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ailendolin · 28 days

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Live Reaction to TRoP 2x03

Spoilers for 2x03 under the cut

noooo not a flashback to Elendil and Berek. My heart breaks every time at the broken, "Please," because Berek is all Elendil has left of his son

Berek being a good horse and kicking that orc straight into a tree

Black Forest? Welcome to Germany, Berek. Seriously, though, that means spiders, right?

Fuck of course it does

But it also means Isildur so that's good. Berek proving to be the ultimate horse once more (sorry, Asfaloth and Shadowfax, I love you too)

come on, Isildur, time to get the hell out of there. I've seen Alien and I know how this ends

eating lunch while watching this was not one of my better ideas

ugh this is honestly making my skin crawl

this cave is my own personal nightmare and I hate it

kudos to the sound design, though, for making it even scarier than it already it

thank god they're getting out of there

I hope Isildur tells Elendil one day that him setting Berek free is what saved him from certain death by spider

aaaand we're back in Numenor. I've always been an elf girl but Numenor is beautiful and I love Elendil with my whole heart (also met Lloyd last year as well and he's such a lovely person)

Miriel! I love that Elendil is her eyes now. Those two are so great together

someone woke up and chose violence today. Literally

Miriel meeting anger and grief with kindness. My heart

I do not like Pharazon and I do not trust him

nooooo Earien did not take the Palantir, did she? Girl, why would you?

aw, Glüg going, "We are safe here. We have a home." That is so sweet. I like this guy. They all just want to lay down their weapons and live

omfg is that an Uruk family? Does Glüg have a partner and child? My heart! I can't. This is everything. I love this show so much

Damrod's in the house and the music slaps

yessss Disa went with Durin to Eregion. Now where is Elrond? I need my Elf-Dwarf Found Family back together again

i also want to punch Annatar in his pretty face just for existing

just saying but that one lock of hair falling into Celebrimbor's face is very distracting

Durin doesn't trust Annatar one bit and I'm loving it. He trusts one elf and that is Elrond

"Funny. He's never mentioned you." I'm cackling

Haha Durin knows very well that Elrond would never call him wise. This is so funny. Annatar is laying it on way too thick and Durin is looking right through him

noooo they cannot leave Eregion yet, not until Elrond gets there and they reunite

Celebrimbor, why are not all your alarm bells ringing when Annatar tells you Gil-galad forbid the making of more rings and doesn't know Annatar is with you? Again, where is Elrond? We need someone to talk some sense into all these stubborn elves

nooooo not Celebrimbor straight up lying to Gil-galad

ah okay, it is not lying. He is just granting him and Annatar the space to complete their work. That's okay, then

Brimby, I love you, but you are a rubbish judge of character and need new friends. Take Berek for example. He would take one look at Annatar and kick him across the room

ooooh that drinking seen gives me flashbacks to the Dead Marshes. Do not follow the little lights, Isildur

it's just a flesh wound lol

even I know not to pull out knives. Who is this girl?

okay, she's called Estrid

Pelargir is beautiful

Isildur's having a not good, very bad day, isn't he? Poor guy was just trying to be kind

I was just wondering when we'd see Arondir again and there he is! Finally!

but what about Berek?

oh no, not Bronwyn. I'm going to miss her. Where is Theo, though?

spoke too soon, he's there as well and not doing too well it seems - does he blame Arondir for Bronwyn's death?

Durin standing before his father is such a sombre scene. And he's actually apologising and telling him about his concerns - progress!

Arondir blames himself for Bronwyn's death - of course he does

I love that he stays with Theo even though Theo clearly does not want him there

doggo spotted in the background. Doggo spotted!

oh gods, Theo and Isildur teaming up the rescue Berek? That won't end well, will it?

I am sorry but I do not care about Estrid. I want Bronwyn back

fuck, I wrote that before the mark was revealed but good to know I'm a better judge of character than most people in this show (not you, Elrond and Durin)

okay she's burning it away but does she do it because he never wanted it or does she do it to better infiltrate? I'm sorry but I do not like her and I do not trust her

ah we're back to rescuing Berek. Let's see how disastrous that will go

yes, Theo, what the fuck are you doing out there in the dark?

"Lose your mum?" Ouch

the Ents are here, right? That tree chopping was focused on for a reason and we all know the Ents don't like that

btw someone is going to save the other horses, right? Right?

oh Miriel is looking gorgeous. The way her clothes look like a mosaic is so beautiful

Earien, what are you doing, girl?

okay, the way Elendil's, "Silence!" echoed? *shivers*

what the fuck does Earien think the Palantir is? A bowling ball?

Miriel, you're not doing yourself any favours here, sweetie

and neither are you, Elendil, by touching the magic bowling ball

the way Elendil is trying to reach Miriel - I can't

fuck yeah Eagle to the rescue

can he please eat Pharazon and his merry band of idiots? I swear that would be so funny

okay, that did not go as I wanted. Shit

the boyfriends are back at making rings and Durin is not happy

no no no do not let Annatar add the mithril. Celebrimbor, I swear to the Valar ...

fuck this is bad. On the chance of repeating myself: where is Elrond? None of these people should be allowed to do anything without him being there to talk sense into them

okay that little smile between Celebrimbor and Annator was cute. They're still in the honeymoon phase so I get it

and that's it for the first three episodes. I honestly need more Elrond in the next one. So many bad things wouldn't happen if someone would just listen to him

#trop #trop spoilers #the rings of power #rings of power #rings of power spoilers #lin reacts

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darkhymns-fic · 3 years

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Rescue Mission in a Shadowy Wood

Lloyd and Colette leave for Gaoracchia Forest together to rescue a lost dog, but the creepy place seems to be even creepier when it's just themselves...

Fandom: Tales of Symphonia Characters/Pairing: Lloyd Irving/Colette Brunel Rating: G Mirror Link: AO3 Notes: Written for Colloyd Week, Day 2: Sidequest! This isn't referencing any specific sidequest in-game, but just making one myself because I've actually had this silly idea in my head for a while. Fair warning that a certain point of this fic might have a claustrophobia trigger? It's mainly emphasizing an action that happens in battle actually and is mostly brief, but just to be safe. (I'm sorry, Lloyd) :'D

It all started with a lost doggy.

“Tiggy!” Colette called out, walking in-between the thick roots that snaked across the forest floor, completely unmindful to the chill that whistled through the boughs overhead. “Where are you?” Her shout reverberated against the trees, echoed back at her like a wandering ghost in search of something precious.

Such a sound would usually send a shiver down one’s spine, but Colette happened to enjoy the acoustics, calling out another “Hellooo Tiggyyyy!” When she heard her own voice come back to her, warbly and almost breathless, she giggled against her hand. “It sounds so silly! Don’t you think so, Lloyd? …Lloyd?”

The usual red she was used to seeing was nowhere near her, and so she had to look farther down the path that led out to Mizuho. Only a little bit away, but right there, in the middle of the path, Lloyd was standing, rubbing an arm as he gazed up at the curled trees that lined the road.

“…Huh? Uh, y-yeah, yeah! Definitely…um…”

Though just a few steps back, he was looking wistfully from the path they came through. The sunlight was just out of reach, gliding along the ground before being abruptly stopped by the shadows of Gaoracchia Forest’s trees.

From where he stood, he looked towards Colette as if he were a lost doggy himself, making her heart flutter in her chest.

“Oh! Are you scared, Lloyd?”

“No way!” Lloyd answered instantly – with maybe a little squeak to this voice. “I mean… nah. I go through these kinds of woods all the time!” He then flinched when he heard a particularly weird-sounding bird call from above them, complemented by the rustling of leaves. “Just…not usually at night…”

“It’s okay to be scared!” Colette walked back to him, taking a hand of his gently. “You’re still thinking about Zelos’ stories?”

A grumble as he instinctively tightened his fingers around hers. “…Maybe…”

It was natural for their group to go off on strange little tangents on their journey all the time, and Tethe’alla provided a whole new place for them to explore. From the sprawling roadways of Meltokio, to the steep cliffs that had made up Mt. Fooji, and now here, in a forest that could have been like Iselia’s woods if the trees didn’t continually block out the sun, or that the pathways didn’t keep being blocked by vines that refused to budge.

“It was really creepy, wasn’t it?” Colette said, gently tugging Lloyd along as they walked deeper into a place that few people dared to tread through. “But also very sad too. All those poor ghosts…”

“Geez, Colette, if you thought it was scary, you sure don’t act like it!” Lloyd’s foot stumbled against one such root – which he was sure hadn’t been right there before! – and had to rely on Colette’s grip to keep himself balanced. “You just clapped when he finished telling!”

“Hm, but he told it very well! Don’t you think?”

Going by how both he and Genis had run away in fear after hearing it, he sighed. “Guess so…”

“But I’m happy you wanted to come here with me, Lloyd. It’d be hard to search through this forest for Tiggy by myself.”

“Well, I couldn’t let you go alone.” And also, Colette had already been rushing for the forest once she heard about the Mizuho shopkeeper’s little dog that had wandered in here, so Lloyd didn’t exactly have much time to wait behind. “But we probably should have told the others we’d be gone, too.”

“I’m sorry,” Colette voiced, and in her tone was complete sincerity. Still, she directed her gaze forward, through the darkness. “But I don’t want to leave a poor doggy out here all alone.”

“I know.” For a moment, Lloyd’s fear of the forest was forgotten. He held back Colette’s hand tightly, giving her a wide grin and a thumbs up once he caught her attention. “Well, four eyes are better than two! So don’t worry. We’ll definitely find Tiggy no matter what!” Lloyd felt proud then, and brave! He stood up tall, keeping Colette’s hands in his. “That’s just math!”

Her smile back was full of hope at the idea. “Thank you, Lloyd. I’m sorry to always be so much trouble.”

“You’re not! Besides, we’ve gone through this forest so we can do it again-”

Lloyd expected a lot of things, especially in this forest. He expected another creepy noise just at his ear, like a whisper which he swore he had heard a few times now, or the cold wind suddenly blowing and biting at his neck, or even maybe just some scary-looking rabbit to jump out at him – which would at least be familiar to him and something he could fight against.

He didn’t expect the horrific, high-pitched screaming that seemed to echo all around them, from every tree on the path, until it felt like they were surrounded by the sound completely.

Lloyd immediately jumped, tripped over another root, then brought Colette in a protective, but very much shaking hug, looking all around them. “W-w-what was that?!”

Colette blinked, her hair just brushing underneath Lloyd’s chin. She could feel the rapid beating of his heart through his jacket, the warmth of his arms around her back. She almost didn’t want to answer to break this nice moment…

“Hm, was it Tiggy?” At that, she got excited. “Maybe he heard us!”

“That…was not Tiggy! No way was that Tiggy! It sounded like… like a person!” Lloyd slowly panned his head around them, at the trees overhead that seemed to somehow shift in closer, their boughs reaching out like broken arms. “The thief from the story…?” Lloyd shook his head. “No way. That story was fake! …Wasn’t it…?”

“Hm, if it’s not Tiggy, then maybe whoever screamed is with him.” Colette reluctantly pressed her hands against Lloyd’s chest. She didn’t really want to leave this place of warmth in Lloyd’s arms, the safe way he made her feel just then, but when a doggy was in trouble… she couldn’t sit back! “They’re probably both lost. We need to hurry and find them!”

Even though Lloyd’s face looked very pale, and that he couldn’t seem to stop shivering (maybe he was also cold?), he nodded, then took a deep breath. “You’re right… Okay! Let’s go! I even got the Sorcerer’s Ring to help out if any weird plants get in the way!” Such a ring was over his finger, having changed it to give light instead of fire. “It’s a good thing I never gave this back, huh.”

She was always so happy to have Lloyd’s full support. With more confidence than before, Colette headed once again down the path, deeper into the forest. “It sounded like it came from this way!”

“Yeah! Right.. right behind you!”

The blood-curdling scream hadn’t happened again (to Lloyd’s immense relief) but the forest sounds grew louder the more they went in. The creaking of the branches in the wind, the snap of the leaves as they stepped over them on the path, and loud calls from birds that Lloyd couldn’t exactly place… The problem was, it was easy to get lost inside, and soon enough, both found themselves passing by the same fallen tree log to their right for the fifth time in a row.

“I could try to fly up and look around?” Colette suggested, knowing their predicament was not exactly in the best light. “The branches are a little thick but maybe…”

“Wait, don’t leave!” Lloyd instantly squeaked before clearing his throat and smiling like nothing was wrong at all. “I- I mean, with the way this forest is, it’s probably harder to see from up there. Also, we should stick together!” If Lloyd at least had his Rheaird, he could have flown up with her, but he had left it in the wingpack with the others…

“Ah, you’re right! Then maybe we can-” At that, Colette stopped, tilted her head, then turned to her left, looking down past a thick underbrush that deviated off the road.

“Colette? What’s wrong?” Lloyd asked, hands on the hilts of his swords, momentarily forgetting he was scared out of his mind.

“I hear a doggy whine...” She turned to Lloyd with wide eyes, fists clenched near her chest. “I hear Tiggy! He’s frightened, Lloyd!”

Before he could even get a word out, Colette had rushed off, straight into the darkness and in-between two closely-knitted trees.

“Wait! Colette!” He dashed after her in the same direction, trying his very best to ignore Zelos’ stories so that he could stop shaking and run faster! But catching up to Colette proved to be a bit more difficult than he anticipated…

The thing was, when it came to doggies, no matter how big or small, whether nameless or not, Colette could hardly focus on anything else. He watched as she expertly dodged any forest debris on the ground, her clumsiness suddenly vanishing. “Tiggy!” she called out, using her hands to throw out her voice more. “Tiggy! Please come home!”

“T-Tiggy!” Lloyd called out too, a little tired with how much he had to run just to be on Colette’s same pace. Shadows kept dancing at the corner of his eyes, and never was he able to catch their shape as he turned his head. But, surely it was nothing? They’ve already fought weird monsters in this place before… He had no reason to be scared!

And then, at a certain point, Colette no longer wanted to just run. It must have been by instinct, for she summoned her wings with barely a flinch, using them to flutter behind her and float over the dips in the forest floor, over any roots that were too high up.

Colette kept flying faster and faster, until Lloyd nearly lost his breath. Which was odd because he was quite used to running around! But Colette moved so fast! Her dedication to dogs was truly admirable “Hold on! I can’t…fly…”

“Ah, sorry!” Even in her pursuit, she slowed down just a bit, looking back to Lloyd. “But, I think I’m getting closer to him now!”

“Would a dog really run this far out?” he asked, unsure of the answer to his question. Even Noishe wouldn’t wander this far in… But then again, Noishe wouldn’t get close to such a forest in the first place.

“Ah, I see him!” And it was times like these that Lloyd wondered if Colette also had angelic sight along with her hearing! “Tiggy!”

All he could last see was the flutter of her pink wings, quickly swallowed up by the dark as she turned a corner. At the last second, creeping vines and brush covered up the way she had just vanished through.

“No! Colette!” Lloyd’s first instinct was to whack at the vines with his swords, yet the steel bounced off the brush as if it were made of stone. It only took him a moment to remember what he should do instead. With shaking hands and trying to hold one of his swords underneath his arm, Lloyd activated his Sorcerer’s Ring to point the sunlight at the thick leaves. “Come on, hurry up!”

Of course, it didn’t exactly work right away. (It never did!!) First, he held the ring at the wrong angle somehow, and then the ring just wouldn’t turn on, and then the ring had run out of the necessary sunlight, so Lloyd had to go back a-ways to a meager spot where the sunlight beamed through and absorb it through the ring like he was a flower reaching for the sun.

“This thing is so stupid!” he grumbled, then marched back to the vines that were in his way. This time, he directed the ring at the exact right spot, and the leaves retreated into the shadows, giving him room to move through. “That took forever…”

But he had no time to keep complaining! Running as fast as he could, swords unsheathed, he stumbled right into the dark, seeing only the outlines of overhanging trees, the breaks of blue sky overhead… and then pink light.

“Lloyd! Hi!” she waved at him cheerfully from a distance. “Look, I found Tiggy!”

And there she was, with the missing dog cradled in her arms. Paws were hanging upward as she held him facing up, a tongue lolling out of his mouth with happy panting. The two-colored fur coat, of white and gentle brown, let Lloyd know that this was the right dog!

That, and they were both surrounded by a group of monsters that looked quite ready to charge at them.

Even from their distance in the darkness, Lloyd could still see her smile apologetically. “It’s a bit hard to fight them while carrying Tiggy though…”

Lloyd only had a quick second to see what monsters they were dealing with; a couple of those weird looking pumpkin trees, a ghost that looked a bit lonely ( and he was sure it wasn’t the thief’s ghost from Zelos’ story so he could deal with it!) one of the horned animal-skull spellcasters that always spoke so loud, and what Professor Sage had termed a Coffin Master, and with the way they hunched over in their dark shroud where only pinpricks of red light could be seen, they looked as if they would be squashed by the quite literal coffin they were lugging around.

This one was closer to Colette, and was slowly lumbering towards her.

“Watch out!” With a well-timed Demon Fang, he got the Coffin Master to stagger, getting its attention. Lloyd felt his fear leave him. Sure, these things were still really creepy, but if he could fight them, then it wasn’t an issue!

Colette took the opportunity to fly just to the side, closer to Lloyd, then depositing Tiggy back on the ground behind them. “Now just stay right there!” she told it happily as she got out her chakrams. Already the monsters were surrounding them. They’d have to fight their way through to escape!

“I got your back, okay, Colette?” Lloyd said, moving close to her as he held out his swords. “Let’s get rid of these guys and get Tiggy out of here!”

“Okay!” Colette smiled as she was already throwing out a chakram at the spellcaster’s head before he could finish his chant. Lloyd rushed straight at the pumpkin trees that were waddling towards them. It would be harder without the others, but they had this now!

“I wish we didn’t have to hurt them still,” Colette softly spoke, all as she threw a Pow Hammer right at the ghost and making it dizzy from the contact. “Those pumpkins are really cute.”

“Colette, I don’t get how you find these cute! They keep making those weird faces at us!” And Lloyd had carved plenty of pumpkins for the holidays back at Iselia… and even he had never been able to make as scary of faces in his pumpkins as these ones did. He parried one that lobbed one of the massive gourds at him.

“It’s the way they walked! Didn’t you notice?” A flash of Angel Feathers, and the lonely ghost vanished from the angelic magic to be lonely no more.

“It’s kinda hard to…” Another thrust, and finally the last pumpkin tree fell over. But that was when he noticed the lumbering Coffin Master again, heading once more towards Tiggy who had wandered to the left just a bit, sniffing at an errant clump of grass.

“Tiggy, no!” Lloyd rushed over to stand in-between both monster and unaware dog, preparing a strong attack to keep it protected!

He only noticed too late how the Coffin Master turned around – but not to run off.

“Hunting Bea-!” Lloyd’s voice was quickly cut off once a weird tail-like appendage burst out from the coffin that had opened so suddenly, wrapping around his torso. “Ack!”

“Lloyd?” Colette could barely have time to turn, busy trying to ward off the last spellcaster who kept trying to pull off at least one successful magic arte.

Lloyd couldn’t even shout, the air already leaving his body once the tail lifted him off the ground, then dragged him closer and closer to a dark void that was…“Wait wait wait Colette help let me go LET ME GO-”

“Huh?”

“COLETTE!” Lloyd’s voice vanished once he was pulled into the coffin, the lid locking tight with a loud click!

Finally able to defeat the spellcaster who fell to the ground with a loud, “NooOOooo..!” Colette turned around, only to find Lloyd was gone, a few remaining pumpkin trees, and maybe a zombie, in his place. “Lloyd? Where are you? Are you okay?” Maybe he had gotten so scared that he ran away…

That is, until she heard the muffled screaming. It sounded familiar! And it wasn’t too far away!

She turned her head to see the coffin on one monster’s back shake. “Are you in there?”

Another scream, followed by desperate knocking against the lid so much that it shook from its hinges.

“Oh good! I thought you’d gotten lost too!” That was a big relief to her. With a nod, she readied herself for one last thing she’d been preparing for. “Don’t worry! I’ll get you out!”

The coffin kept shaking and screaming. Maybe he couldn’t hear her…

Meanwhile, the dog was still sniffing around and scratching at an occasional itch, but luckily the monsters were no longer paying attention to it. Colette quickly whispered the ritual prayer that she had repeated many times before, her wings lifting her and lighting up the dark forest, all as the remaining monsters headed for her. “Cast thy purifying light upon these corrupt souls… Judgment!”

A dazzling brilliance of magic illuminated the area, making the shadow-soaked plants curl up, and making the dog’s eyes blink a little in surprise. Beams of light rained from above to strike at the mob of monsters, including the one with the coffin on his back.

Once all fell, the coffin fell too – and with the force of its impact to the ground, busted the lid open.

“-OUT LET ME OUT!” Lloyd fell to the grass in mid-shout, panting heavily, still clutching his swords with shaking hands. He looked like he was trying to get something off of him until he realized he was free and no longer confined. His face was entirely pale as he looked around in barely concealed shock. “Wh-wha…I … man…” He dropped his swords, blinked once more, then dropped backwards in a heap.

“Lloyd!” Colette rushed up to him, and so did Tiggy, who caught up to him first and was now curiously sniffing his cheek. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“Not… not physically…” Lloyd heaved out, still trying to catch his breath. “I’m… probably gonna have nightmares for weeks and… not want to be in small spaces for a while… but…that’s okay…”

Colette looked at him with guilt, reaching for one of his hands and clutching it tight. “I’m sorry. I made you come with me…”

“Colette… don’t think that.” He looked to her and to Tiggy who was now pawing at his shoulder like he was holding a secret treat from him. “We found Tiggy. That’s what’s important. I’ll.. be okay!” With his free hand, he held up a shaking thumbs up. “See? No….no problem…”

Still, she worried. His face was as white as Genis’ hair, so much so that she felt compelled to brush her hand against his cheek. At least he still felt warm. “Lloyd, you were so brave for protecting Tiggy.” The mentioned dog was now sniffing her hand along with his face, the feel of his wet nose making her giggle. “I think he knows it too.”

Lloyd’s grin was a little shaky, but it was real. “We can’t let any dog get hurt, can we?” She felt his face press into her hand, though maybe that was just because he was tired. “That’s what I learned from you… and what I admire about you so much, Colette.”

The words sent a flutter through her chest. Even in this dark forest where creepy denizens of the world lived in, she had never felt as warm and as bright as right now. If only she could keep staying in this moment, with both Lloyd and doggy by her side…

A strange cawing echoed above them, and she felt Lloyd flinch. “Er, think we can leave this place actually?” He sat up, though kept close to her as much as he could.

“Oh, of course!” And as she helped him up, making sure to carry Tiggy in her arms so he wouldn’t get lost again, both made their way out of the area and stepped around fallen monsters. “Sheena gave me directions around here earlier, so we shouldn’t get lost!”

“That’s good…” Lloyd still breathed a little heavily, but he held her hand, slightly leaning against her as they walked. “Also, I… think I know where that scream from earlier came from,” he said with a shudder. “We should probably walk a little faster..”

“Yep!” And though Lloyd didn’t expand much further about the scream (maybe when they were with their friends again, she could gently ask him about it) they made their way through the darkness until the break in the forest trees showed them open skies and fresh air.

She was happy that Lloyd would follow her, even into the darkest woods imaginable - but next time, she’d make sure they’d go somewhere with a little more sunlight.

#tales of symphonia #colloyd #lloyd irving #colette brunel #colloydweek2021 #fanfiction #one shot

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unproduciblesmackdown · 4 years

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let's get those Multiples Of Four for the lihn asks

Thank Yoy here i gooo

4) Favorite exchange(s)?

i like the conversation when sheila stays behind with susannah while the latter gets changed into the uniform skirt or whichever costume piece lol and susannah is clearly like trying to Fit In as she would with the girls as a whole group re: just sheila but that's not really what sheila herself is about so it's not going anywhere at first. it was very funny when judith just smacks susannah's lunch tray straight down onto the floor rip. and of course i love kitty Addressing susannah leading into masochist

8) Favorite costume(s)?

hmm not great at noticing these details (especially the first time around and in non-hq footage lol) but i Did notice (and appreciate) how all the characters were costumed quite differently in a very Personal Style sort of way, v helpful to characterize them each and help distinguish them earlier on. i did like susannah's costumes a lot with the yellow / purple and patterns and vests and carefully styled hair and her post-timeskip look was fantastic as well

12) Favorite background moment(s)?

again i was pretty focused on the foreground stuff really lol and i don't really remember anything where i was noticing something happening only in the background. but a more Literal background moment, i too really enjoyed the silhouettes of the girls striking poses being projected onto the bg behind susannah at the beginning of the show, very effective and Dramatic

16) Underrated moment(s) in the show?

i don't think i have a real answer re: what's Underrated mostly b/c i've already seen so much good analysis & appreciation from people about pretty much everything........so a vaguely tangential answer is about wishing it was just a Little more evident that Kitty And Dorothy Have Their Own Thing Going On, which like, yeah maybe it's easier to tell in person watching the show, but......and i Do like that kitty's connection to susannah is so clearly more general than their Relationships (or potential ones / wanting one) b/c of course susannah's dilemma around goes beyond Just the particular forbidden romance with this particular person

i also found judith's character like, nonzero engaging, which is just like i hadn't heard much about her prior i don't think. not as though she's at all Likeable in the sense of like if you were in the show you would not like this character who is both a bully and a narc but it's still like, good for her eventually realizing the error of her ways even if it'd've been good to realize it Before miss asp made it clear she was only ever intending to use judith, and like, maybe if your snitching on a girl had indirectly led to her death you'd stop narcing on everyone instead of just setting up the same situation again. but at least she comes around and threatens francis and even her awfulness can be funnier than the awfulness of other characters who are being awful

20) Headcanon(s) for what happens before the show?

oof that's tricky since so much stuff in the show is unveiling ppl's Backstory / what's happened prior.....idk i was gonna say i wonder how kitty got makeup kits into nation but maybe they're allowed / it's allowed for her b/c her parents are paying so much. not very exciting

24) The Other One or Oh Well?

did have to confirm which one The Other One is but i guess that one lmfao i just have a great time with sheila going off on those verses and it's fun how it's this playful song about them bonding over being rejected.....the "and i guess i don't know how to feel about it" delivery is v funny. much respect and appreciation for Oh Well though of course

28) Something you like/have noticed about the show that you haven’t seen anyone else mention yet?

i'm not sure there Was much that i noticed that i hadn't heard about prior......tbh i think there were just a few Plot Points i hadn't already heard discussed but they weren't exactly Fun ones so i was like hm yeah i can see why ppl wouldn't necessarily specifically address this for kicks

32) If only one could happen, would you prefer a cast recording or an Off-Broadway run?

i agree w/ p much everyone, gotta love the increased availability of a cast recording.....will be around for more than a few weeks, will cost less to obtain the experience, and around here Who Knows what cast recordings will spark. love how plausible it is that lihn Will get a cast recording, here's hoping

36) Favorite song(s) off the Hits of Nation/character playlists?

seeing as i forgot these playlists exist, f, and i have never heard music i just checked for which songs i know i know off the top of my head lol. s/o to each of the girls having iko iko by the dixie cups on their playlists, guess that's some required listening

[susannah: l.e.s. artistes by santigold], [rat: one way or another by blondie, i got a rocket in my pocket by jimmie lloyd (which i've only partially heard b/c it plays in the bg of a The Iron Giant scene lmao so this only counts like 1/3 of the way)] [kitty: diamonds are a girl's best friend by marilyn monroe, la vie en rose by edith piaf, anthems for a seventeen year old girl by broken social scene] [ya-ya: sugar sugar by the archies] [miss asp: i THINK i've heard "straighten up and fly right" and "if i knew you were comin i'd've baked a cake" but i don't especially wanna look them up and confirm lmao. know "i'm proud to be an american" and "god bless the usa" lol ew. "comfortably numb" by pink floyd and "whatever will be will be" by doris day et al and "my heart will go on" by celine dion] [first of all interesting that francis and buzz share a playlist but i guess really all of the roles by The Guy are pretty functionally similar lol. accentuate the positive by perry cuomo, blowin in the wind by bob dylan, i Think i've heard hang on to your ego by the beach boys but i think i forget how it goes]

40) What does LIHN mean to you?

hmm well classic iconis content around here with the shows celebrating misfit weirdos and him always trying to write a show about people who usually wouldn't get a show written about them and creating this material for an all-girl show with only one token The Guy and the Lead specifically being a black girl and there being a specifically trans role as well.....love how much people have been enjoying it even as it took me ages to get around to Consuming it myself, and it's been v cool for it to be so like, here's Totally New Material. even prior to me having actually seen it, it was also definitely nice to have This in the wake of august to interrupt the [lying facedown], and again it was fun to even secondhand have ppl having a great time w/ the show and getting to appreciate the Content and Analysis happening hell yea

44) Favorite non show/cabaret performance of a song?

oop i might've only seen the non-show video for "oh well" so guess it wins! fine by me

48) Favorite time Francis was wrong?

it's pretty classic / all-encompassing when he very strongly implies that susannah has no choice but to marry him / no Hope for her Future otherwise

#lihn #nothingunrealistic1

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Psych: The Essential Episode Guide

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As a TV series, Psych is like one of those frozen yogurt chains where the wall is ringed with different flavors and you can keep pulling levers for whatever combination you want. There are the Shawn/Gus episodes, the “Shawn’s psychic lie is threatened” episodes, the increasingly genius and lovingly rendered (often ‘80s-tastic) tributes, and the ensemble classics where the whole cast is just a well-oiled machine after years of riffing off one another. You can have whatever flavor you want. And don’t even get me started on toppings (there’s gotta be pineapple, at the very least).

Over its eight-year run, Psych interrogated its own premise, built out its supporting cast, let its characters play their favorite movie characters, and adapted its own internal mythology into trilogies that would make any movie-buff weep with appreciation. Here is a baker’s dozen of the most giggle-worthy, self-referential, surprisingly dramatic episodes of Psych. (And with so many to choose from, your favorite flavor combinations might be different from mine—share your own best episodes in the comments!)

Season 2 Episode 1: “American Duos”

Once the show had had a season under its belt of the fake-psychic shtick, the writers and actors got to really start playing in the sandbox they’d created. The second-season premiere has it all: a pop culture riff on a certain popular reality show competition; Tim Curry and Gina Gershon going above and beyond in their parodies of Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul; and Shawn and Gus giving a truly spectacular mashup performance as Curt Smith and Michael Jackson.

Season 2 Episode 3: “Psy vs. Psy”

I’m a sucker for the episodes where Shawn might have to come clean about his big fat lie. Season 2 poked at that possibility early on, with a counterfeit case that brings in government agent Lars Ewing (Lou Diamond Phillips) and female psychic Lindsay Leiken (Bianca Kajlich). Not only does Lars ruffle Lassiter’s feathers and get Jules hot and bothered, but Lindsay seems to be a lot more intuitive than Shawn—to the point where the SBPD may be looking to replace their consultant. Shawn has a knack for making things harder for himself, but the situations in which he has to actually fight his way out are always rewarding.

Season 2 Episode 13: “Lights, Camera… Homicidio”

The second season really cemented the series’ delight in its own ridiculousness—not just in the bizarre cases, but in how Shawn and Gus (and the rest of the SBPD) react to them. This week, it was an accidental murder via botched prop knife on the set of Explosión Gigantesca de Romance, Gus’ (and Henry’s) favorite telenovela, that really highlighted Psych’s embrace of the absurd. While doing his psychic thing, Shawn gets “discovered” enough to play the sexy delivery guy, who becomes a beloved character in his own right… only to learn for himself how badly the show’s fans blur the lines between characters and actors. Though not as outright meta as the tribute episodes, it still was wonderfully self-aware about the pitfalls of emotionally investing in fictional characters.

Season 4 Episode 5: “Shawn Gets the Yips”

This episode is a bit of a bait-and-switch in that Shawn having the yips (about baseball, not being a psychic) doesn’t really impact the plot, which starts with a shooting at a known cop bar and culminates in a commentary on the police force not properly punishing drug lords who sell opioids. The subplot about the drug lord supposedly targeting SBPD members is a bit of a red herring for the more nuanced twist about the cost of the opioid epidemic, but it contains one of my favorite moments, in which Shawn unintentionally gets a great workout because he believes that the message on his water bottle (your heart rate drops below 150, you die) is a threat. Just a solid mid-series episode.

Season 4 Episode 16: “Mr. Yin Presents…”

Just like with Bones, Psych really came into its own when it mixed the laughs with actual life-or-death stakes—and in both cases, that was thanks to a serial killer obsessed with our protagonist. Season 3 ended on “An Evening with Mr. Yang,” which introduced Ally Sheedy (one of many, many famous cameos) as the eponymous serial killer who kidnapped Shawn’s mother to get closer to him. But with her locked away and more artfully arranged kills discovered, the SBPD have to confront that Yang might have a Yin—which of course spawns a trilogy.

Movies

Psych 2: Lassie Come Home Review

By Natalie Zutter

Psych 2: Lassie Come Home Stars on Hitchcock Homages and Special Reunions

By Natalie Zutter

The Empire Strikes Back of the Yin/Yang saga is my personal favorite, though I highly recommend watching all three. The team’s introduction to Yang’s twisted mentor is through his love of Alfred Hitchcock movies: He casts each of them in an iconic role while leading them on a wild goose chase through Santa Barbara, ending at a movie set mashup and presenting Shawn with an impossible choice between saving girlfriend Abigail or Juliet. The latter has one of her most powerful moments, stoically accepting her death while suspended from a clock and later breaking down in Lassiter’s arms. Her PTSD remains through the Yin/Yang saga, another sign of the series’ maturity as it explores the ripple effect of its more dramatic plots.

Season 6 Episode 2: “Last Night Gus”

While Shawn and Gus are the series OTP, part of the show’s beauty has been in building up its other bromances. This spoof of The Hangover has Shawn, Gus, Lassiter, and Woody waking up in the Psych offices with no memory of their antics the night before, but plenty of incriminating clues tying them to a dead body. Their attempt to solve the mystery of how they got so memory-obliteratingly drunk has them encountering a sweet gay bartender couple, a murdered donut mascot, and a hot girl who’s very into Last Night Gus… if only he knew what he did. In addition to riffing superbly on the movie, the episode is a fun commentary on our present selves solving the mysteries of our past personas.

Season 7 Episode 5: “100 Clues”

I managed to watch this without realizing what the Psych crew was going for, so the moment that Shawn and Gus pulled up in the Blueberry to a mansion in a rainy homage to Clue, I was squealing harder than Gus at the notion of a secret chocolate room. For the series’ 100th episode, they lovingly parodied the perfect locked-mansion murder mystery, with killer cameos from Lesley Warren, Christopher Lloyd, and Martin Mull (plus little nods to the Clue alums who couldn’t be there, like Eileen Brennan). From the Singing Telegram Girl to the secret passageways, only true fans could achieve this level of detail—a perfect landmark celebration.

Season 7 Episode 7: “Deez Nups”

The sign of a great ensemble series is that they can make the standard, super-tropey wedding episode feel fresh again. It helps that it’s Lassiter’s nuptials, and everyone wants to see the guy happy, which is what leads to Shawn, Gus, and Woody kidnapping the detective for a bachelor party, while Juliet and the Chief get roped into being Marlowe’s bachelorette buddies. The threat of a mob boss taking revenge on Lassie takes a backseat to such wedding fare as Vick getting weepy-drunk on shots and McNab popping up as a police stripper (I cackled at the payoff of his Chekhov’s tearaway pants). Just like with a real-life wedding, when you know the people involved, it feels special and unique. (There is also a gross, transphobic joke about a stripper, one of the aspects of Psych that did not age well.)

Season 7 Episode 8: “Right Turn or Left for Dead”

Tribute episodes are Psych’s bread and butter, but rarely do they advance the plot as effectively and emotionally as this riff on Sliding Doors. After Juliet finds out that Shawn has been lying about being a psychic, which makes her believe that everything about their relationship has been a lie, Shawn indulges in a fantasy in which he’s 1990s Gwyneth Paltrow (naturally) pondering the diverging paths of whether Jules does or doesn’t discover the truth.

The story immediately splits into two takes on the same case, but in one she’s a Jane Doe and in the other Shawn actually has a chance to save her… only to discover that her life path was already set in stone after an abusive childhood. Even with subtle moments of humor that highlight the parallel universes’ differences in solving cases, overall the episode is a study in how one choice has ramifications far beyond the initial action—a lesson Shawn needed to learn, in the penultimate season.

Season 7 Episode 11: “Office Space”

If the boys trying to cover their tracks in “Last Night Gus” was worth a few giggles, Gus and Shawn tampering with a murder scene and then trying to clean their hands of it in this episode is the kind of laughter that hurts. When Gus publicly confronts his abusive boss, only for the man to wind up offed and poor Guster very incriminated. The sequence in which they hysterically stumble their way through the crime scene is worth watching alone; but as evidence mounts and it looks like they could actually be caught in the crosshairs, the levels of ingenuity to which they’re pushed shows why this is the show’s best partnership.

Season 8 Episode 1: “Lock, Stock, Some Smoking Barrels and Burton Guster’s Goblet of Fire”

This is the episode that got me back into the show after years of casual viewing: a mashup of Guy Ritchie and Harry Potter that manages to add a whole new layer to one of Psych’s best recurring characters, refined art thief Pierre Desperaux (Cary Elwes) while giving him a proper send-off.

Like the Yin/Yang trilogy, the entire Desperaux quartet is worth watching for the heists, the Indiana Jones lampooning, and especially for his continued double-crossing of his greatest fan Shawn. But this one takes the cake because it adds a new layer to the Desperaux mythology: He’s actually Royston Staley, an Interpol agent who went undercover as a gentleman thief. Or is he?? Plus, add in the runner about poor Gus in his Hogwarts robes just trying to make it to PotterCon, and you have a near-perfect episode.

Season 8 Episode 3: “Remake, A.K.A. Cloudy… WIth a Chance of Murder”

What better way to mark your final season than by remaking one of your season 1 episodes? What’s incredible about Psych is how many different ways it goes meta, but there was something especially entertaining about its remake of season 1, episode 12 “Cloudy… With a Chance of Murder.” With periodic reminders that this episode is set in 2006, it recasts almost all of the characters—a teacher accused of killing a local weatherman, the lawyer for the prosecution (Ralph Macchio)—and makes space for new jokes (about remakes and My Cousin Vinny) and new twists. All long-running series should get a chance to try and redo their early episodes after they’ve gelled their characters and dynamics.

Season 8 Episode 10: “The Break-Up”

After trying to make their long-distance relationship work, Shawn decides to move to San Francisco to be with Juliet, a far easier choice than actually breaking the news to Gus. Of course the Psych series finale would be about these two facing the end of their partnership. Specifically, Shawn’s inability to say goodbye, so instead he and Gus wind up investigating a case involving special guest star Billy Zane, careening around in their high-school drivers ed car, and competing with SBPD’s peppy new detective Betsy Brannigan (Mira Sorvino). When none of this helps Shawn come out with the truth, he does so through DVD—a whole batch of DVDs, tailored to each of his colleagues and dear friends. Because Shawn loves telling a story.

There’s no better end for Shawn and Gus than a bromantic one, complete with driving cross-state (albeit turning back 12 times), dramatic declaration of love (at a crime scene), and pledging their lives together before Shawn actually proposes to Juliet (as a formality). And it’s not just about them: The finale has sweet moments of closure for new junior detective McNab (aww) and especially Lassiter, who finally gets Shawn’s confession—then breaks the DVD. If the Psych movies had never happened, it would have been enough; but instead, it’s the sugary-sweet end of one chapter and the opening of another.

The post Psych: The Essential Episode Guide appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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insanityclause · 5 years

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Just months ago, following a critically acclaimed run at London's Harold Pinter Theatre, the four-person cast of Betrayal all made their Broadway debuts. One of the four was Eddie Arnold.

With poetic precision, rich humor, and an extraordinary emotional force, Betrayal charts a compelling seven-year romance, thrillingly captured in reverse chronological order. Arnold brings humor to the revered Pinter play, not only starring as the Waiter, but also understudying 'Jerry' and 'Robert'- roles played by stage and screen stars Charlie Cox and Tom Hiddleston.

Before Betrayal, Eddie starred in stage productions of Hamlet, The Vote, Journey's End, Jumpy, Saki. His film credits include: Mary Queen of Scots, Dead in October, Guardians, The List. Television credits include: "People Just Do Nothing," "Sticks and Stones," "De Infiltrant," "Man in an Orange Shirt," "The Vote."

As the play begins its final weeks on Broadway (closing on December 8, 2019), Eddie checked in with BroadwayWorld to reflect on the show's journey so far and how he is preparing to say goodbye to Broadway.

I know that a lot has happened in the past year, from opening in London to coming here... has it all hit you yet that you're really on Broadway?

I don't think it will hit me until it's too late and I get back home and say, "Oh no, it's over!" [Laughs] I feel like I'm living in this hyper-reality of the world that I used to be in. London was so incredible and such a lucky experience to get to share the stage with these three geniuses, and to be directed by Jamie [Lloyd], and to speak Harold Pinter's lines. But to then have the opportunity to come to New York, which I've only been on holiday to, and be able to come and offer it up to a new set of eyes is incredible. The American audience gets to experience it in a different way now. It was all so incredibly lucky. I feel like i've been floating on this bubble of happiness the whole five months I've been here. I've fallen in love with this city.

You're now a few months into the run. How has it been going at the Jacobs since opening night?

We are definitely all counting our lucky stars every night that we got this lovely, beautiful theatre that we've been invited to perform in. The audiences have been so receptive and so responsive. The funny thing is that the play has so many different threads that you can follow throughout, that an audience can be laughing hysterically one night and almost silent the next night... and yet they are just as into it at the end. They end up getting lost in the words and liking or disliking one of the characters for whatever reason. Or the next night someone else becomes vilified or loved or pitied. Each time it is so different.

It's really beautiful to see that every night, because I get to listen to it through the relays for about two thirds of the show. I get to watch how the audience is gauging it and how the actors are honing in on parts of each scene and working it in a different way. It really pumps me up. Like a football team has "Eye of the Tiger," I get to listen to Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Cox and Zawe Ashton perform scenes 1-6.

The magic of live theatre! Every time is something different...

Coming into the show in a later scene, in a production where the other characters don't leave the stage, I always get this beautiful feeling as the audience turns and watches me walk on. They're going, "Who the heck is that guy and why is he on stage?" And then it moves to, "Oh, ok! Here is a new dynamic that we haven't seen that will spice things up." They warm very quickly. I think Pinter has written it in a really great spot, where all of these characters that have been onstage before have been firing at each other constantly. Now suddenly, they have this new person who they can direct all of their anger and sadness and annoyance at. He's not going to beaten down that easily though!

This being a drama, with some comedic moments, you're the biggest moment of comic relief in the play. Is there pressure in that?

There's never any pressure going on because you've got to live in the reality of the moment- there are these very angry, posh men in front of you, who are trying their best to conceal their feelings for each other, especially with the information and power they hold over each other. So I've been caught up in this very awkward conversation and how do I talk my way out of it as quickly and effectively as possible? And of course they keep going in berating me. The comedy is really written into it already. So I just try to go into it as naturally as possible. Sometimes people laugh! At the end of the day you just have to be truthful to what you're playing and hopefully the writing and direction will help you out when you're not firing on all cylinders.

Were you intimidated at all at the beginning of the rehearsal process in London?

I had seen a lot of Jamie's work before. Three Days of Rain was such an incredible production and I had seen lots of the Pinter stuff as well. Obviously he is very big director who has done a lot of acclaimed work in London. Then the other guys, if you don't know who they are, you've been living with your head in the sand. At the end of the day I just wanted to nail the part as much as possible.

And luckily for someone like myself and others in this industry, between jobs, you serve at bars or restaurants. It's part of being a gigging actor. I made sure that I brought all of that experience- how many times I've bitten my lip at someone dropping their food and looking to me to pick it up... I thought, I can do this. I've done it before. It's actually a lot more pleasant this way because I can do it with lovely people and we can have a laugh about it in the end.

So intimidated wasn't it... more like honored. I'm so happy to have been allowed to perform and learn. You learn so much just from watching actors of this much talent and ability. Hopefully some of it will seep in and I'll be able to take it to my next job.

Have the four of you become close?

Oh yes, we've had a lovely time!

Your Halloween costumes were incredible.

Oh! They were great, weren't they? Captain America fit the bill for me. And I had to come out first as the leader of the Avengers. But we had so much fun dressed up like that. It was pure laughs backstage.

You've got a lot of time offstage throughout the course of the play. How do you occupy yourself?

I've read quite a few books! Right now I'm halfway through Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. It is about 800 pages and people call it the most remarkable achievement of the modern era of novel-writing. Then I've got another called A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. That one is about 700 pages long! So I'm trying to eat my way through both of those.

Then Dylan [S. Wallach] and Jesmille [Darbouze] are right above me. We get to hang out and catch up, which is lovely. We watch the show and run lines once or twice a week. Then I get to chill in pants and wait for my turn to go on.

So you have your own dressing room?

Yes! I bought a couple of plants to zhuzh it up, but I'm going to be really sad to leave it. It's been home for the last five months and it feels very much a part of me. I have very quickly adapted to life here.

What have you enjoyed the most about being a New Yorker?

Everyone is so incredibly welcoming. Also, New York has the best Italian food ever- I love Italian food. I still haven't bee to the Bronx, where I'm told the proper, old-school Italian restaurants are. That is definitely on my list of things to do before we finish.

Also, there are all these sports that don't even exist in England, like basketball and American football, baseball, ice hockey. I've been to see the Knicks and the Mets! I'm really trying to soak up every but of this American lifestyle before it gets taken away from me. [Laughs]

Have you gotten to see any other shows?

Oh goodness, yes! We saw Sea Wall/A Life, with Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Sturridge. That was incredible. In the same way as our play, it felt so natural and timeless. It was so beautifully acted. I went to see Dear Evan Hansen as well. That was phenomenal. Tom and I went to see it and then we've been singing the songs ever since. We're backstage singing our hearts out! That kind of acting, where you come on and sing for two and a half hours... it seems like an alien thing to me. I cannot imagine ever being to do that. How do they do that?

So doing a musical is not on your bucket list?

It might be on my bucket list, but I don't think that anyone would come to see it! [Laughs]

With just a few weeks until the end of the show's run, what are you most looking forward to in the time you have left?

I want to eat as much American food as I can! [Laughs] No, it's about not taking anything for granted. Everything becomes so happy and easy until these last few weeks and now I have to start saying goodbye to people. I need to make sure I've said thank you to about 500 people who have made this experience what it is. I need to seek them out and tell them personally. Any of my free time will be spent hunting people down to show my appreciation.

#Eddie Arnold #Betrayal #interview #i hope Eddie gets lots of work out of this

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themcuhasruinedme · 5 years

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Vintage Film Fest (Pt. 4)(End)

[Summary]: You and Steve have been dating for a while and you surprise him with a pair of tickets to a vintage film festival as an anniversary date

[Pairing]: Steve x reader

[Word Count]: 3,795

Tagging: @theashhole @dividedwecantfall @peterman-parker @avengerofyourheart @nataliarxmanxva @metalarmproblems @queenbbarnes @carol-damn-vers @imagine-assembling-the-avengers @that-sokovian-bastard @hellomissmabel @abovethesmokestacks @peculiar-persephone @bellameys @beccaanne814 @hymnofthevalkyrie @buckys-shield @callamint @redgillan @angelicthor @iwillbeinmynest @theassetseyeliner @lilasiannerd @aubzylynn @sgtbxckybxrnes @iamwarrenspeace @marvelrevival @httpmcrvel @avengersnthings @feelmyroarrrr @girl-next-door-writes @honey-bee-holly @patzammit

A/N: Well, our vintage film fest has finally come to an end.. I hope you all enjoyed reading (and possibly watching) all these wonderful movies I mentioned, as they are all very near and dear to my heart in some way or another. And once again, I encourage you guys to watch the movies and shorts I mention in this as they are all wonderful and amazing (heads up though: some of them are silent!) and all can be found on YouTube.

Pt.1 | Pt.2 | Pt.3

You couldn’t believe that night four was here already. It seemed like just yesterday that the film fest started and you were looking forward to enjoying all these movies and shorts with Steve. But like anything and everything, all good things must come to an end.

When it was time for you and Steve to drive to the theater, you slowly walked to the car while Steve tried to rush you.

“Everything ok, [Y/N]?”

“Yea,” you sighed. “It’s just that I can’t believe that it’s our final night for this.”

Steve gave you a small smile and wrapped you in his arms as a tear slid down your cheek.

“Hey, it’s ok!” he said as he brushed the tear away with his thumb then lifting your chin up so your eyes met. “There will be other festivals to go to. I’ll make sure that we find more.” He gave you a kiss on your forehead and you hugged each other tightly for a couple minutes in the driveway.

“Alright, hun. Let’s go,” he whispered.

The drive over was a quiet one and when the two of you walked in to the theater, it was about half full already. Finding seats close to the middle, you let Steve go get the snacks while you played some games on your phone and patiently waited for him to come back.

Handing you a box of Reese’s Pieces again along with a king sized box of Sour Patch Kids, you looked at him with the biggest smile you could muster.

“Anything to make that smile happen,” he said as he sat down and placed the drinks in the cup holders.

He intertwined his fingers with yours and you placed your head on his shoulder which then prompted him to place a soft, delicate kiss to the top of your head. Your smile got a bit bigger as another tear slid down to the tip of your nose.

You wiped it away and sniffled a bit when the lights went down, it was time for the last night of movies to start. And what a way to start off the last night but with one of Harold Lloyd’s most notable short called An Eastern Westerner.

For you, it was always a delight watching Harold Lloyd, especially his glasses character that they call “The Boy”. There was just something about his all-American persona in that character that you couldn’t quite put your finger on but all you knew what that you loved that character nonetheless.

The theater was quiet until the second title card appeared: “H-o-m-e spells home, but the Boy never did care much for spelling.” which then made the whole audience roar with laughter. And the laughter continued as you all watched the Boy get in trouble over doing the shimmy in a dance hall that prohibited it.

It then became quiet again as you all watched him come home late, get in trouble with his father and get told that he needs to visit his uncle out West where it will get rid of his “wild shenanigans”.

Laughter filled the theater once more when the title card popped up for the town that the Boy was to go: “The little town of Piute Pass. It’s considered bad form to shoot the same man twice on the same day.” But it quickly turned to gasps from the kids as they showed a group of bandits hold up the towns saloon and then over-dramatically get bullied by the saloon owner.

Watching as they showed the Girl, the Boys soon to be sweetheart, get work in the saloon, the Boy chase his ride all the way into town and then try to impress the Girl with rope twirling and horse riding but failing miserably, there were laughs all around.

There were even more laughs when the Boy went into the saloon, almost got shot, got a little to flirty with a dancer, was forced to play a poker game, attempted to roll his own cigarette (and made five instead) and practically cheat at the poker game by disguising himself as a waiter.

(gif credit goes to @ren-field)

Gasps and laughter were mixed during the ending chase scene after the Boy had saved the Girl’s father and the saloon owner got upset over it. But when the ending came, there were aww’s from every corner of the theater as the Boy drew a line across the Girl’s left ring finger.

The first break happened and you and Steve waited patiently for the next one to start. Slowly eating more of your Reese’s Pieces, you decided to stick a few in Steve’s mouth which came with some laughs and much needed hugs.

As soon as the lights went down for the second movie to start and seeing the title card for it immediately put a smile on your face. Charlie’s most famous short called The Immigrant was one of your favorites. His Tramp character could always put a smile on your face no matter how bad you were feeling.

Laughs started right away seeing the Tramp hanging over the side of the boat, making it look like he was seasick until he brought a fish into view, smiling as he held on to his catch then losing it into a sleeping crowd. More laughs happened as he tried to walk on deck but swayed with the boat with each step he took.

Even more laughs came while the audience watched him try to eat dinner in the swaying dining room where he could hardly stand, lost his footing (along with his meal) and immediately fell for a pretty girl on the boat.

Suddenly gasps filled the theater from all the kids as they watched a man steal from a sleeping old lady but the cheers and aww’s rang out when they watched the Tramp give his money to the girl, who happened to be the old lady’s daughter.

Quietness filled the theater as the audience watched the boat sail into New York’s harbor and the Tramp say goodbye to the girl and her mother. But it was quickly filled with laughter again as the Tramp went to go eat, had a hat issue with the headwaiter, eat his bowl of beans one at a time and have the guy sitting next to him get irritated by it all.

(gif credit goes to @maudit)

Aww’s and smiles came again when the Tramp met the girl from the boat in the restaurant, sitting at the table next to him but quickly turned to gasps as the audience watched a customer get roughed up and thrown out of the place because he was short on his bill.

Laughs came and went even more when the Tramp tried to pay for his and the girl’s food but the coin he had was a fake and he kept falling out of his seat from disbelief whenever the headwaiter tried to grab his shirt collar. But as luck would have it, someone “paid” the bill for them and then the Tramp and the girl got married later that day.

Cheers came as the screen went black and the lights went on. You and Steve each took turns going to the restroom to make sure no one took your spots, even though there wasn’t really an empty seat anywhere.

When the lights went down for the next movie to start, you were happy to see that they had one more Buster movie, called The Passionate Plumber, set up for the festival. This was another one of your favorite talking ones from him, even though it was another MGM film but this was another one of those that Buster fans considered to be good. In fact, some fans considered it to be his best of the talking movies and you certainly did as well.

The laughs were a plenty with this one, starting with Buster’s character, Elmer, going to fix a leaky shower in some fancy dames house but as things usually went, it didn’t go smoothly. The girl’s lover, Tony, caught Elmer in the bathroom and accused Patricia of her having a lover on the side, which caused Tony to get jealous, arrange a duel with Elmer and bring out his gloves, slapping Elmer across the face, which in turn Elmer slapped him using the only thing he had on him; his towel.

Laughs continued when the duel between Elmer and Tony happened, especially when Elmer kept bringing out his glove and slapping everyone. You could hear some sighs throughout the theater when it showed Buster in a polo shirt and one of those deadpan, yet astonishingly beautiful, expressions on his face. One of those sighs even came from you unknowingly and Steve quickly squeezed your hand to make you snap out of your dream state.

“Hey, I thought I was the only one that could make you swoon?” Steve teased. You nudged his arm and smiled, focusing your attention back to the screen. You heard a few gasps from the kids when it showed that Tony had another girl, named Nina, making it seem to her that he was married to Patricia and that he wanted to be with Nina.

But the laughs soon continued for the next 15 minutes as the audience watched Elmer try to show his new gun invention to the French Army General which made it seem like an assassination attempt because he kept having to bring the gun out, trying to get into the casino that the General was in and finally succeeding, causing chaos in the casino as only Buster can after waving his gun around yet agin to the General, then stealing someones car and smashing it, only to have the chauffeur come over screaming and yelling which made Elmer bring out his gloves once more.

The theater then became quiet as you all watched Patricia ask Elmer to help her get rid of Tony by becoming her “make believe” lover. But the laughter filled it yet again when Elmer silently grabbed Tony’s hat to make it look like he just came in and started kissing Patricia, making Tony upset and hitting the top of Elmer’s hat. The laughter got even harder when once again the gloves came out to do more slapping.

Laughs came and went throughout the rest of the movie as you watched Patricia try to leave and be with Tony but Elmer was constantly there making sure she wouldn't be able to go anywhere, Patricia’s aunt coming over for a surprised visit, a small cat fight breaking out between Nina and Patricia to only find out Tony was playing both of them and then Nina and Patricia taking their revenge out on him by throwing anything and everything they could get their hands on, while also Patricia finally telling Elmer that she loved him.

The lights came on and it was time for one more break. You sat quietly in your seat, holding on to Steve’s arm. You sighed which made him give you a kiss on the top of your head and rest his cheek there. He knew that this festival being over so soon was making you sad but he was determined to not make this the only time you two did one.

As the lights went off once more for the second to last film, a smile was quickly brought to your face as the famous intro song to any Laurel and Hardy flick started playing, along with seeing what movie it was; Way Out West, one of their most famous movies.

The audience sat quietly as they watched the owner of a saloon and his saloon-singer wife talk about how if they had enough money, they’d get out of town as fast as possible, then watched her sing and dance for all the people in the saloon.

The chuckles started as soon as Stan and Ollie’s theme played for the next scene as they were shown traveling down the road, Stan on foot leading a mule dragging a travois which Ollie was lying on. But laughter broke out when they came to a river and the travois detached from the mule leaving Ollie stranded in the river and Stan trying to help him out with comic complications as usual.

The audience watched as the boys hitched a ride into town and both flirted with the woman inside the stagecoach, only to then find out upon arrival that she was the sheriff’s wife and he threatened them to leave on the next coach or they’ll be leaving in a hearse.

The next scene really put a smile on your face as the song “At the Ball, That’s All” started being sung because the famous dance scene between Laurel and Hardy was about to happen. That scene never failed to put a smile on your face. It was one of your absolute favorite parts out of it.

After the audience whooped and cheered when the boys were done with the dance, it became quiet once more until they told the saloon owner that they needed to see Mary, a girl who worked there because her father died leaving her a goldmine and they were to deliver the deed to her in person, upon then gasps broke out from the kids when the saloon owner and his wife hatched a plan that they would take the deed from Mary and keep the gold for themselves.

Laughter broke out once again seeing that Stan had a hole in the bottom of his shoe and him sticking a piece of meat in it that another customer complained about being “tough as shoe leather” giving Stan the idea to use it for patching the hole, which in turn made Ollie give one of his famous exasperated camera stares.

Some gasps mixed with laugher followed as you all watched the saloon owner and his wife trick the boys into handing over the deed but not before comic complications ensued before handing it over, which included Ollie almost losing the deed and him and Stan taking almost every article of clothing off to find it.

After the boys handed over the deed to the fake Mary, another smile appeared on your face as you knew the next part was another one of your favorites and one that never failed to make you laugh; the boys singing “Trail of the Lonesome Pine” with lip-synched comedy effects from Laurel at one point and his delayed reaction to being knocked in the head with a hammer by Ollie. You loved it so much that you even had the song in one of your music playlists.

Gasps came again when the boys found out that the woman they just gave the deed to wasn’t the real Mary and that they were now determined to get the deed back from the swindlers and hand it over to the real Mary.

As the movie continued, bursts of laughter came and went between the boys trying to retrieve the deed with the first attempt ending up with Stan in massive giggle fits, more threats from the sheriff to get out of town, Ollie falling back into the sink hole in the river, Stan shockingly using his thumb as a lighter then having to eat Ollie’s hat from a bet he made earlier and more attempts to retrieve the deed from the safe at the saloon.

Cheers and applause happened during the end when the boys finally got the deed and escaped with it and the real Mary as well but quickly turned to laughs when once again they cross the river and Ollie fell into the sink hole.

The lights went on again and your heart sank a little deeper, for you knew that the last film of the night and the festival was going to be played right after the lights went down for the final time. It was a bittersweet feeling but you knew that Steve would want the two of you to enjoy something like this again. You sat patiently and waited for the final film.

And what a way to end it! When the lights went down and the last film lit up the screen, you were brought to happy tears seeing what movie they saved for last; Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights, considered one of the greatest films of all time. It was your #1 favorite Chaplin film, one you could never tire of seeing and certainly one that got you emotional every time over the story and how beautifully it played out.

Laughs started almost immediately upon seeing the Tramp sleeping on a new statue that was being revealed to the public. Trying to get off the statue, he gets part of it caught in his pants while then also getting scolded by a police officer and failing miserably for several minutes of getting off of it but finally managing to get away. Chuckles were heard here and there while the Tramp wandered the city and two newsboys taunt him for his shabby appearance, which he rebukes them for and almost has a near-fatal encounter with a sidewalk elevator while admiring a statue in a store window.

The theater got quiet for a bit while seeing the Tramp meet a blind flower girl on the street corner and in the course of buying a flower realizes she’s blind. Quite a few aww’s sounded as the Tramp was instantly smitten. You could’nt help but sigh and smile yourself as you watched the Tramp fall for the girl, let alone the beautiful music that accompanied such a beautiful scene.

It became quiet again with chuckles here and there as the audience watched the Tramp save a drunken millionaire from suicide, the drunk millionaire then save him, the Tramp stop the millionaire’ second suicide attempt then go out for a night on the town and cause trouble in a restaurant till early morning.

You all watched as a now sober Tramp drove the millionaire home the next morning when then he sees the flower girl en route to her street corner. The Tramp gets some money from the millionaire and catches up to the girl, buying all her flowers and drives her home in the millionaire's car but then upon returning to a sober millionaire who remembers nothing of what took place the night before, the Tramp gets thrown out of the house.

Laughter, sighs, aww’s and gasps came throughout the rest of the film as the audience watched the Tramp meet up with the drunk millionaire again, get kicked out the next morning, desperately try helping the blind girl get money for her operation, get fired from his job, try to win prize money for her in a boxing match, encountering the drunk millionaire for a third time and getting money from him for the girl’s operation.

Gasps came from kids all around the theater as they watched two burglars steal the millionaires money while the police believe that the Tramp was the one who committed the crime because after being knocked unconscious the millionaire doesn’t remember giving the Tramp the money. Some yells happened as you all watched the police try to apprehend the Tramp but then get away with enough time to visit the girl and give her the money but quickly turned to whimpers seeing that he told her he was going away for awhile, then was imprisoned.

You squeezed Steve’s arm tightly and had the biggest smile on your face knowing full well that the best scene was about to happen. He looked down at you, smiled and wrapped his arm around you knowing that this was your favorite scene.

A few sniffles had started here and there in the theater as you all watched the Tramp wander around the city once again after being in jail for months. At this point, you all learn that the flower girl now owns her own flower shop and has had her sight restored but when an elegant man enters the shop she wonders for a moment if her mysterious benefactor, whom she imagines to be rich and handsome, has returned.

By this time, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Sniffles and a few full-on cries were being heard throughout the theater as the audience watched the Tramp walk by the shop, where the girl was arranging flowers in the window. Dabbing your eyes with the tip of your finger, you all watched as he stooped to retrieve a flower discarded in the gutter after a brief run-in with the newsboys from earlier, as he turns to the shop's window through which he suddenly sees the girl, who has been watching him without of course knowing who he is. At the sight of her he is frozen for a few seconds, then breaks into a broad smile. The girl is flattered and giggles then motioning through the glass, she kindly offers him a fresh flower to replace the crushed one he took from the gutter as well as a coin.

Suddenly embarrassed, the Tramp starts to shuffle away, but the girl steps to the shop door and again offers the flower, which he shyly accepts. She takes his hand and presses the coin into it, but abruptly she stops as her smile turns to a look of puzzlement. She runs her fingers along his arm, his shoulder, his lapels, then catches her breath.

"You?" the tile card reads.

The Tramp nods with an uncertain smile and another title card pops up with him asking, "You can see now?"

The girl replies, "Yes, I can see now" and tearfully pulls his hand to her chest. The uncertainty on the Tramp's face turns to joy as the screen faded to black.

Cheers, whoops, yells and whistles filled the theater as it stayed dark with the lights coming on a few seconds later. You and Steve looked at each other, noticing both of you had tear stains running down your cheeks.

“Looks like I’m not the only one to get emotional over that scene,” you playfully said and nudged his arm.

Steve pretended to clear his throat. “I don’t know what you're talking about, [Y/N],” he said as he quickly tried to wipe his face.

“Don’t try that with me, Steven Grant Rogers. I can see through that tough exterior at times.” You gave him a wink and a smile.

He smiled back at you then got up and stretched. Offering his arm, you got up and stretched as well then took his arm and the two of you walked out of the theater. You looked back at the room for a moment and smiled, knowing this was what brought you and Steve together in the first place; a theater playing a black and white movie.

#avengers imagine #marvel imagine #steve rogers #steve rogers imagine #steve rogers x reader

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the-risen-tide · 5 years

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OKAY SO, I finally went to see the new Cats movie in theaters. I wanted to give myself a bit to collect my thoughts, because HOO BOY are there thoughts. Not terrible ones though...like my reviews of everything else, I gave it a look with a level head.

Because I can’t really review without spoilers, I’m going to put my thoughts under a cut. Read at your own peril.

Now, I’d promised myself ages ago that I’d go into the movie with an open mind and a clear head. I’d already seen reviews that were divided greatly on it (mostly between people who’d already seen Cats on stage and those that have never seen it ever), but as usual it’s a good idea to have your own opinion.

That said.

I loved it.

The weird part is, at first, I came away from it thinking that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would. But everything about it from the visuals to the music (especially the new song, I’ll get to that in a bit) and the story, all of it was still sticking with me after I left the theater, and I began loving it more in hindsight than I did sitting there in the moment, if that makes sense.

Cats has always been one of those shows that breaks quite a few rules of what people think a show should be. More an opera than a musical, more a dance/ballet performance than a story, with a look that allows the audience to use their imaginations, and as such can put more than a few people off of it. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but despite that, it’s memorable, and has a great following. The movie seemed to try to take that feeling from the stage show, strange and mystifying and daunting (maybe even a bit awkward), yet charming and inspiring and heart-catching. In many ways it succeeded, and some ways it didn’t...and where it didn’t was probably mostly the fault of the presentation. And of course, opinions are going to vary wildly on it.

But anyway, for those that know and love the show, it’s a good idea to see this one as just another production, an alternate canon, because you can’t compare each production to each other (much less a movie to a stage show), as that’s where an adaptation fails in everyone’s minds. This one seemed to take inspiration from the original 1981 production and build a new story from the ground up, while of course still keeping the music and songs that everyone loves. The lyrics of some of the songs do call back to the original production (the version of Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer used was from that one, and not from the 1998 video and subsequent performances, which I found surprising; but not displeasing, they did it very well), and while I was a little disappointed that Jemima/Sillabub wasn’t an important character as she is in the stage show, I remember Lloyd Webber at first wanting a kitten character with both Victoria’s dance prowess and Jemima’s singing prowess, who embodies the show as a whole. He got what he wanted in movie form with Victoria, and they took the character to a whole different direction than the original, which was interesting.

So, to sum up, one can see this movie as an adaptation of the original ideas for the stage show. It isn’t my personal canon concept, but it’s one I ended up liking just as much. Now, here are my personal likes and dislikes.

Dislikes: The background characters aren’t given as much personality as they are on stage, or at least, aren’t shown as much personality; and with many of them taking on different designs, it’s hard to tell who’s who until you see the credits, where everyone’s named. You only ever know a few of the main characters, their own stories, and that’s it. Not even Munkustrap gets named directly, and he’s still got his role as the sort-of narrator and introduction to the world of the Jellicles. Of course, this is probably a minor grudge, as background characters can’t be as prevalent in a movie version without it going on longer than needed. But, at least they’re still there, and still lend their charm to the setting, and perhaps in subsequent watches I’ll be able to see more of who everyone is and what they’re doing.

Still, leaving characters in the background also means leaving various character relationships behind, save for the main ones. Demeter, who in the stage show is still an ensemble character (but an important one for the subplot of Macavity), has been downgraded to another of many minor characters; Cassandra now mostly fills the role of a forefront ensemble singer, and nobody really seems to have anything that connects one to another emotionally. Basically it was like the relationships common to many of the productions were ret-conned or tossed altogether; the focus is on the main characters. But again, another minor grievance, as it is a movie, and a separate production, and no production is canon...and we still have our imaginations to go on. X3

Also, personally, I disliked that they made Bombalurina evil. On stage, though she’s presented as the “good-bad girl”, attractive and seductive, she’s still a beloved part of the ensemble, friend to quite a few of the queens, and protective in a sisterly way over Demeter. “Macavity” is meant as a duet with the two warning the others of his malevolent deeds; in the movie, she’s not seen until nearly the end, and the song is sung in praise of him while helping him bring the Ball to a halt. It was a good number, though, and the different take on the character probably had to be there plot-wise...but still, IMHO the character deserves better.

Plus, it’s no wonder why Munkustrap was thought boring by his actor; they didn’t really give him his “protector” role. The fight with Macavity is taken out entirely. Again, Munk as a character also deserves better.

Also, Jennyanydots deserves better. X3 She’s presented as a comedy-relief character, and honestly I think they tried a little too hard with that, along with Bustopher Jones; both of their segments were a tad cringey to me...but theirs were the only ones, really. The music in them was still superb, it was just the way they were presented. They could have probably just stuck Bustopher with the comic-relief role (as he is somewhat in the stage show), and that would’ve been sufficient.

I believe those were my only grievances. Now let’s get to what I liked.

THE MUSIC, first of all. STILL awesome. I feel like, really, the movie kept in what made the stage show important...and as with musicals, that was keeping the tones of the beloved songs, from the overture at the beginning all the way to The Ad-dressing of Cats. That plus the impressive dancing. I could still catch some little bits of choreography from the stage show in them, although mainly it was all revamped for the movie...but they kept the music, so that’s the biggest point (though some were edited down a bit to make time for dialogue; understandable, still). Skimbleshanks’ number has to be the most impressive, by far.

Adding to this, the new song, Beautiful Ghosts, written together by Lloyd Webber and Taylor Swift. Wow. You can tell they made a song that would really fit into the show...it’s haunting and sad, and yet hopeful, and the more I listen to it with Victoria’s story in mind, the more I tear up. It’s brilliant.

The story, I also liked. I admit, it has to be hard to try and make a plot out of a musical that has a fairly bare-bones presentation to it, and is mostly comprised of songs adapted from a poetry book about cats. There are many ways they probably could have taken the plot, but they did it very well, in my opinion; plus they still kept the most important events from the stage show: Grizabella’s redemption arc, and Macavity’s trying to derail things, straight down to kidnapping Old Deuteronomy and her being brought back through Mistofelees’ magic; I love how that bit was presented, too. He and the others are expecting a grandiose magic return, and instead it’s off-screen and softly sung, and as the music swells from solemn to joyous, you know it’s just as magical all the same.

I knew that Growltiger would make an appearance in this, but I didn’t realize he’d be made his own character, when in the play, he’s a character that Gus the Theater Cat played in the past...only the first few lines of his song was sung, too. But at least they kept his appearance from the play, down to the “somewhat-missing” ear. X3 That bit was clever, I liked it.

Also, Victoria and Mistofelees are adorable as heck in this one, can’t lie. XD

Speaking of the characters, the casting too is pretty great. Robert Fairchild, I could see actually playing Munkustrap on stage. He has the same cadence and comforting tone of voice and is a lovely singer. Sir Ian Mckellan, I couldn’t see anyone else playing Gus (he even has a very similar voice to the original 1981 cast member)...and Taylor Swift did make a good Bombalu, if in appearance and voice. X3 And of course we can’t forget Francesca Hayward’s performance as Victoria; hope to see her career expand. Dame Judi Dench made a very regal Deuteronomy (and yes, the thought of a female Deut has grown on me), and it’s good to see that she got to be in Cats, knowing her history. And as predicted, Idris Elba made a pretty sinister Macavity. X3

So, all in all?

This movie probably gets so many negative reviews from the general public, because most of the general public has never seen the musical, and really don’t know what to make of the adaptation. X3 This is definitely not for anyone who doesn’t like musical theater, let alone Cats...I feel that the movie was only made with the true fans in mind. And that’s just fine; not everything has to cater to the public at large, because if you try to do that, it’s not really a passion project. Cats has always been unique, and still is, and there are people out there who very much appreciate the hard work that has been put into it. The sets are phenomenal. The CGI could use work, but for an experimental style, it was done pretty well (yes, it’s possible to get past the uncanny-valley looks of the characters, at least it was for me, because they didn’t bother me in the first place). It shows that they tried hard to stay true to the spirit of the stage show, while also putting something completely new into it. And I think they nailed the spirit, which is the important thing in an adaptation: the spirit.

There’s a few things that could be changed, namely in presentation overall...they could have used another director, to be honest...but the casting, the music, the dancing...heck, some of the designs...that’s all good. Actually it’s funny to me to observe how easy it is to make a musical-type movie into a stage show, a-la The Lion King, but how hard it is to do it the other way around. XP

Would I watch it again? Heck yes. Buy the DVD? Heck yes (especially once they’ve put out the full version). Does it hold up to other productions? No, but I didn’t expect it to; it’s a movie. They took all the essential things and rebuilt it, simple as that.

And so, overall, I give the movie a score of 3.5 out of 5. It’s not my canon, but it’s still good, and you can ignore the hell out of the reviewers, they’re all plebs. XD

Thank you, my dears!

#text post #blog post #movie reviews #cats the movie #cats the musical #cats musical #cats 2019 #cats spoilers

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scifinal · 4 years

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DW s12e10: It's Quite Unfortunate That This Child Keeps On Regenerating

It's only fitting that the first post on a blog called "SciFinal" should be about a season finale.

Not that fitting is the fact that in said post I'm going to begin where it all started for me.

Part One: How I Even Got into This Mess of a Show in the First Place

While I call myself a huge Doctor Who fan, even a – *gasp* – Whovian, I must admit I am not as familiar with the franchise as I would like to be; I've seen the new show, I've seen Torchwood (though, admittedly, I had to force myself to finish the fourth season – but that's a story for another day), I've listened to a handful of audio dramas (including Kaldor City, which I consider to be canon for both DW and Blake's 7) – mostly Torchwood audio dramas, but who cares, – I've read a couple of comics, I've got a novel or two somewhere on my bookshelf, I've seen the first couple of seasons of the classic show, but that's about it. I can't say I grew up with it – it wasn't on TV when I was a kid, there isn't an official Ukrainian dub, et cetera, et cetera. I first heard about it when I was about thirteen, when my classmate did a project about something they liked – and was pretty dismissive of my peers' hobbies at the time, believing myself to be somewhat above them, so I didn't pay much attention.

Then somebody finally pressured me into watching it (I believe I was fifteen or something back then) and I loved it. The first two episodes of the first season, I mean. I watched those, texted my friend something like "consider me a Whovian now!" and abandoned the show completely only to return to it maybe several years later.

I loved it. This time, for real.

Doctor Who has been with me ever since that time, it has a big soft spot reserved for each and every Doctor ever in my heart, and for each and every companion. I know full well it's cheesy, and it's stupid, and it's technobabble-y, and it's glorious in all of its cheesy technobabble-y stupidity.

And I hate this finale.

Part Two: Doctor, Why

I hate this finale – because I hate Chris Chibnall. Mind you, not the gentleman himself (I don't even know what he looks like, and I can't be bothered to Google), I hate what he did to Doctor Who.

Now, when it was revealed that the would replace Steven Moffat I felt... nothing. What did you expect? I had no idea who the man was. I know now he's made Broadchurch, and I know he wrote a bunch of stuff for Torchwood back in the day, including Cyberwoman. I had to drop Broadchurch because of how well-handled the depressing atmosphere was, and I love the flawed, dumb, sexy-cyber-bikinied, almost-fifteen-minutes-of-Ianto's-whining-including (I know because some time ago I literally cut almost every single moment of Gareth David-Lloyd whimpering, moaning, groaning, screaming, and mugging at the camera out of the episode and made those bits and pieces into a beautiful clip show called "I HATE THIS" to explain exactly why his face was and still is so punchable) mindless fun that is Cyberwoman (this is also one of the two episodes in which they actually do something fun with the pterodactyl living inside Torchwood's underground base). The latter also led to the creation of one amazing in how it develops Ianto's character audio drama entitled "Broken". I love Broken. I am now forcing you to look at its cover because of how much I love it.

Here we go. Now, back to the point of me rambling pointlessly

In his video "Sherlock Is Garbage, and Here's Why", a well-known YouTuber hbomberguy pointed out how Steven Moffat's problem is that he is more than capable of writing a good one-off episodes, but ultimately fails at managing multiple complex, overarching stories, as visible when you look at the difference between Moffat's individual episodes and his run on the show.

Now, I believe that Chris Chibnall suffers from the same affliction: he's a good screenwriter but a terrible, terrible showrunner. Sure, he's made Broadchurch, but Broadchurch, in its essence, was a complete singular story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. There were no bigger, incomplete arcs expanding at the expense of other episodes, and the show did exactly what it was originally designed to do: it told an uninterrupted story.

Here comes Chris Chibnall's run on Doctor Who.

Now, while Steven Moffat was ultimately not very good at managing overarching stories, he tried to do so nonetheless, and the fans seemed to like his attempts. And while I can't be sure as to whether it was Chris' original vision for the show or he and his co-writers were merely trying to emulate Moffat, he attempted the same. A friend of mine has even pointed out how, to her, it was painfully obvious how the writers of the finale were desperately trying to copy Moffat's style (to give you some context, she grasped it from a 30-second clip of the CyberMasters' reveal, and that clip basically consisted of me filming my laptop's screen and laughing at their design, making the video wobbly and the audio distorted). At the time of writing this post this friend hasn't seen a single episode of Chibnall's era and, as far as I know, has no wish to do so – mainly because of two reasons that both have something to do with the finale:

Somebody's already spoiled it for her, so who cares;

I ranted to her about how shit this finale is and now she hates everything about Chibnall era.

I am very sorry for the latter, since I genuinely believe there are some nice episodes in these seasons, and I especially like the "historical" ones, they really are quite a lot of fun, I like Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison fighting badly CG-ed alien scorpions, I love Lord Byron and Mary Shelley running around a haunted house trying to escape from a Cyberman (even though it's all too similar to the Agatha Christie episode from Russel T Davies' run), I adore that episode about Rosa P–– oh, wait, no, that one was crap and ripped off Blake's 7... Anyway, I love Jodie Whittaker's Doctor, I am a big fan of Graham, I like Ryan just fine, and I can put up with Yaz, even though it's been two seasons and I've still got no idea what's her personality supposed to be, and I absolutely love the new Master (he reminds me of a cute little pug with a big Tommy gun). There is plenty of good stuff in these two seasons, they are lots of fun to watch, but this finale... Oh god, this finale.

Part Three: We Had All of Time and Space at Our Fingertips and We Ended Up with This

We are getting to the point of this whole thing. I would love to begin with the obvious, the twist, but there's so much wrong with this who-cares-how-many-parter than this one big thing.

It is inept. It is impotent. It is incompetent. It is bad at almost everything except its okay camera work, somewhat good (for a British TV show, I mean) effects, and its really solid performances.

Its editing is tone-deaf to the extreme. There is a moment in the final episode where Ko Sharmas asks who will be the first to cross the Boundary and step into the unknown, and immediately it cuts to Yaz walking towards it, all fast and silent. I would love to show you a clip of it, but I don't have one and I can't force myself to download the episode and sit through this shitshow again just to present you with a ten-second clip. Nonetheless, that part is not edited like a dramatic moment. You edit comedies this way. Bad comedies. Bad editors edit bad comedies this way.

Its plot is incoherent. There are several plot threads in this finale, and they're managed in a way that doesn't make the viewer care about all of them at the same time, rather the viewer goes "oh, I've completely forgotten this was happening" and then, before they can even begin to care, the show cuts to something else. It's all over the place and oh so annoying.

The plot armour is painfully obvious despite every attempt to disguise it. There wasn't a single, solitary second when I believed the Doctor was really going to sacrifice herself and, lo and behold, here comes the old guy ex machina to do it for her. The only questions I was asking at that moment were "How are the writers going to prevent the Doctor's death now that they've seemingly created themselves a way to go on forever?" and "How can Whittaker care so much about her performance in this scene she's literally almost crying?". I wholeheartedly related to the Master asking "So why are we still here?" and shout–– hiss–– mumbl–– whatever-ing "Come on, come on, come on!" – at that point I've suffered through at least forty-five minutes of utter nonsense, people going preachy, religious Cybermen with Dalek motivations, that absolutely ludicrous scene in the previous episode when the show was trying its worst to make me perceive autonomous flying Cyber-heads with laser eyes as a serious threat, a shit twist and... Oh.

I've got to finally touch on the shit twist, haven't I?

It doesn't make sense. No, I mean it. I guess it makes sense from the show's writers' standpoint to retcon everything in a way that would allow them to go on forever without having to come up with a way to circumvent limited regenerations, yes. And I won't be touching upon all the lore people say this twist has ruined. No. It doesn't make sense as it is.

The twist is revealed to us by a madman that claims to have hacked into a database, claims to possess control over the Doctor's mind, and gives the Doctor and the audience no actual solid proof that the Timeless Child is, indeed, the Doctor. We have Ruth, sure, and she's nice enough (damn, I want that vest), and she's a Timelord that happens to own a TARDIS that looks like a blue police telephone box, and she calls herself the Doctor. Here's Ruth:

I really like Ruth. She also makes no sense from the show's timeline standpoint, since the Doctor's Type 40 TARDIS only got stuck looking like a police box in 1963, so there's no reason for the Doctor to not remember being her.

We also know that the Judoon have identified Ruth as "the Fugitive"... except in one of their previous appearances in the show they weren't able to identify their targets exactly and thus were seeking out non-humans. There is a possibility that they were only looking for a Time Lord on Earth.

You know what? It's possible that Ruth is actually the Master messing with the Doctor. I have just as much proof of this as I have of the fact that the Doctor is some kind of an endlessly regenerating superbeing.

But this is not the most maddening thing here. I loathe it, but I don't loathe the twist itself: I loathe its lifelessness, I loathe how empty, how unemotional, almost robotic it feels. When somebody'd spoiled the finale for me, I got angry, and I started asking questions, and when later I saw the actual thing...

This gif. I can't even explain how accurate it is. I stood there, in the middle of my kitchen, episode paused, holding a cup of cold tea and desperately looking around as if in my surroundings I could somehow find that emotional reaction that this show failed to evoke. I was ready to burst into tears of how empty it felt, and how empty I felt, and how the same show that has Christopher Eccleston go from literally foaming at the mouth with pure hatred to shocked silence in a matter of second because of one sentence that you, a viewer, can't help but be astonished by failed to make me feel the tiniest speck of literally any emotion. And slowly, I felt that vast void in my chest fill with sheer, pure, flaming hatred for the person who made me feel nothing, for the story that left me not bored – but empty.

And the next moment, in its own unique way of being absolutely tone-deaf, the show introduces the CyberMasters, looking ridiculous, being asinine in concept, making me burst into laughter with their dumb design. Wow.

So.

Chris Chibnall's Doctor Who is no longer a show. Chris Chibnall's Doctor Who isn't even, as somebody on Stardust said, a fan fiction. It's a rollercoaster. A lackluster rollercoaster that lifts you from the vast caverns of frozen hell, devoid of any life whatsoever, soulless and abandoned, to the heavenly torture of being so bad, so utterly awful and ridiculous, that you can't help but laugh as you watch something you used to love be distorted and deformed to the point where you can't recognise it anymore nor really care. This is what Chris Chibnall's Doctor Who has become. And I'm going to continue my ride on that grotesque rollercoaster. I'm going to pirate that ride and get on it again. Because I'm a masochist. Because I want to feel something, even if it's hatred towards those that make me feel nothing.

Because some time ago my fifteen-year-old self watched the first season and learned a lesson that I hold dear after all these years – that I can't abandon hope, and that someday, somehow, things are going to get better. That the future is being written right now. That the future can change.

#doctor who #thirteenth doctor #doctor who review #i hate this #review #sci fi

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lozzique · 5 years

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Okay now that I've slept on it, my thoughts on the CATS film.

First of all, I am still not completely sold on it. We have only seen a first look trailer and the trailer released yesterday. Before I go into my points, I have to mention what cats means to me.

It's one of those musicals that a lot of people see live as their first musical, and that is the same for me. I saw it when I was 16, about to start college, and it's cheesy to say but seeing that show literally changed my life. Through CATS I have met the most amazing friends online because we all share the same love for a show that holds such sentimental value to us, whether we saw it live or watched the 98 film version. So you can imagine how jarring it is to see this trailer and see how different a lot of the aspects we love are.

Anyway, it's not like I wasn't expecting changes, I knew there would be! But when the rights of CATS were being sold to Andrew Lloyd Webber, T.S Elliot's widow had said that Elliot had never wanted his characters to become pussy cats prancing around on a screen, for he had already turned down Disney. This isn't the first movie production of cats, we had the 1998 VHS version which is well known and loved amongst the fandom, there has been a cancelled animation of CATS which had so much potential and now we have the 2019 version.

Personally I've been suspended in suspense for months awaiting this trailer, and while I think the new concept from what I've seen from the trailer looks good there are parts that throw me off and do make me slightly upset. I will try and condense them down.

The animation. To me when the first shot of Victoria (the white cat) came onto screen I genuinely thought if you make her blue she'd look like an avatar. But that was just a first impression. The body of the cat itself isn't that bad, it's how you would imagine a cat walking and dancing like a human would look like; IT'S THE FACE WHICH GETS ME. Yes I understand they want the audience to be able to see the actor and actress's faces beneath the animation, but what I am not seeing is an actual CAT NOSE. If there were distinguishable cat noses then I don't think I'd be that thrown by it.

Trying to make it realistic. While I really appreciate they've tried to make it realistic, I feel like they've missed the mark. CATS on stage isn't meant to be realistic, you are meant to feel like you've stumbled upon a Junkyard filled with magic and strange looking cats, but they look strange in the wrong way in the film to me, sorry to say it. I can see that the CGI animators have gone for more realistic looking cats in some cases, that's okay, but I feel like they really didn't need to do that if these Cats are already singing and dancing around in their own Milk Bar etc, which of course isn't realistic since it's not meant to be, then why not make the cats look cool and interesting? Why not give them fur that is coloured slightly differently to a normal cat? It's what helps them stand out at being Jellicle Cats. The great thing about CATS on stage is that you can clearly see differences between characters because they all look different! Yet in the trailer I found it hard to pick out the characters that aren't being played by a big name because their fur colours blended into the background, or they all looked similar.

Choreography. Okay this part is me just stating a plain dislike and sorry but bare with. GILLIAN LYNNE IS SPINNING IN HER GRAVE! If you don't know who the late great Gillian Lynne is, she is the original choreographer of CATS the musical, if you are unfamiliar with her work just search the CATS 98 film on YouTube there you will see a perfect example of her work. She was extremely talented and really brought the feline movement to life in the dancing. She passed away recently and it was a great loss to the theatre and dance world. But, the current choreographer for the CATS movie who also choreographed Hamilton and the broadway revival of CATS, to me doesn't fully present the feline illusion in his work. Andy Blankenbuehler has a very distinct dance style which of course works for other productions, but it's the wrong style for cats. Real life cats move elegantly. The broadway revival of CATS honestly was to me not that great from what I was able to watch online, that's nothing on the cast, it's just the choreography did not sit well with me, it was too hip hop and modern for something that is meant to me making you feel like you're watching cats dance under a moon.

There are probably more negatives I could pick out but I don't feel that's necessary so I'll move onto some positives!

I will be seeing the film. Yes I will still watch it because I'm curious, I'm not going to let my negative feelings from one trailer stop me from watching it in the cinema, I may love it once I've seen the whole thing, who knows. The version I am used to will just hold a special place in my heart.

I'm really excited to see the talent of the ensemble characters! If you don't know what that means, it is essentially the background characters. The amazing part of CATS is that you can look at any character at any point in the show and they will be doing something that brings to life their character and I hope that translates onto the screen.

The set looks really fun! Though I'm used to seeing CATS set in a Junkyard I am really excited to see that their universe has expanded, the inclusion of the Milk Bar or the cabaret that Bombalurina seemed to be in looks really fun because I have always imagined what a world just for cats would look like. The illusion that they are cats is really helped by how everything is supersized and I bet the cast had a lot of fun working around that.

Finally, I hope that this movie inspires more stage to screen adaptations (hopefully done right) because it would open up such wonderful stories that are presented on stage to a wider audience. Theatre tickets are generally expensive so screen adaptations are really good to tell the story to people all over the world.

Yes I'm well aware I've had too much to say about this, but CATS is really special to me and many others so I wanted to share my feelings, good or bad.

Think what you want about the CATS movie, everyone is free to express their own opinion whether they hate it or not, all I can say is don't be nasty or hateful to anyone who is genuinely excited about this film, let them be! And don't be nasty or hateful to people who aren't excited, they just have a different view compared to you.

#cats the musical #andrew lloyd webber #Cats the movie #judi dench #ian mckellen #idris elba #james corden #jennifer hudson #rebel wilson #taylor swift #universal #ts elliot

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thisvaryingexistence · 5 years

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My thoughts on Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;surrection

So I finally saw the Code Geass movie last night and OH MAN DO I HAVE A LOT OF THOUGHTS.

First of all I think I should start this out by saying this series came into my life at a very weird time I’d say. I first watched the show when I was in 7th grade (13 years old) and I don’t know why but it stuck with me. As soon as the last episode finished I immediately hit start on episode 1 (ah the good old days when Bandai had all the episodes on Youtube) to see what I was missing my first viewing. Since then I have easily watched the series over 10 times over both in English and Japanese. The show (and the fanfiction let’s be real here) got me through a lot of tough times. In my freshmen year of high school, I really took a turn for the worst and seriously thought I would die before I turned 15. That was when I met @projectcluclu and she (along with the show) became a really key part of my life. Her fics really made me fall in love with the pairing Lelouch and CC even more than I already had been with before. The pairing itself became a real comfort for me and just. TLDR: Code Geass is really important to me.

Writing now as a junior in college (20 years old), I could still say this series has my heart. Have I grown older now and seen many other things (mostly not anime related things)? Yes. Do I notice the endless plotholes in the story and how certain characters I once hated are actually okay and the characters I thought were flawless could actually be rather despicable? Yes again. But this story as a whole still makes my heart go BOOM.

NOW TO THE MOVIE!

So when I first heard they were making a movie I rolled my eyes. I get it was an anniversary and the show had had many other specials before such as Lelouch’s Birthday, Nunnally in Wonderland, etc. However, this one was going to make or break this show. The creators seemed to know this and pulled something I laugh so hard at but at the same time THEY KNOW THEY GET TO MAKE THE CAKE AND EAT IT TOO. After realizing that “oh shit. We really did have the perfect ending. Legit half the viewers are going to be upset no matter what we do” they decided. “YOU ALL CAN THINK WHATEVER YOU WANT. This is an alternate reality.” Now, to me this was a cop out for sure. They knew no matter what they did, someone would be upset. Even I joked around with my sister and said if Lelouch got with anyone else but CC in the movie I would burn all my Code Geass merch. Still, the war still goes on from the original show whether he is dead or not. The creators wanted the ending to be ambiguous, but couldn’t even handle the inner-fandom war when the ending first happened over 10 years ago that they were like HE IS DEAD STOP FIGHTING.

All that being said, I obviously knew I had to see this movie. I’ll admit the spoilers that it was a CluClu ending did give me a slight push to hit buy tickets on my online order, but I knew it was important to my sister and I. We drove an hour away to go see it and the theater was actually pretty damn packed. We anticipated being 2 of like 7 people there but it was FILLED. It was pretty cool to here people talking about the timeline under their breath and getting excited about the movie. So the movie. My God I laughed so hard. Like tears were streaming from my face. First, I saw it in English. I love my Johnny Young Lelouch so much and Kate Higgins as CC is great. Everyone else had the same voices as well but. It literally appeared everyone but CC forgot how to say Suzaku’s name and called him “Sooz-a-koo.” Legit sounded like fucking Shinjuki. The first time LELOUCH said it I was like who he is talking ab- OMFG ARE YOU KIDDING ME. My sister and I were in tears and I was shaking so bad. The new characters got me confused. Where the fuck was this big ass nation in the show? (Obviously non-existent as this is an alternate universe”) But I was like what is geass did anyone at the studio actually figure it out? In the show they got nowhere close to explaining it, but we got a very good understanding on what it does, it’s limitations, who had it and why, etc. This movie was like oh you have geass?! CHECK MINE OUT! The princess (at least I think she was a princess) was weird? That scene with her and her brother in the bath after she saw her prophecy was fucked. I laughed so hard again as everyone around me was saying WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT? With these new characters, why is Cornelia now the head of them?

My brain did not take it seriously and just laughed at how crack-fic this movie was. They showed almost every character and it was beautiful and almost bought me to actually cry no matter how weirdly they were placed and who they were placed with. Like why was Schneizel with Rakshata?? In a daycare place?? Why?? Ohgi and Viletta’s wedding though. My heart exploded Lloyd and Rakshata dancing? I approve. THE BABY? I approve.

The main characters. I know it has been ten years and it could be seen, and there were definitely moments where they were, out of character. One thing I saw a lot of before I saw it was that CC was out of character because she cared so much for Lelouch but to me? I think she was pretty in character. It had been a long time for her and Lelouch. As soon as Lelouch died, Shirley bought his body to CC and she had to take care of him as they looked for his lost consciousness. I imagine she was a bitch in the beginning to him but quickly realized she did this.

She did this.

She is the reason Lelouch is alive at all.

This is why I believe she was in character. It shows how she is not a stagnant character from the beginning of the story. When first knowing about her in episode five of the series, it was clear she was a stone cold bitch who made her own rules for her life (which makes her CC my favorite character so I’m not saying this as a bad thing). As the show moved forward, we saw her at her most vulnerable and how as a child she was desperate for someone to love her. After her own geass story and her immortality, she saw quickly it must have not been in the cards for her and how she was “utterly alone.” Even as she and Lelouch started to become closer to each other, she was rather distant. I don’t think she really let it show how important he had become to her until her backstory episode 15 of R2 when she would not let him take her immortality. Even when she was dying, mind you the only reason she went after Lelouch in the first place, she was crying at the thought of leaving. In the penultimate episode of the series, she and Lelouch had a very touching scene that Kallen had to ruin, but she voiced her care for him. Therefore, in the movie when it shows her caring so much for him, I do not find it out of character for her. It was already shown in the show and sound episodes that she was not sure what she thought her feelings for Lelouch were and she was confused and frightened by them. She was afraid she ruined his life by giving him the power in the first place, and she was selfish enough to do it again by reviving him knowing full well he intended to die for all the things he did in the rebellion.

I teared up at the trailer watching CC cry trying to find Lelouch in C’s world. You could tell that man is her new “meaning for living” so to say and she realized how close she was to losing him again. I teared up when they were in the knightmare and Lelouch was about to issue a surrender. She pulled her gun on him similar to episode 7 of the show and told him this was not the Lelouch she knew and bought back. That moment of shaky tears and words made Lelouch into his self again. They are the missing pieces the other has always lacked. They are better off together and they know it. Another reason why the scene at the end hit so strong when he told her he would follow LL and abandon the name Lelouch. He was stating how he was ready to let go of his past and begin a new life with her. Her face welling up and crying. Those scenes of them together were my favorite parts of the movie for the obvious ship reason but also for the fact that I felt more connections to the original story and the characters seemed to be staying true to their old selves.

Lelouch. He was pretty much in character. I do believe leaving Nunnally to make her own choices and let her grow up is something he would do. After all the lessons CC told him about keeping people you love at a distance. He was a little more flirty than usual but again? The scenes that mattered the most, he was Lelouch.

Suzaku. Excuse me Soozakoo was a pretty much his character from R2. Kind of a douchebag with a heart of gold. His scenes with Lelouch were very very in character and really touching.

Kallen was a little out of character. The one scene that touched my heart is when she cried (which by the way was fucking hilarious because the English cry was so bad) when Lelouch kept staring at her with his dead eyes. That was a really beautiful scene and I could admit that even though I despise the two of them together.

Everyone else was pretty much thrown in with no explanation. Ohgi apologizing to Lelouch made 0, no pun intended, sense. Cornelia leading this new nation? This new nation of a whole? How did Lelouch know where everything was and how to work this foreign computer network and equipment? Why was mostly everyone else not phased by the fact that Lelouch was alive? So many things were not explained in this movie.

THE ANIMATION. The characters were beautiful as ever but damn. Sometimes they left blobs and mouths moving and it was so funny. The close up shot of the camels had me laughing in my seat.

THE ENDING. And I mean the post-credit ending. I feel like the creators found this famous fanart of Lelouch and CC:

And were like LET’S GO WITH THAT! They were pretty much dressed like this and looked like they were having a wedding type thing? But they gave a weird vampire feel which was hm. Okay?

Overall, this movie was what it was. An anniversary movie to give the fans and give some more spotlight on Lelouch and CC’s relationship. In the moments it had its key characters, it was beautiful. Hell, it was all beautiful. However, it really did feel I was watching a crack-fic fanfiction in HD. That being said, I would not change anything about this movie. My heart is so full and I was smiling the entire time. So glad I got to go see it!

#code geass #rant #movie #anime #lelouch x cc #my thoughts

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phantasieandmirare · 5 years

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Okay so this is going to be fun. I haven’t seen Cats yet and I’m torn between wanting to just for the Experience and not wanting to to preserve the love I have for the musical itself. But I know a lot about the musical and characters (and I’ll be sharing my/the fandom’s general headcanons with you) because I watched the 1998 TV film on repeat when I was younger. So here’s what happens in the musical (keeping in mind that I’ve only seen the 1998 movie and not the actual show but I know that the show is different) that y’all are missing.

If you didn’t know at this point, the entire musical is based on the book ‘Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats’ by T.S. Eliot which is a book of short cutesy poems. This was one of Andrew Lloyd Weber’s favorite book when he was younger and he wrote the entire musical as a composition exercise to see if he could write music with predetermined lyrics.

There are so many interviews of Andrew Lloyd Weber explaining what the musical is about in the 80s and it’s just as awkward as literally anyone trying to explain Cats right now. But he’s trying his best. Cut him some slack.

I am literally watching the 1998 movie on YouTube as I type this. It’s all available there. Please watch it if you need to purge the Cats movie from your brain and replace it with something watchable.

I used to have all of the names of the cats memorized. I’m not kidding. I could tell you who was singing what line in every song. I knew the background characters. I could look at a picture and tell you who everyone was in it with extreme accuracy. I had every song memorized. I knew everything. I am the Cats God.

Munkustrap is the narrator of the musical. He’s also the de facto leader/protector of the Jellicles when Old Deuteronomy isn’t there. He’s like the prime minister to Old Deuteronomy’s queen/king. From what I understand he does not have the same sway in the movie which sucks because he’s my favorite and I love him.

There are two cats in the musical who are psychic. They’re twins. Their names are Coricopat and Tantomile. I’m not making this up. I think this is only mentioned in the stage show itself but on the off chance that it’s not and I just happen to know this now you know too.

“There’s a man over there with a look of surprise. As much as to say ‘well now how about that’. Do I actually see with my own very eyes a man who has not heard of a Jellicle Cat? ‘What’s a Jellicle Cat? What’s a Jellicle Cat? What’s a Jellicle Cat?’” Please tell me this line is in the movie. I’m begging you. Because this is hilarious now that this is now every single person’s reaction to the very concept of Cats.

From all the reviews I’m guessing that The Naming of Cats is not in the movie or it’s not played the way it is on stage. Which is a shame because that would be another delightful moment that confuses and horrifies everyone who has no idea what Cats is. If they played The Naming of Cats the way that they do on stage that alone would have cleared the movie theater instantly. For about three minutes they tell you how cats are named. In complete sync. They get louder and move closer to the audience as they go on. It’s low key terrifying. I also had this memorized. It was one of my favorite songs in the musical.

Our boy Mr. Mistoffelees is not named Mr. Mistoffelees for most of the show. He’s called Quaxo. The consensus is that ‘Mr. Mistoffelees’ is a separate identity and/or personality. I swear I’m not making this up.

Victoria and Quaxo/Mistoffelees are brother and sister. That’s a general headcanon that either I came to or is a consensus in the fandom. Not making this up either. Bustopher Jones/James Corden is their father. This is all assumed based on their coloration. This is also where I mention that I used to know all the family dynamics in this musicals and who’s with who.

It’s also a general consensus that Victoria isn’t ‘new’ but has just reached the age where she can be involved in the Jellicle Ball. She has the very first dance solo in the musical and is the one to finally accept Grizabella but that’s the only importance she has for the entire musical. She doesn’t have any lines or her own song but is instantly recognizable in every picture ever.

Jennyanydots is introduced wearing a large fur coat/get-up that she can barely stand up in and then removes it to reveal a flapper dress later. I assume that’s what they were going for with the whole ‘Rebel Wilson takes off her skin’ issue. Her song/dance is tap-based. She’s the wine aunt of the group. She never eats the cockroaches. That’s never mentioned in the song. I don’t know why they did that.

Rum Tum Tugger is supposed to be based on Mick Jagger. I don’t know how well that translated into the movie but I hear they tried to redesign him into a more modern version on stage recently that did not go well at all because it was kinda racist. So let’s just stick with the Mick Jagger version cause it works better. All the girls in the group are obsessed with him/groupies. All the moms/queens are so over it. He and Quaxo/Mistoffelees have a love hate relationship. I used to read fanfiction and people ship the heck out of them. General consensus is that he and Bombalurina/Taylor Swift are a thing.

Grizabella’s entire deal is that she used to be a show cat who got dumped/a mangy stray who used to be beautiful but then got into too many fights/it’s vaguely implied that she was a cat prostitute.

Elaine Paige originated the role of Grizabella and then reprised it for the 1998 movie and that is the only reason that I know who Elaine Paige is.

The entire plot of this musical is that Grizabella is touch-starved.

Is Demeter mentioned in the movie? She’s also my favorite. Does she have a major role? Where’s my girl? Where is she? Anyway Demeter and Munkustrap are often shipped together too.

Bustopher Jones is essentially the Godfather and is the 1% of the Jellicles. Everyone loves him. He’s like Tugger for the older ladies/queens because they all also adore him. Quaxo/Mistoffelees chases him and plays with his tail and stuff like that a lot in the stage show and generally has this really proud air around him/is center stage in the song during his song which adds to the headcanon that Bustopher Jones is his dad.

To clear it up, Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer are brother and sister, they are not together. They’re also twins.

Old Deuteronomy shows up. The psychic twins say that he’s coming. As far as I know that’s the only indication we get ever that they’re psychic.

Tugger and Munkustrap are friends/frenemies. The headcanon is that Tugger wants to be the leader or just doesn’t like that Munkustrap tries to keep them all in line/doesn’t let Tugger do whatever he wants but besides that they’re buddies.

I think it was also implied somewhere/I had the headcanon that Old Deuteronomy and Grizabella are brother and sister. I think. I also think I had the headcanon that he’s Quaxo/Mistoffelees and Victoria’s grandfather because they also hang around him a lot. Ken Page who you may recognize as the voice of Oogie Boogie in The Nightmare Before Christmas plays Deuteronomy and originated the role and casually mentions that he’s probably the father of most of the cats so there you go.

They cut this from the movie and I understand why now but there’s a musical number about a battle between two tribes of dogs that they put on as a performance for Old Deuteronomy. Yes it’s musical inception. This is a big song for Munkustrap because he narrates and sings the entire thing. At one point Tugger plays bagpipes in it. I’m not kidding. Munkustrap spends the entire song being an exhausted stage manager trying to keep everything under control and it’s not going well and I feel that.

There’s a cat superhero called the Rumpus Cat. Yep.

The Jellicle Ball begins proper. There’s a lot of flirting and dancing and acrobatics and generally wild stuff for a good ten minutes. Generally it’s framed as Old Deuteronomy deciding which one of them gets to enter the Heaviside Layer through dance. What is his criteria for who gets to die? They never tell us.

Anyway Victoria performs the mating dance with a cat named Plato/Admetus (again, Victoria and Quaxo/Mistoffelees are never together and they are siblings thank you very much). The orgy is real folks. We don’t talk about it. I think I watched this scene once when I was little (also when I say little I mean like 12/13) and then never again because it’s extremely awkward to watch. I would just skip right over it as soon as the music started getting slow and move on to Memory. This right here is the first time that I’m watching it in literal years. It’s still as awkward as it was then.

There’s a cat named Jemima/Sillabub (a lot of these cats have multiple names/their names are different between productions/regions if you haven’t picked up on that already). She’s basically what they made Victoria into in the movie and is important for the plot. I don’t know why they focused in on Victoria when Jemima/Sillabub is right there.

Gus the Theater Cat sings his song and I also cry every single time because Gus is the sweetest cat in the entire musical and I love him and also the song is sad as heck especially if you think about how this is an older man playing this role and talking about how his acting days are past him. There’s another musical number about one of Gus’s most famous roles but they didn’t put that into the 1998 movie because of budget issues and not having enough space on the set to do it anyway.

I do not remember this moment but for about ten seconds a specter of Gus as his most famous character comes out, walks around menacingly, and then leaves and I DON’T REMEMBER THAT AT ALL. Anyway Gus follows it around because it’s his memory of his younger self and the heartbreak on his face when it disappears and the fact that this character cries at the end of the song and doesn’t even finish it shatters my entire heart. Gus has six minutes and then he leaves and we never see him again and sometimes I think about Gus and cry.

So after breaking your soul with Gus we jump directly into Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat who is also a delight and from what I hear people in the movie really liked him too. If you like nothing else about Cats you have to agree that Skimbles is wonderful.

Macavity the Mystery Cat is my second favorite song in the entire musical. Bombalurina/Taylor Swift and Demeter both perform it together (I listened to Taylor Swift’s version after I finished watching this and I am so mad that they cut Demeter out of it entirely because Demeter makes this song and she’s another one of my favorites). It’s the female power ballad of the entire musical and their voices/belting is sick as heck and also I used to have the choreography memorized on top of everything else. It’s implied that Demeter and Macavity used to be a thing before she escaped him. There are layers to this.

Macavity tries to sneak back in dressed up as Old Deuteronomy but because Demeter is his old flame she sees right through it. The cats all fight and then Macavity escapes and is never mentioned again. We can safely assume that he does this every year.

My absolute favorite song in the entire musical/the first one I ever heard is Magical Mr. Mistoffelees. Tugger introduces him and sings most of the song. Mistoffelees actually doesn’t sing for the entire thing, it’s all Tugger. Tugger keeps singing about how Mistoffelees has a signature move called the ‘conjuring turn’ which on stage is twenty-four consecutive fouettés en tournant and it’s impressive as heck. Mistoffelees is one of the most demanding dance roles in the entire musical. Here’s the thing though, they don’t have the conjuring turn in the 1998 movie, the way that the music is cut we can assume that they filmed it and then it got cut or they lost the footage or something so for a long time I never saw it and then I looked it up and it was awesome. Anyway this is my cat son and I love him.

Onstage Grizabella ascends to the Heaviside Layer in one of two ways: either by a staircase that descends from the ceiling, or (again I’m not making this up) in a flying saucer. If you’re still confused about the plot of Cats take the fact that they ascend to cat heaven on a UFO and go forth knowing that the answer to ‘What is Cats?’ has a legitimate answer of ‘Aliens’.

So that’s Cats. Namely the version that I hoped we were getting and that we were robbed off in favor of God-awful CGI and a lot of uncomfortable horniness (or at least more than there normally is in the actual show) and Rebel Wilson tearing off her skin.

#cats #cats the musical #cats 1998 #the only version of cats that matters #be quiet sarah #i don't know how to end this post #i took an entire day of my life to write this post please appreciate my efforts #anyway #ok goodnight

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anjibooks · 5 years

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The Diviners by Libba Bray (Book Review)

I'm not usually an audiobook kind of girl. See, I'm a fast reader, and can absorb novels far, far faster than can be comfortably listened to. But here's the thing, as I am a seventeen year old girl with the heart of a grandmother, I recently got obsessed with knitting and crocheting, and I can't very well read while doing such hobbies. So I decided to try the audiobook for the Diviners, since it's a book that been waiting on my shelf for a very long time. At first I found the voices and the pace a bit annoying, but as I got into it more, I found myself constantly listening to the audiobook, and getting through the absurdly long audiobook in a couple days. Not only did I listen to the book when I was crocheting, I would also listen to it while brushing my teeth, getting ready for school in the morning, while driving to the store to buy more yarn, and even while reading other school books (I'm surprisingly good at multitasking.) This was both due to the combination of an excellent novel and also because after getting used to being read to instead of reading, I really got into the whole audiobook format. I would set the sleep timer and go to sleep listening to the book. Really, there was never a quiet moment. If you're too busy to read, I would highly recommend trying the audiobook (or any audiobook)! It's actually quite useful and enjoyable. Now on to the actual novel. The Diviners was nothing like I was expecting. The story mainly follows Evie O'Neill, a girl who goes to live with her uncle in New York City in the 1920s after causing a little too much trouble at home. I thought this would be a very serious story with a serious investigation into murder and an Avengers-like come together moment, it was nothing like that. I don't even know how to describe this book, it's so unique. There's a definite element of horror, like sometimes I deeply regretted listening to this as I was falling asleep. The murder scenes are creepy as what, made creepier by the audiobook since the narrator actual whistles and sings the songs as the murderer approaches. There's also just teen drama going on. Evie's a party girl, she's a flapper after all, and doesn't like to take things too seriously. It's such a strange combination, and yet... somehow it all works. If you're tired of the same old tropes and whatnot, definitely check this book out, because there's nothing like it. Evie is truly her own person, I can't think of any other protagonists to compare her to. She's extroverted, stubborn and possesses an overabundance of confidence. She has the special ability to read any object she puts her hands on, which, while some other protagonists might keep their talent a secret, she literally uses it as a party trick. Yeah, Evie is definitely different from any protagonist you might read, but she's not one you'll be likely to forget anytime soon. At first she may come off as frivolous and a bit annoying, but as you get deeper in the novel, you can't help but fall in love with her. This is one of those novels that has a whole giant cast of characters with a plethora of POVs. I found that Evie's POV and those around Evie were the most interesting. Meaning that every single time we got to a Memphis chapter, I got a little bored. Sorry everyone who likes Memphis, he's just not all that interesting to me. Here's a brief overview of all the characters you'll be meeting Mabel Rose-- she's Evie's best friend, and her polar opposite. She's meek, quiet and introverted, quite happy to just follow Evie around and live under the shelter of her helicopter parents and silently pine after Jericho Jones. I'll be honest, Mabel is not my favorite character, never has been. In the first book she's okay, but as the series progressed, she became my least favorite and at times I was ready to throw some punches at her. Sam Lloyd-- Let's just introduce this beautiful boy as my one true love. Sam is by far my favorite character in the entire series, with Evie coming in as a close second. He's a thief and skilled liar, yet he is also extremely charismatic and his banter with Evie is something I live for. He gets on her last nerve and will poke at her to get a rise just for fun. If that isn't #perfect, I don't know what is. Oh, and he may have a mission and goal of his own along with some surprising secrets... Will Fitzgerald-- Evie's uncle who she comes to live with. He runs The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition and the Occult-- more commonly known as The Museum of the Creepy Crawlies, which isn't doing so hot lately. Like almost all the characters in this story, he's basically filled past the brim with secrets and backstory, many of which have yet to be revealed. Will is friends with a detective, which is why, when a ton of strange murders occur, Will is brought in to consult. (And then Evie tags along, much to her uncle's annoyance. ) Jericho Jones-- this is Will's sort of adopted son / employee. He's a stoic young man of giant stature yet quiet nature who is hiding (shocker) a big secret. Jericho is not my favorite character. He's sweet but when the book is filled with some much more colorful characters, Jericho falls behind in the race for my love. (also I will mention things later in other reviews of the later books). Theta Knight-- She's a strong minded woman who doesn't mind causing a bit of scandal-- not nearly as much as Evie does, though. At first when she was introduced, I expected Theta to be your typical mean girl, but instead she and Evie become fast friends. I loved that element of the novel. And yes, she's also hiding a deep dark secret. Theta lives with her best friend, Henry, and I have to say I adore their relationship and wish it was explored to greater depths. Henry DuBois-- Not much is revealed about Henry in book 1, other than he plays piano and is gay. He's funny for the tiny bits of time that you see him, and well, he's hiding something too. Shocker. You get to find out a whole bunch more about Henry in book two. I love this guy, can't t really say much more than that, sorry! Memphis Campbell-- yup. This is the guy whose chapters I found to be boring. He used to have power, but he lost it after a tragic event in his past. Perhaps one of the reasons I was so bored by his storyline was because it was so detached from the others who I already loved and whose fates were quite intertwined (and I'd argue their storyline was more intriguing as well.) He lives in Harlem with his little brother and their highly religious aunt. He's black, which adds an interesting and sometimes sad dynamic as you see how racist many people were back in the 20s. Remember how I mentioned earlier about that dash of horror? More like a heaping of horror. The story starts with some sort of spirit named Naughty John being released, and oh boy, do I wish those dumb kids had left that Ouija Board alone, because Naughty John created some creepyass scenes that will probably haunt my dreams for a long time. The creep factor of this story... Wow. If you get the opportunity, I would seriously suggest audiobooking this one because it elevates the spookiness by so much. Here's something to think about, cheerful singing whilst committing brutal murder... Overall, I just highly recommend this book. It's nothing like you're expecting, with a unique and interesting cast of characters and an even more unique story. Still, there were some things that just felt like they were missing. Like there were a ton of satisfying moments and scenes I would've liked to have seen, but they happened without actually being written, like they're mentioned, but we never actually get to be in the scene. The relationships are just assumed, too. Like pivotal moments between characters and just the characters getting to know each other and whatnot is more mentioned than what we actually see. I think the story's strong points are its setting and plot, while its characters' relationships and developing them is a bit of a weakness. (This becomes more prominent in later books.) See, I'm the type of person who wants to be IN the action, not hearing mention of it later! And I also love watching relationships build and seeing dynamic between characters instead of just assuming something happened "off-screen," and that a lot of what these books want you to do. 7/10 stars. The first book is nothing AMAZING, but it's a really fun read. I was left wanting to see more moments from the "side characters" aka everyone other than Evie, as some of them (Memphis) seemed pointless to the story arc. The novel definitely had a slow side, but it also created an enchanting world. Synopsis: Evie O’Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City—and she is pos-i-tute-ly ecstatic. It’s 1926, and New York is filled with speakeasies, Ziegfeld girls, and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is that she has to live with her uncle Will and his unhealthy obsession with the occult. Evie worries he’ll discover her darkest secret: a supernatural power that has only brought her trouble so far. But when the police find a murdered girl branded with a cryptic symbol and Will is called to the scene, Evie realizes her gift could help catch a serial killer. As Evie jumps headlong into a dance with a murderer, other stories unfold in the city that never sleeps. A young man named Memphis is caught between two worlds. A chorus girl named Theta is running from her past. A student named Jericho hides a shocking secret. And unknown to all, something dark and evil has awakened.

#the diviners #lair of dreams #murder of crows #libba bray #book review #ya books #fantasy #ya fantasy book #1920s

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darkhymns-fic · 4 years

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Sweet Desserts in the Desert

Lloyd and Colette are back on their journey for the Exspheres, but Lloyd still worries about how he left things between them last time. So worried that he hadn't remembered at all that it was his birthday.

Fandom: Tales of Symphonia Characters/Pairing: Lloyd Irving/Colette Brunel Rating: PG Mirror Link: AO3 Notes: For Colloyd Week Day 3: Birthday Present. Takes place after Dawn of the New World. Includes birthday cakes, baths, and maybe something about presents.

In all honesty, Lloyd had never really gotten used to the desert.

“Ugh, I was just sweating buckets not even an hour ago,” Lloyd was muttering to himself. Well, not exactly to himself. Noishe was with him, both hero and dog seated just outside of the sole inn of Triet. There was still the taste of sand on his tongue from earlier, but now the air was chilly, the night sky so clear with its smattering of stars. The wind blew slightly, along the faint rustling leaves from the scarce palm trees that dotted the streets.

He quickly went to put on his jacket which had been damped with sweat before, watching the clear night sky above him. Few people were outside, the hour getting late, and probably smart enough to know when to go indoors. But he couldn’t do that, not just yet anyway.

“Wish I had fur like you…” he muttered, still somewhat fumbling with his jacket.

Noishe’s ears perked at the statement, blowing soft mist in the air with each of his pants. But all that left his note was a confused whine.

“Ah, forget it.” Lloyd just half-buttoned his jacket before laying his hands on the ground leaning back. “Colette said she was just going to a shop…Wonder what’s taking so long.”

Finally back on their journey together, he and Colette had decided to traverse familiar places. It was also convenient, Triet only a short week’s travel from Iselia. Still, this desert town wasn’t exactly one of his favorite pitstops. Hot days and cold nights – the change was always sudden, and when Triet had gotten its first taste of snow after the world regeneration, it didn’t help matters. And Lloyd swore that it was chillier than usual now… even though the mana should have been stable. Maybe he was just sensitive to the cold.

Noishe saw his shivering state and decided to help Lloyd by shuffling against him, tail wagging excitedly. But he was also a Very Big dog, putting more of his weight on Lloyd than he probably meant to.

“Noishe! Don’t just sit on my lap without warning..” Lloyd grumbled. But only a little bit, since he was fighting to get rid of the fur that was now in his mouth. “And you’re all dusty with sand too!”

Another whine from Noishe, paired with shining black eyes as he looked at Lloyd.

“Oh, fine… I missed you too,” he said with a sigh, patting behind the big pointed ears. It had been nearly a year since he had just left Noishe at Dirk’s without warning. Since he had left everyone… and yet he and Colette were picking up right where they left off with the Exspheres. Just like that.

But things felt different, like the nights in Triet. Lloyd threaded his fingers through the comforting fur, growing silent. He felt different. Could he accept that about himself? Could Colette? And…where was she? Maybe she realized that-

“Lloyd!” Her voice broke through the hazy veil that had been clouding his head. He blinked. “Lloyd! Happy birthday!”

He blinked again. Huh? Another blink…It’s my birthday?!

Lloyd had to shove Noishe off him, just so he could finally see past the dog and his sea of green and white fur. In front of him was Colette, smiling so widely as she held something in her hands. In fact, it was so big that it seemed to almost cover up her arms completely.

“Whoa! You got me a cake?” Lloyd said so loudly, he was sure he must have woken up a few people from their homes. But he was too busy staring. Colette got him a cake! With frosting and everything!

“Yep! Sorry, I know it’s probably not as nice as the cakes they have in Meltokio…but they have a really cute bakery here. It’s just right next to that hole I made!” She sounded so proud, standing on her tiptoes as she held out the big confectionary treat. “I remember, because when I first came here, I wanted to see all of their desserts. And uh, that’s when I tripped.”

“Oh,” Lloyd said, then grinned along with her. “I guess I must have missed it last time. That’s cool they still keep it up there!” Though he wondered if a desert bakery made sense to him. What if all their desserts had sand in it? Desert…dessert…maybe there was a connection…

But the look on Colette’s face was so happy though, happy with him – and he tried to brush away that weird nagging feeling as to why she would, after all that he did. Luckily, the cake she held was a good distraction. It had swirls of chocolate frosting, topped with black cherries, and it even had all the candles for his age! It looked kind of a lot…How old was he again?

“Do you wanna have a slice?” she asked him, and of course he did!

“Yeah definitely! And no, Noishe, you’re not having any!” Lloyd said immediately, knowing the whines would follow, but he knew that cake just wasn’t good for dogs!

Then as Colette got closer with the cake, he noticed something different. “Is that my face on it?”

This was when Colette started to look a bit less confident. “Um, yeah. Hehe… well, the thing is, they don’t really have any current pictures of you…And I tried my best to describe you! But they still had that wanted poster hanging around, and I think people around here have grown fond of it…And…it’s kinda cute if you think about-”

“Colette, watch your step!”

But it was too late. There had been a stray pebble on the path, and that was more than enough to make Colette ultimately tumble.

“Whoops!”

Maybe it was fate that Lloyd was about to be bombarded with the cake that was decorated with a warped version of his face on it. Not like he had time to move out of the way, Colette only just a few steps in front of him. So that leering grin of his fell right over his own dumbfounded stare, in all of its chocolatey glory, the unlighted candles showering him as they collapsed to the sand-covered ground.

At least it tasted good.

Not only was he covered with sand from earlier as they hiked to Triet, along with his own sweat that was chilled to his skin from the coming of night – but he had chocolate frosting on his hair to top it all off.

“I’m so, so so sorry, Lloyd!” Colette had been apologizing, sounding like she was on the verge of tears as she guided him inside the inn. Noishe had been told to go back to the stables (Lloyd could tell because of all the high-pitched whining), Colette making sure he didn’t get a lick of any of the leftover cake that splattered to the ground. “I’ll clean it up for you right away!”

“Colette, you don’t need to, it’s okay!” Lloyd said as he looked to her. Or, well, he tried to. The cake was all over his face, and it was impeding his sight just a bit. “Just dump some water on my head and I’ll be fine!”

Colette didn’t say anything, but he guessed she shook her head to his suggestion since she was still leading him through the inn. He thought he heard a questioning noise from someone – probably the innkeeper, wondering why he had cake all over his face – but nothing else except for a door opening.

“Uh, Colette, where are you taking me?”

“We have to clean you up! There’s a bathroom down here. Let me help.”

This made him pause for a moment. “Uh. A what now.”

At some point, she let him go, but saw the shape of her (in his chocolate vision) move in front, retrieving a nearby bucket to dump into something big that stood within the middle of the room.

“Let me just fill this up! Then I’ll work on those buttons later…”

Triet’s bathroom was basically just a giant washtub, filled with now-tepid water from a nearby well. Not nearly as fancy as anything from Meltokio’s inns with their running water, or as unique like the warm hot springs. It was just a washtub, one familiar to Lloyd when he would have to fill his own from the river back home. And…when they had to use washtubs to cross the ocean a few times…

Lloyd saw all this once he got to wash his face a little from one bucket, his eyes and cheeks now clear of chocolate, though he couldn’t say the same for his hair. Colette was close, already helping him undress which he was just letting happen despite his weak protests. “I can bathe myself, Colette…” Still, the suspenders were already slipping off his shoulders, with barely a second to spare.

“Hm? Oh! Sorry, too fast?” She giggled, fingers lingering over his sleeves as she traced over the multitudes of silver clasps. “It’s okay, Lloyd. I know how to take this off! You don’t need to worry.”

“That’s not what I… Wait, how do you know?” It was not a statement from Colette that he had been prepared for. Still, he could only watch in fascination as she went about the landscape of his jacket, finally unclasping it with careful and thoughtful motions.

“Just trying to work out this sleeve button here…Oh, and I’ve had some practice with the one you gave me! It’s been really useful!”

“You still kept that ratty old thing?” he asked, genuinely surprised. He felt the sweaty jacket slip off him then, watching as Colette carefully folded it to lay on a nearby stool. Huh, she really had been fast with those buttons…

“Yeah of course! Okay, so now these belts…”

“I-! I think I got it, don’t worry!”

“Hm?” Colette looked up at him curiously, one hand gripping one of his lower belts. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No, just…” His heart was beating fast, and if it weren’t for the remaining pieces of cake still in his hair, maybe he could have been smoother about this whole situation a little bit. “Are you like…actually okay with doing this?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” She tilted her head at him, her hair falling across her left shoulder. “You’ve stripped in front of me before, remember? Back at Dirk’s when you gave me your jacket!”

“But I wasn’t about to take a bath in front of you!”

“Hm, I guess so.” Then another smile. “It’s okay, Lloyd. I don’t mind at all!”

He heard the sharp clacks of his belts unbuckling as she got rid of them, one of them falling to the floor, his swords already having been put away earlier. “But…you’re acting like I can’t do this myself! I’m not a little kid… I’m… I’m 20 years old now!” He just remembered! “Yeah, I’m 20! And I can take baths by myself!” Okay, that sounded a little weird but it was true!

“Oh, I know, hehe. I just wanted to do this for you.” She pulled down his pants then, his boxers were now in view, their color dark and unassuming – a real contrast to all the red he usually wore. “And I need to make it up for ruining your birthday…”

“Huh?” He blinked. “But you didn’t ruin anything…”

“I dropped your cake like a klutz. It was my fault.” She said this while tracing the hem of his shirt, then stared hard at it. “Oh! Forgot about this too.” With that, she pulled the shirt over his head, getting it half-way stuck on his face.

“Colette, none of that is your fau-mmfhgg!” Muffled by the shirt over his mouth, both struggled a bit with it, Colette repeating her apologies over and over until he could finally be free from the fabric.

“Ahhh sorry, sorry, sorry!”

“S-stop apologizing! You have nothing be sorry for!” His head popped out, disheveling both hair and chocolate frosting everywhere. His head was still half-cake at this point. “It’s all my fault to begin with!”

That made Colette pause, clutching Lloyd’s black undershirt in her hands. It was still half-splattered in chocolate frosting, some of it from his hair when he had pulled it. “Lloyd?”

Well, that wasn’t a thing he meant to say out loud.

“Uh..n-nothing. Anyway, that washtub, right?” With sudden reflexes, Lloyd sprinted for the tub, grabbing the very edge of its wooden rim and leaping over it with all the energy he could muster! “Here I goooo!”

“Lloyd! You’re still wearing your boxers!”

Ah crap, he was.

Too late, for he had already splashed right into the washtub, getting lukewarm water all over the floor. He sunk like a rock inside it before breaking his head through the surface, feeling refreshed instantly. His hair must have been rid of the chocolate by now!

“It can be like I’m swimming then!” he explained to Colette with a thumbs-up. “You need to wear clothes to swim!”

“You can’t swim in a washtub,” Colette said, then made a soft hum. “Or can you? I’ve never tried it.”

“Well, if we can row washtubs, I don’t see why you can’t swim in them,” he said in all sincerity.

“Huh, you’re right! Sounds like it’s fun too.” Colette turned away and Lloyd felt a bit relieved, thinking she was about to leave. Then maybe he could get rid of these now soaked boxers too…

…And then Colette instantly came back with soap in hand. “Let’s get you washed up then!”

“H-Hey!” But Colette was also really fast? She was already next to him, rubbing soap suds into his hair, the water splashing around his ears. “Colette!”

“Oh? Did I get soap in your eye?” She was already sitting on a stool right next to the washtub so that she could continue to do her task with more comfort.

“No…” Lloyd was saying, remembering he had a complaint…Or something like it… But Colette’s hands were rubbing his head softly. So soft. Maybe it was something about the soap that made him relax a bit more, laying his head against the edge of the washtub, leaning into her hands. “Just…can wash myself…”

“I know you can,” Colette said, and her tone was more serious than before. Lloyd picked up on it, but the feel of her hands on him got him so relaxed all the sudden. He felt the soap suds sink against his hair, making him sigh pleasantly. This did feel really nice. “I just wanted to do this for you.”

“Hm…” He could only say and nodded. And maybe it was also just what the earlier part of the day brought with it – the water washing away all of his dried sweat, sweeping away the sand that had gotten stuck to his hands or caught in his fingernails, and even soaking up the chocolate from Colette’s birthday cake for him…It really was so nice.

“And I’ve had a lot of practice from washing up Noishe too! Your hair is just like his fur!”

Okay, that comparison may have gotten him out of the dreamy state he had been in, at least for a few seconds. “I-It’s not… And Noishe isn’t good at taking baths! He’d get water everywhere.”

Colette pointedly looked around the room, where water puddles formed all around the floor from Lloyd’s jump. “Hmm…”

“…That doesn’t count...” he pouted, leaning back into her hands. “I’m being good now, aren’t I?”

“Hehe, yeah. See? I told you I could help you with this.”

Another lazy nod, Lloyd already beginning to slip into that relaxed state, his body going a bit limp, half-floating in the water. “Yeah…You’re…good to me…” he said.

Her hands paused in his hair before going back to their circular motions, fingers and soap suds working together to unbind all the stress from him. A part of him knew he had said something too dumb and weird, but the other part of him was, ‘This feels nice, can I fall asleep now?’ Although maybe falling asleep in a washtub wasn’t a good idea…

“Hey, Lloyd? Can I tell you something?”

“Mmwha?” He blinked a few times. Jeez, he really had been about to fall asleep. “Yeah…you can tell me…” Though hopefully she’d keep washing his hair like that as she did so.

“I’m just happy I get to be with you again.” He heard the smile through her voice. “I wasn’t even sure if I’d be able to for a while.”

Lloyd heard her words like he was in a dream, cocooned in warmth, floating within it. But, he needed to do something. He tried sitting up, all while still laying his head in her hands. “I meant…to come back…”

He didn’t hear her respond, still washing his hair. She was probably getting her clothes wet by doing this. My fault, he thought again, but kept himself from speaking too much. She most likely already thought he was being weird about this.

“You know…I tried to make you something like you did for me,” she said, speaking a little more clearly. “But I could never learn how to. I can’t make as beautiful things like you can. I should have tried to last year but, well, you were gone, so…”

His mind paused. The necklace. He turned to her. “You still have it?”

“Hm? Oh of course I do! I always have it with me.” Colette took away one hand to press against her neck. It had been hidden by her overcoat, but there it was, the light from the room reflecting off the links of the necklace’s chain. “See?”

“You dork, you’re getting soap all over yourself!”

“Ah!” Colette pulled her hand away, but some soap suds had fallen over her cheeks. “Sorry!”

But he laughed, somehow feeling…surprised. She really kept it. After he had just suddenly left her in the middle of their journey, she still had it with her.

He didn’t know what else to say at first, still seated within that washtub, the water more tepid, and the soap drying up against his ears. “I didn’t give you a gift for last year either.”

Colette paused as well, as if contemplating her next words carefully. One hand was still near him, gentle against his hair. “Your gift to me was staying safe. And…this is silly, but, I felt as long as I still had this, that I knew you would be safe.” He felt her soft airy giggle against his neck. She was still close to him. “It does sound silly, doesn’t it?”

Without thinking, Lloyd reached for her hand, covered in those suds, some of it trailing down his hand to drip into the water.

“Ah, careful! You’re gonna get it in your eye for sure if-”

He leaned up from the water to kiss her then, the feel of her lips tingling his nerves, warmth bursting through his chest like a small campfire in the cold night. The water drops echoed all around him heightened by the closeness of the room and the washtub.

Colette didn’t flinch or pull away, but leaned into him, any hint of shyness melting away. In her nearness, he caught even more glimpses of her necklace, its shine so bright.

When he pulled away, he meant to say something meaningful to her, as he did when they had gone back to Flanoir and he finally told her he loved her…

…Instead, he snickered. “Oh…uh, got some more soap on you.”

Colette blinked. Looked like she hadn’t expected that response either. “Oh? On my face?” And with her soapy hand, she reached to touch her cheeks, her nose, effectively getting it everywhere.

“Well, now you do! I meant your hair.” Lloyd grinned, reaching up with his other hand to get rid of those soapy bubbles caught onto the fine golden strands. But with the dripping water on him, he just succeeded in getting even more on her, and then just soaking her hair… but he wouldn’t give up! “Hold on, I got it!”

“Ahhh, Lloyd! That’s way too much!” She grinned, reaching for his hands again, clasping it in his own, and then leaned down to steal a kiss from him, the way he did with her… then felt her hands slip from his to rush through his own hair. It was like she was molding it with the strength of the soap.“There!”

“Heeey, what did you do to my hair?” He peeked a glimpse of himself in the water, and while the reflection was a bit hazy, he saw how she had used the soap to pull at his hair from the front, curving it like some weird pompadour.

“Now you match better with your picture!” Colette said with a laugh. “It looks cute!”

“Nooo, I don’t look cute!” Lloyd whined, but with a mischievous grin, he reached for her hair too, no longer being careful anymore. “You do!”

“There’s water getting everywhere-! Whoops!”

Lloyd probably should have expected that Colette would trip again, but he was still unsure how she was able to just tip over at this angle, falling right against him in the washtub, effectively overflowing the tub with both of them in it.

Her falls really were little acts of miracles.

“Well, at least you can get your bath too,” Lloyd said, not minding it at all as she floated on top of him, arms wrapped around her waist. “Since you’re already soaped up and everything.”

“But my clothes are all soaked,” she complained.

This only made Lloyd grin, forgetting all his previous worries and nervousness. Everything felt so natural – why did he think they couldn’t go back to how they were before? “I can help with that.”

“Ahh, that’s silly though..”

“It’ll be a fun birthday present!”

“Lloyd!” but she was laughing too and maybe they did a lot more swimming than bathing in the end anyway.

But it really had been a good birthday present all around.

#colloyd #tales of symphonia #colette brunel #lloyd irving #colloydweek2020

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tigerlover16-uk · 6 years

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In a way its really wierd to me how angry people get over Super. It's clearly just trying to be a simple comedy action series aimed at kids. Though I suppose there is the ageold ruining my childhood thing. But it doesn't really strike me as very provocative to inspire such strong negative feelings. Im just mostly looking at what it's trying to be. It doesnt strike me as tryhard either. The most powerful being is a audience selfinsert that just wants to have fun. Its so selfaware on many levels.

A lot of people obsess over Dragon Ball and want it to remain this (In their heads) perfect, untouched work of art I think. I’ve never agreed with that sentiment, but Dragon Ball IS one of the most iconic and influential anime and mangas of all time and has a special place in millions of peoples hearts. With that kind of pedigree, I get a lot of people having very high standards for any kind of a follow up.

There are legitimate grievances to be had with Super, and plenty of things that can theoretically go wrong with continuing Dragon Ball’s story (Just look at GT for proof of that).

So it’s perfectly reasonable to have concerns… but, unfortunately the Dragon Ball fandom has the same problem as the Star Wars fandom, Sonic fandom, and really a lot of other major fandoms out there: They let their nostalgia and obsession with the series get completely out of hand, and treat every mistake, big or small, as a sign that the end times have come and that the series is ruined forever.

Some of this does come from nitpicky aspects of the series that only certain obsessive fans actually care about and the majority of viewers are actually casually ignorant to (Like power scaling), some of it does come from places of genuine concern (Animation issues and messed up production early on, stuff like the Future Trunks saga ending, the show running in circles with certain characters rather than letting them progress further, etc), but a lot of it is, frankly, people just wanting an excuse to complain because “It’s not like Z!”.

As someone who grew up with the Star Wars Prequels and 3D era Sonic games, and prefers them to both franchises earlier outings (Mostly… 06 WAS a complete mess, nostalgia aside), I tend to have little sympathy for people whining about how a flawed sequel has completely ruined their favourite series and thus their childhood forever.

And while I do sympathise with more reasonable fans who have fair reasons for disliking it, I think people in general are being incredibly myopic if they think that Super can actually damage Dragon Ball as a whole.

Like, you want to know why I keep comparing it to the Prequel Trilogy? Because for all the handwringing from petulant manbabies about how their precious (Dated and somewhat overrated, FTR) sacred movies had supposedly been ruined forever… the movies didn’t actually hurt Star Wars much in the long run, let’s be honest.

The Original Trilogy still exists. They’re the same movies they’ve always been, and if you don’t like the Prequels you’re free to ignore them and enjoy the original three movies for what they are, since they do function as a self contained story. There’s still plenty of tie in material from the old and new EU for people who want MORE Star Wars content not related to the Prequels too.

And on that note, we’ve had PLENTY of good Star Wars content since the Prequels came out too, with the tv series Star Wars: The Clone Wars frequently being hailed as one of the greatest works in the entire franchise, if not one of the best cartoons ever made, with some Prequel detractors even arguing it SALVAGED those movies. And let’s not forget how the first installment of the sequel trilogy became the first franchise film to gross over $2 Billion at the box office.

That’s not even getting into the fact that the Prequels also brought in a whole generation of new fans and lead to their love of the franchise, myself included.

For whatever problems the Prequels had (Real, imagined or grossly exaggerated), in the long run… Star Wars was fine.

Even now with the Last Jedi, which many argue is a horrible movie that hurts the overall story of the Star Wars Saga (Funnily enough, I’m actually in that camp this time), I think similar logic applies. I, and other fans may not like it or a lot of stuff the Sequel Trilogy has done, and with stuff like Solo the Star Wars franchise may be going through a bit of a rough patch in terms of public interest at the moment… but honestly, I don’t think things are going to be bad forever.

People will eventually move on with their lives. People who don’t like the Sequel Trilogy can move on and enjoy the old movies while pretending they don’t exist, and enjoying whatever other spin offs they like, while fans who do like the Sequel Trilogy and modern star wars content can look forward to more stuff they enjoy.

I can complain about certain directions the series has taken, but as someone who’s endured having people tell me that my childhood favourites ruined their lives (To which I have to say… please go outside and get some air, for Christ’s sake), I have no interest in wangsting about the state of things when I have a lot of better things I should be doing.

That’s not to say no one should complain of course, there are legitimate failings to the Sequel Trilogy and Last Jedi in particular and people have every right to complain (As long as they’re not the toxic fanbrats whining about the “SJW AGENDA!” And bulling the cast, those people can jump off a cliff along with the people who bullied Jake Lloyd and drove Ahmed Best to contemplate suicide). In fact, it’s a good thing for people to be critical since actually constructive criticism is necessary and good feedback for studios responsible for these pop culture franchises.

Going back to Dragon Ball, I personally enjoy Super. I think it’s done a lot of good things, though also had various missteps along the way. But despite those issues and while I hope future works take steps to fix and improve on things, I’m fairly happy with the current state of the franchise and eager for more.

I do think you have a point too, anon. Super itself isn’t honestly trying to be anything revolutionary or even on Z’s level. If you actually examine the show as a whole, it’s basically extended filler that mostly serves to expand the universe, create a big sandbox for future stories to possibly build on, and further develop several characters. The only time it really tried to do anything particularly ambitious was in the Future Trunks saga, where we had villains who questioned the state of humanity and there was an ideological battle going on between them and our heroes, mostly Future Trunks.

Other than that though? We got two movie retellings that were basically self-contained conflicts, a small-stakes tournament that mostly served to introduce a bunch of new recurring characters, and a multiversal tournament that, while it did do some interesting thematic stuff here and there… was mostly an excuse to introduce EVEN MORE new characters, give old ones a chance to shine and develop some more, and have a lot of cool looking fights.

Super isn’t really trying to be Z. It just wants to be a fun show for kids and which nostalgic fans can hopefully enjoy. If anything, I think it was mostly a test run to see whether continuing the franchise with more stories beyond the occasional movie was viable.

There’s certainly gripes to be had, but really Super’s status as a fill-in for a time gap in the Z anime to me just makes it feel a lot more low risk than an immediate sequel to the end of Z, since things do still end the same way they did regardless at the moment. It exists for fans to enjoy if they want to, but it can be easily ignored for fans who don’t and prefer the previous series.

And personally, I don’t think it’s really possible to truly “Ruin” Dragon Ball because the story already got an ending. The original manga, and the two anime adapting it, are a complete story on their own. One with a very open ending that leaves the door open for future stories, yes, but it’s a complete story nonetheless. Whatever directions future series may take, good or bad, it’ll never truly change the story as it originally was, because that manga and it’s anime will always exist for people to enjoy as it was intended.

I hate GT and I’ve complained about it plenty, but while I have very personal reasons for why it annoys me… at the end of the day, it’s irrelevant now. We got a different continuation that ignores it, it’s divorced enough from the original canon that I can just go about my days pretending it doesn’t exist, and I got my closure over it with that last re-watch sorting out my feelings on the series.

So, really, flawed as it is there’s nothing to be REALLY mad about, is there? It exists, but it doesn’t do me any real harm, and it’s there for people who do enjoy it (For whatever weird reason, lol) to watch at their leisure. So in effect, it’s harmless… or at least it will be once we get another post-EoZ series to prove it didn’t completely close the door on those being made.

Dragon Ball’s kind of lucky in that way. It got to a point where it had a satisfying resolution where it can hopefully stand the test of time as a classic work of fiction, but people who want more still have the opportunity for that.

And people who don’t think it should continue, or just don’t like those continuations, are free to not watch those works and enjoy the series the way they want to. Or, even if they don’t like Super, it’s still possible a better series or other products like movies can be made down the line that they can enjoy better.

Just like with Star Wars and the Sonic games.

I may have issues with Super from time to time, but overall I think it did a lot more good than bad, and most of it’s faults could be improved on in future series. The worst thing it actually did was destroying the original future timeline, but even that’s fixable if they just have another story with Future Trunks coming back and have somebody go “Hey, maybe we can use the Super Dragon Balls to bring your timeline back”.

I get having personal attachment to the series and it’s characters, I do too. And I get people getting emotional when they feel something they like is being disrespected in any way. If people think the show handled Goku’s character badly or did something to hurt the overall ongoing story, then they’re within their right to complain and be upset about that. TO A REASONABLE EXTENT.

I do also get the feeling a lot of people just can’t handle Dragon Ball having a flawed follow up, aswell. Given that Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z are influential classics, it makes sense that a lot of people would be unhappy with anything that didn’t live up to that quality. But I think some people do get overly worked up about it.

Fact is, all franchises have both flawed installments, and a number of duds to show for them. Star Trek has bad movies and the bad series here or there (Enterprise). Doctor Who has had bad seasons. Marvel and DC have had plenty of bad comics and media adaptions. Mario and Sonic and Pokémon and lots of others have had bad games or adaptions. But that hasn’t ruined everything that was good about those series, or stopped them from putting out good new content.

Every piece of media has it’s flaws to be frank, and every franchise will inevitably stumble here or there. Dragon Ball has had plenty of duds before Super. The Broly movies, GT, Return of Cooler, Episode of Bardock, a bunch of bad video games most people don’t even bother to remember, FREAKING DRAGON BALL EVOLUTION. And plenty of stuff about the old series themselves has aged terribly (Especially in early Dragon Ball). But none of that has managed to kill the franchise.

We’ve had bad, mediocre and decent though heavily flawed Dragon Ball stories and products in the past, and we’ll have plenty more in the future. And while there’ll be stuff that is worth griping about, really at the end of the day it’s not the end of the world, and people who do get legitimately angry thinking it is need to relax now and again.

I get people thinking that things should have just stayed the way there were, thinking that Dragon Ball shouldn’t have been continued if that continuation wasn’t going to live up to it’s predecessors. And I’m never going to argue that people shouldn’t complain about things (I certainly do).

But realistically, Dragon Ball was going to have follow ups sooner or later. It’s the biggest franchise Toei and Shueisha have, and one of the most iconic series of all time. Whether I or anyone else thinks Dragon Ball needed a follow up or not, it was bound to happen because we live in a world where milking popular franchises is the name of the game.

People can complain about it, people can and should have issues with flawed products. People can insist on Dragon Ball’s legacy needing to be preserved. But like I’ve said... the series as you loved it isn’t going anywhere. No one is obligated to support everything the franchise does. So I don’t think getting overly angry or worked up about Super or GT or whatever not being everything they wanted them to be is something to freak out over.

Fact is, for all the complaints... a lot of people still love Super and enjoyed it. A lot of people still love Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. Super has brought Toei nothing but monetary success, and interest in the franchise is at the highest it’s been since Z finished airing in the West over a decade ago and the franchise went truly dormant for the most part. If anything, I think Dragon Ball actually gets more respect these days than it did for most of the latter half of the last decade, where it became sort of an internet laughing stock in the West.

We’re still getting plenty of high profile and quality products, like FighterZ, which along with Super itself and the movies preceding it has helped draw in a lot of new fans and brought back a good chunk of lapsed ones. There’s a generation of children the world over that are going to have grown up on Super as their first Dragon Ball series, and it’ll be an important part of helping them get into the franchise and the previous series, much like Kai before it.

And we’ve got a new movie coming out that’s generating a lot of hype and which looks to be giving the franchise a much needed and exceptionally positive visual overhaul, which it’s needed for a while now.

For all the ups and downs, and there have been plenty... Dragon Ball is doing fine. Regardless of what any individual person thinks of Super, Dragon Ball’s legacy isn’t in any danger. The franchise isn’t collapsing, and the overall story and all of it’s characters haven’t been completely ruined beyond repair.

Things could be better. But Z and Dragon Ball could have been better in a lot of places too. It’s okay to be unsatisfied about the current state of things and to voice complaints, as much as it’s okay to be loving the thrill of having Dragon Ball really make a comeback.

Things will be fine. With Super currently off the air, I think now’s the time for everyone to just take a chill and relax. The world didn’t end, and it’s not going to any time soon. (Well, unless Trump throws a hissy fit and launches nukes at everyone but, you know, hopefully that won’t happen).

#dragon ball super #dbs #dragon ball #dragon ball z

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stacks-reviews · 7 years

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New Releases 8/8/17

Happy New Release Day! This week we have a lot going on in books and a few movie/tv releases.

In Books --The Epic Crush of Genie Lo by by F.C. Yee “The struggle to get into a top-tier college consumes sixteen-year old Genie Lo’s every waking thought. But when her sleepy Bay Area town comes under siege from hell-spawn straight out of Chinese folklore, her priorities are suddenly and forcefully rearranged. Her only guide to the demonic chaos breaking out around her is Quentin Sun, a beguiling, maddening new transfer student from overseas. Quentin assures Genie she is strong enough to fight these monsters, for she unknowingly harbors an inner power than can level the very gates of Heaven. Genie will have to dig deep within herself to summon the otherworldly strength that Quentin keeps talking about. But as she does, she finds the secret of her true nature is entwined with his, in a way she could never have imagined.”

I was drawn to this one because of the cover. It shows a girl doing a superhero landing (thank you Deadpool). It sounds like it could be pretty good.I actually got an arc of this book last week at work. I’m not sure when I’ll get to read it.

--The Hearts We Sold by Emily Lloyd-Jones “When Dee Moreno makes a deal with a demon - her heart in exchange for an escape from a disastrous home life - she finds the trade may have been more than she bargained for. And becoming “heartless” is only the beginning. What lies ahead is a nightmare far bigger, far more monstrous than anything she could have ever imagined. With reality turned on its head, Dee has only a group of other deal-making teens to keep her grounded, including the charming but secretive James Lancer. And as something grows between them amid an otherworldly ordeal, Dee begins to wonder: Can she give someone her heart when it’s no longer her’s to give?”

Based on some arc reviews I saw on Goodreads, it sounds like Dee and the others can get their hearts back by working for the demon they sold their hearts to. Although, it also sounded like some demons might take other body parts. Not really sure yet. It does bring up some questions. By selling your heart, are you selling your actual heart or is it more based on your feelings? If it’s feelings then how could she start to fall for someone? Unless you are able to break the deal yourself somehow. I also wonder what caused the other characters to sell their hearts.

--Legend of Korra: Turf Wars Part 1 by Michael Dante DiMartino, illustrated by Irene Koh “Relishing their newfound feelings for each other, Korra and Asami leave the Spirit World...but find nothing in Republic City but political hijinks and human vs. spirit conflict! A pompous developer plans to turn the new spirit portal into an amusement park, potentially severing an already tumultuous connection with the spirits. What’s more, the triads have realigned and are in a brutal all-out brawl a the city’s borders - where hundreds of evacuees have relocated! In order to get through it all, Korra and Asami vow to look out for each other - but first they’ve got to get better at being a team and a couple!”

This comic has been driving me crazy for a while now. I thought it was supposed to come out several months ago. But when I would check on it at work, it didn’t show up in our systems at all. Then when it did finally appear and I double-checked it with a few other sites, each site had a different release date. So I think this is the right date. But I am not 100% positive. Regardless, I am excited to dive back into the Avatar world. To see how Korra and Asami’s relationship is doing as well as what everyone else has been up to.

--Nirvana Volume 1 by Jina and Sayuki (ZOWLS), illustrated by Sayuki “Humanitarian-extraordinaire Yachiyo Hitose gets a once-in-a-lifetime chance to volunteer overseas - but things go awry when her plane goes down and she dies! When she wakes up, it’s not in heaven, but in a whole other world known as Gulgraf - the citizens of which think she’s their goddess reincarnate! Goddess or not, Gulgraf is beset by ravenous creatures known as the Blau and Yachiyo simply can’t turn her back on her new home.”

First heard about this series a few weeks ago. I really don’t know much about other than it being another travel to another world series. It sounds pretty good though and I like the art style on the cover.

--Paper Girls Volume 3 by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Cliff Chiang “Erin, Mac and Tiffany finally reunite with their long-lost friend KJ in an unexpected new era, where the girls must uncover the secret origins of time travel...or risk never returning home to 1988.”

It’s been a while since I read the second so I can’t remember exactly what is going on at the beginning of this one. I would look it up but that would require moving at least five boxes of varying sizes to get to my comic book boxes. I remember there being a battle with a prehistoric creature and jumping into another portal to a new time at the end but to where I am not sure.

--Reborn Book 1 by Mark Millar with contributors Greg Capullo and Jonathan Glapion “Where do you go when you die? Not heaven or hell; somewhere else. Somewhere you have to fight to survive. Somewhere the people from the past are waiting for you - the good and the bad.”

Pretty excited for this one. It sounds like a good mix of action and soul crushing reunions. I kept hearing about it on a few blogs so I’m excited to finally be able to take a look at it. I love the art style on the cover.

--Shimmer and Burn by Mary Taranta “Faris grew up struggling to survive in the slums of Brindaigel while caring for her sister, Cadence. But when Cadence is caught trying to flee the kingdom and is sold into slavery, Faris reluctantly agrees to a lucrative scheme to buy her back, inadvertently binding herself to the power-hungry Princess Bryn, who wants to steal her father’s throne. Now Faris must smuggle stolen magic into neighboring Avinea to incite its prince to alliance - magic that addicts in a war-torn country can sense in her blood and can steal with a touch. She and Bryn turn to a handsome traveling magician, North, who offers protection from Avinea’s many dangers, but he cannot save Faris from Bryn’s cruelty as she leverage Cadence’s freedom to force Faris to do anything -or kill anyone - she asks. Yet Faris is as fierce as Bryn, and even as she finds herself falling for North, she develops schemes of her own. With the fate of kingdoms at stake, Faris, Bryn, and North maneuver through a dangerous game of magical and political machinations, where lives can be destroyed - or saved - with only a touch.”

Really drawn to this title for the idea that magic can be stolen by a simple touch. There has to be more to it than that, though, or else how would anyone touch anyone? But I might be taking that too literally. We don’t yet know how wide spread magical power is in this world. Is the magic Faris is smuggling in her own or was it someone else’s? I also like to see how the idea of how something as simple as a touch could have huge consequences down the line. Good or bad.

In Movies/TV Series --Gurren Lagann 10th Anniversary Complete Box Set (blu-ray) If by some chance you have never heard of this series:

“This is the story of a man who has yet to realize what destiny holds in store for him... In the distant future, mankind has lived restlessly underground for hundred of years, subject to earthquakes and cave-ins. Living in one such village are two young men: one named Simon who is shy and naive, and the other named Kamina who believes in the existence of a “surface” world above their heads. The destiny of these two starts moving drastically when the ceiling of their village falls in, and a gigantic “Gunmen” and a beautiful girl named Yoko, wielding a superconductive rifle, come from the surface. Together, Kamina, Simon and Yoko ride the mega “Lagann” that Simon digs out of the ground, and fly up to the surface!”

Do I ever regret not watching this series the first time it was on television. I did manage to see it when it appeared on Toonami when it was revived, though. At first glance I didn’t think it it looked like anything overly special (that’s what I get for no trying more than two or three episodes). Giant mechas, suggestive jokes, and fan service. Which it is but it also has a great story line, character development, and an amazing soundtrack. It is a pricey set. Retail price is $189.98 though at the time of typing this, it is $149.98 on Rightstuf. It includes all 27 episodes and two movies.

--Kung fu Yoga “Two professors team up to locate a lost treasure and embark on an adventure that takes them from a Tibetan ice cave to Dubai to a mountain temple in India.”

From the trailer it looks to be a fun kung fu mixed with Bollywood movie. It hosts car chases, fights, and at least one dance scene. I had never heard of the movie title till roughly a week ago but today was the first time I looked up the trailer so I was surprised to see Jackie Chan stars in it. I would like to see it just to see him dance in one of the numbers.

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