thinks it’s a joke. He thinks the whole thing is a joke. When he opens the quill box he’s really careful with it, expecting something to jump out at him. When he discovers that they really are just quills, that’s when he realises that everything has gone terribly wrong.

Another example of Albus’s expectations of things being wrong is in the blanket scene. When Harry starts talking about the blanket being lucky, Albus gets really excited because he thinks Harry is giving him a real magic blanket. He thinks that it will truly give him luck, and that it’ll make his life better. He thinks he’s being given an artefact akin to the Invisibility Cloak. But when he holds it he realises that it really is just a blanket, and that’s when his face falls and he hands it back, because what could he possibly want with a boring, mundane blanket?

When Albus and Scorpius first meet on the train, Scorpius spots Albus through the carriage door and watches him approach. I am absolutely positive that Scorpius recognises Albus at that point, but doesn’t dare to believe that Albus will join him in the carriage.

During the first Scorbus hug, when Scorpius asks ‘do we hug?’ he used to sort of pat the air by Albus’s shoulders, recognising that he’d missed his moment but really did sort of want to give him a proper hug. But now, there’s no wishing for a second go. He just grabs Albus and returns the hug. He does the same thing in the final scene too. ‘I wasn’t sure whether we should or not’ he says, patting Albus’s arms in a sort of tiny second hug.

I could keep going on forever but I’ll stop now...

This cast have taken me a while to get used to. I was raving about them at my first viewing, but as soon as I left I felt empty and like something was lacking. The first few times I had this awful sense of disappointment, even deflation after seeing them. The play didn’t do for me what it had done for the two previous years – I didn’t have the compulsion to go back, and the endless excitement of before. I would sit in the theatre and be impressed by the flair and brilliant acting, but I would leave feeling cold, with nothing emotional to hold onto.

But now I think I’m there. Yesterday was one of the most consistent shows I’ve seen across all four acts. I found myself falling head over heels in love with Joe’s Albus in particular, and with the relationship between Albus and Scorpius. Jonathan is incredible, Joe makes me feel a great many things, Jamie is the Harry we all need and deserve, Susie is Ginny, James is James (you know), Tom is everything Ron should be, Franc is the Hermione I’ve been waiting for, and everyone else backs them up with style and brilliance, and many of them are the perfect version of their characters too. There’s nothing not to love about this cast, and I think I’ve finally got from them this weekend the emotion that I’ve been desperate for all along. I want to go back on Wednesday, and that’s what I’ve been missing for the last couple of months. I’m overjoyed to feel that way again.

84 notes · View notes

theuniteddigihub20-blog · 5 years ago

Text

How ‘Sustainable’ Web Design Can Help Fight Global Climate Change?

Danny van Kooten may be a Dutch programmer who decided to scale back his carbon output by not eating beef or flying. Then, five months ago, he made a change that had a good bigger impact—and it took only a couple of keystrokes.

Van Kooten is the author of a well-liked WordPress plug-in that helps website owners use the mailing-list service Mailchimp. Install van Kooten's plug-in and visitors can check-in for your Mailchimp list directly via a form embedded on your site. His plug-in also makes the location slightly larger by adding several thousand more lines of code. Whenever someone visits your page, a server has got to send a part of van Kooten's code to their browser. Sending data to a browser uses energy; the less code you send, the less energy you employ.

So van Kooten decided to slim things down. He “refactored” his plug-in, making it more efficient, so now it sends 20 KB fewer data. Overall, the location would use a touch less energy a day.

Of course, 20 KB maybe a teensy reduction. But since 2 million websites use his plug-in, it adds up. By his crude estimate, trimming the code reduced the world's monthly CO2 output by 59,000 kilograms, roughly the likes of flying from NY to Amsterdam and back 85 times.

Not bad for 2 hours of hacking. “The code thing has been far and away from the most important thing I could do,” he marvels, “and it's crazy because it takes tons less effort than not eating any meat.”

Van Kooten's aha moment is one being shared by web designers around the planet. They call it “sustainable” software design, and it's propelled by technologists measuring the energy budget of nearly every swipe and click on in our information ecosystem.

It's a target-rich environment. Because such a lot of our lives are brokered by software, tiny nips and tucks are often transformative. they will even be quite lovely: This spring, a gaggle of scholars designed an Instagram filter that reduces the file size of a photograph you post by 40 percent. It turns the image into a retro pointillization like a midcentury black-and-white newspaper photo. The goal wasn't just to save lots of energy but to supply something so cool-looking that folks would “want to use it,” as Danique de Bies, one among the scholars, told me.

Our throwaway habits can add up. If every adult within the UK sent one less “thank you” email per day, it might cut 16 plenty of carbon annually.

Recoding our digital world to use less energy often makes it more pleasant too. Consider, say, all that ad code that bloats websites—megs and megs of crap. We hate it for spying on us, but it also slows page loading to a crawl.

“It's constantly pinging servers; it isn't very efficient,” says Tim Frick, founding father of Mightybytes, a green web consultancy. “All of that information really adds up.” When the ECU Union's regulations forced US companies to urge obviate some tracking code from their sites for European visitors, USA Today's homepage shed 90 percent of its data size and loaded 15 times faster, because the designers at Mighty bytes reported.

Even our throwaway habits can add up to a mountain of carbon. Consider all the tiny social emails we shoot back and forth—“thanks,” “got it,” “lol.” the UK energy firm Ovo examined email usage and—using data from Lancaster University professor Mike Berners-Lee, who analyzes carbon footprints—they found that if every adult within the UK just sent one less “thank you” email per day, it might cut 16 plenty of carbon annually, adequate to 22 round-trip flights between NY and London. They also found that 49 percent of folks often send thank-you emails to people “within talking distance.” we will lower our carbon output if we'd just take the headphones off for a moment and stop behaving sort of a bunch of Morlocks.

Granted, there's a clear rejoinder to the present design movement: Why specialize in individuals? To hit really juicy targets for carbon reduction, look to big infrastructure. Sixty-one percent of all online activity comes from purveyors of video. (Netflix alone accounts for 13 percent of it.) Bitcoin's annual emissions are roughly those of Sri Lanka. Or check out AI. Training one AI model can generate up to five times the lifetime CO2 of a car, as research by scientist Emma Strubell and her colleagues has found. Those areas need efficiency overhauls—now.

United Digihub can help you in making an impact in your business industry. With its power pack services and products, United Digihub, the BEST SEO AGENCY INDIA can help you by making your presence felt online. They can help you with marvelous web designs and prospective plans and outlines for all of your endeavors. With adept web designers and engineers, your business will grow in leaps and bounds. The list of services provided by them includes Web services, Mobility arrangements, and Digital Marketing. With competition rising up in every sector, our services will keep you at the top. This WEBSITE DESIGN & WEB DEVELOPMENT COMPANY INDIA will not disappoint you.

#BEST SEO AGENCY INDIA #WEBSITE DESIGN #WEB DEVELOPMENT COMPANY INDIA

0 notes

mrsrcbinscn · 5 years ago

Text

Script Excerpts: Franny’s Top Albums of 2019

[playlist]

tl;dr: A selection of script excerpts from a video on Franny’s YouTube channel called “My Favorite Albums of 2019″. Pretend I finished this in December like I wanted to and that January isn’t nearly over okay

Her channel doesn’t have a super regular upload schedule. She doesn’t feel like adding ~~~youtube personality~~~ to her long list of wikipedia page job titles. And she keeps her social medias (YouTube, Twitter, Instagram) firmly in the “this is for fun” part of her mind. She doesn’t make any sponsored videos or posts on social media but when the mood strikes she’ll upload videos about music, music history, current trends in the industry she’s noticing and her thoughts on them, album reviews, and her favorite content to make is videos where she signal boosts several lesser-known artists in one video and fangirls over how much she loves them and why y’all should, too.

INTRO: Susadei*, hello, and welcome to my channel, where I, Franny Sor Robinson, share my pesky lady opinions about music on the internet.”

*susadei is the informal way to say hello in Khmer, Franny’s first language

TOPIC INTRODUCTION: It is almost Christmas, which means! It’s time to talk about my favorite albums of 2019. As always, this list is in no particular order, because I believe that especially when talking about multiple genres of music - which we’re going to today - music isn’t something you rank on a linear bad, worse, worst, good, better, greatest scale.

RULES: Now, the rules!

The album can’t be one I had a part in “And I don’t just mean not a Franny Sor Robinson, Seoul Hanoi’d, or Dara & Danny album. I am an active songwriter and composer even durin’ years I don’t personally release an album. I have co-written substantial amounts of, or entire tracklists, on several albums where I don’t sing or play an instrument on the recorded album, but I’m all over the credits. I think I do enough shameless self-promotion leading up to, and shortly after, the release of anything I work on. So as much as I loved working with Sariya Ibekwe - who is a fabulous Nigerian-American jazz singer - on her debut album this year, I co-wrote a good amount of that album. But, I’ve already talked about Sariya’s album extensively this year, and will link to it in the description box below anyway.

The album can’t be by a close personal friend of mine “I would spend these videos talking only about my friends’ releases if I didn’t have a strict no cronyism rule in these yearly roundups. I hype up, like, Daniel, Vanessa, Yulia, Delia, Lora, Andreas’s, and so on’s stuff whenever anything new drops, so they already got their signal boosts.”

Beyond those two rules, that’s really it. So without further stalling, let’s get into it.

Traveling Mercies by Emily Scott Robinson

The first album I want to talk about is Traveling Mercies, by North Carolina singer-songwriter Emily Scott Robinson - no relation, but oh my god, I wish. I’d love to just meet her, once. She’s so talented, I just - ugh! Anyway.

Emily Scott Robinson is a country singer whose first album, Magnolia Queen, came out in 2016 but I didn’t come across it until after I fell in love with Traveling Mercies. Daniel Maitland - the other half of Dara & Danny - sent the Spotify link of this album to me, and I just ate it up. Her songwriting gets me good, y’all. Her imagery is somethin’ else, her voice has the clarity of Alison Krauss, and her ability to deal with some very heavy themes poetically without sort of...glorifying? or trivializing? them is unreal.

I should trigger warning this upcoming bit for discussion of sexual assault, so if you’d like to avoid that, I’ll put a timestamp right here [points] for you to skip to. I’ll give you oooone more second to skip, and...okay.

I had a hard time listening to The Dress at first, because whenever I consume any media that deals with sexual assault, I have to mentally prepare myself. Even the song I wrote about my own experience with it, I don’t - I don’t perform it. Very rarely, I will. It was a write it, record it, release it for your healin’, and try to be done with it kinda thing. But once I psyched myself up to listen to it, The Dress pretty much immediately became one of my favorite songs on this album. I do sometimes have to skip it if I’m not feelin’ up to it mentally, but it. It is a beautifully written song about a very ugly thing, and I think- I think its a wonderful thing that she wrote that song.

[...] and then there’s my favorite song on this entire album, the one that honestly gave me a moment of “oh. OH, she went there.” Pie Song. It starts out by literally, she’s literally singin’ about how to bake a pie, and it made me so nostalgic for home, because I remember being taught by my friend’s mom to make a pie just like that. Don’t skimp on butter for the crust, add a little moonshine, but then she just, the next line goes right into the chorus and its, “but nothing you can make, can make you good enough, if you’re cooking for a man that doesn’t love you.” When I first heard that shift in the song - honey, when I tell you my chest just [both hands go up to her chest] it was powerful. Even though it isn’t the saddest or heaviest song on the album, it’s my favorite. The clear imagery - I could smell the pie she was singing about, I could feel the flour on my clothes - , the plot twist.

Among the songwriting circles I’m in, this album is pretty popular with them for her songwriting. We go absolutely bananas for it.

Her songwriting is gonna take her places. I really can’t wait to see what she comes out with next. I’m a fan. I love her. SO much.

WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP WHERE DO WE GO? by Billie Eilish

This is probably the most quote unquote, mainstream album on this list. Billie’s undeniably a known name, and rightfully so!

This album, y’all? Amazing. Flawless. True art. I’m always hesitant when my son tells me what the Kids TM are listening too, because I usually- mm. Far be it from me to gatekeep music, to say what’s good and what’s bad, so I’ll just say that it. Usually isn’t. My, uh, my thing. It doesn’t appeal to me, and that’s fine!

But I- the first couple seconds of ‘bad guy’ got me payin’ attention, at ‘all the good girls go to hell’ I was just like Wow, capital W, and ‘bury a friend’ had me floored. Billie Eilish’s album is probably one of the most interesting, unique, and complex albums I’ve ever listened to. I really- I love this album.

Walk Through Fire by Yola

We’re back in the underground country music scene because of course we are! Yola is a fantastic singer from Bristol, England. On iTunes this album is classified as rock, but her EP titled Orphan Offering was under country, and her music has a very americana-indie-country feel.

Yola’s voice is the best part of this album but that’s not to knock on the music and the songwriting because they are also amazing. I can’t talk about this album and not talk about Yola’s voice, specifically, though. Her voice is like a warm cup of ginger tea on a cold day. It’s husky, and bluesy, on some songs kinda jazzy, and the musicality she displays on the album is really dynamic. She’s soft and smooth, then she’s belting out some high notes, but she’s not spending the entire album hittin’ you over the head with her belting. She really gives you a sampling of what all she can do on this album.

My favorite song off this album is Shady Grove it’s just - it’s - I love everything about it. The string section. The sitar sound. The gentle percussion, and ohhh my good god, the melody is just beautiful. It makes me wish this album was out when my son was little, because [pouts] its a song that reminds me of the song I used to sing to him when we first adopted him, and I’d just kinda hold him in my arms ‘n sway and sing to him. It’s such a beautiful song, it isn’t even the deepest or most profound song on this album but it is the most beautiful song to me musically. And I was want to hold a baby and sing it to the baby, so bring me your babies. Gimme.

Seneca by Charles Wesley Godwin

I’m going to get into this album in a second, but first. We all know I am a slut for odes to one’s roots. I made a whole video talking about how despite its memeability, John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads is actually a masterpiece. The short film I co-wrote and co-starred in with the director Lydia Viravong, a Lao-American I grew up with, is filmed and set in our hometown and based on our mothers. The Dara and Danny album ‘Progidal Children of Clayton County’ is a loveletter to me and Daniel’s hometown in Clayton Count, Georgiay.

And that’s exactly what the album Seneca is. Seneca is an album about West Virginia. Charles Wesley Godwin grew up in Morgantown, West Virginia, a coal minin’ town. The Seneca Creek ran through his back yard, his daddy was a coal miner, mama’s a schoolteacher - he had a very quintessential coal mining town upbringing. And you know, your upbringing shapes you and this album is all about his love for where he comes from.

The imagery in his songwriting is just [chef’s kiss] perfection. And as someone whose affection for her roots is just as strong, I really - this album made me emotional as all hell. A lot of it is really sad, if I’m being honest, but that’s also because its so honest. For example, the song Coal Country, tells the story of how West Virginia’s coal industry was the lifeblood of the West Virginia mountains, praises the union heroes of the Battle of Blair Mountain, and laments that in place of prospects for West Virginians, there’s now only food stamps and opiod addiction.

Seneca Creek...the full version is beautiful, but the acoustic version gives mechills every single time. He wrote it about his grandparents’ love story from when they met in ‘49 to when his grandmother got sick and died in ‘94. It reminds me of Holly William’s 2013 song Waiting on June. It isn’t the happiest song, but even after the verse where the wife’s passed away, the chorus following it isn’t sorrowful. It just goes

We built a home by Seneca Creek And raised ourselves a family I worked on the farm, you worked the store We had everything we'd ever hoped for

The narrator of the song is just talking about how he lived a simple life with the love of his life. That’s what the song is about, ultimately. And that’s beautiful. It makes me really, really feel lucky to be married to my husband when I listen to it, because for me, that’s what being married to him is like.

Strawberry Queen is ro-man-tic as HELL! It’s about his WIFE, and as someone who is also trash for their spouse and writes way too many cheesy-ass love songs about him....I love it. It’s beautiful. I cried a little but don’t tell anybody I have emotions.

The last sad one I want to mention is Sorry For The Wait. It is a beautiful song where the narrator’s been killed in a mine explosion and he’s telling his wife not to cry for too long, that he’s buried in the clay and so will she someday, and he’s sorry for the wait. The third verse gets me bad.

When you miss talkin' at me, holler t'wards the mine It's amazing how your voice echoes inside When the winter breeze tugs at your hair Jus know that it's me with a grin standing there

I’m not! Okay!

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Before I talk about the final album I want to gush about, I do want to mention four albums that I truly enjoyed but in an effort to not make this video go on forever and ever, I didn’t write a whole explanation about why they’re so great. But I really do think deserve a shoutout!

LOVE + FEAR by Marina

Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent by Lewis Capaldi

Closer Than Together by The Avett Brothers

Wildcard by Miranda Lambert

Farmland by Gabe Lee

I can’t believe I haven’t plugged this guy yet because Gabe Lee’s album is fuh-king amazing. Gabe Lee is a country singer from Nashville whose sound you can tell has been influenced by classic country, modern americana, and like classic singer-songwriter types like Bob Dylan. It’s hard for me to interpret 100% of the time what his lyrics are about because at times his writing is pretty abstruse - oooh, pull out your thesauruses, kids - but the imagery in vivid. Its easier for me to talk about what this album makes me think of and how it makes me feel than to outright tell you what its all about. Farmland makes me think about drivin’ out in the woods in my high school boyfriend’s pickup to makeout and drink beer under the guise of deer hunting; or trying to sneaky-clean my muck boots after cuttin’ school to go fishin’ with my brothers; or pulling into a gas station in the middle of nowhere and handin’ some cash for pump one to a clerk that looks like he’s been there since the invention of petrol. There’s this grit to it that’s plain at the same time. Like there’s nothin’ particularly rebellious about skippin’ school to catch some fish, but it’s gonna get you muddy and sweaty.

The music is very simple and that’s one thing I like about it. It doesn’t feel overproduced, it just feels very classic. Like this album would easily have been made in 1979, 2009, or 2019. The standout song on this album, to me, is Last Country Song. Daniel [the other half of the bluegrass-folk-americana duo Dara & Danny] thinks its Eveline, which is another one of my favorites. The most fun song on this album? Lyra, for sure. I have a lot of feelings about this album, I love this album, and I really hope you give it a listen.

Also, y’all know that as an Asian woman in country music - well, kinda. I got one foot in jazz, and one foot in bluegrass-americana-country-southern-folk, and then I got a hand in indie - [jump cut] LOOK, genre is a social construct, okay? I make whatever music I wanna make and you can like it or hate it. What was I talking ab-- oh! Gabe Lee!

Right, so, y’all know, clearly you can see, I’m very Asian. [*gasp*, puts on a generic American accent] What do you mean you’re not white? [normal voice] Shocking, I know. I like to highlight other artists of color as often as possible, but of course I’ll signal boost whoever I think is fantastic. But whenever I come across another Asian artist in these [air quotes] “white people” genres, I get really excited. And Gabe Lee is Asian-American, which again, we don’t see very often in country music, or like, other genres that we consider “Americana.” So yeah, I think that’s really cool.

#&&...hc

0 notes

cattythoughts-blog · 8 years ago

Text

Game of Thrones: The Alternate Ending

Intro of Dissatisfaction

Okay, so I’ve never been much of a revisionist when it comes to story-telling. Whatever ending I got, I could have mixed feelings about with no sway one way or the other to impact my overall enjoyment of a story. When stories go completely off the rails from what they once were (first 3 seasons of Supernatural vs everything after, Penny Dreadful season 3, Hannibal) I can still enjoy the show and, in the end, hold whatever first few good seasons I did have close to my heart.

And, I think the reason for this is that all all those shows had an “ending” before their true season ending. That ending paid off everything and was consistent with theme and tone first presented. Which brings up the question: What do you do when you have a story as big as Game of Thrones, a grand-scale epic by design? There can’t be a satisfying conclusion mid-way through the Game of Thrones show, where everything comes together because there’s too much going on. Too many loose strings. Too many factions. Stannis Baratheon’s death after burning his daughter could have been that great end-point of the show (the Baratheons known for gaining power by drawing the blood of their relatives finally take infighting to the deepest, darkest conclusion and are left with ashes) if we’d only been following Stannis, the Battle of the Bastards for the stark plot (to resolve the imbalance of rule of the north. The show starting with Ned and his family losing power and this culminating in the ultimate regain of that power through virtuous means but also new compromise and understanding of the “Great Game” on Sansa’s part), go all the way back to the Red Wedding and that could be that satisfying cut-off point if we only cared about the Starks.

Instead, there’s a show pushing a bolder of its own plot threats up a mountain, slowly dwindling in stakes and tension as the plot armor becomes too strong to kill of anyone important. That’s kind of a problem. The show has lost what made it, and the books, so great in the first place. Understand that I’m mostly talking about the show Game of Thrones, not the book series—but, this is actually a problem I have with both if George RR Martin and the writers are shooting in the same direction. If the TV show was without a doubt Full Metal Alchemisting these final seasons, I would probably not feel the need to write this. I’d just wait for the books and get my sweet, sweet, Brotherhood fix with George’s conclusion—but what if George’s conclusion is the show’s conclusion? If the end-goals set up in the show are the ones I’m to expect in the books then all I can say is—George…my man…my buddy…my better Santa…dafq?

The Core of Game of Thrones:

Here’s what I mean:

The main selling point of George RR Martin’s books is not realism—stop that, please. When people say “realism”, they’re talking about the feeling of stakes and motivation that copy realism. In realism, a lot more people would have died from drinking the bacteria in foreign fresh water and syphilis by now. George RR Martin doesn’t kill people without purpose. They have a thematic or plot-related edge to them that makes every death make sense in the grand scheme of things.

The main selling point of Georg RR Martin’s books is the subversion of expectation, actively taking tropes and turning them on their heads, and the consequences of actions. Every character is out to get something and if you don’t know what they want or how to make them think you can get it for them, you’ve lost. Here’s the problem of the show since season 5, more prominent in 6, and overt in 7, there are no consequences. All that cold-calculated conversation where you were trying to figure out what someone really wanted in the end-game is gone. All those terrible decisions made by Danny don’t backfire and have an overall consequence on how she’s viewed as a leader. Cersei—well the Margery-taking-over-thing was pretty good and the religion backfiring—but no consequence for blowing up the church when (especially in the books) it is explicitly stated that any ruler who ever did that was turned on by the people? The Iron Born suddenly decide to go and team up with Danny and give up their old ways in a snap because we need clear dividing lines on who is good and who is evil to wrap up this thing. Arya gets away with “tricking” the many faced men—the ultimate deception crew? No!

But, here’s the thing that frustrates me the most about all of this, up until Season 7, I could live with it. Fine. The overall story still had some promise to it. We have the “prince that was promised” thread, Tyrion “using” Danny to get revenge on his family or just see what happens (though in the show they kind of just make him love her and have no motive). Jon essentially usurping Sansa’s birthright to be lady of Winterfell and keeping Little Finger around while also having not told him about the vale, and then the whole Arya killing spree she was finally going to go on, Cersie dealing with a city/country that had to hate her after blowing up the church, the white walkers still had potential to be twisted as some kind of “no yeah, we’re sapient, and it’s cold and we just wanna go south, shut up” type-thing. Pieces were in place to be played with and set in order that was unexpected—an order with consequence.

Why Season 7 Fails:

What did I get in season 7?

In a nutshell: sister’s fighting over nothing from 5+ years ago—Danny and Jon, the 5$ love story. Cersei sitting in her chair with a fresh set of crazy pants and Jamie being angry, but not enough to do anything about it. And last—OH NO—That one! That dragon! I’m not sure which one but oh no…oh no…that one’s dead. Bummer. Wall down. Scene.

So…what was the consequences of this season? What were the biggest changes? The wall came down because the walkers had a dragon. Everything else was putzing around until that point. I’m not even joking. Little Finger’s death means nothing because he’s an inactive player in the story at that point. Danny’s getting evil—except—she’s always been evil (well, like, shes no more ruthless than she had been before). She crucified an entire city, so burning two guys alive is not out of character for her and changes nothing about the propoganda. Jon being declared the prince that was promised means nothing because that prophecy is vague. Bran’s omnipotent and missed the part where his aunt whispered the baby’s legal name because…reasons. Oh, oh, and the sand snakes finally died. Cheers to that.

Petty Child Explaining the Petty Rant

Now, here’s why I’m so mad. Because they have set up for—maybe not a great ending—but a good one that stays true to the tone of the books. Yes, this is the part where I say I can do better—and I really REALLY wish I couldn’t. The fact that I want every action to have a consequence, should not be something I have to insert to a story.

The following is “fixing” Season 7 of Game of Thrones, working with the plot threads set up at the beginning. I’m not going all the way back to 6 or 5 because that’s too much work, and I’m honestly just doing this for my own piece of mind. You can tell me this version of season 7 sucks. Hey, you’ve got the real TV version written by people with more talent and success than I’ll ever see. I’m some idiot with a keyboard and some ranting issues. Also, I’m more editing things that already exist like “working off the same budget” not adding new things, just going with what they gave me.

______________

So, the best way to fix this is to go narrative thread by thread, so let’s start with the 2nd worst one first. Danny. Oh…Danny, Danny, Danny. So much set up. No payoff. Loved you this season, girl. In the original Season 7, nothing changes with her character besides her becoming the ultimate Mary Sue with everyone falling in love with her left and right and her never dying on her dragons. Nothing she does or says or what people do or say to her this season have consequence unless it leads to getting into her nephew, Jon’s, pants (is anyone else not creeped out that there are literally no degrees of separation there. Her brother was his father. He’s sleeping with is aunt…no? And she’s totally going to get pregnant with an incest baby next season because they made a really huge point of saying she couldn’t have kids (and that’s mostly a man’s fault if you can’t have kids—like biologically speaking). Okay, it was a thing when the Lannisters were doing it but sure).

DANNY CHANGE:

To explain how to fix Danny is to explain her overall relevance to the plot—the plot of Game of Thrones. Her mechanical purpose was two main things. 1. Bring dragons to the army that dies of getting burned so that they can be defeated by getting burned, but also so that they have a dragon to break down the wall and make plot happen. 2. Be the inspirational invader that provides pressure for the native forces to band together and fight on two fronts (north and south) while bringing in these foreign fighters.

Danny is not meant to sit on the iron throne. Mechanically, she has been foreshadowed to be a great conqueror and a terrible, terrible ruler. In the books, it is better portrayed that she’s a little girl who can draw in inspiration, but has no clue what she’s doing when we get down to brass tax. In the show, she’s like mid-20s, so it doesn’t come off the same way. But, that’s the core of her. A girl who does not want to become the monster of her past, but believes that her lineage—not her actions—makes her deserving—not earning—of the Iron Throne. She wants to rule over this country because it exists and someone told her it was hers. Danny is a villain so letting the invasion play out is fine, but the two major threads need to be addressed. 1. Dragons are in Westeros (check), but now they need to go north. 2. Danny is leading inspiration and causing terror (check if you do the first 3 episodes of her plot the same).

There’s two main themes for Danny this season that culminate into nothing. She’ll ask for advice and listen to no one after they’ve given that advice “Be a dragon.” That should make Tyrion more frustrated with her and put a strain on their relationship because Westeros is Tyrion’s home, and he’s trying to put a ruler on it that he can’t mold to his views so easily. She’s an impulsive child. That’s what you should get out of all those close calls where she takes her dragon and nearly gets killed. The other theme is succession. After Danny is gone, what will happen? Danny doesn’t want to think about that, but she’s this inspirational ruler that brought armies across the sea for her. What do they have to fight for if Danny is dead? This isn’t their home. They won’t care after she’s gone. That’s why the children thing kept being brought up, and it’s never acted upon. So, here’s Danny’s conclusion for Season 7.

That stupid plot with the guys going across the wall to kidnap a walker happens, they’re on that lakebed… sure. Tweak it. As Danny swoops in to save them she is yet again not listening to advice and endangering herself. Danny drops with Drogo to go pick up the SQUAD and it’s too hot. She gets on a dragon, commands one to pick up the boys while she goes straight for the white walker kings (as the boys could have pointed out to her that you kill the boss, the adds die). And then, that Olympic-gold-winning javelin throw goes straight into Drogo (the only dragon you can actually tell apart) with Danny riding on his back. They both plummet to the ground behind a mountain or something (not in the lake because where’d the wights get chains?) out of sight and the SQUAD has to take the walker and run because one of the least favorite children dragons takes them away already. Jon can even have his stupid staying behind moment if he was trying to get Danny if they really needed that scene (he’d have a reason to stay in the middle of the army of wights fighting one or two because he’s just as impulsive and brash). I’d prefer everyone just left on least-favorite-dragon #1 or #2 and they flew back over the wall.

Then, by the end of the season, the white walkers now have the ice dragon they wanted. Not just any dragon. The only dragon the audience could name/care about: Drogo. (maybe Danny’s in there too as a wight, or a wight king if we wanna apply the rule of cool—like this would be kind of dumb but I’d want to see it. It’s probably more poetic for her to fall off the dragon and one of her least favorite children to pull her corpse out of the snow and fly her home).

What does this change/do?

Danny’s arc is a woman who doesn’t want to be an evil ruler but is not willing to learn or be flexible. Her inflexibility and inability to understand her limits because of years of have the ultimate advantage of dragons is what causes her death, ending that thread. Two, now what are Danny’s forces doing in Esos? Tyrion still has this army to deal with and they have no leader, no inspiration. That burning fire that has been carrying them is snuffed out and an entire group of people who’d hoped to find a great ruler (Tyrion’s hope) is dead. As for Danny, she did not want to become a mad king like her father, she did not want to kill hundreds of thousands, but due to her inflexibility, her ultimate drive for power, her defiance of death shown many times throughout the series—she has failed to reach her ultimate potential (and if we go with the white walker thing, she defies death for the final time becoming the ultimate conqueror of death and the destined ultimate conqueror of the nation she set out to rule, but not how she would have wanted. (but this one I’m ehh on because I got a better plan)) She’s fallen to tragedy because of her lack of familiarity with the country she was going to reign over. (also something else pays off from this in like 10 paragraphs, I’m sorry).

____________

Chopping block goes to Cersei next…also not that long. Mostly because it’s not hard to make it interesting.

CERSEI FIXING WHAT’S BROKE

Cersei’s character is fine. It’s not great, it’s not the best with the magic plot lack of logic, but it’s fine. Have her do the thing with the iron bank and take Highgarden…Highgarden—the wealthiest country—being overthrown because…rich people don’t have the biggest armies to protect their loot? Oh my god, Highgarden. The way the show presented it, I could run in there with a toothpick and win.

Anyway, sure. But, the people hate her because she blew up their religion. (I know the show plays it off that the people think it’s an accident but…come on). Consequences is that she now has lack of support from the people while this foreign invader tears up her home. She needs aid. So…she’ll call upon the north, upon Winterfell because there’s a new Boss up there who may be wiling to work with her. She hears they’re in need of military aid. Why wouldn’t she band together as many men as she could from all corners of her country to kill Danny?

When she summons Jon, he’s already south yucking it up with Danny so Sansa has to deal with that.

What does this change?

Things remain basically the same, but Cersei has to be willing to drag in new allies like she did with the Iron Born. The Lannisters have always been a flexible group. With the North having a new power player, why wouldn’t she reach out to them? Also, she should be shown protecting the people to keep them happy. It has never been a more crucial time to get rid of the problem that is Danny. Danny is making the people unhappy as Cersei’s reign is starting with the terror of invasion. People already hate Cersei. The longer Danny’s around, the more they’ll hate her. Now, she has motivation beside territory claims to hate Danny. Motivation is clear, it’s present, and it relies on public opinion—something the Lannisters are slaves to. The lions do consider the opinions of the sheep.

_____________________________

That Meeting at the End Tho:

Okay, that last episode was everyone bitching until nothing got accomplished or changed. Here’s how you change/fix it. Danny wasn’t invited. Cersei organized the meet-up, inviting Jon along with other lords she’s going to try to win over. Jon happens to be doing exactly what he’d been doing throughout the entire season with the walker expedition (there’s honestly just no good way to fix this, unless they break the wall early or if they just have Danny fly up, swoop down to grab a white and fly back. I get it. Mechanically, walkers need to be shown as real and dragon needs to die. Mostly, dragon needs to die) So the show can do whatever needed to happen to get Jon to meet Danny and be like…you’re a hot aunt. That…happened. Then the usual sich happens with Jon coming back with the walker. Sure. Whatever.

But, we changed what happened with Danny. Danny’s now dead. Tyrion is the one in charge. So…what does he do when the Queen’s dead? Tell everyone pack up and go home? NO! He’s got a steak grilling on this army. He wants his family out of power and this is the only way he’s ever going to get anywhere. He’ll show up, uninvited, as the ambassador for the queen, a messenger protected by the knight’s law (or a dragon). He will take a seat at the council saying that Danny wants to negotiate peace in order to fight the wight walkers. Spin the excuse so that he says it was Danny’s plan all along to invade Westeros just to kill the things in the north and she has every intention of leaving afterwards (some kind of clever bs lie that gets his foot in the door and makes Cersei consider it).

We’ll come back to this in a second, but the point is, this meeting had a reason to happen. Here, there’d be tension because…why couldn’t Danny come herself? Cersei has a reason afterwards to doubt the power of Danny. Tyrion is left a leader, unofficially an equal with his sister.

_______________

Next important plot line is Sansa, but it won’t be touched on that much. Because, basically, for what they were going for, they did okay. Like…yeah…if you took Sansa, put her in her own Sansa box in this season and edited some things in your mind, it’s cool.

SANSA, LADY OF WINTERHELL:

Okay, so first off, Jon has to scream at Sansa for not letting anyone know that she had a cavalry that would be a larger army. That knowledge alone would have prevented many deaths in the battle of the bastards. (or at least have it that Sansa told him and then they go like “Oh, I guess the vale didn’t show…shit we have to fight these guys on our own” and then it just turns out the vale was late. Jimmy stubbed his toe—anyway). Sansa and Jon have a power dynamic that is inherently interesting—until it’s presented to you.

A bunch of old white guys chose a bastard over a queen and Sansa’s birthright was taken from her. Now, the reason this is cool is because, though the Starks are the closest family, they haven’t seen each other in years and Sansa has grown up in places of manipulation and deceit. Living with her Aunt should have broken trust she had in family ties. Jon, has usurped her and she’ll see it like that, but know that he’s too stupid to have done it on purpose.

In public, she has to put on a bold face because if they go against Jon, they go against the Starks. She and Jon are a packaged deal in the eyes of the northerners right now, so she has to be quiet and kind in public, while in private, they can have those confrontations. (If Sansa learned anything from the series, it should have been to keep her mouth shut and pretend to be one unbreakable unit—but she doesn’t in the show. Pretend she did in this version and went against Jon only in private). Sansa would be caught between two things: The love and trust she has left in her family, and survival through playing the great game. She can love Jon, but think he is a terrible leader in Winterfell, think/ know she can do better, be great where Jon is failing.

When that letter comes from Danny inviting the king of the north, it should be Sansa pushing Jon to let her stay in charge if he does go—because she knows he will go. Make it her decision. The consequences of her conversations with him are carefully crafted for Jon to instill confidence in her and leave Winterfell to her as if it was his idea. Sansa wants power because she thinks she can be better. So, Jon shoves off, and she’s lady of Winterfell, to many people’s chagrin.

Then, she uses the tactics she learned in the south, throwing sly comments here and there that make people twist on themselves and acknowledge her as ruler and stabilizes her power. She’s not trying to take the throne back from Jon as much as she’s trying to secure it (instead of little finger doing all of this for her). The entire Season 7 could have been her dance between loving her family and desiring power because she can’t trust anyone else with it. Little Finger would be the devil on one shoulder, whispering encouragement to be tricky. She could employ him to sway the Vale her way, making their change in allegiance and sudden trust in Sansa not LIttle Finger make sense. Arya would be the voice family on the other shoulder.

Little Finger would still die in the end. Sansa, the most Tully of the Starks, ultimately choosing family over the poison she’s seen in the slimy pursuit of power—but she will want to remain lady of Winterfell because she’s doing such a good job at it and Jon (who she hasn’t seen in years, has deserted the night’s watch, come back, and never even waved at her as he passed their home some 2 odd times on his travel past the wall and back) isn’t capable, and she uses her manipulation to strengthen the FAMILY not herself.

What does Sansa change?

This basically gives Sansa more agency and culminates in payoff for her arc. That whole thing where Arya was accusing Sansa of wanting power comes off as flat in the show because you know Sansa already chose family and hasn’t been manipulative, it’s only been Little Finger. So…give those actions weight. If Sansa really is torn, show why, because she has more than enough reason to be.

She’s a new ruler of people in uncertain times whose alliances are in a shifting period. Power is hers and Jon’s but unstable and she should be able to see it. She does in the show. The fickleness of the people around her is a danger and honest tactics, which rely on knowing another’s character, is impossible for someone like Sansa or Jon who haven’t been present. Have men whispering of usurping the absent Starks, saying things were better before this dumb war. Have them saying two children of Ned, their failure, will get them all killed. Have Sansa deal with that. She’s learned from her travels how to be clever, how to make people follow her, how to gain power, but only ever power for herself. Here, with her family, she’ll take the cruelty she learned and grow as a character to expand her definition of rule and make the Starks, as a house, as a name, strong as a pack.

__________________

So, let’s go to the next major plot thread that made me gnash my teeth: Sibling rivalry. I think the worst part about this is that the fight between Sansa and Arya never needed to happen. It has no consequence. It had no reaosn to exist because niether sister changed status. Before, they were annoyed with one another but willing to work together. After, it’s the same thing. The presentation of this plot is also terrible. The writers leave you in the dark with Sansa and Arya because they want a cheap “shock factor” when Sansa puts Little Finger on trial. But for an entire season, Arya is bringing up bs from 5 years ago (as sisters tend to do) and threatening to murder her own sister over it! But, twist! Sansa and Arya actually weren’t fighting—but they were-and it was all a ploy to get Little Finger exposed…only we were only ever shown Arya saying she is super jiving to kill Sansa in a room with no one else around. Why would a single private conversation between them ever end with Arya threatening to kill her sister if they’re fine with each other by the end? It certainly wasn’t for Little Finger’s benifit, he clearly wasn’t around. It was to manipulate the audience, and it’s dumb. Simple as that. Dumb. Soap Opera levels of lacking in consequence. (In my head, Bran was the one to end it. Like the fight between the girls got so bad it literally created a future that would tear down Winterfell, so he had to grunt and wheel himself into a room with them. Then he used his omnipotent power and told both his sisters to stop being idiots off screen).

Arya…oh god. She has plot armor just because she’s the favorite and it hurts. Nothing hurts more than seeing a 14 year-old rave about how they could have done everything better and you suck for bending to the world. And, unfortunately, she hasn’t had to compromise for a long time. Everyone she interacts with lets her get away with things that would kill other characters. (many faced men plot). Somehow, she’s still one of my favorite characters in principle, but execution is….er… The girl needs a thematic slap on the wrist.

ARYA AND THE MANY-FACED CONTRIVANCES

Let’s look at the core of Arya’s character again. She’s the reluctant princess. The girl who was wild and always wanted to be wild, and there were consequences for that for a very long time. She was never able to be a proper lady, and judged for that so she turned to being tough. That was great with the hound and the red wedding for a long time. Her learning the hardships and cruelties of the world and the need for compromise through a man like the hound was great.

Then, she goes to the many-faced men and…tricks them. The cult that makes a living understanding people and taking on the personas as their own indoctrinated a faker because 12-16 year old Arya was the first kid to try to trick them? By being good at the hazing ritual of being blind that everyone probably had to go through? It’s dumb, but roll with it because the books is doing it cleverly so I’ll live.

Let’s say we keep that, but that the many-faced man let her go because he knew she’d only be more trouble if she stayed. (GLaD0s motivation pretty much. Want her gone because killing her has proven to be more trouble than its worth). Arya can have her Frey thing and the poisoning scene, but then she goes home to Winterfell. She was on a murder spree until she heard Jon was alive. When she gets there and there’s no Jon, she should want to go right back to murder. She’ll want to leave. But Sansa, seeing Arya is trying to travel alone to the most dangerous place in the country, will want to keep her around. As far as Sansa’s concerned, Arya is a child. To Sansa, if she goes out on her own again, she may very well die. Sansa has to keep Arya in Winterfell, lock her in for her own good, not wanting to split up a family. Arya can even tell Sansa she has people on her list to kill and Sansa isn’t going to believe her sister became a magical face-murderer. She’ll say “Okay, that’s nice. Wash up for dinner, don’t stab anyone, please stop creeping everyone out by staring at them like they all killed Nymeria.”

So, Arya has a reason to bring up distrust and events of Sansa’s past. The sister fight now has a purpose grounded in the characters and their actions. The fight still shouldn’t last long. At best, two episodes. The consequences of a conversation/fight matter more than the actual fight/conversation.

Set the scene so that Arya confronts and threatens to kill Sansa in that lying game. Sansa says something like this, “I’m keeping you here because I love you and I love my family. I don’t want you to die, and I don’t believe that you can waltz into king’s landing and kill the Lannister’s. You’re a child. You’re going to get yourself killed so excuse me for trying to keep what little of our family is left together. You belong home to be a lady of the house and help when winter is coming!” Only, you know, written well.

Arya is told for the first time since bravos that she’s not “the shit.” (because who was listening to the waif or the many-faced guy. No one she’s taken seriously has talked her off of her high horse in a while and it shows). So the fight happens and though it ended with Sansa confessing her choice of choosing family over power, Arya takes it to heart that someone thinks she can’t take care of herself. She hates the the idea that she may still be that powerless little girl watching her father get executed from season one. All that’s been keeping her going since that point is that list. If she can’t check off the names, and can’t be a proper lady, what’s left of her? She’s stuck in the past, stuck in a fantasy that will be a revisionist history and keep her from achieving closure.

Thinking this, Arya runs away from Winterfell and fast-travels to King’s Landing. There, she steals the face of another servant girl and tries to kill Cersei, but the mountain (or something) catches her and her face is removed. Cersei (who’d is about to have a council meeting with the king in the north) will now have leverage. She’ll use Arya as a pawn to win the Stark loyalty, showing her craft and desperate need for allies.

Arya gets traded for Jon’s declaration of loyalty. He’ll choose family over Danny (who he’s been dicking around with for a while the same way as in the show, sure). Now we got a happy little brigade that’s going to fight the white walkers together.

What does this change?

Now, there’s a reason for Arya to stay in Winterfell and for her to have a conflict with Sansa. It also fleshes out Sansa’s family vs cunning theme we were going for. Now, Arya can bring up her sister’s past mistakes because Sansa is actually trying to overthrow Jon, so there’s grounds for suspicion. NOW this fight has a consequence. It leads to Arya, who’d been a character shown to be consumed by revenge, relentlessly pursuing that path instead of truly coping.

When Arya fails to kill Cersie, it makes an impact on her character. She goes to thinking she’s just as powerless as she was when she was little, and it crushes her, frustrates her, boils in her. She can’t stand that thought. She’s trapped in the past and now her purpose is shown to be infeasible. She’s the weak princess she didn’t want to be. (of course, she’s not actually, but that’s what she would think of herself as she’s taken down a peg and she’ll understand her sister’s need to play the game.)

What else does this change? Something that I really hate. (coming up next).

THE PRINCE THAT WAS PROMISED

I wonder who—it’s Jon. It’s always Jon. Sure. But NO! NO! NO! NO!

Here’s why I say NO! Because prophecies in this show have been used as kind of like a cryptic underline to events that happen. Whatever is said is not always whatever is meant. Now, remember when everyone was theorizing who could be the prince that was promised and this is basically Game of Thrones Jesus? For the story to be in keeping with it’s original tone, Game of Thrones Jesus should not exist! Jon should not be him. He’s the most obvious choice and the show has built that up since day one. Sure. It was a three-way tie between Jon, Danny and Tyrion for a long time. But…how about this:

Keep it the obvious choice everyone discounted. Keep it Danny.

“But…you killed Danny in this narrative before anyone got to smash,” you say.

“I did!” I say to you. “Because we’re going to make this prophecy better.”

Arya has been set up as the girl who can steal faces, someone designed to slip into personas that aren’t hers and nothing of use has been done with that. (I mean in the overall plot. There’s this story telling tool that says you introduce a mechanic early on in a book and reuse that mechanic for another purpose later that wouldn’t be initially thought of. Face stealing is a mechanic with boundless potential).

What if, at this meeting with Cersei, Arya is thrown in the center with the face of the servant she tried to use. Arya’s called a witch. Tyrion takes notice (because we put him at that meeting already). When Arya is traded back, and Jon has her, Tyrion takes Arya aside and asks her if she can slip into any face. (This is why we need Danny’s corpse back—Oh shit, Danny could be that white walker they present to Cersei. Like, they got what they wanted…you know what? They should have literally just brought someone [like a prisoner marked for death or something] over the wall, killed them, tied up the corpse, waited for the corpse to reanimate, walk back…ANYWAY). Tyrion and Arya have a conversation about the face-stealing-thing and a plan forms in his mind.

He looks to Arya and asks, “How would you like another chance at ending the Lannister reign? I can help you kill all the people on your list.” (With better written dialogue). Arya’s super down for this plan. Why wouldn’t she be?

They got the Danny-dead-body-face and Arya slips it on. Now, she’s impersonating queen Danny. In comes the Princess that was promised. Arya will be exactly who she wanted to be, Nymeria, the conquering queen, who has to juggle the duality of the game in her deception, with the gore and violent vengeance promised to her. Now, the legacy of Danny will truly be one of a merciless mad-queen driven only to kill the enemy. Burn them all, Arya. Burn them all.

WHY?

Because I don’t doubt that Jon Snow’s birth would be a great twist, but it makes the prophecy too obvious now. It fits too well. I hate the prince that was promised prophecy because of how much it adheres to modern convention. I just think George has set up a world that can easily subvert the obvious. If it turned out that someone was wearing the face of the person who was supposed to be this prophesied messiah, that’s so much better in my opinion. (It also has to be someone the audience has as much attachment to as Danny. Someone from season 1, who won’t be a “lesser” replacement. You still want to keep people interested after killing off a major character so another major character has to take her place). Arya’s technically Danny from that point on, making her the prince that was promised. The “savior” is now Arya, the girl consumed by revenge and blood, the girl shaped in this world, taken all around it, and culminated into this leader for people she doesn’t care about. Her own goals are short-sighted, leaving her a pawn for Tyrion (a great ruler the people would never follow) to shape the world as he sees fit. You can even add Cersie’s prophecy that a younger queen will usurp her–Arya in Danny’s skin.

You remember that phrase “The dragon has three heads?” One for Danny (the OG ruler), one for Arya/impersonator, one for Tyrion (the man who will rule in her name). I know it’s supposed to refer to the riders, but let me dream.

______________

Oh my god, we’re finally near the end! There’s other plot points that aren’t great, but they either ultimately don’t impact the story that much, are implied with the changes, are fine as they are, or I don’t care. This is long enough as it is. A few closing thoughts: you can’t have a long-running series and kill off all the main characters while still keeping investment intact, I get it. Danny’s a favorite, so is Jon, so is Arya, so is Peter Dinklage. That’s why they have super thick plot armor. But, the show has grown toothless. The overall story is not the story of these characters. It’s the country’s story. How this one continent ends up scarred by the damage of people who ends up ruling it. Whoever sits on the Iron Throne says something about the world, not the people in it.

The main conflict of the show is that there’s this terrible force coming in from the north. While it’s approaching, power has to be a loose structure and chaos has to run rampant through all of Westeros. If you watch everything before season 6 and say “Hey, looks like this country’s plot line is finally going to be in order and we may have a stable and just power structure”—No. That’s why you had the Red Wedding, that’s why you had the Lord of Light and demon baby, that’s why you have a line of dead Lannister kings. It’s a world-wide story. That’s why there’s no mini-cut off point with perfect plot resolution.

Also, I know there’s a lot of cool stuff in the books I’m not mentioning. That’s because the books and show are separate entities with just the main stretch goals as their common ground at this point (I guess). So, most of this is show-based.

I feel like I said this before, but I don’t hate this series. I love it. I’ve had a lot of fun with it. There’s a metric ton of talent going into the show and the books and I am glad they exist. I’m still dying waiting for the next book, and the show will have my groaning support every Sunday when it next airs. Until then, for my own piece of mind, I’ll just scream at this wall.

8 notes · View notes