#in the moment it was terrifying but in retrospect it's hilarious for her to have told me ''King Bobomb will come out of the woods and getyo

[nostalgicfun]

POV: It's 1999 and I am so, so scared of you

What characters scared YOU as a kid?

[glorious-sunset]

Reflections on Ep. 3 of LBFAD on rewatch

Liufang Pavillion: It’s hilarious that Dieyi has been searching for the Xilan Goddess for 10,000 years, abducting countless plant spirits over that time, and the moment the Goddess actually appears right under her nose, she is about to toss her life away without a second thought! :D Luckily, a miniature sun made of DongFang QingCang’s (DFQC) powers uneclipses through a portal in the sky and he saves her (and himself!) just as she is about to be thrown into a cauldron full of evil qi, only in the nick of time. Phew, that was close!

DFQC’s bored look that he assumes every time he deals with enemies is delicious. DFQC sees Xiao Lanhua (XLH) as an object to be protected and hides her in his fist (what a contrast to the ep. 9 rescue where DFQC sees her as a person, as one of his people who is loyal to him and he is reciprocally loyal to her). XLH is therefore aware that he saved her, but does not see the devastation at his hand as his sun shoots killer rays at the Pavillion soldiers and sends shockwaves that shake the distant mountains around them. Dieyi is (rightfully) terrified. DFQC, sensing the evil qi from the cauldron and the fact that it and these people are a threat to XLH and therefore to himself, splits the cauldron in half (ha! He should have pulverised it, as he has to return in ep. 15 to do this and finish the job after Ronghao repairs it :D )

When everyone has either fled in terror or been disintegrated, DFQC examines XLH angrily. How could such a weak and pathetic creature, who can’t even protect herself, have cursed him, the most powerful being in the three realms?! No wonder he would “very very very very much like to kill” her. The fact that he can’t is tremendously frustrating and he is boiling inside. His menacing possessiveness being completely misinterpreted by XLH as affection is not only a hilarious ongoing gag, it is the only way these two could have managed to get emotionally close! :D

XLH still thinks that DFQC is an ordinary celestial criminal, because who else could he be? She heard from the other fairies in ep. 2 that celestial criminals had escaped but been captured by Changheng (CH). She’s not yet aware that members of the Moon Tribe were also incarcerated in Haotian Tower. The High Council told all the celestials that DFQC is deceased, so his real identity is the last person she would suspect him of being.

When DFQC asks her to break the curse, XLH recognises the Xilan seal due to her love of reading (an interest they share), especially of history books. She claims she couldn’t have cast this kind of spell on him as she is just a weak little orchid, so he investigates her story by examining her original form. He sees her orchid form with corroded roots, the disguise her parents bestowed upon her. Note however, that after visiting the Great Turtle in ep. 9, her form looks much more ambiguous when Sansheng examines it. DFQC lets her go, believing he doesn’t need her help. In her haste to leave, she drops the Universe Pill, which he picks up. He tries to remove the Xilan curse himself but finds, almost unprecedentedly, that this is a magic too powerful for him to neutralise.

Oblivion River: DFQC and Shangque (SQ) now know that XLH is a surviving member of the Xilan tribe but not that she is the Goddess. In fact, SQ tells DFQC in this scene that the whole tribe including the Shennu (Goddess) were wiped out 30,000 years ago. DFQC doesn’t realise she is the Goddess until ep. 26.

The implications of the curse get worse! Not only does DFQC share XLH’s physical vulnerability, he has to share her emotions as well! (oh boy, wait until he finds out about having to obey her every command! :D )

Arbiter Hall, Day 1: This is the start of the ten-or-more day period at Arbiter Hall which for DFQC, although he complains bitterly most of the time, are in retrospect the happiest and most precious days of his life. Having passed through Shuiyuntian’s Spirit Lock gate concealed by his powerful invisibility cloak, he appears at Arbiter Hall, much to XLH’s exasperation. Doesn’t she wonder where he gets these fabulous outfits from, or why an escaped criminal is so well-dressed and wears a crown? :D

XLH puts her hands on his waist and tries to stop him from entering Arbiter Hall. He pauses. Nobody else would even dare enter his close proximity, let alone touch him! Now this weak and cute little fairy keeps touching him rather intimately with her soft, warm hands and he’s not sure what to do about it. Why isn’t she afraid of him like everyone else is? Even his dominating moves, pulling her body against his and her face within an inch of his own only work momentarily. She briefly glances at his lips then decides she is not interested. “Let go of me” she says calmly. As she pushes him away, she drops the destiny leaf and DFQC summons it into his hand.

Since her efforts to snatch it back are annoying, he teleports her away with a snap of his fingers. We’ve now seen him easily teleport both himself and her, and his ability to create impenetrable invisibility cloaks around himself (and her in ep. 5). This brings me to a side note. How interesting it is that he chose not to use these abilities during a certain underwater scene in ep. 8 to teleport themselves out of the water and conceal themselves, nor to recreate a large air bubble around themselves similar to what XLH conjured when they first hit the water. Very tellingly, he instead chose to provide her with air through much more intimate means, which she was then forced to go along with for many minutes as CH and his troops searched Arbiter Hall! (fortunately for him, she also enjoyed it and is seen skipping happily through the forest afterwards) ;D

Back to the destiny leaf. What a turn of good luck! Lady Chidi’s spirit is not burned and dispersed as he thought. He recognises the destiny leaf as belonging to a mortal reincarnation of Lady Chidi through her Hellfire mark. The leaf is the key to obtaining her spirit, freeing his 100,000 loyal soldiers and reviving Cangyan Sea! Unfortunately, XLH returns and uses her powers to grapple with him over the destiny leaf. He tries to be gentle to avoid damaging the leaf but is unsuccessful. The destiny leaf was fine until they damaged it with their bickering!

Fountain Palace: CH ordered his subordinates to search the whole realm for escaped criminals – ah! But they overlooked the most important place, the home of his love! What a great excuse to see her – he decides to go there personally.

Arbiter Hall: DFQC is careful to avoid physically harming XLH while still trying to threaten her enough to get information about Lady Chidi’s destiny leaf. This is new territory for DFQC. He threatens to burn her greenhouse (and her plant spirit friends) to motivate her to obey him, but will soon discover why this is a bad idea since he shares her emotions.

While he holds her hostage, CH arrives and does not pick up on any of Creeper’s hints! Poor Creeper! She is terrified of DFQC and that he will kill XLH if she slips up (not knowing that he can’t), but still wants CH to protect XLH and the plant spirits. “The Arbiter Hall is very safe. Nobody came to steal a destiny book nor burn the greenhouse. My lord, please look for XLH” :D Why is CH so dense? Having learned that XLH is preparing for the fairies’ examination, he still keeps his distance, not taking up Creeper’s suggestion to give her guidance in person, and instead runs off to make an Immortal Pill to help her with the exam!

XLH cries. DFQC is overwhelmed by her feelings of sadness projected onto him! He realises that if he continues to upset her he will also suffer, so changes tactics to offer her the Universe Pill that she lost if she repairs the destiny leaf. XLH tries to fix the destiny leaf but is too exhausted. This leads to discussions about sleeping arrangements. “Where do you want to spend the night with benzuo?” She is still in danger from the people of Liufang Pavilion and he needs to protect her. XLH is understandably concerned at the thought of sharing a bed with a handsome stranger. DFQC's blank expression when he asks what would happen if they share a bed is priceless! This is the first of many times he looks adorably confused as he considers her words – he is very attentive (and soon, also respectful) of everything she says!

However, he still views her as an object (his one vulnerability) to be protected, so she finds he has teleported himself onto her bed (with his shoes on! The indignity!) He left a liiiittle bit of space on his left side for her and fully expects her to lie there beside him :D He is so clueless! If those two actually shared a bed at this stage in the name of protecting XLH, I’m certain she would be the only one tempted to cross a line (though he might respond). But our heroine insists on being treated as a person with her own thoughts and values, and generally wins every argument that they have. Her charming smile softens his resolve and he respectfully goes back to his own room.

Despite him being so annoying, XLH has already started to care for him, and in her dream, is terrified that he will be captured and killed!

Bonus artwork from the supremely talented clj-art-blog (use tag #clj-art-blog to view all of her fabulous artwork!). If DFQC had been a little more persistent and XLH a little less stubborn. Sharing a bed with her dark protector in Episode 3, posted with permission.

Here is a link to my episode 4 review (contains spoilers). All of my LBFAD articles and episode reviews can be viewed with the tag #lbfad reflections (hyperlinked) and the table of contents to these is here.

[waterlilyrose]

Kanthony + 34

34: “If you keep looking at me like that we won’t make it to a bed.”

(Kanthony Modern AU)

It had really taken Anthony far too long to ask Kate out. In truth, Anthony understood now that the moment he had seen Kate riding a horse at the local stables that he sometimes frequented to exercise his own horse, he should have begged for her number then and there. Unfortunately she got away before he could even ask the beautiful woman her name.

Then they had met again at Lady Danbury's garden party but not before Kate had overheard him talking rather dismissively about his feelings on romance. So when he had come face-to-face with her again, his flirting was met with a cold, stern demeanour.

The next few months had been a series of one-upmanship and squabbles. And dreams at night of the most scandalous variety when Anthony would wake up hard and gasping. The only concelation was that sometimes he caught Kate looking at him who would look away quickly when caught.

Benedict found this absolutely hilarious and took delight in his big brother's turmoil.

"Are you ever going to ask her out?" Benedict asked after Kate had bested Anthony in an argument once again and walked off before Anthony could do much more than gape.

"What do you mean?" Anthony snapped, feeling furious and slightly light-headed as her perfume lingered in the air for him to feast on.

"Ms. Sharma. It's getting obvious Brother. Except to you two unbelievably."

"I hope you're not implying-"

"I'm implying nothing - I'm saying it outright. You want her bad."

Anthony spluttered and snapped back but none of his reasons as to why Ben was being absurd sounded convincing - even to Anthony.

Then Anthony was present at a party at Lady Danbury's when the Sheffields were invited - and his barely restrained urge to protect Kate came into play. It was well-established that he could vex Kate... but for anyone else to do it? And not just that but to actively cause pain to be present in her beautiful eyes?

No. Hell no.

After snarling at them for insulting Kate's birth mother to her face, Kate had pulled him into an empty room to demand what the hell he thought he was doing.

"I don't need your protection, Anthony!" She'd hissed.

"Just because you can survive without it doesn't mean you don't deserve it anyway." Anthony retorted.

"That was not your fight!" Kate said hotly. "You've now put Edwina and Mary in a very difficult situation-"

"So what should I have done?" Anthony demanded. "Quietly sipped my wine and make polite conversation about the weather? No way."

"Why do you even care? You don't even like me."

Anthony blinked at her as though slapped. "Don't like you? Kate, I adore you. I dream about you. I'm pretty sure I..." Anthony swallowed the fatal word before he could say it. "If you feel embarrassed, I'm sorry and I will go home but don't assume that-"

His last words were cut off by her lips on his. In retrospect, it was quite a tame first kiss. Just their lips pressed together. Yet they still stared at each like they had been struck over the head. Kate looked terrified like she couldn't believe she'd done it.

Slowly, almost hesitantly, Anthony leant forward and pressed his lips against hers again. The kiss was to test the waters. To reassure her that this was okay. More than okay in fact. To prove to him that this was happening. The kiss lingered longer before they pulled away.

Kate's eyes were now dark with want and she'd never looked so much like a goddess. A goddess that seemed to know what she wanted.

“If you keep looking at me like that we won’t make it to a bed.” Anthony warned lowly. Maybe it would point Kate in the direction they were heading and give her a chance to decline if she didn't want to.

"There's a desk in the corner." She instead said lowly. "I'm sure we can make do."

Anthony stared at Kate for a second longer before they crashed into each other. There was nothing tame or testing about this kiss - four months of arguing (or foreplay as Anthony later called it) had led to them snogging in a frankly frantic manner.

Later, Anthony inquired to Lady Danbury how much that particular desk would cost to buy from his family friend. Anthony wanted a memento of the best night of his life and Kate had no objections either.

In fact, it was the first time in their lives they were in complete and harmonious agreement.

Send Me A Pairing And A Number And I'll Write You A Drabble

[crystalelemental]

Sync Pair Retrospective - Summer 2022

Summer alts in gacha terrify me.  Maybe it's because I'm from FEH, but it always signaled the coming of the most uncomfortable art for your favorite female character you could imagine.  Thankfully, Masters is still a Pokemon game, and my initial encounter with Summer alts was pretty mild.  The realization that the first ever summer alts, Lyra and Steven, were literally just normal clothes, was refreshing.  And 2022 followed suit, basically giving N and Hilda a focus on festival clothes.  I appreciate it...so much.  So glad they continued this with Tate and Liza.

N (SUMMER) N and Zoroark is absolutely hilarious to me.  Dark-type damage at this point felt...underwhelming.  At least to me.  You had Sygna Suit Cyrus, but very little else in the type's favor, what with most tools being really bad (Grimsley, Karen at the time) or good DPS in exchange for dying (H!Hilbert, BP Karen).  Sygna Suit Cyrus was the first significant encounter with a good Dark-type damage dealer, and he was mostly sync and sleep focus.  N was the first to feel like he was really taking advantage of Dark as a limited damage type.  What he offered was big damage in Night Daze, and utility in the form of Snarl.  His sync wasn't the best, but as a DPS unit, he's pretty nice!

Unfortunately time took a bat to the back of his skull.

Night Daze can miss.  Yeah, somehow N's kit doesn't solve for the accuracy issue.  Moreover, while his DPS is good, it's not exactly life-changing.  The accuracy debuffing was nice, but didn't lead into much of note for him, being too inconsistent without On a Roll to matter much.  And to top it off, a four-bar move means you need gauge control, which he doesn't really have.  N wasn't quite bad, but he's one of those pairs I've never had a good time using.

Which makes the following events worse.  Karen got a grid expansion and it was unreal, offering a fantastic 60% flinch rate on her Dark Pulse, better self-setup with double debuff Snarl (N himself only had a 50/50 shot, Karen was guaranteed), and much improved sync damage.  Nanu got his grid, and went from mostly a utility bot, to a legitimately astonishing sync nuker of his own. Champion Serena showed up and covered Dark in addition to her natural Water, and while not carrying the same DPS, her sync was unrivaled.  And of course, we then got Champion Marnie, who just obliterated anyone's attempt to keep up on Dark-type DPS, and the illustrious SC Zinnia with an absurd Buddy move and some really nice utility for a team.

N was top dog for a very brief moment in the type, and hasn't really kept up with the shifting of the tides.  I'd argue Karen is legitimately just better than him at everything he wants to do.  Better gauge control, better debuffing, better secondary effect on solid damage and much better sync.  And considering Karen is like fourth best in the type now?  Yeah, N stands very little chance.  I'd say he got the benefit of Lodge Dawn, whose Team Sharp Entry and speed buffs salvage a lot, but she's not exactly a reliable answer to CS, you know?  And so, N just kinda...exists.  Sadly.

But again, it makes this next part hilarious.

HILDA I love being right.  I love it more than anything.  And once again, my love of supports does not steer me wrong.

Hilda, by contrast, has done pretty alright for herself.  Despite being reviled as one of the worst sync pairs of the last year, Hilda was always pretty good at her job.  She's a tank, taking hits wonderfully, and at full investment offering some clutch debuffing of the foe's defensive stats.  Among other useful options.  The main reason to dislike her is really just...no pop healing.  First Aid 4, that's it.   She doesn't recover well, and as a pure tank, that's a problem.

What she does have, however, is Topsy-Turvy, inverting a foe's buffs to debuffs. Which some may ask, is that really that good?  Yeah dude!  Have you never played Gauntlet before?  Sudden shits in stats occur on the regular, and do you know how valuable it is to invert the early Bar 1 +2 accuracy to a -2 accuracy? Do you know how sick it is to press a button once and have Latias go from a major problem to bleeding out?  This skill was great!   Sure, some people considered it niche, but I've always thought it held tremendous weight.

That said, this never caught on as a gimmick, despite being delightful, and Hilda does not offer nearly what SS Morty did as a support.  If anything, many would consider her primary competition to be BP units, which isn’t good as a seasonal.  BP Morty had the same buffing trainer move, but had Potion and Astonish.  BP Clemont would show up with the same trainer move, but also accuracy buffing and Screech for better defense debuffing potential.  She absolutely couldn’t keep up with powerhouses like Morty, so what possible chance did she have against a nightmare like Aura Cynthia?  There was just no reason to even look at Hilda.

Hilda was largely relegated to Gauntlet, being quite good there, but languished in CS.  A little unfairly, I might add.  I feel like there were enough stages that Topsy Turvy still had merit, it’s just that no one else agreed.

But as a wise man once said, true genius is never recognized until it’s needed, and I am vindicated once again.  The 12.5k Master Mode meta added a few new tools to select from, and one of them was the "All Stats +3" condition for foes. While generally not selected for anyone, Summer Hilda suddenly pops off, able to hit the foe for -3 in every.  Single.  Stat.  Suddenly, you're halfway to a full sync nuke multiplier.  Need Relentless support?   Great, just pack a Leer ally and this condition, and you're at max performance for sync 1.  Devastation?  Same deal.  Power Play is now 83% charged in one action.  Anything is on the table now.  To say nothing of fights like Glacia, where she comes in with +2 accuracy and the heavy-hitting Blizzard, and you can just...invert it and laugh.

Hilda and N are great examples of what makes a sync pair good long-term. Sure, N was temporarily a great DPS unit, but without some key elements, he's just waiting to get outdone.  Comparatively, Hilda's traits are fully unique. Someone may come along and do it better, like how Lucian now outclasses P!Dawn in every meaningful way, but P!Dawn isn't useless because of this, you know?  She's just not the top dog.  Hilda will always have this niche.  Despite being disparaged as a bad support like so many others, she's just another in an extensive list of sync pairs that showed up with something unique and valuable, and has stood the test of time.  Sure, neither of these two were like...meta defining options.  But man, you can't always be pushing boundaries, and we just got done with Jotho VA and Sinnoh E4, let people breathe a bit.

[stellahaze135]

Happy Pride y’all!

Have some more Resi poly goodness in honor of the occasion from your friendly neighborhood gender-fluid aromantic asexual (non sex repulsed) who’s few turn ons happen to be severely damaged superpowered badasses with voices silk n sin.

Before arriving in Raccoon, Shade had spent some time in Arkham Asylum for being mutant while mentally ill, being diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder while possessing the power of control over the darkness/shadows. So she was already unhinged a wee bit when she got the job in the tech dept. of RPD (in later years she would look back and think in retrospect that maybe getting a job in a police department when having just technically escaped from an a asylum after a massive earthquake may haven’t have been her smartest of moments ok?) and working directly with the STARS division. More specifically the Alpha team.

During her years (I’m thinking at least three maybe four years.) in Raccoon she’s always looking over her shoulder, fearing that Dr. Hugo Strange was still out there looking to bring her back, he was fascinated with the odd connection between her psychosis and her powers. However, Shade vowed when she broke free that she would never be anyone’s unwitting experiment ever again. That’s why even after learning of Wesker’s true motives and even after they started hooking up she never divulged that bit of herself to him.

Oh he knew she used to be in a psychiatric hospital, he noticed her meds on her bedside table one night laying in her bed post coital. That and after one night when a highly dangerous prisoner managed to slip loose in the police department and try to attack Shade. That was when Wesker became infatuated with her. Her pure unhinged rage as she defended off her attack awoke something in him. Oh he could work with that. He reckoned he could temper that rage to his advantage quite nicely. Because of this moment and after saving her from Strange’s clutches is when they move in together.

She had come busting through his office door late one night at RPD, she was frantic, and obviously terrified. Diving underneath his desk between his knees, silently screaming that to cover her, that she wasn’t there, and that he hadn’t seen her. That she WAS NOT going back to that hell hole.

Moments later two shadows are at the doorway to Wesker’s office. Dr Hugo Strange and Professor Jonathan Crane, sans the Scarecrow mask, but hiding that sick Freddy Krueger lookin fear toxin injecting glove behind his back, the one he had in the Arkham game series.

And honestly how much anyone wants to bet that if DC (specifically the Gotham Rogues) were connected to Capcom and Resi then Umbrella would’ve SO tried to outsource work from Gotham. Like there are too many psychos whose work lines up waaaay too well with Spencer’s agendas. Like that plant room in Resi 1? You cannot tell me that Ivy wouldn’t have worked on that shit, and if that’s the case I wanna see the working interactions between her n Weskie! Oh it’d be so bitchy and catty and hilarious! But like also Crane and Tetch’s work kinda goes along with Umbrellas MO too!

Anyways! Wesker and Strange never got along. Honestly they’re personalities are very similar, just Wesker doesn’t give off major creep vibes like Strange. Weskie gives off only daddy vibes, feel? So the heads are butting already, Hugo’s asking where Shade is, that she’s an escaped inmate *ahem* patient, and should be returned to treatment post haste lest she snap.

Albert ain’t havin absolutely none of that bullshit. He points out that A.) she was on HIS team therefore HIS keeping. If Strange was implying that Albert couldn’t handle the reigns on his people then Strange was more of a pompous fool than Albert previously gave him credit for.

And B.) even if he did know where she was he sure as fuck wasn’t about to tell hand her over to him out of pure spite. (I can see Wesker and Strange have kind of that same dynamic that Albert had with the rest of the older researchers when he first started at Arklay. They, including Strange, were old and out of touch stuck in their ways while he was the brilliant new visionary.)

Wesker makes Shade wait under the desk until he’s absolutely sure that the two are out of the building. Coincidentally, that was also the night they started to hook up. Wesker reasoned that it wasn’t a good idea for her to go back to her apartment, Strange and Crane were bound to go there next. So he offered to let her stay the night. He’d be lying to himself if he said he didn’t find her incredibly attractive in a manic pixie dream girl kinda way, and that he didn’t sometimes think of how she would look at his mercy.

Cut to the Mansion Incident, where everything’s gone to shit, and now the two lovers were forced to show the hands they were keeping so closely clutched to their chests. But ultimately they were separated. She made it out alive, and with nowhere left to go, she went back Gotham. He did as well, but after the chaos that became Raccoon City and the G-Virus retrieval, she slipped right through his fingers and into the darkness.

So for three years they were apart, and in that time Strange caught up to her and pulled her back into the madhouse. The second time was so so much worse than the first. She became a bit colder, her remaining moral compass being chip away at but by bit. The only people keeping her anchored were Ivy, Harley, and Killer Croc. (Her n Waylon are BFFs nay homies ok? He even gave her the nickname Spooks) What added insult to injury was after the fall of Umbrella that rumors started to go around about someone continuing with he work. Rumors of a ruthless Mastermind with unnerving superhuman strength, speed, and intelligence. She knew he had survived, and while he was out there working to conquer the world, she was stuck here waiting for her brain to rot. Plus side is in the time she’s been stuck her powers have matured and her control is impeccable. Ivy was a wonderful teacher. She even learned that she can use that darkness to almost ‘infect’ other people’s minds and consciousness. She go in and have a bit of a look see. Maybe shake things up a bit here and there.

(Cut to sometime before 5. Excella’s in the picture, but Jill isn’t under his control yet.) Another mass break out at Arkham occurs, and instead of staying in Gotham Shade was going on a bit of a trip. She was going to find a certain someone.

But the ironic bit? Albert was actively searching for her in the background. After witnessing her powers first hand he knew there was a reason they matched each other so well. How they complimented each other. Especially after learning her whole story after he hacked into the ‘Suicide Squad’ database and saw his kitten’s file. She was a busy little thing. (He would so have tabs on Waller and the Squad. Fuck Capcom shoulda teamed up with DC instead of Marvel.) She was still his little pet project, and he wasn’t done molding her to his whims yet.

But he definitely wasn’t anticipating, the fury that was headed his way! When Shade catches up to Wesker, she comes down on him HARD. Think that one scene in Mr and Mrs Smith ‘You still kickin baby?’ *chef’s kiss*! She’s beyond pissed, and he goes from wanting to play with her until she broke to straight up wanting to wife her, not really more like ‘Well looks like I found my Goddess.~’

He lets her rage, a.) he’s absolutely smitten and b.) after imagining being at the hands of Strange and the other assholes of Arkham, he figures she needs to unload and hell, he’s a God he can take it.

All of this to say the new unhinged and decidedly more ruthless Nightshade is a HUGE turn on for Wesker and eventually Karl. Albert adores her sadistic streaks when it comes to their enemies, and when she giggles her absolutely insane unhinged giggle she makes when she gets to wail into an enemy with her bare hands, makes this warm feeling in Albert’s chest just blossom. He’ll never ever call it love tho. He’s got a ‘certain fondness’ for Shade and Karl, but I don’t think he’d outright say love. Adoration maybe. But I think he’s been too emotionally stunted by Spencer’s machination bullshit to go there with his emotions anymore. That part of him died as a child in order to survive, and only then sorta clinging to Alex for support.

And then Karl! Karl matches her chaotic energy so fuckin well like they have so much FUN together! Before meeting Shade, Heisenberg never really knew what having fun and a genuine good time with someone looked like until he met her. She was genuinely, and ironically, the light that he needed in his dark n dreary life.

There’s this comic, I can’t off the top of my head remember the artist, but if you recognize this description lmk, that goes with Karl is standing next to Alcina, a decapitated head at Heis’s feet, and he’s lining up his hammer with the head like a golf club. He bets Alcina he can make the shot to the sword on the maiden statue in the village. He makes the shot obvi but I can so see that being the type of shit those two get into while Shade’s positioned in the village. They are chaos gremlins together. Chris thought Shade n Harley was a handful to watch is now nothing compared to the shit her in Heisenberg get into.

So when all three of them get together OH MY GODS!!! Watch out world! They all wake up choosing violence every single fucking day and they all antagonize each other. Karl n Shade are about to do a stupid thing and Albert’s just egging em on. While Albert n Karl are sciencing, Shade’s in the middle. Al enjoys nothing more than to unleash his lovers on his unsuspecting enemies!

And if they’re under the supervision of Chris and the others, they will almost never have a moments rest with those three.

[tomorrowedblog]

Friday Releases for November 3

Friday is the busiest day of the week for new releases, so we've decided to collect them all in one place. Friday Releases for November 3 include Divinity, Invincible S2, Blanket, and more.

Divinity

Divinity, the new movie from Eddie Alcazar, is out today.

DIVINITY centers on two mysterious brothers, who abduct a mogul during his quest for immortality. Meanwhile, a seductive woman helps them launch a journey of self-discovery.

Quiz Lady

Quiz Lady, the new movie from Jessica Yu, is out today.

“Quiz Lady” is a hilarious and heartfelt comedy starring Awkwafina, Sandra Oh, Jason Schwartzman, Holland Taylor, Tony Hale, and Will Ferrell, about a dysfunctional family and the game show which just might be the key to their salvation. In the original film, a brilliant but tightly wound, gameshow-obsessed young woman, Anne, and her estranged, train-wreck of a sister Jenny, must work together to help cover their mother’s gambling debts. When Anne’s beloved dog is kidnapped, they set out on a wild, cross-country trek to get the cash the only way they know how: by turning Anne into a bona-fide gameshow champion.

Showdown At The Grand

Showdown At The Grand, the new movie from Orson Oblowitz, is out today.

A proud movie theater honors action star turned recluse “Claude Luc Hallyday” with a retrospective of his illustrious career but when real estate developers show up to ruin the party, the two new friends must fight off corporate greed in the name of art.

Fingernails

Fingernails, the new movie from Christos Nikou, is out today.

Anna and Ryan have found true love. It’s been proven by a controversial new technology. There’s just one problem: Anna still isn’t sure. Then she takes a position at a love testing institute, and meets Amir.

Priscilla

Priscilla, the new movie from Sofia Coppola, is out today.

When teenage Priscilla Beaulieu meets Elvis Presley at a party, the man who is already a meteoric rock-and-roll superstar becomes someone entirely unexpected in private moments: a thrilling crush, an ally in loneliness, a gentle best friend.

Rumble Through The Dark

Rumble Through The Dark, the new movie from Graham Phillips and Parker Phillips, is out today.

Golden Globe nominee Aaron Eckhart stars as a desperate, bare-knuckle cage fighter battling for the only thing he has left in Rumble Through The Dark, a riveting action thriller based on Michael Farris Smith’s celebrated novel The Fighter. Bella Thorne shines alongside Eckhart in this gripping film about one man’s last-ditch effort to save his family home against the strongest of foes and the longest of odds.

Helen’s Dead

Helen’s Dead, the new movie from K. Asher Levin, is out today.

Upon discovering her boyfriend, Adam (EMILE HIRSCH), is sleeping with her cousin Helen (MATILDA LUTZ), the aimless Addie (DYLAN GELULA) goes to a dinner party to confront them, only to discover Helen is dead and everyone is a suspect. From “canceled” influencer Leila (ANNABELLE DEXTER-JONES) to her shady, older husband George (BRIAN HUSKEY), to wannabe actor Garrett (OLIVER COOPER), and even her own lover/ex-con Henry (TYRESE GIBSON), Addie must find Helen’s killer before it’s too late.

Squealer

Squealer, the new movie from Andy Armstrong, is out today.

Tyrese Gibson (Fast and the Furious) and Theo Rossi (Sons of Anarchy) star in a terrifying thriller inspired by real events. When young women begin to disappear across a small town, a police officer and a street-smart social worker follow clues to a remote pig farm and discover the local butcher has been bringing his work home. Enter the world of a serial killer and experience the blood-curdling horror of a film bound to take your breath away.

All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt

All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, the new movie from Raven Jackson, is out today.

A lyrical, decades-spanning exploration across a woman’s life in Mississippi, the feature debut from award-winning poet, photographer and filmmaker Raven Jackson is a haunting and richly layered portrait, a beautiful ode to the generations of people and places that shape us.

Invincible S2

The second season of Invincible, the TV series from Robert Kirkman, is out today.

Based on the groundbreaking comic book by Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley, the story revolves around 18-year-old Mark Grayson, who’s just like every other guy his age—except his father is (or was) the most powerful superhero on the planet. Still reeling from Nolan’s betrayal in Season 1, Mark struggles to rebuild his life as he faces a host of new threats, all while battling his greatest fear - that he might become his father without even knowing it.

Blue Eye Samurai

Blue Eye Samurai, the new TV series from Michael Green and Amber Noizumi, is out today.

Driven by a dream of revenge against those who made her an outcast in Edo-period Japan, a young warrior cuts a bloody path toward her destiny.

The Tailor S3

The third season of The Tailor, the TV series from Cem Karci, Rana Mamatlıoğlu, and Bekir Baran Sıtkı, is out today.

Peyami’s feelings for Esvet intensify, forcing him to make the difficult choice between their love and his lifelong friendship with Dimitri.

Fashion Dreamer

Fashion Dreamer, the new game from Marvelous (XSEED), is out today.

Fashion Dreamer is a creative-focused game where players can express their unique styles using their avatar, called a Muse. Create iconic looks from cozy casualwear to chic couture, choosing from hundreds of available options that can be customized to be a truly one-of-a-kind look. Once players find their signature style, they can show off their latest outfits across different areas, called Cocoons. There, they can also explore inspiring new fashions from other Muses whether playing on- or offline or display them in their showroom to garner even more attention and Likes for their brand. Players can also increase their influence by completing design challenges, unlocking even more customization options to elevate their brand. Featuring asynchronous multiplayer, the world of Eve is inhabited by Muses from around the globe, allowing players to find inspiration or earn Likes for their most iconic fit virtually anywhere!

WarioWare: Move It!

WarioWare: Move It!, the new game from Nintendo, is out today.

Pack your bags for the wackiest vacation ever in WarioWare: Move It! Get ready for movement-based microgames, Forms, extra stages, local multiplayer, and more!

Blanket

Blanket, the new album from Kevin Abstract, is out today.

Flying High, Pt. 2

Flying High, Pt. 2, the new album from The Alchemist, is out today.

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales Lena Retrospective: The Other Bin of Scrooge McDuck! or Why Does Lena’s Darkest Hour Have a WACKKKYY Bigfoot Subplot?

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to Shadow Into Light, my look back the LIfe and Times of Lena Sabrewing. And we’re almost at the end of season 1. Woo-Ooo!. While i’ll have more season 1 episodes to cover for it’s sister arc, this is the last episode in this arc before the finale.. and i’m happy to repeat that next week will be DUCK WEEK as a result, finsihing up this arc and the Della arcs, as well as dipping into season 2 a bit for Lena’s return to celebrate the finale of this wonderful show. Full disclosure: I didn’t PLAN for it this way, I assumed the show would be ending in April, but sometimes serendipity just works out for you. So pitter pat er, let’s get at er.

 When we last left off Webby went on a wild duck chase for her grandma in England and 87!Webby befriended that version of Magica’s niece and told off a grown woman masquerading as a child because her husband likes being called “Daddy”. When we last left the plot proper though, we learned Lena just wanted to be free, and was willing to do whatever it took, and Magica was getting more abusive and more impatient. And if you thought the end to Jaw$! was pretty sad and dark.... strap in and steel yourself as we take a look at one of the darkest episodes in the series.

The opening sets the stage perfectly as we’re in Scrooge’s Room in the middle of the night, when Lena comes in.. with a knife. 

Naturally she dosen’t have baked goods, but instead is trying to cut the knife from around his neck while Magica won’t shut up while she works and keeps distracting her and BLAMING her for getting distracted. As for the knife it’s glowing and mystic because naturally, Scrooge doesn’t trust just ANY string but a magically woven one to hold his dime. Unlucky for her her girlfriend walks in at the exact moment she’s standing over her idol holding a mystical knife. I don’t think hallmark makes a card for “Sorry I was lying to you for months for my abusive aunt to earn my freedom and then looked like I was about to slit your uncle’s throat. I love you though. “ Yet. 

Scrooge starts to stir so Webby pulls Lena out of there and back to her room... and flashes a lamp on her to interrogate her. Lena is able to bounce back, asking “what were you doing there”. Which NORMALLY wouldn’t last more than two minutes.. but since Webby was there to get Drool samples, maybe she wants to clone him I mean she does know a guy I think the why is something we’d rather not know about, Webby herself was a bit suspcious and Lena uses her starkerish ways to say she’d also gotten into being a Scrooge fangirl. This also allows her to ask about the dime.. but since Scrooge never takes it off, that means they have no access and both Lena and Magica are stuck watching Webby’s long presentation on Scrooge’s life story. I mean personally i’d love to see this in it’s full probably 8 hour glory but I’m not trying to earn my freedom or stuck as a shadow monster. 

It was then when watching the episode this morning.. I was reminded it had a subplot. And the instant I saw Dewey folding Louie’s shirts... I started to piece together it was the bigfoot one. 

As you can tell i’m not a fan of this subplot. It has a good core idea, riffing on “kid takes home sasquatch films” like Cry Wilderness, Big and Harry and of course the one that started it all, Harry and the Hendersons. 

It’s just bogged down by one really obnoxious trait that trips it up and is in the wrong episode entirely. We’ll get to that first scene and the plot as a whole in a moment we just need the setup in the a-story first: Scrooge privately conferring with Beakly, which Magica snoops on. While Lena didn’t get far at all in cutting the rope of his dime, she still left a knick and the fact someone got into his house, let alone his bedroom and got THAT far, means SOMETHING bad is afoot. So while he looks for it he’s putting the dime in the Other Bin for safekeeping. We’ll find out what that is in moment. For now 

Let’s Get This Stupid Sasquatch Plot Over With

We open with Louie having conned Dewey into folding his stuff for the “world laundry folding record”. I mean.. it’s greasy but I gotta respect game here. And it’s not actively harming anyone. Though we do find out from an irate Huey he’s done far worse, if in a hilarious way with Louie’s Kids, his obviously fake charity he uses to get money out of Donald. And so far into it, as Huey hid something he had in the closet and offered to Fix Louie’s stretched out hoodie, the reason he was mad at Dewey, I didn’t get why I hated it before. I wondered why I was so annoyed. Same when Huey while carrying Louie’s hoodies hears his uncle looking for something in the mansion. 

Turns out he’s got a bigfoot hiding in their closet, that he found injured int he woods and brought back and all that good kid finding a mythical creature stuff. Dewey of course loves him on first sight and both want to keep him. But unlike most of these sorts of things where the creature’s damage to the room and what not is played off or the sibling doesn’t know, Louie does see it and isn’t happy about it and only agrees to hide the furry bastard because his brothers blackmail him with his schemes, and refuse to feel sorry for him as the creatures antics continue, including drinking Louie’s special pep and eating his snacks. 

And this is where one of the plots two major issues crops up: The way Dewey and Huey act. Both just ignore any damage wooly foot does, any discomfort to Louie and any obvious downsides of this. Now Dewey being clinginly attached to a majestic creature he found and wanting to keep it? Fits perfectly, and him being mean to louie fits because louie tricked him. Huey however.. is horribly out of character, as while I could see him being charmed at first and not wanting his uncle to hunt his new friend.. he’s not an impractical boy. He’d of tried to get his new friend to the woods first thing because it’s where he’s safest from scrooge and his foot has healed. He’s also a Woodchuck and I can’t imagine the JWG says it’s okay to keep a wild animal person as a pet basically. None of it fits him and makes him into a moron for an episode solely for the plot to work. This still could’ve worked but just have Huey and Louie BOTH get suspicious, Huey later, and find out Tenderfoot is actually Gavin, whose sapient, has a phone and simply is taking advantage of them. it would’ve gone the same way: if they told Dewey , Gavin would kill them, as he threatened to do if louie told his brothers. The Gavin part though is brilliant and a really nice twist I didn’t see coming when I first saw this.  

And it would’ve made the already great climax more interesting as Huey would’ve been forced to use the methods of Louie’s he’d derided to beat a far worse scammer. Instead it’s just Louie but he doesn’t take Gavin’s threats lying down.. and comes up with a clever way to use his scam against him. He shaves Gavin, hides the razor then claims to his brother that not being in the woods means he’s dying or some such thing. So our two idiots and our hero drag them out and while they run into scrooge, Louie still saves the idiots life by manipulating him with a schmaltzy speech and they let him go despite his best attempts to stay, with Louie getting a nice “I win in there”. Overall a bit of a mess with some good ideas, but Huey suddenly taking dum dum juice really drags it down.

So in any other episode this would’ve been fine whatever just mildly obnoxious. What makes it really,  unintentionally obnoxious.. is it’s in the middle of a tense, dark, horror story that dives into the depths of Lena’s soul and ends on a really horrifying note. Case in point Louie shaves a bigfoot and gets his victory over his nemesis.. after an utterly spellbindingly horrific nightmare by Lena, easily the most terrifying moment in the entire show. Followed up with a shaved bigfoot. 

Now I could buy Disney simply forced them to do this to keep things light... except Frank’s been pretty upfront about the production process, how Disney has treated him, what they’ve said no on. So if it had been something they were forced to do, he would’ve said it. No this is just not reading the room and not thinking things through and an otherwise stellar episode suffers for it.They could’ve waited till season 2 for it, they didn’t, and this was the result. It dosen’t ruin the rest of the episode it’s too good for it, but damn if it dosen’t create mood whiplash so severe I need a neckbrace. 

The Good Part

So back at the plot anyone actually cares about, we found out what the “other bin” is when Lena asks Webby: While the Money bin is for well, money and precious keepsakes, the other bin is the stuff too dangerous to keep out in the world. And this is the guy who kept a mystical gold eating dragon, a pirate ghost, and a medusa gauntlet in his garage, and we’ll learn after this ep also keeps a giant golden aztec golem in there. NONE of that was deemed dangerous enough to put in the other bin. So Webby is understandably hesitant.. and it gets a bit unsettling when Lena manipulates her into it. While she has in the past.. she usually just nudged Webby into something she’d do anyway at worst, or showed her an r-rated movie or something harmless. While she did use her as an in she clearly cares.. so it shows how horrifically desperate she’s got she’s willing to pressure her into going into Scrooge’s most dangerous and secure location, pointing out this may be her only chance to see the Dime. 

So she reluctantly agrees, and the two head into the garage. Turns out Scrooge keeps all his junk here for more reason than just shoving it wherever it’d go, as the entrance to the other bin is hidden here. The statue that gave Manny his head is actually a clue towards the painting hiding the second bin, which itself requires one of those things used to hold up ropes and such like you’d see at a movie theater... god I miss movie theaters.. I mean watching stuff in the comfort of home is very nice, but it was nice getting out, making a day of it. I mean their around, but I really don’t want to go till one till more vaccinations have happened and it’s a lot safer to go. Wait what were we talking about? Oh right gay ducks going into a horrifying nightmare vault. But yeah the theater thingy is the key, it unlocks the entrance and our heroines head inside. 

In contrast to the modern, buisnessy welcoming bin, the other bin is basically one giant vault/prison, with everything in it securely locked inside identical doored rooms. It’s genius as it is simple: Only 6 people have likely ever had access to this place: Scrooge, Beakly, Gyro, Duckworth and MAYBE the twins. Even Della and Donald being allowed down here is an unknown. The non-scrooge people are only because someone besides him needs to maintain it, keep any creatures fed, that sort of thing and he’d only trust his butler and his housekeeper, who are also both extraordinarily badass, to do so. Gyro is because someone needed to design the cells. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Quackfaster was a 7th since season 3 casts her as Scrooge’s magic expert and he’d likely need specific runes for specific cells. He’d want as few people down here as possible, and even fewer knowing. I’m sure Bradford knew, and i’m also certain it’s the one thing he never quibbled about the expense as while he hates what Scrooge stands for and tried to curb his “chaos” as much as possible.. this is doing exactly what Bradford likes: locking it away where it can’t hurt anybody. Plus quibbling about it might make Scrooge want to show it off to him and that’s.. that's’ a whole lotta nope in a 2 pound bag. 

So for once Webby is very hesitant and very cautious, though naturally Magica points out a door.. and Lena stupidly follows her advice as she knows her “aunt” is impulsive and has no regards for her safety. What did she think was going to happen? They instead find a unicorn.. or rather it’s angry murderous cousin the Sword Horse, which naturally tries goring them. I’d go with Spear Horse, but semantics. Point is Webby is soon tackled by the thing and Magica just wants to let her die. As seen before the tension between Magica and Lena has hit a breaking point: Magica is fed up with Lena’s clear feelings for webby and caring more about her than the mission.. while Lena is fed up with Magica not listening to her, respecting her as sentient being and dismissing her out of hand instead of listening to her often very valid criticism. So Lena naturally ignores her and throws her the knife, which Webby uses to get the Sword Horse back in it’s pen. And then wonders why her girlfriend has  glowing painstakingly crafted magic knife. Whoops. Webby also wants to leave but Lena convinces her to keep going. but it’s also very clear that Webby’s getting more and more reluctant and i’ts very hard to watch. You can’t blame Lena for wanting to be free of Magica: she dosen’t see her as a person, and dosen’t value her life. But it’s still hard to watc her have to manipulate the only person that loves her and do so so.. effectively. It’s easy to imagine Lena’s done this dozens of times to other people.. but not to someone she actually CARES about. 

Webby DOES figure out how the rooms work though: each one is labeled by the year Scrooge caught it. So she assumes one room she fine is the dime.. and Lena of course runs in and slams the door shut... they’ve found it. So we then get to the most terrifying moment of the series. With victory in her grasp magica roars for Lena to claim the dime, filling the room and Lena with shadow with Lena seemingly disolving.. until Magica is restored or at least partially, still a shadow. Magica has just one thing for her.. and Lena’s reactoin is terrified.. and says oh so much in just one expression it’s VERY clear Lena fears she’s about to die... if she’s lucky. Magica’s been so verbally abusive, tearing her down constantly, manipulating her constantly.. why WOULD Lena expect anything good? Why would she expect anything other than pain or death? So a hug is a surprise.. as is Webby who assumes she’s being attacked... and is clearly heartbroken that’s not the case and runs for Scrooge when Magica admits the truth... only for Magica to seemingly kill her, turning her into a doll resembling the original Webby

Yeah at this point it’s obvious something’s up.. but before we can get to the natural reveal at the end of this horror show, Lena demands Magica change her back... only for a fight to naturally ensue with Magica rubbing the way Lena’s treated Webby in her face: How she manipualted her, lied to her and used her. Even if it was for more noble reasons.. she never told her any of this or tried to and is now directly responsible for her death. She’s a monster.. and then Lena’s amulet activates.. and seemingly finishes the job. 

Then Lena wakes up. This was simply one of SCrooge’s artifact, one Webby mentioned earlier off hand and Webby rescues her. It was all a nightmare.. easy to see given Webby was seemingly killed or turned into a doll at points.. but besides making Lena realize how while not as bad as her aunt, she ahsn’t been great.. it also gives us a painful look into her head and how she sees both Magica and Webby. With Magica.. it’s again VERY clear Magica verbally abuses her, depersons her and is in general a horrifiingly relastic depection of a domestic abuser. But it’s also telling Magica hugs her... while Lena didn’t expect it, this is all her subconcious mixed with a magical cursed artifact, it’s clear that deep down one of the things she wants most.. is for Magica to LOVE HER. 

That is just... it hurts so much.  She just wants a Mom.. and even then her subconcious can’t give her THAT because it knows the truth. Granted the nightmare thing might of had something to do with it, but still, the fact is deep down she knows Magica dosen’t care about her but she WANTS her to. As with Webby, she fears Magica is right, that all her gaslighting has had an effect and Webby would run away the second she found out. When as we’ll learn.. that’s not true at all. She’s deeply hurt... but she still belivies in her. But Lena can’t even see that. She’s been beaten down so much by someone constnatly telling her no one will ever love her she belivies it herself and all her mind and the dreamcatcher can do is pummel her over and over again with what she feels about herself, what she’s KNOWN about how she treats webby even if she had no way out otherwise, how wrong it’s felt. Just holy shit it’s a lot to take in. 

But all this trauma has made Lena realize she truly does love Webby and this isn’t worth it.. she’ll find some other way out or figure out something, for now their leaving. She’s not dying for this.. not for her. They happen to run into Scrooge who, due to the WACKY BIGFOOT SUBPLOT THAT HAPPENED RIGHT AFTER THE ABOVE SCENE, no I will not let that go even going back to Frank’s twitter asks he outright said it was their darkest plot paired with one of their most insane, he knew what he was doing. Turns out cleverly he kept the Dime in vault one. As he puts it “They never think to check the first one”. Smart. He also keeps his worry room down here. Just a note I wanted to mention. 

He does chide them, and Lena takes the full fall.. but suprisingly he dosen’t ban her from his home or anything, he just asks they be honest and would’ve gladly showed the dime off to them both if they’d just asked. Once Scrooge and Webby walk off far enough Magica berates her again..but Lena is done. She’s realized from her own horrifying nightmares that NO amount of freedom is worth what Magica will get out of this, that her own soul isn’t worth the death of the one person she cares about: Webby will fight her and she might not make it. She loves her more than she fears Magica. And even if it means loosing Webby.. she knows who can stop him. Unfortunately.. this is not a happy ending as Magica simply takes full control. And now has Scrooge’s full trust. 

Final Thoughts: This episode is one half a masterpiece. The parts with Lena are to this day, as we approach the very last episode, some of the show’s finest writing and Lena’s nightmare is easily the darkest scene in the series, and only not the most gutwrenching.. because we’re getting to that next week. It finishes the first leg of her character arc, with her selfishness all gone, and the only thing she wants is Webby’s hapiness. Granted that leads to a whole nother character arc over her season 2 episodes, but we’ll get there. Point is she’s realized her manipulations are wrong and not worth the cost, and that she’ll never get anything good out of Magica. Freedom.. will take just a bit longer. It’s eerie to watch, uncomfortable as Lena sinks to her lowest point before climbing out of it, and with a very tense atmosphere the whole time, the bin having a smothering uncomfortableness as we know there’s tons of horrible things here.. but we don’t know what. 

So on it’s own it’d be one of the series best episodes, and the plot itself is still one fo the series best.. but it’s weighed down by one of the series worst plots. Still tame compared to a lto of other series worst moments but being paired with something so dark and excellent really shows how fucking stupid this plot was and made it that much more grating. It just clashes badly. Thankfully the crew did learn from this fiasco to the point we got one of the series best episodes “Escape from the Impossibin!”. That one seemingly has two light enough plots, Scrooge, Louie and Della escaping from the bin and Webby stalking the boys, but in a comedic ic still messed up fashion.. but both take a sharp left at just the right time as to not clash: the full implications of what Webby’s doing and her physical fight with Bentina happen around the same time Scrooge breaks down and confesses he’s scared he can’t win this time. The episode gets really dark in the second half but it eases into it and slowly makes it’s way to it, building to it with some laughts to disarm it. But stuff like robo scrooge or the timeloop room, or the timeloop room, or the timeloop room, or the oh thank god i’ts broken. That stuff isn’t SO wacky or out of place that it detracts from the other plot. They compliment each other. Here it’s just two plots that don’t work together at all joined together for some reason.  So yeah overall a very mixed bag of an episode and if you do want to watch or rewatch it.. just skip the bigfoot subplot> it’s not worth it. 

Next Time on Shadow Into Light: It’s all come down to this. Magica finally ges what she wants. The Shadow War is Night.. but before I can tell you that story we have a bit of ground to cover so..

Next on this Blog: The family minus Beakly ends up in Greece. Dewey is forced to deal with his fears about his mom, Scrooge is forced to deal with his old rival Zeus, and Donald is forced to deal with an unwanted admirerer. Spanikopita!

If you liked this review, follow for more, feel free to contribute to my patreon, and feel free to commission a review of your own. Until the next rainbow, it’s been a pleasure. 

[fireemblems24]

Flame Emperor Reveal Analysis

This game is all over the place with this. This level delivered some of the most intense and emotional moments so far, but doesn’t always capitalize on character development and conflict. 

I’m playing all four routes in Fire Emblem Three Houses mostly blind. Below is spoilers for all four routes (which I’m learning the names of now). And for the first it’s actually 4! 

Crimson Flower & Silver Snow

I lied. Originally I planned on writing a different analysis for Crimson Flower and Silver Snow, but the build up is the same. Only the fallout is different, and yeah there’s a lot to say about how things played out. 

The Black Eagles routes have the biggest advantage for this scene because your main character is the Flame Emperor. It does not hold back. All of your students, sans Edelgard and Hubert, are terrified, confused, and hurt. None of them grasp fully what’s going on when Edelgard takes her mask off and orders her army to kill anyone who stands against her. The voice actors do a fantastic job here: Dorothea, Caspar, Bernadetta, and others sell the mess of emotions the Black Eagles experience, and Edelgard sounds stone-cold and in-command. Her betrayal is the gut-punch it should be. 

The level presents a no-win scenario. One of your students is willing to kill you and everyone else you’re supposed to protect, and Rhea is out for blood. No matter what happens, no matter what you do, you lose. It’s a heartbreaking, emotional mess of a situation the writing sets up. 

Even prior to all this, the dance between revealing to much or to little about Edelgard’s true intentions is fantastic. Where the Blue Lions basically dumps the answer in your lap and the Golden Deer gives little to no hints at the Flame Emperor’s identity, the Black Eagles is the only route where I do not know if I would’ve guessed correctly or had so few clues that I didn’t bother trying to guess. 

Edelgard drops enough hints to guess correctly if you’re looking for them. She always questions Byleth about his thoughts on the Flame Emperor, trying to drive a wedge between the Emperor and the heinous actions the masked knight is involved in.  Likewise, Edelgard constantly asks Byleth if he’d pick her over the whole world. She also makes alarming declarations that tow the line between reformer and despot. All of these actions make sense in retrospect - she was fishing to see who would and would not side with her regardless of her actions. 

The scene in the Holy Tomb builds up to a crescendo, Edelgard is defeated, and Rhea makes her demand to kill Edelgard. It’s a bit telling Rhea needed to go so extreme in order to make siding with Edelgard believable, but it’s counteracted  by the game going as far as making Edelgard an enemy unit who can and will kill her classmates. Both women resort to extremes. Rhea is emotional, hateful, and screaming for blood. Edelgard is cold, calculated, and resorting to using victims of human experimentation to kill her own friends. These are two driven, passionate women exposing their ugliest sides in an emotional scene ripe for fantastic character development and conflict. 

And then . . . the wrap-up. 

Silver Snow

Should you choose to kill Edelgard, you land in Silver Snow. Rhea’s angry rant against Edelgard is fantastically delivered and makes me anticipate further development from her character. Back in Garreg Mach Monastery, Rhea  juxtaposes her earlier scene for a softer one. She implies a willingness to sacrifice her life to protect her home, and asks Byleth to take her role should something happen to her. Rhea’s plan all along was to put Byleth (who is connected to Sothis, who is connected to Rhea, though the details are still unknown to me) in charge. After hearing Rhea call for blood, it’s a sweet scene between Byleth and the archbishop. The problem with it is that every route gets these scenes sans Crimson Flower. It’s two great scenes for Rhea, but not unique to Silver Snow. 

And here’s the weird part - there is no unique content for Rhea outside of a few initial lines when choosing to kill Edelgard. Instead, we get the Black Eagles upset and unsure about Edelgard’s actions, a few wondering how much she planned all along and how involved she was in every horrible thing that happened during their school year. It’s necessary, but there’s nothing stand-out in anyone’s dialogue to bring home a real gut-punch. 

Seteth gets the best unique content in Silver Snow when he offers the Black Eagles a chance to defect to the Empire should they desire. It’s delivered softly with no threat behind it, showing an earnest desire for the students to feel comfortable even if it means they’re going to turn around and try to slaughter him in thanks. Thankfully, none of the students leave. Cyril and Catherine automatically join your team, and Hilda is now recruitable as well to make up for losing Hubert and Edelgard.   

The fall out for choosing to stand against Edelgard is . . . fine. For such a unique event in Fire Emblem (siding against your lord, possibly losing two units you’ve heavily invested in should you not know what’s coming), I expected a bit more drama and flare and a lot more Rhea. However, this is only the start, and it gave what it needed to give. 

The stage has been well set. Everyone’s in a no-win situation. Should they lose, they and everyone else in Fodlan will suffer an all-out, dragged-out war. They’ll lose their school and have to fight against their home country (sans Petra) where most of their family and friends live. Killing Edelgard ends the conflict, but she is their former friend, classmate, and rightful leader. She gives them no choice - fight for me or die standing against me. Neither option will leave Byleth and the remaining students wholly satisfied, so I foresee more bittersweet confrontations coming, and I look forward to it.

Crimson Flower 

Deciding to protect Edelgard lands you on the Crimson Flower path. I have to say, I’ve read and watched thousands of stories and this one scene stands out among all others. 

Never in my life have I ever seen characters react to a situation in a way that makes less sense. Even more baffling is how much potential gets tossed out the window. Stories thrive on conflict and character development and this scene is ripe with potential, but instead of even letting the fruit grow rancid they just . . . act like it never existed. 

After Byleth picks to guard Edelgard, Rhea loses it and is ready to tear Byleth to pieces before turning into a dragon. The Black Eagles and Edelgard all run away and, not long after, make it back to Enbarr safely. How they escaped a rampaging dragon or successfully fled Garreg Mach is hand-waved away. This is the kind of hand-waving I can forgive. It’s lazy writing, but it doesn’t really impede the story. What I cannot forgive is the hand-waving that comes next. 

Edelgard has a brief scene where she tells her classmates her intentions - she wants to rid Fodlan of the Church of Serios’s control, claims that Rhea and her fellow beasts have secretly ruled humanity and held them back, and is going to declare war. She asks who will join her. Predictably, all of them do - except Flayn. Edelgard mentions that Flayn has opted not to stay with the group. 

Hmmm. I wonder why. Could it be Edelgard’s lackey kidnapped and tortured her for a whole month, preparing her for blood experiments at the hands of an evil group of mages who just happen to be Edelgard’s allies? Maybe that had something to do with it. The fact the game presents this is as some magnanimous act is hilarious. I believe Edelgard would let someone like, say Petra, turn away too, but she deserves no “brownie points” for allowing someone who she allowed to get tortured and set-up for a slow death as a human sacrifice to leave and not decide to attack her the home where her father still lives. I think this aspect of Edelgard’s character would’ve hit home significantly harder if someone who wasn’t so throughly victimized by Edelgard’s actions had fled, or you actually saw Flayn leave. 

No one asks about the Death Knight. No one asks about Flayn’s kidnapping. No one asks about Kostas attempting to kill students. No one asks about the students kidnapped and experimented on or Remire Village or Jeralt. No one asks where the Crest Beasts Edelgard is using came from. No one asks about the fact she just tried to kill all of them, or what she’s going to do with the Crest Stones. No one even mentions the Flame Emperor. No one questions the history she spilled on them, claiming the church was behind the splitting of Fodlan despite not even having enough knights to guard their own monastery and needed students to help out at events. 

I could buy the Black Eagles running away with Edelgard. The scene where Byleth chooses Rhea or Edelgard is highly emotional. Things happen quickly and no one is given much of a chance to process anything. Rhea doesn’t give anyone much of a choice by shifting into a dragon. I wish they didn’t rely so much on “Rhea bad” to make any sense of siding with Edelgard, but it is believable. What I cannot buy is how no one questions anything afterwards. 

It’s like the whole cast just forgot the first eleven chapters. No one even mentions the Flame Emperor’s existence. The moment the mask came off, it ceased to exist. Everyone mindlessly believes everything Edelgard says, and no one even asks any questions - not about Rhea, not about the history of Fodlan, not about the Flame Emperor’s actions. Barely anyone bats an eyelash at the idea of attacking their own school and killing former classmates, teachers, and friends. Everyone comes across borderline brainwashed. Did the writers have so little faith in Edelgard’s position they were afraid to even attempt exploring it? Even worse is the strategy meeting is just Edelgard, Hubert, and Byleth - the Black Eagles are no where to be seen. It makes them come across like mindless puppets rather than anyone remotely rational - like pawns arranged on a board required for gameplay reasons than actual characters.        

Never in my life have I seen a story throw away so much potential character development and conflict. The situation here is intriguing. Edelgard’s stance is fascinating, but everything falls short when all that’s interesting about it is getting tossed out the window because Rhea is secretly evil and nothing Edelgard did beforehand seems to matter anymore. I am seriously concerned about where this route is heading, because despite the massive potential, it seems like it cares less about that and more about making sure Edelgard looks good rather than complex and interesting, even at the cost of logic, character development, and by turning other interesting characters black so Edelgard has someone she can look better than in comparison rather than standing on her own ideals.     

Verdant Wind

Am I correct in assuming the fandom consensus is that Verdant Wind had the least impactful Flame Emperor reveal? Because it did. 

Edelgard had little to no presence in Verdant Wind. Outside of pre and post class vs class battle banter, her only scene consisted of interrogating Claude and getting and giving no answers. Claude has no connection to Edelgard and neither does Byleth or any of the Golden Deer. When the mask comes off and it’s her face behind it, there’s no emotional response. 

The fallout is equally lackluster. Claude demands answers from Edelgard, which she refuses to answer, and she warps away. Afterwards, things play out the same way they do on every route. And that’s the core issue here. Claude and the Golden Deer bring nothing unique to this scene. Elements of surprise that Edelgard is the Flame Emperor, her willingness to kill all your units to get crest stones, and her declaration of war is there on every route. Claude’s character and goals have had no impact on the plot. 

Analyzing this scene has brought to light my main issue with the Verdant Wind route thus far. It’s that Claude and friends have done nothing to move the plot forward. Things just happen; no character is making anything happen. You could argue it’s the same for the Azure Moon route, but Dimitri’s clearly defined goals and emotional connection makes it a streamlined story with a sense of forward progression instead of plot points getting dumped in the player’s lap. 

It’s too bad, because Verdant Wind could’ve approached this differently. Instead of Claude getting nothing done and shouting about every relic that showed up, he and Byleth could’ve solved mysteries together a la Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boy. For all of Claude’s questioning everything, very little attention was paid to unmasking the Flame Emperor. Verdant Wind guided its players to look at the wrong mysteries - mysteries that ultimately got no answers while ignoring the one part one was actually about figuring out, and if this was flipped, Verdant Wind would’ve had a much more impactful Flame Emperor reveal. 

I will give Verdant Wind major bonus points though. It is nice to see a character question Edelgard about her involvement in things. Dimitri’s too caught up in his Duscur trauma (which I don’t believe Edelgard participated in) and neither Silver Snow and especially Crimson Flower question Edelgard’s actions as the Flame Emperor, but Claude throws at her all the questions I wanted to hear: what about Flayn? What about Jeralt? What about Remire? So congrats Claude, you’re the only character and the only route that’s holding Edelgard actually responsible for her actual actions. If only she was the mystery you were investigating instead of one that went exactly no where for eleven straight chapters. 

Azure Moon

What’s interesting here is that the Flame Emperor’s reveal is less about who the mystery person is and more about our protagonist’s, Dimitri’s, reaction to it. And that is core reason behind this scene’s success. 

Multiple users on here told me to play chapter eleven of Blue Lions first, and I’m both glad and upset I listened to them. Glad, because they were all right, this route had by far the best Flame Emperor reveal, but sad because it all went downhill from there. 

The Crimson Flower/Silver Snow routes should’ve had the best Flame Emperor reveal. After all, those are the routes where Edelgard plays the biggest role, but the follow up to the scene is fairly lackluster, especially in Crimson Flower. Azure Moon, on the other hand, did everything Crimson Flower was afraid to - address the elephant in the room.   

Characters in Crimson Flower respond to the situation as if Edelgard didn’t just try to kill all of them, nor do they ask any questions about her actions as the Flame Emperor. Everyone acts as if none of that ever happened, and by not bothering to even mention it, those actions stick out even worse than they would’ve otherwise. 

The opposite is true in Azure Moon. Everyone is unnerved by Dimitri’s violent outburst. Felix jumps at the chance to tell everyone, “I told you so.” No one knows what to do about Dimitri, nor do they really have time to process anything with Edelgard’s war machine knocking on their front door. However, this is the base expectation of a story - that characters respond realistically to what happened prior instead of teleporting to some surreal dimension where Edelgard isn’t working with people who perform human experimentation. 

So what exactly did Azure Moon do to make this reveal so successful? It utilized the route’s unique aspects: Dimitri’s mental instability and desire for revenge, terrible family history, and emotional connection to Edelgard. 

Unlike Verdant Wind, Edelgard has an actual presence and relevance in Azure Moon thanks to her connection to Dimitri. He cares about her like family, which makes her betrayal more personal and automatically more impactful than in Verdant Wind. Even more brilliant here is milking the emotional aspect of what happened. Instead of focusing on “shocking” the reader with Edelgard’s betrayal, it drops hints about her secret identity with all the subtly of a lead brick. 

You know what inevitable, dramatic, and tragic outcome is coming. Edelgard, Dimitri’s only remaining family (outside of an uncle he’s on bad terms with), is working hand-in-hand with the people who caused the deaths of his family which led to the genocide of a race of people and the source all of his trauma.  Dimitri makes it quite clear he’s out for revenge, and that anything related to Duscur triggers his PTSD so bad it seems like a dissociative or psychotic episode. Azure Moon does not build up a mystery, it builds up an emotional conflict - like watching a train wreck that you know is coming and can’t stop. 

And that’s the brilliance of it - this scene isn’t about Edelgard being the Flame Emperor, we already know that, it’s about Dimitri, who this route is about and who the player is emotionally invested in during this version of the story. 

Nor does this game disappoint here. There’s no softening anything to try and make Dimitri look “better.” He has a full-on violent breakdown. It’s devastating. He is succumbing fully to his demons after fighting against it over and over while getting tossed into triggering situations ad nauseam and getting no help in return (after all, therapy, medication, hell even the concept of mental illness simply doesn’t exist). All the signs that the route has built up explode in an emotional scene, and probably thee best cut scene so far with some of the best voice acting in Fire Emblem to carry it out. Every plot thread comes to a head: Dimitri’s lust for revenge, his unstable mental health, the mystery of the Flame Emperor’s identity, etc . . . 

The upcoming battle has more meaning now. It has what is at steak in the other routes - win or lose and the fear of having to kill former classmates - and more. Because it isn’t just about the battle of Edelgard vs the world, but also the battle for Dimitri’s mental health and for his soul. There’s a bit of a catch-22 here, is Edelgard dying really the best ending? Killing her saves many lives, but at the cost of Dimitri’s mental health? What if she dies and he doesn’t kill her, but what if he does? Would he kill himself now that the dead are avenged? Or what if she lives and this drags on longer? No option is good. There isn’t an easy win button by offing Edelgard or taking over the school. Every possible ending is a bad ending. Your lead character is in the middle of a mental breakdown, and giving into his demons and lust for revenge (which is a separate issue exasperated by ill mental health) and the situation only makes it worse and is to dire to properly let anyone deal with said breakdown. The tension, the drama, the sense of foreboding dread, is all so much more here than in all the other routes. 

What makes Azure Moon’s handling of the Flame Emperor so good is that it widely succeeded where the other two routes failed. Verdant Wind didn’t make the reveal relevant to anything Claude was interested in or working towards. Crimson Flower completely and utterly failed to address Edelgard’s actions let alone use that to create compelling tension. Azure Moon did both. It made the Flame Emperor reveal relevant to the route, even made it actually about the main character of the route. Nor is it shying away from conflict and tension, even if it means letting it’s main character fall out of grace and risking the player’s infatuation/admiration/whatever with/of Dimitri by having him succumb to his dark side. Because it’s not protecting him, he’s going to turn out a way better character for it. 

I will admit though, that I think playing all four routes impacted this a bit. It didn’t benefit Azure Moon, but I think this route spoiling who the Flame Emperor is hurt the other routes. Verdant Wind might’ve had at least some tiny smudge of an impact because it’s the only route where there’s very little way to correctly guess who the Flame Emperor is - the only one where it may be truly a surprise. Crimson Flower/Silver Snow does make it a bit more obvious, but doesn’t quite spell it out for you the way Azure Moon does. Here, the player kind of has to be looking for it. Obviously though, you can only learn this once, and good writing could’ve made all the routes impactful with very small tweaks - have Verdant Wind actually focus on the mystery that’s solved at the end of Part 1 (who is the Flame Emperor) and actually have characters react to and get answers about Edelgard’s actions. I also think the choice between Silver Snow and Crimson Flower looses its tension when you go into it knowing you’ll pick both. Azure Moon easily had the best reveal, so I want to ultimately thank everyone who told me to do this one first - you were all very, very right. 

[benoitblanc]

OTP PROFILE GAME!

rules: answer the questions about your favorite ship (all time or current) then tag 10 people to do it too!

tagged by @chloexmorningstar (ily Sho!!!) and listen... obviously newtina is my #1 ship ever. i am doing peggysous, even though it’s a lowly #4, because reasons. and apologies to everyone for how goddamn long this got. i have a lot of feelings about these two.

SHIP AND FANDOM: peggysous/agent carter

MOMENTS:

what were their first impressions of each other?

sadly we don’t get the peggysous meet-cute- in fact, i’m just realizing now that most of my favorite ships meet offscreen, which is kind of weird. we do know that they’re each other’s only friend in the workplace, and even more than that they’re on first-name basis, so i like to think that when they met, they both kind of went wow, this one sucks a lot less than every other person that works here!, and then the rest was history.

a moment you think that both/one of them will remember forever about each other:

i mean obviously the rebar incident, but also when peggy had to choose between the literal universe and daniel and chose daniel. everything worked out and the universe was fine, but the fact that peggy “dispassionate, chief, your words” carter even took that chance speaks volumes about how much she loves him, and i think it’s something they’ll both remember for a long time.

a moment you think that both/one of them wishes hadn’t happened:

when i saw this i instantly went, “well obviously peggy’s interrogation was not a high point for them,” and then remembered that peggy asked daniel for a rain check when he asked her out and he took that to mean “i don’t want to see you again ever” and literally moved across the country, so i’d say there were a couple of rough patches lol. conversely, i think that peggy in retrospect is extremely glad she got impaled by that rebar because otherwise they would have just stayed in pining hell forever.

what is their moment for you?

if i'm not allowed to choose “literally all of season 2,” i’m going to say when peggy kidnaps rufus hunt and daniel gets angry not because she committed a felony, but because she committed a felony without him. daniel is a lot more by-the-book than almost every other character on the show, so the fact that that’s the thing he’s mad about really shows how much he’s come to trust and care for peggy. as they both say, they’re a team now.

LIFE QUESTIONS:

marriage? if yes, who proposes?

yep! they get married. avengers endgame never happened. aos will never happen. i’m not sure if i like the idea of peggy or daniel actually proposing better, but daniel definitely buys the ring and agonizes over how to make the perfect proposal, and then of course they actually get engaged on a whim during some messy, high-stakes action sequence.

children? if yes, if one had to stay home with them, who would do it?

we know that peggy and whoever she canonically marries do have two kids, so assuming it’s daniel (which it is), there are definitely kids! neither of them stay home- they’re good parents but obviously very busy at work, especially peggy- but they spend as much time with them as they can, and the jarvises are more than happy to look after the kids when they can’t.

housing? where do they live together?

i have absolutely no idea where the original base of shield was, and i don’t think the ac one-shot is actually canon, so let’s say for argument’s sake, and for the sake of “most of the characters i headcanon as being involved with shield’s creation were located in california in the late 40s anyway,” and for the sake of “as of 1995 there was still a prominent shield base located in l.a.,” that it was near los angeles. in which case i guess peggy could just move in wherever daniel’s living. it looked like a nice enough place. 

pets? do they get a pet together?

i don’t see them as pet people, honestly. i think bernard has put them off that idea.

PERSON A&B…

who would kill/remove the spider and who would leave it under a cup and leave the room?

peggy is definitely terrified of spiders just because i think the “peggy carter, the same woman who fought in the war and took down dottie underwood and punched me in the nose, is afraid of spiders?” “shut up, jack!” conversation would be hilarious. this leaves daniel as the de facto getter-ridder of spiders.

who sings all day long and who gets so used to it they don’t even hear it anymore?

this is not something i'd ever pictured either of them doing; however, i’m absolutely loving the idea of serious, professional daniel singing under his breath while working on case files. peggy thinks this is the cutest thing in the world but figured out very early on that if she comments on it, he stops, so now she just lets it happen without a word.

who can cook a gourmet meal for two and who can maybe use the toaster?

peggy obviously can’t cook to save her life. i think the entire fandom has accepted this as fact. daniel i can see as a decent cook, but i think if for whatever reason they actually need to provide food for anyone other than themselves, peggy calls jarvis in a panic and makes him do it.

who wakes up before the sun rises and who would sleep in until 2pm if they didn’t have an alarm?

neither of them really strike me as early risers (or late risers- they seem to have a reasonable sleep schedule when they aren’t up to spy shenanigans), but peggy definitely gets up before daniel.

who is more affectionate/touchy?

in public i think they’re both usually very professional or at least not blatantly affectionate, but in private or with friends they cannot keep their hands off each other. peggy is usually the worse offender but it’s oftentimes a toss-up. they drive jack crazy. 

who wears the other’s hoodies/shirts?

look i don’t think this is something they’d do, but i’m definitely giggling at the thought of peggy walking around in a fucking hawaiian shirt that’s about two sizes too big for her.

who said “I love you” first?

i like to think that a very exhausted peggy, after daniel did something like bring her coffee when she was working on case files at one in the morning, groaned “daniel sousa, i bloody love you” without really thinking about it and then promptly became so re-engrossed with the files that she nearly missed daniel’s quiet “...love you too, peg.” 

tagging @erumpets @florenepugh @wespers @mollyweasly @nataliarvmanova @romanocff @saralahnce @captleia  @billhaders @wintersoeldiers and anyone else who wants to do it :) 

[nellied-reviews]

Super Energy Saver Mode Re-listen

Hellooooo! My Wolf 359 re-listen has hit episode 6, and guess what that means? Yup, you got it!

Super Energy Saver Mode

In which Eiffel struggles to name his top five lanthanides, Hilbert blows things up again, and the Hephaestus might be haunted?!

I'll confess, going into this episode I could not remember very much about it. The title felt familiar, I vaguely remembered that it was one of the episodes where something on the Hephaestus stops working, but other than that? Nothing. Zip. Zilch. So that was exciting.

And you know what? I can kind of see why I didn't retain much from this episode! Plot-wise Super Energy Saver Mode just doesn't do very much. There's not a complex solve or fix for the issues that come up, or a clever work-around. Instead, Minkowski and Eiffel just... figure everything out and fix it competently?

In retrospect, there is, of course, one big, plot-relevant, spoilery thing that happens. But even that is basically left unresolved by the episode’s ending, which aims to create a creepy atmosphere than anything else.

Because that is what this episode does well. Without the additional job of being plotty, Super Energy Saver Mode can just concentrate on being atmospheric. Coming into it pretty much blind, in particular, meant that I appreciated the tension baked into the episode - even once I remembered what was going on, I really enjoyed how spooky this episode felt.

As per usual, though, we don't start with the creepiness. Instead, we start with Eiffel chatting about something mundane - namely, the fact that it's the crew's 500th day in space!

It's something that I think, on any other show, wouldn't actually be all that mundane. There are a whole bunch of spacey series where I could imagine a pretty decent episode being built around the crew trying to host some sort of anniversary celebration. But here, 500 days isn't something to be celebrated. It's not a bad thing, per se. But it's not a good thing. It's just a thing, a reminder of how worn down the crew are at this point, and how many days they have left on the clock. We get the impression that this mission is more of a long, hard slog than anything else - and thus we're reminded again of how little Goddard cares about its employees' wellbeing and morale.

Eiffel and Hera are having an unofficial party, though, with just the two of them, which is sweet. In practice, of course, this just means that they're spending time chatting while Eiffel avoids work. But it's really cute, and I find the banter about top five lists and the various criteria that Hera uses to come up with them soooooo funny. I mean, Hera judges "Stick It to the Man" songs by active political regimes at the time of composition, and complexity of choral progression, which I love for reasons I can't quite pinpoint?

The sequence also shows how differently Hera and Eiffel think. Eiffel very immediately and intuitively forms an emotional connection to things like music, but can't even fathom how Hera just knows things like the 900th digit of pi, or all of the lanthanides. Hera, meanwhile, has so much more information and raw data at her metaphorical fingertips than Eiffel, but doesn't quite connect to it in the same way, and doesn’t entirely get how Eiffel does. It's not (like with the Dear Listeners) that she can't connect to music, or fundamentally doesn't get it. But she's working on a different scale, judging by different standards. And she's not embarrassed to mess with Eiffel because of it, or to talk about it with him. Really, it's a textbook example of how to hang out and be friends with somebody while still thinking and relating to the world differently - which I think is a large part of what I like about Eiffel and Hera's friendship.

Their fun little interaction gets interrupted, sadly, by Hilbert requesting extra power for his lab, which we can already tell will end badly, because come on, it's Hilbert. But what is interesting is how irritated Hera seems afterwards. I mean, she does the whole "I am not programmed to get upset" spiel, but nobody's buying it, and when she confesses that she doesn't like Hilbert's tone, there's definitely a lot of annoyance there. It reminds us, after seeing Hera's machine side, that she's still a person and still has emotions - a balance that Wolf 359 is generally pretty good at. Hera's allowed to be an AI, with the non-human worldview that that entails. But at the end of the day, she's still a character with emotional depth and nuance.

With that in mind, then, Hera admits that she doesn't like Hilbert's tone - which is totally understandable - but also that she's mostly worried that somebody's going to get hurt as a consequence of Hilbert's recklessness - which seems to be validated when the station's power cuts out and Hera goes offline mid-sentence.

Eiffel, given the circumstances, remains remarkably calm, but this does mark the point where the episode shifts genre to become what is, in effect, a haunted house story. It's set on a space ship, sure, but all of the beats from this point onwards are pretty much the beats you might expect if Eiffel were, say, spending the night alone in his late grandfather's crumbling old mansion, long rumoured to be cursed. It's paranormal horror at its finest, complete with weird voices and jump scares and a bunch of "it's probably nothing" moments.

I noticed, as well, that there was barely any music from this point onwards. There is some (shout out to the creepy little theme with the ghost-like, theremin-sounding wail and the soft bass guitar!) but it's subtle, and very much secondary to the sound effects, which suddenly get very loud. For as long as the power is off, we get all sorts of creaking, groaning and echoing - and with it a sense of just how big and empty the Hephaestus really is. Hera's constant presence and the electronic noises around the place do a lot to mask that, normally. But now we're hearing the silence, and it is eerie.

Adorably, Eiffel's first instinct is to ask himself, "What would Commander Minkowski say if she were here right now?" This leads into a huge and surprisingly detailed fake argument, of course, which is hilarious in and of itself, but there's also just something kinda sweet about how immediately Eiffel assumes that Minkowski would have a handle on things. Eiffel still complains about her a lot, at this point in the series, so the respect that this little moment betrays feels fresh and sort of unexpected.

Eiffel's not wrong to trust Minkowski, either. Once she shows up, the episode's main problem - Hera being offline - gets solved quickly and remarkably efficiently, with Eiffel doing the legwork and Minkowski giving instructions, and honestly, it's in moments like this that I remember how technically competent Minkowski is. I think I tend to remember the more military, combative bits best, with her stalking round harpoon in hand or shooting folks, so it's nice to be reminded that the Commander can also handle things like repairs just fine.

Of course, that  means that the episode's main tension is never actually about the power outage. The sudden silence and the threat of life support running out add to the episode's general atmosphere, sure. But the thing we are most anxious about, as the episode plays out, isn't the ship's newly-accessed Super Energy Saver Mode. No, instead of that, we're given a new mystery, and it's a doozy: what's up with that voice Eiffel keeps hearing?

It starts almost inaudible, but in the end Eiffel hears the words loud, clear and terrifying: "You're not the first." Which, like, terrifying much? It's vague and ominous and very chilling, especially with all the distortion that's going on.

In retrospect, of course, we know that this is our first encounter with Captain Isabelle Lovelace - indeed, it's one of the very few encounters that we have with the real, non-alien-duplicate Isabelle Lovelace, for whatever that's worth. We also know that she doesn't mean any harm - she's trying to warn the crew, in fact.

Strangely, though, knowing that doesn't actually this any less effective as a ghost story. After all, what are we hearing, but the voice of a dead woman, warning the crew about an even worse monster lurking in their midst? The Hephaestus, Lovelace's recording reminds us, is indeed haunted, if not literally then at least metaphorically, by the ghosts of its former crew and the traces that they have managed to leave behind.

With or without hindsight, then, the episode is creepy, hinging ultimately on the idea that there might be something not quite airtight in Hera's programming, that there could be something hiding - or deliberately hidden - just underneath her code. In making that the focus of the story, the episode opens up the tantalising possibility that something might fundamentally be wrong with the Hephaestus and its systems. The show's very setting is destabilised and made frightening - and that's a genie that you can't just put back in the bottle once you decide that you're done telling ghost stories. Instead, the feeling that something is not quite right persists even after Hera comes back online, and still haunts the episode as it draws to a close, since we don't actually get an explanation of who Lovelace is. Instead, it remains a mystery. A spooky, weird, always-in-the-back-of-your-mind mystery.

It's a bold move, and it feels a lot like what happened with the plant monster, which is also at large at this point. I'm beginning to suspect that this is a thing we're going to see more of, too - big, obvious plot threads that are ostentatiously waved in front of us, then dropped, apparently without comment. 

It's something I think these early episodes could do more easily, since the expectation that loose ends would be followed up on wasn't quite established yet. Later on in the series, everything gets more serialized, so if something like, say, an alien duplicate of Jacobi turns up and is left dangling, we can reasonably expect that it'll get addressed at a point. Earlier on? We've not got those expectations. This might just be the sort of show where weird, scary voices are brought up and then never mentioned again. It might be the sort of show that lets a plant monster loose and forgets about it for the rest of the series. 

When it turns out, then, that that isn't the case, even in these early, apparently inconsequential episodes, it feels like a bonus, and we get, in hindsight, a little thrill of recognition, as we realise that no, there was a plot there the whole time. It's a satisfying feeling, at least for me, and it's 100% what's fuelling this re-listen.

So yup. Super Energy Saver Mode. An exercise in atmospheric spookiness, an enjoyable haunted house story and just generally a pleasant surprise. Solid work, really.

  Miscellaneous thoughts

Eiffel is talking about an 830 day mission, if I've done my maths right - with the possibility of Command extending it! That is one long-ass time to spend in space with three other people!

I want to know Eiffel's top five Stick It to the Man songs so badly 

"Ooookay. Maybe this isn't one of those wait and see things. Maybe it's one of those... imminent death things."

Wait Hilbert had to amputate multiple of Minkowski's toes???

Bless her, Hera sounds drunk when she's coming back online ^-^

[comicgeekscomicgeek]

Their Hero Academia – Chapter 65: Hit the Beach!

Presenting the next installment of my on-going, nextgen, MHA fic! Earlier chapters can be found here

Okay, maybe having rich friends wasn’t such a bad thing.  And since everyone had come along, Isamu didn’t feel like too much of a moocher.   Well, maybe a little.  Even with the seventeen members of Class 1-A, Izumi’s parents, and the butleriest butler to ever butler, there’d been plenty of space on the private jet.  He’d really underestimated Izumi’s family’s wealth.  That wasn’t how the upper half lived.  It was some kind of upper percentage that involved a lot of zeroes after the decimal point.

But laying on a tropical beach?   Yeah, he could get used to this.   Maybe if he got really successful as a Pro-Hero someday he could make enough money to do this kind of thing sometimes.  Mom and Dad would probably appreciate a real vacation too.  

After getting checked into the resort (Owning your own resort on your own island must be nice. They had an entire floor to themselves.), Class 1-A had done a bit of scattering to take advantage of the amenities. Aoyama had begged off going to the beach—understandable with how his Quirk absorbed light—and had instead decided to hit the spa, for which Izumi, Koda, and Tokoyami joined him (Izumi had practically insisted Tokoyami joint them, saying they had a specialist in spa treatments for people with feathers on staff).

Isamu’s gaze drifted out to the water, where several of his classmates were already horsing around.   The water looked extremely inviting, as clear as anything he had ever seen, gentling lapping onto the white sand shote.  Somehow, Sero (wearing the loudest swim trunks Isamu had ever seen in his life and which no-doubt were deliberately picked for how they clashed with his pink skin) had convinced Kocho to fly him out over the water.  Her wings were flapping hard and she was hovering probably a good six feet above the water.

“Okay, okay,” Sero said. “Now let me go!  Let me go!”

“I don’t know about this…” Kocho said.

“Look, you can either let me go, or I’ll squirm out on my own.”

Kocho just sighed. “Your funeral,” she said, and let him go.  She flapped hard and shot straight up, even as he shot straight down.

Sero tucked himself into a ball as he fell.  “CANNONBALL!”

SPLASH

Sero hit the water hard, sending water flying everywhere and utterly soaking Sato, who was filming the whole thing, as well as Ojiro and Tensei Iida, who’d been in the water too. Ojiro was wearing one of those long-sleeved uv protective swimsuits, in bright neon green, which she’d said was for “visibility.”   Which he supposed made sense.  If she was wearing less, it’d be hard to spot her if something went wrong.  She also had a flower in her hair and was wearing large, bright yellow sunglasses, which gave some general definition to where her face was.

Sero popped up out of the water with a laugh and grin.  He fired off a double thumbs’ up. “Did you catch that, viewers?  You’re just been Sero-Bombed!  Boom!”

“TAKUMA!” Ojiro screamed, arms flailing wildly.  “Did you have to do it so close?!  Look what you’ve done to my hair!”

“Aw, c’mon, Kimmie,” Sero said.  “It’s not anybody’s going to be able to tell.”

There was a moment of silence, the air thick with tension.  That had definitely been the wrong thing to say.  As if guided by some kind of primal instinct, Sato and Iida were backing away slowly.  And then Ojiro set herself upon Sero, fists flailing and hitting him upon the arms and shoulders again and again.

“WHY WOULD YOU SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT, TAKUMA!  YOU KNOW THAT’S NOT NICE!  WHY DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO SCREW AROUND LIKE THAT?!”

“Ow!  Ow!  Kimmie, you know my weaknesses is being smacked!  Ow, ow!  Just not the face, okay?  Please, not the face!”

“Don’t worry,” Sato called out.  “I’m getting this all on film!  Kick his butt, Kimmie!”

“I really must protest this assault on my boyfriend,” Iida piped in.  “No matter how misguided his actions were, violence is not the proper response!”

“Guys, I am so sorry,” Kocho called out circling around above.  “I had no idea it was going to be that big!”

Isamu looked over to his left, where Midoriya was occupying another one of the beach chairs. “Should… should we be stopping this?” Ojiro’s outbursts usually ran themselves out fairly quickly, but still…

Midoriya shrugged.  “They’re not hurting anybody, except maybe Sero. And it’s my vacation. I’m off duty and I say let them blow off some steam.”

Well, that was a different answer than he’d been expecting.  Maybe Midoriya was taking Aizawa’s admonishment to have the rest of the class to rely on him less to heart.  Of course, Aizawa had also told him that he needed to step up his own leadership game and that thought was just terrifying.

So he was going to file all of that under things he wasn’t going to think about right now.

Kocho, meanwhile, had flown away from the chaos and landed next to them.  She wore a backless black one piece swimsuit and had explained that while she liked the beach, she couldn’t really get her wings too wet or she’d be unable to fly.  

“Definitely time for a strategic retreat,” she said.  She gave her wings a flick, causing some stray drops of water to fly off, before folding them behind her.  Her antenna flicked up for a moment before settling.  “Sorry I set that off.”

Isamu laughed.  “Trust me,” he said, “that would have happened sooner or later no matter what.  That’s just who they are.”

“Definitely getting that,” Kocho said.  

“Besides,” Midoriya added, “Sero is extremely persuasive.  He even managed to talk me into standing on the ceiling once for some kind of “upside down room” video.”

Okay, Isamu made a mental note to see if that was somewhere on Sero’s Viewtube channel.  Because that sounded hilarious.

“Ooooh, boys,” a sing-song voice called out from somewhere behind them.  Isamu felt a chill go down his spine as he realized it was Mineta.  

***

Despite his words to Haimawari, Toshi’s roles as “Team Dad” and class representative were hard to completely shake, so he did keep an eye on Ojiro and Sero, even as Sato and Tensei tried to pry them apart.

Mineta’s call, however, distracted him from anything else.  He’d head that particular tone of voice often enough over the years, usually when she was feeling particularly attention-starved and was going to hit on someone.  

“Should we look?” Haimawari asked, sounding a bit panicked.  

“She’s just going to keep making noise until we do,” Toshi told him.  

“I take it this happens a lot?” Kocho asked.

“You have no idea,” Haimawari said.

“You all better turn around!” Mineta called out, proving his point.  “I mean, you’re going to want to feast your eyes on me anyway, but Midoriya’s really going to want to see this.”

Oh, that couldn’t possibly be good.

Reluctantly and with sinking dread, Toshi turned to look.  He could hear both Haimawari and Kocho suck in a sharp breath and it wasn’t hard to understand why.  There was Mineta.  And there was a lot of Mineta on display. There was also a cow-print bikini, of which there was not a lot.  Kaminari was standing next to her, wearing a considerably more modest one-piece in yellow and black, and looking vaguely embarrassed.  

“She cannot possibly be real,” he heard Kocho say.

“…Pretty sure she is,” Haimawari squeaked.  As both a frequent target for Mineta’s flirtations and having had some accidental if direct contact with her during the Sports Festival, he was qualified to weigh in on this.  Mineta had a way of getting into people’s heads like that.  

And, well, Toshi had eyes. And he was a guy.  He’d be lying if he said that between her bikini and her b…ody proportions, that Mineta didn’t have an effect on him.  He felt more than a little flustered just looking at her.

“Like my bikini?” Mineta asked, posing so that she thrust her chest out and also somehow emphasized her rear as well.  “I bought it special for this vacation!”

“I still can’t believe you have that,” Kaminari said.  “You’re almost naked.  Hell, you’d probably show less if you were.  Your parents can’t possibly know you have that.”

“Just because you’re lifetime president of the itty-bitty committee, Chi, is no reason to get snippy,” Mineta replied, turning so rapidly that it set parts of her swaying in ways that he felt he probably shouldn’t be watching.

“The hell did you just say?!”  Kaminari’s Cords snapped up, crackling with electricity.  “Say that again, Mika.  Say that again and we’ll see how much fat conducts electricity!”

“Oooh, kinky!”

There was also, Toshi realized, a familiar head of blue-black hair behind the two of them. Sora was taller than Mineta, but between Mineta’s horns and the fact that there was a lot of Mineta competing for attention, he hadn’t noticed her at first. He heard a soft cough.

“Oh!  Right!” Mineta said, switching gears with such suddenness that Toshi was sure he heard the clutch pop.  “I almost forgot the real reason I wanted your attention.”

She made a dramatic gesture with her arms.  “Presenting… the tall, the brainy, the hot, the runner up for best boobs in the class… Sora Iida!”

Mika took a few steps to the side and Toshi got his first look at his girlfriend since they’d split up to their rooms.  He’d asked if she’d wanted him to wait, but had somehow been overruled by Mineta, who’d said she needed to talk to Sora first.  

In retrospect, that really should have been a warning sign.

“Hello, Toshi,” Sora said. She was smiling, but he immediately noticed that it was nervous and uneasy.  Her posture was more hesitant and awkward than usual and in stark contrast to Mineta’s confidence.  “Do you like what you see?”

Sora was wearing a bikini. It wasn’t as small as Mineta’s, but it was definitely a bikini.

Toshi was not a blind man. He was aware that his very tall girlfriend was also very busty.  In reasons why he liked her, this fact ranked very, very low.  Which wasn’t to say he hadn’t thought about that, in late night moments, or when she hugged him tightly and pressed up against him.

“…Why are all the girls in this class so hot?” Kocho said.  “Oh, no, I said that out loud…”

“Not looking at my friend’s girl, not looking at my friend’s girl, I’ve got a girlfriend” Haimawari said, quietly and quickly.  He continued repeating the phrase.

He became very aware that he hadn’t said anything in a while.

“Toshi?” Sora asked, concerned, her own nervousness seemingly forgotten for a moment.  “Are you all right?”  She waved her hands to try and attract his vision.

“See?” Kaminari said, throwing her hands in the air.  “You broke him!  I could have told you he’s too innocent for this!”

“Well, excuse me for trying to help spice up their relationship!”

“No one asked you to!”

“I’m okay!” Toshi yelled, more loudly and quickly than he intended.  He felt his face go red. Either that or he was on fire.  It was hard to say at this point.  “You… you look amazing, Sora,” he said.  

“Mineta said you would like it,” she said, approaching him. He tried very hard to keep eye contact and only failed a couple of times.  Mineta and Kaminari were still fighting, but he tuned them out.  He was also pretty sure he heard Haimawari and Kocho high-tailing it out of there.  “May I?”   Sora gestured to the beach chair Haimawari had vacated.

Toshi gulped and nodded, trying hard not so stare as he she went by.  

“She said that girlfriends “dress sexy” for their boyfriends and that I would be a good girlfriend if I did this for you,” Sora went on.  “She said she wanted to help and had several bikinis prepared for me to try on.”

Toshi buried his face in his hands.  Eventually, he brought his head up.  “Sora, what’s rule one when dealing with anything Mineta claims?”

Sora thought for a moment, then snapped her fingers.  “The same for scientific studies!  Always corroborate with a second source!  Preferably Tokoyami if available.”

He smiled.  “Right,” he said.  “She probably just wanted to see you in a bikini and to give me a heart attack.”   He scooted his chair closer to hers and put an arm around her shoulders, mindful of her Jetpack pipes.  He’d learned the hard way that the skin around them could be quite sensitive. That particular discovery had left him red in the face for quite a while.

“Besides,” he said, “you don’t have to do anything different or special for me.  I mean, unless you want to.”  He added that last part hastily, realizing the gap in what he’d said. Both Sora and her brother sometimes needed extra explanations about proper social conventions.  It was why Mika had been able to fool her so easily. “I like you,” he said.  “I like you in your uniform, in your costume, in your regular clothes.  And I do like you in this.  But do you like you in this?”

Sora frowned. “Undetermined,” she said.  “I am not used to wearing so little.  It seems very impractical.”

“Yeah, there is that,” he agreed.  

“But I am happy that you like what you see,” she added thoughtfully.  “I suspect more evidence is needed.”

Deciding to be bold, he leaned over and kissed her cheek softly.

“Whatever you want, that’s your decision.  I’m not going to tell you how to dress.”

Sora nodded, seemingly satisfied with that.  “I am still learning how to be a good girlfriend, Toshi.  I do not want to get this wrong.  I do not really know what boys want.”

“Hey,” he said.  “I said it before, we’re learning together, okay?”

“Okay.”

And it was.

“Though I did notice you were definitely staring at Mineta…”

***

“Oh, this feels so good,” Mika said, as she slid low into the hot spring, purple hair floating around her head.   She made a very distracting moan.  “I swear, Todoroki, this place really does have everything.”

Chihiro shot her a look. “Do you and the spring need a few moments alone?”   It was a sharper barb that she really should have made, but she was still annoyed at Mika for the “itty-bitty” comment earlier.  It wasn’t her fault she took after Mom or that most of the rest of the girls in the class were more… shapely than her!  And compared to Mika or Iida, everybody looked small.

The look Chihiro had shot her was nothing compared to the look Kirishima-Bakugo gave her.  “If you’re going to be gross,” she said, lips curled back in a snarl, “you’ve got a room.”

“Relax,” Mika said, not looking at her.  “I’m just really enjoying this.”

“When the Yaoyorozu family designed this resort, they wanted to make sure that every luxury was available to the guests and to themselves,” Izumi said, sinking a little lower in the water herself.  Already, her pale skin was beginning to flush from the heat.  “They worked with a geokinetic and a hydrokinetic to craft it according to very exact specifications.”

“Geeze,” Kocho said, “just how rich is your family?”   She was sitting the farthest back, wings kept above the waterline.  “Sorry, that was probably rude.”

It was, honestly, a common reaction when hanging out with Izumi.

“You know that old kid’s manga?  About the kid who could turn stuff to gold and it made his family like, mega rich?” Chihiro said.  

“That would not work,” Iida said.  She’d slid low in the water too.  Apparently her Jetpack pipes were self-sealing.  “It would drive down the value of gold and ultimately make it worthless. Furthermore, any Quirk like that would be highly monitored by the government for misuse…”

“Just go with it,” Chihiro said, trying to avoid a lengthy discussion.  Iida could get too caught up in the facts and miss the actual point fairly easily sometimes.

“Oh yeah, I remember that one,” Kocho said.

“Good,” Chihiro replied. “Triple that.  At least.”

Kocho’s dark eyes went wide and her antenna snapped straight up.  “Ah. Got it.”

“That is,” Izumi began, raising a hand as though to object.  She paused, as if unsure.  She did like magna, Chihiro recalled, but couldn’t remember if she’d read that one. Izumi looked over to Kirishima-Bakugo, who gave her a shrug.   “Not entirely inaccurate.”

“So Kocho,” Ojiro began. She was wearing flowers in her hair again, the only other indication other than a slight ripple in the water around her body, of where she was.  “As the newest member of the class, we have a lot of questions.  Like, are you seeing anybody?  The gossip mill demands to know!”

“Perhaps give her a little space before interrogating her, Ojiro?” Koda suggested.   “Or at least on asking something so personal?”

“It’s fine,” Kocho said, waving a hand.  “I’m single, Ojiro.  Not really looking either.”

“Okay, so that’s means it’s just me, Iida, and Mineta who have boyfriends?” Ojiro asked.  “How is this possible?  Are none of you interested in guys?!”

Ugh, no, she really did not need to hear this.  Chihiro wondered if she could hold her breath and go underwater long enough for Ojiro to stop talking.  She already had spent way too much time thinking about the fact that Monoma had kissed her.  Not that any of the rest of the girls knew, but she really didn’t need Ojiro finding out about it.  She’d never hear the end of it.  She absolutely did not need the invisible girl “shipping” her with Monoma. She didn’t like him, even if she’d ended up feeling sorry for him, and he didn’t like her, and yet…

She hadn’t exactly hated it either.

So of course running away to a tropical vacation had been the perfect way to avoid having to talk to him about it.  

“You do get there’s more than just being interested in boys, don’t you, Ghosty?” Kirishima-Bakugo growled.  

“She’s right,” Mika said, rising up out of the water enough to count on her fingers.   “Wow.  There’s something I never thought I’d say.  There’s also being interested in girls.  And non-binary people.  And non-gender identifying people and…”

“Not the point I was making, Horse-Girl.”

“But she’s right!” Ojiro said.  “I’m open to the gossip mill of all relationships!  I do not discriminate gossip on the basis of sexuality!”  There was a slight shift in the water, as though she was leaning forward.  “So you all better tell me if you get into a relationship!  Not like that relationship hiding hunk Shoji!”

Wait, what?  Like just about anyone attracted to male and possessing a pulse, Chihiro admitted that Shoji was obscenely attractive.   Muscles for days, surprisingly soft features, great hair…  But he kept to himself and she hadn’t had any idea about this!

“What?!” Mika shouted, her eyes wide.   “Nooooo! I was slowly wearing down his resistance!  By graduation, I’d have been all over the Shoji train!”

“No, you weren’t” Chihiro snapped.  Some days, Mika was just flat out exhausting.  She was absolutely her best friend in the world, but sometimes…  “And you already have a giant boyfriend!  You don’t need two!”

Mika laughed as she leaned back in the water.  “Oh, I’m definitely too much woman for just one partner.”   Chihiro didn’t dignify that with a response.

“He does!”  Ojiro said, clapping happily.  “Her name’s Emiko and she’s really cute!”

“He does enjoy his privacy,” Tokoyami said.  Frog Shadow was bobbing contentedly in the water next to her.  “But I am happy for him.”   She didn’t sound entirely convincing to Chihiro’s ears.

“You’re just sad it wasn’t you!” Frog-Shadow offered, eyes snapping open.

“I am not…” Tokoyami started, her voice warbling. The feathers on her head were starting to stand up and Chihiro could swear she saw a little blush under them.  Her hands flew to her beak. “Qui… quiet you!”

“You can’t silence me when I’m right!” Frog-Shadow declared, before Tokoyami shoved her under the water.  She kicked and fought and bubbles churned, but Tokoyami didn’t let her back up until she’d calmed down.

Koda tapped a rocky hand on her chin, a faraway look in her eyes.  “Good for him,” she said softly.  “Shoji is a kind soul and deserves the happiness.”  Mika had said she was having some body image and confidence issues lately.   Of course, Mika had also said she’s had a plan to rectify that.  As someone who’d let herself be talked into more than one harebrained scheme, she had a pretty dim view of Mika’s plans.

It was only then that she noticed Kirishima-Bakugo had her eyes closed and her hands over her ears. Slowly, she pulled her hands back. “Are they done talking yet, Iz?  I can’t tell.”

“I am uncertain,” Izumi said.  She turned back to the group and asked, diplomatically.  “Will this be going on much longer?”  A smile tugged at her lips, obviously amused by, if not particularly invested in the discussion.

“Maybe?” Mika said. “All in favor of talking about Shoji more?”

Even Izumi started to raise a hand at that.   Kirishima-Bakugo gave her a wide eyed stare of betrayal.

“What?” Izumi said. “Even if I am not interested in him romantically or sexually, he is very aesthetically pleasing.”

Kirishima-Bakugo crossed her arms and closed her eyes again.  “…Yeah, okay, he is.”

“…did she just admit to an interesting in something other than violence?” Ojiro asked.  “Isn’t that a sign of the apocalypse?”

“I’m on vacation, so pretend I growled at you and threated you with explosive death,” Kirishima-Bakugo said.

No, Chihiro was still pretty sure that the sign of the apocalypse had been Monoma kissing her, but weren’t signs supposed to come in threes…?

“Okay,” Ojiro said, “we’re all agreed.  Everybody’s attracted to Shoji.  But since he’s off the table, who else are we crushing on?  What about you, Kaminari?  Any guys got your eye?”

“Definitely not Monoma!” she said quickly.  She needed to dispel any idea about that as quickly and loudly as possible.

“We… didn’t mention Monoma,” Ojiro said.

…crap.

***

“Chihiro, you open this door this minute!” Mika shouted, pounding heavily on the door of her friend’s hotel room with her first.

“Go away, Mika!” Chihiro snapped from within.  

“I can wait all day, Chi.” Mika crossed her arms.  “You bolted out of there like you were on fire.”  After mentioning Shiro.   Which was kind of her fault.  And by kind of, she meant completely.   She’d messed that one up by several degrees of magnitude.  But Chi hadn’t said anything about it to her, so she’d hoped it would all die down and she could go back to trying to convince Shiro to date Akaya instead.  

Not that she didn’t want the best for Chihiro of course.  She was her best friend.  And she knew Shiro better than just about anyone; he really was a good guy under some of that bluster.  Probably her best friend after Chihiro, come to think of it, on top of being her ex.

“Look, you want to talk about it?” she asked.  “Or I can get Akaya or Torodoki or, I dunno, Tokoyami?”  …Probably not Akaya, actually.  That conversation might lead down roads she did not want to travel.

No answer this time. Also not a good sign.

Mika pounded on the door one more time.  “Chi… can we talk?  Please. This is actually important.  About Shiro.”

The door opened a crack, revealing a glaring Chihiro.  Sparks danced on the ends of her Cords.  Not a good sign.   But she stepped back enough to let Mika in, then flopped down on the bed.

“I know, I know, I made a total idiot out of myself back there,” she wailed, staring up at the ceiling. “I just let everybody know I maybe kind of have some kind of crush thing going on for Monoma.”

“It’s not a big deal,” Mika said.

“Of course it is! He’s… he’s such a…” Chihiro made gestures in the air, which were copied by her Cords.  “He’s Monoma!  The guy who thinks he’s our hated rival! With that stupid smug face and perfect hair! And now that Ojiro knows it, the whole world probably already knows!”

“She said she wouldn’t,” Mika assured her, coming to stand near the bed.  “I think she was too stunned to make much sense of it anyway. And it’s not like anybody knows he kissed you.”

Chihiro sat up so fast Mika was pretty sure she’d broken the sound barrier.  “How do you know about that?”

Oops.

“Well, you see,” Mika began.

Before she could get any further, Chihiro interrupted her.  “I swear, if the next words out of your mouth are “I can explain,” I will tase the shit out of you.  Because I have been trying to make sense of this ever since it happened and if I find out you had something to do it with…”

Well, that would definitely explain the moodiness and irritability.  She’d been ready to blame it on something else entirely.   “Can I at least sit down?” she asked.

Chihiro shrugged and scooted over on the edge of the bed to make room.  Mika took the seat, but gave her a bit of space.  “Okay, so I can explain—don’ttaseme!”   She flinched, but all Chihiro did was give her an eyeroll.

“So after the Internships, Shiro was feeling pretty depressed.  He was going to quit, as soon as exams were over.  Big blow to his confidence, but not really my story to spill.”

“Yeah, he told me that,” Chihiro said.  

“And you remember Akaya was feeling pretty depressed too, after some of the stuff that happened during her Iinternship, with those mutant-prejudiced assholes.”

“Dumbasses.”

Mika nodded her agreement. People could be real asses sometimes. And somebody as sweet and innocent as Akaya definitely didn’t deserve that kind of treatment.   “But anyway, she was feeling real down about herself and her appearance.  So I had a couple of friends who were both feeling depressed and I ended up working on a plan with Anime that would help both of them…”

Chihiro buried her face in her hands.  “Mika, Fukidashi is the one person the planet with worse plans than you!  I’m not sure she can actually tell the difference between fiction and reality.”

It didn’t look like Chihiro had put all the pieces together yet.   Crap.  That meant she’d have to explain more.

“Sooo,” she went on, “I sent him a text after the exams saying a ‘mutual acquaintance’ was feeling down and maybe he’d like to come by and cheer her up.”   She sucked in a breath.  Chi may have doubted her own intelligence at times, but this wasn’t going to take much to figure out.

Chihiro frowned.  “And there I was when he showed up, depressed as hell because I nearly caused us to flunk.  I thought he was acting funny! Even for him!  No wonder!  He probably thought you meant me!”

Before Mika could blink, Chihiro’s Cords shot out, less than a couple centimeters from her face.  No sparks, thankfully, but that could change in an instant.  “Did. You. Tell.  Him.  To. Kiss.  Her?!”

“Absolutely not,” Mika said.   “He came up with that on his own.  I think you really gave him a breakthrough, Chi.”

Chihiro sagged, her Cords drooping, letting go of some of that agitation.  “What am I going to do, Mika?”

“Well, he did say he was maybe going to ask you out…”

“What?”  Chihiro’s head snapped back up again.

“Give him a shot,” Mika said.  “He’s really not nearly as bad a guy as most people think he is.  He’s just… a lot.”  She gestured at her chest.  “But he liked me even before these came in, so he’s obviously not just in it for the physical stuff.”

She opted not to mention that there’d been an intermediate phase where Shiro had been hung up on Kirishima-Bakugo.  Like Granny always said, sometimes, maybe don’t kick the rattler’s den.

“Ugh, but he’s so… him!  With his stupid blue eyes and stupid fancy hair and stupid little smile…”

Yeah, okay, Chihiro had it bad.

“Look,” Mika said, “date him. Or don’t.  That’s your decision.  But you gotta stop worrying about what people will think about it.  You think I worry about stuff like that?”

That, at last, got a laugh. “No, but you’re shameless.”

“One of my many talents.”

Chihiro shook her head. “Yeah, well… maybe I’ll wait and see what he does.”

“Bonus, if you do date him, I can tell you alllll kinds of secrets.”

“You two were tweens when you dated!  How do you have secrets on him?”

“Because he’s still one of my friends and I still know how to get him flustered.”

She shook her head again. “Going to need you to be straight with me, Mika.”

“I think you and I both know how much I cannot do that, Chi.”

That got an actual smile out of her friend, which meant it had worked.  “Not what I meant and you know it, Mika,” Chihiro said.  “You’d really be okay with me dating your ex?”

It was a good question. They were two of her best friends. But she didn’t harbor any particular plans to get back together with Shiro.  Being “just friends” with a guy was actually kind of nice.  Not that she’d admit that to anyone.  And not that she’d object if he wanted to get back together or even just get a little frisky, of course…

“Look,” Mika said, “I’ve got a buffet table out there.  And one of the most gorgeous hunks of man on the planet.  So if you wanna shack up with Shiro, be my guest.”

Chihiro went red. “Look, just because you’re that fast..!”

Mika laughed.  “Relax, Chi.  But be my guest.  Sounds like you guys kind of connected.  I’m happy for you, if it works out.”

Chi smiled at that, and Mika finally felt a little relief.  “Thanks, Mika.”

Of course, now she needed a new plan to help Akaya.  Maybe she could just bite the bullet and shove her and Aoyama in a closet until Frenchie expressed his super-obvious feelings…

Chihiro poked her with a Cord.  “You’ve plotting again.  Stop that.”

“No.”

“We were having a nice moment and now you’re back to being impossible.  Why are you like this?”

“Just lucky, I guess.”

***

The sun was low in the sky when Class 1-A returned to the beach, this time gathering around a bonfire. Todoroki had volunteered to simply start it with her Quirk, but Kirishima-Bakugo had declared that “cheating” and had proceeded to start one by hand.  For someone who was so angry with everyone else, she was surprisingly soft when it came to Todoroki.  Koharu wondered if there was some kind of history or something there.  At the hot spring, Todoroki had basically said she wasn’t interested in romance or sex, so it probably wasn’t anything like that, but…

Together, they made a big ring around the fire, the flames crackling red-orange in the darkening sky.  She liked twilight, when the day gave way to the night, starting to bring things to a close.  Koharu’s Moth Quirk actually have her excellent night vision, though she didn’t have the problems with bright lights that some of her family did. She had a cousin that was pretty much blind for anywhere up to a half hour after somebody turned on the lights.

The others were already starting to sit together in what she was learning were some of the usual pairs and groups, most of them talking animatedly.  Midoriya was sitting with his girlfriend, Sora Iida.  Next to them were Shinso, Tokoyami and Frog-Shadow, and Shoji.  Then there was Todoroki and Kirishima-Bakugo, Shoji, Aoyama, and Koda, and Mineta and Kaminari.  After that, there was Ojiro, Sero, and Sato.  She took a seat next to them, with Haimawari on her left completing the circle.

“Having fun?” Haimawari asked.  

She nodded.  “I am.  I was a little nervous about coming along.  I mean, I’ve only known Ojiro and her friends for a few weeks, and you and Midoriya for a little less than that, so I don’t really know if I feel like I belong here yet…  But everybody’s been really nice and welcoming.”

Haimawari smiled and nodded. “Yeah,” he agreed.  “They’re like that.  I was the same way, you know, when we started.  They all knew each other, and there I was, the new guy moving into the dorms and being in class with them.  But Midoriya reached out to me and made sure I was included.  Him, Tokoyami, Izumi, and Shinso.  The first friends I had here.”

For a moment, Koharu’s thoughts drifted back to her General Education classmates, especially her best friends, Mogura and Tokuda.  She wouldn’t be living with them anymore and would have different classes.  It would make it harder to find time to get together, though not impossible.  But she definitely didn’t want them to drift apart.  They’d surely understand the differing demands of the Hero Course, but she knew they’d be hurt if they thought she was forgetting about them.

Maybe she ought to try and do something to bring her old class and new class together.

“Trust me,” Haimawari assured her.  “Before you know it, it’ll be like you’ve been here since day one.”

“I sure hope so,” she said.

“You will,” he said. “Trust me.  They’ve got history.  But now that you’re here with us?  You’ve got future.  And that’ll turn into history.”

He made a good point, she had to admit.  

“Hey, look, Kocho,” Sero said, leaning over to show her his phone. He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt with a pattern that made her eyes hurt just to look at.  His phone was open to a Viewtube page, showing Sato’s earlier recording of his cannonball and subsequent Ojiro-induced smacking.  It had been titled “Cannon-Fail.”

“Eighty thousand hits and counting!” Sero told her, grinning.  

“So you dropping out of the sky and Ojiro beating the stuffing out of you is hit worthy?” she asked.

“Oh yeah!  Kimiko yelling and hitting things rates really high with our subscribers.  Hope nobody’s getting off on it though…”

Koharu blinked slowly. “I do not get internet fame.”

Sero just laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m an expert at this. Stick with us, we’ll make you a star!”

Before she could make a counter argument to that, Shinso piped up.  “Oh!  Oh! Kaminari!  Are you going to play?  Are you?”  The short boy was practically bouncing with excitement.  “Pleeeeeaaasseee?”

Kaminari had indeed brought a case of some kind with her, what looked like some kind of small, guitar-ish instrument.  She opened it up and Koharu realized it was a ukulele.  She knew the electric girl’s mother was a musician on top of being a Hero, but hadn’t realized that she played too.  She still had a lot to learn about her new classmates!

“Only because you asked so nice, Shinso,” Kaminari said.  She strummed a few chords and made a few minor adjustments to the instrument before she started to play.  “So this one goes out to all of us, for passing our exams, for surviving our Internships, for making it through the first term.  To our Sports Festival winners.  To old friends and new friends.  And to our hero academia.”

“Hero too, I am a hero too

My heart is set and I won't back down

Hero too, strength doesn’t make a hero

True heroes stand up for what they believe

So wait and see

So wait and see…”

[weregreatatcrime]

2.7K based on this ask and the ensuing word dump I had to release about Barbara’s pregnancy and Kanjigar’s reactions to it. It sort of evolved into something else. 

Barbara was visiting Trollmarket when she winced and rubbed her back. 

“Are you alright?” Blinky was the first to ask, followed by a chorus of other voices. 

It seemed like every single troll in Trollmarket was mother henning Barbara the past nine months she’d been pregnant. Human pregnancy was strange, to them, and terrified every troll she’d tried explaining it to. It was perfectly normal, really, but apparently to trolls it was the most terrifying thing they’d ever heard. Especially with two infants involved. Maybe in the earlier stages she’d been treated fairly the same as ever, but once she started really showing everyone started treating her as if she was made of glass. 

Nobody hovered quite as much as her children and partner hovered, though. 

“I’m fine, just a backache.” Barbara tried to stretch her back with a grunt. 

Draal was hovering so close behind her she bumped her head on his chest. Jim and Toby at least hovered a good arms length away on either side. Far enough to be out of flailing reach if she lost her temper at their clinginess. Which had happened. A lot. 

“Are you certain? I can call for Father-” Draal’s fretting was halted by Barbara reaching up and smacking his chin. Not very hard but enough to make her point without hurting her hand. It wasn’t like he could feel it. 

“He’s busy with important Trollhunter duties, don’t you dare interrupt him. I’m sure this is nothing.” Barbara rolled her eyes with a sigh. 

She had to pretty much force Kanjigar to deal with some trolls who had come to Heartstone Trollmarket seeking the Trollhunter’s assistance. They’d come from so far away and seemed rather desperate... He’d refused to leave to help them, but at least had agreed to meet with them briefly once she’d convinced him she wouldn’t keel over without him at her side. 

Honestly, she was lucky to get a break from Kanjigar’s worrying. Draal at least didn’t keep trying to pick her up and carry her everywhere. He fretted but let her have some space. Barbara may need assistance in the near jungle gym of Trollmarket’s streets, but she still had two feet damnit. She wanted to use them! 

“Is everything alright?” Bagdwella asked tentatively, equally as cautious around Barbara as every other troll but at least less likely to mother hen. She expressed her concern through feeding Barbara everything she could possibly ever want. 

“Everything is fine, I promise,” Barbara scowled. Bagdwella handed her a bowl of something unidentifiable that smelled strangely appetizing as an apology. Barbara forgave her instantly as she picked up one of the little tablets and nibbled on it. “This is delicious!” Truly, nothing catered to pregnancy cravings exactly like troll cuisine did. Apparently the strange combinations Barbara craved were usually palatable to trolls in the reverse as well. 

“I’m glad you-” Bagdwella paused. “Barbara, dear, I hate to be rude but-” 

There was a lot of sniffing around her. 

Barbara scowled and prepared to smack every troll around her until- 

“Mom, look at your pants!” Jim was at her side shaking her elbow. 

Barbara looked down and noticed a small wet spot. “Oh.” 

“Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh-” Toby was jumping up and down. “Did your water break? I thought it was this big whoosh thing but that’s just on TV-” 

“Water breaking can come in large amounts or just a trickle,” Barbara said idly, setting the bowl of tasty treats down. She reconsidered and picked it back up. “Some women’s water never breaks until late in labour.” She turned to Draal. “Draal, honey, I’m going to need you to carry me back to the house so Jim can drive me to the hospital. And can someone tell Kanjigar I’m going into labor?” 

The panicked squeal Draal made was, in retrospect, entirely hilarious. 

~~~~~~~

Somewhere on the bumpy sprint back to the Lake household Barbara felt a lurch and a pressure in her abdomen. 

“Oh!” She clutched her stomach as her muscles clenched. 

“Are you okay?!” Toby wheezed, clinging to Draal’s shoulder. Jim had already sprinted ahead at lightspeed. 

“I think one of them just settled.” Barbara said calmly. “And my contractions are starting to really kick in.” 

“OH MY GOSH-” 

It took some time to convince Toby and Draal she wasn’t already giving birth, because labor took hours at a minimum, get her to the goddamned hospital already! She was not going to give birth in a cave!  

~~~~~~~~

Deya bless Jim’s quick thinking and steady head. 

Barbara’s trip to the hospital was comfortable and wrapped in blankets in the back seat of the car. She texted Blinky to let him know Draal was at the house pacing a highway into the floorboards. Hopefully the other trolls could keep her son calm before he wrecked the house. She felt terrible about having to leave him behind, but it wasn’t as if they could bring a troll into the hospital.  

Blinky texted her back informing her Kanjigar was on the way. 

“If Kanjigar shows up at the hospital as a troll I am going to rule number three him.” Barbara said firmly. 

Neither of her human sons replied, Jim too busy laser focused on the road like the responsible boy he was. Toby was bouncing and mumbling to himself in the front seat with the sound of rapidly pressed phone buttons filling the few gaps where he stopped to breathe. 

Barbara shrugged with a sigh and nibbled on her bowl of treats. 

~~~~~~~

Kanjigar was doing everything in his power to not throw the trolls in front of him into a wall and sprint back to his mate. She was human, human pregnancy was normal, and she insisted that he acted like everything was normal as well. Kanjigar did not want to stress her out any more than she already was. At several points her ‘mood swings’ had terrified him to the core enough that he would do everything in his power to follow her wishes on the matter. 

So he’d spent the past nine months fighting back every trollish instinct that demanded he kidnap her and tuck her into a nest safe and sound where nobody could hurt her or the whelp. 

Deya’s grace, whelpS. Twins. Kanjigar got lightheaded every time he thought about it. 

“KANJIGAR!” Aaarrrgghh’s roar bellowed through the secluded hallways. 

The trolls he’d been speaking with, asking for assistance from some magical monster terrorizing their Heartstone, paled and backed away. They’d been on edge with Kanjigar’s twitchy behavior to begin with. 

“One moment.” Kanjigar said stiffly, resisting the urge to throttle them. “Aaarrrgghh, my friend, what-” He was bowled over by Aaarrrgghh barreling around a corner, both of them rolling into a pile as Kanjigar took the brunt of the krubera’s mad sprint. 

“What is the meaning of this?!” One of the trolls hissed. 

“BARBARA!” Aaarrrgghh barely untangled them before scrambling to his feet and shoving Kanjigar down the hall. 

“What?” Kanjigar’s mind snapped to attention. 

Blinkous, somehow still attached to Aaarrrgghh’s back like a stubborn tick, spoke up. “It’s Lady Barbara, she’s in labor! Draal, Jim, and Tobias are taking her to the hospital right now!” 

Kanjigar didn’t even realize he was running until he heard the faint echoes of the newer trolls asking where he was going. 

~~~~~~~

“Father!” Draal whined in a way he hadn’t since he was a whelp himself, rushing down the stairs as Kanjigar slid to a stop outside of their basement tunnel. “They’ve left to the human hospital already! I wanted to stop them but-” 

“It’s-” Kanjigar used every ounce of self-control he possessed to grit out his next words. “It was Barbara’s wish to give birth in the human hospital where they have the ability to monitor her health and pain.” He stretched and took a deep breath in. “I will join them shortly, and text Blinkous to let him know of the situation.” Or make Jim and Toby text him instead. Kanjigar didn’t expect himself to remain in control once he was there. 

“What?” Draal drew back, looking at him like he was crazy. “How do you expect to get there?” 

“It’s still daytime out, yes?” Kanjigar pushed past him to start up the stairs. 

“Father!” Draal whined. Deya, his son would have to learn to worry less. 

Once in the backyard Kanjigar looked out at the sun with a deep breath, standing in the shadow of the house steps away from deadly light. He picked up the Amulet where it was hanging around his neck. 

“Alright, you had better work.” Kanjigar said seriously. The amulet flashed slightly at him. He nodded firmly and grasped the amulet tightly. 

He stepped out into the sunlight. 

Kanjigar blacked out and woke up laying on his back, the grass tickling his back in a way it definitely could not with thick troll skin. 

“Father? Father! Can you hear me?” Draal’s voice filtered into his consciousness slowly. 

“I’m alright.” Kanjigar stuck his hand up in a thumbs up. 

Blinky and Aaarrrgghh showed up before Kanjigar managed to grab Jim’s Vespa and speed it to the hospital. Blinkous near forced him to put on actual clothes. Kanjigar only allowed it when Blinkous insisted that the hospital would not let him in if he was only wearing a leather kilt. 

~~~~~~

Barbara’s contractions were really starting to hit by the time Kanjigar flew into the room, eyes wild. 

“Barbara!” He started to run to her side, face thunderous and panicked. Two members of hospital security were at his heels. 

“Kanjigar you absolute-!” Barbara hissed dangerously and he paused. Security ran into his back behind him. “Did you seriously run into the sun-!” 

“Doctor Lake, do you want us to-?” 

Barbara threw her glasses at the security guard who dared interrupt her. “He is the FATHER and I am going to yell at him a lot but do NOT remove his dumb ass from this room!” She took a deep breath in and groaned loudly in pain. “Now everyone not involved in the making or ejection of these babies GET OUT!” 

The guards fled. 

~~~~~~

Eleven hours of labor. 

Eleven hours of Kanjigar nearly getting kicked out of the room, Jim and Toby fretting anxiously outside, and the poor boys having to field countless calls and texts from the trolls waiting for news. 

All things said it wasn’t the worst. Quite frankly Barbara hadn’t expected it to go so quickly, Jim’s birth had taken twenty hours alone. Her pain was managed by the epidurals and the staff were all too eager to help one of their own in any way possible. It was exhausting but pain management had come a long ways since she’d last given birth. 

Kanjigar was nearly thrown out multiple times. A few times the supervising Doctor simply wanted him gone because nobody had seen him supporting their favorite Doctor during her pregnancy, and it wasn’t as if Barbara could tell her coworkers that the magic turning him into a human had worn off and he was supporting her as well as he could from a magical underground world he was in charge of defending. She had to insist numerous times that yes, she wanted Kanjigar present. She secretly doubted he’d let them remove him even if she didn’t. 

The rest of the time he kept getting in the way and nearly fighting the staff every time they moved towards her. Barbara was this close to throwing him out herself if it weren’t for the catheter in her spine keeping her from moving. 

But it was worth it. It was so, so worth it when Barbara held her baby girl and baby boy in her arms for the first time. Kanjigar was frozen beside her, half on the bed with a single hand reaching out. The little girl grabbed his giant finger with her tiny hand and Kanjigar made a noise like he’d just been stabbed. Jim, allowed in as soon as the worst of it was over, was sniffling on the other side of the bed and Toby had his phone out recording Kanjigar’s face. Toby’s Nana stood at the door and wiped her eyes with a tissue. 

“Awww they’re so wrinkly and gross and adorable!” Toby whispered. The boy wriggled with his face scrunched up, looking like he was about to cry. 

“What’re their names, Mom?” Jim said, the quietest she’d ever heard him. 

Barbara laughed tiredly and extended her arm out to him. Jim ever so gently picked up the boy from the crook of her arm. 

“We wanted to use both troll and human naming for them.” Barbara said softly. “That right there is Kazimir.” 

“He’s…” Jim didn’t finish, eyes latched onto the baby in his arms. Toby crowded next to him with wide eyes. 

“This over here is Baburah Junior,” Barbara said with a giggle when both boys looked up with shocked faces. “Based on how many trolls can’t seem to say Barbara.” 

“Trollish yet still human, I can vibe with those.” Toby nodded, not looking away from Kazimir. 

“Here, honey.” Barbara nudged Kanjigar’s arm and offered Baburah to him. He looked terrified. “I promise you’re not going to break her, go ahead.” 

Kanjigar picked the newborn up very, very slowly. She was nearly nonexistent in his large arms. 

“Kanjigar,” Barbara stifled a tired laugh. “Are you crying?”

“Yes.” He said with no shame, face so full of awe and love. “I only wish…” Kanjigar looked up briefly. 

Nana in the doorway, smiling and sniffing tearily. Jim and Toby cradling Kazimir between them and whispering quietly. A large part of their family, true, but still so many they wanted there couldn’t be. 

“Don’t worry.” Barbara yawned while she patted his arm slightly. “I already told them we need to be home ASAP. They’ll need to monitor the twins for at least a day, but we may be able to wrangle them out shortly after.” 

Kanjigar looked down at the tiny life in his arms. “...if it’s to make sure they are healthy, I do not mind them staying. As long as we can stay with them.” She was so tiny, so fragile. It was terrifying imagining an already fragile human started out even more vulnerable. Yet here they were, his children, smaller than even one of his fingers in his true form. Barely cradled in his arms in his human form. 

Barbara laughed softly and he smiled as Baburah yawned up at him with her tiny mouth. Her skin was dark and softer than anything he’d ever felt before, her eyes a brilliant light blue. The dusting of hair on her head looked like it would be dark as it grew out. But then, Barbarah had warned them that human infants changed hair and eye colors as they grew. Kazimir looked near the same as his sister at this young age, the only difference being his skin and eyes were both lighter. 

He would wait as long as possible, to ensure they were okay, that they were healthy. But he couldn’t wait to show his children to the rest of their unorthodox family. 

~~~~~~

Two days was far too long to wait for the children to be home from the hospital, in the opinion of every troll waiting eagerly on their arrival. Besides the long pause as Toby was allowed to hold the babies for the first time, he kept everyone updated through texts as much as possible. 

When they finally came home it was just after sundown when they pulled into the driveway. Barbara wobbled into the house holding onto Jim’s arm, Kanjigar disregarding the carriers and simply holding a twin in each arm gently. She’d never seen him move so cautiously. Like the slightest bump would break them. 

Blinky and Aaarrrgghh let Draal approach first, looking terrified but undeniably eager. 

Barbara was sure to take pictures of Draal leaning over Kanjigar’s arms, a look of pure awe and adoration on his face while Kanjigar looked down with the most fatherly love a man could give. 

“Humans start so tiny?” Draal almost squeaked. 

“Some even tinier,” Barbara laughed. “Though they’re a bit small just because they’re twins. Less room.” She rubbed her stomach, feeling empty without the weight and comfort. “Now that they’re out they’ll shoot up like rockets, just you watch. They’ll be fully grown before you know it.” She looked at Jim fondly. 

Draal made an acknowledging noise but didn’t look away. It was several minutes before Aaarrrgghh got impatient and scooted his way closer, Kanjigar laughing and moving so he and Blinky could see the twins as well. 

Barbara sat down on the couch and watched a bunch of giant, monstrous trolls coo and wiggle fingers at her babies. 

She’d never felt so at home.

[guerilla935]

Review: Alien (1979)

Alien is a science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Dan O’Bannon. The movie stars Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, a crew member of the Nostromo, a commercial  space freighter carrying its haul back from a mining operation in another system. Her and her crew are safely making their way home when they are awakened from their cryo-sleep to investigate an alien signal. The crew is ordered to investigate or be denied payment for the entire trip so they detour to the desolate world. Upon reaching their destination they discover a terrifying life form and accidentally harbor it on their vessel. The consequences of that decision make up the majority of Ridley Scott’s masterpiece, Alien.

Alien is a film that develops a classic science fiction trope and matches it with an art direction and story concept that is both fantastical and terrifying. Really the concept is simple, in the age of space travel we find a species of alien that is definitely not nice. And the idea of some kind of “hive” or “insect-like” swarm of alien creatures has been a staple of science fiction for longer than I have been alive. The spin is that these these aliens are not just “not nice” they are hunters and their practices of survival involve doing especially messed up things to a host and behaving like a parasite. I think it is a shame that in my generation you have most likely heard of alien and pretty much know exactly what the alien is and the whole stomach thing and the face thing and the two mouths. Watching this for the first time I knew exactly what I was getting into however if it were 1979 and I were watching this film with no clue what was going to happen I probably would have been absolutely stunned and excited about the twists the movie takes to reveal exactly how the alien works.

A large part of what makes this movie a classic is the incredible art design and vision of H.R. Giger. His imaginings combined with the direction of Ridley Scott are absolutely stunning, when I wasn’t caught in endless suspense I was blown away by the set pieces and the mood that is set with both the lighting and sound. The set and the mood framed in every shot is 75% of the horror in Alien. If you are really into movies renowned for capturing every shot and artistically crafting every camera angle than this is an absolute must watch, even if horror is not your thing or science fiction you are going to find a movie that is carefully designed to keep you engaged for every second of its 117 minute runtime. The camera work paired with the haunting visuals that Giger has drafted send you to a not so typical science fiction world that feels more ancient and alive.

The actual alien is where the age starts to show for me. The alien has its own alien head technician, notice how I just referred to the head. When the body is slightly discovered on camera you can see the dude in the black body suit and it’s a bit hilarious, for all but some final moments however this is masterfully hidden out of view and lets the audience focus on the nasty two sets of jowls all up in there. I wish that this was amended with possibly a puppet but it is such a small slight that it doesn’t spoil the intensity of the film. During this I also want to give props to the miniature work because for the time I know for sure that it wasn’t CGI however the shots of the space ship from the outside are in my opinion take A New Hope (which was done 2 years prior) and perfect the use of miniatures to shoot the space scenes. Although that alien head technician does a fantastic job of creating an absolutely gruesome alien head and whenever it is on screen the tension shoots through the roof.

Next up is the sound (and I was doing a bit of binge watching so I had “Aliens” to compare this to) and I found that the lack of sound was unsettling. Any decent musician will tell you that you play your rests and transversely any great filmmaker will tell you that you can’t be afraid to sit in silence for a few seconds and this movie lets you sit in a lot of silenced moments. These are not even in the terrifying moments but rather in the moments when you are sure that every character is safe. And this only makes clear the underlying drama of the film that is screaming “our hero cannot trust these other characters to keep it together and do what it takes to survive” which just adds more stress to the moments when you are pretty sure nobody will die. The other moments are filled with, you know, the stress that someone is going to die. In these moments you are met only with this heartbeat noise that escalates my own heartbeat. (This so much so that when I was watching “Aliens” and that heartbeat wasn’t happening it was as if the scene was missing something, but that’s another review) Now it might have a soundtrack but if you were to ask me after the fact I would tell you that this movie has edited in only the heartbeat noise. There is also a scene early in the film where gas is spraying over the characters voices and it’s obvious that it was dubbed but it’s very out of mind by the time the credits roll that I don’t hold the movie back for that.

The performance of the cast is something that definitely needs to be addressed. Sigourney Weaver is incredible in her role and I am really just going to leave it at that because her performance in a horror lead role is possibly one of the best that I’ve seen (of course in my opinion and scope) and every scene that she is in has considerably more life and emotion than the others. Not to say that the rest of the cast has done a poor job. All 6 other members of the Nostromo crew have moments where they are allowed to shine just as bright as the lead. However the death scenes, typically the death scenes in horror movies kind of highlight a monster or supernatural thing, however every single death scene in Alien spotlights the performance of the performer. I think that in my eyes I value these scenes much more than I would have if it had been the opposite because of this, every death is done to highlight atmosphere and performance despite them not having the luxury of modern effects. And also just to make a comment on the underwear scene, they didn’t have to, but they did, sure, it doesn’t really sway my overall opinion of the movie.

I have come to turns that at this point horror movies are one of my things. As a side note I used to hate them however in retrospect I’ve seen so many that I can’t really lie to myself and say that I don’t love them. Alien is one of the greatest movies in the horror genre that I’ve seen. This for the reason that I was actually scared and in constant suspense throughout the entire film and that it has held up for 41 years. Alien is a film that will continue to set the bar for horror films and be a reference for great cinematography and set design well into the future. If you haven’t seen Alien you need to stop reading this and go watch it. And if you’re too scared, good, you’ve already set the mood.

[animebw]

Binge-Watching: March Comes in Like a Lion, Episodes 11-12

In which the light of Rei’s life returns to give him peace, we discover the horror of warmth when it fades back into cold, and a terrifying showdown looms on the horizon.

Homeward Bound

I’m still in awe of how intense the last stretch of Sangatsu no Lion got. From Kyouko’s arrival to Rei’s climactic outburst, there was so much dread and horror packed into those episodes I almost started choking on it. And in retrospect, I’m realizing it’s not just Kyouko showing up that made this stretch so dark. It’s also that Akari, Hina and Momo vanished. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think we saw so much as a hint of the sisters from the moment Kyouko entered the picture. Her darkness doesn’t just drag Rei down into his worst memories, it also pushes out the brightest light he’s got in his life. The pain he endured was only so potent because he was pretty much enduring it alone, and the lack of the sisters’ warm, welcoming presence reflected his isolated, turbulent state of mind. So you can imagine how loud my gasp of relief was when they finally showed up at his door to aggressively pamper him all over again. God, I know it was only for a couple episodes, but I missed them so fucking much. I missed Momo swimming on her grandpa’s newspaper like a goober. I missed Hina rushing out to check Rei’s mailbox full of enthusiasm, only to come shrinking back in shame when he hasn’t gotten as many new years cards as she thought (of course, he’s just happy to get any at all). I missed the shockingly wholesome way this show treats Akari’s hostess gig, supporting the idea that women can be caretakers and somewhat "scandalous” at the same time. I even somehow missed their hilarious aunt, despite this being the first time she’s even frigging shown up (”I’ll seize men’s habits of spending money!”) There are so many wonderful things about Sangatsu no Lion, but there is nothing in it that gives me so much joy as the comfort of home these girls represent.

And it is so fucking wonderful to see Rei let himself be comfortable with them. After suffering so long in the grip of his darkest demons, this was a reminder he desperately needed: he doesn’t have to feel alone. He can feel loved, supported, part of a family that cares for him as if he were their own son. Even though they’re struggling with their own trauma, they have no qualms about letting Rei share their happiness with them. After how long Rei’s felt isolated from anywhere he could reasonably feel safe in, the comfort he has with the sisters is the hope he needs to give him strength. And it’s just... joyful. It’s one of the most spiritually uplifting bonds I think I’ve ever seen in anime. It’s a full-throated battle cry against the forces of despair, proclaiming that no matter how dark the world outside might get, you deserve a place to call home. When Akari tells Rei she’s happy to have him around because his presence gives her comfort from her pain just as hers does is, I started crying right alongside Rei. God, how long has this poor kid needed to hear that other people are better for his presence? That he can make a positive difference just by being there? And then that same episode got the tears flowing again when Rei sees the stickers on the drawer in his room, making him realize that this place is as much a home to him as his own home used to be. And as he drifts off to sleep, wearing the biggest, warmest smile we’ve ever seen him wear, his narration assures us that this will be the deepest, most peaceful sleep his had in a long time, and fuck I’m tearing up against just thinking about it. I AM SO INVESTED IN REI’S HAPPINESS IT’S SCARY. GOD.

The Cold Outside

But just when you think you can start getting comfortable again, Sangatsu plunges headfirst right back into spine-clenching despair. After all the time he spends at Akari’s house, Rei becomes so used to being warm and welcome that the isolation of his apartment suddenly becomes unbearable. He’s too aware of how loudly the clock is ticking, how loudly the air conditioning is humming, how loudly the silence weights on him like a suffocating blanket. And in a cruel blast of dark imagery, he runs outside, forcing himself to get out, walk, move and keep moving, keep his brain active, anything to escape the horrifying stillness that’s suddenly become all too terrifying. Fuck me, I was outright hyperventilating at this point. I was so scared for Rei’s well-being that I damn near made myself pass out from anxiety. But it makes perfect, horrifying sense. Rei spends most of his life in a state of numbness, staving off the pain by dulling it through monotony and routine. If everything’s a formless gray haze, at least that grey is stable and reliable. But from spending so much time to Akari’s house, Rei broke that balance. He let himself internalize what it was like to be around people who loved him, to be somewhere he could feel at home. So when he returned to his lonely apartment that house, the emptiness of his day-to-day life suddenly becomes impossible to ignore. It’s just like the kotatsu at Akari’s house: it’s so wonderfully warm underneath the covers, but that only makes it so much colder when you finally pry yourself back out. And had Rei not leapt straight back into action the moment he realized how cold he was, he likely would’ve froze to death from the sub-zero chill.

It’s such an evil, gut-wrenching swerve, turning the comfort of the Akari’s household into something capable of hurting Rei just as deeply as the darkness outside. And yet, as much as I hate to admit it, it’s also a realization Rei needed to come to. His outburst last session was the first time he’d been able to vocalize the roiling pain inside him, to put words to the way he struggles to survive and start to understand how to process it all. Moving forward, he has to start learning how to balance his life, not letting himself be consumed by inaction or stagnation in any one area. Shogi’s a prison of his own making, but it also gives him a solid anchor in a raging sea where he could easily be swept away. The way he hyper-focuses on strategizing in the aftermath of his near brush with existential dread is evidence that for all the ways it’s holding him back, he’s not ready to let go of that lifeline yet. If he does, he’ll just drown with no mooring left to guide him. But the more Rei understands his relationship with the sisters and what it means to him, the more he can balance his survivor’s ambition with the love and support of people who genuinely care about him. Despite his fear of being sucked back into the warmth, he can’t keep himself from visiting Akari’s house again. He knows how important these girls all are to him, and for all his uncertainty and self-deprecation, he cares about them too much stop reaching out. And god almighty if seeing him back at their house, despite being terrified of returning, didn’t drive to tears all over again. Fucking hell, I cannot overstate how much I value their bond.

True, he isn’t willing to stay over again, but I honestly think it’s a worthwhile choice. He’s got another match coming up, after all, a test where he can prove to his opponent- and himself- how hard he’s been trying. There’s a spark of hope in that idea, a chance that he might one day transform shogi from a prison into a treadmill. If he can stop thinking of this sport as something he needs to do in order to survive and something he chooses to do in order to make his life richer, then maybe he can overcome his fears yet. But that doesn’t mean he has to leave Hina and Momo behind either; he can take their wishes of good luck with an open heart, letting their faith in him push him to victory. Two very different halves of his life, both coming together for a single moment of potential. God, what a wonderful fucking sentiment.

Fury’s Black Eye

But the hope of seeing that potential realized is gonna have to wait a bit. Because Rei’s next challenge is a sucker punch I never saw coming: Gotou, the man Kyouko’s in love with, the man who slugged Rei in the face when they last met, is competing in the same shogi tournament Rei’s in. Holy fucking shit, y’all, I did not see this coming. No sooner has Kyouko herself left the picture than an even more antagonistic force shows up to knock Rei off balance. And that’s not all: the few things we hear him say in his brief meeting with Rei only blow his relationship with his sister even wider open. Because if we’re to take his words at face value- which, you know, I don’t trust this fuckstick a single inch, but assuming he isn’t lying- then Kyouko was lying about being in a relationship with him. He calls her a stalker and asks Rei to get her off his ass, an annoyance he’d rather shake off. And we even hear a brief snippet on information that he’s got a goddamn wife. A wife in the hospital for some reason, but a wife nonetheless. And that all raises so many questions. Is Kyouko aware that Gotou doesn’t love her back? Is she deluding herself? Does she know and was just lying to Rei to try and look cool? Did Rei know beforehand that Kyouko wasn’t telling him the truth? How the heck is this information going to affect their already unstable relationship moving forward?

I don’t know. All I know is that I have never seen Rei as pissed at anyone as he is at Gotou. It’s a level of malice that scares me to my goddamn core, punctuated by some of the most bone-chilling shot compositions of the entier show that emphasize the rage in his eyes. I fully wouldn’t have been surprised if Rei had lost control and beaten the shit out of him right in the hallway of the shogi parlor, and thank god Smith was there to hold him back. Is this anger for Kyouko’s sake? Does some part of Rei care this much for the way his sister’s being treated by this creep? Whatever the case may be, one thing’s for certain: Rei Kiriyama is fucking furious. And as he stalks home to prepare for the coming matches in the dead blue of night, the whipping wind rising to a scream, his promise that he won’t be Gotou’s punching bag on the shogi board shrieks like a lightningrod through the darkness, setting the skies alight with promise that he’s going to take this guy down. It’s absolutely fucking terrifying, possibly the most terrifying thing in a show full of terrifying things. If this is how black Rei’s rage can run, then I don’t think I ever want to see it fully erupt. After his outburst at the end of episode 10, I can only imagine how apocalyptic he can truly become. This is going to be an insane second half, and I cannot fucking wait to see what it’s got in store.

Odds and Ends

-Don’t think I missed what Rei’s escalator dream is likely a metaphor for. Going up to a destination you can never come back from, huh? Subtle.

-”Now fluffier than every before” sldkjaksdjaskdja

-Okay, the fact that Rei’s stepdad was genuinely worried about him gives me hope. The next time they meet face to face should be really interesting for theit relationship.

-”Wait, why are you crying? Oh no, now I am too!” skjdhaskjdhsa fucking hell I love this show

-”A sense of accomplishment and a pain in the neck go hand in hand.” That’s the realist thing you’ve ever said, Akari.

-Ey, nice new OP and ED!

-”HELP ME!” I was not expecting Rei to go up against a punmaster but I am losing my shit

-”The castle’s on fire.” Honestly, this is a great way to keep the non-shogi players up to date on the action. Bring on the cats!

-”A bachelor probably can’t handle 40 fish.” I feel like there’s an innuendo in there somewhere.

-Akari’s reaction to being overloaded with fish was fucking incredible. Good god, what a woman.

God, I’m an emotional mess. Just another day with Sangatsu, am I right? See you next time!

[cruelsummersswift]

Hey Taylor! (and other readers) I turned 18 today which means I’m officially an adult, so I wanted to recap on how your music has been with me throughout my childhood.

The first real memory I have of listening to your music was when I was 6 years old. I was at a gathering with my friend and “Our Song” was on and I remember saying “I love this song!!” and dancing to it.

In second grade a new girl moved to my school and we instantly became friends. I had liked your music already, but she was the one who really kickstarted my addiction when she played the fearless platinum edition for me. It was that moment when you officially became my favorite singer, and you have been ever since. I moved and lost touch with that friend, but I still think about how essential she was in my life because without her I’m not sure I’d have ever become as obsessed with your music as I became and still am.

In third grade I moved and that was really hard for little 8 year old me. I went from a school where I was friends with everyone, to a school where I had trouble making friends, and where a lot of the girls were pretty mean to me. Songs like “You Belong With Me” and “Fifteen” always made me feel better with lyrics like “she wears short skirts, I wear t-shirts, she’s cheer captain and I’m on the bleachers” and especially “laughing at the other girls who think they’re so cool, we’ll be out of here as soon as we can.” It was such a great thing for me to have an idol who was also an underdog and didn’t fit in at school. I also became best friends with a girl named Abigail after I moved and I was so excited that we also related in that aspect. That was also around the time Speak Now came out. “The Story of Us” became a favorite of mine and still is to this day. We had a project that year where we each had a week where we had a spotlight and one of the things was who was “Who do you look up to most?” And while most people said their parents I said Taylor Swift (sorry mom and dad).

In fourth grade I got my first ever CD player. I would spend hours sitting next to my CD players listening to your albums and studying the lyric booklets until every lyric was permanently ingrained into my mind. I was so inspired by you that I started writing my own songs and decided I wanted to be a singer. (At the time I didn’t know I have a terrible voice).

In fifth grade we had a talent show and my two friends and I sang “Back to December.” Also that year Red came out. When “I Knew You Were Trouble” came out I was instantly obsessed. I remember listening to Red for the first time and when “Begin Again” ended I was like “well she told me to begin it again” so I listened to the album again. (Or like a thousand more times.) Red made that fall so magical.

In sixth grade I went to my first ever one of your concerts. My parents surprised me with the tickets and I was so excited. I got a cute new outfit for it, and it also happened to be picture day at school. I felt so cool to get to be checked out of school to get to go to Nashville for your concert. My mom and I had no idea that we were practically right behind the second stage until we got there and started talking to this girl there. When the concert started I started crying because I couldn’t believe I was seeing you in person. When you got to the second stage I did not hesitate to run up and get as close as possible. You were right in front of me and I was in awe. You got right up close and I almost even got a guitar pic from you. It was one of the best nights of my life.

In seventh grade 1989 came out. It instantly became my favorite album and still is to this day. I listened to it 24/7. I was even one of those annoying kids who played it out loud on the school bus (which got me made fun of uh oh but in retrospect is understandable but she was also just really mean lol).

In 8th and 9th grade I was going through my “I grew don’t like Taylor Swift anymore, I’m too cool for that” phase which is hilarious looking back because I did not grow out of your music and I for sure was NEVER cool.

In 10th grade reputation came out and GOD I will NEVER forget the feeling of listening to LWYMMD for the first time. reputation defined that fall for me and listening to it for the first time was one of the best experiences of my life.

In 11th grade my parents told me we were moving. I was devastated because I didn’t want to move away from my best friend who I lived next door to for years and the people I had been going to school with for 8 years. During that same time I had a friend group that constantly left me out and tried to make it feel like it was my fault whenever I would call them out and stand up for myself. It was a horrible feeling. Losing my friend group and moving at the same time. But songs like LWYMMD and “I Did Something Bad” always reminded me that leaving was right and that I didn’t need people like them in my life. But as sad as that all was, it reminded me of how my real best friend was always by my side. I also became friends with a girl who made me feel valid and didn’t leave me out of things, and acknowledged how hard moving must be for me. It was songs like “Call it What You Want” and “This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” that reminded me that I didn’t need a lot of friends, but those two closest friends who had never been anything but true friends. The second semester I started at my new school, and it was hard and I sat alone a lot at lunch the first few weeks but I remembered that Taylor had talked about the empty lunch tables of her youth and it made me feel a lot better. “ME!” Gets a lot of hate, but it was just what I needed at the time. It was also so awesome because I love both Panic! And Taylor.

The beginning of senior year was pretty crazy. College courses, a play, college applications, senior capstone, etc., but the album Lover came out. Lover really became the soundtrack of my senior year. It made all the stress just a little bit more tolerable. I’ve always struggled a lot with self confidence, and that year I think I hit a high and low of both. When I got offered to be student director of the spring musical it hit a high. I listened to “ME!” And felt on top of the world. But of course, things don’t ever go smoothly. Corona virus struck, and I lost a large portion of my senior year, and any live performances of our musical (which we recorded and are live-streaming in August if you’d like to see it 👀). I hit a low point when quarantine first started, but I got through it and I’m stronger for it. Marathoning your music videos is definitely one of the best quarantine activities.

Which brings us to today. I’m 18. That’s pretty terrifying. The future is so uncertain with the virus still looming, but lately I’ve had this feeling that everything is going to be alright and that I’m going to be successful in life. So, Taylor, I doubt you’re reading this, but if you are, I just wanted to thank you for being such a huge part of my life so far, and I hope that one day I can thank you in person.

Love, Jenni

@taylorswift @taylornation

[johannas-motivational-insults]

She-Ra season 2 episodes, ranked

All right, I have a lot of feelings about She-Ra season 2 and what was good and not so good. I’ve been doing a lot of shitposting but this is legit analysis/meta, or at least it wants to be.

To be fair, though I’m trying to rank these as objectively as possible, it will be influenced by what I care most about and find most interesting in the series. I stan Catra and the Superpal Trio and think Adora is a loveable mess, and I really can’t stand Swift Wind. So, take this with a grain of salt. Needless to say, SPOILERS AHEAD.

7. 2x03 “Signals”

I would rank this episode higher, except the A plot was so meh. It felt like it should have been a Halloween special, and if it was I’d give it a pass, but I found it so thoroughly disinteresting I all but tuned out. Of course, people who stan the Best Friend Squad might have still loved it, but their dynamic isn’t as interesting for me anymore because we’ve seen so much of it, and this episode didn’t do much to change it other than add Swift Wind in (and he really, really annoys me). The only real thing it did to move the plot forward was introduce the subplot about the mysterious transmissions, and it didn’t do anything characterization wise. Ultimately, it’s a set up episode, and to be fair it might be more interesting in retrospect once we get some payoff and see where that whole thing is going. But I dunno, I kinda doubt it.

It’s mostly a set up episode in the other subplots too, but I enjoyed watching the political machinations in the Horde because there were real, tangible stakes and important power shifts. Catra learning that having power and authority is not all it’s cracked up to be was a crucial bit of character development. That bit of her getting the air sucked out of her lungs was more genuinely scary than the creepy ghost holograms by far. You felt her desperation trying to save face with Hordak and regain her sense of power and safety after that terrifying threat, and watching Shadow Weaver tune in to and play with her insecurities was a good bit of development for and insight into their relationship. It also foreshadows how easily Shadow Weaver is able to manipulate Catra later in the season.

Meanwhile, Entrapta’s excursions and work with Hordak supplied some comic relief (which I think the A plot also tried and failed to do) and also made the Horde plot take an interesting turn. This is the episode where Catra really starts to lose power, and meanwhile Entrapta gains a lot without even meaning to. She just wanted to fix the problem with Hordak’s experiment, dear girl. On that note, I did not expect to enjoy watching Hordak and Entrapta so much, but one thing this show does really well is throw together unexpected combinations of characters and make an amazing dynamic (e.g. the Superpal Trio, Scorpia and Seahawk, Catra and Glimmer and Bow).

The Entrapta subplot was the most interesting of the episode and unfortunately it was relegated to the C plot. This episode would have been way better if they’d put more focus on the Horde side of things and/or given the “Best Friend Quad” something with more substance.

6. 2x01 “The Frozen Forest”

This episode was fine, but it didn’t do much to stand out. It was important, of course, to follow up on the end of season 1, and if they had skipped this episode entirely it would have left a huge gap. But with the two main groups of characters not interacting at all in person, there was little reason to be emotionally invested in the fight scenes. We don’t really care if Horde bots get destroyed. It would have been more interesting to see the Superpal Trio directly fighting the Princess Alliance, but on the other hand it did set up just how big a role Entrapta’s tech knowledge was going to play this season. The stuff with the princess alliance was cute, I always enjoy seeing more of Mermista, and they did some character work (which I can always appreciate) with Glimmer and Frosta. But since we only see the princesses once more this season, it hasn’t had much of a chance to pay off yet.

The highlight of this episode was Adora fighting Catra in the simulation and her ensuing conversation with Light Hope. (“There. There.” and “I also have buttons” were two of my favorite one-liners of the season.) The simulated fight was very cute, and I definitely screamed when Catra grabbed Adora’s hand while delivering her customary “Hey Adora,” right before taking her down. And look, the fact that Catra was flirting so hard with Adora in that simulation means that an AI with very poor social awareness has picked up on their sexual/romantic tension, and that’s hilarious.

The Horde side of things gave us more time with the Superpal Trio, who are always delightful, but not a ton happened over there either. This episode established that Entrapta has fully moved in to the Fright Zone and Catra is comfortably leading the Horde’s advances and has respect from Hordak and the Horde’s soldiers. It also foreshadows how impressed Hordak is going to become with Entrapta’s work (and unimpressed with Catra’s) when her EKS bots steal the show in that meeting. Finally, the episode introduced the shifted dynamic between Catra and Shadow Weaver now that the power position has flipped. That ongoing subplot was possibly the saddest part of the season, and this one scene did a good job of setting that up.

Overall, this was a good and necessary setup episode, but because it had all that exposition and setup to do we didn’t get a ton of good character/relationship moments (Frosta/Glimmer and Catra/Shadow Weaver being the notable exceptions). So yeah, it was fine. But there were definitely stronger episodes, which we will now get into...

5. 2x04 “Roll With It”

This was a very cute episode, a fun one to watch. The reason I ranked it fifth is because there are three very strong episodes this season and 2x07 had higher stakes, being the season (mid-season, lbr) finale. On the Horde side of things, I loved seeing more of Lonnie, Kyle, and Rogelio. Lonnie really shined this episode and I keep waiting for someone to realize how smart and capable she is and promote her. And of course, Scorpia. Darling oblivious Scorpia who just wants to impress her crush. She’s not very smart but she’s earnest af and can pack a punch, and this is the first episode where she really stands out.

The planning session in the rebellion camp was really fun to watch, though I’m sure I missed a ton of jokes because I’ve never played D&D. The chaotic way the princesses all play off each other was more evident here than in 2x01, which made for some great gags. The different approaches they each take and the different aninmation styles used to portray them were a lot of fun. Glimmer’s noir hero fantasies were my favorite, personally. (And apparently she sees Catra as a very sexy villain? I need more on this, please.)

Adora’s monologue about the worst possible secenario revealed all her insecurities, and it was one of the highlights of the season. Her anxiety issues and messiah complex have been touched on before many times, but this is the first time they’ve really come bubbling to the surface this season. It was really nice to see the whole group reassure her that she isn’t in this alone, much like Bow and Glimmer did before the Battle of Bright Moon. And while it’s been hinted at before, this episode really solidified her obsession with Catra. And Scorpia’s too, as I mentioned above.

It’s easy to forget that Catra wasn’t actually in this episode (AJ Michalka was, but her character was not, not for real) because you felt her presence everywhere. The bit with all the princesses’ different renditions of her was hilarious. But you know, it was nice to see the show put together such a strong episode without Catra. Having the emotional focus on Adora again was a nice change of pace.

4. 2x07 “Reunion”

This episode gave us what 2x03 lacked: it made the Best Friend Squad interesting again. That group is most compelling to watch when there’s conflict among them, like in the stretches of 1x01-1x02 and 1x08-1x10. They weren’t in an actual fight this time, but Glimmer and Adora being so thrown by Bow’s secret family life meant that things didn’t feel “as usual.” Glimmer’s insecurity about not meaning that much to Bow resurfaced, and Bow’s “coming out” scene was extremely moving. But thankfully there was comic relief, too. Adora mispronouncing words to try and sound scholarly was a great ongoing gag, and the eventual fight between the Best Friend Squad and the elemental was really fun because it was so chaotic with Bow’s dads being extremely confused.

Okay and look, Bow’s dads. Finally we get to see why Bow is the most well-adjusted person in the group. His parents aren’t perfect, but they did way less to fill their kids with insecurities than Angella or Shadow Weaver. Angella’s not a bad mom but it’s easy to see why Glimmer feels so inadequate. And Shadow Weaver is, well, Shadow Weaver.

This episode was sort of oddly structured for what is essentially a mid-season finale in the sense that the A plot was about relationships more than the overarching plot, but that’s not necessarily bad. And they tied the plot back in at the end with the reveal about the Crimson Waste, setting us up to finally move forward in this transmissions subplot in season 3.

There wasn’t a lot of time for Horde stuff this episode, but Scorpia forcibly loving Catra and turning her into a burrito was one of my favorite scenes of the season (maybe I will do a Top 10 later on). Catra opening up to Scorpia about her problems for the second episode in a row was huge, especially after experiencing a heart-shattering betrayal in the previous episode. Catra’s final scene where she gets exposed as a liar and choked out felt a bit truncated to me... like after they set that up as this terrifying threat in 2x03, they lingered a lot less in the terror of that moment in this episode. So that was kind of disappointing, but it still worked well as half of the cliffhanger (the weaker half, imo, but it was still extremely nerve-wracking).

It was hard to pick between #4 and 5 on this list, but ultimately the amazing cliffhanger was what put this one over the top. Both our protagonists are in danger, at the mercy of our two worst villains, and even though I knew what was coming as soon as I saw Adora sleeping, the shot of Shadow Weaver standing over her bed made me scream. I hate this show for leaving me hanging here, so they did it right.

3. 2x02 “Ties That Bind”

Ranking this one so high may be an unpopular opinion, but I personally loved this episode. I didn’t care much for the B plot except it was good insight into Adora, but the A plot was so delightful it made up for it. Mixing members of the Superpal Trio and Best Friend Squad almost always results in something good... maybe not for the characters, but for the audience. Watching Catra and Glimmer play off each other’s insecurites was great, and it was sweet watching Bow attempting to befriend Catra, just like he did with Adora. The conflict between him and Glimmer about how to treat their hostage felt very in-character, a good callback to the beginning of season 1.

Of course, Catra is a much more annoying hostage than Adora was. Her being a little shit and doing everything she could to get on their nerves was amazing, and I would have gladly watched a full hour episode just of that. The sassiness and manipulation we see from her in this episode balances nicely with the deep emotional stuff she goes through this season in her fight to win approval and prove her worth. It also produced my favorite joke of the season: “How are you such a nightmare?!?”/”Eh, years of practice.” I felt that in my soul as a youngest child. I also loved all the cat mannerisms they incorporated in this episode, it was very cute.

There is a bit of emotional meat to that story, with Catra and Glimmer’s confrontation at the end after Glimmer says Adora ran away from Catra, not the Horde (rude, btw). But the real emotional moment comes when Bow and Glimmer find out Entrapta stayed willingly with the Horde. That was heart-breaking. Heart-shattering, even. Especially because Bow and Glimmer feel such guilt for her being left there in the first place. I wish there had been more follow-up on this major emotional beat, but that’s not a weakness of this episode itself. This was my favorite Entrapta scene of the season, even though there were a lot of other great ones.

Like I said, the B plot was... okay, but not amazing? The bits with Light Hope glitching were funny, if a bit creepy. (But she’s always creepy, so.) Swift Wind annoys the hell out of me when he’s being hyper, but seeing his eventual heart-to-heart with Adora gave him some good depth and development. Plus, this episode does a really good job of illustrating not only how uptight Adora is, but why. There’s that messiah complex again (which I don’t blame her for btw, that’s Shadow Weaver’s fault). I like episodes that focus on Adora emotionally, and separating her from Glimmer and Bow meant her storyline got to be a bit more serious and in-depth. I just wish it hadn’t been opposite Swift Wind... not because it wasn’t effective, but because Adora’s arc was good but I have little desire to rewatch it if it means I have to watch more of him. Sorry, I guess I’m an anti.

2. 2x05 “White Out”

As I’ve said before, this episode is the highlight of season 2. Once again, that has a lot to do with the dynamics that occur whenever we mix members of the Best Friend Squad and Superpal Trio, and this time we got all of them in one place! And they added Seahawk to the mix too, which I didn’t expect to like because he tends to get on my nerves, but pairing him with Scorpia was a move of pure brilliance.

Scorpia and Sea Hawk’s little heart-to-heart about feeling unappreciated and Drunk Adora validating and encouraging them was so so cute and heartwarming. All the Drunk Adora and Scorpia stuff was great, actually. It was funny but also made very textual how much Catradora is an insecurity for Scorpia and how she’s afraid she’ll never be able to live up to that and Catra will never open up to her the same way. And Adora actually seems to genuinely like Scorpia when she’s not focused on the evils of the Horde, so that’s good to know moving forward. And yeah, that pairing also brought us “Girls night in!” and the closet joke, another highlight of the season.

In the other mixed grouping, Catra and Glimmer renewed their rivalry, and that’s always fun to watch. Entrapta continued to be her usual chaotic self, and any time we see her interacting with Bow it tends to be a great scene. The reveal at the end that she had the tech all along but didn’t tell Catra because she liked hanging out in this remote place with her friends was really, really cute.

I would be amiss to not mention the Catradora of it all in this episode, because holy shit this is actually the only time they interact in person all season. That is just wrong, by the way, but I did thoroughly enjoy what we got. It’s very clear they still have an emotional hold over each other despite their attempts to “let go,” between Adora’s overly-focused anger and Catra’s expressions whenever she hears or sees Adora. Adora actually kind of hates Catra right now and I think that caught Catra off guard. Catra’s panic when Evil She-Ra almost killed her was a great moment of vulnerability, how she tried to appeal to the Adora inside. She dropped the act for a moment and genuinely tried to connect with Adora, and maybe it made me tear up a little.

Along those same lines, the one thing that pissed me off about this episode was that we didn’t get to see Catra interacting with Drunk Adora. That would have allowed Adora to interact with Catra in a vulnerable state too, and in general it just would have been amazing. And the trailer kinda suggested we would get to see that, so that made it extra disappointing. Can’t these two just talk about their feelings and actually hear each other and communicate properly, please? Ugh. Still, despite these frustrations, I loved the Catradora content.

But the real highlight of the episode was Scorptra. The scene where Scorpia tried to ask Catra out on a date was amazing and so freaking cute. Of course there’s also the stuff I mentioned where her insecurities about Adora came spilling out. And the look on Catra’s face when Scorpia aborted a mission to save her life and then whisked her away despite her protests... that was a huge moment. She doesn’t think of herself as worth saving, but someone else does. And despite the fact that Scorpia disobeyed direct orders, I think this is where Catra really comes to trust her. It’s certainly where she comes to respect her. And then they shared a blanket! God, this was so cute. I expected to enjoy the Catradora stuff more but a) there wasn’t all that much of it and b) this was so incredibly pure and sweet, watching Scorpia finally make some headway and Catra finally open up to someone again, even if it was only a little bit. I am a multi-shipper now, I can’t help it.

1. 2x06 “Light Spinner”

It was hard choosing between this and White Out for top spot, but I’m a slut for villain backstories. This episode was the less entertaining of the two, and I think I’d have to say White Out is my subjective favorite, but objectively I do think this is the better episode. Why? Character development.

Shadow Weaver was a bit too twirly-moustache of a villain at times in season 1, so seeing how she became what she is now did a lot for her character. Seeing how a desire to do good mixing with a thirst for power can drive someone to make mistakes and turn evil was very interesting, and having Micah be part of the backstory made it all the more compelling.

The ways Shadow Weaver tries to mold people with more intrinsic power than her so she can use that power was a crucial new insight, one we’ve never seen before. It explains why she’s so obessed with Adora, which was never really explained in season 1. And it also suggests that part of Shadow Weaver’s dislike for Catra came from Adora’s connection to and therefore influence over her. Shadow Weaver wanted Adora’s loyalty to be to her above all, even above the Horde, and Adora having a close friend (who’s a rebellious loose cannon, to boot) was a danger to that goal.

This episode is essentially about Shadow Weaver and Catra, both separately and together, and it does a great job of drawing parallels between them even before Shadow Weaver outright tells Catra that they are the same. They both go off on a rant about how no matter what they do, no one listens to or respects them. Shadow Weaver seems to have a bit of a self-loathing streak that she took out on Catra, too... kinda like Glimmer being annoyed by all her worst qualities manifesting in Frosta.

As for Catra, it shocked me that she was so upset about Shadow Weaver being sent away to die. Though she obviously still craved Shadow Weaver’s approval, I didn’t expect her to react so badly to this. Clearly Scorpia didn’t either, and her trying to tease Catra’s reasons out of her was sweet. It was nice to see Catra continuing to open up to Scorpia after that moment with the blanket at the end of White Out, but there’s still a lot she’s holding inside. She still genuinely cares about Shadow Weaver despite how she’s been trying to hurt her for revenge and her own satisfaction... that sound familiar?

And unfortunately, Catra’s connection to Shadow Weaver and her need for maternal love and approval was her downfall. After she mocked the rebellion for their bleeding hearts and how easily manipulated they are, mind you. This is where Catra’s tendency to sympathize with Shadow Weaver (which we saw at least twice in season 1) finally came back to bite her in the ass. It was terribly sad because Catra actually has a big heart and Shadow Weaver knew that and took advantage of it.

It’s hard to say how much Shadow Weaver meant of what she said to Catra when they had their big confrontation. It wasn’t clear whether or not she had seen her badge hidden in the food, whether she was only trying to manipulate Catra or if she was being earnest about any of it. Was the physical affection she gave her genuine, her way of making up for things and saying goodbye, or was she just fucking with Catra? I dunno, but either way this betrayal she pulled was awful, and if she was trying to be nice she would’ve been better off holding Catra at a distance than letting her get her hopes up. For real, Catra’s reaction when she realized Shadow Weaver had used and betrayed her was gut-wrenching, one of the rawest moments we’ve seen from her. I might have cried, a lot. She let herself be vulnerable in a way she rarely does, and for that she got absolutely obliterated emotionally. Again.

So yeah, this wasn’t a particularly fun episode, but it was a very strong episode of television and it did a lot to make Shadow Weaver more fleshed out and interesting. It finally brought one of the show’s most fraught relationships into the spotlight and let it combust in front of us, and as painful as it was to watch, I can’t help rewatching the Catra and Shadow Weaver scenes again and again. I never expected Catra to so openly ask Shadow Weaver why she was never good enough for her and what she did to deserve all the abuse. It was an incredibly rewarding scene to watch with great emotional payoff. And for a stan like me, that made it the best episode of the season.