#i dont think i have a very favorable opinion on it but im glad i watched it. the sum of its parts is greater than its whole i guess

[bmpmp3]

it is interesting how different stories about showbiz try to depict a character as having star power like a common method in audio-visual mediums is music and lighting to try to make a fictional actor's performance in a fictional movie look transcendent (like in Babylon 2022 which I watched the other day) while mediums that don't have the benefit of audio or the moving picture like most comics will have something like a bunch of sparkly screentones all over the place or glitter in their eyes that kinda thing (like too many manga about the entertainment industry to name) but i still have a soft spot for Penguin Revolution's method of just hallucinating wings on everyone

[hellwurld]

This is an open invitation to "talk about the Bible in a chill way". I'd be fascinated in your chill Bible opinions.

okay this is lowkey such a late answer to this but recent chill bible opinion has some context to it. i'm religious but in like a weird way i don't super want to get into, but basically i read the bible for the story aspects: the morals taught, the themes within, etc etc. i don't really view it as a strict religious instruction handbook, more so as like . stories meant to teach lessons and morals. kinda. its complicated!

erm. im so glad u asked tho

anyway! more importantly, i'm reading the old testament right now, and something that deeply bothers me is that i find the stories in early genesis deeply fascinating, and yet incredibly not dived into at all! and i think that's a shame, because there's so much interest and tragedy in the story of adam and eve, and in cain and abel, together and alongside adam and eve. i just think there could've been so much more done with the first ever family on earth, that is really never dived into popularly or well in adaptations. which is like chill EXCEPT for the fact that i think there's a lot of . persephone and hades tumblr bullshit going on and let me ELABORATE!

eve is a fascinating character to study as the first woman, and there's a lot to be said about eve, which is why a lot of modern looks at her that depict her as a #slay girlboss that ate the apple on purpose or as like . cheating on adam with lucifer . and i also don't fuck with the very long history of her being treated as though she's stupid or wicked or a transgressor. basically, what i'm trying to get at is that eve wasn't stupid for eating the apple, she was lied to, and in her defense, no one had ever lied before. quite literally she was the first to ever be lied to, ever, and she cannot be solely at fault for being tricked. i think it's hard to argue that eve shouldn't have fallen for it, because she was in such an incredibly unique, quite literally never happening before situation. i just think that depictions of her as a scheming seductress will never be as feminist as people think they are, because the core of eve was not someone looking to like . stick it to the man . she was curious, and trusting, and i refuse to blame her for searching for something new, because if god did not want man or woman to long for knowledge, he never should have create sapient beings 🤷

that was a long, kinda rambly way to say that i think genesis, despite being a really interesting book especially pertaining to eve, adam, and the fall, and especially relating to what could be said about abel and cain, and abel, cain, and THEIR PARENTS!!!, fails in a lot of ways as a book. mostly because of the lack of expansion on any of the interesting parts of the early story. i dont gaf abt how adam lived for 930 years. i gaf about adam and the horror of raising children and loving them and that still not being enough to save them from each other or themselves. it must have been horrifying to see your children, both your first children and the first children ever born, suffer and die, one at the hand of another and one at the hand of your own father. like idk eve adam and the horrifying fact that their sin (mistakes) passed along to their child and could've played a role in his own sin (devastating mistakes) and what you do as a parent when you realize that loving someone isn't enough to raise them perfectly and keep them safe.

but yeah sure . adams a weirdo misogynist and eve is a girlboss that cucks him with lucifer and abel and cain don't matter or exist. okay. epic.

and like this isn't to shit on fun or serious retellings based in feminism, bc i #love feminism fr, but i think it tired me out in the same way that (look at me circling back) things like the feminist retellings of hades and persephone did. bc like, it's interesting sometimes, but other times you are IGNORING the reality and interesting parts of the real story in favor for whatever fantasy you've created. hades and persephone is a fascinating story, and demeter and persephone's relationship is a tragic, lovely story that should not be boiled down into omg age gap forbidden romance with EVIL strict mom in the same way that eve and adam shouldnt be simplified to adam is mean to eve and she eats apple as REVENGE >:) . like ok guys lets get creative!

anyway to make a long story short im not an expert on the bible im just a girl raised spiritualist who fucks with books hardcore and wouldve liked to see more interesting shit in the oldest fucking book i own . or whatever .

[abnerkrill]

for trop (because what else??): galadriel, elrond, adar, kemen, arondir, bronwyn, isildur okay i am stopping now i'm SORRY

hello ily this is gonna be so long but im very happy with it hehe. answers below the cut!!

Galadriel

Why I like them: i think it's very sexy that she spends practically the whole season seething with rage. it's rare for female characters and it's also hot af.

Why I don’t: question canceled, i like everything about her

Favorite episode (scene if movie): 1x08 alloyed!!!!! i've said it before and i'll say it again, it's very special that a season finale pulls back on the action and actually focuses in so much on the characters! also the visions/temptation scene for galadriel... chefs kiss. (disclaimer, not a haladriel shipper, in fact i'm in favor of galadriel stabbing him, but it's a great scene!)

Favorite season/movie: i do prefer her in ROP over LOTR, she just has way more to do and she's much more compelling as a a vengeance-filled warrior than an ethereal queen 2 me.

Favorite line: many standouts, but i recall "what cannot be known hollows the mind; fill it not with guesswork" from her convo with Theo.

Favorite outfit: blue númenor dress :')

OTP: galadriel/celeborn!!! gimme my malewife celeborn, rop writers, pleeeeease

Brotp: elrond and galadriel are fantastic, and the moments we had between elendil and galadriel were also really great!! (don't ship them romantically tho obviously.)

Head Canon: hmmMMmmmm can't say I have many bc I'm very happy with her canon portrayal. i guess i don't think she's already had Celebrian at this point, if that counts, and there may be a future timeskip where she does, but I could be wrong!

Unpopular opinion: i kinda agree with the haters that the horse-riding facial expression was a little weird jkdfskjdfjkdlsfkdsj. i'm glad morfydd is having fun but it was a weird shot!!

A wish: more fight scenes, i ADORED the troll fight in episode 1!

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: actual haladriel romance (or even any hints of it.) please leave her alone <3

5 words to best describe them: she's my beautiful angry wife <3

My nickname for them: i feel like i don't have one?? i've heard people call her Gal for short but that's just weird 2 me.

Elrond

Why I like them: he's my babyboy!!!! also my actual boyfriend and husband :)

Why I don’t: shuT UP HE'S PERFECT. detractors will be shoved into the deepest chasm of khazad-dum, to meet their end via balrog.

Favorite episode (scene if movie): uhh quickly searches which episode the cave scene is in 1x07 the eye <3 WHAT ELSE than the cave scene!!!!! flushed cheeks mussed hair breathy voice--durin i stg you have to kiss that boy RIGHT NOW

Favorite season/movie: def prefer ROP elrond to LOTR/hobbit elrond. he's got more to do and rob is very pretty :)

Favorite line: the exchange "i always thought you were a mite dwarvish for an elf" / "and you are a rather elvish dwarf, durin, son of durin, grandson of..."

Favorite outfit: honestly i adore all his outfits but whatever the look is when he's all sweaty and disheveled in the cave? yeah <3

OTP: durin x disa x elrond!!! i also do ship my elrond/adar but that's a whole other canon lol.

Brotp: galadriel and elrond is wonderful!!

Head Canon: LOTS of headcanons about his past: his relationship with Elros especially and how it was to lose him :( let's be real, they're all sad lol.

Unpopular opinion: long hair wouldn't really look good on rob's face shape, i like his short hair :)

A wish: i REALLY want some good screentime devoted to the elrond/celebrian developing relationship plssssssss

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: well i like some good angst but let's just say i'm NOT ready for the aftermath of the last alliance or celebrian's departure (if they show it in rop), my poor baby :(

5 words to best describe them: KIND AS FUCKING SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! & babyboy :)

My nickname for them: none, he's just elrond 2 me.

Adar

Why I like them: the whole dark elf vibe is extremely sexy and compelling. also when we were first watching ROP my mom took one look at him and said "he looks like loki from avengers" which is a devastating summation of my Type!!!!

Why I don’t: ...let's just say I don't love the fandom interpretation where he's overly soft/nice/good. like, let the guy be a little evil and fucked up. that's why we like him, i thought??

Favorite episode (scene if movie): MERCY KILLING THE URUK. AND THE FIRST CONVERSATION WITH ARONDIR. chills. chills. the actingggg!

Favorite season/movie: n/a

Favorite line: "you have been told many lies......... some run so deep, even the rocks and roots now believe them." mawle's voice is just :o and it's SUCH a banger intro to the character.

Favorite outfit: he only has one??? but it's a great outfit!!!

OTP: i love a certain interpretation of adar/arondir and adar/elrond but like....... again......... i'd never want to see it on the actual show, let him be a little fucked up and entirely unfit for romantic relationships and also doomed to die lol

Brotp: n/a but i think it'd be funny if he was forced to work with the good guys against sauron and he's just this grimy, angry, fucked-up guy in the corner they have to deal with dsjkljdksflfksdjl

Head Canon: one of the first, if not the first, to be stolen by morgoth. i kinda like the lack of clarity there too--he doesn't know if he was the first, but there's a good chance he was. anyone who would know is dead now.

Unpopular opinion: I have many. uhm...... i think most of the adar fic and especially the adar x reader stories are kinda gross and weird.... read what u want ofc, but the daddy dom stuff reeks of objectification and internalized sexism 2 me... besides it's giving lack of interest in actual character exploration, and just using him as The Latest Tortured Whiteboy to project onto. i actually want deep, cutting, incisive, dramatic, tragic character studies is that too much to ask klfdsjklfdsjklsd

A wish: i have LONGED FOR adar to actually lead his uruks against Sauron in the last alliance and get ruthlessly, brutally massacred, therefore leading to the state of the Orcs in LOTR (entirely enslaved by sauron with no hope of rebellion.) like, talk about TRAGEDY.

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: dead in his first s2 scene lmoaoooo please don't kill him so fast, like, i know he's doomed, but PLEASE give him some juicy scenes!!!

5 words to best describe them: my emo bf. loml. doomed <3

My nickname for them: don't love the implications of everyone calling him "dad" esp if i'm writing a romantic relationship, so my quenya name for him is aladil, lover of day :)

Kemen

Why I like them: i'm so sorry, i do not!!!!!

Why I don’t: college republic vibes (read: privileged, annoying, bad haircut)

Favorite episode (scene if movie): none <3 isildur is better than me bc i would've gone okay boy then perish <3

Favorite season/movie: n/a

Favorite line: okay i'll admit the flirting w/ earien was funny (paraphrasing but "i'm not in the habit of going off with strange men" / "that's wise, if i see any i'll be sure to tell you")

Favorite outfit: does he have more than 1??? i'm so sorry i did not care to recall them. i do like the númenórean looks overall but his haircut is so bad it really makes it hard to pay attention to other things kjldfjkfdskjldfs

OTP: none!

Brotp: drowning in the ocean? (jk but....)

Head Canon: too wimpy to be a ringwraith so i'm gonna guess he dies...?

Unpopular opinion: i'm not too interested in his storyline tbh. like, he'll probably either go full king's man or rebel against his father and either way i'm very meh.

A wish: better haircut!!!!!

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: i really don't want earien to marry him flsdjkjkfldjfdskjlddjklfsjkljdks pleeeease girl have some self-respect

5 words to best describe them: "whitest white boy in númenor"

My nickname for them: none! just kemen.

Arondir

Why I like them: i don't think there's anyone else alive who could've done this much justice to a tolkien elf, literally none, ICC is IT.

Why I don’t: none. can't believe it this question fjkldskjlfdkjlfdskldf

Favorite episode (scene if movie): the failed escape in 1x03 adar is INCREDIBLE, i love how the stunt team/fights are getting recognized, and ICC's hard work showssssss <3 also special shoutout to the fight scene with the giant orc in 1x08 udun!!!!!!!!! literally fire.

Favorite season/movie: n/a

Favorite line: I HAVE SAID IT ALREADY A HUNDRED TIMES OVER IN EVERY WAY BUT WORDS!!!!!!!!!!

Favorite outfit: love a dirtied-up man elf so gotta be in 1x04 the great wave when he's absolutely filthy and escaping the orc camp!

OTP: BRONWYN X ARONDIR IS THE ONLY ANSWER. okay, soapbox time: i think it's very telling of typical sexist behaviors in fandom/that slash fans esp have when bronwyn is erased/marginalized in arondir/adar fic, and i want writers to actually pay attention to what an arondir/adar fic would mean, you know? like yeah alternate universe where bronwyn isn't in the picture whatever, the point is you're erasing an Iranian woman in what is a groundbreaking relationship between two leads of color and i don't likey :) if you're gonna write those ships (and i say this as someone who has written arondir/adar) like. you gotta be Aware.

Brotp: really miss médhor, they were great :(

Head Canon: médhor befriended arondir, who was kinda a Lone Wolf type until he made friends :)

Unpopular opinion: i don't really want arondir/bronwyn to have a canonical happy ending, and i don't think it's in their cards tbh. they're doomed! it's great! it's a powerful star-crossed love story that's sure to end badly. i hope it's done well in the show, but i don't want it to be all picture-perfect lol.

A wish: lots more screentime and fight scenes!!!!!!!!!!

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: wouldn't :) it :) be :) tragic :) if :) they :) were :) always :) like :) arondir :) will :) outlive :) bronwyn :) but :) then :) she :) outlives :) him :)

5 words to best describe them: the show's male lead (bitch)

My nickname for them: none, just arondir :) i do enjoy calling ICC ICC though, it's fun!

Bronwyn

Why I like them: she's such an incredible female fantasy character; subverts the mother-archetype by not dying in s1 and also by both fighting and being defeated; lots of depth and nuance to her character and also. asian women onscreen, central, important, loved? we love to see it <3

Why I don’t: shut up she's perfect

Favorite episode (scene if movie): LOVE the siege of tirharad in 1x06 udun; bronwyn's POV in the lighting of the fires is incredibly tense and so well done.

Favorite season/movie: n/a

Favorite line: i ADORE "new life, in defiance of death?" and also love that she gets to have this sick parallel with adar!!!!!! oh wait hang on this is giving me thoughts (what if adar/arondir/bronwyn lmaooo let me get back to you about this in approximately 10-15 business weeks)

Favorite outfit: i really like the red cloak outfit in 1x07 the eye!

OTP: arondir x bronwyn of course :)

Brotp: I think Bronwyn should get to be friends with basically everyone. I'd love to explore the Bronwyn and Miriel or Bronwyn and Galadriel friendships more, mostly because Women, but also because they're all female leaders with varied and interesting backstories and takes on leadership.

Head Canon: I wrote this into a fic but I think Bronwyn fell in love with Arondir over many years and it felt like it took a long, long time to her; meanwhile Arondir is over here like I'VE ONLY KNOWN HER FOR 5 YEARS AND WE'RE TALKING ABOUT LOVE OH GOD WE'RE MOVING SO FAST. Because Elves.

Unpopular opinion: you said unpopular, unpopular i will be. i don't love that she quoted sam's LOTR "light and high power in the sky" line? kinda wish they had written her own pep talk for her? i get what they're referencing and why, and it's really a gorgeous line, but i want her to have her own words & wisdom, unique to the southlanders. also....... don't rly care who Theo's father was. Sometimes single moms exist??? so wild.

A wish: don't kill her off to further Theo's journey lmao. like, I think she'll probably die, but I want it to be done via her own narrative/story's importance, not just a side death for Theo's Emotions/darkside turn.

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: evil!bronwyn is silly to me kdfsklfdkfjdkljfds

5 words to best describe them: Middle-Earth's Best Mom Friend (tm)

My nickname for them: none, just Bronwyn!

Isildur

Why I like them: disaster baby.

Why I don’t: can he pls stop fucking up??? (i'm sorry to isildur stans. he is such a disaster.)

Favorite episode (scene if movie): I do love his intro in 1x04 the great wave!!

Favorite season/movie: n/a

Favorite line: you get one free hit. (three.) two??? (gets punched real hard twice.) that felt like three!!!

Favorite outfit: sea guard cadet tunic!!!

OTP: i mean, isildur x isildur's wife, SOMEDAY, but also isildur/valandil thanks to @aadmelioraa thanks a lot for the brainworms

Brotp: poor dead ontamo :( also when is anarion gonna show up??

Head Canon: honestly....... s1 is way funnier if you see it as isildur and valandil having been childhood sweethearts who grew up and, like, pushed that aside, but are still really into each other.

Unpopular opinion: valandil was totally in the right to be furious at him and not want to stake his reputation on him, and isildur probably should not have gone on the expedition. quite literally a nepo baby.

A wish: i really want to see his future wife and i want isil to be SMITTEn and it's so funny until everything gets sad lmao

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: NAMES HIS SON AFTER VALANDIL BC HE LOVED HIM SO MUCH AND THEN LOST HIM??? brb, crying.

5 words to best describe them: disaster baby becomes disaster king. (oops, sorry.)

My nickname for them: Isil <3

if you made it this far, congrats, here's an Elrond and Durin in the cave.

send me some character asks!

[childofaura]

not sure if you still do these reviews but Im going to try anyways: what's your opinion on Heather Watson? (Tailtiu and Fjorm, also ignore if you dont do them)

I still do! Also I just looked it up, it's actually Heather Hogan (Unless she also goes by an alias like some other actors. Or got married. I forgot that was a possibility). Also apparently she wasn't the singing voice for Fjorm in her song? That's weird.

So she plays Fjorm and Tailtiu like you mentioned, but also OMG SHE'S YONAH FROM NIER? Ohhhhhh my gosh her performance as Yonah was SO HEARTBREAKING. That scene where the original Yonah was speaking to Shadowlord/Shade Nier about the other Yonah hurts every time, and while I understand that he wasn't as popular, I still think Dad Nier was a better fit, especially with that line "Are you... Dad?" coupled with that response from Jamieson Price's Nier where he sounds like he's going to cry. SORRY I'M GETTING SIDETRACKED.

So anyways, performance! I think she does an amazing job as both characters, though did Tailtiu always have lines that seemed a bit... bossy? Or shallow? Again, I don't know enough about the character besides the tidbits I got from FEH. Though I will say that with Heather's line deliveries that Tailtiu's personality sounds very confident and assured, especially her line about protecting you, like a tone that says "That's that". Which MAN we really need more parent/child Duo Heroes like Hector and Lilina! I would like to see one for Tailtiu and baby Tine or Arthur. As for her Fjorm voice, it's perfection. Her voice has this vulnerability and refrain to it when she speaks normally, but in the Ninja alt where she gets to shout her attacks, it's like she's healing from the trauma of the war with Muspell. Honestly fantastic performance for both characters.

And I think she was perfectly cast for both of them. She's also got a naturally high voice and it works in her favor for both of these characters.

I... can't really say there's much range between these two characters. Fjorm and Tailtiu sound pretty similar to each other and it's more a matter of changing tone rather than having range.

But still, overall I think Heather's an 8/10. And for her acting job, I'm very glad that Fjorm is still getting alts... even if I express how I'm not happy from a unit standpoint, lol.

[heliianth]

Ohh im glad i didn't bother you <3 (also i ate the word where i meant he's not a sweetheart lol doesn't mean he goes out of his way to be mean to people either i wil die on that hill)I love discussing characterizations and such or analyzing trends that why i mentioned from my pespective shadow fans always mischaracterize him the most(more that sega)</3 they take him to extremes where he's too water down or he's idw shadow(sorry). Years ago it seem like people said "he's and edgy mean vegeta i hate him" and now the difference is "he's such an asshole, mean bastard lame loser i love him <3 has always been get over it". All the characters get a bad deal especially the introverts(sonic im so sorry) in favor of thing that are "funny" "relatable" "loveable lame" more to people tastes in general, is very interesting(and not my preference at all). Anyways poor guy hope someday they can set him up better(06 feels more truthful to me) there's lots of potencial for this one introvert, asocial guy(all of them please)if you want to check this blog fukurou-hoseki talk a lot about the games and analysis, especially sonic himself, bye have a good week

i agree that a lot of mischaracterization happens within fan spaces as well. i think bad portrayals, like in boom, which had a shadow with very little depth and an excess of edge, caused a lot of people to "pendulum swing" in the extreme opposite direction by insisting that shadow isn't like that at all—that he's actually very shy and nice and has friends, and all that. and while not all of that is bad, it also means lots of his flaws arent acknowledged. now we see other fans try to push back against that by insisting that hes a COMPLETE asshole, that he was always meant to be and insisting otherwise is woobifying, etc etc. like u said. very little room for middle ground sometimes. i also agree that 06 is a very good representation, and i like it mostly because it feels like a good culmination of the other games' work on his character arc

i also agree that sonic gets hit with the fanon stick really hard over here, i tend to have unpopular opinions about him and so i dont really open my mouth bc i feel like that will ruin peoples fun. shadow seems to be a more divisive character so i feel more comfortable poking fun at ideas i disagree with or stating my opinion, but theres seemingly such a wide "consensus" abt sonic that i feel like i would risk swinging at a hornets nest, even if i dont think anyone who would see it would actually be mean like that :')

i have heard of that user, i think ive scrolled thru their blog a few times so i kind of understand what they get at. i may follow in the future & i may not, i often get really anxious following first especially if its an analysis blog and i also do my own analysis (though i wouldn't consider my one-off jokey-tone posts serious analysis). but i agree with a lot of their sentiments, sometimes i disagree but thats just life

have a good week as well! i really loved talking with u <3

[actualbird]

Which of the boys do you think would produce the best, as in healthiest, relationship with Rosa? Personally, my bet is Artem. I feel like their relationship is very equal as partners (I mean this figuratively and literally haha). Also, I feel like they just have a lot of maturity between the two of them. Idk when I see Rosa with Artem I’m just like damn, that’s a nice power couple right there lol

I just wanted your opinion on it because I feel like your analysis on all the characters are so accurate and real. Thank you for your time. ❤️

hi, anon!! im so glad you liked my character analyses :D

and the response i'll give here is a response i think i gave for another q i answered a while back (and that i cannot find JHVKSJDHF) that was along the same lines, it asked smthng like: which pairing is the best endgame

my answer: any of em! all of em! none of em! but lemme explain

on an story/character analysis level: every pairing between mc and respective boy comes with its strengths and its flaws. every pairing has certain insecurities on either party's end or on both their ends that could spell trouble in the future if not addressed. and yet, every pairing still has the complete potential to weather through those troubles and problems due to the pairing's strengths and also due the general nature of how character/relationship development works. so like, every pairing can become great. and every pairing can crash and burn.

and so ive got a semblance of Something to back this up, lemme use my faves, luke and mc.

theyre wonderful, i adore them so so much. at the current point in their relationship (aka together thru the events of luke's anniv card, SSR Under the Milky Way), it's been shown that mc's hope and determination can cut through luke's tendency towards secrecy and salf-sacrifice, can make luke work harder to be better, to trust, to be honest and let himself love. thats healthy, thats awesome, thats great.

SSR Under the Milky Way also showed that luke has the tendency to backslide into bad habits, even when hes promised to never do that bad habit again (you can read more about it in my ridiculously long analysis of that card here jhsvkjfh). if that continues in a relationship, thats unhealthy, thats counter-productive, thats not great.

now thats just one (1) thing in one (1) pairing. theres so much more for luke/mc, and each of the pairings? theyve all got traits, patterns, and tendencies that can either work in their favor or be something that can shoot them down. thats among the reasons i love these characters so much, theyve got such awesome strengths and such deep flaws.

they all have the potential to be the "best", and they all have the potential to be the "worst", so i feel as trying to figure out who is which would either be impossible or would have to ignore a Bunch of stuff important to the story and the characters to reach a conclusion.

now, on a personal level: i just dont like the idea of any kind of "ranking" of ships! thats just how i am. cuz my general philosophy on relationships and romance and love is, like i said, filled with the potential to either go great or go south. actually, past romance, this is true. every relationship, romantic or platonic or familiar, boils down to the choices one makes when faced with problems, change, and growth

in conclusion: while ive got my own personal fave ships, i dont think i'll ever want to take an analysis lens to see what ship is the "best" cuz

1) i dont think i can answer that with the canon we've currently got and the nature of how these stories are still ongoing and thus, are subject to change and filled with potential for either "best" or "worst. and

2) it's just not my style cuz im a hopeless romantic that believes anything can be good if people work on it with their all

this most probably is not the answer u were expecting and im very sorry HUHU....still, thank you for the ask!! and thank you for reading my stuff :D

[anti-dazai-blog]

If you answer this ask, answer it privately if required, since I'm afraid that answering this publicly may give certain pussies sensitive people a personal grudge against your blog.

I am glad for the valuable service you render to the fandom. People who sincerely consider this a rabid 'anti blog' make me laugh. Instead you're providing crirical thinking to the BSD fandom, which should come naturally to those who are really invested in it, but such practical views are surprisingly lacking in 90% of this fandom.

Anyways, tho i dont agree with just 2 - 3 of your points - i agree with many many of them. Thank you for having eyes and noticing the obvious red flags in Dazai's behaviour. Lol I still ship Dazatsu for certain stuff, but earlier when I was in a bad place someone pointing out its toxic aspects ruined my mood. But now im in a good place and mentally tough, so I realise that this toxicity will actually give Atsushi incredible, very important character growth where he learns to stand up for himself, be wary of red flags and become independent and find actual beneficial people to rely on.

Hi anon, I’m glad you’re enjoying my blog!!

I don’t mind answering publically, especially since this touches on a subject I’d like to cover here. 

I really do appreciate this ask, but I don’t have any problem with people who disagree with the Anti-Dazai Series.

I just wanna make it clear — this blog is only my opinion, not a moral standpoint. I don’t consider it right or wrong to agree or disagree with the takes I post here, and there are more than one valid way of interpreting a character. Of course, I agree wholeheartedly with everything I post, but it really is just a matter of opinion. 

So long as someone can cite the sources [in this case, quote the manga I guess] to back up their viewpoint, it’s 100% legit and valid. And to be honest, I don’t think it would be too difficult to make a valid case in Dazai’s favor. I’d go as far as to say that I can easily make a “Pro-Dazai Blog”, where I’d show the most positive interpretation of all of Dazai’s actions. Sure I’d disagree with it all, but I doubt it would be too difficult to make.

And to touch on the subject of shipping: I’m not into shipping, and don’t ship anything from any fandom (I’m more into found family dynamics than ships). But I don’t consider it wrong to ship something that would be toxic or dysfunctional irl— the whole point of shipping is to explore two characters’ dynamics if they were in a relationship, right? I don’t really see a problem with people going “hey what would these two be like together? Oh, they’d mentally and emotionally destroy each other? Neat.”

I’ve mentioned this before but I’ll say it as many times as I can: The media you consume isn’t a moral standpoint*. If you wanna see what it would be like for certain characters to be in a relationship and you go read some fanfiction of it, you’re not a horrible person if the relationship is bad. I mean, my main is a Classic Lit/ Shakespeare blog. Obviously it’s not full of posts about characters in happy, functional relationships. 

[*Nuance!! There are exceptions but I don’t feel like getting into them right now!]

Anyway. Sorry if this came off as critical. I don’t mean any of this directed at you specifically, I just wanted to make my stance on this stuff clear. 

And thanks again for agreeing that I’m not a “rabid hate blog”— I think that take primarily comes from people who read my URL without reading what I post

[fragmentwitch]

Im not tagging this post bc it is an unpopular(?) opinion but I dont think lambda is part of satoko at all... I definitely am not trying to downplay what satoko went through (her brother, teppei and her aunt, the syndrome prpbably damaging her brain, being forced to witness her childhood friend's disemboweled corpse or being tortured by shion, etc) but it... just doesnt match up with the way lambdadelta describes her own logic error. It's so terrible she won't explicitly specify other than there was what seemed to be total isolation and eternal silence according to her.

That might well be the case for Frederica who could only watch fragments play out for when she was featured in the manga (idk how the VN covered this and it probably is irrelevant to understanding Retconathon GOU) but we have no idra what the higurashi logic error even is still. Or maybe im stupid and Ryukishi just needs to spell it out OR admit he can't do it without having to forcibly retcon a shitton of stuff because Umineko came after Higurashi, and probably didn't start sprinkling in Umineko references in Higurashi material until the console arcs n stuff added new content (I'm guessing, but that's what I think usually happens for writers that want to tie in separate stories within the same metaverse but didnt initially introduce it to seem that way)

Idk... it's funny now but when I first heard of Gou I got so excited to see if we'd get a prequel metafilled Umineko-Higurashi crossover thing where we'd pretty much see Bernkastel explicitly originate... but with the way Gou has been going and no 2nd season confirmation (convenient to find rumors of it right when we're about 5 episodes away from the end) I'm perfectly content if we just don't see any explicit Umineko cameos/Meta Logic stuff at all now? Haha it's really weird my thinking changed.

There's a saying that goes around for horror where the mind is capable of interpreting the unseen monster (i.e. the creature from Bird Box that makes you commit sudoku if you see it) as something MUCH scarier than anything the creator would reveal to you. It's fun to read different interpretations, and provided no hard evidence disproves them, all are perfectly valid and really creative if the person theorizing crafts an excellent forgery.

So when the 'solution' is given to you, inevitably it's going to disappoint some people that it isn't up to par vs a more plausible/favorable explanation offered via interpretation. An old rokkenjima forum post I read a while ago had a pretty valid concern: perhaps it's better not to try and explain Higurashi as a gameboard because if Ryukishi is not extremely careful, the struggles and individual stories of each character may feel cheapened and devalue Higurashi's story by untroducing an element where it was the doing of witches all along.

Honestly I'm hoping Satoko and Lambdadelta aren't part of each other the way Bern and Rika are... I feel like it would cheapen how enigmatic she is, and it cheapens by a LOT if Lambda's supposed logic hell started when Satoko... wasn't thriving in an academic environment. And even if Rika goes full Bernkastel and says something really heartless to Satoko, would it really justify pushing her to murder Rika and handwaving it like "it's not out of character because Satoko still has hinamizawa syndrome"? I'm really not sure. Shion's reason for what happened was a pile of issues that you gotta unpack, it wasnt just because she was a yandere for satoshi (and no, Shion isnt a yandere)

If you ask me, Lambdadelta isn't part of Takano or Satoko at all. This is entirely subjective but I got the impression Lambdadelta has been a witch far longer than Bern has. She even said she'd "maybe understand Bern's feelings a little better" in one line... meaning Bern is also an enigma to her and perhaps her goal of trapping Bern in an eternal stalemate is to get past that last wall Bern put up around herself and her trauma. (I call it a brand of flirting only traumatized magical girls would think is cute... and it is... but it's tragic). I'm a LambdaBern stan who doesn't believe they're actually unironic yandere with each other. I think they're both witches that came from unique circumstances and found solace in that. Their logic hells were so traumatic to them that their only comfort is to watch people go through a hell of their own. Sure they say really violent stuff to each other but again I think it's them both putting up an act. Neither of them would ever show weakness or vulnerability in front of pieces, much less other witches. Maybe not even each other, and that's why they are glad to play a game of cat and mouse with each other forever.

I have a lot of complicated feelings in the way I try to explore their dynamic that can't quite be put into words. Umineko is very layered but my favorite pastime is figuring out why they're drawn to each other while simultaneously playfully in constant opposition. And maybe Im a little fearful that Gou could ruin the fun of guessing for me + devalue Satoko and Rika...

[ravenaveira]

Ok, time for my review of Kh3 Re:Mind Dlc

This is gonna be long, so be prepared, and yes there will be many spoilers so if you dont want spoilers of the game then you probably shouldnt read this, but if you dont care then stick around.

I will start off with my unbiased and critical opinion.

From the title menu alone you already know what this game is gonna be about. Kairi is gonna be center focus, or should say specifically Sokai, and Riku will be virtually non existent.

Now I know what your thinking, well duh its all about saving Kairi of course Riku wont have that big a role and she’ll be the main focus, and to that I say no shit sherlock I already knew that. My issue isnt that it was Kairi focused because I already knew that and still pre-ordered the DLC, but my issue is what this title screen represents and my fears were proven correct.

Let me elaborate

Riku is just as much of a friend to Sora as Kairi is, from the beginning of the series its always been Sora, Riku, and Kairi, thats the way its ALWASY been. But from this title screen I could tell Riku’s bond with them wasnt gonna be present at all and I was right.

I’ll elaborate further

I know Im jumping way ahead here but bare with me, at the end of the game after Sora rescues Kairi they travel the worlds together, Sora notices he is fading away which is why he goes to the many different worlds he has visited but now with Kairi, spending his final moments with her before he finally disapears.

See the problem? Sora doesnt involve Riku at all in his final moments being alive, he is just completely absent during his entire remaining life. Sora only spends time with Kairi during his final moments, Riku wasnt shown with them once.

I know some people say well we dont know how long Sora was alive before vanishing and he was probably the one who organized the party, but did we see that though? did we see any signs that Sora was alive for more than a day or two? did we see Sora talking to anyone like he was setting anything up? NO, it was all about Kairi and Riku was completely forgotten.

I can understand if Sora wasnt dying then it wouldnt matter how much time he spends with Kairi alone, but Sora was fading away ANY SECOND and he didnt spend any of his remaining time with Riku at all, even at the beach party who is Sora sitting next to alone with before he finally vanishes? Kairi. That is inexcusable and a huge insult to Riku and his bond with Sora, hes just completely excluded, that is unforgivable.

These new added scenes to the ending actually made it worse than the original version of it, before we didnt even know Sora was around for more than a day and just assumed they all had a beach party afterwards to celebrate getting everyone back and saving the world, but now we know Sora was actually around for an extended period of time and made no effort to spend time with anyone other than Kairi, not even his best friend Riku did he spend time with for his final hours, that is despicable.

Another major issue is how Sora keeps saying his journey started with losing Kairi in this game, as if Riku wasnt ALSO lost that day, as if Riku wasnt the reason Sora kept on his journey even after saving Kairi and sending her back to Destiny Islands, as if he didnt fall to his knees and bawl his eyes out finally reuniting with him, as if he wasnt content with spending the rest of his life trapped in the Realm of Darkness with Riku, as if for the entirety of the base game of kh3 Sora wasnt constantly and only thinking about Riku and how many things he wished he could show him.

Apparently in Remind none of that happened, none of that mattered, it was Kairi that was his main motivation, it was Kairi that started his journey, Riku wasnt involved in it at all.

That is a huge issue with this DLC, it treats Riku like a side character and of little importance to Sora, in the base game they handled them fine minus that on instance in the Keyblade Graveyard where Sora says ‘Alone, Im worthless’ even though Riku’s right there but other than that their relationship and bond was handled very well but in Remind? practically non existent.

Now onto the story aspect, if your not into time travel and have trouble understanding the many variations of it then your gonna have a bad time because it gets VERY confusing to follow, which is why you should never introduce time travel because it becomes way too complicated to keep track of and not only that you also have to worry about things like paradoxes, ripples in time, alternate timelines etc. Its a complete clusterfuck to keep up with and manage so time travel really shouldnt have been introduced in this series.

Chirithy tells Sora that no matter what he cant change the past again, yet there are times where Sora does just that so exactly what cant he change? for example, when Roxas appears he asks Sora to do him a favor which is essentially getting the X back from Xemnas in their names. Sora does several things to make this happen and even Kairi gets a couple swings at Xemnas this time but then the two of them are basically caught and restrained inside shadow balls [pause]

See the prob? this is a huge change to that fight, Kairi never took a single swing at Xemnas, she just stood there and got snatched up, Roxas never asked Sora for help getting the X’s back from Xemnas, and Sora and Kairi never got restrained by Xemnas and knocked out.

Chirithy explicitly said Sora cant change what happened and no matter what he has to accept it for what it is, yet here he is, changing what happened. Maybe you could argue well this is an alternate timeline, even if it is that makes all of this irrelevant and means it never happened because the true ending is the one where it didnt happen, making this semi useful Kairi moment really pointless because at the end of the day its not canon, her being useless is the true outcome, none of this matters.

That is extremely disappointing, so even if you alter the past for the better it doesnt matter because its an alternate timeline and that timeline isnt the real one making this whole redo pointless and time consuming for a short DLC that was an extra 30$ to play.

So the time travel is very confusing and even if you follow it, it ends up being very disappointing when you realize none of it matters.

Moving on to some of the tied loose ends, Im glad they explained why Aqua froze up after saying ‘We stand together’ and I like how we get to see how Young Xehanort came to have the beliefs that lead to what he did and also MOMs subtle influence on him succumbing to darkness.

He told Xehanort that he would outgrow the robe and no longer need it because if he was truly powerful then he’d be the one controling the darkness, this leads to Xehanort later begining to travel without the robe and being corrupted. So we know now that MOM also influenced that as well and is very sketchy, even more now than he was before since this action greatly influenced what Xehanort eventually does and all the pain he caused, all of which would have probably never happened if it wasnt for him.

But thats just my theory and what I got from it.

I liked that we got to see Namine for a brief moment where Sora basically brushes her off and completely forgets about thanking her, this is a plotline Im pretty sure at this point is just never going to get resolved. He just tells her to go to the Final World and walks off, which makes no sense because Sora was surprised to see her in the original playthrough.

Another change was Lingering Will dying to protect Sora, again this never happened because Sora was busy fighting alongside everyone in the maze while Lingering Will and Terranort were fighting away from them. After Lingering Will died for him then Sora is pretty much squeezed to death by Terranorts Stand, or atleast knocked unconscious.

So much about these are just so confusing as to how they are happening when Chirithy said the events couldnt be changed I just stopped questioning it.

But atleast this time its made clear that Namine is the one who sent Lingering Will to help everyone and how she did it, so now people can stop saying Kairi is the reason everyone survived because it wasnt, without Lingering Will they would have all died a second time.

Basically the first half of the DLC is just recap with some minor changes and additions to the cutscenes, you get to play as other characters like Riku [optional] Aqua [not optional] and Roxas [optional] but other than that its basically the same thing all over again for the first 3-4 hours of the DLC, that is ridiculous.

The new content finally starts when Kairi is shattered, funny how the game gets good after Kairi dies xD I’ll stop.

Anyway once Kairi dies is when we finally get explorable Scala, but not without having to endure an insane fight with tons of heartless and nobodies and yes its more complicated than you think. It doesnt matter how many heartless or nobodies you kill, they will keep coming until you kill this one red heartless with way more health than your average heartless has.

After that you can pretty much wander around Scala as you wish and this is the only time where you can buy items or food so make sure to do that if your low on items. If your low on money there are minor enemies there that you can kill to get some so take advantage of this opportunity because your not getting another one.

Your goal in Scala is to basically run around, solve a couple puzzles, and get 5 of Kairi’s heart shards, revealed to having to be 7 later on. Sound fun? besides being able to see more of Scala’s layout, not really. But its a good place to take a breather before getting back into the big battles ahead.

Unfortunately your actually forced to fight the armored organization again but thankfully you dont have to do the ENTIRE final battle over, just that one section which I appreciate but wish we didnt have to do any of it at all.

So after we’re done Scala we get in MY opinion the two best parts of the entire DLC. We get to see what was going on with the rest of the keyblade wielders back home and it was INSANE and extremely well done, everybody had a chance to shine.

When everyone was swept away and Mickey was down and out, it was amazing seeing Mickey push himself back up and slowly with what little strength he had take on all the armor organization BY HIMSELF severely weakened, yet still powerful enough to hold them off and stand his ground. He really showed us WHY he is the King, so THAT I really enjoyed. It was extremely well done and one of the most memorable parts of the DLC.

The next part was even more insane and well done, which is us getting to fight as all the keyblade wielders against the armored organization and even get some cool dialog and team attacks in between, it was just amazingly well done seeing everyone work together and switching between characters was just so epic and enjoyable.

Honestly I could play those two parts over and over again and enjoy it everytime, their just that good and the most memorable in the entire DLC.

Coming back with Kairi and killing Xehanort together with all the keyblade wielders including Kairi this time was satisfying to see but it excludes Xehanorts and Eraquses final words, I mean yea seeing Xehanort have a semi happy ending put off alot of people but at the same time, seeing Xehanort come to the realization that he was wrong about everything and giving the Wayfinder trio closure by seeing their master one last time and hearing his apology to them just held more weight to me.

Im not saying I think Xehanort should be redeemed as easily as he was, but I feel like excluding Eraqus and their final words made the ending feel hollow, just ok we beat the bad guy, happily ever after now. Thats pretty lackluster and unsatisfying In my opinion.

Finally the ending....

Heres where Im gonna be biased and give my personal thoughts. Warning if your a fan of Kairi skip to the very end of the review where I give my overall rating

I hate the ending, for the reasons I listed in the beginning but also many others. I get the main focus was gonna be Kairi since the DLC was about saving her, Im not mad about the obvious, Im mad about the execution.

The Sokai agenda was so forced and apparent its not even funny, they shove it in your face so hard yet when Sora is talking with Chirithy he still refers to Kairi as a friend, really? your shoving this pairing down our throats just to have Sora still friendzone her? Im not mad because I dont want them together anyway but I hate the games being played here, you either want them together or you dont, pick a friggin side Nomura.

And while we’re on the subject, I hate, HATE, how this game is so heavily romance focused when Kingdom Hearts was NEVER about romance to begin with, it was always about friendship and bonds. Not in this DLC though, no now its all about Kairi and being with her forever, traveling the world together, holding hands, all this lovey dovey nonsense nobody invested in the plot could give a rats behind about.

Sure people who are into Kingdom Hearts for the romance of course they dont mind, but Im pretty sure MOST people invested in this series are in it for the story, not some stupid pairing, and I HATE how much they shove it down your throat because it is just so forced and obvious what they were doing.

This was all damage control for Kairi, who has been a useless damsel in distress and dues ex machina in every single game shes been a part of. I repeat, EVERY SINGLE GAME SHES A PART OF.

Kh1 - Kidnapped, unconscious, Sora needs to die to save her.

Kh2 - Kidnapped, held hostage, Sora needs to find and save her.

Kh3 - Kidnapped, unconscious, is killed twice, Sora needs to die to save her.

Do you see what I fricken mean? Every fuckin game its the same danm thing over and over and quite frankly Im sick of it. You might as well say this is a Mario game because Kairi is princess Peach always gettin snatched up and Sora is Mario always going through insanely deadly trials to get her back, and then it happens all over again.

This DLC was damage control for that, instead of immediately getting snatched up by Xemnas she actually gets a few good swipes at him to no avail of course, and then she fights together with Sora against armored Xehanort, all of which is just damage control for her not doing anything in the entire franchise and pandering to her fanbase that are constantly screeching for playable Kairi and for her to do something.

It was also damage control for how non existent their relationship was and what a joke its been since Kh1. They arent fooling anybody because thats exactly what this was, otherwise why you have to try so hard to CONVINCE us how important she was to Sora? why did Riku have to get sidelined so much just to boost Kairi up? why’d Sora completely disregard Riku as a part of his journey? why did Sora not spend ANY time with ANYONE for his final moments alive? its so obvious why. The only way to convince anyone shes actually important and relevant is to play down everyone else or exclude them entirely.

Congratulations, you got your wish, good for you fandom, but at what cost?

The time they spent forcing so much Sokai could have been used to tie up way more loose ends than there were but nope, gotta squeeze in that Sokai, thats what yall really here for right? fuck off.

The two best moments of the game was so short lived its not even funny, this DLC was full of so much padding in the first half, forced romance and pandering for damage control they forgot to actually make this a decent DLC.

Since I recorded my gameplay from start to finish I can actually tell you the amount of old content vs the new

3-4 hours of mostly what we already seen with a few changes, I only died twice

1-2 hours of new content, probably less because I got lost and died alot

That is unacceptable, 30$ for only 10% new content? that is a robbery.

Not only that but the worst part is the Limitcut episode, databattles have always been optional for competative players who like the challenge. Now you are FORCED to fight these INSANELY hard bosses, all 13 in order to get the final bits of the aftermath of the story.

WE PAID FOR THIS, this wasnt free we PAID for it and yet we’re basically told ‘Hey if your a casual player and want the rest of the story? well you gotta fight 13 of these insanely hard databattles that used to be optional but now their madatory for you to get the rest of your moneys worth. Too difficult? cant do it? well too danm bad, get good or go home we got your money already so screw you guess you’ll never know’

That is a fucking robbery and a huge slap in the face to people who are invested in the story, not proving their the best by fighting insanely difficult battles no matter what difficulty your on. It wouldnt be an issue if this was always the case, but these battles were always OPTIONAL for competetive players to do if they WANTED to, but now its mandatory and if you cant do it then oh well middle finger to you.

I couldnt even beat Vanitas, I fought him first and then Luxord and I couldnt beat either of them so I just said fuck it and went on youtube to see what I paid to see for free. 30$ wasted on a game I cant even finish, your out of your fucking mind if you think thats fair and excusable.

Thats why at the end of the day I give it a 5/10, its not good but its not bad either, its just decent. But if you asked me if it is worth the time and money? fuck no, my advice? watch other youtubers play it and keep your 30$

If you want it just to play as some of the characters, experience the new content for yourself, and play the databattles then by all means get it.

But if you think thats not enough for you to spend 30$ for then dont get it.

Overall Re:mind gets a 5/10, useless padding for majority of the first half of things we’ve already seen and cant skip because theres new scenes mixed in, forced romance that nobody but shippers care to see, severely lacking new content, and unfair extremely hard mandatory databattles just to see the final aftermath of the story which is kind of important setup for the next game.

Fuck this DLC, this was my fist time EVER buying a DLC for ANYTHING and thanks to this its probably my last. So thank you Re:Mind, for ReMinding me why I never bought DLCs in the first place.

Ps - Im so glad playable Kairi was optional, thats one of the only things this DLC did right.

[rogueshipagogo]

ppl have been asking me my opinions on space channel 5 vr... and i guess since i bought a vr headset off craigslist just so i could play it and speedrun it before work the day it came out... i should talk abt it now... i dont rly think i’ll be able to separate it into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ things i think i’m just going to do a rambly stream of consciousness bc i have a headache... but i DO have good things to say abt this game... so st.... sta stay t tune  d

right off the bat, the thing i appreciate most abt this game- i like that space channel 5 vr doesnt have cash grab vibes. i Do genuinely believe that they Wanted to make this game For the people who are still obsessed with it, and that they ultimately did what they set out to do when they intended to scale certain aspects of the series up conceptually to match the way the fandom perceives it nowadays. but like i’ve said before... i’m not going to Disagree with the very common conclusion that it Needed to be longer, or at Least more intricate plot-wise. one of my fun and fresh excuses for sc5vr being as short as it is is because you arent really supposed to be playing vr games for too long anyways, its really disorienting and kinda painful, but even that doesn’t account for why so much of the game that we got is a rehash of old settings, concepts, songs, and characters. [i dont even have a problem with reusing old songs, i just think the ones they chose ended up being misleading]

for example i think it makes sense that the first report is a remake of the first games first report on the surface, it’s meant to take you back to the way the first game felt and give you an idea of what it means that the games classic scenery can be rendered in actual high quality detail now [same with the recurrence of events like encountering the space pirates in the asteroid belt/the last battle against a villain being singing to it about what it’s done wrong], but i really thought, like, report 1 was going to end up being a simulated scenario for the benefit of lou and kee’s training... which i dont think ended up being the case??? i think they really did write ‘ok here you are in the first game’s setting again, fighting the old enemies again, because... :^) ok have fun playing report 2!’

and then whats report 2... you fight another old boss from the first game... but theres Still no clear villain or motivation for anything thats happening... and there wont be until like... basically the end of the game...

like, glitter is a really cute character, but its kind of underwhelming that shes just a random citizen who was kidnapped by an entity that we NEVER LEARN ANYTHING ABOUT... like part 1 was extremely notable for being about corporate greed and corruption, part 2 honestly wasnt that political in comparison but at least made you do a think wrt purge’s motivation and his methods, and this game just has a plot device that feels like it’ll do smth but then ends up not doing anything beyond what we already learned about it from the information on its character bio before the game was out. if it turns out that cell x is actually relevant again in a future entry in the franchise and they do have a more developed concept for what cell x Is in mind, i’ll do an entire backflip, but for now its just chalked up to being the result of More Space Hijinks that dont need to be explained

ESPECIALLY WITH ALL OF THE ALLUSIONS TO CELL X BEING AN ENTITY THAT FEEDS OFF OF DANCE ENERGY... it had me thinking that there would have to be some New Method of fighting it off that didn’t just lend it more power in the process, but nah apparently just tacking on the disclaimer ‘*this dance energy is not for glitter’ is enough to turn it from smth it can consume for power into big attacks you can use to kill it... like honestly it sounds like im asking for a lot from a game that has Never made too much sense, but considering that in part 2 they could add details like ‘oh didnt you know purge can open pocket dimensions? ulala is capable of manifesting tangible dance energy and the only other person who can do that is purge???’, its not like they havent come up with weird new shit for dance energy to do within the plot before. they just didnt do it in this game fsr

like did anyone else think that cell x/glitter was going to be the result of tossing purge out into deep space and him encountering the sc5 universe’s equivalent of an eldritch alien creature, smth more bestial than morolians?? even if purge wasnt part of it, when you say ‘uh oh, this guy Eats this society’s only source of energy!!!’ i expect the stakes to get HIGH, and i want the ramifications of it to be kinda STARTLING, because blank wanted money and purge wanted to ritualistically end the world but something this near to an ecological disaster that would force an entire paradigm shift hasn’t occurred yet in the series?? its totally new!!! there’s a lot they could do with this but OH DONT WORRY ABOUT IT EVERYONE ulala knows how to make dance energy kill cell x instead of feed it she’s got this we’re good no need to investigate more into all that

i can’t explain why the game is like this. and i dont expect grounding to address it in any meaningful way either. i’m sure they’re Aware of these complaints by now- the game reviewing community has Not been kind to sc5vr specifically due to all of these shortcomings [i didnt even touch on the issues with motion sensing and how many of the games mechanics were removed in favor of smth presumably easier to program yet much less satisfying, like Secret Moves just being mini quicktime events and Turning Your Ratings Into Stars just being replaced with the standard Three Strikes You’re Out method of scoring], but the pr team still seems very enthusiastic abt the game and is still promising dlc and potentially even more games in the series after this one- heres hoping that they’ll at least take these grievances to heart and consider making the experience not only more accessible [aka it will... go back to being a rhythm game with controller input.... and not... an exclusive vr experience...], but also as immersive and detailed as the old games, with less reused plot beats. i can let some of it off the hook in this game simply because i’m aware that it began its life as a tech demo that was only supposed to be that initial first report from the first game But Happening All Around You!, but i Really dont think they could get away with doing this little to expand upon the groundwork set by the first two games again. not with the way people remember part 2 being such a vast upgrade from part 1... the bar had been set so high that this just felt like a huge backslide into something even sillier and harder to take seriously than part 1 before we had any idea what kind of staying power the franchise would have as a hallmark of sega’s quirky antics. like... this game is what i think space channel 5 looks like to people who don’t understand the appeal of the first two games. and that scares me

but i guess for the most part, aside from wishing they had done more to revitalize the setting and the lore of the sc5 universe itself, im kind of glad it didnt do a lot to change the existing storylines the characters have kinda forged for themselves- here i was stressing out that they would pull out some plot development that would utterly and drastically change the way we talked abt the series for the rest of time, but so little happened and so little was added to the bank of sc5 lore that we can kind of all just carry on as usual and keep having the same headcanons we always had.

BUT!!! there ARE a lot of cute little details here and there that make the experience feel wholesome and like i said not an utter cashgrab- like so many of the character profiles referencing previous games [all of the references to npcs in this game being relatives of the npcs of the last games made me lose it] and how often ulala changes her expressions up and looks right at you and talks to you. the new music they wrote for the game also all slaps and everyones redesigns [if they got a redesign... rip pudding] are stunning

one of the most important things they did in this game was give a nice sort of Update to every character.... for example explaining that ulala isn’t a rookie reporter any more like she was in the first 2 games, that she’s moved up to being in charge of training new channel 5 reporters, and that while pudding is still somewhat stuck on her rivalry with ulala her career isn’t stagnant either, she was just cast in a romcom series as the lead... which is really nice considering how in the past she was portrayed as somewhat of a loser with almost no remaining fans left from her idol years

and you knew i was going to bring up jaguar at some point HES ALL OVER THIS GAME AND IT LITERALLY MADE ME FEEL LIKE MY LIFE WAS WORTH POWERING THROUGH THESE LAST FEW YEARS AND ALSO LIKE IM A GENIUS FOR SPENDING SO LONG POSTING EVERY SINGLE DAY ‘NO REALLY, HE’S THE SECONDARY PROTAGONIST OF THE STORY, ITS ABOUT CHANNEL 5 AS A COMPANY AND THEIR IMPACT ON EVERYONE WHO HAS EVER ENCOUNTERED THEM AND THAT INCLUDES JAGUAR AS WELL AS ULALA HES INTEGRAL TO THE PLOT BC SHE WOULDNT BE ALIVE IF IT WEREN’T FOR HIM’ i feel like it’s really incredible how in this game he has genuinely nice energy and doesnt withhold praise from ulala just to be helpful in a mysterious way later and he like HAS FRIENDS now. like consider how he went from disgraced former ch5 employee who got mad every time he saw them, to kidnapped robot henchman kinda humbled by the fact that now the turns tabled and ulala had to rescue Him, and now 3 years later his bio is all about how he has a new tv show thats super popular and he has a new entourage of ladies who he considers his '’’’’’comrades’’’’’’’ within the station he founded??? AND AFTER 20 YEARS THEY WERE FINALLY ABLE TO GIVE HIS MODEL JUICY ASS CHEEKS??????????????? NO MORE PANCAKE BOOTY???? THE BOY HAD A GLOWUP AND NO I WONT STOP TALKING ABOUT IT

WHEN I SAY MEOW MATCH THE POSE MOTHERFUCKERS THIS BLONDE BASTARD GETS TO BE IN CHARGE OF THE HUNDRED STAGE BATTLE NOW TOO THIS IS THE YEAR OF THE SPACE PIRATES BAYBEE

[iguinn]

Ok, cool. Do your 5 fave dgm characters.

OH FUCK HERE WE GO AGAIN!

5 - Mana - my dear Mana… i despise what he became but i still look at him and i feel like i still deep down love him so much and want him back because i make jokes and play around saying hes the Earl but hes so obviously scared of being the Earl i feel that a lot of my anger towards him is misguided. hes not perfect in any way shape or form and he was not the greatest in terms of parenting even if people dont wanna acknowledge it. still my heart goes to him and while i know ill never get my Mana back that he has been completely swept under the Earl part of me will look back and just feel that happy nostalgia of what he was and what he could have been if the tides were in his favor. i still see the him from the past the man who didnt want to give up and i feel like crying, i wish he has stayed like that. my feelings for him are complicated but i guess i still do love him a lot.

4 - Marie -  because like hes just probably the most stable person in the manga. and its so very obvious that while he has been influenced by Froi on his love for kids because he said himself that he almost lost himself to anger on the day he first met Kanda until he heard his voice talk to him. hes a good person and it pretty obviously the one person that Kanda doesnt feel is annoying because hes just the calm and understanding type, he doesnt push people hes not forcefull he just wants to help and be kind. hes also one of those rare good representations of a disabled character and its so nice to see that hes not a prop to any abled character hes his own character whos strong and kind and reasonable. i guess i like him so much because he just a calming presence.

3 - Kanda - its almost impossible to read dgm and not like Kanda from the beginning he was abrasive and mean and aggressive but u knew we all knew that underneath that there was a reason a strong one why he acts like that. and surprise surprise that much was true! all he went through was beyond inhumane, what happened to him and Alma was horrible and Kanda didnt deserve to see someone he loved so much die in his arm with their last words being i love u. i still feel so angry about it he deserved better and im glad he met Marie and Froi because if he had never gotten such kind people as his family? it would have destroyed him he already has such a low opinion of the order if he hadnt had such a good family he would be a husk. i care for him a lot i dont think i say it enough but its nice that hes getting better little by little. hes still gonna be abrasive and mean at times but hes getting better!

2 - Froi - oh Froi! what can i say about him that i havent already? hes kind and sweet and strong and hes just so hopeful. i cant understand how he can handle having so many kids under his care when its obvious he would feel the worst type of pain if anything happened to them. he cares too much and hes willing to risk everything for his children. hes sentimental and very parental more than all the other general and its obvious he has some sort of past with me (wonder why hes actually in debt with me) and i want it to show up so i can make another “reasons why FroixCross is canon just trust me”. im joking but also like… theres something i envy about him is that hes not scared to show how much he cares about his kids in such an honest way. he definitely is too soft on his kids but i think its because he knows deep down that kids shouldnt be fighting in wars but theres no other choice. the pain i fear ill feel if Allie dies is something he has gone through and i just cant help but feel like hes hiding a lot of pains underneath his cheery personality. hes such a caring person and that probably bit him in the ass a lot before and he looks so fucn to tease and make fun of because he wears his heart on his sleeve! i love him so much because of that. his caring personality all that gentleness despite everything… hehe hes my dearest husband!

1 - Allie - who would have thought that the extremely embarrassing parent would put his child on the first place? anyway ive talked a lot about Allie. a lot really i have a big ass analysis im making about her because i want people to understand how i see her to understand how shes just such an amazing person someone whos been through some of the worst types of hell a child could go through but still stays strong and tries again and again to help other to put others in front of her to the point it harms her. shes the kindest person anyone could be and its heartbreaking. its so heartbreaking that someone like that had to suffer so much and gone through so many years of not being genuinely loved thinking she was doomed to pain and misery. i just wanted her to be far away from the order and from knowing about things that could hurt her but i think i hurt her by not having hope she could survive and i honestly still dont. but she didnt give up and she hasnt given up yet. she refuses to let go of life despite everything shes still walking. part of me thinks shes a fool who doesnt know her limits the other is so proud that she wont go down without a fight she is so brave and kind and i hope she can shed the mask shes wearing and be herself. someday she will i know it but i hope it doesnt have to happen after Neah takes over her body. my poor child deserved more from me, shes loved and i never showed her that but so many people love her so many people would fight to protect her shes walking but at least she wont be always lonely anymore and if it comes to it ill hold her hand and guide to far away once Neah takes over. if she can live happily so be it but if she has to die i want to be there i cant handle leaving her alone when shes going though so much i wasnt with her when she was still “Red” but i promise ill come back and be with her again. she deserves so much and i hope she gets a happy ending. 

[survivor-rotuma]

Ep. 2: “iF yOu SeE a VoLcAnO wHy NoT jUmP oVeR iT” - Marie

Marie

Fuckin volcano

Felix

I feel secure because Charlie is going to be the one to go. I just know it. If we go to tribal that is. They have barely spoken and I don't know them too well. Might be the same for everyone else here

Marie

Still salty bout the goddamn volcano

Marie

iF yOu SeE a VoLcAnO wHy NoT jUmP oVeR iT

Flint

I am really enjoying the banter with Jay and our tribe. Having a great time with this immunity challenge and chatting with Joey and Felix. Wish the other tribe mates were as active.

Brianna

Ya know coming into this competition i didn’t expect it to be me and Bradley as the last two people representing our team. I guess he’s gonna be more active now since his busy week is over so that’s swell but like. God I really wanna sleep.

Felix

To sum up, I feel like I am getting a deeper bond with Flint and Joey. They seem to be willing to talk with me most often. So, even if we do go to tribal I am safe for the most part. I just feel like I am liked in the tribe. Also, I am the one putting in the most work for the tribe, so I have that going for me. I just feel safe because of the work I have put in, but I don't want to give up just yet. If I can avoid tribal, then I will. According to both Joey and Flint, Suzy and Charlie have been very inactive. Therefore, it will be them on the chopping block come time for tribal. Joey thinks Charlie is more inactive whereas Flint thinks Suzy is more inactive. It'll just come down to what Cassie and I feel in the end. Doesn't hurt us either way since I think they are the weakest links on our tribe, especially Charlie. I don't think she put in enough effort last immunity challenge. Plus, she was totally inactive for this challenge that she auto-lost. Cassie missed this challenge too, but she at least did really well last challenge. If we go to tribal, I think I would vote for Charlie in the end since they are the person I feel least closest to. If only Bradley dropped, I could win this challenge for my tribe and cement my place as a valuable asset.

Lysandre

I am SO SORRY GIGI! I thought you were a returnee so I decided to snap! The comment looked pretty mean compared to the others,  which it was. The tribe, Marie and Kathleen, was wondering who said the mean comment and they believed it was David. I said yeah I think it was him as well. I love accidently painting a target in him and being a rat child.

Lysandre

Ok so I completely missed the challenge! I had no idea it was going to start early and I was at ine of ny sibling's events. I'm rooting for my team and hoping that my absence doesn't paint a target on my back. Also! I am loving being Lysandre! The writer in me is having a field day because I get to create a character and their background, quirks, and personality BUT THEN I GET TO BECOME THEM.

Flint

I couldn't outlast that second Immunity challenge. It was fun but my body couldn't carry on. I hope that Felix can pull through for Tuai! If we have to go to tribal I think it will be an easy vote, for me at least. I think that Cassie or Suzy should go. Cassie hasn't shown much initiative as our leader and Suzy isn't very social.

Bradley

This challenge is taking forever. Im the last one for my tribe. I dont want to lose cuz itll suck and havent been on that much so my soical game isnt too strong either. I just want to beat one tribe.

Cassie

I'm so proud of Felix for sticking it out for the tribe so that we don't have to go to tribal tonight. Plus we still have the numbers advantage, so that is always a positive.

Flint

So relieved we won immunity again! The Tuai tribe is unstoppable so look out! I'm a little jealous that Felix won an advantage but he deserves it and maybe with some buttering up he'll share the information with me.

Felix

Can you believe I have done THAT! I single-handedly won this challenge for my tribe, and got an advantage on top of that. I know why Raul and Kathleen gave it to me, though. If I won and people knew I had an advantage, I would have a big target on my back. It does seem that Kathleen and Raul are working together, so I have to watch out for them. Whether I tell this to anyone on my tribe is a different matter entirely. Though they all know I have an advantage. I think I won't be seen as a threat until later on in the game. I'm still an asset to them though this early on so I hope I would stay if we had to go to tribal in this stage of the game.

Raul

I really did not think I was gonna be able to compete but I got back into it was in the last 2 of our tribe. When it came down to 4 of us 2vs1vs1 we knew we needed to just knock out Bradley and he did that to himself. The best thing to come out was that Kathleen and I grew together plus I'm pretty sure I know the identity of Kathleen which helps cause I love this person. Also there was a individual advantage to be won and Felix had 0 while Kathleen and I had 2. Kathleen and I had decided that Felix could have it but try to work a little magic and make a relationship with him and a deal to work together if the opportunity arose. My smart self realized that that if we just gave it to him it would be announced we made a deal, so I said we continue the comp and just throw it that way it wouldn't be revealed what we were actually doing. This way it keeps this threesome possibility a secret. Whether it remains one or not we shall see. At the very least we aren't going to tribal. Hoorah, 1 point Raul the Snake 0 points survivor gods . . .

Kathleen

"Ohhhh bitch this ones gonna be different from my last one.

David? Trash. Will 100% be the one to go next tribal we go to if I have anything to say about it.

Marie? The sweetest and most opinionated 13 year old I’ve ever met. We love a politically aware teen.

Lysandre? *insert that lady Gaga gif of her going ‘gorgeous, amazing incredible’ ect*

And Raul? I’m sooo glad we were the last two left in the immunity challenge. We bonded AND made an underhanded deal with someone from another tribe. Can you say icons?

Hotel? Trivago."

Bradley

I could still potentially be going home. Since someone brought up the fact that they all talked how they havent talked to me a lot. They do appreciate me doing really well in the challenge and i have Apollo and Brianna wanting to work with me each separately. So hopefully i can avoid being voted off this round and just work on more social connections with them all.

Suzy

love felix but lowkey what if they are doing this for everyone

Boris

"Hello im STRESSED. I went from feeling like im in a comfortable position on the tribe, to the absolute bottom just in one day. Being forced to sit out of the challenge really fucked me up. I feel like the tribe is low-key bitter at me.

And on top of that. We have less than 12 hours to vote someone out. And NO ONE is really talking game to me. Im so nervous. The only person I connect with on a game level is Apollo. I have no idea where the tribe is leaning, but I have a sinking feeling its me.

God I hope im wrong and just insanely paranoid. "

Boris

"IN HAPPIER NEWS. I finally got something GOOD in the idol hunt? And it could be game changing!!!

I found 1 half of a super idol. It can't help me tonight but its leverage, and a super idol is the most powerful thing in the game, it could literally save my life in the future of the game. All i have to do is survive tonight, if I have to use the super idol piece as leverage, I will. "

Felix

I think the advantage is less about doing someone on the other tribe a favor. I'm telling everyone about it because, if I do that, it garners trust because they know I'll be open with them about any advantages I have. Plus, it wouldn't hurt to tell the truth to gain trust. The extra vote could also get me an ally on the other side. Let's see if this plays out like I hope it does.

David

Everyone is nice which makes it hard to decide who to vote off. Performance in the next challenge will base my vote and probably others.

Felix

I think my plan is working. Cassie offered me an alliance with her and Flint. I think those two are really cool so I think working with them is in my best interest. Also, I have connections with Mea through Raul and Kathleen. Hopefully, since I'm giving an extra vote to Bradley, I can gain a connection with him despite not having met him. I hope this plays out well! My social game seems to be climbing!

Felix

I have made my first alliance in this game! It's the Tuai Quad Alliance, LLC featuring Cassie, Joey, Flint, and I. It's basically everyone I wanted to work with since the beginning of the game! I think I have found myself in a good position on this tribe. To be honest, I'd like to see Charlie go first, but we'll see how this all pans out. I'm glad I finally have a security blanket though. Hurray for a good social game!

Cassie

I love being a part of the Tuai tribe and was happy to become the leader. Despite liking all of my tribemates, I've become part of an alliance. We're calling it the TQA, LLC. Maybe someday that can be trademarked, hehe. But the Tuai Quad power is strong with Felix, Flint, Joey, and myself.

Brianna

Well. We lost the challenge. I made a pact with Bradley that we should stick together since we were the last two people left in the challenge. I also talked to Apollo and Boris. I seem to be close to them. Boris mentioned making an alliance with me, him, Bradley, and Apollo and I would be totes down for that. So. Guess this will be pretty simple hopefully

Zest

I just cast my first vote and it was wild. I didn't know what to expect going in to tribal. I hope no one blindsides me because I am really getting invested in this game. I think while my performance in the last challange wasn't the greatest, I can still be a strong social player. Not sure if I'm feeling like Parvati or Hannah Shapiro. I need another few weeks to find out what kind of player I am going to be.

Charlie

I feel so bad for missing the challenge but once again not much new is happening.

Boris

"I have been putting in WERK todah to make sure I'm in the best possible position going into tonight.

I first was talking to Brianna, and she mentioned the only people she didnt wanna vote was me, Apollo, and Bradley. So, naturally, when presented with a majority of the tribe, I suggest an alliance! Ofc she agrees hehe, so now thats in the works.

On my tribe, the most likable people and those I get along with/vibe the most with is Apollo and Zest. I approach them both and plant that seed, another alliance of just us three forms. Im SO excited to be working with them, we bounce off each other really well and I truly think we can go to the end together.

So yeah, even tho I was worried this morning I think I placed myself in a near perfect position. I really don't think theres any way I leave tonight. "

Joey

unfortunately, i wasn’t the best in the challenge but at least i showed up! i was invited in by cassie to an alliance with her felix and flint, but it was obvious i was the last one asked. i plan on being loyal, but i need to let cassie play leader while i get closer with felix. slow and steady.

Thomas M

Not much, Bradley did well on the challenge but unfortunately we are in the bottom. Have been preoccupied with a big assignment so have not gotten to fully experience things in the last round at least. Am nervous of who is going to get booted, excited to see what's to come!

Marie

Wow, idol hunt hates me

Apollo

We lost, I feel like I’m getting played though, if this is the last you’ve seen of Apollo, it’s been a great run!

Brianna

I’m really laughing over Thomas’ first message to me after we lost 30 minutes before tribal....like...it’s a little too late sorry bud

Bradley

It looks like the vote should be Thomas which Im fine with. And theres an alliance of Borris, Apollo, and Brianna who want to make a four person with me which makes me really happy. Started off rocky in this game but with challenge preformance actually helped me a lot.

Apollo

Borris and Apollo? “Name a more iconic duo”

[figuretealeavely]

I rly liked your posts about in the loop. I was so excited when they first announced the podcast thinking this would be the antidote to TSL, but they’re as prone to wild generalizations, baseless “analysis”, and bias as anyone else. Their ice dance analysis in particular is so so cringey!!!! Have you ever voiced your complaints to them?

Thanks anon. I have, and I was blocked by some of their more vocal and biased members on twitter as a result. Note - a few people does not speak for everyone. But a refusal to hear or engage with critique is a bit distressing. I don’t want to pat myself on the back for no reason, but I don’t exactly sound like a random troll in my posts. The only official response I have from them is to email them privately. However, I am not five years old - we all know pressure to change does not come from private conversations, nor do I have any desire to expose their private justifications via DM or email. Their content is for the public, it should be discussed in public.

The reason I haven’t responded to your question for a while is because of the whole drama that went down with TSL and the John Coughlin situation (which, if you recall, ended with Dave receiving death threats and removing TSL from social media for a while). It really reminded me of the stakes there are in discussing a sport that primarily focuses on very young athletes. Dave was instrumental in getting press coverage about this and presenting things in a professional manner. To be honest, I was pretty shocked he was able to do it, so kudos to him. And to his bravery.

This whole time, I was waiting for ITL’s response. I recently saw that ITL is releasing its own episode about this soon. I’m glad they’re doing it, but it is about a month too late to have any kind of impact on the situation. I think it’s safe to say that Coughlin’s family “won” the media narrative and the only people who can revive it now are those with a lot of power. Which ITL does not have. This is arguably the biggest story coming out of North American skating this year (and it seems 90% of their members are North American). I remain disappointed that only a few individual members of ITL even deigned to discuss the situation with any kind of nuance. I hope they learn in the future that you never, EVER regret taking a stand at the right moment. I am always criticizing Team Tutberidze (hate that name btw) and I will continue to do so, because I KNOW it is wrong. I just hope that ‘bigger’ outlets like ITL and TSL will make their stances clear in the future. 

Let’s face it, those in favor of Eteri and John Coughlin have NO issue making their opinions known. So why are we so hesitant?

[missjackil]

My 14x08 Opinion

Byzanthium This one got me feeling some kinda way.... Lets start with Sam sitting bedside with Jack? Ughhh my heart!! Sam has sat bedside of people as they were dying, like Bobby and Claire, of course Dean, but you could see in his face and posture, this was a whole new feeling. A hint of anger came out for a second when Jack said “Tell him Im sorry” and Sam said “Tell him yourself!” but he got a grip and smiled softly “He’ll be right back” Jack couldnt have been any sweeter either. Of course this didnt help my heart any.  “Sam?” “Yeah?” “What happens next? For regular guys like me?” “I dont know” “Then this will be an adventure” Hear that?? Thats my heart shattering!! The amount of emotions Sam showed was heartbreakingly refreshing. No, we didnt get any sobbing, (on screen) but Ive resigned that he saves that for when Dean dies only, but my boy was definitely heart broken. His storming off had me worried. Sam doesnt always make the best decisions with a broken heart. I liked that Dean wanted to give him space... all the way up til Cas told him he left on his own. Then well... space be damned right? I loved that Dean instantly worried Sam made a deal.  I loved the scene with Sam angrily chopping the trees... it reminded me of Red Meat when Dean was taking it out on the trees also. Then he broke the axe head, he crumbled.... the self loathing came out once again that he cant even build his son a pyre. My boy was helpless and lost. Watch your step now, I havent gotten around to cleaning my heart up of the floor.  Now, the “Getting loaded for Jack” scene will go down in my mind as a classic iconic scene forever. Along with great scenes like Sams arms opening as hes about to jump into the pit in Swan Song, the Church scene in Sacrifice, “Sammy Close your eyes” in My Brothers Keeper, the Night Moves scene in Baby. I will always remember this episode by that scene. It was beautifully shot, The candy bars were nothing less than adorable, Sam having a genuine, dimple filled smile. All 3 of them laughing, having fun, drunk off their asses. Then Sam flips his glass and staggers off.... tapped out.  Now, how Sam didnt have a hangover the next morning, or how he came up with an idea how to bring Jack back after 5 whiskeys, shows my boy has some super powers I think LOL to bring Lily back was odd, but good. This showed me that even though they CAN bring people back from the dead, its still not an easy feat. They dont have a resurrection spell, or readily available demon to make a deal with, they didnt call on Billie. This is good. This will keep us wondering and worried about how they can bring each other back in the future. However, Lily coming back considerably shorter was weird... older, sure, I get it, but shorter? Anyway, I LOVED Sam angrily shouting “HE’S OUR KID!!!” at Lily. Its the first time Sam vocally acknowledged that he feels more for Jack than his friend or little brother. I know some of you think the whole “my 3 dads” thing is cheesey and too much like fanfic, but of everything they could have pulled out of fanfic. this one was pretty bold, and I think it works, and its beautiful. (Sure Id rather it just be Sam and Dean as daddies, but Ill accept the trio) The heaven scenes with Jack were good. Im glad he got time with Kelly. The heaven scenes with Cas and the angels was boring, and it seemed they didnt really know what to do with the Empty entity or what kind of deal Cas could make. So he makes a deal that seems as though he just cant let himself be happy. Not that big a deal, though it should upset the hellers eh? Since if he allows himself “to be happy with Dean” hes gonna get sucked into the Empty.  So we end with them “knowing where Michael is” which could kill my “hiding in Dean” theory, but I still have that in my pocket because 

Naomi said she had a general idea, so they dont know exactly

Dean still had those mysterious dizzy spells

Jensen said we will see Michael!Dean again at the 300th party

Jared said Sam will confront Michael

Trailers can be very missleading

Im looking forward to the mid season finale next week. One thing I will definitely say in favor of the post Kripke era, is the cliff hangers for the mid season are always good, even if the episode sucked, they always leave us on a cliff hanger that makes us stressed out and speculating for the whole hiatus. Kripke didnt do that so much, we had s1 “Oh dad is on the phone” S2 “Dean has a secret about Sam” S3 Very Supernatural Christmas and no cliff hanger. s4 Angels are gonna fight Demons (zzzzz) S5 Ellen and Jo died, and Lucifer cant be killed. Great episode, but not actually a cliff hanger. Where as even though S12 Lotus sucked, it was a great cliffy to have the boys carted off to Fed Prison. And last years being trapped in the Bad Place with a “dinosaur” or going back to Sam getting his soul back, or how dead is Bobby? You get the picture.

So needless to say I really loved this episode. A couple minor issues that wont really matter in the long run. So on a scale of Bloodlines to Who We Are Im gonna give this one a strong 9. Well done everyone... well done..

[aaronmascoll]

Chapter 33 - Leila

Arguing and yelling, that's all the teachers have been doing for the past two hours. After Leila let everyone into her pocket dimension, she opened another portal to demonstration room. She only let the teachers out so they could talk about where they were going to put all the male students. When the rest of the female staff came, she made it abundantly clear that there was no way any of them were staying in her pocket dimension. Even now, after she restricted all the boys from going within a hundred yards of Spencer's house, Spencer was still curled up in the corner of her room crying. Suddenly having nearly three thousand boys on her front porch was a little traumatizing. They made it worse when they started banging on the walls and windows yelling for her to come outside.

As Leila stood on a podium at the front of the room, a portion of the female teachers argued that they absolutely did not want the male students, or teachers, anywhere near the school. So, when Leila told them that Morgan herself had invited them to join the school, they all quite. "Well, what do we now?" A female teacher sitting in the front said. "We need to replace all those that left."

"We would be happy to take over some of their classes," Mr. Slum said. "I myself teach, I'm sorry, taught a course in healing magic."

"I can vouche for him," Leila interjected. "He's the one that healed Morgan."

"And where is headmistress," the same female teacher said.

"She's in my pocket dimension," Leila stated. "I'm currently feeding her body as much anomali energy as I can provide it. Mr. Slum healed her head injuries, but he wasn't able to do anything about the coma she's in. We're hoping the extra energy will speed up the healing process."

"That's very convenient for you," and elderly teacher said.

"Excuse me?" Leila said with a hint anger.

"You show up and our headmistress miraculously falls into a coma. Then you say she wanted to bring all these men here. And to top it all off, here you are trying to take her place."

Leila didn't have to be told what was happening, she could see that a lot of the female teachers were believing what the elderly woman was saying.

"If you dont believe me, you can go and see for for yourselves. I can open a portal to Wolfenstein's school big enough for all of you, right now."

The elderly woman laughed. "As if I would trust your magic. That's probably what caused our headmistress coma."

"Then perhaps, one of you can use clairvoyance magic," Mr. Slum said. "Maybe someone you do trust, so that the results are to your liking."

"I'll do it myself. It is my specialty after all."

The elderly woman stood up. She said a few words in the language of Merlin and moved her hands in a elegant manner. Leila could see the experience in the way she moved her fingers. Though she didn't like her, Leila hoped that she could learn from the elderly woman.

When she was done, a window of energy opened, and an image came into to view. Rubble and black fire, covered every inch of the once prominent magic school for boys. Not a single building was left standing, and if it hadn't been for the broken fountain, Leila wouldn't even been sure they were looking at the right place. In the middle of the rubble, the tall black creature stood over Mr. Apex's broken and bloodied body. Huge lacerations cover every inch of him, and the blood red flames that had once surrounded him almost protectively, were now dying. A single red spark on his chest seemed to wane as his life force fled from his body. The black creature stomped on his chest, snuffing out the spark, and roared. Leila felt her head begin to throb even though no sound came from the window.

The elderly closed the window and sat back down. "Does anyone else still not believe me." When nobody said anything, she continued. "So where are we gonna put the boys, I need ideas."

A young woman in the back stood up. "Hi, im Mrs. Fume, I teach courses on reading and writing to grades first, and second. Since the dimensions teacher was one of those that left, we can't increase the size of the female dorms. So, we could use bunk beds and put four girls to a room. We do it with the first years so they get used to living without their parents. It helps them know they aren't alone. "

"That's a great idea," Leila said. She was glad they weren't arguing any more and finally moving on. "Mr. Slum, what were the boy's dormitories like at Wolfenstein's school?"

"They were the same as Mrs. Fume described," he said. "Though we did make sure that all four boys were all from different years. It gave the younger boys a chance to bond with kids older than themselves. A third of our students were orphaned when they started showing signs that they could use magic, because as some may know, those born with the ability to use magic are stronger for it."

"What about the non-magic students?" A teacher in the back said.

Leila had forgotten that the school taught both magic and non-magic students. "We'll give them a choice," Leila said. "We could use non harmful spells to activate their anomali energy. We could make a ceremony out of it. Like a coming of age thing."

All the male and female teachers were nodding in agreement, but one still seemed keen on taking them two steps back whenever they took one forward. "Next you'll be telling us we actually to have to teach these boys," the elderly woman from before said.

"Actually, that is what I was going to say next. The male and female students will be divided evenly among the male and female teachers. Any extra course taught at Wolfenstein's magic school will be added to the curriculum as an elective."

"What about necromancy?" A male teacher in the far back said.

The necromancy teacher wore leather robes and a leather mask around his face. The only peice of his body that wasn't concealed by leather was a finger that had no flesh or muscle tissue on it. It just a plain-white bone. "Seniors only," Leila said. "Let's go over it again. The girls will be put four to a room, each from a different year, and it will be the same for the boys. The students are to be divided among the male and female teachers, so until class rosters have been drawn up, classes are suspended. Any new courses being added, that could potentially harm the students, are for seniors only. Is there anything else? Does anyone have any ideas or opinions they want to voice?"

No one said anything, so Leila decided to say one more thing before the meeting was over. "Ok, besides the boys, there is one more student I'd like to enroll in some of yours classes. But, do to special circumstances stances, she wont be able to physically attend. She'll require special, one on one, lessons through a communication device. I know this might hinder some of your personal time, but I'm only asking this as a favor. So, if any of you can spare the time, please come and see me after we're done. Meeting adjourned."

After everyone had left, only one person remained. "Why can't she attend?" The elderly woman said.

"She's bound to my pocket dimension. I tried releasing her, but the guy who made the binding is, levels, smarter than me."

"I can teach her astral projection. It's a more advanced version of clairvoyance magic, so she'll need read the books on clairvoyance, one an two, not three, and if she can master that, she can attend classes without actually needing to be here."

"Thank you, thank you very much. You have know idea how much this means me."

"Its no problem at all. I know you mean well, but just know, if you try to do anything that goes against this school's moral code, my ancestors will hear about. I look forward to seeing how you'll run our school."

"What?"

"You didn't really think after you lead a meeting like that we wouldn't you in charge. Have a nice day Headmistress Leila."

[kcookendrick]

be alright

Who: Adam Levine and Anna Kendrick (anam) @hfamelevine

When: October 16th 2018/sometime in the morning till night time

Where: Annas doctors office in California and Adam&Annas home  

What: Adam and Annas second attempt at IVF doesnt go well and the two dont know how to cope with it not working for the second time. 

Trigger warning: mentions of failed ivf treatments and infertility issues 

Trigger Warnings: drinking just in case idk?

side note: this is literally emotional af i think this is lowkey saddest thing jojo and i have written cause i reread it and cried. also its long af lol idk why im writing this side not but it took me forever to edit 

Anna: It was the 16th, the date her doctor gave her to come back and find out if the IVF had worked or not. Anna was nervous, of course she was nervous. The women had every right to be nervous, but as she sat there in the room with Adam, the brunette took a breath and closed her eyes for a few moments. Anna began to chew her lips per usual when she was nervous, and a million thoughts started running through her mind. Playing with the ends of the hospital gown, she hated waiting for the results. Letting out deep breaths, Anna was getting lost within her thoughts again.

Adam: He had just gotten home, and to go right from his place of comfort at home to another IVF appointment had his mind jumbled and all over the place, that was for sure. He had barely been running on any sleep and coffee had become his best friend as of late, but he was home for good now and he wanted to be there as much as he could be for Anna. They had been able to put a rush on the rest of their IVF treatment while he was gone and finishing up the tour with the guys and Julia, and today was the appointment where they’d find out if it worked and more importantly, if Anna was pregnant. They were in their room waiting for the doctor to come in so they could get the results from the blood test that she had just taken a little over a half hour ago, and as Adam sat there he could tell that Anna was in a total different place completely right now. Letting out a small breath, he looked at her and reached out his hand. “Hey…” He whispers, “Babe…”

Anna: She knew this wasn’t hard just for her, it was hard for him too. But Anna couldn’t help but get emotional every time they come in here. It was like bad news, after bad news whenever she’d come here. Sitting there, in that hospital gown waiting for the test results, Anna’s stomach turned into knots and she licked her lips. Jumping a little but not meaning too when Adam opened his mouth to speak, she sighed “hmm..” Was all she could say at the moment

Adam: Doctors had been and always were indifferent when it came to Adam. He had just been in and out of the doctors for his throat issue and the sickness that he had caught from Anna, and even if that was different than right now was, he still didn’t have much of an opinion. There he was, holding in his feelings over the situation once again. He frowns as she jumps and then sits up a little more in the chair that he’s sitting in, his hand resting on top of hers now. “I love you.” He says, softly.

Anna: If there was anything Anna hated more, it was waiting. Waiting the last time with Aubrey was awful too, and when it came out negative Anna shut down in front of her best friend and just got out of there as soon as possible. She probably would do the same thing today if it had turned out to be negative. With Adam’s hand resting over hers, she noticed the frown and the brunette smiled softly “I love you too.” She whispered, and leaned in to kiss him. “What’s taking so long? With the stick it doesn’t take this long.” Anna whispered

Adam: He was reassured only a little bit when Anna smiled and kissed him back, but he was worried. It was a default for Adam, especially when it came to Anna. She was his everything, his future wife and hopefully, the mother of his child at some point, and he’d always be worried about her in situations like these ones. “They’re doing a blood test, babe. It takes a little bit, I think.” He says, letting out a sigh as he runs his free hand through his hair. “I’m sure they’re just…double checking everything or something.”

Anna: The brunette could tell he was worried about her, but he didn’t have to be, Anna was fine. Well she wasn’t, but Anna was trying to be. If anything, the actress was more worried about him considering he had just opened up to her about a few things regarding this a week ago. “Well this waiting is making me nervous and impatient, it makes me feel like theyre finding more things that’s wrong with me.” Anna said, laughing a little and then she looked at him

Adam: “I’m sure that’s not the case, babe…” He stops for a moment, trying to gather his thoughts about the situation to answer her again. His mouth even opens to do so, but the door to their room is opening too so his mouth instead, stays closed. “Hi, Anna, Adam. How are you today?” Adam flashes a smile in the doctor’s direction and answers with a quiet “Good, thank you” before her attention is back on Anna. “How are you feeling, Anna?” She asks, grabbing a clipboard to put down the folder that she had in her arms.

Anna: Listening to him talk, Anna couldn’t help but sigh. The women was tired, and Anna just didn’t want to be here right now. Letting out a breath, when Adam began to talk again but didn’t the brunette looked over as her doctor walked in. Pushing her hair back behind her ears, Anna sat up straight and she shook her head “I’m fine, thank you.” She watched as her doctor clenched the clipboard and folder in her arms.

Adam: The way that today had felt to him, it was weird. It wasn’t like the first time that they’d come in for their IVF appointment, but the vibe was weird and as he looked over at Anna every few moments, he could tell that she felt the same way about the issue. Clearing her throat, the doctor nods her head. “Well, glad to hear it. I have your blood test results.” She says, opening the folder then and glancing down at the clipboard where the information sat.

Anna: She was actually really happy that Adam was with her this time, Anna now realized on how stupid it was not to tell him about the first appointment. Starting to fidget with her fingers, Anna stopped and then held her arms for comfort like she always did. When her doctor mentioned the blood test results, Anna could tell by the sound of her voice that it wasn’t good. She looked at Adam, but then looked back at her doctor waiting for an answer.

Adam: Adam isn’t showing it, but he’s completely and utterly nervous. This had been the first time that he was with Anna to find out if she was pregnant or not after the first appointment fiasco, and he had hoped that it would go in their favor. However, the doctor’s tone of voice was completely different and he could feel himself starting to frown again as she began to speak. “So, your procedure went well. There was no complications with anything this time around, since I know that was something that came up last time. Everything looked great.” She clears her throat. “Unfortunately, I’m…I’m sorry to tell you that you’re not pregnant.”

Anna: Anna didn’t know weather or not to stay, or blot and that thought had been running around in her head ever since she got here. Taking a breath, the 33 year old listened to her doctor speak. She nodded her head, at the first few words and then got choked up at her last. She looked at Adam again, and then at her doctor and Anna felt the big lump just form in her throat. “I..,” Not knowing what to say, Anna chewed her lips “I’m not.” She said quietly to Adam, and then started to look for her clothes. Now all she just wanted to do was bolt and get out of there.

Adam: There it was. The words that Adam just didn’t not want to hear today. He had hoped for the last couple of days leading up to their appointment today that something would be different and that they would have some sort of a better luck, but their doctor had taken that away from him. Staying silent for a moment, Adam clears his throat and looks at Anna, while the doctor is speaking up again. “I’m very sorry, Ms Kendrick. We wanted you to know that there were no complications this time around, everything went smoothly and there was nothing to worry about. It just wasn’t a possibility this time.” She frowned, “We can set up another appointment, if you’d like.”

Anna: When Adam cleared his throat, the brunette took a breath. She felt water form in her eyes and Anna was not about to brake down in front of her doctor. Taking a breath, Anna chewed on her lips and listened to her doctor talk. The actress swallowed hard and finally opened her mouth to speak “I don’t…” Not knowing exactly what to say, since Anna now realized that maybe IVF wasn’t the best choice the brunette looked at Adam and she then looked at her Doctor “Can we have a minute please? I just… it didn’t work the last time. I’m just…”

Adam: The doctor nods, and it’s from a standpoint of understanding so she doesn’t say anything else about another appointment in that moment. “Of course, everything is all set up for you to check out when you’re ready to, just let the receptionist know if another appointment is what you’d like to do. Have a good day.” She smiles in the directions of both Adam and Anna, and Adam silently thanks her before she leaves the room. As soon as the door shuts, Adam’s emotions take him over and he gets right up from the chair that he’s sitting in. “Let’s go.”

Anna: When her doctor left the room, Anna took another breath and began to put her clothes back on. She was upset, of course she was upset. This was the second time the IVF didnt work. Sighing, she heard Adams voice and Anna just looked at him “I’m sorry.” Anna whispered and closed her eyes for a few moments, the brunette could feel the tears falling down her face. “I’m sorry.”

Adam: It was only the second or third or so time that Anna was witnessing Adam’s emotions. He was never one to put them out there, but this was the second time that the IVF process didn’t work and he didn’t know if he even wanted to consider trying a third time. As he watches her put her clothes back on, Adam shook his head at her repeated and attempted apologies. “Don’t. Let’s just go.”

Anna: “Adam.” Was all she could say with her voice all choked up, the brunette shook her head and tears fell down her face. “I don’t… I don’t know why it didn’t work. We didn’t drink and I took all the medicine and shots and I..” Stopping herself Anna from saying anything more, the women chewed her lips and finished getting dressed “Do you want to continue with IVF or no?”

Adam: He doesn’t say anything as she speaks and is becoming increasingly impatient as she continues and soon enough, finishes getting dressed. There was nothing for him to say and it felt like they had put a rush on this last process for them, for nothing. However, when she asks if he wants to continue with the IVF treatments anyway, he suddenly looks at her, frown settled on his face. “Why?” He asked, voice cracking. “Why? So it doesn’t fucking work?”

Anna: At his reaction to her question, now Anna didnt know if having Adam here with her was a goodnight idea or not. The last thing she wanted was to brake down in front of him and fight. She’s done that enough times. Taking a few breaths, Anna pulls her hair back into a low pony tail and grabs her bag from the chair. When he turns his head, Anna goes quiet “Why are you snapping at me?” She questioned,  Anna knew he wasn’t really snapping but she wasn’t in the mood to fight “I’m sorry that it didn’t fucking work. I told you that it wasn’t going to fucking work” She was upset and Anna didn’t know how to handle her emotions right now

Adam: Adam stares at Anna and doesn’t say anything out of anger. He knew that if he did say something, it would be words that he didn’t mean and they didn’t need to fight in the middle of a doctor’s office right now. Grabbing his phone, Adam opens the door to their room and heads outside and down the hall to where she’s supposed to check out, biting down hard on his lower lip to try and hide the fact that tears were starting to well up and fill up in his eyes.

Anna: Anna was getting frustrated, and she didn’t want to take that out on Adam. Trying not to get all emotional right now, the women let out a shaky breath and pushed the strains of hair out of her face. Anna had then bit down hard on her tongue and followed him. Checking out, she decided to make the appointment but looked at Adam “I’m making another appointment, okay?” She questioned, maybe they needed to just keep trying. “Right now it’s an appointment for a check up not for the IVF.” Was all she could say

Adam: “I’ll be at the car.” The words come out choked and he feels bad for not staying there until Anna is done checking out, but Adam severely needed air right now. He left the doctors office and made his way outside, down to his car before climbing in and starting it. Slamming the door, he clears his throat and finally lets the tears fall down his face.

Anna: When he left, Anna looked at the secretary as she noticed the older women had a worried a face on her look. Bitting down harder on her tongue, Anna continued making the follow up appointment and thanked the secretary. As she was walking outside, Anna got to the car and bit down hard on the inside of her cheeks this time. Opening the door, Anna gets in and realized that Adam was crying. She turned to face him, and the brunette pressed her forehead against his “Im sorry.” Anna whispered and repeated “I’m sorry.” This time all choked up, now with tears falling down from her own eyes.

Adam: Adam was lost in his thoughts when Anna had finally come back out to the car after finishing up inside the doctors office. Before she had come out, he didn’t even realize that a sob or two had left his throat and tears were still falling down his face, but he was pulled from his thoughts when Anna got into the car and looked at him. He stared back at her, then shook his head. “Stop,” He says, his voice cracking.

Anna: With her lips quivering, Anna sat back in the seat and she starred out the window for a few moments. Tears were falling down her face silently, and Anna just didn’t know what do do or say right now. She wasn’t pregnant, and sure it wasn’t her fault but it felt like it and all Anna wanted to say was sorry, but he told her to stop and that bothered her. Taking a breath, Anna stayed silent for a few more moments “I just.., if everything went well during the procedure then why am I not pregnant?” She asked, more so to herself than to Adam.

Adam: “I’m not a doctor. Don’t ask me.” The words come out snappy, and he doesn’t realize it until a few moments later after having stayed silent. Clearing his throat, he forcefully and quickly runs his hand underneath his eyes to get rid of the residual tears that he had there and began to pull out of the doctors office parking lot.

Anna: When he snaps at her, Anna just looked at him and then swallowed hard. Tears continued to fall down her face when he began to drive home, Anna stayed silent for the rest of the car ride but continued to look out the window. This wasn’t working, the whole making a baby thing wasn’t working and Anna didn’t know how to deal with it not working anymore. Once arriving home, the brunette let out a sigh as they parked in the garage. Walking into the home, the women turned around and looked at him “I’m kind of tired, so I think I’m gonna go back to bed.” It was still morning time, more like the afternoon but Anna just didn’t want to deal with this anymore.

Adam: Adam didn’t know what else to do and he had promised Anna that they could look into adoption if this second round of IVF hadn’t worked for them. Well. Here they were, the second round hadn’t worked and he had to wonder if it was best to even try again or if they should consider really looking into adoption. As they returned home, Adam was exhausted and was still trying to pull himself out of his own mood. Putting his things down on the table in the living room, he doesn’t say anything to Anna and then plops down on the couch.

Anna: Anna was mentally, and physically exhausted from trying to get pregnant. She didn’t know if she wanted to continue with IVF, maybe she should look into a surrogate or really, really consider adoption. As Anna walked up the stairs, she walked into their bedroom and into the bathroom. Taking a breath, Anna looked into the mirror for a moment. She placed her hand on her stomach, and didn’t realize a few loud sobs had fell from her mouth until her hands were covering her face. Anna couldn’t stop crying, and as a few more sobs escaped Anna took a few breaths to try to calm herself down.

Adam: Fuck. Adam could hear the sobbing coming from upstairs and part of him had just wanted to get up and go and comfort Anna. However, the other part of him had wanted to just stay right there where he was but he knew that he couldn’t. Getting up from the couch, Adam made his way up the stairs and down the hall to his and Anna’s room. Walking into the bathroom, he looked at her for a few moments even though her hands were covering her face, and that’s when he began to frown. “…Babe…” He says with a sigh.

Anna: Putting her hand on her hips, Anna continued to cry and she just couldn’t stop. The women was getting frustrated now, becuase she couldn’t tell if she was angry or upset or both. Placing her hands on the counter, Anna rested her head there for a few moments and just let out a few more sobs. She jumped a little when she heard Adam’s voice. Staying in that position for the time being, Anna swallowed hard and then stood up. Turning to face him, Anna didn’t know what to say. She walked past him, and into their closet so she could change. Standing in there, Anna starred at her clothes for a few moments and then turned to face Adam once more.

Adam: Letting out a heavy breath, Adam supposed that he deserved that. He spent a huge majority of their ride home from the doctors ignoring her, as well as doing the same thing when they had gotten home. Walking back into their room from the bathroom, Adam pulled his shoes off, put his phone and wallet down on his bedside table and then sat down on the edge of the bed. Staring at Anna, he watches as she looks at him. “…Wanna talk about it?”

Anna: “There’s nothing to talk about Adam, I’m not pregnant.” Anna said quickly, and watched as he put his phone and wallet on the bedside table. Chewing her lips, Anna folded her arms across her chest and the actress stood there for a few moments. Her eyes were heavy but dry from crying, and now her throat and head was hurting her again.

Adam: The words cut him like a knife, his eyes squeezed closed and he looked away from her. He was hoping to talk more about the appointment and the doctors in general rather than just her not being pregnant, but he didn’t want to push the issue. Clearing his throat, Adam coughs and covers his mouth before getting comfortable on the bed.

Anna: Anna didn’t want to talk, at least not now. All the women wanted to do was go back to sleep, and as Anna walked into the closet again she grabbed a pair of pajamas and started to change with him sitting there. Once getting into her pjs, she found socks and one of his hoodies and put it on. Rubbing her face, Anna took a breath and walked over towards their bed.

Adam: Adam sat where he was for a few moments, but eventually got up to change himself. Running his hand through his hair, he maneuvered his way around their closet too and changed into a pair of black shorts and a white tank top, taking his socks off so that he was barefoot. It was obvious where he was going, but Anna didn’t say anything to him as she changed so he did the same thing. He cleared his throat one more time, rubbed his eyes of the remaining tears and then left the room to head downstairs to the basement where their new home gym was.

Anna: Anna knew exactly where he was going, watching him change Anna laid down on the bed and watched him walk out. Taking a few breaths, a few more tears fell down her face and Anna swallowed hard. Sitting up, the women didn’t want to sleep anymore. Walking out of her bedroom, and down the stairs Anna grabbed herself a water bottle and headed for the basement.

Adam: As he made his way into the basement, Adam grabbed his boxing gloves and pulled them into his hands. Staring at the bag in front of him a few moments later, he lets out a small breath, closes his eyes for a few moments, and starts hitting the bag. It only takes him a few seconds before his hits become harder and harder, and the bag is flying back and forth because of the blows from him.

Anna: While walking through the basement to his spot, Anna stubs her toe on one of Dusty’s toys and she shakes her head in frustration. Taking a breath, Anna walked over to where Adam was and stood next to him “There’s nothing to talk about Adam, I’m not pregnant and you don’t want to try with the IVF again.” She said, and watched as he hit the punching bag harder and harder.

Adam: “Right—sorry. Forget I tried to be a supportive…fiancé.” His breath was heavy because of the force of the blows, and they aren’t stopping anytime soon. His thoughts are flashing to the last time Anna had done this back at his old place in L.A, but his eyes don’t move from the punching bag this time like they had done the previous time. “Move,” He breaths again, heavily. “Get out of the way.”

Anna: Folding her arms across her chest, Anna glared at him “What are you talking about?” She questioned, and took a breath “Adam, I asked if you wanted me to make another appointment and you fucking snapped at me.” She said, and then watched as his breathing became heavier and heavier. When he told her to move, and get out of the way Anna glared at him again “No.”

Adam: “I asked if you wanted to talk about it, you ignored me. I forgot we’re twelve.” Adam snaps back. Not listening to her any further, the blows to the punching bag become so hard that Adam is now irritated that Anna isn’t moving out of the way. One of them even comes to close to hitting her from its drawback, and he lets out a heavy groan, irritated as he pulls the gloves off of his hands. “Fuck!” He shouted. “I told you not to fucking do that!”

Anna: “Talk about what? How I’m the fucking reason the stupid IVF isn’t fucking working?” She questioned, and then shook her head then realized that he almost hit her. “Stop fucking yelling at me. I’m not in the fucking mood for this.”

Adam: “I just almost /fucking/ hit you.” Adam says back, tone in his voice angry as he stares at her. “I keep telling you not to stand in the way of the bag, and you keep doing it. Can you just fucking listen to me for once so it doesn’t fucking hit you? Shit.” He shakes his head, breathing heavily now as he throws the gloves off to the side and leans down, letting out a heavy breath.

Anna: With his change of tone, Anna took a breath and didn’t understand what he was angry about. It wasn’t his fault that she wasn’t pregnant. Taking a breath, Anna just listens to him and shakes her head “What are you so annoyed about? You’re not the reason the fucking ivf didn’t work Adam.” She said, and watched as he was starting to breath heavily now.

Adam: “Am I not allowed to be annoyed about it now?” He asks back, tilting his eyebrow in her direction. He shakes his head and runs his hand through his hair, then grabs the gloves again and gets back up. “Stay out of the way.”

Anna: Holding onto the punching bag now so he wouldn’t box, Anna looked at him for a few moments. “I’m not going to get pregnant by sex clearly, so we need to seriously think about adoption. I’ll talk to my doctor about it when the follow up happens, okay?” Anna questioned, and continued to hold onto the punching bag.

Adam: Just as Adam is about to start hitting the punching bag again, Anna is suddenly holding onto it. He glares at her, no expression on his face and her words seemingly go in one ear and out the other. “Move,” He says.

Anna: With the punching bag being bigger than her, Anna looked at Adam as he glared at her “Stop being a fucking asshole for one minute. It’s not your fault on why I’m not pregnant, it’s mine and if you don’t want to look into adoption then I don’t know what else to do since IVF clearly isn’t working either. If you still want this with me, then please just come with me so we can talk to her about the whole adoption process.” Anna said, being serious now.

Adam: “I’m not being an asshole!” He snaps back. Pulling the boxing gloves off of his hands and pushes them aside again, he stares at her. “You know, you can go off and give me the silent treatment and do what you need to do to get through a situation like this, but because my only fucking way to deal with it is boxing—you won’t let me?” He’s taken back at the fact, then grabs the pair of socks and shoes that he had left down there from before their appointment to put them on.

Anna: Finally letting go of the punching bag, Anna takes a breath. When he snaps, and stares at her Anna couldn’t help but let the tears form in her eyes again “I’m not letting you, becuase you’re not fucking listening to me about the whole adoption thing. I’m being serious Adam, I’m not going to get pregnant anytime soon it looks like, so this is my second option.” Anna said, taking a breath and then watched as he grabbed a par of socks and shoes.

Adam: “I don’t need to fucking listen!” He’s attempting to drown out the rest of the words, and his anger is causing him to continue to breathe heavily even if he wasn’t hitting the punching bag. He could feel himself breaking down, but this had been another instance where he felt he couldn’t do it in front of Anna. Lacing his shoes to tie them and finally standing up, he heads for the backdoor of their basement. “Don’t come after me, Anna. I mean it.”

Anna: This isn’t what she wanted, Anna didn’t want them to be constantly fighting about this. She told Patsy, she told Patsy that she was afraid this is what would eventually brake them up and that it would all be her fault, and right now Anna was scared. Taking a breath, Anna watched as he walked out the backdoor and the brunette just stood there. Tears were filling up in her eyes again, and Anna walked upstairs. It was a good thing that Dusty wasn’t here right now. Heading back into their bedroom, Anna laid down in bed and just cried until she felt her eyes getting tired.

Adam: After walking out the back door, Adam grabbed one of his motorcycle helmets and strapped it onto his head, but he just stood there for a moment. Letting out a heavy breath, he could feel tears welling in his eyes as he pulled the keys out of his shorts pocket and pulled one of his bikes forward out of the back garage and onto the pavement. Climbing onto it, he started the bike and placed his hands on the handles, revving the engine heavily.

Anna: As she laid there, with her eyes almost closed she felt tears falling from then now as Anna heard the sound of his motorcycle. After the brunette asked him not to ride it, there he was riding it. The women couldn’t stop him, he was a grown man and could do whatever he wanted but now Anna was just even more upset and mad.

Adam: He had truthfully lost track of how long that he had been gone once he pulled the bike out of their yard. Between simply just riding around, getting food by himself, stopping at his mom’s place and simply just riding around again a second time, it had to have been a couple of hours at least. When he finally pulls back into the yard, he pulls the bike into the garage and turns it off. Taking his helmet off as he puts it away in the garage, Adam is back down in the basement, his shoes are off and moved to the side like he had just previously done so with his motorcycle helmet, and he finally headed back upstairs to find Anna. “I’m home,” Is all that he calls out, turning the corner to walk into the living room.

Anna: Anna finally passed out from crying, and she didn’t realize what time it was until the women heard the motorcycle in their driveway again. Waking up, she looked over towards their clock and realized it as 3:00pm. Anna was mentally, and physicall exhuasted from this morning. She wanted to take a shower, but hearing the movement from downstairs, and hearing the sound of Adam ’s voice, the brunette sighed and didn’t say anything. She laid in bed not wanting to move, Anna just didn’t even want to do anything for the rest of the day and she really didn’t even want to talk about this anymore. Closing her eyes again, Anna wasn’t going back to sleep but she was resting them.

Adam: Anna wasn’t in the living room, and Adam had only assumed that she was upstairs. He didn’t know if he was ready to face her over this yet, considering he spent most of his time just now at his mother’s place, breaking down over the fact that once again, the IVF didn’t work and Anna wasn’t pregnant. Heading up the stairs, Adam walked into their bedroom, pulling his shirt off to gather things to take a shower himself.

Anna: Hearing the bedroom door open, Anna woke up again but still laid there. Taking a breath, she watched as he took of his shirt “Hi.” Was all she could say, and then cleared her throat “How was, how was your ride?” Anna asked quietly, and chewed her lips “Where’d you go?”

Adam: “Fine.” He says, shaking his head. Grabbing a pair of sweatpants and a new black tank top, he didn’t say anything else and walked into the bathroom instead. Putting his things down, he reached into the shower to turn the water on.

Anna: Anna couldn’t tell if he was upset with her, or the situation. Taking a breath, the brunette sat up in bed and checked her phone for a few moments. The women heard the shower turn on, and Anna walked toward the bathroom. Standing in the door frame, she folded her arms across her chest and sighed “Adam.., please talk to me. Please don’t.., please don’t push me away okay..”

Adam: “Why should I talk to you? You know, maybe Aubrey is right after all.” He snaps, but it’s not intentionally. However, she /was/ right. They couldn’t talk to each other about this without making one another upset, and the whole thing had bothered Adam more than he could even explain. Clearing his throat, Adam grabbed a towel and put it on the counter with his things before taking his shorts and boxers off to step into the shower.

Anna: Getting all choked up now, Anna closed her eyes when he snapped again. Maybe she should just leave him be for the rest of the day. Taking a breath, Anna watched him move around in the bathroom without saying anything. Opening her mouth to speak now, Anna got all choked up “Talk to me…,please” Anna begged, she knew that before she didn’t want to talk but figured now was the time.

Adam: “No. I’m not in the mood.” Adam says. He shakes his head and finally opens the shower door to step in, closing it behind him. As the stream of water starts to fall over him, Adam is silent for a few moments, letting out a heavy breath as he runs his hands through his hair.

Anna: Shaking her head to herself as he stepped into the shower, Anna walked downstairs and into the kitchen. Getting a thing of wine, and a wine glass, Anna poured herself one which probably wasn’t a good idea but at this point Anna didn’t care. He wasn’t going to talk to her, and she wasn’t going to force him. Anna sat on the couch, her keens pulled up to her chest and she downed that glass of wine.

Adam: It had been about fifteen minutes, but after finally calming down in the shower, Adam finished up in the bathroom. He got cleaned up and changed into the new pair of boxers and sweatpants that he had, as well as the new black tank top he grabbed from his dresser. After he cleaned up the dirty clothes and took a breath of his own, he went downstairs. While making his way to the kitchen, he spotted the wine glass on the living room table out of the corner of his eye. Staring at it, he stopped and then his eyes moved up to stare at Anna. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

Anna: Hearing him come down the stairs, Anna sat on the couch holding her knees up to her chest. Hearing him talk, Anna looked a him and shook her head “I’m allowed to have one glass of wine Adam.” She said, trying not to get upset anymore. Taking a breath, a million thoughts went into her head again and Anna was staring into space. “Are you going to talk to me, or are you going to ignore me for the rest of the day?” Anna questioned

Adam: “We just fucking got home from the appointment a few hours ago!” He snapped once more. He knew that potentially it wasn’t a bad thing, but the fact that she had done it after finally getting used to the effects of all the medicines that she had to take for the procedure bothered him. Staring at her again, he shook his head. “I don’t wanna talk to you. Talk to your wine.” He mumbles.

Anna: As he snaps at her again, Anna sat up straighter and looked at him. She was tired of him snapping at her, and not talking to her instead. Maybe Aubrey was right, maybe they did need to go see a therapist. Taking a breath, Anna got choked up and shook her head “You’re pissed of I get it, you’re angry and so am I. It’s my fault though okay? I’m sorry. I’m fucking sorry that I can’t give us what we want, and if, if you still want this with me then please …. , please think about looking into adoption with me because I don’t know if I can do another round of IVF if it isn’t going to work.”

Adam: “Stop!” Adam says. “What don’t you get about me saying I don’t wanna talk to you? I don’t wanna talk to you, I don’t wanna talk about this. Just leave it the fuck alone. You’re not pregnant, you said it yourself. Just fucking stop.” He turns his back to continue to make his way into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water from the fridge.

Anna: Anna sits there, and she feels the tears filling up in her eyes again. When he walks into the kitchen, Anna walks back upstairs and changes into jeans and a t-shirt. Grabbing her sweatshirt, Anna comes down stairs and walks into the kitchen. “I’m gonna see if I can stay at Rebels tonight, I can’t.. if you won’t talk to me then I can’t..” Stopping herself, Anna bit down hard on her tongue and she felt the tears fall down her face. Shaking her head, Anna swallowed hard and looked at him “I just.., maybe you need a night to yourself.”

Adam: “Great. Run away.” Adam says, shaking his head once more. His tone of voice is hoarse, because he doesn’t want her to leave but he’s finding it hard to figure out the words to say to her about this. He opens the fridge and stands in front of it, hiding the fact that tears were filling up in his eyes. “Do whatever you want…”

Anna: She’s standing there hoping he’d turn around, and say something else. Hoping he’d tell her not to go, to stay home. When he tells her to run away, Anna’s lips were quivering and she pushed her hair back behind her ears “I don’t know what else to do. You won’t talk to me. You don’t want to talk to me.”

Adam: With the intention of only coming into the kitchen for a water, the tears in Adam’s eyes are steadily falling down his face now as he closes the fridge and has a bottle of beer in his hand instead. Using the bottle opener to open it, he shakes his head and walks past her. “There’s nothing to talk about.”

Anna: “So then maybe we should just.., ” Stopping herself, she noticed the beer in his hand and Anna shook her head. “Maybe we should just be apart tonight, because if you can’t talk to me about this, tell me how you’re feeling about this, about me then we should just be alone tonight.” Anna said, not really wanting that. The brunette just wanted him to hold her, and tell her that everything will be okay and that it wasn’t her fault. Chewing her lips, she stood there and now held her arms

Adam: Swinging down a majority of the beer already as he sits down on the couch, the tears are still falling down his face. Placing the bottle on the table, his emotions are finally catching up with him and Anna’s words are just now slicing through him the way that he didn’t want them to. “Everyone leaves me—so I don’t see why this is any different.” He mutters.

Anna: Following him into the living room, she sits down on the couch next to him and watches him take a swing at the beer. Shaking her head at his words, she sees the tears falling down her face and Anna scoots in closer to him. “Adam I love you, more than anything. I’m not going to leave you.., you just won’t talk to me and I don’t know what to do.” Anna whispers, all choked up and then looked at him with tears in her eyes still “If you hate me I get it, if you hate me because of this I get it. I…, I’m having trouble giving us what we want and I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Anna said, now holding his face, she kissed him softly and pressed her forehead against his “I’m sorry. ” She whispered, it wasn’t her fault but back in her mind Anna still thinks that it is.

Adam: “I don’t wanna talk about it…” Finally, for the second time that day but for the first time in front of Anna, sob after sob falls from Adam’s mouth as he looks away from her and down at his lap, shaking his head. “I don’t hate you. I just…I just don’t understand why nothing is working…”

Anna: As Anna held his face in her hands, she heard him sobbing and Anna kissed his cheek and cried with him “I know I’m sorry. I don’t know either. I know it’s because of me, and because of my hostile vagina.” Anna said, trying not to joke but continued to kiss his cheek. “I’m sorry.” She whispered once more, and then continued to cry with him.

Adam: “I don’t hate you. Don’t ever say that again…” Adam says, shaking his head as tears continue to fall down his face. “I’m in love with you. If you think this is gonna make me hate you, then you’re…you’re wrong.” He shakes his head, frowning as she kisses his cheek and he continues to cry. “We…we’ve tried everything…”

Anna: Anna’s eyes were just filled with water, she held onto him and let him talk. Kissing him softly now, Anna buries her face into his neck and cries softly ‘I’m in love with you too, and I’m sorry.“ Anna whispered again, and took a breath "I know” She said, all choked up “I wanna have babies with you, I want a family but if we can’t do that through sex and IVF then maybe.., maybe adoption or through a surrogate Adam.” She said one more time, and then looked at him “Unless, unless you want to give IVF one last try…”

Adam: As she keeps apologizing to him, Adam can’t help but to continue letting sobs fall from his throat. He didn’t want to hear her keep apologizing, because even though she had continued to say that it was her fault, it wasn’t. He looks away from her and down at his lap, sniffling after he kisses her back. He brings his hand up to rub at his eyes, then shrugs his shoulders. “I don’t know,” He whispers.

Anna: Anna looked at him, she looked at him because she knew he wasn’t 100% on the whole adoption thing. Taking a breath, Anna wiped her eyes and swallowed hard. She was mentally exhausted today, sleeping didn’t help. Chewing her lips, Anna held his face and kissed him deeply “I love you” She whispered, and kissed him once more. Cuddling with him now, Anna rested her head on his shoulder and played with his hands.

Adam: Adam had never had to think about adoption. While he understood the prospect of it and completely adored what it did for kids who didn’t have families, he just didn’t know why he wasn’t completely on board to try looking into it with Anna. As he sat there on the couch and kissed her back both times, he sighs. “I love you too.” For a moment he looks between her and the bottle of beer on the table, and then reaches for it. “I think you had the right idea.”