#mirrors ranking round 15

[ozzyscollectiblehub]

Joe Frazier: The Relentless Warrior of the Ring

In the pantheon of boxing legends, few names resonate with the sheer grit, determination, and power of Joe Frazier. Known for his relentless pressure and devastating left hook, Frazier’s career was defined not only by his achievements in the ring but also by his indomitable spirit and heart. A key figure in boxing’s golden era, Frazier’s name is forever linked to some of the most iconic battles in the sport’s history, most notably his legendary trilogy with Muhammad Ali. This is the story of Joe Frazier, a warrior who fought his way from humble beginnings to the very pinnacle of the boxing world.

Humble Beginnings

Born on January 12, 1944, in Beaufort, South Carolina, Joseph William Frazier grew up in poverty, working on his family’s farm and later in the fields of the South as a child. Life was hard, but Frazier developed the resilience and toughness that would one day make him a champion. His early days were far removed from the bright lights of the boxing ring, but Frazier had a dream and the determination to make something of himself.

At the age of 15, Frazier moved to Philadelphia, a city that would become his adopted home and play a key role in shaping his boxing career. He joined a local boxing gym to get in shape, and it wasn’t long before his natural talent for fighting became apparent. Under the guidance of trainer Yank Durham, Frazier began his rise through the amateur ranks, culminating in a gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics in the heavyweight division. It was clear that Frazier had the potential to be something special.

The Relentless Style

Joe Frazier’s boxing style was unlike any other. He was known for his aggressive, come-forward approach, constantly pressuring his opponents and wearing them down with a high volume of punches. His signature weapon was a crushing left hook, arguably one of the most powerful in the history of the sport. Frazier’s relentless pursuit of his opponents, combined with his stamina and toughness, made him a fearsome presence in the ring. He wasn’t the biggest or the fastest fighter, but he more than made up for it with heart and determination.

Frazier’s fighting style mirrored his personality. He wasn’t flashy or boastful; instead, he was a workmanlike fighter who let his fists do the talking. He earned the nickname “Smokin’ Joe” because of his relentless pace and his ability to keep coming forward, even in the face of adversity.

World Champion: The Road to Greatness

Frazier turned professional in 1965, and it didn’t take long for him to make his mark in the heavyweight division. By 1970, he was the world heavyweight champion, having claimed the vacant WBA title and then the undisputed heavyweight championship after defeating Jimmy Ellis. But his true test would come in 1971, in a fight that would go down in history as one of the greatest sporting events of all time.

The Fight of the Century: Frazier vs. Ali I

On March 8, 1971, at Madison Square Garden, Joe Frazier faced Muhammad Ali in what was dubbed “The Fight of the Century.” Both men were undefeated, and the stakes were immense — Frazier was the reigning champion, while Ali was attempting to reclaim the title he had been stripped of after his refusal to serve in the Vietnam War.

The fight lived up to its billing. For 15 brutal rounds, Frazier and Ali went to war. Ali, known for his speed and footwork, danced around the ring, but Frazier stayed true to his style, constantly moving forward, cutting off the ring, and punishing Ali with body shots and his devastating left hook. In the 15th round, Frazier landed one of the most famous punches in boxing history, a thunderous left hook that sent Ali crashing to the canvas. Ali, to his credit, got back up, but the fight was Frazier’s. He won by unanimous decision, handing Ali his first professional loss and solidifying his place as the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.

It was a victory that would define Frazier’s career, but it also came at a cost. The fight had taken a tremendous toll on both men, and it would mark the beginning of one of the greatest rivalries in sports history.

The Ali Trilogy

Joe Frazier’s rivalry with Muhammad Ali is one of the most famous in boxing history, and their three fights are considered among the greatest in the sport. After their first meeting in 1971, the two men would face off again in 1974 and 1975.

The second fight, held in January 1974, saw Ali exact revenge on Frazier, winning by unanimous decision. Although it lacked the drama and intensity of their first encounter, it set the stage for what would become one of the most brutal and iconic fights in boxing — the “Thrilla in Manila.”

On October 1, 1975, in the sweltering heat of the Philippines, Frazier and Ali met for the third and final time. The “Thrilla in Manila” was a fight for the ages, with both men pushing themselves to the absolute limit. For 14 grueling rounds, they traded punches in a bout that left both fighters exhausted and battered. By the end of the 14th round, Frazier’s trainer, Eddie Futch, made the difficult decision to stop the fight, as Frazier’s eyes were nearly swollen shut. Ali would win by technical knockout, but even he admitted afterward that it was the closest he had come to death in the ring. It was a fight that epitomized the heart and warrior spirit of Joe Frazier.

Life After Boxing

After his retirement in 1976, Joe Frazier’s life took on a quieter tone, though he remained a prominent figure in the boxing world. He opened a gym in Philadelphia, where he mentored young fighters, and continued to make public appearances. Despite the toll that boxing took on his body, Frazier never wavered in his love for the sport. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990, a fitting tribute to his contributions to the sweet science.

Frazier’s rivalry with Ali remained a central part of his legacy, and although the two men had a contentious relationship for much of their lives, they eventually reconciled. Frazier passed away on November 7, 2011, at the age of 67, after a battle with liver cancer. He left behind a legacy as one of the toughest and most resilient fighters to ever step into the ring.

Legacy of Smokin’ Joe

Joe Frazier’s legacy is not just one of triumph in the ring, but of perseverance and heart. He was never the biggest or the flashiest heavyweight, but he was one of the toughest. His relentless pressure, granite chin, and devastating left hook made him a formidable force in the golden era of heavyweight boxing. More than that, Frazier represented the blue-collar fighter — a man who worked hard, stayed humble, and gave everything he had in every fight.

From his humble beginnings in South Carolina to the bright lights of Madison Square Garden, Frazier’s journey was one of determination and grit. His battles with Muhammad Ali will forever be etched in boxing lore, but it is his spirit, toughness, and unwavering will to win that makes Joe Frazier a legend in the world of sports.

In the annals of boxing history, there will never be another Smokin’ Joe.

[aeoki]

SS Finals - Melee: Chapter 15

Location: ES Dome White Team Waiting Room Characters: Jun & Rinne

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ< End of memory. The present – almost an hour later after meeting Seiya Hidaka. >

Jun: (“Enemies, enemies, enemies”, huh.)

(Both Ohii-san and Hidaka-sensei said that word, but just who on earth are they referring to?)

(Normally, that would be our opponent during the Finals, the“Red Team”, right?)

(Or is it that “Gatekeeper” person who has been acting like the mastermind behind everything since the Qualifying Rounds?)

(Hmm? I have no idea! Ibara’s a given, but it seems even Ohii-san and Nagi-senpai are trying to come up with counterplans for this “enemy”...)

(I don’t think there’s any point in someone dumb like me thinking about it all, though.)

(It feels like everyone in “Eden” is facing the same direction but at the same time, also not…)

(It kinda feels like the stuff they’re saying is conflicting with one another and that makes me worried.)

(Is everything okay? Do they actually understand what each of them are really thinking on the inside?)

(No. I’m sure it’s the job of someone like me to make sure they do.)

(Alrighty! They say inadequate ideas are worse than none at all, so I’ll do what I do best!)

Rinne: Hey, there’s something I wanna ask ya, Jun-Jun ♪

Jun: ……!?

Rinne Amagi…-senpai! Hey, there!

Rinne: ‘Sup.

Gyahaha. Nice – You know just how to handle a delinquent like me, huh!

It’s like it’s in your bones or something – Did you get bullied a lot as a kid?

After all, pretending to be all polite and respectful will lessen the blows on ya, right?

You’ve gotta thank them with a smile every time they hit you!

‘Cause they’ll stop once they either get tired or their fists start hurting!

But they won’t reflect on their actions if ya do that. It ain’t gonna stop the violence. You’d probably wanna shove a mirror in their face and make ‘em realise they’re doing something awful but…

If they’re still not gonna repent after all that, then you’ve got no choice but to start hittin’ back! You’ve gotta launch a counterattack on ‘em!

That’s how we roll and I’m expecting you to do the same too ♪

Jun: What are you talking about…? Anyway, the Finals are about to begin, so why haven’t the others showed up?

Rinne: Woah, you’re gonna ask me that?

I’m the most hated person in ES, ya know? There’s no way the others would tell me what they’re up to.

“Hey, what’re you doing right now?” “I decided to try and make some homemade sweets ♪” “They’re so cute~♪” “I know, right~? ♪”

GYAHAHAHAHA ☆

Jun: On the other hand, wouldn’t you be paying attention to the movement of others because you’re hated by them? That’s what I did before I could become a “Special Student” at Reimei.

Back then, all the “Special Students” above me were like natural disasters.

They wouldn’t even check if there was an earthquake or typhoon happening somewhere and would spend their days idly by – like some idiot.

Rinne: It’s exactly as you say! Man, outta all the members of “Eden”, I knew you’d catch my drift, Jun-Jun ♪

That’s why I decided to pay a visit – ‘cause you seem promising… What’s with these “oracles”? Could ya do me a favour and tell ya bestie what they’re for?

Jun: Since when were you my bestie…? I wouldn’t know~ I rank the lowest in “Eden”, you know.

Rinne: Well, it looks like we’re gonna get along swimmingly, then! Gyahahaha ☆

Jun: …I’m sure you’re aware since you also received an “oracle”, Rinne-senpai, but inside those letters are a surefire method for us to win the “SS” Finals.

Rinne: Yeah, like a walkthrough for a video game, right? The “White Team” will win as long as we follow what’s written inside those “oracles”, right!?

What order the units will appear and how they’ll perform…

As long as we follow what’s written, we’ll be able to beat any of the “Red Team’s” representing units..

And they’re written in detail.

For example, “Valkyrie” will be appearing first and they have a large fixed fanbase, so those fans will definitely vote for them instead of holding on to their votes.

Wow, just wow – It’s written so well that I’d believe it without thinking! Maybe we really can win if we follow these “oracles”...

Just kidding – Only the anxious units would rely on God and believe these “oracles” in the face of an important game.

I bet units like “2wink” have fully believed it and are having a disco party right now.

But, ya know, these are nothing but words on paper.

Just like how we’re receiving these “oracles” that tell us about “Valkyrie”, information about us is also definitely being leaked somewhere.

And if our enemy learns of our strategies, then it means we’re gonna lose. That’s why spies are necessary in real wars, right?

If our enemy knows what we’re up to, then they’ll definitely come up with a plan to counter us. That’s how you win in paper, scissors, rock – by playing after your opponent makes their move.

In other words, if we follow these “oracles”, we’ll definitely lose.

Jun: …………

Rinne: There’s no way the smarty-pants “Eden” wouldn’t realise that, right?

Meaning, the “oracles” are here to make us lose. We’ll just be making ourselves lose – that doesn’t make any sense, does it?

I’d even think that the one who gave us these “oracles” wasn’t even “Eden”, but our enemy – the “Red Team”. It’d make sense if they’re trying to trick us with a trap.

But after investigating, I found out it was actually “Eden” who issued these “oracles”.

Rei-chan from “UNDEAD” was handing ‘em out, so I asked him some stuff as repayment for accepting it.

Jun: Oh, so that’s why you also know what the “oracle” said for the other units. 

Rinne: You betcha. There’s no point in hiding that anyway – Rei-chan had all of the “oracles” memorised and was telling everyone ‘bout ‘em.

We’re comrades – so we’ve gotta share our information and come together as a team ♪

But no matter how hard we try, we’ll lose if we follow the “oracles”!

The “White Team” will lose the “SS” Finals and there’ll just be a whole heap of corpses around!

So I’m here to ask who’s idea it was, Mr “General Leader”.

Jun: I don’t know what to say… I’ve always innocently believed that we could win as long as we followed the “oracles”.

That’s what I’ve always done. The things Ohii-san, Nagi-senpai and Ibara said were never wrong.

Rinne: Gyahaha! They ain’t omnipotent gods – no one is 100% right all the time! Stuuupid!

Doubt everything, Jun-Jun – Doesn’t matter how much sense it may make. Otherwise, you’ll end up in a dead-end before you know it!

Jun: …………

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ← Previous Chapter ᠂ ⚘ ˚⊹˚ ⚘ ᠂  Next Chapter →

[raposarealm]

Funny Ranked Teams: Finals Edition

While I spent the finals being salty about losing my first break match to a troll evade rat and subsequently anti-evade Yozu-blasting my way through (and by the way, if you put an evade on a rat in order to troll people, may I say: you’re the absolute worst and I hope you turn into a witch,) I found more funny team names and took shots of them.

Starting off appropriately, a team aptly named, “Fuck Kyubey”. The Kuroe makes it a lot funnier and sadder all at once.

“Chemical Farmer”. I don’t get it, but it’s still a funny mental image.

“Shigure Hagumu (New Wives)” They’re running Shige and Hagu as well! I don’t know why Yuna and Hikaru are there, since I sincerely hope the OP isn’t shipping those two. (Reminder: Yuna is 17, Hikaru is *13*.)

Here we have “Dii Dii”, which I assume that A) is probably supposed to be “Dee Dee”, and therefore B) we’ve found Dexter’s mirrors team.

May the “Force” be with you! Ehehehe.

I actually saw this team during prelims too! But I didn’t take a shot then. Anyways, here’s Twin #1 and Twin #2.

Our buddy “Onion Soup” made it to A-rank finals, it seems!

Speaking of liquids, the top teams are named “Ponzu” and “Balsamic Vinegar” respectively. They really did happen to line up like that, amusingly.

“Company Commander”, reporting for duty.

Team name “Dameda” (”Hopeless”), with the Magia Report Troublemaking Squad.

And the worst of them all, “ElMadoko!” (They even remembered how Spanish gender works, good for them!)

“Raika”, the original “Rabi”/”Lavi” debate.

And last but not least,

GOJIRA!!!

[rachelbethhines]

Archie Sonic Chronological Read Through Recap - 1st Era

I’ve been re-reading old Archie Sonic Comics lately, and doing so in the recommend chronological order of events, except for flashbacks which are placed within their reveal.

For the first era, this includes

Sonic Miniseries: 0-3

Sonic the Hedgehog: 1-14 

Sonic Super Special 8: “Ghost-Busted" 

Sonic the Hedgehog: 15-18

Sonic the Hedgehog: In your Face 

Sonic the Hedgehog Archives 5: “Everything Old is Newt Again” 

Sonic the Hedgehog: 19 -23

Sally Miniseries: 1-3 

Sonic the Hedgehog: 24-25

Archie Sonic Story Ranking

(Stories with the same ranking are listed in reading order)

Twan With the Wind - 8/10

The Vol-Ant-Teer! - 8/10

Bot’s All Folks - 7.5/10

The 3 Phases of E.V.E. - 7/10

Deadliest of the Species - 7/10

A Crowning Achievement - 6.5/10

The Lizard of Odd! - 6.5/10

Here Comes the Bribe! - 6.5/10

Princess Cruises - 6.5/10

The Good, the Bad, and the Hedgehog! - 6.5/10

That's the Spirit - 6.5/10

When Hedgehogs Collide - 6.5/10

Run, Sally, Run!- 6/10

You Bet My Life! - 6/10 

Rabbot Deployment! - 6/10

Antoine’s Vain Refrain! - 6/10

A Little Sonic Goes a Long Way - 6/10

This Island Hedgehog - 6/10

Space in Yo’ Face - 6/10

Princes Sally’s Crusade - 6/10

Everything Old is Newt Again - 6/10

Go Ahead… Mecha My Day! - 6/10

Why Ask Spy? - 5.5/10

Hare Styling - 5.5/10

Uncle Chuck’s Treasure! - 5.5/10

The Lynx is a Jinx - 5.5/10

Animal Magnetism - 5.5/10

Wedding Bell Blues - 5.5/10

Don’t Cry for Me Mobius! - 5/10 

Triple Trouble - 5/10

Paper Trail! - 5/10

Pseudo-Sonic - 5/10

A Timely Arrival - 5/10

The Bold-Headed Eagle - 5/10

Gorilla Warfare/The Apes of Wrath - 5/10

Tails’ Tallest Tale - 5/10

Night of a 1000 Sonics - 5/10

Meet Me at the Corner of Hedgehog & Vine! - 4.5/10

Sorceress in Distress - 4.5/10

Tails’ Taste of Power - 4.5/10

Rockin’ the Bot - 4.5/10

Ivo Robotnik, Freedom Fighter - 4.5/10

Robotnik’s Badniks! - 4/10 

Photo Finish - 4/10

I’d Like to Thank… - 4/10

Foiled Again! - 4/10

Vertigo A´ Go-Go! - 4/10

Super Sonic Pinup - 4/10

Tails’ Little Tale - 4/10

Chomp on This, Chump! - 4/10

Revenge of the Nerbs - 4/10

Ghost Busted - 4/10

What’s the Big Idea? - 4/10

The Return - 4/10

Equal Time! - 3.5/10

Sonic Bumper Stickers - 3.5/10

Two-Timer! - 3.5/10

The Bomb Bugs Me - 3.5/10

Robotnik’s Rules! - 3.5/10

Olympic Trials and Errors - 3.5/10

Fast Food! - 3.5/10

Details are Sketchy! - 3.5/10

What’s the Point? - 3.5/10

Beat the Clock - 3.5/10

The Man from H.E.D.G.E.H.O.G. - 3.5/10

Tails’ Knight Time Story - 3.5/10

Oh No–Robo! No-Mo’ Mobo! - 3/10

The Royal Family Tree of Mobius - 3/10 

Sonic’s Six* Speed Settings - 3/10

Sneaker Peek! - 3/10

Silent Running - 3/10

Ground Rule Double - 3/10

Sonic’s Photo Album - 3/10

Fin Fans - 3/10

Keep Looking Up! - 3/10

Pinup - 3/10

Tails’ Fairy Tales! - 3/10

Double Speak! - 3/10

HorizontAL & VertiCAL - 3/10

Bad-niks Bazzar - 3/10

Sonic’s Ten Second Workout - 3/10

The Spin Doctor! - 3/10

Sonic’s Christmas Carol! - 3/10

The Shadow Nose! - 3/10

Tooth or Consequences! - 3/10

Do-it-Yourself Sonic - 3/10

The Good, The Bad, …and the Muttski!! - 2.5/10

The Top 10 Reasons Why Sonic the Hedgehog is the Coolest Book Around - 2.5/10

Sonic Flashback! - 2.5/10

Fast Food!/Chili Dog Recipe - 2.5/10

All the Mail’s about Tails! - 2.5/10

In the Beginning! - 2.5/10

“Free!* Robotnik Birthday Card!” - 2.5/10

Bowling Pin-Up - 2.5/10

The All New, Pumped-Up, Sonic the Hedgehog Pin-Up! (Sold Out!) - 2.5/10

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - 2.5/10

The Mirror Zone - 2.5/10

Something Fishy - 2/10

Food for Thought or You Are What You Eat - 2/10

When rounded up to the last decimal the Average for the era is 4.3.

This is in large part due to the over abundance of one page gag stories in the earliest episodes. So much so, that I debated about adding them to the ranking, but I felt it would be dishonest to leave them off. Altogether, with them included, this makes the 3/10 ranking the most used ranking.

Top Five Individual Stories 

The Vol-Ant-Teer!  (Bunnie and Antoine’s first kiss!)

Twan With the Wind (Antoine’s best story this era)

Bot’s All Folks (Funniest story this era) 

The 3 Phases of E.V.E. (Most exciting story this era)

A Crowning Achievement (An early gem from the miniseries that combines both humor and action) 

Worst Five Individual Stories

Something Fishy (I hate the scene of Sonic talking underwater! And no, you can’t skip over the story because it introduces too many plot points for later)

Food for Thought or You Are What You Eat (Creepy, weird, and ultimately pointless save for the fact that it takes place on Sonic’s Birthday, making it important for the timeline)

Sonic Flashback! (Another cringe what-if dream sequence but has zero impact on the wider story)

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (An insulting, shallow, hamfisted ‘girl-power’ story that only manages to piss off this girl reading it)

The Mirror Zone (Practically unreadable due it’s gimmick. Everything is written backwards with the intention of having you read it in front of a mirror, which does you no good when you instead read it in a digital format)

Best Story Arc

Deadliest of the Species 

There’s only two story arcs in entire first era. Of the two I like this one a little better. It got good pacing, action, and I actual like the plot twist. I also don’t have the same raging hate boner for Geoffrey St. John that the majority of the fandom seems to have.

Worst Story Arc

Princes Sally’s Crusade

This isn’t a bad story at all. In fact it’s quite good. But it lands in this spot by sheer virtue of there being nothing else, and I just personally feel it has a slightly weaker ending then the other arc.

Best Artist

Art Mawhinney

I like most of the artists featured during the first era, but Mawhinney’s pencils are easily the best. Having worked previously as a story boarder for SatAM his art looks like it came right out of the tv show.

[hamliet]

The Girl Who Gets to Have It All: Buffy Summers

So with @linkspooky​‘s encouragement, I have binged Buffy the Vampire Slayer and relived my childhood culture. And, it's a 10/10 for me. Not that it doesn't have flaws, but it's genuinely one of the best stories I've seen, with consistent character arcs, powerful themes, and a beautiful message. It's also like... purportedly about vampires and demons and superpowered chosen ones, but it's actually all about humanity.

Buffy was able to be a teenage girl, allowed to like the things teen girls are scorned for (boys, shopping, etc), to be insecure about the thing teenage girls are insecure about (future careers, dating, school, parents), and to be a superhero with its good and its bad aspects. The story wasn’t afraid to call Buffy on her flaws (sometimes she got in a very ‘I am the righteous chosen one’ mode) and to respect and honor each of her desires (to be a good person, to be loved, and more). The story listened to what she wanted and respected her desires, giving her the challenges needed to overcome her flaws while also never teaching her a lesson about wanting bad boys or romance is silly or any manner of dark warnings stories like to throw at teenage girls. 

It respected teenage girls--nerdy girls like Willow, jocks like Buffy, lonely wallflowers with trauma like Dawn, and popular/snobby ones like Cordelia, girls gone wild like Faith. It never once reduced them to the stereotypes that were lurking right there: each character was fully rounded, human, flawed and yet with respected interests and goals. This is so rare for a story that I’m still in awe. 

The story as a whole follows Buffy from 15 to 21, of her as she grows from teenager to adult. She acts like a teenager and grows to act like a young adult, wrestling with loneliness and duty. The adults, like Giles, Joyce, and Jenny, are not perfect either, but neither are they “bad parents” or “bad mentors” necessarily. Joyce in particular says something terrible to Buffy, but she tries to do better, and it’s rare to see a parent in YA stories shown with such nuance. Basically, it wrote the long-lasting adult characters as human beings, too. 

Speaking of growing up, I appreciated how Buffy’s love interests mirrored this. Angel was someone Buffy loved and admired, wanted to be like, but who was always either extreme good or extreme bad, and combined with Buffy’s own tendencies towards black-white thinking, made for a beautiful relationship to help her grow, but didn’t necessarily form a foundation for a long-term partner. Spike, on the other hand... they both saw each other at their worst and were drawn to each other even then, and were inspired to become better because they couldn’t bear to be a person who treated the other person so wrongly. They pushed each other to become the best them they could be, and believed in each other. Also, Spuffy is an enemies to lovers ship for the ages. 

(Also, most of the other ships were well-done or at least can be understood. Riley was very obviously wrong for Buffy which paralleled Harmony and Spike in being 100% wrong for each other. Cordelia and Xander were a fun ship even if we all knew it would never last, and Willow and Oz were beautiful and cute. But Xander and Anya and Willow and Tara? OTPs. As were Giles and Jenny, the librarian and the computer teacher.) 

That said, it’s not a perfect series. No story is. All of the characters and ships had problematic aspects to them worthy of critique, and the writing is very 90s in a lot of ways. It’s a product of its time, and in many ways it’s good society has progressed beyond some of the tropes/metaphors used in the show. In other way, though, the show was ahead of its time, and in a good way it wasn’t bound by the fear of purity policing with its takes on redemption (many characters would never fly today). 

So, in order of seasons ranked from my very favorite to my “still enjoyed it very much” (no season was actually bad, imo), here’s my review. I’ll also review my top 10 villains in the show, because Buffy does villains very well in terms of the redeemable and irredeemable.  

Season 7:  Yep, the final season was my favorite. 

Overall Opinion: Buffy's finale is literally "f*ck them men, our power is ours" and while it seems cheesy it actually works (also, f*ck in both a literal and figurative sense). The series strongly hit all the themes: love as strength, and redemption. Buffy consistently shows love as her strength--*all* kinds of love. Friendship w Willow/Xander, familial with Joyce/Dawn, romantic with Spike/Angel. These types of love are also never pitted against each other as is so often the case in current-day media. It's beautiful. Also, Spike’s confrontation with Wood was so powerful in terms of exploring forgiveness, redemption, and reconciliation: where they overlap and where they don't, and what it means to move forward. 

Unpopular Opinion: I have seen a lot didn’t like the inclusion of Potential Slayers, and while I agree they could have been better incorporated/characterized, it was a great way to show Buffy’s final stage of growing up to be ending her chosen one status and projecting/multiplying her powers over the world. 

Biggest Critique: Kennedy was female Riley--the anti-Tara to Riley’s anti-Angel (by ‘anti’ I mean opposite in every way). Kennedy was annoying and immature. Her role, like Riley’s, was less about exploring her as a character and more about her just being stamped as “love interest: lesbian.” 

Favorite Episodes: Beneath You, Lies My Parents Told Me, Touched, Chosen

Season 6: 

Overall Opinion: I said this on Twitter, but I felt like this was Buffy’s The Last Jedi or Empire Strikes Back moment. It is polarizing and dark, deconstructing the tropes it stands on--but by digging to the core of these tropes, it actually makes what’s good about them shine brighter. Everyone’s enemy was the worst versions of themselves. Giles left Buffy, Willow's struggle to relate to the world led to her trying to destroy it, Buffy hurt everyone through her anger, Xander abandoned Anya at the altar, Spike... yeah. It ages well as an integral part of the story, and the Trio were eerily prophetic. 

Unpopular Opinion: Dawn is a great character with a good arc. A traumatized teen acting out and struggling to come to terms with loss and identity? She wasn’t whiny; she was realistic. 

Biggest Critique: Willow’s addiction coding (I’ll discuss this below) and Seeing Red as an episode. I see the argument for both of its controversial scenes from a narrative perspective: Willow starts the season not grieving Buffy but instead being determined to fix it with magic and needs to learn to grieve, but. Still. Bury your gays is not a good look. For the Spike scene... he conflates sex/passion and violence (”love is blood, children” is something he said way back in season 3), but like Tara’s death, it had more to do with Spike (as Tara’s death did for Willow) than with Buffy’s arc, and as for the actual execution... they really botched that. Did it like... have to go on that long or go that far? No. Also, the framing was good, but inconsistent with the rest of the series (Xander to Buffy in the hyena episode, Faith to Xander and to Riley, etc.) 

Favorite Episodes: Once More With Feeling, Smashed, Grave

Season 3 (tied with Season 5):

Overall Opinion: The opening continuity of Buffy meeting Lily/Anne after saving her life in Season 2 was sweet. The Witchhunt episode had really powerful subtext: stories of deaths that aren’t even true are actually demons that possess the town and convince them to turn against their children in the name of protecting the children. It’s a good commentary on, oh, everything in society. Faith’s character arc was fantastic, and her chemistry with Buffy was off the charts (look, I may be Spuffy all the way, but Fuffy has rights). The finale was satisfying in so many ways, seeing the entire graduating class unite to destroy the Mayor and the school with it, symbolizing Buffy et al’s readiness to move on to college. Oz's relationship with Willow was very sweet and meaningful for a first romance for Willow. 

Unpopular Opinion: I actually don’t really have one. Maybe that the miracle in Amends was earned? I think you can make a decent case that Season 3 is the best written of the seasons, but can only truly be thematically appreciated to its full potential in the light of subsequent seasons (which finish Faith’s arc and deconstruct Buffy’s).  

Biggest Critique: It forgot Buffy killed the hyena guy in Season 1, making her continual insistence that she can’t kill people very ????? 

Favorite Episodes: Lovers Walk, Amends, Graduation Day Part 2 

Season 5, which ties with Season 3:

Overall Opinion: The entire season is about family and what it means, from Tara’s to Buffy’s to the Scoobies. I loved Glory aka Enoshima Junko as the Big Bad, I loved Dawn’s interesting meta commentary on retconning (like, the fact that she’s retconned in matters), and most of my ships are still alive. Joyce’s relationship with Spike is one of the most heartwarming aspects, and Spike’s arc’s desire is clearly highlighted: he wants to be seen as a person. The episodes after Joyce’s death are the most honest portrayals of grief I’ve ever seen, and absolutely brutal to watch. 

Unpopular Opinion: Buffy’s choice at the end seems a deliberate inversion of her choice at the end of Season 2 (sacrifice a loved one to save the world), but it actually isn’t: much like at the end of Season 2 where Buffy skips town because she’s devastated after killing Angel and doesn’t want to sort out being expelled, her mom knowing she’s the slayer, and her own trauma, Buffy’s sacrifice here was as much about her wanting the easy way out of relationships, family, college, etc. as it was about saving Dawn. Buffy’s death is coded as a suicide, which Season 6 emphasizes as well. 

Biggest Critique: Like Season 3, I don’t have a lot to critique here. I wish the suicidal coding had been a little more obvious in Season 5 itself, but also I’m not sure it could have been more obvious; it’s pretty apparent if you pay attention. Maybe also that Buffy and Riley’s relationship failing should have been more squarely blamed on Riley, you know, being insecure and cheating. 

Favorite Episodes: Family, Fool for Love, Intervention. 

Season 2:

Overall Opinion: Heartbreakingly tragic but exciting and revealing at the same time. It asked the viewer interesting questions about redemption and forgiveness and atonement through Angel being honest about his past, and then decided to show us his past now reenacted, challenging us. And still, we saw them save him in a parallel to saving Willow in Season 6 (but Season 2 was tragic because it wasn’t enough, while Season 6 was not). Jenny’s death was agonizing, and the scene were Angel watches Buffy, Willow, and Joyce get the news through the window was powerful. We didn’t have to hear them to get the grief. 

Unpopular Opinion: Jenny’s death isn’t a fridging; it works for her arc too when you consider her history. She worked to save the person whose life she was tasked to ruin, and it cost her her own--yet she still succeeded, because Jenny brought joy and wisdom to the show. Kendra’s death, on the other hand... was because they needed the stakes to be high--but we already knew that before she died. So, her death was useless. 

Biggest Critique: The subtext was Not It. It was essentially “do not have sex. Your older boyfriend will lose his soul, kill your friends, you’ll lose your family, your school, your home, and have to kill your true love or else hell will literally swallow earth.” 

Favorite Episodes: School Hard, Passion, Becoming Part 2.

Season 1:

Overall Opinion: I really liked it; it’s just lower on this list because the others are just better. It’s a great introduction to the series and to its characters, from Giles to Buffy to Willow to Jenny to Cordelia. It has great subtext a lot of the time (for example, Natalie French as She-Mantis is a literal predatory bug who engages in predatory behavior with students). Additionally, it subverts the typical YA trope of two guys and a girl, in which the girl is usually the least interesting character. Buffy and Willow were both fully fledged characters from the beginning with distinct strengths (even before Willow became a witch, as she wasn’t one in season 1 yet), while Xander was the more ordinary of the group. 

Unpopular Opinion/Biggest Critique: Xander’s arc showed its first flaws that unfortunately continued throughout the series: his writing was either very good or very indulgent in ways it never was for other characters.  (cough, the hyena episode, cough, in which he gets to skirt responsibility--and acknowledges that he is skirting it--for something the show will later hold others to account for). Xander’s just kind of inconsistent, which weakened his character over all. (Which is why both his love interests--Cordelia and then ultimately Anya--were good for him: they did not indulge him.) 

Favorite Episode: Witch, Nightmares. 

Season 4:

Overall Opinion: it’s still a good season. It’s a good portrayal of college and the growing pains of branching out, the strains of college growth on relationships (romantic and platonic). It shows us the first hints of Spuffy, giving us some serious Jungian symbolism between Spike and Buffy early on, and does well in establishing Xander/Anya and Willow/Tara as beautiful OTPs. Faith and Buffy’s foiling is fantastic. The Halloween episode was very fun as well. However, it suffers because its Big Bad, Adam, is not all that compelling thematically--yet, he could have been. See, the final battle pulls off the Power of Friendship in a really strong way but notably the season does not end there. Instead, it ends on dreams of each character’s worst fears, continuing what we saw in Nightmares in Season 1. Why? Because it shows us that the characters’ wars aren’t against monsters, but monsters of their own making: their flaws. Adam, as a literal Frankenstein, exemplifies this, but it wasn’t capitalized on as well as it could have been. 

Unpopular Opinion: Beer Bad isn’t a bad episode, at the very least because Buffy gets to punch Parker. It’s not one of the series’ best, obviously, but it does give Buffy an arc in that she gets her daydream of Parker begging her to come back, but she has overcome that desire and her desire for revenge. If we wanna talk about bad subtext in Season 4, Season 2′s Not It sex subtext continues in the Where the Wild Things Are episode in this season; it’s a powerful callout of abusive purity-culture churches, until the fact that the shame creates a literal curse undermines the progressive message it’s supposed to send. Also, the Thanksgiving episode (Pangs) is a nightmare of white guilt and Oh God Shut Up White People. 

Biggest Critique: Riley is awful. Like Kennedy, he had “love interest:normal” stamped on him and that was it. The thing is, he could have worked as an Angel foil, representative of the normal-life aspect of Buffy to Angel’s vampire/supernatural aspect, but the writers never explore this and seemed to even try to back away from that later on. They threw all the romantic cliches at the wall to see what sticks, from klutzy “I dropped my schoolbooks, that’s how we met” to cliché lines that had me rolling my eyes. Do you know how bad a romance has to be to make me dislike romantic tropes? 

Favorite Episodes: Fear Itself, Hush, Restless

Villain rankings: 

Dark Willow, the only villain to be truly sympathetic. While the addiction coding was insensitive and, while unsurprising for its time, aged extremely poorly. That said, Willow’s turn to the dark side after Tara’s death worked well for her character and the story: it was believable and paid off what had been building since Season 1's “Nightmares” episode (Willow’s inferiority complex). 

Glory managed to be genuinely terrifying, and humorous/enjoyable too. Her minions and their numerous nicknames for Glorificus were hilarious, as was her intense vanity. Her merging with Ben--a human being who genuinely wanted to be kind and good--added complexity and tragedy to her role. 

The First. A really good take on Satan. The seventh season as well as the First’s first appearance in season 3′s “Amends” had kind of blatant Christian symbolism, and so the First being essentially Satan works. Their disguising themselves as dead loved ones and the subtle manipulation they used to alienate people was really disturbing and well done. 

The Mayor, who was a terrible person but a truly good father. He provided an interesting contrast to the normal ‘bad dad’ bad guy character, in that he provided Faith exactly what the other characters refused to: he saw the best in her and offered her parental support, while the heroes didn’t and wound up pushing her away. 

The Trio, who were villains ahead of their time: whiny fanboy reddit dudebros, basically. The stakes seemed so much lower than fighting Glory, a literal god, the previous season. But that’s why they worked so well for Season 6′s human themes, and were especially disturbing because we all know people like them. I also appreciated the surprisingly sensitive takes on Jonathan and Andrew, who got to redeem themselves, but Warren did not, and I don’t think he should have either. 

Angelus + Drusilla. I’m ranking them below the Trio because Angelus was just sooooo different from Angel that it was difficult for me to feel the same way for him. He was still Angel, so it wasn’t possible to enjoy his villainy, but he also wasn’t nearly as sympathetic as Dark Willow, had no redeeming qualities like the Mayor, and wasn’t as disturbingly realistic as the Trio. However, the emotional stakes were excellently executed with him as the Big Bad, in that you were never quite sure how to feel and it just plain hurt. Also, Drusilla was a favorite recurring character. She was sympathetic and yet batsh*t enough to be enjoyable as a villain at the same time. 

The Master, who was just completely camp and really worked as an introductory villain. He was scary enough to believe he was a threat, and was funny enough to introduce the series’ humor as well. He was, like Glory, an enjoyable Big Bad. 

The Gentlemen, the one-off villains of Season 4′s Hush who were genuinely terrifying. It’s not as if they got a lot of explanation or any backstory, but they didn’t need it. 

Caleb, the misogynist priest. Fitting with the First’s Christian symbolism, Caleb serving as a spokesperson of all bad religious beliefs felt appropriate. He was also a good foil to Warren--being actually supernaturally powered instead of a wannabe--and to Tara’s family in being full-out evil. I despised him. 

Snyder. Okay Snyder is not a Big Bad like Adam is, but let’s face it: Adam is lame compared to the other villains. But Snyder as a principal? He was so irritating and yet really well used in the series to critique overly strict, hypocritical teachers. Like, we all know teachers like him. I loved to hate him, and his ending was so satisfying. 

[911lonestarscreentime]

Hi Jamie! I was wondering if you had any thoughts on how season 2 compares to season 1 now that there have been 10 episodes for both seasons :)

hey dear! why yes i do, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about it 😊

total totals (?)

so the first thing that i want to point out is if you calculate the total for season 1 (mains + tim and nancy), and you calculate the total for season 2 (mains + all the recurring characters, tim, nancy, charles, gwyn) - you actually get the same number of minutes which is crazy. i mean it’s all rounded up or down so i thought it might be a little off, but it comes out to exactly 397:15 minutes. my data loving heart is loving this.

character totals

so the character with the most change between seasons 1 and 2 is definitely owen. he went down about 24 minutes in screen time, which can only be explained i think with the last three episodes... i believe he was on trend to hit around the same time but especially with 2x09, his total took a hit.

the other character who saw a significant drop was tk, who went down about 12 minutes between the seasons. my theory for this is that season 1 spent a lot of time focusing on the owen/tk relationship so by association, he got more... but this season he’s kind of on his own and he may get more than the average character, but he’s not getting as much as he was before.

the only other significant difference was actually for grace, who went up a lot in screen time! she has about 11 minutes more this season than last, most likely due to the last two episodes. good for her!!

as for the other characters, paul saw about 5 minutes less of screen time this season so not a significant drop but still worth noting. judd has about 1 minute less, so not a big change. one other thing to note is that while tommy filled the void (i guess you could say) of michelle, though she has about 9 minutes less in season 2 than michelle did in season 1.

carlos has about 1 minute more, and mateo has about 15 seconds more so not big changes for either but still glad that two characters who almost always come out at the bottom are starting to see a little more screen time.

now you may be asking why characters like owen and tk saw some drops, but grace is the only character who saw a real increase. where did the screen time go? well besides the explanation that they could just be spending more time showing establishing shots or shots of characters who are being rescued, i think the best explanation is that there are simply more characters. in season 1 there was really only tim and nancy that showed up periodically but it was not much at all anyway. in season 2, in addition to those two there is also charles and gwyn (the latter of whom took up a lot of time in the first half of the season), and there is izzy and evie (who i did not calculate but have shown up a few times). we’ve also seen characters who only appear in one episode but play a big role in that episode: marjan’s fiance salim, grace’s parents, paul’s mom and sister. and of course not to mention, the crossover episode where the three 911 characters that appeared ranked 2, 3, and 4 for the screen time of that episode. i hope that would clear up any confusion!

averages

so it kind of mirrors what the totals say, where owen and tk are the only ones who saw a significant drop in screen time averages (-2:30 minutes for owen, -1:15 minutes for tk). paul also saw 30 seconds less, and judd and marjan saw 15 seconds less each. mateo’s average was about the same.

grace’s average went up by a minute, carlos’ average went up by 15 seconds. not big changes, but always worth noting.

overall takeaways

i was going to talk about records but then i decided that it would be better to wait until the end of the season, when i’ll probably end up repeating a lot of this information anyway. 

as whole though i think it’s less screen time for owen and tk, and more screen time for grace. everyone else kinda falls around the same times as they did last season, give or take. thanks for asking and i hope you find this interesting!

[backslashdelta]

Glee Soundtrack Rating Project Results: tthankstoyou

@tthankstoyou

Favourite character: Quinn Fabray

Least favourite character: Ryder Lynn

Favourite season: Season 2

Least favourite season: Season 6

Mean song rating: 6.47

Mean song rating for favourite character's songs: 7.24

Mean song rating for favourite character's solos: 6.4

Mean song rating season 1: 6.3

Mean song rating season 2: 6.32

Mean song rating season 3: 6.74

Mean song rating season 4: 6.61

Mean song rating season 5: 6.61

Mean song rating season 6: 6.01

Songs rated: 702

[ID: A bar chart titled Number of songs assigned each rating by tthankstoyou, illustrating the number of times each score was assigned to a song by tthankstoyou. 10 was assigned 68 times, 9 was assigned 77 times, 8 was assigned 102 times, 7 was assigned 128 times, 6 was assigned 103 times, 5 was assigned 77 times, 4 was assigned 77 times, 3 was assigned 31 times, 2 was assigned 14 times, 1 was assigned 25 times, and 0 songs were not rated.]

About the Project | Results Masterpost

Ranking:

1. (10) - S1x01 - Don't Stop Believing (Pilot)

2. (10) - S1x05 - Maybe This Time

3. (10) - S1x14 - Gives You Hell

4. (10) - S1x15 - 4 Minutes

5. (10) - S1x15 - Borderline/Open Your Heart

6. (10) - S1x18 - Rose's Turn

7. (10) - S1x18 - The Boy Is Mine

8. (10) - S1x22 - Bohemian Rhapsody

9. (10) - S2x02 - Me Against the Music

10. (10) - S2x03 - I Want to Hold Your Hand

11. (10) - S2x03 - One of Us

12. (10) - S2x04 - Le Jazz Hot

13. (10) - S2x04 - Happy Days Are Here Again/Get Happy

14. (10) - S2x04 - River Deep, Mountain High

15. (10) - S2x04 - Lucky

16. (10) - S2x11 - Thriller/Heads Will Roll

17. (10) - S2x11 - Bills, Bills, Bills

18. (10) - S2x12 - Silly Love Songs

19. (10) - S2x13 - Take Me or Leave Me

20. (10) - S2x14 - Blame It (On the Alcohol)

21. (10) - S2x16 - Misery

22. (10) - S2x18 - As If We Never Said Goodbye

23. (10) - S2x18 - I Feel Pretty/Unpretty

24. (10) - S3x01 - Anything Goes/Anything You Can Do

25. (10) - S3x01 - You Can't Stop the Beat

26. (10) - S3x08 - Control

27. (10) - S3x08 - Buenos Aires

28. (10) - S3x08 - Survivor/I Will Survive

29. (10) - S3x08 - ABC

30. (10) - S3x11 - Never Can Say Goodbye

31. (10) - S3x13 - Love Shack

32. (10) - S3x13 - I Will Always Love You

33. (10) - S3x14 - Cough Syrup

34. (10) - S3x15 - Fighter

35. (10) - S3x15 - Rio/Hungry Like the Wolf

36. (10) - S3x16 - Disco Inferno

37. (10) - S3x17 - It's Not Right But It's Okay

38. (10) - S3x17 - I Have Nothing

39. (10) - S3x17 - How Will I Know

40. (10) - S3x17 - So Emotional

41. (10) - S3x18 - Not the Boy Next Door

42. (10) - S3x21 - Paradise By the Dashboard Light

43. (10) - S3x21 - Edge of Glory

44. (10) - S4x01 - Chasing Pavements

45. (10) - S4x02 - Everytime

46. (10) - S4x03 - A Change Would Do You Good

47. (10) - S4x06 - Look At Me I'm Sandra Dee (Reprise)

48. (10) - S4x09 - Being Alive

49. (10) - S4x09 - Don't Dream It's Over

50. (10) - S4x10 - The First Noel

51. (10) - S4x13 - Bring Him Home

52. (10) - S4x13 - Hung Up

53. (10) - S4x14 - Anything Could Happen

54. (10) - S4x15 - Come What May

55. (10) - S4x21 - Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours

56. (10) - S5x01 - All You Need Is Love

57. (10) - S5x01 - You've Got to Hide Your Love Away

58. (10) - S5x01 - Got to Get You Into My Life

59. (10) - S5x02 - Something

60. (10) - S5x04 - Wide Awake

61. (10) - S5x06 - Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)

62. (10) - S5x08 - Love Child

63. (10) - S5x09 - I Believe in a Thing Called Love

64. (10) - S5x15 - I'm Still Here

65. (10) - S6x03 - It's Too Late

66. (10) - S6x03 - Hand in My Pocket/I Feel the Earth Move

67. (10) - S6x11 - Come Sail Away

68. (10) - S6x12 - Don't Stop Believing (Pilot/2009)

69. (9) - S1x06 - Halo/Walking On Sunshine

70. (9) - S1x07 - Ride Wit Me

71. (9) - S1x11 - Don't Make Me Over

72. (9) - S1x13 - And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going

73. (9) - S1x15 - Like a Prayer

74. (9) - S1x18 - Jessie's Girl

75. (9) - S1x19 - I Dreamed a Dream

76. (9) - S1x20 - Bad Romance

77. (9) - S2x05 - Sweet Transvestite

78. (9) - S2x05 - Time Warp

79. (9) - S2x05 - Science Fiction Double Feature

80. (9) - S2x09 - Dog Days Are Over

81. (9) - S2x09 - Don't Cry for Me Argentina

82. (9) - S2x09 - Valerie

83. (9) - S2x10 - Baby, It's Cold Outside

84. (9) - S2x12 - When I Get You Alone

85. (9) - S2x14 - Don't You Want Me

86. (9) - S2x17 - I Follow Rivers

87. (9) - S2x18 - Somewhere Only We Know

88. (9) - S2x18 - Born This Way

89. (9) - S2x21 - Back to Black

90. (9) - S2x22 - I Love New York/New York, New York

91. (9) - S3x02 - Something's Coming

92. (9) - S3x02 - I'm the Greatest Star

93. (9) - S3x03 - Spotlight

94. (9) - S3x06 - Rumour Has It/Someone Like You

95. (9) - S3x11 - Scream

96. (9) - S3x11 - Bad

97. (9) - S3x13 - Cherish/Cherish

98. (9) - S3x14 - Glad You Came

99. (9) - S3x16 - More Than a Woman

100. (9) - S3x16 - Boogie Shoes

101. (9) - S3x18 - Shake It Out

102. (9) - S3x21 - Tongue Tied

103. (9) - S4x03 - Everybody Wants to Rule the World

104. (9) - S4x04 - Don't Speak

105. (9) - S4x04 - The Scientist

106. (9) - S4x04 - Mine

107. (9) - S4x08 - Whistle

108. (9) - S4x08 - Come See About Me

109. (9) - S4x10 - White Christmas

110. (9) - S4x10 - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

111. (9) - S4x13 - Nutbush City Limits

112. (9) - S4x15 - Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend/Material Girl

113. (9) - S4x16 - I Still Believe/Super Bass

114. (9) - S4x17 - Copacabana

115. (9) - S4x21 - Higher Ground

116. (9) - S4x21 - Superstition

117. (9) - S4x22 - I Love It

118. (9) - S5x01 - Help!

119. (9) - S5x01 - I Saw Her Standing There

120. (9) - S5x02 - Get Back

121. (9) - S5x02 - Hey Jude

122. (9) - S5x02 - Revolution

123. (9) - S5x03 - Fire and Rain

124. (9) - S5x03 - I'll Stand By You

125. (9) - S5x03 - Seasons of Love

126. (9) - S5x03 - No Surrender

127. (9) - S5x03 - Make You Feel My Love

128. (9) - S5x03 - If I Die Young

129. (9) - S5x05 - If I Were a Boy

130. (9) - S5x06 - Just the Way You Are

131. (9) - S5x07 - Nasty/Rhythm Nation

132. (9) - S5x07 - Into the Groove

133. (9) - S5x08 - Mary's Little Boy Child

134. (9) - S5x08 - Away in a Manger

135. (9) - S5x10 - Gloria

136. (9) - S5x11 - America

137. (9) - S5x11 - More Than a Feeling

138. (9) - S5x11 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

139. (9) - S5x14 - Rockstar

140. (9) - S5x15 - Broadway Baby

141. (9) - S5x20 - All of Me

142. (9) - S5x20 - Girls on Film

143. (9) - S6x05 - It Must Have Been Love

144. (9) - S6x05 - Father Figure

145. (9) - S6x13 - I Lived

146. (8) - S1x03 - Bust Your Windows

147. (8) - S1x04 - Taking Chances

148. (8) - S1x06 - It's My Life/Confessions Part II

149. (8) - S1x07 - You Keep Me Hanging On

150. (8) - S1x09 - Proud Mary

151. (8) - S1x10 - Lean On Me

152. (8) - S1x11 - Papa Don't Preach

153. (8) - S1x13 - Don't Rain on My Parade

154. (8) - S1x13 - You Can't Always Get What You Want

155. (8) - S1x14 - Highway to Hell

156. (8) - S1x14 - Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love

157. (8) - S1x15 - Express Yourself

158. (8) - S1x15 - Burning Up

159. (8) - S1x16 - A House Is Not a Home

160. (8) - S1x17 - Run Joey Run

161. (8) - S1x18 - Pink Houses

162. (8) - S1x22 - Don't Stop Believing (Regionals)

163. (8) - S1x22 - To Sir, With Love

164. (8) - S2x01 - Empire State of Mind

165. (8) - S2x01 - Listen

166. (8) - S2x03 - Losing My Religion

167. (8) - S2x03 - Bridge Over Troubled Water

168. (8) - S2x05 - Whatever Happened to Saturday Night?

169. (8) - S2x05 - There's a Light (Over at the Frankenstein Place)

170. (8) - S2x05 - Damn It, Janet

171. (8) - S2x08 - Just the Way You Are

172. (8) - S2x09 - Hey, Soul Sister

173. (8) - S2x11 - She's Not There

174. (8) - S2x14 - My Headband

175. (8) - S2x16 - Raise Your Glass

176. (8) - S2x19 - Songbird

177. (8) - S2x20 - I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You

178. (8) - S2x21 - Some People

179. (8) - S3x01 - It's Not Unusual

180. (8) - S3x01 - Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead

181. (8) - S3x04 - Candyman

182. (8) - S3x05 - One Hand, One Heart

183. (8) - S3x05 - A Boy Like That/I Have a Love

184. (8) - S3x05 - Uptown Girl

185. (8) - S3x08 - Man in the Mirror

186. (8) - S3x09 - Christmas Wrapping

187. (8) - S3x09 - Let It Snow

188. (8) - S3x09 - Do They Know It's Christmas?

189. (8) - S3x11 - Human Nature

190. (8) - S3x11 - Smooth Criminal

191. (8) - S3x14 - Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)

192. (8) - S3x14 - Stand

193. (8) - S3x15 - Up Up Up

194. (8) - S3x16 - You Should Be Dancing

195. (8) - S3x16 - Stayin' Alive

196. (8) - S3x20 - Mean

197. (8) - S3x21 - It's All Coming Back to Me Now

198. (8) - S4x02 - Crazy/U Drive Me Crazy

199. (8) - S4x03 - Celebrity Skin

200. (8) - S4x04 - Barely Breathing

201. (8) - S4x05 - Blow Me (One Last Kiss)

202. (8) - S4x06 - Beauty School Dropout

203. (8) - S4x07 - Heroes

204. (8) - S4x07 - Some Nights

205. (8) - S4x11 - No Scrubs

206. (8) - S4x11 - Tell Him

207. (8) - S4x12 - A Thousand Years

208. (8) - S4x12 - Love Song

209. (8) - S4x13 - Don't Stop Me Now

210. (8) - S4x13 - Diva

211. (8) - S4x13 - Girl On Fire

212. (8) - S4x14 - Just Can't Get Enough

213. (8) - S4x16 - Cold Hearted

214. (8) - S4x17 - Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go

215. (8) - S4x17 - Wannabe

216. (8) - S4x17 - Mamma Mia

217. (8) - S4x21 - You Are the Sunshine of My Life

218. (8) - S4x22 - Wings

219. (8) - S4x22 - All or Nothing

220. (8) - S5x01 - Drive My Car

221. (8) - S5x02 - Here Comes the Sun

222. (8) - S5x02 - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

223. (8) - S5x02 - Let It Be

224. (8) - S5x06 - Piano Man

225. (8) - S5x10 - Barracuda

226. (8) - S5x10 - Jumpin' Jumpin'

227. (8) - S5x10 - Don't You (Forget About Me)

228. (8) - S5x12 - Defying Gravity

229. (8) - S5x14 - Downtown

230. (8) - S5x15 - No One Is Alone

231. (8) - S5x17 - Lovefool

232. (8) - S5x17 - Pumpin Blood

233. (8) - S5x20 - American Boy

234. (8) - S6x02 - Mustang Sally

235. (8) - S6x04 - Whip It

236. (8) - S6x05 - My Sharona

237. (8) - S6x05 - You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)

238. (8) - S6x06 - Arthur's Theme

239. (8) - S6x06 - Alfie

240. (8) - S6x07 - Somebody Loves You

241. (8) - S6x08 - Our Day Will Come

242. (8) - S6x09 - I Want to Break Free

243. (8) - S6x09 - Cool Kids

244. (8) - S6x11 - Chandelier

245. (8) - S6x11 - Take Me to Church

246. (8) - S6x12 - Popular

247. (8) - S6x13 - Someday We'll Be Together

248. (7) - S1x01 - Respect

249. (7) - S1x01 - On My Own

250. (7) - S1x01 - Rehab

251. (7) - S1x03 - Mercy

252. (7) - S1x04 - Tonight

253. (7) - S1x05 - Last Name

254. (7) - S1x05 - Alone

255. (7) - S1x07 - No Air

256. (7) - S1x09 - Defying Gravity

257. (7) - S1x10 - I'll Stand By You

258. (7) - S1x11 - Bootylicious

259. (7) - S1x12 - Smile (Lily Allen)

260. (7) - S1x14 - Hello, I Love You

261. (7) - S1x14 - Hello

262. (7) - S1x15 - Like a Virgin

263. (7) - S1x16 - Home

264. (7) - S1x16 - One Less Bell to Answer/A House Is Not a Home

265. (7) - S1x17 - Total Eclipse of the Heart

266. (7) - S1x18 - Lady Is a Tramp

267. (7) - S1x20 - Funny Girl

268. (7) - S1x21 - Another One Bites the Dust

269. (7) - S1x22 - Faithfully

270. (7) - S1x22 - Any Way You Want It/Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin'

271. (7) - S2x02 - I'm a Slave 4 U

272. (7) - S2x03 - I Look to You

273. (7) - S2x03 - Papa, Can You Hear Me?

274. (7) - S2x04 - Don't Go Breaking My Heart

275. (7) - S2x05 - Touch a Touch a Touch a Touch Me

276. (7) - S2x05 - Planet, Schmanet, Janet

277. (7) - S2x06 - Teenage Dream

278. (7) - S2x06 - Stop! In the Name of Love/Free Your Mind

279. (7) - S2x09 - (I've Had) The Time of My Life

280. (7) - S2x10 - Merry Christmas, Darling

281. (7) - S2x12 - P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)

282. (7) - S2x12 - Fat Bottomed Girls

283. (7) - S2x13 - Somebody to Love

284. (7) - S2x15 - Landslide

285. (7) - S2x16 - Only Child

286. (7) - S2x17 - Ain't No Way

287. (7) - S2x17 - All By Myself

288. (7) - S2x19 - I Don't Want to Know

289. (7) - S2x19 - Go Your Own Way

290. (7) - S2x20 - Rolling in the Deep

291. (7) - S2x21 - Pure Imagination

292. (7) - S2x21 - Try a Little Tenderness

293. (7) - S2x22 - For Good

294. (7) - S3x01 - Big Spender

295. (7) - S3x03 - Out Here On My Own

296. (7) - S3x04 - Take Care of Yourself

297. (7) - S3x05 - Tonight

298. (7) - S3x05 - America

299. (7) - S3x06 - Hit Me with Your Best Shot/One Way or Another

300. (7) - S3x07 - Constant Craving

301. (7) - S3x08 - We Are Young

302. (7) - S3x09 - All I Want for Christmas Is You

303. (7) - S3x10 - Wedding Bell Blues (Bill)

304. (7) - S3x11 - Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'

305. (7) - S3x11 - Ben

306. (7) - S3x11 - I Want You Back

307. (7) - S3x12 - La Isla Bonita

308. (7) - S3x13 - Stereo Hearts

309. (7) - S3x13 - Home

310. (7) - S3x15 - Somebody That I Used to Know

311. (7) - S3x16 - How Deep Is Your Love

312. (7) - S3x16 - If I Can't Have You

313. (7) - S3x17 - Saving All My Love For You

314. (7) - S3x17 - My Love Is Your Love

315. (7) - S3x19 - Take My Breath Away

316. (7) - S3x21 - Starships

317. (7) - S3x21 - Pinball Wizard

318. (7) - S3x22 - I'll Remember

319. (7) - S3x22 - You Get What You Give

320. (7) - S4x01 - Call Me Maybe

321. (7) - S4x02 - Boys/Boyfriend

322. (7) - S4x02 - 3

323. (7) - S4x02 - Womanizer

324. (7) - S4x03 - The Way You Look Tonight/You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile

325. (7) - S4x05 - Everybody Talks

326. (7) - S4x07 - My Dark Side

327. (7) - S4x08 - Let's Have a Kiki/Turkey Lurkey Time

328. (7) - S4x08 - Home/Homeward Bound

329. (7) - S4x09 - O Holy Night

330. (7) - S4x12 - Centerfold/Hot in Herre

331. (7) - S4x12 - This Is the New Year

332. (7) - S4x13 - Make No Mistake (She's Mine)

333. (7) - S4x14 - Getting Married Today

334. (7) - S4x15 - Footloose

335. (7) - S4x17 - Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)

336. (7) - S4x17 - My Prerogative

337. (7) - S4x19 - You Have More Friends Than You Know

338. (7) - S4x20 - Longest Time

339. (7) - S4x20 - You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'

340. (7) - S4x21 - For Once in My Life

341. (7) - S4x22 - Hall of Fame

342. (7) - S5x01 - A Hard Day's Night

343. (7) - S5x04 - Marry the Night

344. (7) - S5x04 - Applause

345. (7) - S5x05 - On Our Way

346. (7) - S5x08 - Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

347. (7) - S5x09 - My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)

348. (7) - S5x10 - The Happening

349. (7) - S5x12 - Toxic

350. (7) - S5x12 - Valerie

351. (7) - S5x13 - I Am Changing

352. (7) - S5x13 - Be Okay

353. (7) - S5x15 - Not While I'm Around

354. (7) - S5x15 - You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman

355. (7) - S5x15 - Colorblind

356. (7) - S5x16 - Love Is a Battlefield

357. (7) - S5x17 - Who Are You Now

358. (7) - S5x18 - Doo Wop (That Thing)

359. (7) - S5x19 - Take Me Home Tonight

360. (7) - S5x19 - I Melt with You

361. (7) - S5x20 - Pompeii

362. (7) - S6x01 - Sing

363. (7) - S6x02 - Tightrope

364. (7) - S6x02 - Home

365. (7) - S6x02 - Viva Voce

366. (7) - S6x03 - You Learn/You've Got a Friend

367. (7) - S6x03 - So Far Away

368. (7) - S6x04 - Rock Lobster

369. (7) - S6x05 - All Out of Love

370. (7) - S6x06 - Wishin' And Hoping

371. (7) - S6x06 - Baby It's You

372. (7) - S6x07 - I Know Where I've Been

373. (7) - S6x08 - At Last

374. (7) - S6x12 - I'm His Child

375. (7) - S6x13 - Daydream Believer

376. (6) - S1x02 - Push It

377. (6) - S1x02 - Take a Bow

378. (6) - S1x05 - Somebody to Love

379. (6) - S1x07 - Hate On Me

380. (6) - S1x08 - Sweet Caroline

381. (6) - S1x09 - Dancing With Myself

382. (6) - S1x10 - (You're Having My Baby)

383. (6) - S1x10 - Endless Love

384. (6) - S1x12 - Jump

385. (6) - S1x13 - My Life Would Suck Without You

386. (6) - S1x14 - Hello, Goodbye

387. (6) - S1x15 - Vogue

388. (6) - S1x16 - Beautiful

389. (6) - S1x17 - U Can't Touch This

390. (6) - S1x19 - Dream On

391. (6) - S1x20 - Beth

392. (6) - S1x21 - Give Up the Funk

393. (6) - S1x21 - Good Vibrations

394. (6) - S2x01 - What I Did for Love

395. (6) - S2x01 - Telephone

396. (6) - S2x01 - Every Rose Has Its Thorn

397. (6) - S2x01 - Getting to Know You

398. (6) - S2x02 - Baby One More Time

399. (6) - S2x08 - Marry You

400. (6) - S2x09 - The Living Years

401. (6) - S2x10 - We Need a Little Christmas

402. (6) - S2x10 - The Most Wonderful Day of the Year

403. (6) - S2x11 - Need You Now

404. (6) - S2x12 - My Funny Valentine

405. (6) - S2x13 - I Know What Boys Like

406. (6) - S2x13 - This Little Light of Mine

407. (6) - S2x14 - Tik Tok

408. (6) - S2x15 - Afternoon Delight

409. (6) - S2x16 - Blackbird

410. (6) - S2x16 - Get It Right

411. (6) - S2x19 - Don't Stop

412. (6) - S2x20 - Dancing Queen

413. (6) - S2x20 - Jar of Hearts

414. (6) - S2x21 - My Man

415. (6) - S2x22 - Yeah!

416. (6) - S3x01 - We Got the Beat

417. (6) - S3x03 - It's All Over

418. (6) - S3x04 - Last Friday Night

419. (6) - S3x06 - I Can't Go for That/You Make My Dreams Come True

420. (6) - S3x06 - Hot for Teacher

421. (6) - S3x09 - Santa Claus Is Coming to Town

422. (6) - S3x09 - River

423. (6) - S3x10 - Summer Nights

424. (6) - S3x10 - Without You

425. (6) - S3x13 - Let Me Love You

426. (6) - S3x15 - I'm Still Standing

427. (6) - S3x16 - Night Fever

428. (6) - S3x17 - I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)

429. (6) - S3x18 - The Rain in Spain

430. (6) - S3x19 - Dinosaur

431. (6) - S3x20 - Flashdance...What a Feeling

432. (6) - S3x20 - Because You Loved Me

433. (6) - S3x22 - Glory Days

434. (6) - S4x01 - Americano/Dance Again

435. (6) - S4x01 - Never Say Never

436. (6) - S4x01 - New York State of Mind

437. (6) - S4x02 - Hold It Against Me

438. (6) - S4x04 - Give Your Heart a Break

439. (6) - S4x06 - Look At Me I'm Sandra Dee

440. (6) - S4x07 - Holding Out for a Hero

441. (6) - S4x08 - Live While We're Young

442. (6) - S4x09 - Something Stupid

443. (6) - S4x10 - Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah

444. (6) - S4x14 - You're All I Need to Get By

445. (6) - S4x15 - Unchained Melody

446. (6) - S4x17 - Creep

447. (6) - S4x18 - Your Song

448. (6) - S4x19 - Outcast

449. (6) - S4x19 - Don't Stop Believin' (Rachel)

450. (6) - S4x20 - Everybody Hurts

451. (6) - S4x21 - Uptight (Everything's Alright)

452. (6) - S4x21 - I Wish

453. (6) - S4x22 - Clarity

454. (6) - S5x05 - Wrecking Ball

455. (6) - S5x06 - My Life

456. (6) - S5x07 - You're My Best Friend

457. (6) - S5x08 - Here Comes Santa Claus (Down Santa Claus Lane)

458. (6) - S5x08 - O Christmas Tree

459. (6) - S5x09 - Every Breath You Take

460. (6) - S5x09 - Don't Rain On My Parade

461. (6) - S5x09 - Brave

462. (6) - S5x11 - Mr. Roboto/Counting Stars

463. (6) - S5x12 - Keep Holding On

464. (6) - S5x13 - Loser Like Me

465. (6) - S5x14 - You Make Me Feel So Young

466. (6) - S5x16 - I Want to Know What Love Is

467. (6) - S5x18 - The Rose

468. (6) - S5x19 - Werewolves of London

469. (6) - S5x19 - Lucky Star

470. (6) - S6x01 - Suddenly Seymour

471. (6) - S6x02 - Problem

472. (6) - S6x06 - Promises, Promises

473. (6) - S6x06 - They Long to Be Close to You

474. (6) - S6x07 - All About That Bass

475. (6) - S6x08 - Hey Ya!

476. (6) - S6x10 - Rather Be

477. (6) - S6x10 - Rise

478. (6) - S6x12 - I Kissed a Girl

479. (5) - S1x01 - Can't Fight This Feeling

480. (5) - S1x01 - Mr. Cellophane

481. (5) - S1x05 - Cabaret

482. (5) - S1x08 - What A Girl Wants

483. (5) - S1x11 - Imagine

484. (5) - S1x11 - True Colors

485. (5) - S1x12 - Smile (Charlie Chaplin)

486. (5) - S1x18 - One

487. (5) - S1x19 - Dream a Little Dream

488. (5) - S1x20 - Shout It Out Loud

489. (5) - S2x03 - Only the Good Die Young

490. (5) - S2x06 - One Love (People Get Ready)

491. (5) - S2x07 - Conjunction Junction

492. (5) - S2x12 - Firework

493. (5) - S2x13 - Sing

494. (5) - S2x13 - Baby

495. (5) - S2x16 - Trouty Mouth

496. (5) - S2x17 - Turning Tables

497. (5) - S2x19 - Dreams

498. (5) - S2x22 - As Long as You're There

499. (5) - S3x02 - Somewhere

500. (5) - S3x03 - Run the World (Girls)

501. (5) - S3x03 - Cool

502. (5) - S3x04 - Waiting for a Girl Like You

503. (5) - S3x07 - I'm the Only One

504. (5) - S3x08 - Red Solo Cup

505. (5) - S3x10 - The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

506. (5) - S3x10 - We Found Love

507. (5) - S3x11 - Black or White

508. (5) - S3x11 - I Just Can't Stop Loving You

509. (5) - S3x13 - Chapel of Love

510. (5) - S3x18 - Cell Block Tango

511. (5) - S3x18 - The Music of the Night

512. (5) - S3x18 - Cry

513. (5) - S3x19 - Big Girls Don't Cry

514. (5) - S3x20 - I Won't Give Up

515. (5) - S3x21 - We Are the Champions

516. (5) - S3x22 - In My Life

517. (5) - S3x22 - Forever Young

518. (5) - S4x01 - It's Time

519. (5) - S4x01 - Sister Christian

520. (5) - S4x05 - Born to Hand Jive

521. (5) - S4x07 - Superman

522. (5) - S4x09 - Being Good Isn't Good Enough

523. (5) - S4x10 - Jingle Bell Rock

524. (5) - S4x11 - I Don't Know How to Love Him

525. (5) - S4x12 - Torn

526. (5) - S4x15 - Shout

527. (5) - S4x15 - You're All the World to Me

528. (5) - S4x15 - In Your Eyes

529. (5) - S4x16 - Closer

530. (5) - S4x18 - Say

531. (5) - S4x18 - More Than Words

532. (5) - S4x19 - Next to Me

533. (5) - S4x20 - We Will Rock You

534. (5) - S4x20 - Little Girls

535. (5) - S4x22 - Rainbow Connection

536. (5) - S5x06 - Honesty

537. (5) - S5x06 - You May Be Right

538. (5) - S5x06 - An Innocent Man

539. (5) - S5x09 - Whenever I Call You Friend

540. (5) - S5x09 - Breakaway

541. (5) - S5x10 - Danny's Song

542. (5) - S5x13 - Party All the Time

543. (5) - S5x14 - Don't Sleep in the Subway

544. (5) - S5x14 - Best Day of My Life

545. (5) - S5x14 - People

546. (5) - S5x16 - Addicted to Love

547. (5) - S5x16 - Let's Wait Awhile

548. (5) - S5x17 - NYC

549. (5) - S6x01 - Uninvited

550. (5) - S6x03 - Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow/Head Over Feet

551. (5) - S6x07 - Time After Time

552. (5) - S6x08 - I'm So Excited

553. (5) - S6x10 - Far From Over

554. (5) - S6x11 - Listen to Your Heart

555. (5) - S6x13 - This Time

556. (4) - S1x01 - Sit Down You're Rockin the Boat

557. (4) - S1x01 - You're the One That I Want (ver. 1)

558. (4) - S1x01 - I Kissed a Girl

559. (4) - S1x02 - I Say a Little Prayer

560. (4) - S1x07 - Keep Holding On

561. (4) - S1x10 - Don't Stand So Close to Me/Young Girl

562. (4) - S1x11 - Hair/Crazy In Love

563. (4) - S1x15 - What It Feels Like for a Girl

564. (4) - S1x16 - Fire

565. (4) - S1x17 - Physical

566. (4) - S1x19 - Safety Dance

567. (4) - S1x20 - Poker Face

568. (4) - S1x21 - Loser

569. (4) - S1x22 - Over the Rainbow

570. (4) - S2x01 - Billionaire

571. (4) - S2x02 - Stronger

572. (4) - S2x02 - The Only Exception

573. (4) - S2x04 - With You I'm Born Again

574. (4) - S2x04 - Sing!

575. (4) - S2x07 - Forget You

576. (4) - S2x10 - Last Christmas

577. (4) - S2x10 - Welcome Christmas

578. (4) - S2x14 - One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer

579. (4) - S2x15 - Animal

580. (4) - S2x16 - Hell to the No

581. (4) - S2x16 - Big Ass Heart

582. (4) - S2x16 - Loser Like Me

583. (4) - S2x18 - I've Gotta Be Me

584. (4) - S2x20 - Isn't She Lovely

585. (4) - S2x22 - My Cup

586. (4) - S3x04 - Bein' Green

587. (4) - S3x07 - Jolene

588. (4) - S3x07 - Perfect

589. (4) - S3x07 - I Kissed a Girl

590. (4) - S3x09 - Extraordinary Merry Christmas

591. (4) - S3x09 - My Favorite Things

592. (4) - S3x12 - Don't Wanna Lose You

593. (4) - S3x13 - L-O-V-E

594. (4) - S3x14 - Fly/I Believe I Can Fly

595. (4) - S3x14 - Here's to Us

596. (4) - S3x18 - School's Out

597. (4) - S3x19 - What Makes You Beautiful

598. (4) - S3x19 - Love You Like a Love Song

599. (4) - S3x22 - Roots Before Branches

600. (4) - S4x02 - Oops!...I Did It Again

601. (4) - S4x05 - Hopelessly Devoted to You

602. (4) - S4x05 - Juke Box Hero

603. (4) - S4x06 - There Are Worse Things I Could Do

604. (4) - S4x09 - All That Jazz

605. (4) - S4x11 - Locked Out of Heaven

606. (4) - S4x11 - I Only Have Eyes for You

607. (4) - S4x12 - Let Me Love You (Until You Learn to Love Yourself)

608. (4) - S4x14 - We've Got Tonite

609. (4) - S4x16 - How to Be a Heartbreaker

610. (4) - S4x16 - The Bitch Is Back/Dress You Up

611. (4) - S4x16 - Bye Bye Bye/I Want It That Way

612. (4) - S4x19 - Fight for Your Right (to Party)

613. (4) - S4x22 - To Love You More

614. (4) - S5x01 - Yesterday

615. (4) - S5x04 - Roar

616. (4) - S5x10 - Hold On

617. (4) - S5x11 - Vacation

618. (4) - S5x13 - Just Give Me a Reason

619. (4) - S5x17 - I'm the Greatest Star

620. (4) - S5x19 - Memory

621. (4) - S5x20 - Glitter in the Air

622. (4) - S6x01 - Dance the Night Away

623. (4) - S6x02 - Take On Me

624. (4) - S6x06 - What the World Needs Now

625. (4) - S6x07 - Same Love

626. (4) - S6x09 - Uptown Funk

627. (4) - S6x09 - Break Free

628. (4) - S6x09 - Lose My Breath

629. (4) - S6x11 - We Built This City

630. (4) - S6x11 - Mickey

631. (4) - S6x12 - Pony

632. (4) - S6x13 - Teach Your Children

633. (3) - S1x01 - Leaving On a Jet Plane

634. (3) - S1x08 - I Could Have Danced All Night

635. (3) - S2x02 - Toxic

636. (3) - S2x07 - Nowadays/Hot Honey rag

637. (3) - S2x08 - Ohio

638. (3) - S2x16 - Jesus Is My Friend

639. (3) - S2x19 - Never Going Back Again

640. (3) - S2x19 - Nice to Meet You, Have I Slept with You?

641. (3) - S2x20 - Friday

642. (3) - S2x22 - Light Up the World

643. (3) - S2x22 - Bella Notte

644. (3) - S2x22 - Pretending

645. (3) - S3x07 - Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

646. (3) - S3x10 - Moves Like Jagger/Jumpin' Jack Flash

647. (3) - S3x12 - Sexy and I Know It

648. (3) - S3x12 - Bamboleo/Hero

649. (3) - S3x13 - You're the Top

650. (3) - S4x02 - Gimme More

651. (3) - S4x06 - Greased Lightning

652. (3) - S4x06 - You're the One That I Want

653. (3) - S4x11 - Baby Got Back

654. (3) - S4x15 - Old Time Rock & Roll/Danger Zone

655. (3) - S4x20 - At the Ballet

656. (3) - S5x05 - You Are Woman, I Am Man

657. (3) - S5x11 - I Love LA

658. (3) - S5x13 - Don't Stop Believin' (Season Five)

659. (3) - S5x18 - Piece of My Heart

660. (3) - S5x20 - Shakin' My Head

661. (3) - S6x01 - Let It Go

662. (3) - S6x06 - I'll Never Fall in Love Again

663. (3) - S6x07 - You Give Love a Bad Name

664. (2) - S1x10 - Crush

665. (2) - S1x21 - It's a Man's Man's Man's World

666. (2) - S2x06 - Start Me Up/Livin' on a Prayer

667. (2) - S2x07 - Singing In the Rain/Umbrella

668. (2) - S2x07 - Make 'Em Laugh

669. (2) - S2x10 - You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch

670. (2) - S2x15 - Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)

671. (2) - S3x03 - Fix You

672. (2) - S3x06 - You and I/You and I

673. (2) - S3x09 - Blue Christmas

674. (2) - S5x12 - Happy

675. (2) - S5x20 - No Time At All

676. (2) - S6x04 - Bitch

677. (2) - S6x10 - The Trolley Song

678. (1) - S1x02 - Gold Digger

679. (1) - S1x03 - I Wanna Sex You Up

680. (1) - S1x08 - Bust A Move

681. (1) - S1x08 - Thong Song

682. (1) - S1x17 - Ice Ice Baby

683. (1) - S1x21 - Tell Me Something Good

684. (1) - S2x08 - Sway

685. (1) - S2x15 - Kiss

686. (1) - S2x16 - Candles

687. (1) - S2x22 - Still Got Tonight

688. (1) - S3x12 - A Little Less Conversation

689. (1) - S4x04 - Teenage Dream (Acoustic)

690. (1) - S4x08 - Gangnam Style

691. (1) - S4x10 - Feliz Navidad

692. (1) - S5x05 - Blurred Lines

693. (1) - S5x07 - The Fox

694. (1) - S5x07 - Cheek to Cheek

695. (1) - S5x08 - The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)

696. (1) - S5x12 - Raise Your Glass

697. (1) - S5x18 - Story of My Life

698. (1) - S5x18 - Wake Me Up

699. (1) - S6x04 - Thousand Miles

700. (1) - S6x09 - Friday I'm in Love

701. (1) - S6x10 - The Final Countdown

702. (1) - S6x13 - The Winner Takes It All

[soundsof71]

Hey! Album: 'Fleetwood Mac' (1975) - Fleetwood Mac

Hey! Great to hear from you! You (and your previous blog) were my original inspiration for trying to raise my tumblr game to something intentionally curated, and more than that, personally creative. Sorry to have let you down. LOL

What a pleasure to talk about this one, though, an album I think is -- strangely enough -- one of the most underrated albums in the classic rock pantheon!

What’s that you say? An album with “Rhiannon” and “Landslide” underrated?!?! Well it’s true, seriously underrated, at least partly because those two stellar, nay, legendary songs are the first ones that most people think of. There's so much more! It's definitely my favorite Fleetwood Mac album!

My perspective is a little different than the standard rap that Fleetwood Mac didn't properly begin until those two California kids joined the band in 1975, because to me, they started taking off when their first American joined the band, Bob Welch in 1971 for Future Games, which I wrote about at some length here. 

(For the record, Future Games is my second favorite Fleetwood Mac album. Anyone who hasn't checked it out really needs to.)

I’ll leave it at that for now, except to observe that to most of my music nerd friends at the time, I was a latecomer to Fleetwood Mac the band, having completely missed their earlier, bluesier lineups. Indeed, the 1971 lineup was their 8th! And they'd come to #9 in 1972, before landing on lineup #10 in 1975.

They had a bunch of hits on the five albums in this 71-74 range (”Hypnotized” is one that still slays me) that I think hold up as among their best ever. While the album before Fleetwood Mac, Heroes Are Hard to Find didn’t have a hit single, it rose to #34 on the US charts, and got plenty of attention. 

My point is that Fleetwood Mac didn’t spring into existence out of nowhere in 1975. Nor was 1975 necessarily ground zero for the millions of people who bought the album Fleetwood Mac. It came out in the summer of ‘75, but took 15 months to hit #1 in the US! (It peaked at #11 in the UK.) This was a far bigger album in 1976 when all the singles came out, and the band was touring like crazy to support it.

They basically dragged the album to the top of the charts kicking and screaming by the end of THAT year with relentless touring, setting the stage for their true commercial breakthrough with Rumours in 1977, but artistically? I prefer everything about 1975′s Fleetwood Mac.

btw, the music nerds know that Fleetwood Mac was recorded at Sound City Studios, which makes all the difference in the telling of the tale. In 1974, the band had located to Los Angeles, and following the departure of Bob Welch in December, Mick Fleetwood went looking for both a recording studio and a guitarist. 

While getting to know producer Keith Olsen at Sound City (a studio legendary for its drum sound, among other things), Keith played Mick some tracks from an album he’d recorded here a couple of years earlier with a local guitarist and his girlfriend singer, both of whom were also songwriters.

Mick said, I’ll book the studio to record my next album, I’ll book you to produce, and I’ll hire the guitarist....who famously informed Mick that he and his girlfriend were a package deal. All of this happened because of Sound City Studios.

(Here's Mick recording this very album in this very studio.)

Your friend and mine Dave Grohl directed a FANTASTIC documentary about Sound City Studios, a kind of a dump to be honest, but where tons of phenomenal records were made, from After The Gold Rush to Caribou, Damn The Torpedoes, Nevermind, Rage Against The Machine, and most recently, Phoebe Bridgers’ Punisher. Lots and lots of stories about the making of Fleetwood Mac in this movie, and much more. 

Here’s the trailer. The whole movie is available on YT, too! And Amazon Prime, and a bunch of other places. HIGHLY recommended!

So here we go taking directly about Fleetwood Mac.....

the first song from the album i heard: "Over My Head". This was the first single released in the US, remarkably, four months after the album was released! I dunno, did the label not want to sell any albums? Or did they just not get how catchy these tunes were? I have no idea.

And ironically, the band didn't like the choice of "Over My Head" at all, ranking it dead-last in their own considerations of likely singles! I think that this is evidence that they were using heavy drugs much earlier than we thought. LOL

"Over My Head" peaked at #20 in the US, their highest to date by far, although, in some defense of the band's reservations, didn't chart at all in the UK. Saying that it rose to "only" 20 in the charts doesn't begin to describe how heavily it was played, though. A LOT.

do i own the album: Did then, Spotify now. The answer for most of the albums in this round of Asks. :-)

my favorite song: "Over My Head". Look, I admit that this is insane when Fleetwood Mac also includes "Landslide" and "Rhiannon." "Landslide" in particular is maybe one of the greatest songs anyone has ever written, and every single person reading this knows somebody named Rhiannon because of that song. (I've met two.) And hey, "Say You Love Me" was a MUCH bigger hit at the time too... but I'm tellin' ya, "Over My Head" fucks. 

It's the single version that fucks hardest, though, no doubt about it. I was disappointed when I finally bought the album that the version there fades in (NO! THIS IS WRONG) and has a wide mix that diffuses the impact. The radio version is so tight that it's practically mono, and it punches you right upside the head. 

One of my favorite things about listening to "Over My Head" in the past couple of weeks for this Ask is that it's Old School Fleetwood Mac. Chris on piano, Mick on drums, and John McVie with what might be the best bassline that anyone stroked out in 1975. My god, it's a fucking monster, and it just gets hotter as the song progresses. By the end, it's on fire, and you hear it so much better in this tight single mix.

The new guy adds a nice little solo on top of a nice rhythm lick, and he and Stevie add background vocals, but they're not front and center. "Over My Head" is really Christine McVie's showcase, although Fleetwood and Mac really shine too. This would have been a monster hit without the new kids, as indeed it pretty much was. You could say the same thing about "Say You Love Me", which is also all about Christine's songcraft, and a voice like no other, then or now.

Here's my edit of a lovely Mick Putland photo of Christine McVie from a couple of years earlier.

I guarantee that it's been way too long since you heard the in-your-face single version of "Over My Head". On Spotify, you can find it on the couple of Deluxe Editions of Fleetwood Mac (here's one), and it's also on the anthology, The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac, which I've embedded here. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw-lIt1ILzk

least favorite song: "I'm So Afraid." I'm so afraid not. LOL

a song I didn’t like at first, but now do: Hmm, I might put "Sugar Daddy" in that category, but honestly, the main thing I don't like about this song is the title. LOL But it's the 4th best Christine McVie song on an album where the best three of hers were all released as singles, so I guess it all works out.

a song I used to like, but now don’t: Anything by the new guy. I'm not going to go into detail here because what I love about this album, I still love. At the time, I dug two of his songs here (you can guess which two, surely), but I started to really despise this guy a few years later. Now, I can't listen to anything where he's prominent at all, on any Fleetwood Mac records.

Fortunately there are more than enough Christine and Stevie songs, and Mick and John's playing, plus all those earlier albums like Future Games, to keep Fleetwood Mac in the rock good pantheon. I'd have fired the new guy 30 years earlier than he was. 

favorite lyric:

Mirror in the sky

What is love?

Can the child within my heart rise above?

Can I sail through the changin' ocean tides?

Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Well, I've been afraid of changin'

'Cause I've built my life around you

But time makes you bolder

Even children get older

And I'm getting older too

Like I said, the two Stevie Nicks tracks on Fleetwood Mac deserve every bit of the love they've gotten over the years. You can also see with just a quick glance around my blog that she's one of my most-posted artists. Please don't take me repping Christine as any disrespect for Stevie!

Do I like "Landslide" a little more than I otherwise might because it's specifically about outgrowing the aforementioned new guy? Maybe.  Or do I like it a little less than I otherwise might because I can't hear it without thinking of him? Maybe that too.

overall rating out of 10: Then: 9.4. Now: 9. The new guy went 2-for-4 for my money at the time, and the two that he whiffed on are genuinely terrible...but as bad as those two clunkers were, the rest of the album seemed perfect to me. Certainly among my most-played mainstream rock records into the early 80s. I was perfectly fine skipping one song on each side.

Even though nowadays I can't stand any of the songs he sings lead on, you take those off, and you STILL have "Landslide", "Rhiannon", "Say You Love Me", "Over My Head", and "Warm Ways". No album with ALL THOSE on them gets less than an 8.5, right?

I'm adding a few tenths each for how tightly Fleetwood and Mac are locked into each other and these songs on rythm (easily the most underrated duo of the era, sez me), and Keith Olsen's immaculate production. The score of 9 is therefore objectively correct and mathematically unassailable. LOL

I'm going to end where I began, by talking about Christine McVie. Instead of listening to this first and foremost as an album with a couple of giant Stevie Nicks songs, listen again to Fleetwood Mac as Christine McVie really lighting things up. She deserves so much more credit for the band's success than she gets, and seriously, "Over My Head" fucks. 

Now looky here, @aluacrescente . I know that YOU have strong feelings about this record, so spill! And the rest of you, too! I don't intend to have the last word on the albums in any of these Asks! Just the first one. :-) So lemme know what YOU think!

PS. Apologies for any formatting weirdness! I started this on desktop, where I do all my writing, saved the first few paragraphs to come back to later, only to be told by tumblr that I'd stated this on the app (DID NOT) and could only edit there. Grrr. Not cool, @staff. I've spent another day just tweaking to make it somewhat readable and wondering how these people can be so bad at their jobs. LOL

My crackpot opinions and wobbly writing are my own of course, and I'm aware that they have a larger negative impact on readability than tumblr's incompetence by far. LOL

[magireconews]

Magia Record News: July 3, 2021

News is translated by the big discord server, not the owner of this blog. The format of the discord’s server’s posts are kept the same.

Notice: Maintenance

Start: 7/5 15:00～17:00 JST Contents:  ・Mirrors Ranking  ・Choose your 4 Memoria Selection Gacha  ・Mirrors Selection Pack & Mirrors Beginners Pack  ・Second part of the event “The Legendary Story of the Paper Mulberry Leaf”

Notice: Mirrors Ranking 

Duration: 7/5 17:00～7/11 20:59 JST

There will be changes that differ from the last time a Mirrors Ranking was held. These include:

・Maximum Number of Charges bonus If the maximum number of Charges accumulated during the battle is 5 or more, points will be added according to that value (up to 20).

・New function to recover opponents resets The number of times you can change your opponents can be restored to 3 by spending 1 BP potion.  ※You can only use BP potions when your number of resets is zero.

・New currency: Mitama's Medal You will get Mitama's Medals according to the class obtained in the preliminary round (D-C-B-A-S). Some Mitama's Medals can be obtained through limited-time missions.  ※There is only one type of medals that can be obtained, and it does not change depending on the rank.  ※There is no expiration date for Mitama's Medals. You can keep them for the next Ranking Mirrors.

・Mitama's Medal Shop You can exchange Mitama's Medals for items like Limited Memoria and Gacha Tickets. Each time Mirrors Ranking is held in the future, one limited memoria will be added to this shop.  ※ There is no exchange deadline for this shop. You can use it even if Ranking Mirrors is over.

・Ranking Emblem Public Setting Function  A function will be added to show or hide your Ranking Mirrors Emblem on the profile screen and your supports. By setting this option to OFF, your emblem will no longer be visible to other users.

※ You need to clear MS Arc 1 Ch. 2 in order to participate.

Notice: Mirrors Selection Pack & Mirrors Beginner Pack

Duration: 7/5 17:00～7/12 14:59 JST

Mirrors Selection Pack Price: 300 paid Magia Stones Quantity: 1 per player Contents:  ・Mirrors selection 4 Magical Girl ticket ・5 x SE sets, 30 daily coins, 5 rainbow orbs, 3M CC

※Ticket expiration date: 7/19 14:59 JST ※The mirrors selection 4* Magical Girl ticket can be exchanged for one of the following Magical Girls plus one of her destiny gems:

Mifuyu Azusa

Mitama Yakumo

Shizuka Tokime

Sudachi Sawa

Yozuru Sasame

Mami Tomoe

Kyoko Sakura

Kokoro Awane

Hanna Sarassa

Sayuki Fumino

Mirrors Beginner Pack Price: 50  (including free ) Quantity: 3 per player Contents:  ・1 x SE sets, 10 daily coins, 1 rainbow orb, 1M CC

Notice: New Gacha “Choose Your 4  Memoria Selection Gacha”

Duration: 7/5 17:00～7/12 14:59 JST ・Pool 1：7/5 17:00～7/9 14:59 JST ・Pool 2：7/9 15:00～7/12 14:59 JST

How does it work? From the available pool, you can select 4 x 4* memoria. Every 4* memoria pulled from this gacha will be one from your selection.

※The Magical Girls of this gacha and their rates are the same as in the Premium Gacha. ※When the pool changes, the pity counter resets.  ※Your selection of 4★ memoria can be changed anytime.

[randomguywithwords]

As The Dust Settles: Chapter 24 (Geten x Dabi Slowburn)

Chapter 24: Icarus Takes Flight

AO3 Link

Previous Chapters: 23, 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

––––––––

Geten knew she was rusty the minute she raised the lake of ice. In the same way muscles atrophied after unuse, her quirk felt, ironically, as if it were thawing after being frozen for a century. 

Her cryokinesis was sluggish, rigid. The ice body jerked forward and stalled as she attempted a simple levitation towards her. Finally, she returned the ice to the snaking gap in the ground where the water had been. 

She scowled. Despite doing simple manipulation exercises during her hospitalisation, using whatever ice cubes she had, it wasn’t enough — wouldn’t be enough to go up against the might of the entire army. 

As she allowed the bottom of the lake to melt back into water —  something she could still do just as well, to her relief, the thought struck her immobile for a few seconds. That is, after all, what I am seeking, yes? Freedom from this place and its people.

But I am still not strong enough. People as strong as Shingu Takame existed amongst the ranks of the advisors, and perhaps even the common soldiery. If she were to fight multiple of them concurrently, she could be…

Flashes of Mihara Takame’s corpse sent a shiver down her spine. 

“Killed.” She whispered. 

“Who?” Hawks’ voice gave her a reeling shock, creating a barrier of ice out of instinct. Upon registering it as his voice, she lowered it with a scowl. 

“Don’t do that,” She said. 

“My bad,” Hawks replied. “Who died?” 

“It’s nothing of importance.” 

“If you say so.” From his coat, he pulled out a half-eaten packet of chips. He offered one to her, who declined with a wrinkle in her expression and a shake of her head. 

“So, training for the Festival?” He observed. 

“Yes.” She still had to keep up appearances. “Why aren’t you asleep? It’s quite late.”

“Still have some errands to run. Just taking a break to catch up with you, if you don’t mind.”

“It doesn’t matter to me.” She sat on a constructed ice-bench, to which Hawks followed suit.

“Cool. Quick question, why do you always have your hood on?” He munched on more chips. 

“Not always.” She shot back. 

“Ah, you know what I mean.” Even though his tone sounded playful and curious, there was a sharpness in his words that pierced through all pretence.

“I do,” She conceded, “But I don’t want to share that with you. I hope you’re not offended.” 

Hawks waved his hand. “All good, I get it.” And he let the subject die. But the topic only grew like a fungus in her mind, until the question – innocent-sounding as it was, brought her back into her memories.

“Who am I? Apocrypha, a weapon for the Liberation Army.” That was what she said, and a statement she once lived by. 

“A sword has no need for a name any more than a stray dog does.” The words she had spoken with such conviction in front of Shigaraki – perhaps in hindsight, an act of bravado in the face of destruction incarnate…

She made herself shiver. Yet she lived by this doctrine imposed upon her, which she reinforced herself all those years. 

Till now. 

She reached up and pulled down her hood. Besides her, Hawks raised an eyebrow. 

“All right, I get it,” He chuckled. “Not all the time.” 

Geten returned a small smile. He wouldn’t understand. Her focus shifted to the pair of crimson wings on his back. 

“Where did you train?” Geten said aloud the question rising to her mouth. “Did you go to…” What was it called? “A school?”

“Not me. I was...special, you could say.” His tone took on some solemnity. 

“So you trained under a mentor, like myself?”

“You could say that.” Hawks said, after a pause. 

“He must have been good, for you to attain such a high hero ranking, in the public eye.” 

“Ha!” He burst out. “Almost too good...too good for me.”

Geten recognised that look. It was her own expression whenever she stared herself in the mirror as a young child, after she’d finished writing in her journal. Childish habits.

“It was difficult, was it not?” She felt a strange connection between her and him. It was sympathy, to an extent, but not the same way her spiteful past self viewed her inferior soldiers. She sympathised with Hawks, but she also understood his pains of training. Was there some word for it? She couldn’t grasp it.

“You got me. It was. Really was.” 

A silence. Geten was unsure what to say.

Eventually, she said, “I went through something similar, though you must’ve realised that by now, given our last conversation.”

Hawks nodded. After another moment had passed, he said, “I had a friend who went through the same thing with me. He was a fun person. He made things easier.” 

“That’s good,” She said softly.

Hawks must’ve caught the look on her face which she tried to conceal. “Sorry, didn’t mean to make you feel bad.”

Geten waved it off. “He sounds like a nice person. What happened to him?” 

“We’ve went our separate ways. But I think you would’ve liked him.” 

“Perhaps I might meet him someday. Is he a hero?”

Hawks shrugged. That was all he did. 

“At any rate, all that training...Seems like it’s biting me in my ass now, what with the Festival and my assigned task,” He said. 

“Your...Oh.” She recalled it. 

Shigaraki had given the lieutenants and Hawks a more in-depth briefing just this morning, right after Geten left the hospital. There, he assigned groupings and explained his strategies to annex the cities they were to strike, taking out the heroes on guard there and keeping the populace under control. Suspiciously, he gave Dabi a job to be on the backline during the Festival, along with Apocrypha, which meant that Dabi’s other assignment was more secretive than she thought. 

As to what Hawk’s mission was, it was to keep up appearances. Shigaraki ordered Hawks to fight as a hero, against the invading Liberation soldiers. That way, his cover would be maintained, and he could continue infiltrating the Commission. 

“What about it?”

“To fight against people I would consider peers, and with the abilities that the Hero Commission know I have, they’ll expect me to round them up quickly, which means I’d be dooming them to prison. The total opposite to liberation.” Hawks sighed. “I feel horrible.” 

She responded, “They’ll understand. It’s for the greater good.” In other words, they would be so brainwashed they would accept come what may. But she didn’t say that. Judging from Hawks’ creased expression, he seemed troubled by his role in the Festival. 

“For Destro.” She said. 

Hawks looked at her. “For Destro,” He echoed. Standing up, he let his wings spread, pocketing the empty packet. 

“Thanks for keeping me company. I’ve gee to gee. Make sure you get some sleep, you did just recover fully.” He flashed a smile.

“Gee to gee?” 

“Got to go. It’s a shorter way to say it.” 

“But they have the same number of syllables. That’s illogical.” She argued.

Hawks chuckled again, not offering a reply to that, before ascending. 

“See you on Monday! Festival’s going to be great!” Hawks shouted, and then he sped off into the night sky. 

Geten resumed her training, feeling slightly better. At the same time, she tried to push away the thought that one day, when she had abandoned the Liberation Front, it could be Hawks that would be dragging her back into the clutches, and they would have to fight. 

–––––––

Hi, I don’t have much of an excuse. I said a few days and it ended up at least a week and then some. I could get into a rant on writer’s block but you’ve seen it all. Really sorry. Am hoping to make it up to you guys with the next chapter which should be an appropriate dose of Dabiten fluff and angst. Our usual orders as a fandom, I suppose. 

Shoutout to kannra21, kerasion, novella12nite and avirabbit (I know there are others but I just remember these few of you, sorry! ><) for still sticking with this story despite everything. 

Really hope you liked this chapter despite the lack of Dabiten, but I felt that some fleshing out of the Geten Hawks relationship was needed. Because it is somewhat important to Geten’s character. It’s not like something bad is gonna happen, right? ._.

[raeynbowboi]

The Dragon Prince’s Arthurian Connections

I’ve seen some connections made between The Dragon Prince and Arthurian legend before, but in the past, that was usually more of a cursory glance at BBC’s Merlin from 2008, comparing Soren and Callum to Arthur and Merlin, and also being an excuse to ship them. Whereas here, I want to genuinely examine the similarities between the characters.

In the versions of stories where Arthur grows up in the royal palace, Arthur becomes king after his father is killed in battle when the prince is only 15 years old. Similarly, King Harrow is (at least assumed) to have died in combat with moonshadow elf assassins, leaving the very young prince as heir to the throne. While Arthur couldn’t talk to animals, Arthur is often toted as an example of a good, wise king, who put the needs of his subjects first, and ruled justly and kindly, just as we see Ezran do.

Aside from the obvious being a wizard thing, Merlin was a lifelong friend of both Uther and his son, Arthur. In some versions of Merlin’s backstory, Merlin’s father was an incubus who seduced a mortal woman, but she had baby Merlin baptised, cleansing him of his infernal ancestry. While we know very little about Callum’s father, if he’s intended to be ‘demonized’ as a negligent drifter who abandoned his family, this would loosely correlate to Merlin’s origins. Merlin was also a shapeshifter, and Callum learning to grow wings is a small but neat parallel. This could also mean that Callum’s role in Katollis will be to serve as an advisor to Ezran. He’s also older than Ezran, just as Merlin is always depicted as being older than Arthur.

Lancelot is the bravest knight of the round table, and the best swordsman in Camelot.He is often Arthur’s most trusted knight, as Lancelot’s father supported Arthur’s claim to the throne of England after Uther’s death. Similarly, Soren is an elite member of the royal crownsguard, though I don’t remember if they say he’s just a number in the ranks, or the commander of the crownguard, but he’s also the youngest crownguard in history, which speaks highly of his skill and prowess in combat. He’s skilled enough to be entrusted with teaching the royal princes in swordfighting.

In early myths, Morgan is the kind enchantress ally to Arthur. In these older texts she’s actually not related to him whatsoever. Later adaptations spun Morgan from a fairy enchantress into a human witch, studying under Merlin with a voracious appetite for learning. Despite pop culture depictions, Morgan didn’t hate Arthur so much as she hated Guinevere. When Morgan was arranged to marry a man she couldn’t stand, she became quite... well-known among the young men of Camelot, and Guinevere discovered her liaisons and chastised her (how ironic), leading to a longstanding feud between Morgan and Guinevere. Morgan’s character shifts as the Arthurian myths evolve, and the kind fairy enchantress who helped Arthur slowly became the bitter resentful witch who turned to black magic on a path for vengeance and power lust, mirroring Claudia’s own fall from sweet goofball with a fondness for learning into a dark witch willing to sacrifice everything in the pursuit of her goals.

Now, obviously, the whole Lancelot/Guinevere tryst is made MEGA ewwwwww with this comparison, but if Ezran’s going to marry another royal, Queen Anya is the most likely candidate. She’s of a similar age, probably no more than a year or two apart, and some versions of Guinevere have had her be the brains behind the marriage. She’s proven herself to be clever and capable, and she seems to be a fan favorite character, so an arranged marriage between them doesn’t seem farfetched. Unfortunately, Guinevere really doesn’t tend to do much in Arthurian legends outside of the Lancelot stuff, so there’s not a lot of comparisons to make here. Um, in the Canterbury Tales, Arthur leaves all ‘women’s matters’ to his queen, meaning that if it’s a women’s rights issue, Guinevere gets final say in all legal rulings, so I guess that’s pretty cool and progressive of Chaucer which is... extremely ironic.

Arthur’s father, Uther, is the king before him. Uther dies in combat before Arthur ascends to the throne, but Uther has his own story. Namely, that he falls in love with a woman who is already married, and has with her a son, who becomes the half-sibling to a mage. Likewise, Harrow falls in love with Serai, a woman who has been married before, they have a son, and the prince’s half-sibling learns magic. In this scenario, Queen Serai is Igerna, but Igerna has little to no personality or plot to speak of, so I’m just lumping her into Harrow’s section. Uther is also important to the next character.

A lesser-known villain in the Arthurian mythos, most film adaptations ignore Vortigern because he’s not a villain of Arthur, but a villain of Uther. Vortigern is the royal advisor to Uther’s father Constans, and also his eldest brother, Maines. Vortigern manipulates Maines to make him look weak-willed and to turn public opinion against him. Vortigern then overthrows Maines with the favor of the people, leaving Maine’s brothers, Pandragon and Uther, to slay Vortigern and reclaim their kingdom from the wicked advisor. Pandragon ruled for a short while before dying without an heir and leaving the throne to his brother Uther, who took the surname Pendragon as homage to his dear brother. There’s also loose corelations with Mordred, the traitor who usurps the throne from Arthur when he’s busy declaring war on Lancelot for the whole infidelity fiasco.

While this connection is weak and loose, The Lady of the Lake (Evienne, Nimue, Vivienne, etc.) is a vaguely fey magical woman connected with a very specific lake. The Moon Nexus, which Lujanne guards, is also a very specific and important lake. While she hasn’t given Ezran a sword, nor did she raise Soren, the parallels do exist, however faintly.

[thecreaturecodex]

Red Wraith

Image © @tredlocity​

[Commissioned by @crazytrain48​. Unlike most Arduin monsters, where I have multiple versions and multiple editions to compare and contrast from, I only can find stats for the red wraith in The Compleat Arduin edition from the early 90s. If this is a genuine David Hargrave creation, it must have appeared in one of the Arduin adventures. In the source material, it can cast spells of up to the 20th Order, and spells go up to Order 25. So I figured 15th level spellcasting was a decent Pathfinder substitute. The original is unclear over whether it’s supposed to be incorporeal or not--it’s called a wraith and can go ethereal at will. I made mine incorporeal as default, and gave it the ability to take friends along with it.]

Red Wraith CR 16 NE Undead This rotting undead being appears as a translucent skeleton with red flames for eyes. Instead of arms, tentacles of liquid darkness lash from its shoulders.

When a powerful humanoid servitor of annihilation dies, they may be restored to unlife as a red wraith. Red wraiths can rise from the minions of many evil gods and powers, but all are united by their ultimate goal of destroying the cosmos and the divine order. Daemon or qlippoth cults, nihilistic religions such as Zyphus or Groetus, or mad scholars of the Dominion can all spawn a red wraith from their ranks. In fact, red wraiths often view each other as competition, splitting hairs over the exact natures of the apocalypses they desire and hunting each other down for destruction.

Red wraiths are sometimes referred to as “lash liches”, referring to their most prominent feature. These incorporeal tendrils can drain life and deliver potent touch spells, and a victim of a red wraith may rise as a wraith to serve it forever. If a red wraith is in a position of power, it will keep its dying foes alive for extended periods in order to drain their lives by hand and create more slaves. They are puissant spellcasters, able to switch at will between arcane and divine spells, but favoring those that bolster their armies and rain destruction on their foes.

Red wraiths are often surrounded by large armies of undead, and they can communicate with spies, saboteurs and other agents over long distances through telepathy. They typically keep multiple desecrated shrines within their lairs, to grant them and their undead the defensive benefits. A red wraith typically has multiple plots to hasten the end, and traffics with fiends, nightshades and other horrors to accomplish these goals. Good aligned weapons can injure a red wraith as if it were flesh and bone, and so red wraiths often seek to steal, destroy or curse artifacts of good.

Red Wraith           CR 16 XP 76,800 NE Medium undead (incorporeal) Init +11; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +27, true seeing Aura draining (10 ft., DC 26) Defense AC 30, touch 30, flat-footed 23 (+7 Dex, +1 dodge, +7 deflection, +5 profane) hp 218 (19d8+133); fast healing 5 Fort +13, Ref +15, Will +16 Immune cold, incorporeal traits, undead traits Defensive Abilities profane insight; Weakness touch of evil Offense Speed fly 40 ft (perfect) Melee 2 incorporeal touches +21 (2d10 plus ability drain) Space 5 ft.; Reach 10 ft. Special Attacks by my command, create spawn Spells CL 15th, concentration +22 (+26 casting defensively) 7th (5/day)—delayed blast fireball (DC 25), finger of death (DC 25) 6th (7/day)—greater dispel magic, harm (DC 24), mass eagle’s splendor 5th (7/day)—cone of cold (DC 23), greater command (DC 22), slay living (DC 23), telekinesis (DC 22) 4th (7/day)—enervation, fire shield, inflict critical wounds (DC 22), sending 3rd (8/day)—displacement, haste, lightning bolt (DC 21), magic circle against good (DC 20) 2nd (8/day)—false life, mirror image, scorching ray, spiritual weapon, web (DC 19) 1st (8/day)—divine favor, magic missile, ray of enfeeblement (DC 19), sanctuary, shield 0th—acid splash, bleed (DC 18), detect magic, guidance, mage hand, message, read magic, resistance, stabilize Spell-like Abilities CL 19th, concentration +26 (+30 casting defensively) Constant—true seeing At will—animate dead, detect good 3/day—create undead, control undead (DC 24), desecrate 1/day—etherealness Statistics Str -, Dex 25, Con -, Int 20, Wis 20, Cha 25 Base Atk +14; CMB -; CMD 39 (cannot be tripped) Feats Combat Casting, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Eschew Materials (B), Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Mobility, Spell Focus (evocation, necromancy), Spring Attack, Weapon Finesse Skills Fly +37, Intimidate +29, Knowledge (arcana, religion) +27, Knowledge (planes) +24, Perception +27, Sense Motive +27, Spellcraft +27, Stealth +29 Languages Abyssal, Common, Infernal, Necril, telepathy 1 mile (undead only) Ecology Environment any Organization solitary or army (1 plus 2-20 undead) Treasure incidental Special Attacks Ability Drain (Su) A creature touched by a red wraith’s incorporeal touch attack must succeed a DC 26 Fortitude save or take 2 points of Constitution drain. The save DC is Charisma based. By My Command (Su) As a move action, a red wraith can send a telepathic command to any undead creature within 1 mile. This functions as a suggestion spell (CL 19th) that only effects the undead. An undead creature can resist this command with a DC 26 Will save. The save DC is Charisma based. Create Spawn (Su) A creature reduced to 0 Constitution by a red wraith rises in 1d4 rounds as a wraith under the red wraith’s control. If the red wraith dies, they become free willed. Draining Aura (Su) Living creatures within 10 feet of a red wraith must succeed a DC 26 Fortitude save or become exhausted. A creature that succeeds is immune to the draining aura of that red wraith for the next 24 hours. Profane Insight (Ex) A red wraith gains a profane bonus to its Armor Class equal to its Intelligence modifier. Spells A red wraith casts spells as a 15th level sorcerer, except that it can also choose spells from the cleric spell list. It does not gain any other benefits of the sorcerer class, such as a bloodline. Touch of Evil (Ex) Good aligned spells and weapons deal full damage to a red wraith as if it were not incorporeal.

[raposarealm]

Funny Ranked Teams: A Collection

Made a point of taking shots of funny team names/setups (mostly names) during my ranked fights. 

Starting off with Tsuruno slander.

There’s a bunch of theme teams running around, but this one gets points for not one, but two capped units (and also another point for Mito.)

“Onion Soup”...

...And the team right below, who’s probably going after said soup with a vengeance. 

A mutual found in the wild! I forget who runs this account, but if you see this, hi!!

“e-k-su-ze-ro”? ...Oh, oh no.

“Three Critical[s]”! Shigure rolls to attack!

And this was from Endless fights, but, triple Akuma, Sayaka’s worst nightmare.

[dragonrajafanfiction]

Yamata-no-Orochi (Part 3) Betrayal

*kicks the legs out from under the table, one by one*

You’d been stuck for hours. It was extremely late but you couldn’t sleep. Caesar and Chu Zihang drove in circles before finally parking in an alley to wait. At first, it was all emergency vehicles -- Police, Fire, and EMS -- then there were many reporter trucks with satellites mushrooming from their roofs.

After that, the streets got very quiet and occasionally you spotted dark sedans driving far below the speed limit, like sharks on the hunt. Hydra was looking for Mingfei and Erii.

You lay in the back seat to keep hidden. You were still in your silver Cheongsam and heels. You stared holes in the back of the driver's seat and listened to the radio. Seventy six people were dead. Only a single person was injured. They were painting it as some wild street race gone wrong. People were describing fiery debris. Bodies, some of them in various degrees of dismemberment, were strewn all over the street. It would take days to recreate the scene. One of the things the reporters quickly picked up on was the lack of wounded. How could a car accident be so catastrophically fatal?

But the noise of the radio faded away in your mind. Instead you were remembering when you first saw Z. It wasn’t in real life. You first saw him in your dreams. When you were hurt or frightened by the nursery staff, Z would appear and ask you what you would like to happen to those people. If they stuck you with needles you would say, “I wish they would be stuck by a million needles.” And then watch as they were stuck, screaming and crying in pain, just like you were.

Or if you were beaten by the nurses, something horrible and perverse would happen to them in your dreams. Like one round nurse would swell up so big and red you could see her veins through her transparent skin and wherever you popped her she would bleed.

When you first saw Z in real life, it was the special day when you graduated from the preschool section to the adolescent section and started to use your soul skills in experiments. He stood tall and proud, his bright red-gold eyes gleaming at you. He smiled at you, a warm smile like he was the king and he could have picked anyone in the world but he picked you. That smile was a gift that beckoned you to run towards him. You thought it was a dream. But he opened his arms and hugged you.

In the back of the car, tears fell at the memory. You’d never been hugged before. Ever. A warmth spread from his arms and his body and filled you. It made you bright. It opened your mind and heart and let him in completely, without reservations. After that he was your best friend. Between him, you and Renata, you felt privileged, you learned quickly how to navigate your dangerous world and soon you were the oldest and most successful hybrids there. You were sure to go to the capital.

It was only at Anton’s death that Z showed you the truth, but he didn’t help you survive Black Swan overtly. You still had to watch your friends die. You assumed Z died too. He never reappeared in your dreams again until you nearly died in Chizuru and then you were so happy to see him again. But your relationship changed into something far more intimate. You didn’t know if you were ready for something like that. But he certainly did.

At least he never lied. He never explicitly said he loved you. He didn’t even say you could love him either. He said you didn’t know any better. Of course you didn’t. He’d groomed you since you were a child.

Remembering that made it hurt all the worse. A great shadow has fallen over your past. Now you had no happy moments to reflect on with Z. Everything was full of crevasses that hid questions and doubts. Like the boulders that would forever separate Izanami and Izanagi from each other in the underworld, you and Z were now irreconcilable.

“I haven’t seen a patrol in the past 15 minutes. Think we’re clear?” Chu Zihang asked.

“How the hell should I know? We take a risk if we wait 15 minutes or an hour.” Caesar responded. “You okay back there MC?”

You look up at him, his blue eyes reflected in the rearview mirror. “I’m pissed.” you growl.

“I bet you are.”

There was more to be said but now was not the right time.

You end up making it a room across from the hotel where Erii was staying. Lu Mingfei was waiting for you there.

Mingfei cracked open the door and then let you in.

“Take off your clothes!” Caesar said coldly.

His voice was so sharp and harsh that Lu Mingfei immediately did so, removing his shirt.

When Mingfei unbuckled his belt, Caesar snapped. “Keep your pants on… turn around.”

“Oh, you were so serious I thought I had to take off all my clothes.” Lu Mingfei said.

Chu Zihang and Caesar curiously admired the dense lines of scars on Lu Mingfei’s back. They were so numerous that you could not find a single unmarked spot on him. It was like he had endured a beating of a thousand strokes or had rolled over a bed of knives. Even Caesar and Chu Zihang were stunned speechless.

“Are you done looking? I’m kinda cold.” Mingfei peeked over and startled at the sight of you. “Ah! You didn’t tell me MC was here!”

“She doesn’t care, stop wiggling!” Caesar hummed. “Incredible self-healing ability. A trauma of this magnitude would take at least 3 weeks to heal even at a top-notch medical center. But only eight hours have passed since you were attacked. You should have bled to death on the spot.”

“That’s because the wound began to heal itself the moment he was injured. The blood vessels stopped bleeding on their own, so the blood was locked in the body. The cells filled in the wound by a high rate of division. Even the ruptured tendons were repaired.” Chu Zihang said. “This self-healing ability surprasses that of Chisei Gen and MC.”

Could this be why the principal rated him as S-rank?” Caesar mused. “If he always had this ability, wouldn’t he make the perfect meat shield? If we have another gunfight with someone, we can send him in front of us to Main Tank the damage while we lay down suppressive fire!”

“The so-called lack-of-childhood must have been an act, then? Boss, you’re so familiar with the term ‘main tank’. What do you play? Warcraft or Warhammer? Anyways, shut up about that, we’ve got a bigger problem!”

“We already know, even if you didn’t come to us, we came to you. Every news channel is broadcasting what happened last night.” Caesar grabbed the remote from the chair and turned on the TV.

You already knew the story, so you don’t bother watching it again. Something else was bothering you. Caesar said she was 21, and was staying at a love hotel, but he also said she was wrapped around his finger. Didn’t Caesar say that he was hoping for Erii to fall in love with Mingfei? The whole idea suddenly made your skin crawl!

“Caesar. Is it alright if I go to the bathroom?”

“Huh?” Caesar looked up from the TV. “Yeah sure whatever.”

You walk inside and shut the door and get as far away from the door as you can and lean against the wall. You cross your arms, your nails biting into your biceps. You understood that Erii was potentially dangerous and that was evident today. But all you could think of was Z’s gentle hug, his indulging in your punishment fantasies, the play time and the jokes. It was all fun until it wasn’t. You recall the souvenir Mingfei got from her after she rescued him, a little duck bath toy. You’d tteased him for playing with it. Mingfei said he would never bathe with a duck.

He wasn’t that much of a kid.

Fire like a kiln blazed in your stomach. This was the person Mingfei had wrapped around his little finger? As Caesar had so blithely put it? You flush the toilet and pretend to wash your hands and open the door.

The boys were already moving on, talking about something else.

Caesar was standing next to Mingfei and handing him a card. “Meet at Pier 7 in Tokyo Harbor. The address is written on this.”

“What if she loses control while on the ship?” Lu Mingfei looked frightened.

Caesar handed him a box of medication encased in a glass vial to Lu Mingfei: “Isoproterenol, a strong anesthetic. Give her this medication. It will reduce her vital signs to a minimum and she will sleep until she gets to China. Give her some glucose half way through the trip.”

“But she’s very weak now!” Lu Mingfei raised his voice. “Injecting a very weak person with a strong anesthetic and only living on glucose for seven days? What if she dies?”

Caesar patted his shoulder: “We don't want her to die either, but this is the most feasible way to deal with it right now. She is a deadly weapon that could get out of control at any moment. And we can neither continue to hold this dangerous weapon nor return her to the Hydra, so the only way to do that is to send her out of Japan. It would take a bit of a risk, but it would get her out of Tokyo, the center of controversy. She’s the strangest hybrid we know of, perhaps related to the awakening of the White King. And with her gone, it would be the equivalent of a dangerous element being removed.”

Wait a minute. This didn’t sound like Caesar. The way Caesar was talking about her to Mingfei was not the way he talked about her to you. The way he talked to you was that she was a beautiful girl and that hoped Lu Mingfei and the Uesugi Clan Chief would get together!

Mingfei seemed convinced by this however.

Chu Zihang spoke up. “Caesar and I have discussed this before we came. And this is the only way. Find an excuse to take her out and bring her to the dock tomorrow at exactly four in the morning. She trusts you and should agree to board the ship with you.”

Chu Zihang’s words were like a bomb going off. “Uh… excuse me!” You say.

“What is it?” Caesar asked, his voice slightly dismissive.

“Why don’t you just tell her the truth?” Your face was awash in indignant confusion.

“What? Are you kidding?” Mingfei squeaked.

“No, I’m not kidding! Caesar just said,  ‘make up an excuse’. You’re going to lie to her!” You lower your voice to a whisper but point sharply at the hotel across the street. “Do you think she’s stupid?! When she finds out that you’re lying, she will go absolutely nuts!”

“MC.” Caesar took a breath. “MC… I know how you feel but now is really not the time.”

“No, you’re being cruel. Mingfei, you should know better!” You snarl. “You are her only friend, her only one! You are under an obligation to be upfront with her or else you’re no better than Herzog! You should know better. All of you should know better!”

“Hey…” Caesar growled, his eyes darkening. “This is completely different. Don’t compare me to that asshole.”

“What if she loses it? You don’t know if she can handle that sort of information. She’s extremely mentally unstable!” Mingfei whimpered.

“There is nothing more destabilizing than being betrayed by the people you trust.” You stare at  Caesar accusingly. “After all this time, after all you know about me. You turn around and pull this?” You take a shaking breath. “She is a child.”

The room descended into an uneasy silence and no one moved or spoke. The only sound was the continuous rain on the window and the rumble of distant thunder.

“That’s your plan? Tell her the truth. Are you going to take responsibility for her going on a rampage after she hears that she’s dying? Not everyone is that strong, MC.” Caesar was completely expressionless. He only got this way when he was upset.

You take a breath and let it out. You start to speak and nothing comes. You shake your head, struggling. “The man who told me I was dying was the man who loved me.” 

You turn away and leave the room to regain control of yourself.

A few moments later, Chu Zihang exited with a box of tissues but he quickly saw it wasn’t needed. You were just staring blankly at the wall in the hall. 

“Caesar has decided to let you go. He wants you to stay with Mingfei tonight and go with them to the docks tomorrow. Take the ship to China with them.”

“What’s stopping me from telling her the truth on the way there?”

“Mingfei will drug both of you.” Chu Zihang said.

You turn to look at him and then immediately turn away, your heart sinking. “He views me the same way. So much for the ‘I'm not Godzilla’ speech huh?”

“Things aren’t always black and white. A lot has happened. You’re in obvious danger from something we don’t understand. You may not realize it but your mental state is not the same as when you arrived.” Chu Zihang’s voice was soft, barely above a whisper. “Your mind is going too.”

You just shake your head. “All I hear are excuses. Excuses for him to be a hypocrite.”

Chu Zihang sighed, and you see for a moment how tired he was.. “You don’t have any say in the matter. The decision is unanimous, not only between me and him, but also Lu Mingfei.” 

You drop your arms from your chest, limply.

He looked down at you, his eyes cold. “If you defy the orders, I won’t hold back. From your training you should understand what I mean.”

The door opened and Caesar walked out. “Alright, let’s go Chu.” He paused next to you, his eyes cloudy. “I care about you. I really do. But there’s too much you just don’t understand. We’ll talk about getting you back to Japan once this is all over.”

You look up at him and shake your head. “The key to my survival is in Tokyo. If I leave, you won’t see me again..

He reaches out to hug you and you let him. You take a deep breath of the smell of his shirt which still smelled of those fine Cubans. It might be the last time. He really did believe what he was doing was the right thing even though it directly contradicted what he said before. 

“Don’t say goodbye. I’ll see you later.” Caesar said. “Keep an eye out on the two love birds.”

He walked away and didn’t bother looking back.

You return to the room with Lu Mingfei and sigh. “What a mess.”

He laughed but there was no humor in it.. “Yeah no kidding.” He was holding a modified pistol in his hand, one of Caesar’s Desert Eagles!

“What… are you doing with that?” You shiver violently. 

“If she gets out of control, I will have to shoot her. The bullet inside is specially made to be completely lethal. Even to dragons.” He mumbled. His eyes were dark pools and you couldn’t read the emotion in them. “If, for some reason that doesn’t work, you’re to finish her off.”

“Will you use that against me too?”

After a long silence he continued. “Turns out we actually are going to be at war this whole time. Me and Erii were never going to happen. You and I were never going to happen. I tend towards being a human. You and Erii tend towards the dragon side. If we go to battle, we have to use all our resources against each other and fight tooth and nail. It doesn’t matter if you sit together on a Ferris wheel or… talk all night on the phone or… run through the streets in the rain.”

He lifts his head to you. “If that day comes, we just have to grab our weapons and fight.”

He looks back down at the gun. “You were raised to fight. It’s what you know. But Erii… she doesn’t know anything.”

Outside the window it was pouring rain.

[rocknrollarticles]

The Artwoods Story

The Artwoods’ 100 Oxford Street is a UK compilation album released in 1983 that features a four-page booklet (pictured above) that tells the band’s story, written by guitarist Derek Griffiths.

Since there's a limit on the number of photos that can be added to one post, I'll be reblogging this a couple times until I have all the info up. To see this post with all the info added in reblogs, click here.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy Derek’s words as much as I do!

Transcript under the cut (main text + Record Mirror article from page three's rightmost side)

“  It's difficult to pinpoint exactly when the Artwoods came into being because everything just seemed to evolve naturally. The one date however that does stick in my mind is the 1st October 1964 which is the date I turned professional, thus depriving the accountancy profession of a valuable addition to its ranks! But seriously, one must go back to previous events in order to trace the history of the group.

I first met Jon Lord at a party in West Hampstead when he was a drama student at The Central School of Speech & Drama. He was introduced to me by Don Wilson whose claim to fame was his membership of the famous skiffle group Dickie Bishop & His Sidekicks. They had had a hit years previously with "No Other Baby But You", and Don now ran a band on a semi-pro basis called Red Bludd's Bluesicians in which I played guitar. Well, I say we were called this, but only when we were fortunate enough to cop an R&B gig. We used to play The Flamingo Allnighter and lots of U.S. air bases. The rest of the time we played weddings and tennis club dances as The Don Wilson Quartet! Jon Lord was brought in on piano and was a very valuable addition especially as he could get his hands around a little jazz and all the old standards. Jon used to ring me at work and interrupt my vouching of sales ledger invoices in order to discuss the coming weekends gigs. We would bubble with excitement at the approach of an R&B gig as we really hated all the weddings and barmitzvahs.

Around this time Don made a very important policy decision and we suddenly became the proud owners of a Lowrey Holiday organ for Jon to play. Shortly after this Don contrived to drive the band-wagon into the back of a lorry on the North Circular, doing himself considerable mischief in the process. This brought about the unfortunate end of Don's career with us, but not before he had masterminded an important merger of two local bands.

For some time we had been aware, and not a little envious, of The Art Wood Combo led by none other than Art Wood himself. His band underwent a split at that time and Red Bludd's Bluesicians, alias The Don Wilson Quartet, were neatly grafted on. We really felt we were moving into the big league by doing this as Art not only had more work than us but, wait for it, used to sing with Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated with Charlie Watts on drums and Cyril Davies on harmonica! The next problem was a replacement for Don, and this was solved by stealing the bass player from another local group The Roadrunners, a good looking cove who went by the name of Malcolm Pool. The offer and acceptance of the gig were transacted in a pub car park somewhere in West Drayton staring into the murky waters of the Grand Union Canal clutching pints of local bitter (Fullers?). (Authors note: drugs had not been invented at this stage, as far as most groups were concerned, apart from the odd pill to keep one awake on an all nighter!)

~

The next personnel change took place some time in 1964 and this involved the retirement of drummer Reg Dunnage, who did not want to turn pro. Auditions were held in London and lots of drummers attended. However it was more or less a foregone conclusion that Keef Hartley would get the job. You see we'd already decided that what The Artwoods needed above all else was a Liverpool drummer! Unfortunately none came to the audition, but Keef hailed from Preston which was near enough for us. Keef had previously played with Rory Storm & The Hurricanes, replacing Ringo Starr in the process (heady stuff this), and Freddy Starr & The Midnighters. Both were such influential bands of their time that these credentials combined with Keef's quasi Liverpool accent (at least to our ears) provided him with a faultless pedigree.

~

So that was it, the line-up that would take us through to 1967 when Colin Martin eventually replaced Keef Hartley on drums.

For a while we worked as The Art Wood Combo but then decided it was hipper to drop the Combo and become The Artwoods.

The period when The Artwoods were operating was one of musical change when groups went from recording and performing other writers' material to writing their own. In fact the last year of the group's existence was 1967 which heralded the arrival of "Hendrix", "Flower-Power". "Festivals" and experimental use of mind expanding drugs! 1966/67 were particularly exciting years to be based in London and every night would be spent in one of the many clubs which had recently sprung up. The Ad Lib, The Scotch of St. James, The Cromwellian, Blaises and of course The Speakeasy to mention a few. Many of these we played in and the trick was to be well known enough not to have to pay the entrance fee on nights off. Any night you could be sure to meet your mates "down The Speak" and it became the unofficial market place for rock musicians.

It was also the days before huge amounts of equipment took over. Equipment meant road-crew and trucks and in turn financial hardship. This simple equation has been the downfall of many bands over the years. We used to travel in a 15 cwt van together with all the gear-no roadies, just us. It's amusing to recall but after recording the TV show "Ready, Steady, Go" (in Kingsway in those days?) one would be besieged by autograph hunters on the way to the van with the gear. Even really 'big groups of the day like The Zombies would hump their own equipment and apologetically place an amp on the ground in order to sign an autograph! Because it was financially viable to travel to small clubs in this way, we would often average 6 or 7 nights a week, every week, on the road. A bad month would probably mean less than twenty gigs. This meant we were living, sleeping and eating in close, and I mean close, proximity. You really found out who your friends were.

The subject of equipment is an interesting one as it really distinguishes the bands then from those of today. The average pub band of today would carry more equipment than we did. As I've already mentioned we were quick to realise that we could elevate ourselves musically by investing in a proper electric organ as opposed to a Vox Continental or Farfisa that many groups used. Consequently the group purchased a Lowrey Holiday and we thought this alone would provide us with the Booker T and Jimmy Smith sound.

What we failed to realize was that we also needed a Leslie cabinet with a special built-in rotor to get that "wobbly" sound. Our friend and mentor Graham Bond, the legendary organist/saxophonist, was quick to point out the error of our ways one night when we were gigging at Klooks Kleek in West Hampstead. We groaned inwardly when we discovered the extra cost and humping involved, but it had to be bought. We were fortunate very early on to score a deal with Selmers, who provided us with free amps and P.A., but we had to make the trek to Theobalds Road once a week to get it all serviced as they were not as reliable in those days. I used a Selmer Zodiac 50 watt amp and Malcolm had Goliath bass cabinets with a stereo amp.

The P.A. comprised two 4 x 12 cabinets and a 100 watt amp! When we toured Poland we played in vast auditoria and linked our system with the Vox system being used on tour by Billy J Kramer & The Dakotas. This meant we were pumping out no more than 300 watts which is laughable by today's standards. Although it would never have compared in quality, I can remember standing at the back of extremely large halls and being able to hear clearly all the words Billy J sang. One day in 1963 Alexis Korner sent me off foraging in and around Charing Cross Road for a new guitar, with instructions to mention his name whereupon I would receive a discount of 10%. Previously I played a Burns Trisonic (collectors will appreciate this model did not have "Wild Dog" treble) but fancied owning a Gibson ES335 as favoured by many blues players. Sure enough one was hanging invitingly in the window of Lew Davis's shop.

I ended up paying £135 and still use it regularly today although its value has multiplied five fold. Malcolm came with me that day and bought an Epiphone bass, the same colour and shape as my guitar. For years we looked like matching book-ends on either end of the group! Keef started off using a Rodgers drum kit, but somewhere along the line changed to, I think, Ludwig. There was no out-front mixing as is common today, just the P.A. amp on stage with the vocalist. Primitive I know, but everything revolved around bands being able to travel economically with their gear and perform at small clubs anywhere in Britain. The college circuit was much sought after and provided the icing on the cake while package tours were not necessarily well paid. We did our first with P. J. Proby and got £25 per night (for the lot of us) and we had to pay for our own accommodation!

~

I have already mentioned "Ready, Steady, Go" a show on which we appeared on more than one occasion. The original format called for groups to mime to their records but after a time it was decided that it would become "live" and that the show would be re-titled "Ready Steady Goes Live". We were proud to be picked for the first "live" show and learnt the news via a telephone call to our agent in London from a phone box high in the Pennines. We managed a drunken war-dance of celebration round the phone box believing that this meant we'd really cracked it. As I remember the first show we did featured Tom Jones (complete with lucky rabbits foot) miming to "It's Not Unusual", The Kinks, Donovan and Adam Faith's Roulettes playing live (without Adam). We were promoting our first single "Sweet Mary" and I would put the date at around late 1964.

~

Our first recording deal was with a subsidiary of Southern Music Publishing called Iver Productions and I reckon that would have been mid 1964. Southern had a four track studio in the basement of their offices in Denmark Street ("The Street") and getting the gear downstairs, especially the organ, was "murder". Our first producer was Terry Kennedy and we recorded several tracks with him. Without going too deeply into all the details of recording techniques of the period, one tended to compensate for the lack of tracking facilities available, by attempting to duplicate the live excitement. In many ways it was a frustrating experience particularly for ambitious guitar-players. I was a Steve Cropper freak and I knew as a musician that a lot of his sound on record resulted from him working his amplifier hard in the studio— thus the speaker would emit the sound he was used to on stage. In Britain however, engineers would say "You don't need to play loud man, we can turn you up on the desk". The result was a weedy, thin guitar sound. From way back I'd been experimenting with "feed back" on stage and I really had to dig my heels in about the guitar sound in the studio. Once when I turned my amp up to give it a bit of "wellie" on a solo the engineer bounded out of the control room screaming that the level would bust his microphones!

~

Sometime during the career of The Artwoods it was decided that we should graduate to a better studio. This was arranged by Mike Vernon who also became our producer. Our records had all been released through the Decca Record Co. and Mike was a staff producer with them. Mike w also an authority on "The Blues" and the relationship led to our only single chart record "I Take What I Want" a cover of a Sam & Dave U.S. R&B hit. Mike was also producing John Mayall at the time and it seemed only natural that Mike and The Artwoods should team up. From this point on we recorded at the Decca studio in Broadhurst Gardens, West Hampstead, but I can't honestly say it did any more for us than our previous efforts in the Southern Music basement, although we could now indulge ourselves in the comparative luxury of the eight track studio. Later on, towards the end of the groups life we were signed by Jack Baverstock at Philips Records who was looking for a group to cash in on the thirties-style gangster craze which had been triggered off by the film "Bonnie & Clyde". As a result we changed our name to "St. Valentines Day Massacre" and released a single of the old Bing Crosby hit "Brother Can You Spare A Dime?" It was an ill- fated venture, which I would prefer not to dwell on, virtually signalling the end of the band apart from a few heavy-hearted gigs with a changed line-up.

~

Before that though, there were many great times to remember, and a fair number of gigs that were memorable in one way or another.

One of our favourite gigs was Eel Pie Island which we regularly played once a month; in fact we held the attendance record there for a while until the ageing blues artist Jesse Fuller took it from us. Eel Pie Island is literally an island in the middle of the River Thames at Twickenham and there's never been a gig like it since. It was an Edwardian ballroom originally I believe, that achieved notoriety in the 50's with the Trad Jazz boom. At that time, an overloaded chain ferry was used to convey the crowd across the river, but during the 60's a small bridge was in existence although it was only wide enough to take the promoter Art Chisnall's mini van. He had to make three separate trips across with the gear strapped to the roof and hanging out the back doors.

The audiences were exceptional for those times and I don't know where they all came from... very much like art students and very much more like the 70's than 60's. Long hair predominated and this was before 'hippies' had officially been invented! If you can imagine a ramshackle wooden ballroom, bursting at the seams, condensation pouring from the walls, the audience on each others shoulders leaping up and down, the sprung dance floor bending alarmingly in the middle, in the summer couples strolling outside and lounging on the river bank ... all this and not a disc jockey in sight! One other bonus was that it was a “free” house and therefore sold many different types of beer— we always favoured Newcastle Brown. Back on the 'mainland' afterwards it was always riotous packing the gear into the truck. I don't know how he managed it but one night Malcolm drove our truck over the support band's guitar which happened to be lying about, thus breaking the neck. I'll never forget the shocked look on that poor guitarist's face as Malcolm smoothly slipped the van into gear, apologised and drove off in that order!

~

No trip up north was complete without stopping at the famed Blue Boar on the M1 for a "grease-up" on the way home. I do not refer to truck lubrication but to a particular rock'n'roll delicacy known as “full-house”. This comprised double egg, sausage, chips, beans, tomatoes, fried slice, tea, and (if you were man enough) toast. It was considered a Herculean task to break successfully the 10 bob' (50p) barrier-all served on wobbly cardboard plates that doubled as items to sign autographs on for the self service waitresses.

Waitress: What band are you?

Me: You won't have heard of us.

Waitress: Oh go on, tell us.

Me: OK. The Artwoods.

Waitress: Never 'eard of you!

It was everybody’s dream to walk into the Blue Boar just as their hit of the moment was playing on the Juke Box.

~

One time we were chosen to represent the twentieth century at the centenary celebrations of the State of Monte Carlo— a most lavish affair which the aristocracy and dignatories of Europe attended. Princess Grace and Prince Ranier were the hosts and people like Gina Lollobrigida and the like were there. The ball was held in the famous Casino at Monte Carlo and we stayed in an opulent hotel called The Hermitage, I think. All I can remember is that we all had single rooms (a rare luxury) which were massive, and you could have pitched a tent under one of the bath towels, they were so big. After this we jetted off up to Paris where we played next door to the Moulin Rouge at a club called The Locomotive.

Whilst we were there we were taken out by our friend Mae Mercer, the American lady blues singer who we backed in England. She lived in Paris and took us out to Memphis Slim's club where we all set about drinking like it was going out of style. At the end there was an embarrassing scene concerning the bill with the result that Mae ended up in tears. Whilst we were bumbling about in an alcoholic stupor, an upright looking gentleman put his arm round Mae to comfort her and a wallet appeared magically from his inside pocket. Without further ado the bill was despatched and we later learned that our anonymous benefactor was none other than Peter O'Toole who was busy in the street outside filming 'Night Of The Generals' and was an old buddy of Mae's.

~

One Boxing Day we loaded up with turkey sandwiches and Xmas pudding and headed off for a gig down in Devon or Cornwall somewhere. We arrived to find the club closed and boarded up, and as usual we were broke. Naturally we were livid, checked into an hotel and located the promoter who lived with his mum. Next morning we drove round to where he lived and burst our way past his confused mum. We found him in his bedroom nervously cowering against some fruit machines which he collected. He had no money so we forced him to empty his damned machines with the result that we drove back to London with 50 quids' worth of 'tanners' (approx 22p for the younger reader!)

Whilst on the subject of disasters I suppose I am duty bound to mention Denmark. The first time we went there we caught the ferry to the continent, drove up through Germany, then caught another ferry to Denmark. There was no promoter to meet us when we arrived so all we could do was drive to Copenhagen and check in at the Grand Hotel. It cost us an arm and a leg but at least we got a good nights sleep after being awake for nearly two days travelling. The next day we made a few phone calls and finally tracked down the promoter. He said: "Didn't you get my telegram cancelling the tour?" We politely said no we hadn't and what did he intend doing with us? He checked us into another hotel (cheaper of course) and set about booking us at places that were similar to English coffee bars and youth clubs. We made enough to survive on and paved the way to more successful tours of that country. In fact by now we had Colin Martin on drums and were pursuing a much more adventurous musical policy and writing our own material. It was just right for Denmark who had taken Hendrix to their hearts to name but one, and we subsequently became quite big there in 1967.

The Artwoods achieved modest success-a minor hit single in "I Take What I Want", but we worked constantly, travelled abroad, had fantastic fun and made a living doing so. We had seven single releases, one album, and one EP, and we broadcast both on radio and TV many times. We did stage tours such as the P. J. Proby tour and covered most aspects of "show-biz" apart from actually making a movie. It was the era when bands still had to prove themselves as a live act before being offered a recording contract. now frequently happens of course that an act can become huge record sellers without so much as venturing to do a live gig.

~

So what happened to everyone? Well Art returned to his former occupation as a commercial artist and finds some time to fit in free-lance work between accompanying brother Ron Wood on raving excursions between Rolling Stones gigs. Malcolm moved into the same field as Art and they now work in the same building. Both of them gig occasionally on a semi-pro basis although Malcolm spent some time playing with Jon Hiseman's Colosseum and Don Partridge in the early 70's. Jon Lord became famous with Deep Purple and Whitesnake as did Keef Hartley with John Mayall and various bands of his own. Colin Martin is now a BBC Radio producer of repute. I played in various bands such as Lucas and The Mike Cotton Sound, Colin Blunstone's band, Dog Soldier (with Keef again), before I somehow drifted into studio and theatre work. Recently I formed an R'n'B band called the G.B. Blues Company, and it's great to be back on the road again.   ”

Derek Griffiths.

Clipping from Record Mirror on June 5, 1965, by Norman Jopling.

“We aim to excite!” … say the Art Woods

Just for the record, the Art Woods aren't a part of Epping Forest. In fact they're a group of five interesting young men, named after the group's leader Art Wood. They also happen to be one of the most realistic groups on the scene.

For a start, they are the awkward position of having a large following, a club residency but no hit record. Secondly. they don't mind pandering to commercial tastes, even though they have been hailed as one of the most authentic R & B groups in the land.

NO PULL

“But authentic R&B just isn't pulling the crowds any more,” says Art. “The audiences want to be excited, not to be lectured on what is 'good' and what is 'bad'. Although there was a time when you could spend half an hour on one number with long solos by everybody, it didn't last long. And although there are some clubs like that still, most of them want something fresh and new.

“And we try to cater for them. We like authentic R&B, but we also like playing everything and anything else. So far, our two discs haven't meant a light. Of course we'd love a hit. But we're lucky enough to make a good living without one.”

DISCS

The Art Woods latest disc is "Oh My Love" and the one before that “Sweet Mary”. Of them Little Walter has said that he couldn't believe any white group could sing and play the blues like they do.

Line-up of the group is Art Wood, leader. vocalist and harmonica. Derek Griffiths, lead guitar, Jon Lord, organ and piano. Malcolm Pool— base guitar, and Keef Hartley on drums. The boys use a specially adapted Lowrie organ, and get a sound that's really different.

But even if the boys sometimes become depressed about no hits records, they should remember groups like Cliff Bennett, the Barron-Knights, the Rockin' Berries and the Yardbirds, and how long THEY waited before they had a hit!

N.J.

[highladyluck]

Wheel of Time Playlist

Mat Cauthon/Tuon Paendrag: The Soundtrack

Direct link: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1LWolFwiwWQtcnQV7zceMj

30 songs, 1 hr 43 min. This is my take on the canonical arc of Mat Cauthon and Tuon Paendrag's relationship, told largely through swing music and 80s power ballads, with a few surprises here and there.

I put a lot of time and thought into this so I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! There are spoilers in the playlist and track listing for Winter's Heart through A Memory of Light, since this is meant to mirror the narrative. It's organized mostly chronologically, though a few songs cover multiple books, or reference scenes placed slightly out of order, to better alternate points of view.

The order will be preserved if you have a paid Spotify account. (I know that's not ideal; I tried for several hours to get this into 8tracks through a series of increasingly convoluted methods but wasn't able to, as I don't directly own the music used.) If you can't listen to it in order, I've got the track listing under the cut so you can at least see what I was trying to do.

Track List:

1)      Royals (feat. Cory Gray) – Jake Coco, Corey Gray

“I’m no lord. I’ve more respect for myself than that.”

And we'll never be royals (royals)/

It don't run in our blood

2)      Almost There – Anika Noni Rose

Behind her veil, she was merely the High Lady Tuon, of no higher rank than many others of the Blood, but in her heart, always, she was Tuon Athaem Kore Paendrag, Daughter of the Nine Moons, and she had come to reclaim what had been stolen from her ancestor.

Ain't got time for messin' around/

And it's not my style

 3)      Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man – Sammy Hagar

“I’m a gambler, not a soldier. A lover.”

I ain't good looking, but you know I ain't shy/ Ain't afraid to look a girl in the eye

 4)      Primadonna – MARINA

 “She is my wife! Your bloody Daughter of the Nine Moons is my wife!”

Would you get down on your knees for me?/

Pop that pretty question, right now baby

 5)      Been Caught Stealing – Richard Cheese

And Mat and the others galloped out into the storm, carrying with them three Aes Sedai, two of them escaped damane, and the kidnapped heir to the Seanchan Crystal Throne, while behind them a far worse storm broke over Ebou Dar.

Walk right through the door/ Hey all right!/ If I get by, it's mine/ Mine all mine!

 6)      Luck Be A Lady – Frank Sinatra

“As soon as I can figure out how to send you home safe and sound, I will. I promise.”

[...]

“So long as you keep your promises, I will neither escape nor betray you in any way, nor will I cause dissension among your followers.”

Let’s keep this party polite/

Never get out of my sight/

Stick with me baby, I'm the guy that you came in with/

Luck be a lady tonight

 7)      Holding Out For A Hero – Bonnie Tyler

“Do you remember Hawkwing’s face, Toy?”

I'm holdin' out for a hero 'til the morning light/ He's gotta be sure/ And it's gotta be soon/ And he's gotta be larger than life

 8)      Play The Game – Queen

“I’ve changed my mind, Toy,” she murmured, placing the white stone carefully on the intersection of two lines near the center of the board. “You play very well.”

All you have to do is fall in love/

Play the game, everybody play the game/

Of love

 9)      Poker Face – Lady Gaga

Despite himself, Mat began to laugh. He threw his hat down on the floor and laughed. With everything, all his efforts, he did not know this woman at all! Not a bit! He laughed until his ribs hurt.

Can't read my, can't read my/ No, he can't read my poker face

 10)   Young Dumb And In Love – Mat Kearney

Her big eyes were dark pools a man could spend a lifetime swimming in. Her rare smiles could be mysterious or mischievous, and he prized them.

I'm talking much, and you don't make a sound/

The prettiest face and those rock-a-bye baby browns/

All I've waited for's come true/

To be young and dumb and in love

11)   Zebra – The Magnetic Fields

She was still beaming. Her big eyes shone. “She’s a very fine animal, Toy. A wonderful gift. Either you have a good eye, or you were very lucky.”

“I have a good eye, Precious,” he said warily. She seemed more delighted than even the razor called for.

so there's one thing I crave/ when my days become ho-hum and blah/ I want a zebra

 12)   Steppin’ Out With My Baby – Fred Astaire

He grinned at Tuon, who gave him a slight nod. He had missed this, dice in a common room or tavern, coin on the table, wondering how long his luck would hold. And a pretty woman at his side while he gambled. He wanted to laugh with pleasure.

Steppin' out with my honey/

Can't be bad to feel so good/

Never felt quite so sunny/

And I keep on knockin' wood

 13)   Mack the Knife – Louis Armstrong

Tuon nodded approvingly. The bloody woman was dying to see him get into a knife fight!

[...]

To him, the world consisted of his two knives and the men crowding each other to get at him, and his knives sought the places where men bleed most heavily. Some of those ancient memories came from men who had not been very nice at all.

You know when that shark bites

With his teeth, babe

Scarlet billows

Start to spread

Fancy gloves, though

Wears ol' Macheath, babe

So there's never, never a trace of red

 14)   Rescue Me – Fontella Bass

“If one army is out to kill you, then they probably all are, and there are too many soldiers between here and Ebou Dar. But don’t worry; I’ll find some way to get you back safely.”

[...]

His boot slid in a patch of blood, and as he staggered, he knew he was about to die.

Abruptly Tuon was there, left hand seizing the young woman’s wrist—not the wrist of the knife hand, worse luck—twisting so the arm went stiff and the girl was forced to double over.

Come on, baby, and rescue me/ 'Cause I need you by my side

 15)   Too Close For Comfort – Eydie Gormé

He bent his head to hers. She was far from the first woman he had kissed. He knew what he was about. Surprisingly—or then again, perhaps not so surprisingly—she did not know. She was a quick pupil though. Very quick.

Be wise, be smart, behave my heart,/ Don't upset your cart/ When he’s so close.

 16)   Fever – Michael Bublé

She laid fingers against his cheek. “I thought so,” she said in that slow honey drawl. “You’re feverish. Some of your wounds must be infected.”

[...]

Mat blinked. He gave her a kiss that had to have curled her toes, and all she said was that his face was hot?

When you put your arms around me/ I get a fever that's so hard to bear/ You give me fever when you kiss me/ Fever when you hold me tight

 17)   Burning Down The House – Tom Jones, The Cardigans

Karede felt as if Hartha had kicked him again. No, not Hartha. Aldazar. What madness was this? Cauthon looked like a man watching an arrow fly towards his face, knowing he had no chance to dodge.

“Bloody Matrim Cauthon is my husband. That is the wording you used, is it not?”

This had to be a fever-dream.

Watch out you might get what you're after/

Cool babies strange but not a stranger/

I'm an ordinary guy/

Burning down the house

 18)   Love Is A Battlefield – Pat Benatar

“The next time I see Seanchan, I expect it will be on the field somewhere, Tuon.” Burn him, it would be. His life seemed to run that way no matter what he did. “You’re not my enemy, but your Empire is.”

“Nor are you my enemy, husband,” she said coolly, “but I live to serve the Empire.”

Both of us knowing/ Love is a battlefield

 19)   Empire – Alpines

Tuon straightened her back. She had not thought to become Empress for many years yet. But she would do her duty.

[...]

Fortuona was empress.

 I'm building an empire/

I'm building with my body and soul/

I'm building an empire/

So little time and so much to do

 20)   Distant Stations – Andrew Bird

Stay well, you curious man, she thought, glancing back at the balcony, northward. Do not dig yourself into trouble deeper than you can climb to freedom. You are Prince of the Ravens now. Remember to act appropriately.

Wherever it is you are.

[...]

Thom finished by making a wavy line through the center, as one did at the start of any game of Snakes and Foxes.

[...]

Mat crouched beside a fern, unseen by the dozen or so Deathwatch Guards who stood in a ring around Tuon as she went through a series of fighting stances.

 It was a triangle/ With soft, round edges/ And a split down the middle of one corner

I waited for you/ But I never told you where I was/

I waited on the steps for you/ And I hid in the bushes whenever a car pulled into the parking lot

 21)   Black Coffee – Sarah Vaughan

I should very much like to have him back. She froze; she hadn’t meant to admit so much. She found her own emotions curious, however. She had felt safe with him, ridiculous though it seemed. And she wished he were with her now.

Black coffee/ Feelin' low as the ground/ It's drivin' me crazy/ This waitin' for my baby/ To maybe come around

 22)   Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps – Cake

“Love?” Tuon sounded surprised. “Perhaps we will come to love each other, Matrim, but I have always known I would marry to serve the Empire.”

[...]

“And do you love me?” he asked, forcing the words out.

 You won't admit you love me/

And so how am I ever to know?/

You only tell me/

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps

 23)   Best of You (with Elle King) – Andy Grammar, Elle King

“When you saw me,” Mat explained, “with a dagger in hand—as if to throw at you—you didn’t call for your guards. You didn’t fear I was here to kill you. You looked over your shoulder to see what I was aiming at. That’s the most loving gesture I think a man could receive from a woman. Unless you’d like to sit on my knee for a little while…”

 'Cause the best of me loves the best of you/

And all the rest, I can see right through/

You trust in me and I'll trust you too/

'Cause the best of me, loves the best of you

 24)   Dance Me to the End of Love – Leonard Cohen

“I’m not going to sit on your knee,” Tuon said, pulling one arm out of her robe, exposing her breasts, “though I may allow you to sit on mine.”

 Dance me to the wedding now, dance me on and on/ Dance me very tenderly and dance me very long/ We're both of us beneath our love, we're both of us above/ Dance me to the end of love

 25)   Roll the Dice – Annie Vincent

Order in one hand—something known, something she could measure—chaos in the other. Chaos in the form of a one-eyed man who knew Artur Hawkwing’s face.

Had she not just told Selucia she would bet upon him?

Roll the dice (C'mon)/ Take a chance with life, just roll the dice/ This will be your time, so roll the dice/ And nothing's gonna stop you now - no, no, woah

 26)   Short Skirt/Long Jacket – Cake

She was something incredible, though. He felt a thrill each time she gave orders; she did it so naturally.

 I want a girl with a mind like a diamond/ I want a girl who knows what's best

 27)   They All Fall Down – XY Unlimited

“A last stand,” Mat said softly. “All of us, together, at a one place where the terrain favors us.”

 One by one the soldiers stumble/

See them as they stand and tumble/

You're here with me

 28)   Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off – Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong

“I’ve had it with you,” Knotai said, waving a hand at her. “You and your bloody Seanchan rules just keep getting in the way.”

“Then I have had it with you as well,” she said, raising her head.

[...]

“I suppose you give me the opportunity… perhaps the mandate… to follow what my heart would choose, whether or not it is wise.” She stood. “General Galgan, gather your troops. We return to the Field of Merrilor.”

 For we know we need each other/ So we better call the calling off off/ Let's call the whole thing off!

 29)   Never Knew I Needed – Kathryn

“Well, I guess I’m off the hook, now. You have an heir.”

“I have an heir,” Tuon said, “but I am the one off that hook. Now I can kill you, if I want.”

Mat felt his grin widen. “Well, we’ll have to see what we can work out. Tell me, do you ever play dice?”

 You are the best thing I never knew I needed/ So now it's so clear, I need you here always

 30)   Twin Human Highway Flares – The Mountain Goats

All he had to do was convince Tuon to forsake her throne and run off with him.

  You turned to me and asked me if I'd always be your boy/

As we drove across the river into western Illinois/

And on the railroad bridge, half a mile of solid steel/

Wheels were spitting out sparks, scraping at the rails