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2020 in Movies - My Top 30 Fave Movies (Part 3)

10. WOLFWALKERS – eleven years ago, Irish director Tomm Moore exploded onto the animated cinema scene with The Secret of Kells, a spellbinding feature debut which captivated audiences the world over and even garnered an Oscar nomination. Admittedly I didn’t actually even know about it until I discovered his work through his astonishing follow-up, Song of the Sea (another Academy Award nominee), in 2015, so when I finally caught it I was already a fan of Moore’s work. It’s been a similarly long wait for his third feature, but he’s genuinely pulled off a hat-trick, delivering a third flawless film in a row which OF COURSE means that his latest feature is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, my top animated feature of 2020. I could even be tempted to say it’s his best work to date … this is an ASTONISHING film, a work of such breath-taking, spell-binding beauty that I spent its entire hour and three-quarters glued to the screen, simple mesmerised by the wonder and majesty of this latest iteration of the characteristically stylised “Cartoon Saloon” look. It’s also liberally steeped in Moore’s trademark Celtic vibe and atmosphere, once again delving deep into his homeland’s rich and evocative cultural history and mythology while also bringing us something far more original and personal – this time the titular supernatural beings are magical near-human beings whose own subconscious can assume the form of very real wolves. Set in a particularly dark time in Irish history – namely 1650, when Oliver Cromwell was Lord Protector – the story follows Robyn (Honor Kneafsey, probably best known for the Christmas Prince films), the impetuous and spirited young daughter of English hunter Bill Goodfellowe (Sean Bean), brought in by the Protectorate to rid the city of Kilkenny of the wolves plaguing the area. One day fate intervenes and Robyn meets Mebh Og MacTire (The Girl at the End of the Garden‘s Eve Whittaker), a wild girl living in the woods, whose accidental bite gives her strange dreams in which she becomes a wolf – turns out Mebh is a wolfwalker, and now so is Robyn … every aspect of this film is an utter triumph for Moore and co, who have crafted a work of living, breathing cinematic art that’s easily the equal to (if not even better than) the best that Disney, Dreamworks or any of the other animation studios could create. Then there’s the excellent voice cast – Bean brings fatherly warmth and compassion to the role that belies his character’s intimidating size, while Kneafsey and Whittaker make for a sweet and sassy pair as they bond in spite of powerful cultural differences, and the masterful Simon McBurney (Harry Potter, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) brings cool, understated menace to the role of Cromwell himself. This is a film with plenty of emotional heft to go with its marvels, and once again displays the welcome dark side which added particular spice to Moore’s previous films, but ultimately this is still a gentle and heartfelt work of wonder that makes for equally suitable viewing for children as for those who are still kids at heart – ultimately, then, this is another triumph for one of the most singularly original filmmakers working in animation today, and if Wolfwalkers doesn’t make it third time lucky come Oscars-time then there’s no justice in the world …

9. WONDER WOMAN 1984 – probably the biggest change for 2020 compared to pretty much all of the past decade is how different the fortunes of superhero cinema turned out to be. A year earlier the Marvel Cinematic Universe had dominated all, but the DC Extended Universe still got a good hit in with big surprise hit Shazam! Fast-forward to now and things are VERY different – DC suddenly came out in the lead, but only because Marvel’s intended heavy-hitters (two MCU movies, the first Venom sequel and potential hot-shit new franchise starter Morbius: the Living Vampire) found themselves continuously pushed back thanks to (back then) unforeseen circumstances which continue to shit all over our theatre-going slate for the immediate future. In the end DC’s only SERIOUS competition turned out to be NETFLIX … never mind, at least we got ONE big established superhero blockbuster into the cinemas before the end of the year that the whole family could enjoy, and who better to headline it than DC’s “newest” big screen megastar, Diana Prince? Back in 2017 Monster’s Ball director Patty Jenkins’ monumental DCEU standalone spectacularly realigned the trajectory of a cinematic franchise that was visibly flagging, redesigning the template for the series’ future which has since led to some (mostly) consistently impressive subsequent offerings. Needless to say it was a damn tough act to follow, but Jenkins and co-writers Geoff Johns (Arrow and The Flash) and David Callaham (The Expendables, Zombieland: Double Tap, future MCU entry Shang-Chi & the Legend of the Ten Rings) have risen to the challenge in fine style, delivering something which pretty much equals that spectacular franchise debut … as has Gal Gadot, who’s now OFFICIALLY made the role her own thanks to yet another showstopping and definitive performance as the unstoppable Amazonian goddess living amongst us. She’s older and wiser than in the first film, but still hasn’t lost that forthright honesty and wonderfully pure heart we’ve come to love ever since her introduction in Zack Snyder’s troublesome but ultimately underrated Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (yes, that’s right, I said it!), and Gadot’s clear, overwhelming commitment to the role continues to pay off magnificently as she once again proves that Diana is THE VERY BEST superhero in the DCEU cinematic pantheon. Although it takes place several decades after its predecessor, WW84 is, obviously, still very much a period piece, Jenkins and co this time perfectly capturing the sheer opulent and over-the-top tastelessness of the 1980s in all its big-haired, bad-suited, oversized shoulder-padded glory while telling a story that encapsulates the greedy excessiveness of the Reagan era, perfectly embodied in the film’s nominal villain, Max Lord (The Mandalorian himself, Pedro Pascal), a wishy-washy wannabe oil tycoon conman who chances upon a supercharged wish-rock and unleashes a devastating supernatural “monkey’s paw” upon the world. To say any more would give away a whole raft of spectacular twists and turns that deserve to be enjoyed good and cold, although they did spoil one major surprise in the trailer when they teased the return of Diana’s first love, Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) … needless to say this is another big blockbuster bursting with big characters, big action and BIG IDEAS, just what we’ve come to expect after Wonder Woman’s first triumphant big screen adventure. Interestingly, the film starts out feeling like it’s going to be a bubbly, light, frothy affair – after a particularly stunning all-action opening flashback to Diana’s childhood on Themyscira, the film proper kicks off with a bright and breezy atmosphere that feels a bit like the kind of Saturday morning cartoon action the consistently impressive set-pieces take such unfettered joy in parodying, but as the stakes are raised the tone grows darker and more emotionally potent, the storm clouds gathering for a spectacularly epic climax that, for once, doesn’t feel too overblown or weighed down by its visual effects, while the intelligent script has unfathomable hidden depths to it, making us think far more than these kinds of blockbusters usually do. It’s really great to see Chris Pine return since he was one of the best things about the first movie, and his lovably childlike wide-eyed wonder at this brave new world perfectly echoes Diana’s own last time round; Kristen Wiig, meanwhile, is pretty phenomenal throughout as Dr Barbara Minerva, the initially geeky and timid nerd who discovers an impressive inner strength but ultimately turns into a superpowered apex predator as she becomes one of Wonder Woman’s most infamous foes, the Cheetah; Pascal, of course, is clearly having the time of his life hamming it up to the hilt as Lord, playing gloriously against his effortlessly cool, charismatic action hero image to deliver a compellingly troubling examination of the monstrous corrupting influence of absolute power. Once again, though, the film truly belongs to Gadot – she looks amazing, acts her socks off magnificently, and totally rules the movie. After this, a second sequel is a no-brainer, because Wonder Woman remains the one DC superhero who’s truly capable of bearing the weight of this particular cinematic franchise on her powerful shoulders – needless to say, it’s already been greenlit, and with both Jenkins and Gadot onboard, I’m happy to sign up for more too …

8. LOVE & MONSTERS – with the cinemas continuing their frustrating habit of opening for a little while and then closing while the pandemic ebbed and flowed in the months after the summer season, it was starting to look like there might not have been ANY big budget blockbusters to enjoy before year’s end as heavyweights like Black Widow, No Time To Die and Dune pulled back to potentially more certain release slots into 2021 (with only WW84 remaining stubbornly in place for Christmas). Then Paramount decided to throw us a bone, opting to release this post-apocalyptic horror comedy on-demand in October instead, thus giving me the perfect little present to tie me over during the darkening days of autumn. The end result was a stone-cold gem that came out of nowhere to completely blow critics away, a spectacular sleeper hit that ultimately proved one of the year’s biggest and most brilliant surprises. Director Michael Matthews may only have had South African indie thriller Five Fingers for Marseilles under his belt prior to this, but he proves he’s definitely a solid talent to watch in the future, crafting a fun and effective thrill-ride that, like all the best horror comedies, is consistently as funny as it is scary, sharing much of the same DNA as this particular mash-up genre’s classics like Tremors and Zombieland and standing up impressively well to such comparisons. The story, penned by rising star Brian Duffield (who has TWO other entries on this list, Underwater and Spontaneous) and Matthew Robinson (The Invention of Lying, Dora & the Lost City of Gold), is also pretty ingenious and surprisingly original – a meteorite strike has unleashed weird mutagenic pathogens that warp various creepy crawly critters into gigantic monstrosities that have slaughter most of the world’s human population, leaving only a beleaguered, dwindling few to eke out a precarious living in underground colonies. Living in one such makeshift community is Joel Dawson (The Maze Runner’s Dylan O’Brien), a smart and likeable geek who really isn’t very adventurous, is extremely awkward and uncoordinated, and has a problem with freezing if threatened … which makes it all the more inexplicable when he decides, entirely against the advice of everyone he knows, to venture onto the surface so he can make the incredibly dangerous week-long trek to the neighbouring colony where his girlfriend Aimee (Iron Fist’s Jessica Henwick) has ended up. Joel is, without a doubt, the best role that O’Brien has EVER had, a total dork who’s completely unsuited to this kind of adventure and, in the real world, sure to be eaten alive in the first five minutes, but he’s also such a fantastically believable, fallible everyman that every one of us desperate, pathetic omega-males and females can instantly put ourselves in his place, making it elementarily easy to root for him. He’s also hilariously funny, his winningly self-deprecating sass and pitch perfect talent for physical comedy making it all the more rewarding watching each gloriously anarchic life-and-death encounter mould him into the year’s most unlikely action hero. Henwick, meanwhile, once again impresses in a well-written role where she’s able to make a big impression despite her decidedly short screen time, as do the legendary Michael Rooker and brilliant newcomer Ariana Greenblatt as Clyde and Minnow, the adorably jaded, seen-it-all-before pair of “professional survivors” Joel meets en-route, who teach him to survive on the surface. The action is fast, frenetic and potently visceral, the impressively realistic digital creature effects bringing a motley crew of bloodthirsty beasties to suitably blood-curdling life for the film’s consistently terrifying set-pieces, while the world-building is intricately thought-out and skilfully executed. Altogether, this was an absolute joy from start to finish, and a film I enthusiastically endorsed to everyone I knew was looking for something fun to enjoy during the frustrating lockdown nights-in. One of the cinematic year’s best kept secrets then, and a compelling sign of things to come for its up-and-coming director.

7. PARASITE – I’ve been a fan of master Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho ever since I stumbled across his deeply weird but also thoroughly brilliant breakthrough feature The Host, and it’s a love that’s deepened since thanks to truly magnificent sci-fi actioner Snowpiercer, so I was looking forward to his latest feature as much as any movie geek, but even I wasn’t prepared for just what a runaway juggernaut of a hit this one turned out to be, from the insane box office to all that award-season glory (especially that undeniable clean-sweep at the Oscars). I’ll just come out and say it, this film deserves it all. It’s EASILY Bong’s best film to date (which is really saying something), a masterful social satire and jet black comedy that raises some genuinely intriguing questions before delivering deeply troubling answers. Straddling the ever-widening gulf between a disaffected idle rich upper class and impoverished, struggling lower class in modern-day Seoul, it tells the story of the Kim family – father Ki-taek (Bong’s good luck charm, Song Kang-ho), mother Chung-sook (Jang Hye-jin), son Ki-woo (Train to Busan’s Choi Woo-shik) and daughter Ki-jung (The Silenced’s Park So-dam) – a poor family living in a run-down basement apartment who live hand-to-mouth in minimum wage jobs and can barely rub two pennies together, until they’re presented with an intriguing opportunity. Through happy chance, Ki-woon is hired as an English tutor for Park Da-hye (Jung Ji-so), the daughter of a wealthy family, which offers him the chance to recommend Ki-jung as an art tutor to the Parks’ troubled young son, Da-song (Jung Hyeon-jun). Soon the rest of the Kims are getting in on the act, the kids contriving opportunities for their father to replace Mr Park’s chauffeur and their mother to oust the family’s long-serving housekeeper, Gook Moon-gwang (Lee Jung-eun), and before long their situation has improved dramatically. But as they two families become more deeply entwined, cracks begin to show in their supposed blissful harmony as the natural prejudices of their respective classes start to take hold, and as events spiral out of control a terrible confrontation looms on the horizon. This is social commentary at its most scathing, Bong drawing on personal experiences from his youth to inform the razor-sharp script (co-written by his production assistant Han Jin-won), while he weaves a palpable atmosphere of knife-edged tension throughout to add spice to the perfectly observed dark humour of the situation, all the while throwing intriguing twists and turns at us before suddenly dropping such a massive jaw-dropper of a gear-change that the film completely turns on its head to stunning effect. The cast are all thoroughly astounding, Song once again dominating the film with a turn at once sloppy and dishevelled but also poignant and heartfelt, while there are particularly noteworthy turns from Lee Sun-kyun as the Parks’ self-absorbed patriarch Dong-ik and Choi Yeo-jeong (The Concubine) as his flighty, easily-led wife Choi Yeon-gyo, as well as a fantastically weird appearance in the latter half from Park Myung-hoon. This is heady stuff, dangerously seductive even as it becomes increasingly uncomfortable viewing, so that even as the screws tighten and everything goes to hell it’s simply impossible to look away. Bong Joon-ho really has surpassed himself this time, delivering an existential mind-scrambler that lingers long after the credits have rolled and might even have you questioning your place in society once you’ve thought about it some. It deserves every single award and every ounce of praise it’s been lavished with, and looks set to go down as one of the true cinematic greats of this new decade. Trust me, if this was a purely critical best-of list it’d be RIGHT AT THE TOP …

6. THE OLD GUARD – Netflix’ undisputable TOP OFFERING of the summer came damn close to bagging the whole season, and I can’t help thinking that even if some of the stiffer competition had still been present it may well have still finished this high. Gina Prince-Blythewood (Love & Basketball, the Secret Life of Bees) directs comics legend Greg Rucka’s adaptation of his own popular series with uncanny skill and laser-focused visual flair considering there’s nothing on her previous CV to suggest she’d be THIS good at mounting a stomping great ultraviolent action thriller, ushering in a thoroughly engrossing tale of four ancient, invulnerable immortal warriors – Andy AKA Andromache of Scythia (Charlize Theron), Booker AKA Sebastian de Livre (Matthias Schoenaerts), Joe AKA Yusuf Al-Kaysani (Wolf’s Marwan Kenzari) and Nicky AKA Niccolo di Ginova (Trust’s Luca Marinelli) – who’ve been around forever, hiring out their services as mercenaries for righteous causes while jealously guarding their identities for fear of horrific experimentation and exploitation should their true natures ever be discovered. Their anonymity is threatened, however, when they’re uncovered by former CIA operative James Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who’s working for the decidedly dodgy pharmaceutical conglomerate run by sociopathic billionaire Steven Merrick (Harry Melling, formerly Dudley in the Harry Potter movies), who want to capture these immortals so they can patent whatever it is that makes them keep on ticking … just as a fifth immortal, US Marine Nile Freeman (If Beale Street Could Talk’s KiKi Layne), awakens after being “killed” on deployment in Afghanistan. The supporting players are excellent, particularly Ejiofor, smart and driven but ultimately principled and deeply conflicted about what he’s doing, even if he does have the best of intentions, and Melling, the kind of loathsome, reptilian scumbag you just love to hate, but the film REALLY DOES belong to the Old Guard themselves – Schoenaerts is a master brooder, spot-on casting as the group’s relative newcomer, only immortal since the Napoleonic Wars but clearly one seriously old soul who’s already VERY tired of the lifestyle, while Joe and Nicky (who met on opposing sides of the Crusades) are simply ADORABLE, an unapologetically matter-of-fact gay couple who are sweet, sassy and incredibly kind, the absolute emotional heart of the film; it’s the ladies, however, that are most memorable here. Layne is exceptional, investing Nile with a steely intensity that puts her in good stead as her new existence threatens to overwhelm her and MORE THAN qualified to bust heads alongside her elders … but it’s ancient Greek warrior Andy who steals the film, Theron building on the astounding work she did in Atomic Blonde to prove, once and for all, that there’s no woman on Earth who looks better kicking arse than her (as Booker puts it, “that woman has forgotten more ways to kill than entire armies will ever learn”); in her hands, Andy truly is a goddess of death, tough as tungsten alloy and unflappable even in the face of hell itself, but underneath it all she hides a heart as big as any of her friends’. They’re an impossibly lovable bunch and you feel you could follow them on another TEN adventures like this one, which is just as well, because Prince-Blythewood and Rucka certainly put them through their paces here – the drama is high (but frequently laced with a gentle, knowing sense of humour, particularly whenever Joe and Nicky are onscreen), as are the stakes, and the frequent action sequences are top-notch, executed with rare skill and bone-crunching zest, but also ALWAYS in service to the story. Altogether this is an astounding film, a genuine victory for its makers and, it seems, for Netflix themselves – it’s become one of the platform’s biggest hits to date, earning well-deserved critical acclaim and great respect and genuine geek love from the fanbase at large. After this, a sequel is not only inevitable, it’s ESSENTIAL …

5. MANK – it’s always nice when David Fincher, one of my TOP FIVE ALL TIME FAVOURITE DIRECTORS, drops a new movie, because it can be GUARANTEED to place good and high in my rundown for that year. The man is a frickin’ GENIUS, a true master of the craft, genuinely one of the auteur’s auteurs. I’ve NEVER seen him deliver a bad film – even a misfiring Fincher (see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button or Alien 3) is still capable of creating GREAT CINEMA. How? Why? It’s because he genuinely LOVES the art form, it’s been his obsession all his life, and he’s spent every day of it becoming the best possible filmmaker he can be. Who better to tell the story of the creation of one of the ULTIMATE cinematic masterpieces, then? Benjamin Ross’ acclaimed biopic RKO 281 covered similar ground, presenting a compelling look into the making Citizen Kane, the timeless masterpiece of Hollywood’s ULTIMATE auteur, Orson Welles, but Fincher’s film is more interested in the original inspiration for the story, how it was written and, most importantly, the man who wrote it – Herman J. Mankiewicz, known to his friends as Mank. One of my favourite actors of all time, Gary Oldman, delivers yet another of his career best performances in the lead role, once a man of vision and incredible storytelling skill whose talents have largely been squandered through professional difficulties and personal vices, a burned out one-time great fallen on hard times whom Welles picks up out of the trash, dusts off and offers a chance to create something truly great again. The only catch? The subject of their film (albeit dressed up in the guise of fictional newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane) is to be real-life publisher, politico and tycoon William Randolph Hurst (Charles Dance), once Mank’s friend and patron before they had a very public and messy falling out which partly led to his current circumstances. As he toils away in seclusion on what is destined to become his true masterwork, flashbacks reveal to us the fascinating, moving and ultimately tragic tale of his rise and fall from grace in the movie business, set against the backdrop of one of the most tumultuous periods in American history. Shooting a script that his own journalist and screenwriter father, Jack, crafted and then failed to bring to the screen himself before his death in 2003, Fincher has been working for almost a quarter century to make this film, and all that passion and drive is writ large on the screen – this is a glorious film ABOUT film, the art of it, the creation of it, and all the dirty little secrets of what the industry itself has always really been like, especially in that most glamorous and illusory of times. The fact that Fincher shot in black and white and intentionally made it look like it was made in the early 1940s (the “golden age of the Silver Screen”, if you will) may seem like a gimmick, but instead it’s a very shrewd choice that expertly captures the gloss and moodiness of the age, almost looking like a contemporary companion piece to Kane itself, and it’s the perfect way to frame all the sharp-witted observation, subtly subversive character development and murky behind-the-scenes machinations that tell the story. Oldman is in every way the star here, holding the screen with all the consummate skill and flair we’ve come to expect from him, but there’s no denying the uniformly excellent supporting cast are equal to the task here – Dance is at his regal, charismatic best as Hearst, while Amanda Seyfried is icily classy on the surface but mischievous and lovably grounded underneath as Hearst’s mistress, Marion Davies, who formed the basis for Kane’s most controversial character, Arliss Howard (Full Metal Jacket, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Moneyball) brings nuance and complexity to the role of MGM founder Louis B. Mayer, Tom Pelphrey (Banshee, Ozark) is understated but compelling as Mank’s younger screenwriter brother Joseph, and Lily Collins and Tuppence Middleton exude class and long-suffering stubbornness as the two main women in Mank’s life (his secretary and platonic muse, Rita Alexander, and his wife, Sara), while The Musketeers’ Tom Burke’s periodic but potent appearances as Orson Welles help to drive the story in the “present”. Another Netflix release which I was (thankfully) able to catch on the big screen during one of the brief lulls between British lockdowns, this was a decidedly meta cinematic experience that perfectly encapsulated not only what is truly required for the creation of a screen epic, but also the latest pinnacle in the career of one of the greatest filmmakers working in the business today, powerful, stirring, intriguing and surprising in equal measure. Certainly it’s one of the most important films ABOUT so far film this century, but is it as good as Citizen Kane? Boy, that’s a tough one …

4. ENOLA HOLMES – ultimately, my top film for the autumn/winter movie season was also the film which finally topped my Netflix Original features list, as well as beating all other streaming offerings for the entire year (which is saying something, as you should know by now). Had things been different, this would have been one of Warner Bros’ BIGGEST releases for the year in the cinema, of that I have no doubt, a surprise sleeper hit which would have taken the world by storm – as it is it’s STILL become a sensation, albeit in a much more mid-pandemic, lockdown home-viewing kind of way. Before you start crying oh God no, not another Sherlock Holmes adaptation, this is a very different beast from either the Guy Ritchie take or the modernized BBC show, instead side-lining the great literary sleuth in favour of a delicious new AU version, based on The Case of the Missing Marquess, the first novel in the Enola Holmes Mysteries literary series from American YA author Nancy Springer. Positing that Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill) and his elder brother Mycroft (Sam Claflin) had an equally ingenious and precocious baby sister, the film introduces us to Enola (Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown), who’s been raised at home by their strong-willed mother Eudoria (Helena Bonham Carter) to be just as intelligent, well-read and intellectually skilled as her far more advantageously masculine elder siblings. Then, on the morning of her sixteenth birthday, Enola awakens to find her mother has vanished, putting her in a pretty pickle since this leaves her a ward of Mycroft, a self-absorbed social peacock who finds her to be wilfully free-spirited and completely ill equipped to face the world, concluding that the only solution is sending her to boarding school where she’ll learn to become a proper lady. Needless to say she’s horrified by the prospect, deciding to run away and search for her mother instead … this is about as perfect a family adventure film as you could wish for, following a vital, capable and compelling teen detective-in-the-making as she embarks on her very first investigation, as well as winding up tangled in a second to boot involving a young runaway noble, Viscount Tewkesbury, the Marquess of Basilwether (Medici’s Louis Partridge), and the film is a breezy, swift-paced and rewardingly entertaining romp that feels like a welcome breath of fresh air for a literary property which, beloved as it may be, has been adapted to death over the years. Enola Holmes a brilliant young hero who’s perfectly crafted to carry the franchise forward in fresh new directions, and Brown brings her to life with effervescent charm, boisterous energy and mischievous irreverence that are entirely irresistible; Cavill and Claflin, meanwhile, are perfectly cast as the two very different brothers – this Sherlock is much less louche and world-weary than most previous versions, still razor sharp and intellectually restless but with a comfortable ease and a youthful spring in his step that perfectly suits the actor, while Mycroft is as superior and arrogant as ever, a preening arse we derive huge enjoyment watching Enola consistently get the best of; Bonham Carter doesn’t get a lot of screen-time but as we’d expect she does a lot with what she has to make the practical, eccentric and unapologetically modern Eudoria thoroughly memorable, while Partridge is carefree and likeable as the naïve but irresistible Tewkesbury, and there are strong supporting turns from Frances de la Tour as his stately grandmother, the Dowager, Susie Wokoma (Crazyhead, Truth Seekers) as Emily, a feisty suffragette who runs a jujitsu studio, Burn Gorman as dastardly thug-for-hire Linthorn, and Four Lions’ Adeel Akhtar as a particularly scuzzy Inspector Lestrade. Seasoned TV director Harry Bradbeer (Fleabag, Killing Eve) makes his feature debut with an impressive splash, unfolding the action at a brisk pace while keeping the narrative firmly focused on an intricate mystery plot that throws in plenty of ingenious twists and turns before a suitably atmospheric climax and pleasing denouement which nonetheless artfully sets up more to come in the future, while screenwriter Jack Thorne (His Dark Materials, The Scouting Book for Boys, Wonder) delivers strong character work and liberally peppers the dialogue with a veritable cavalcade of witty zingers. Boisterous, compelling, amusing, affecting and exciting in equal measure, this is a spirited and appealing slice of cinematic escapism that flatters its viewers and never talks down to them, a perfect little period adventure for a cosy Sunday afternoon. Obviously there’s plenty of potential for more, and with further books to adapt there’s more than enough material for a pile of sequels – Neflix would be barmy indeed to turn their nose up at this opportunity …

3. 1917 – it’s a rare thing for a film to leave me truly shell-shocked by its sheer awesomeness, for me to walk out of a cinema in a genuine daze, unable to talk or even really think about much of anything for a few hours because I’m simply marvelling at what I’ve just witnessed. Needless to say, when I do find a film like that (Fight Club, Inception, Mad Max: Fury Road) it usually earns a place very close to my heart indeed. The latest tour-de-force from Sam Mendes is one of those films – an epic World War I thriller that plays out ENTIRELY in one shot, which doesn’t simply feel like a glorified gimmick or stunt but instead is a genuine MASTERPIECE of film, a mesmerising journey of emotion and imagination in a shockingly real environment that’s impossible to tear your eyes away from. Sure, Mendes has impressed us before – his first film, American Beauty, is a GREAT movie, one of the most impressive feature debuts of the 2000s, while Skyfall is, in my opinion, quite simply THE BEST BOND FILM EVER MADE – but this is in a whole other league. It’s an astounding achievement, made all the more impressive when you realise that there’s very little trickery at play here, no clever digital magic (just some augmentation here and there), it’s all real locations and sets, filmed in long, elaborately choreographed takes blended together with clever edits to make it as seamless as possible – it’s not the first film to try to do this (remember Birdman? Bushwick?), but I’ve never seen it done better, or with greater skill. But it’s not just a clever cinematic exercise, there’s a genuine story here, told with guts and urgency, and populated by real flesh and blood characters – the heart of the film is True History of the Kelly Gang’s George MacKay and Dean Chapman (probably best known as Tommen Baratheon in Game of Thrones) as Lance Corporals Will Schofield and Tom Blake, the two young tommies sent out across enemy territory on a desperate mission to stop a British regiment from rushing headlong into a German trap (Tom himself has a personal stake in this because his brother is an officer in the attack). They’re a likeable pair, very human and relatable throughout, brave and true but never so overtly heroic that they stretch credibility, so when tragedy strikes along the way it’s particularly devastating; both deliver exceptional performances that effortlessly carry us through the film, and they’re given sterling support from a selection of top-drawer British talent, from Sherlock stars Andrew Scott and Benedict Cumberbatch to Mark Strong and Colin Firth, each delivering magnificently in small but potent cameos. That said, the cinematography and art department are the BIGGEST stars here, masterful veteran DOP Roger Deakins (The Shawshank Redemption, Blade Runner 2049 and pretty much the Coen Brothers’ entire back catalogue among MANY others) making every frame sing with beauty, horror, tension or tragedy as the need arises, and the environments are SO REAL it feels less like production design than that someone simply sent the cast and crew back in time to film in the real Northern France circa 1917 – from a nightmarish trek across No Man’s Land to a desperate chase through a ruined French village lit only by dancing flare-light in the darkness before dawn, every scene is utterly immersive and simply STUNNING. I don’t think it’s possible for Mendes to make a film better than this, but I sure hope he gives it a go all the same. Either way, this was the most incredible, exhausting, truly AWESOME experience I had at the cinema all year – it’s a film that DESERVES to be seen on the big screen, and I feel truly sorry for those who missed the chance …

2. BIRDS OF PREY & THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN – the only reason 1917 isn’t at number two is because Warner Bros.’ cinematic DC Extended Universe project FINALLY got round to bringing my favourite DC Comics title to the big screen. It was been the biggest pleasure of my cinematic year getting to see my top DC superheroines brought to life on the big screen, and it was done in high style, in my opinion THE BEST of the DCEU films to date (yup, I loved it EVEN MORE than the Wonder Woman movies). It was also great seeing Harley Quinn return after her show-stealing turn in David Ayer’s clunky but ultimately still hugely enjoyable Suicide Squad, better still that they got her SPOT ON this time – this is the Harley I’ve always loved in the comics, unpredictable, irreverent and entirely without regard for what anyone else thinks of her, as well as one talented psychiatrist. Margot Robbie once more excels in the role she was basically BORN to play, clearly relishing the chance to finally do Harley TRUE justice, and she’s a total riot from start to finish, infectiously lovable no matter what crazy, sometimes downright REPRIHENSIBLE antics she gets up to. Needless to say she’s the nominal star here, her latest ill-advised adventure driving the story – finally done with the Joker and itching to make her emancipation official, Harley publicly announces their breakup by blowing up Ace Chemicals (their love spot, basically), inadvertently painting a target on her back in the process since she’s no longer under the assumed protection of Gotham’s feared Clown Prince of Crime – but that doesn’t mean she eclipses the other main players the movie’s REALLY supposed to be about. Each member of the Birds of Prey is beautifully written and brought to vivid, arse-kicking life by what had to be 2020’s most exciting cast – Helena Bertinelli, the Huntress, is the perfect character for Mary Elizabeth Winstead to finally pay off on that action hero potential she showed in Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, but this is a MUCH more enjoyable role outside of the fight choreography because while Helena may be a world-class dark avenger, socially she’s a total dork, which just makes her thoroughly adorable; Rosie Perez is similarly perfect casting as Renee Montoya, the uncompromising pint-sized Gotham PD detective who kicks against the corrupt system no matter what kind of trouble it gets her into, and just gets angrier all the time, paradoxically making us like her even more; and then there’s the film’s major controversy, at least as far as the fans are concerned, namely one Cassandra Cain. Sure, this take is VERY different from the comics’ version (a nearly mute master assassin who went on to become the second woman to wear the mask of Batgirl before assuming her own crime-fighting mantle as Black Bat and now Orphan), but personally I like to think this is simply Cass at THE VERY START of her origin story, leaving plenty of time for her to discover her warrior origins when the DCEU finally gets around to introducing her mum, Lady Shiva (personally I want Michelle Yeoh to play her, but that’s just me) – anyways, here she’s a skilled child pickpocket whose latest theft inadvertently sets off the larger central plot, and newcomer Ella Jay Basco brings a fantastic pre-teen irreverence and spiky charm to the role, beautifully playing against Robbie’s mercurial energy. My favourite here BY FAR, however, is Dinah Lance, aka the Black Canary (not only my favourite Bird of Prey but my very favourite DC superheroine PERIOD), the choice of up-and-comer Jurnee Smollet-Bell (Friday Night Lights, Underground) proving to be the film’s most inspired casting – a club singer with the metahuman ability to emit piercing supersonic screams, she’s also a ferocious martial artist (in the comics she’s one of the very best fighters IN THE WORLD), as well as a wonderfully pure soul you just can’t help loving, and it made me SO UNBELIEVABLY HAPPY that they got my Canary EXACTLY RIGHT. Altogether they’re a fantastic bunch of badass ladies, basically my perfect superhero team, and the way they’re all brought together (along with Harley, of course) is beautifully thought out and perfectly executed … they’ve also got one hell of a threat to overcome, namely Gotham crime boss Roman Sionis, the Black Mask, one of the Joker’s chief rivals – Ewan McGregor brings his A-game in a frustratingly rare villainous turn (my number one bad guy for the movie year), a monstrously narcissistic, woman-hating control freak with a penchant for peeling off the faces of those who displease him, sharing some exquisitely creepy chemistry with Chris Messina (The Mindy Project) as Sionis’ nihilistic lieutenant Victor Zsasz. This is about as good as superhero cinema gets, a perfect example of the sheer brilliance you get when you switch up the formula to create something new, an ultra-violent, unapologetically R-rated middle finger to the classic tropes, a fantastic black comedy thrill ride that’s got to be the most full-on feminist blockbuster ever made – it’s helmed by a woman (Dead Pigs director Cathy Yan), written by a woman (Bumblebee’s Christina Hodson), produced by more women and ABOUT a bunch of badass women magnificently triumphing over toxic masculinity in all its forms. It’s also simply BRILLIANT – the cast are all clearly having a blast, the action sequences are first rate (the spectacular GCPD evidence room fight in which Harley gets to REALLY cut loose is the undisputable highlight), it has a gleefully anarchic sense of humour and is simply BURSTING with phenomenal homages, references and in-jokes for the fans (Bruce the hyena! Stuffed beaver! Roller derby!). It’s also got a killer soundtrack, populated almost exclusively by numbers from female artists. Altogether, then, this is the VERY BEST the DCEU has to offer to date, and VERY NEARLY my absolute FAVOURITE film of 2020. Give it all the love you can, it sure as hell deserves it.

1. TENET – granted, the streaming platforms (particularly Netflix and Amazon) certainly saved our cinematic summer, but I’m still IMMEASURABLY glad that my ultimate top-spot winner FOR THE WHOLE YEAR was one I got to experience on THE BIG SCREEN. You gotta hand it to Christopher Nolan, he sure hung in there, stubbornly determined that his latest cinematic masterpiece WOULD be released in cinemas in the summer (albeit ultimately landing JUST inside the line in the final week of August and ultimately taking the bite at the box office because of the still shaky atmosphere), and it was worth all the fuss because, for me, this was THE PERFECT MOVIE for me to get return to cinemas with. I mean, okay, in the end it WASN’T the FIRST new movie I saw after the first reopening, that honour went to Unhinged, but THIS was my first real Saturday night-out big screen EXPERIENCE since March. Needless to say, Nolan didn’t disappoint this time any more than he has on any of his consistently spectacular previous releases, delivering another twisted, mind-boggling headfuck of a full-blooded experiential sensory overload that comes perilously close to toppling his long-standing auteur-peak, Inception (itself second only by fractions to The Dark Knight as far as I’m concerned). To say much at all about the plot would give away major spoilers – personally I’d recommend just going in as cold as possible, indeed you really should just stop reading this right now and just GO SEE IT. Still with us? Okay … the VERY abridged version is that it’s about a secret war being waged between the present and the future by people capable of “inverting” time in substances, objects, people, whatever, into which the Protagonist (BlacKkKlansman’s John David Washington), an unnamed CIA agent, has been dispatched in order to prevent a potential coming apocalypse. Washington is once again on top form, crafting a robust and compelling morally complex heroic lead who’s just as comfortable negotiating the minefields of black market intrigue as he is breaking into places or dispatching heavies, Kenneth Branagh delivers one of his most interesting and memorable performances in years as brutal Russian oligarch Andrei Sator, a genuinely nasty piece of work who was ALMOST the year’s very best screen villain, Elizabeth Debicki (The Night Manager, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Widows) brings strength, poise and wounded integrity to the role of Sator’s estranged wife, Kat, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson gets to use his own accent for once as tough-as-nails British Intelligence officer Ives, while there are brief but consistently notable supporting turns and cameos from Martin Donovan, Yesterday’s Himesh Patel, Dirk Gently’s Fiona Dourif and, of course, Nolan’s good luck charm, Michael Caine. The cast’s biggest surprise, however, is Robert Pattinson, truly a revelation in what has to be, HANDS DOWN, his best role to date, Neil, the Protagonist’s mysterious handler – he’s by turns cheeky, slick, duplicitous and thoroughly badass, delivering an enjoyably multi-layered, chameleonic performance which proves what I’ve long maintained, that the former Twilight star is actually a fucking amazing actor, and on the basis of this, even if that amazing new teaser trailer wasn’t making the rounds, I think the debate about whether or not he’s the right choice for the new Batman is now academic. As we’ve come to expect from Nolan, this is a TRUE tour-de-force experience, a visual triumph and an endlessly engrossing head-scratcher, Nolan’s screenplay bringing in seriously big ideas and throwing us some major narrative knots and loopholes, constantly wrong-footing the viewer while also setting up truly revelatory payoffs from seemingly low-key, unimportant beginnings – this is a film you need to be awake and attentive for or you could miss something pretty vital. The action sequences are, as ever, second to none, some of the year’s very best set-pieces coming thick and fast and executed with some of the most accomplished skill in the business, while Nolan-regular cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema (Interstellar and Dunkirk, as well as the heady likes of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, SPECTRE and Ad Astra) once again shows he’s one of the best camera-wizards in the business today by delivering some absolutely mesmerising visuals. Notably, Nolan’s other regular collaborator, composer Hans Zimmer, is absent here (although he had good reason, since he was working on his dream project at the time, the fast-approaching screen adaptation of Dune), but Ludwig Göransson (best known for his collaborations with Ryan Coogler Fruitvale Station, Creed and Black Panther, as well as career-best work on The Mandalorian) is a fine replacement, crafting an intriguingly internalised, post-modern musical landscape that thrums and pulses in time with the story and emotions of the characters rather than the action itself. Interestingly it’s on the subject of sound that some of the film’s rare detractions have been levelled, and I can see some of the points – the soundtrack mix is an all-encompassing thing, and there are times when the dialogue can be overwhelmed, but in Nolan’s defence this film is a heady, immersive experience, something you really need to concentrate on, so these potential flaws are easily forgiven. As a work of filmmaking art, this is another flawless wonder from one of the true masters of the craft working in cinema today, but it’s art with palpable substance, a rewarding whole that proved truly unbeatable in 2020 …

#wolfwalkers #wonder woman 1984 #ww84 #love and monsters #parasite #parasite movie #the old guard #mank #enola holmes #1917 #1917 movie #Birds of Prey #birds of prey the fantabulous emancipation of one harley quinn #tenet #tenet movie #2020 in movies

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hiatus-for-forever · 4 years

Text

Denki Kaminari x Reader

Summary: Each course has a dance to get to know they upper and underclassmen and Kaminari can’t seem to get a dance with anyone

A/N: I know it’s not time for any school dances but I just had this idea and wanted to do it

Quirk: Not specified

Genre/Warnings: fluff, sad Denki, cursing, (art not mine)

WC: 1,490

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The dance was tonight and Kaminari was running out of time to find a date. Well, technically he couldn’t bring anyone from out of school (not that he knows anyone who would be willing to go with him) and he already asked all his girls classmates and all the girls in Class 1B and got rejected by all of them.

“But asking again sound promising, doesn’t it?” he tried

Sero shook his head at his friend’s lack of charm, “Nah dude, just don’t, it’ll be even more pathetic”

“Okay, ouch”

“It’s true though, who would wanna go out with you?” Kirishima then realized how rude he was when Bakugou snorted, “Oh I’m sorry I didn’t mean it like that”

“That’s fucking hilarious, he’s right though, no one likes you” Bakugou said harshly

Kaminari slumped his back and pouted, taking in the weight of his friend’s words. He should just give up, no one has yet to fall for him and judging how even his new classmates acted, no one will. He figured he should just wait for the dance and try to get one if he’s lucky.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The dance has been terrible so far. He hasn’t acquired a single dance while his friends either had a date or was asked to dance, one of them (Bakugou, obviously), refusing each girl who asked. Kaminari thought they were so lucky as he was rejected by yet another girl.

He trudged back to his snickering friends, feeling defeated, “So no one said yes, huh?” Bakugou mocked, taking a bite of another slice of pizza.

“Nope” he sighed

“Maybe you could ask someone to introduce you to someone. I was talking to Amajiki-senpai and Nejire-senpai came and asked me to dance” Kirishima suggested

‘He didn’t even introduce you, she’s the one who asked’ Kaminari thought, “No thanks” he said, a sad tone to his voice. His friends didn’t notice at all though as their attention was turned to Bakugou, who was saying no to another girl who asked. Sero had also left, going with Mina who wanted to make some guy jealous.

He huffed, grabbing a cupcake and walking away, planning to eat his disappointment. Just as he was about to take a bite, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He pulled the cupcake away from his lips and turned around to meet the pretty E/C eyes. He froze up at the presence of a girl he’d never seen before.

You tilted your head the the side, curled/straightened hair falling to the side the slightest bit, “Hey there, sorry to bother you but you got the last of the (favorite flavor) cupcakes and I wanted to see if I could finesse it out of your strong hands” you said, with a flirty tone to hopefully get the cupcake.

“No, no, have it” he said dejectedly, not even trying to ask for a dance at this point as to not get embarrassed by the most beautiful girl he’s seen.

You pouted and took the cupcake, “What’s wrong? Lemme guess, you’re the guy those three guys have been laughing at” you chuckled, not expecting his answer

He looked at the direction your thumb was pointing, Bakugou, Kirishima, and Sero, who was back from dancing with someone, “Yeah, that’s me”

Your eyes went wide, “Oh really? I’m sorry I didn’t think it was actually you” your lips tightened to a line, “Wanna talk about it?”

His eyes snapped up to look at you, were you serious? “Oh, are you sure?”

“Yeah, totally. Let’s go split this cupcake then dance” you offered

“Yes! Yeah, yeah, okay” he beamed at the fact that this girl asked him to dance. You lead him to the other side of the dance floor, near a wall that had almost no people near. You unwrapped part of the cupcake, putting it to him, “Here, have the first bite. I can’t actually half this so let’s share it this way”

He went red at sharing a pastry with a girl. It was technically indirect kissing. He shook his head, “You have the first bite” he insisted. It was your favorite flavor, so you shrugged and took the first bite.

“So, why are they laughing at you?” you asked experimentally, testing the waters in case they were bullies or something.

“They’re my friends, they’re just teasing me ‘cuz I’m too flirty to get a date or a dance with anyone” he said, shoulders slumped

“You seem like a nice guy to me” You commented as he used his thumb to wipe some frosting off the corner of your mouth, you blushing a little as you thanked him.

“Just ‘cuz I gave up trying to ask girls out”

“Well, here, let’s prove ‘em wrong” you said

“Huh?”

“Let’s go over there, in front of them, let me feed you this cupcake while we sway to the slow song”

He finally let out a smile, he was actually very cute when he doesn’t look as bummed out, you noticed. “That’s great!”

You smiled back and nodded, the both of you agreeing to enact the plan once a slow song starts “I’m Y/N L/N by the way”

“Denki Kaminari.” As if right on cue, one finally started, couples on the dance floor switching to swaying and his friend sitting it out. You looked to him and held your hand out, “May I have this dance?” you said with an accent. He laughed, damn his laugh was cute, and took your hand, leading you to the dance floor right in front of his friends.

You wrapped an arm around him, the other holding the cupcake, and he wrapped his arms around your wast, admiring the soft fabric of your dress. You saw him smirk at his friends’, you assumed, surprised faces.

You pushed it even further and held the cupcake to his mouth as he took a bite, you purposefully smearing it on the corner of his lip. He went to lick it when you whispered, “No, don’t. I wanna kiss it off” you said “If that’s all right” you added

He nodded and you leaned in, taking the rogue frosting in your lips and slightly poking your tongue out to lick it clean. You failed to notice his red cheeks through the colored lighting. You took a bite yourself, actually wanting to enjoy it.

After you both took alternate bites and finished the pastry, you went to throw it away. Bringing Kaminari with you, you giggled with him when he described his friends’ faces. “Okay, so now you’re gonna ask me out on a date and ask for my number when I walk you back so they can hear you... and maybe we can actually go out” you suggested, unsure

He froze up and turned red “Uhh sure! Let’s go?” he finally replied, stuttering, after the initial shock went away that a girl asked him out. You put your hand around his elbow and walked him back to the table with his friends there, gaping at you, who was still with him. He turned to you before you could reach them though and asked loud enough, “Oh yeah can I have your number? We could go out to lunch if you want”

You smiled at him and took his phone, entering your number, “Sure, lunch sounds great! You can text me the details and I’ll meet you tomorrow” you said, since it was a Saturday the next day. He smiled as you said your goodbyes, winking at him on your way back to the group of friend you came with.

He sat down next to his friends near the snack table who looked at him funny. Then the questions came rolling in, “How did you score a girl like that?”

“She’s that cute second-year who’s top of her class!”

“Damn, I didn’t think you would even get a chance with anyone”

“I saw her a while ago, she kept saying no to anyone who would dance with her!”

He quieted them down when he leaned in tho tell them something, “She’s the one who asked me” he said as a matter of fact-ly

They were shell-shocked, none of them thought he was charming enough or looked good enough for someone to have interest in him. They finally gave him a sarcastic apology when he jokingly asked for it, saying that they were wrong that he couldn’t get a girl and boasting about how they were all probably jealous that is was a popular second-year even.

Even if it was all planned out, he couldn’t deny his real attraction to you, it was different than what he feels for other pretty girls, you were genuinely beautiful, inside and out. You, on the other hand, felt the same, even if you just helped him one up his friends you had to admit you enjoyed his company, and even missed it when you left, but excited you would see him the next day on an actual, official, date.

#kaminari #denki #kaminari denki #denki kaminari #kaminari x reader #denki x reader #kaminari denki x reader #denki kaminari x reader #kaminari fluff #kaminari x reader fluff #denki kaminari x reader fluff #denki kaminari imagine #bnha imagine #bnha x reader #bnha fluff #mha x reader #mha fluff

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shoichee · 4 years

Text

Hortensias

Midorima x Takao

rpg!AU

Word Count: 5271

Synopsis: Takao, a cheeky yet innovative alchemist, accidentally crash lands near Midorima’s target and causes them to flee. Midorima is seething, not just because Takao made him fail a vital commission, but because Takao ruined his perfect streak of quest clears that he maintained for years ever since he joined Akashi’s guild.

Note: I don’t write character x character but since it is for @knbsecretsanta‘s event, and since @iseefairies had listed some ships, I thought to experiment with this and see how this went;; based off of the official art twitter of KNB’s fake RPG here !

@knb-kreations

Merry Christmas, Aly! I hope the year has been treating you well <3 This is actually my first time writing a KNB ship as I’ve always stuck to KNB x reader! But without further ado, here’s the fic!

»»—————　☼　—————««

Another gentle zephyr slinks through the whimsical city, where dandelions flutter past the sturdy, maintained walls that embrace its citizens in everlasting security, and it is evident that the residents felt safe from the way they carry themselves. Here, everyone chatters away merrily, as mothers gossip with one another at the local produce booths and fathers drink away to oblivion in the local taverns with their friends. Children are let loose, playing a one-sided game of tag with unsuspecting pigeons, grubby hands waiting to pounce on them at the perfect opportunity.

Despite the overwhelming bustling, Takao knows everyone in the city and the city’s topography like the back of his hand. An equally chatty person himself, he can’t help but wedge himself into the huntsmen’s conversation about recent news of game or even lodge himself into the housewives’ whispers with an easygoing joke that instantly gets them giggling. The latter, well, he’s required to know the land of the local area. Otherwise, how could he properly do his job as an alchemist?

Due to his gregarious nature, everyone knows Takao Kazunari, the “friendly alchemist.” Takao, a young man described to be the next “enlightener” of the era. Takao, an alchemist gifted with the convenient ability to “see” the properties and compatibilities of the elements found everywhere; it certainly had played a critical part in shooting him to high prestige among the nation’s scholarship, even if he never took his studies seriously back in the academies. Every new discovery he made, every innovation he accidentally pioneered, were always due to his own whims and morbid curiosities.

What if he took a slime creature’s remains and melted it with an open flame?

What if he extracted oils from petals of specific poisonous plants to turn them nontoxic?

What if he took certain minerals and infused them with randomized doses of ether energy?

After all, he was bound to become utterly bored in the city if he had nothing else to occupy his attention. That was the beauty of being an alchemist. One can always find something new to tinker with out of things that already exist, to push the limits of matter and energy.

Even so, he found the excitement of being an alchemist dwindling with each passing day. Especially ever since his application to one of the most prestigious guilds was immediately rejected despite his rising stardom. At first, he didn’t mind the rejection—sure, it stung and dumped an ice-cold bucket of reality on him, but he figured to shrug it off and finally decided to work hard, hoping for another momentous opportunity to come by. Still, he was a tad bitter about the fact that he was very close to being accepted as an official guildmate had it not been for a “masterful archer” showing up to take the limited spot away. He remembered a pink-haired girl, assumed to be the guild’s recruiter and receptionist, reluctantly telling him that the guild was prioritizing an experienced warrior over a civilian alchemist due to a recent onslaught of hostile monsters roaming outside. Takao eventually came to terms with her explanation, and with that, he kept the thoughts of the guild in the back of his mind while he worked.

That was, until every time he tried to do anything, intervention was required specifically from that guild.

He needed to purchase a specific ingredient that was labeled a controlled substance? He needed special permission from that guild.

He wanted to go outside the city walls to pick a few plants and carcasses for an experiment? He needed to go through extra lengths to submit a request for an escort from that guild.

He wanted to travel beyond the local area to other regions to expand his alchemy repertoire? He needed to be an approved member from that guild.

It was beyond ridiculous—how was it that no other guild besides that guild being granted much authority over the city?

Granted, he could’ve just gone along with the established rules and merrily be on his way, but the thought of potentially meeting the person who took his opportunity away dug up unresolved feelings of bitterness.

I’ll show them… I just need to be so good that they have no choice but to notice me.

Even if he didn’t have the innate miracle of being able to wield ether energy during combat like the recent recruits of that guild, he still was undeniably a prodigy in his own arts; he just sometimes wished he was more of the first than the latter.

———

What are the odds that today was when almost every guild member was not anywhere in the close proximity of the city?

Close to none.

Apparently, local knights were apprehensive in guarding the perimeter without the comforting presence of the powerful guildmates nearby, and it looks like the anxiousness spread to the rest of the cityfolk. The fathers were by their families’ sides and stationed outside their own homes, while mothers wrapped their arms around their children inside in apprehension. Some children picked up on the mood changes, while some were confused or annoyed in why they couldn’t be outside chasing after birds.

For Takao, this was yet again, another momentous opportunity he had been waiting for.

He had his eyes set on the prize: the ether-infused hydrangea flower patches outside the walls near the forest. No one was going to be around to pay much attention to a lone alchemist moving about when they had more dire situations to focus their attention on: the rogue tribes, or hostile beasts, or even the enemy regions adjacent to the land.

His physique was quite deceiving; even if Takao was a mere lean civilian, he was more than capable of scaling up the stone walls and doing simple acrobatics to avoid authority detection, and he easily slipped to the wild with the advantage of the lack of “watch dogs” around.

“Sheesh… finally, no one here to breathe down my neck every second…”

Takao stretches his arms, sore from the physical exertion moments before, and exhales. He scans his surroundings before determining the best route to his destination and promptly jogs. Except that it took him longer than expected to get there considering that he kept getting sidetracked by every object that caught his eye, either packing them into his bag for future experiments or chasing after them in an attempt to view them up close.

Nonetheless, he reached the hydrangea patches by late afternoon, and he eagerly plucked off each flower bud by their different colors, wondering if the pH that causes the color diversity would affect the results of his experimentation.

“It wouldn’t hurt to treat myself with a quick experiment…” he murmurs to himself, looking at the colorful, tall bushels around him in the quiet meadow. “There’s no one here anyways…” His face grows giddy at the thrill of the possibilities for the first time in a while, and he hastily brings out small bottles of liquified ether energy and the melted slime remnants he had from past experiments. He pops open the cork caps and dumps each colored bud into various bottles and seals it back up with the cap, and he gives each glass a firm shake before he sets them all on the ground.

With that, he makes himself comfortable on the soft grass against the tree, taking out a small sketchbook to record his observations.

Three bottles filled with blue hydrangeas stood innocently and perfectly aligned for Takao to observe without any inhibitions. The first bottle had the blue hydrangea soaked in the ether energy, the second bottle had the hydrangea partially enveloped by the melted slime, and the third bottle had the flower mixed with both the ether and slime. Half an hour passed by uneventfully, and Takao slightly scowled.

“Oh, come on,” he grumbles. “Not even a teensy reaction from these?” He huffs and blows the stray bangs out of his eyes before he puts down his sketchbook, and he quickly crawls to lift the first bottle up. “I thought for sure the first bottle would have something happening…”

He gingerly opens the cork to smell the bottle’s contents.

Sweet, yet refreshing and crisp like cold morning air.

It would definitely make a superb fragrance for the perfume shops back home, but it wasn’t what Takao had in mind when he wanted to visit the patches.

Perhaps Takao should’ve actually paid attention to his alchemist studies back during schooling because out of agitation, he may have not noticed, or rather disregarded, the odd feeling that grew in his stomach when he picked up the second bottle. To any other alchemist who learned the basics of experiment procedures, they would’ve been much more meticulous and careful, and many would even notice the strange pressure emanating from the sealed bottle. But to Takao, he’s always believed that philosophy had done more harm than good in alchemy, putting limitations in the efforts of pushing humanity’s potential. But perhaps the stuffy adults at the academies were correct this time.

Because the moment he slowly twisted the cap off, his immediate instinct was to tilt the bottle away from his face within a millisecond, and the bottle’s contents exploded like a rocket right after in a hot goo of blue hues. Any other second later and Takao’s face could’ve been melted off with a blue stain. But unfortunately for his surroundings, the entire nearby flowers and grass patches have been repainted a cerulean blue in uneven distributions of splotches. Even in the aftermath, the bottle in his hands was abnormally warm.

“Well, I don’t think that’s what I meant when I said I wanted a reaction…” he laughs to himself and gets up to examine the results. Wherever the blue touched, it completely liquified and melted it, evident from the way the petals were dripping even despite the bottle’s contents being completely dried. “Now how do I even fit these into my bag without melting a hole through it?...”

It seems that his words completely jinxed his current situation because he felt the blue-stained grass and patches pressuring and heating up again to explode, and while he tried to leap away to put some distance, the colorful explosion was much more violent. All Takao registered was his body blown back like a leaf across the meadow before he landed harshly on the mushy soil, feeling the crunched up flowers underneath. He rapidly blinks away the blue in his vision before he saw a cloaked figure scurrying away from the scene.

“Ah… shit, how am I gonna find my stuff?” Takao grumbles, more worried about his missing possessions than whatever he just witnessed. “It looks like they fell through the bag anyways…”

“You should be more concerned about the consequences you’ll face for letting the perpetrator escape rather than the contents of your mere sachet.”

Takao jolts out of his musings to face a viridescent-haired man, with equally striking eyes. However, the scowl on his face was the most defining feature of his sharp countenance.

“Uh…” Takao averts his eyes before he turns back to stare at his intense glare with a casual shrug. “My bad?”

“Excuse me?”

“Look, look, I had no idea, really,” he protests, holding his hands up in good faith. “I just got blasted over here from some flowers just a bit away, and I’m not here to steal your game—look, see? I don’t have a single weapon on me.”

“The issue,” the man glowers. “—is that you let the man escape. You gave away our location by painting a target on our back by making explosions and permanently marking the fields with a jarring blue—”

“No, they are not permanent colorations,” Takao corrects. “Besides, you could always find him again right? I mean, he hasn’t ran too far off. Maybe instead of talking to me, you could’ve found him by now… why are you looking at me like that?”

“You… can’t be serious,” he deadpans before hardening his expression again. “Do you not understand? The enemy left, like any person with common sense would do. Every second the person is out free, there is higher risk of danger for the city and my recor—wait… you’re not even from the guild.”

“You’re from that guild?!” Shit… Takao was unbelievably screwed. Not only did he not get what he came for, but he lost the majority of his possessions and got caught on the trip by a guild member themselves no less.

The man narrows his eyes. “What’s your excuse of being all the way out here without any guildmate escort?” Takao nervously chuckles to try to dissuade him. “I will not tolerate any shit from your end.”

“Well, you know… afternoon stroll, got lost, got separated from the escort ‘cause of that, and…”

“Oh? If that’s the case,” the man said, softening his face in mild understanding but still visibly peeved. “Might you give a physical description or a name? Such irresponsibility will not be tolerated by Akashi.”

“Well… I didn’t really get a close look at this person per say…” he says. “I guess I was so excited for the potential fruits of my experiment that I—uh, didn’t bother to… look.”

“... Is that so.” The man narrows his eyes at Takao’s hesitance. “Would you like me to escort you back and you can point to me the member you’re most familiar with—wait, where are you going?!”

“It was nice knowing you, but I’m a busy man!” With that, Takao sprints away from him, hoping that he can eventually find the looming city walls as a general pinpoint for the right directions. But before he can dash past eight meters away, his senses tingle to dodge something.

It was the man’s shower of arrows.

“What the hell?! What kind of person would SHOOT at an innocent civili—”

“SILENCE or you shall receive further retribution, for my shooting range knows no bounds.”

“... But you just missed.” At Takao’s words, the man’s aura of hostility spikes drastically and he prepares his bow to shoot another four arrows at the alchemist before Takao has a revelation. “Ah, ha! Aren’t you the famed marksman, Midorima, who has a spotless record of clearing every quest you undertake and never missing your shots…? Or had a perfect reco—HOLY SHIT, can you please stop trying to shoot at me?”

“You have lip for someone who can’t remotely defend himself.”

“Yeah? Well, maybe it’s because you might be the person I have a grudge against if my intuition is correct.” Takao casually shrugs but his own hostile aura slightly catches “Midorima” off guard.

“And I am indeed Midorima Shintaro. What of it?”

“Blegh, gross,” Takao says, completely ignoring Midorima to examine his shot arrows on the ground. “These arrows are beyond functional. How can you even shoot with these, much less even keep them?”

“H-How dare you—!” Midorima grows slightly flustered, surprised that even a normal civilian would comment on his weapon of choice. “These are my lucky arrows, obviously! I have other arrows and bows for other purposes! Don’t get the wrong idea!”

“Did you really have a perfect streak?” Takao inquires, haphazardly holding the arrow by its dull head. “Even a novice archer knows to stay away from this sort of craftsmanship.”

“I’m simply testing the limits of my skills,” Midorima snaps, walking over to Takao to snatch the arrow off his hand while collecting the others. “I do as many things as humanly possible to push the limits, and that is why fate grants me favorable outcomes, regardless of whatever tool I have on hand.”

“You still missed though.”

“You will not speak a word of this.”

“You can’t make me.”

“You will not. Speak. Of. This.”

“You also failed a mission too. Oh, what would the people think of you when I run back to the city to deliver the news?”

“You wouldn’t even have a chance,” Midorima says, grabbing Takao’s arm roughly. “You’ll be sent straight to the interrogation room and get personally questioned by Akashi.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,” Takao protests. “Easy there pal, easy! Let’s not do something so extreme, okay? Look, here me out, I kind of need to have a good reputation to wait for an opening in the guild rosters again to reapply, and you took my spot the last time.”

“I didn’t take it, fate was more favorable to me than to you and anyone can easily see why.”

“Ugh, whatever! Hear me out, I won’t say a word about your record hiccups and you’ll cover up my trip here! We both get something out of this… deal?”

“You have the audacity to think that I’ll go along with this—?”

“Then you’re okay with me tarnishing your record? I’m quite popular with the townsfolk, if I do say so myself.”

“... Fine.” He releases his arm and shoves him away. “But I will not hesitate to apprehend you if you go beyond the walls again for your frolicking.”

“And I wasn’t frolicking,” Takao scoffs. “I was doing alchemy.”

“There’s no difference.”

“Oh shut up, dullhead,” Takao says, waving him off dismissively and ignoring the way Midorima was ready to strangle him. “Before we go back to the city, I have to go look for my stuff… they’re actually quite dangerous if an unsuspecting person picked it up.”

“Why didn’t you say so in the first place, idiot?” Midorima scowls. “Let’s go.”

———

“Are you really an alchemist?” Midorima asks, gauging Takao’s jittery behavior as he scans for his missing belongings. “The way you carry yourself is more akin to a troublemaker quack than a legitimate scholar.”

“If you’re not gonna help me look for my things,” Takao retorts, “then go sit at the tree while you wait for me, Shin-chan.”

“What the hell did you just call me?—”

“Shhh,” Takao whispers, putting an abrupt finger to Midorima’s lips. “I hear sizzling nearby. Do you hear it too?” All Midorima does in response is to send a glare at Takao for invading his personal space but nonetheless gives a reluctant nod in affirmation.

“Alright, I know you think I’m a fraud, but do heed my words when I tell you to stand back,” Takao says, tutting his finger across Midorima’s face. Midorima was this close to delivering a swift knockout and leaving him in the fields. “But if you don’t wanna listen, that’s fine, too. But if something happens, you can go cry to the stars and fate for your misfortunes.” And Midorima only rolls his eyes at his jab but still steps back a few meters.

“... Be swift about it.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Midorima merely observes Takao waving his hand dismissively to shoo him off before he dramatically sneaks to the source of the sound (which prompted another eye roll from Midorima’s end), and he stares at Takao’s surprisingly determined face when he became enraptured during his work.

Takao notes that it was actually the third bottle from his experiment earlier today, and some of the contents have partially spilled from the opened bottle. To try to salvage the rest of the uncontaminated concoction, he pulls out a tiny spoon and tidies up the mess before promptly sealing the glass again. He sighs and stretches out his arms before he notices that despite the spilt concoction on the grass was still sizzling, there wasn’t any further reaction.

“Hey Shin-chan.” Midorima slightly flinches out of his daze at the sudden beckon of his name.

“Are you seriously going to call me that?”

“Bring your arrows here, would ya?”

“And you can kindly fuck off before you can ruin my luck for today by messing with the blessed arrows.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake, already,” Takao huffs. “Just give me an ‘unlucky’ arrow then.”

Wordlessly, Midorima tosses over a broken, chipped arrow from his sack, and Takao stares at the “arrow” and then at the green-haired archer incredulously, wordlessly demanding an explanation.

“Broken arrows bring misfortune.”

“Then why on earth did you keep it?”

“So I can bring my enemies unfavorable outcomes.”

“Gee thanks,” Takao sarcastically says, but he turns back to the liquid on the ground and thoroughly coats the arrowhead in the substance. “Step back, kay? I’mma be throwing this.”

“Wait,” Midorima interjects, plucking the arrow off of Takao’s fingers while minding not to touch the coated arrowhead. “Where do you want me to shoot it?”

“There’s no way in hell that arrow can be even drawn on the bow.”

“Watch and learn, amateur.” Midorima scoffs as he draws the bow with ease, even with a questionable arrow. “Like I said, my shooting range knows no bounds.” Takao sighs and silently points to a nearby patch of flowers as the target and watches in extreme doubt, waiting for Midorima to gauge the distance and strength of the winds before he gracefully lets the arrow go… and perfectly hit the mark. On impact, the arrow caused an explosion.

“Wow…” Takao whistles. “I’m actually impressed.”

“What the hell did you do to that arrow?!”

“Just had a hypothesis. Thought the concoction might’ve needed a catalyst to push it to that point. Guess the trip wasn’t a waste after all,” Takao chuckles, satisfaction visible on his face. “Alright, marksman prodigy, looks like you aren’t half-bad after all. I got all my things, and we can go back.”

“You never stay on a single topic, do you, alchemist?”

“Well after we get to the city, you don’t ever have to hang around me anymore,” he laughs, speed walking away and skipping from excitement at the possibilities of his experiment results.

“... So it seems.”

———

The trip back to the city was mostly uneventful, mostly consisting of Takao’s eyes sparkling whenever anything of interest nearby catches his interest and Midorima gruffly scolding him to keep his eyes on the destination instead. Still, despite the many setbacks and detours, they reached home by dusk.

“And you better not say a single word about what happened out there,” Midorima threatens, jabbing a finger at Takao’s chest.

“My word is as solid as your own, archer,” he shrugs in reply, flicking his finger off to evoke a reaction. It worked. Midorima gave his signature scowl and was about to deliver another retort, but he was interrupted by the locals, who happened to be concerned for Takao’s whereabouts the entire day.

“Kazu!”

A few children and tailing mothers run up to the pair. The mothers were ready to apologize for their children’s eagerness, but Takao reassured them that the children were always welcome to chat with him. Midorima raises a brow at the amicable atmosphere he easily exudes.

“Kazu! Where have you been all day?! I wanted to see sparkly flowers! And shiny rocks! And glowy juice!”

“I’m sorry for my child’s lack of manners, but everyone was worried where you disappeared off to… I guess our anxiousness really rubbed off on everyone today…”

“Ah ha… it’s no problem ma’am, really…” Takao laughs. “I was just occupied with alchemist duties today!” Midorima sends a pointed look on cue at his words.

“B-B-But… you’re always so busy with the grown-up stuff lately… and you never have time to show us your collection anymore…”

“Well, how about to make it up…”

Midorima feels extremely out of place, feeling like he’s intruding on a conversation he shouldn’t be a part of. Before he turned to wordlessly leave and let them talk in peace, the children finally noticed the archer and stared unabashedly in wonder.

“Who’s this scary man, Mr. Alchemist?”

“What the—? Who are you calling sca—oof—” When Midorima instinctively tried to shoot back in defense, Takao immediately jabbed him with an elbow to stop any potential harsh comments from slipping.

“He’s actually the archer who helped me with my duties today… right?” Takao sends a “secretive” wink and Midorima only averts his eyes away.

“Ooh! Ooh! He’s the super duper strong archer superhero Dad always tells me about!”

“Y-Yeah…” Midorima coughs into his fist. “I shoot… arrows.” Takao struggles to hold in his laugh at his awkwardness with the children… or his awkwardness in expressing kindness overall.

“Well… it’s getting late kids, we have to go home and prepare supper for everyone.”

“Awww, but can we play with the archer hero tomorrow if we go home now?” The children turned their puppy eyes to Midorima and he immediately took a step back, frantically eyeing Takao to step in and help. Takao gives a playful smirk before he coughs and pretends to be stern.

“You children know better now,” Takao says in a mock-deep voice. “If you listen to your parents, eat healthy, and sleep early, you’ll get to play more with me and one day be a strong warrior too.” The said “strong warrior” turned away to facepalm to refrain from any snide comments slipping.

After the locals slowly dissipate after exchanging pleasantries with the alchemist, Midorima turns to face him.

“... You weren’t joking when you said you knew everyone here, huh.”

“Yep,” he says, popping the “p” at the end. “It makes daily life less mundane for a civilian like me. Not like someone like you can understand.”

“Conversations like these are meddlesome and quite unnecessary. That being said, I bid you a decent night.”

“You can just say ‘good night’ like a regular person,” Takao scoffs.

Midorima only scoffs back and makes haste for the guild hall.

———

Maybe it’s because Midorima is finally paying attention to the city life rather than keeping his head in his own world, or maybe it’s because he personally was recently acquainted with Takao, but from that point on, all he hears throughout the chattering and gossips were talks of “Takao Kazunari, the enlightener.” It somewhat agitates him that that’s all he’s been hearing for the past several days… nonstop. It doesn’t really help when some of the city children are actually actively hunting down the said archer everyday to make him “play with them,” like Takao promised to them that night.

He’s going to punch him if he ever sees that airhead again.

Still, it was a coincidence (or not) that Midorima found Takao’s craft table in a desolate corner of the city under a modest porch for someone who was the esteemed individual. Here was Takao, carefully eyeballing the measurements with his tongue sticking out in complete concentration. Quite typical of him.

“There are measuring tools for a reason, dumbass.” Takao dumbly blinks before he registers that Midorima was right in front of the table before he frowns.

“Ugh, go away,” he says half-heartedly. “I’m busy.”

“From the way everyone talks about you, I still can’t believe that their image of you is completely different than what I’m witnessing right now.”

“So you heard, huh?” he mumbles, obviously not paying attention to Midorima as he continues to eye the beaker up close. “People can say whatever they want… I’m just doing what must be done within my abilities. Tools are kind of stupid anyways. How can you discover new things when you use such orthodox methods? Besides, you can’t talk considering that you use fucking broken arrows and shoddy sticks for your archery.”

Midorima crosses his arms and frowns. “That’s different. It was just specific days that have been granted luck by the stars.”

“Say whatever you want, but we both do our things our own ways to push the limits of what humans thought were previously impossible.”

“I suppose you’re correct… for once.” Midorima stares at his handiwork, trying to comprehend the process of the art of alchemy. “So… what are you trying to do?”

“Dunno… the results were kind of surprising but I think if I can just change a certain property of this element… it can end up being groundbreaking…” Midorima widens his eyes in genuine curiosity and then narrows his eyes in deep thought to try to think of what “property” Takao was speaking of.

“And what’s this ‘groundbreaking’ result you have in mind?” Takao looks up from his table in mild surprise.

“You’re actually… interested in this?” Midorima simply turns his face away but says nothing, and Takao chuckles. “Well, if you’re that curious, I’m hoping that this can lead to a method in harnessing the power of the elements in crafted tools and weapons and push human civilization to be more adaptive to our environment than just… being walled up here all day.”

Midorima turns to face Takao in unabashed amazement, staring at his intense gaze that was unlike what he previously knew of him. He turns away after a few seconds when he feels his ears slightly burn, unable to handle the intensity of the moment. So this was the true alchemist side of Takao Kazunari that everyone praised.

“And, well,” Takao laughs, already returning back to his happy-go-lucky character. “There’s no way that I’ll be accepted to the guild if I reapply and don’t show them anything new. Plus, I’m not gonna lose to the likes of you.”

At his challenge, Midorima tuts in irritation and hits the top of his head with his fist, which was exactly the main objective that prompted him to look for Takao in the first place.

“What the fuck is your proble—”

“I’ll be taking my leave now,” Midorima says stiffly, swiftly turning away to walk back where he came from and leaving Takao to stare at the retreating figure in mild annoyance.

“Still…” Takao grumbles. “Why did this guy stop by my workspace anyways? It’s not easy to find this spot in the back of the city, either… Surely, he must have more important things to attend to… like that perpetrator-at-large…”

Perhaps it was wishful thinking, but Takao likes to think that Midorima stopped by to learn more about his craft that he dedicated his whole life to. That same wishful thinking also paints an unfamiliar red hue across his face.

———

“Momoi-san.”

“Oh? Mido-kun!” A pink-haired woman whirls around to face the abnormally tall archer. “It’s quite rare to see you here!”

“Ahem…” He coughs into his fist. “When are guild applications opening up again?”

“That’s a good question actually…” she hums. “Akashi is kind of fickle and has been in a more volatile mood since he’s still tracking down the leader of that rebel group from yesterday, but I predict that they’ll open again quite soon, considering that the waves of enemies haven’t subsided at all… Why do you ask?”

“I’d like to put in word for a potential recruit.”

“Uhhh… are you even the same Mido-kun I know? You should know that if you recommend someone in and they get recruited, you take full responsibility for them and—”

“And form an official team with them while showing them the policies, proper conduct and customs, and other adventurer essentials. Who do you think you take me for?”

“Right… may I ask who’s this person you’re planning to recommend?”

“I’m sure you’re aware of the city’s biggest alchemist.”

“Takao Kazunari? W-Well, yes, but… I’m sure you’re aware that you were picked over him in the last recruitment session,” Momoi says, slightly cringing at the memory of Takao’s crushed expression when he found out that he was rejected.

“This time, he has something to offer to the guild that no one else can,” Midorima says. “Something that not even Akashi can afford to overlook.”

“B-But!” Momoi protests. “Wouldn’t him being paired with you be a very bad idea? I mean, I’m not sure if teamwork is even possible considering what happened.”

“On the contrary,” Midorima replies, a small smile playing on his lips. “Fate tells me that we would make a very efficient duo.”

#KNBSecretSanta2020 #kuroko no basket #knb fic #knb fics #midorima x takao #takao kazunari #midorima shintarou #midorima shintaro #rpg au #knb fluff #knb scenarios #midorima shintaro x takao kazunari #knb midorima #knb takao #midotaka

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steve0discusses · 5 years

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Yugioh S4 Ep10 pt 1: Yugioh Predicted the California Drought

Ah, my break is officially over, and it’s a new year, and so far, this year kind of sucks so lets get distracted and watch some TV. IF ONLY we could solve the world’s issues with a bunch of lost children from Japan carrying magical paper cards, amiright?

Anyway, Seto reflects on these cards that he came alllll the way to California to learn about, only to learn about them, and then decide “Yeah I didn’t really want to know that, Yugi.”

I just want to remind everyone that last episode I said “and now Kaiba has joined the party” and it lasted like less than one conversation with Yugi before Seto was like “oh hell no” and just walked out in that purple ball gown, trailing behind him like a complete diva.

Yugi needs to curse his friends to like him more often, is what I’m saying.

(read more under the cut)

So, staring at the fallout of their rekindled friendship with Kaiba that lasted less than a minute, Joey makes an observation.

And then Yugi just wonders “the hell is this plot supposed to go if a Kaiba isn’t here to abduct my family/tell me what to do/get abducted themselves?”

So they decide to reach out to the only other person on this show with a degree than Seto Kaiba.

(And TBH, Seto probably just decided to buy a new degree in graphic design from Devry so he wouldn’t have to finish public school and spend another millisecond in the same room as Joey Wheeler.)

And I have to give Yugi credit for finally deciding to visit the only adult he knows in America. Way to finally find an adult, Yugi. Took 4 season’s but you’ve finally done it. Gonna go visit Arthur Hawkins and dance awkwardly around this Rebecca situation that I guess Tea is fine with now. She used to be jealous, but I think Tea genuinely enjoys spending time with Rebecca now. The jealousy kind of disappeared once the plot picked up.

And Kaiba just takes off in the most wasteful plane ever invented, off to destroy precious fossil fuels on some other side of the planet.

Kind of weird that Tea would rather fly in that asshole dragon plane than Duke Devlin’s sweet retro car, but youknow...I’ve mentioned before that Tea is secretly just a Kaiba-lite without the cards. Of course she’d prefer an asshole dragon jet.

And Yugi would be able to fit in the suit-case compartment of the dragon jet. Just put the suitcase on Mokuba’s lap, and then stuff Yugi into that little slot, he’d be fine.

And honestly Kaiba made the correct choice, because what these guys had to go through is absolutely ridiculous. First off, Duke is like “Oh, this is really close to here” (remember they are in the Financial District of SF) and he just turns directly off of 101 and blows through some bird sanctuary somewhere.

Like y’all, everywhere that doesn’t have a house or a cow field on it in the Bay Area is a protected bird sanctuary, weird fact about the Bay Area, and Duke killed so many birds this episode. The South Bay is SO DEVELOPED.

Course, that is again assuming that the art staff knew that they were drawing the Bay Area, which they SUPER DID NOT.

Now this rock structure, I’m sure, is there to mimic the next shot with the giant ass building--it helps make pleasing screen transitions. But...at what cost?

AT WHAT COST?

Just....

Like I am starting to think the landscapers only knew how to draw one type of mountain and that was it. Square mesas only. They were just unprepared for hills. And like...we only have wild grass that is green like this for like...2 months of the year. That’s it. That’s what my Winter looks like, it’s when the grass is alive.

How did this happen?

Anyway, Mai is alive, and really upset about it. Will she at all reflect on her behavior, and realize that if the main mini-bosses are telling you to knock it the hell off, then maybe there is something wrong with you? Like these are two people who I assume harvested a ton of souls off screen like actual serial killers and they’re like “Girl. You’re like being hella mean right now and need to tone it down.”

I mean, if Mai gets better, than that basically gives Joey absolutely nothing to do in this season so, gotta keep Mai completely bonkers. There she goes. On a motorcycle.

And if you thought Yugioh was done throwing recreational and vintage vehicles in your face, well don’t worry, they even got the OG vintage vehicle, check this one out:

A freakin horse.

And I have to tell you...horses are hard to draw and animate and Yugioh doesn’t do a great job and it is wonderful. I love seeing this horse kind of awkwardly stumble around. It’s very good stuff. Like clearly these artists do not love horses as much as they love one of these:

Of course, get allllll the vehicles in this episode, Yugioh, bring back Marik on his yacht, I dare you.

And then...this very bizarre set of things happen in succession. I’ll just show you.

NICE.

WOW.

That entire house just exploded.

Not just a part of it--but the entire freakin house.

They were there for like less than 30 seconds, and just demolished that entire house like it was Independence Day the movie.

And like that whole house situation was pretty bonkers anyway, not sure why they need a planetarium when they research undersea structures, but youknow what? Arthur Hawkins would.

And don’t you dare do the math and think about how much a house with a planetarium and a horse stable in it would cost in Silicon Valley. It’s way too depressing, trust me.

And yes, that probably exists. Lots of horse people in Los Altos, and it makes me wonder if maybe they based Rebecca’s home on Stanford University? Maybe? I feel like these animators think Stanford is in San Fransisco. That one seems likely to me.

Also, kudos to the horse that it got blasted 50 ft away by an explosion and not only is the horse completely OK, but so is all of her groceries. That is one power horse, right here. I mean the groceries are still covered in so much horse ass smell, but youknow, Rebecca’s 12 so it’s not the horse’s or Rebecca’s fault that she has no idea how groceries work. We should just be glad that she bought vegetables when she went to the store and not just 8 cartons of pop tarts.

So, hours pass, no police show up, and Yugi and co walk into this bleak situation.

Fortunately, the massive explosion did not explode the truck-led RV outside.

A truck that...could’ve been used to go and get the damn groceries, may I add. If Arthur Hawkins used the TRUCK and done his own job without sending his granddaughter into a modern town on a horse, then he would have been at the grocery store and his house would never have exploded. This one is on Arthur, honestly. Then again, he seems like he kinda has the parenting skills of Yugi’s family, who just kinda...delivered him to San Fransisco un-aided and was like “have fun storming the castle”

This ship is kind of hilarious in action, not gonna lie. Yugi’s here with a grandpa who came back from the dead and is like “They don’t really need your grandpa, so he’s probably fine” and it’s like wtf. That’s terrible advice, Yugi.

Anyway, they apparently needed the Oricalchos necklace that Yugi handed off to Arthur back in like the first episode. So Yugi didn’t exactly mean for this to happen, but yet again, because Yugi and Pharaoh can’t be bothered to keep track of their own magical items themselves, someone else goes off with them and gets super screwed. Again. At least Arthur isn’t totally evil (although he still might and go rogue like Marik, and we all know that would be a very funny hairstyle if it happened)

So Rebecca happens to have this necklace just on your person (WTF, ARTHUR THAT’S YOUR GRANDDAUGHTER) and she gives it back to Yugi, where it should have stayed in the first place since he’s haunted by powerful ghost powers and is the only one here that can handle all these haunted Mordor rings. (just remembered he left Bakura’s ring in Japan. I’m sure that’s not going to be a problem later.)

So, that’s all for Part One. As you can see, I’m a little behind schedule, but youknow, I got lazy over the break, and then I drew Joey Wheeler a bunch when I planned to be typing, and it was overall a really great use of my time. No regrets.

And if you just got here this is a link to read the Yugioh recaps from the start. One of these days I’ll put the link into seasons but that does mean I have to retag stuff.

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nexttrickanvils · 5 years

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Written for Day 3 of @shuharuweek

Characters: Haru Okumura, Akira Kurusu, others mentioned

Prompt: Movies/Dreams

Notes: October Spoilers, some use of in-game dialogue from both P5 and P5: Dancing in Starlight

---------

For as long as she can remember, Haru dreamt of a handsome prince.

The dream itself initially played out the same. She’d find herself amongst a crowd in a large ornate ballroom. But instead of dancing on the floor, couples danced on a beautiful stage.

That is when a handsome young man approaches her and offers his hand.

“Shall we dance?”

He guides her to the stage and the two begin to dance as everyone watches.

Even after that dream starts to fade with her interest in ballet, Haru continued to see the dashing prince.

Sometimes he looked like the love interest from her favorite show, sometimes he appeared as a handsome actor that Haru saw in a movie, and once the prince was a princess who took on the appearance of a girl that Haru had a brief crush on.

She knew it was silly but the dreams gave her hope of one day meeting her real Prince or Princess Charming…

Then she turned seventeen.

Her father held a dinner party a week after her birthday. He assured her that the celebration was just simply late but Haru couldn’t help but feel that this event had long been planned while he had truly forgotten her birthday until she brought it up.

That was when her father introduced her to him .

Sugimura Takamasa.

Haru hated him immediately but according to a deal between their fathers, she was to marry him after her graduation.

She practically could see her hopes and dreams crumble before her. Instead of a Prince Charming she instead was getting a boorish man who obviously saw her more as a trophy or a plaything than a person.

Her literal dreams were also ruined. Instead of her charming handsome prince coming to sweep her off her feet it was Sugimura. Instead of offering his hand and smiling at her, he would shoot her a wicked smirk and seize her wrists in a firm grip.

The nightmare haunted her for months until eventually she simply accepted her role of the dutiful daughter. What else could she do?

That was what she thought until one day in April, when Haru arrived at Shujin and saw everyone gathered around the bulletin boards. Almost every inch was covered in a black and red card.

“Did Mr. Kamoshida do something wrong?”

“Does this mean the rumors are true?”

This was about Kamoshida-sensei?

Haru walked closer to one of the boards and pulled one of the cards off.

Sir Suguru Kamoshida, the utter bastard of lust. We know how shitty you are, and that you put your twisted desires on students that can’t fight back. That’s why we have decided to steal those desires and make you confess your sins. This will be done tomorrow so we hope you will be ready. From, The Phantom Thieves of Hearts.

Twisted desires? Phantom Thieves? What did this all mean?

Further down the hall, she could hear Kamoshida shouting and demanding who was responsible. Haru quickly put the card into her bag and made her way to class.

The next day, Kamoshida didn’t come to school.

Rumors about this and those mysterious calling cards flooded the school for days.

Until finally on the second of May, he returned to school and as the cards predicted, confessed his sins.

For the next week or so, Kamoshida’s confession was all anyone could talk about along with theories about the “Phantom Thieves” and even a website that was made so that others could ask for their help.

While Haru didn’t follow the gossip, she was still quite interested to see if they would make another move.

Just a few weeks later, news came out about suspicious calling cards scattered near the exhibit hosting the paintings of the famous artist, Madarame. A week after that, Madarame confessed to stealing the art of his pupils and claiming them as his own.

As she watches the footage of Madarame’s tearful confession, Haru feels a spark of hope.

---------

Time went on and Haru found herself becoming more enamoured with the Phantom Thieves. They reminded her a little of the noble heroes she admired as a girl. The ones who would always protect others no matter what.

Then one evening, Haru once again dreamt of Sugimura smirking and attempting to take her for himself. But before he could grab her wrist as before, a new voice rang out.

“Let her go right now!”

Sugimura turned around and was immediately greeted with the point of a knife directed at his throat.

The man before Sugimura was shrouded in shadow along with his companions behind him.

“W-who are you?”

“We are the Phantom Thieves of Heart, defenders of the weak and enemies of those who’d abuse their strength! Do you surrender or shall we steal your twisted desires?”

Without saying another word, Sugimura whimpered and ran off. The leader, while still hidden by the shadows, turned to Haru and smiled.

“Are you alright Haru?”

“H-how do you know my name?”

“Call it a secret of the trade. Shall we head out?” he says as he offers his hand

Haru hesitantly reaches her hand out and the thieves’ leader gently takes it. She walks closer to him and as she reaches him, he lifts her up in a bridal carry. Instead of struggling, she clings closer to the leader as he runs and leaps out a large window with her in his arms.

...Haru’s more than disappointed when she wakes up and realizes it’s a dream.

Months pass and it seems every time the Phantom Thieves make the news, the dream returns. It gets to the point where Sugimura isn’t there anymore and Haru is just swept off her feet by a mysterious dashing rogue. Maybe it was a little childish to dream of someone she’s never met or seen like this. But given the cruelty and coldness she’s seen from the men in her life, Haru wants to believe that her Prince of Thieves is just as she imagined him.

She wonders if she’ll see him again in her dreams tonight when Haru spots a small black and white cat wandering the street.

Wait… wasn’t there a student at Shujin who was said to carry a cat with him? He must be worried sick about his little friend. Haru immediately turned around and started following the cat.

---------

Haru leaned against the wall as she tried to catch her breath.

That was not how she pictured her first meeting with the Phantom Thieves even after tempering her expectations.

“Haru, *pant* you *pant* are you okay?”

That was when Haru noticed that her heart wasn’t just quickly beating from the running…

“You! What do you think it means?”

“One who helps the weak.”

“...I’m fine Mona-chan. Thank you.”

Later that night, Haru once again dreamt of the Phantom Thieves but things were different now. They were no longer covered in shadows, she finally knew what they looked like and she was no longer a princess but a rival thief.

She led Joker on a rooftop chase, the two bantering and flirting along the way. However it wasn’t long before he caught her.

“I must say I’ve underestimated you Beauty Thief.”

“I could say the same to you Joker.”

In that instant, the two pull each other into a passionate kiss.

Haru woke up that morning with her face red and feeling hot.

That… that didn’t mean anything… right?

---------

When she officially became a part of the group it felt like a dream come true for Haru…

And then a nightmare with the death of her father and the public’s turn against the Thieves.

In the days following father’s mental shutdown, gardening once again served as her solace. But even concentrating on the vegetables and flowers on the school rooftop couldn’t keep her mind off her current situation.

“How troubling...”

“Do you want some help?”

She looks up and sees Akira standing next to her with a concerned expression on his face.

“Oh, Akira-kun… have you come up here to assist me? You um… heard that, didn’t you?”

Haru sighs as Akira nods his head.

“I’m not worried about the garden, in case you were wondering. It’s just… so much has happened to me lately.”

Akira places a hand on her shoulder, it’s gentle and warm unlike Sugimura’s possessive grip.

“It’s alright Haru, you can tell me.”

Haru feels her cheeks heating up before telling Akira about her current struggles with Okumura Foods. The pressures of being the company’s largest shareholder, all the meetings with lawyers and officers, and the uncertainty of who to trust.

“I… I never realized I could be so distrustful of other people… ah, I’m sorry for ranting on about this matter.”

“You don’t need to apologize. It sounds like you’ve been holding this in for a while. Do you feel a little better?”

She gives Akira a small sad smile, “Actually… I think I do. I feel like talking about this has calmed me down a bit. The only people I’ve consulted up to this point have been employees. But I think what I really needed was someone closer to my own age… closer to my own viewpoint… Um… if it isn’t too much trouble, could we speak about this again some other time?”

Akira nods, “Of course. Any time you want to talk, I’ll try to be there.”

“Thank you. In return I’ll… hm… what can I do to help you? I don’t have any unique talents...”

“Haru, you don’t need to do anything for me I just want to...”

But before he could refuse, Haru recalled the vegetables she kept in the Home Economics Room. She told Akira to stay there while she rushed downstairs.

As she placed the vegetables in a bag, she thought to herself: It’s funny, usually a girl gives the boy chocolates instead of healthy foods…

...Wait… why did she…

...Oh…

---------

She did it.

She finally gathered the courage to speak with Takakura about her concerns, what she wants to do in the future, and giving her honest thoughts (if not the polite version of them) about Sugimura and the engagement.

Takakura asked her to come to the next staff meeting and promised that he would handle the marriage cancellation. For the first time in a long time Haru felt a weight off her shoulders.

“I was so afraid… but now that it’s over, I think it was honestly pretty simple. I only made it to this point because you were with me though… Th-thank you Akira-kun.”

He gives her that smile that makes her heartbeat so much faster as he replies, “You did amazing.”

She blushes and giggles, “You did too you know?”

Haru tells him that it was thanks to him that she could trust again, that she found her own strength, and that if he ever needed to confide in her; she’ll be there.

...She really fell head over heels for him hadn’t she? Well… if she could be brave enough for this meeting…

“That reminds me… Takakura said something… a little strange, didn’t he? Th-th-that I... like you… Goodness, why would he say that...?”

Akira looked surprised and Haru knew how this dream would end.

“Why do you think…?”

She looked away, bracing herself for his rejection…

But he placed his hands on hers and she turned back to him, there was that same smile.

“I like you too, Haru.”

---------

Haru giggled as she and Akira watched Morgana roll around in her room (well the twins’ recreation of her room but nonetheless.)

“I love how fluffy this carpet is! It’s almost as soft as my fur! A nice sunbath on the balcony would be great too! I’d really be living in the lap of luxury here!”

Akira smirked, “Spoken like a true cat.”

Even if it was unexpected, Haru was happy to have this extra time to spend with her friends and her boyfriend.

The three talked about their time as Phantom Thieves with Akira and Morgana both telling her how much she had grown since they had all first met.

It’s then that a thought occurs to her. A memory of an old dream.

“There’s something else I’m happy about, too.”

“Oh?” Asked Akira

She tells him about her dreams of the dashing prince escorting her to the stage.

“That dream fell by the wayside when I quit ballet, but now, it’s actually come true. But… I know that the moment I awaken, I’ll forget all about it. Almost like a spell being broken. I wish it didn’t have to end. I’d love to have more time to spend with my Prince of Thieves.”

“Well then I guess we’ll just have make our next dance unforgettable.”

Akira chuckles as he pulls her closer for a kiss. Haru smiles as she returns it. It reminds her that even when this dream ends, another still came true.

#Persona 5 #ShuharuWeek #Day 3 #Haru Okumura #Akira Kurusu #Anvil Writings #OTP: Partners in Crime

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lycorogue · 5 years

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Who Wants to Meet My OCs? (Part 2 - Gyateara)

First and foremost, I meant to have this whole series to be sort of churned out the same day/week as Part 1. Life.... didn’t let that happen. I then figured “okay, I’ll update the series every Sunday” and then yesterday came and went...

Regardless, from the NEXT POST onward, I’m aiming to update every Sunday. Now, back to the series itself.

Ever since at least November, I’ve wanted to do individual posts for each of my OCs so you could meet them all. Well, I’m finally getting off my butt and working on this massive project (we’ll ignore that I’m spending hours working on this instead of my ML fanfic.... >_>).

In Part 1, I gave a broad overview of this whole Meet My OCs series, as well as gave some generic IRL background to the two main worlds my OCs hail from:

1) Gyateara

2) Glitches

Well, in this part of the series, I’m going to stay IRL as I explain where each individual OC within the Gyateara universe came from. If this is interesting to you, feel free to check below the break.

If you’d rather just skip ahead to the character bios themselves, my first one about my Glitches character Willow should be up in two weeks (sorry for the wait).

If I’m talking about Gyateara characters, I should probably talk about the one that first birthed the world:

Amara Yori

Amara was my first-ever D&D character. I had known of the game for ages since my father used to play it frequently (and apparently roped my mother into at least running the monsters so she’d be included; ignoring that she’d rather not be included XD).

I really got interested in D&D when I was a teen and saw the gorgeously stylized covers for AD&D ver 3.5. My father had passed away before officially introducing me to the game (although we did used to play Dungeon all the time, so that was a start...), and none of my friends were going to touch that “nerd culture” with a 10ft pole, so I simply admired the books, but never actually played. Then I went to college and managed to Nerd Out.

Hubby (then boyfriend) offered to help me build my first-ever character, but in 2004 the D&D 3.5 expansions were so massive I had far too many choices to choose from.

So Hubby had me go through some of his extra minis, and let me pick out one that I really liked. With his help, I ended up with the 2003 version of the Wood Elf Skirmisher.

Based solely on this mini, I started building Amara.

Hubby suggested that I try out the Scout class for my first one, since I couldn’t choose between a Rogue, Ranger, or Druid, and Scout is sort of in between at least the Rogue and Ranger classes. For whatever reason - I can’t remember it now - I also decided I wanted to play a half-elf.

Upon reading the generic backstory description the D&D books had for the Scout class, I figured my character needed some sort of Tragic BackstoryTM that would explain her scouting skills. Things like trap finding and dismantling, masterful rope use skills, hiding and tracking skills, and connection to animals.

I was in a big The Vision of Escaflowne kick at the time - which shows up in a couple other characters’ backstories - and was fascinated with the history between Van Fanel’s parents. Van’s human father Goau stumbled upon Varie, a Draconian woman, in the woods one day. Draconians have the ability to manifest feathered wings which allow them flight. It was rare to see a Draconian, and her beauty - with her wings shimmering in the moonlight as she waded in a small pool of water - mesmerized Goau. He instantly fell in love and brought Varie home to be his wife. The duo seemed to love each other deeply. Amara’s parents, on the other hand....

I’ll get into more when I break down their actual bios, but I took the idea of “Human stumbles upon exotic non-human in the woods and instantly marries her” and twisted it slightly. Amara’s mother was very much emotionally, and possibly even physically (I haven’t confirmed this yet), abused by Amara’s father. Amara, being a half-elf, also had to deal with abuse at the hands of many of her fellow clansmen - both the human and the elven clans; pretty much exclusively because she was a “half-breed” (Yes, I was really into InuYasha then too).

As I kept building Amara, I kept adding more and more tragedy to her backstory. I do enjoy what I created, but, especially after reading a lot of posts here on Tumblr, I’m afraid her history is nothing but a giant knotted ball of cliches and tropes. For now, though, I’m running with it. Perhaps I can figure out work-arounds later....

I never did get to play more than a session or two with Amara before the game disbanded (which seems to be a repeat thing with my gaming group), but she still lives on in my mind, and eventually in Gyateara.

Natalie

As I mentioned above, The Vision of Escaflowne very much inspired me while I was working on the earliest bits of Gyateara. Therefore, Natalie is your basic Isekai protagonist.

For those who don’t know the term (I didn’t know an official genre term existed until about a year ago), Isekai refers to a subgenre of fantasy/speculative fiction where the main character is abruptly teleported from their world to a new one; usually one with a fantasy setting.

It’s a massive subgenre and includes most of the fantasy animes I’ve watched:

InuYasha

The Vision of Escaflowne

Fushigi Yuugi

The Devil is a Part-Timer

The Rise of the Shield-hero

The Saga of Tanya the Evil

The Familiar of Zero

How to NOT Summon a Demon Lord

Sword Art Online (technically)

.Hack//Sign (technically)

Digimon (first season, specifically)

Psyren (manga)

The list can go on, but that’s not the point of this post. Getting back to the actual point, I clearly enjoyed this genre without even realizing there was a term for it, and created my own Isekai story. Natalie is from our world, but is abruptly teleported to Gyateara’s main Northern Isle, where she must save the country from being destroyed by a power-hungry, put painfully charismatic, villain.

I had taken elements from Kagome (InuYasha), Hitomi (The Vision of Escaflowne), Miaka (Fushigi Yuugi), and I think I had Ariel (The Little Mermaid) in there as well at one point. She was - and still kind of is - just “Generic Isekai Female Protagonist”, which is one of the main reasons the story she was in failed so soon into NaNoWriMo back in... 2014, I think. Almost a solid decade after I started dreaming up her Isekai story. She definitely needs to go back to the drawing board a bit to be properly fleshed out.

Connor

He was from the same story as Natalie. Connor was a denizen of Gyateara’s Northern Isles, and became Natalie’s traveling companion as he helped her try to find a way home. Ya know, that old Isekai chestnut. I even leaned heavily into the cliche and had the two of them fall in love throughout their journey. Which would lead to a third-act twist of “Okay, we can defeat the villain, but then what? Could they stay together? Would Natalie stay on Gyateara? Will Connor instead try to go home to Earth with her?” Real original. I know. Add in that Connor was a sort of Frankenstein’s monster of a character. Grab a snack, this is going to take a minute...

Connor’s traits included:

The basic backstory and drive of the player character in the video game Fable, in which his father was killed, his mother and sister tortured (and presumed dead, only to be proven still alive and captured), his home village burnt down, and he was taken in by the local guild so the guild master could train Connor to become the hero the GM believed Connor was prophesied to be.

The half-demon traits of InuYasha (InuYasha), which transformed him into a sort of were-cat. His mother, a full-demon, could become a 15ft (4.57m) tall panther with split tails. Connor’s half-demon heritage was hidden from him, and he only transformed under extreme moments of stress.

Yes. The “love interest is the only one who can snap the protag back from a monstrous rage” trope was heavily evident throughout the story.

His overall look was inspired by Link (Legend of Zelda video game franchise). His basic fighting style - swordsmanship and expert archery - was a sort of tag-teamed “thieving” from Link as well as Van (The Vision of Escaflowne).

A highly resistant, and begrudging submission to become the Hero of Prophecy lifted off of Tamahome (Fushigi Yuugi).

I know he was much more influenced by Van from Escaflowne when I was first making him. I even used Van as a reference guide when I tried to create character head shots of him. I just can’t recall now what else I swiped from that character.

I feel like there are also other male anime/video game protags I swiped traits from, but I can’t recall them anymore. Regardless, I threw them in a blender, and poured out the mixture that became Connor.

Jolene Crisslebalm

Ah, the character whose last name I always have to look up, because I can’t recall how I spelled it. Good starting point, right?

I am a very reserved person. In particular, a very sexually reserved person. But I do enjoy sex, and I love the act of flirting, and the “thrill of the chase” when it comes to dating, so a part of me always wonders what I would be like if I had let go of my reservations and just enjoyed the carnal pleasures of life.

So, two characters in particular - Willow (from Glitches) and Jolene - are my exploration of that Path Not Traveled.

A friend of mine was hosting a D&D campaign via Roll20.net, and wondered if I wanted in. I hadn’t been involved in a D&D game in a year or so at that point, and I’ve enjoyed playing a couple of one-offs with him DMing, so I leapt at the chance to join. I had almost always played a form of Rogue class (hence the internet persona) in previous D&D campaigns, so I decided to stay the course, but with a twist I hadn’t tried before.

I wanted Jolene to be a sort of reluctant adventurer, preferring instead to be a cat burgler, but I also wanted that sexual/sensual exploration of character. So, she was a traveling prostitute (not exactly legal without proper ties to a brothel; much like a Sex Trade Guild sort of thing), but she also used her “alone time with clients” to scope out the place to see if it’s worth robbing.

Fast forward about 3 years, and I end up watching the first episode of the Freeform Marvel series Cloak and Dagger... where I saw Tandy doing the same thing, but roofying her targets instead of sleeping with them first... Great minds, and all that?

Eh, Jolene figures “might as well make money off of them before coming back and robbing the rest... less to carry later...”

In the end, while Jolene had an.... interesting run... and one I actually did enjoy role playing, even if it did leave me a bit frustrated afterwards (a good frustrated?)... Jolene just didn’t fit the world the DM created, nor did she fit in quite as well as I would have hoped with the other players.

They were all AMAZING players, by the way. Some of the best role players I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, and such fantastic writers as well. BTW, we wrote out everything in the Roll20 chat log instead of verbally playing or using video-chat. I must admit, I was quite envious of their skills. It was just a tighter knit group, and I wasn’t able to feel out their play-style well enough to continue with the group. Eventually they all had to go their separate ways anyway when their schedules no longer lined up.

Still, I LOVED Jolene, and she was the D&D character I had the joy of running the longest, so she NEEDED to live on. She did, in my first NaNoWriMo “win”. I managed to hit those 50,000 words, but I still had about 3/5ths of her story to write.

See, while coming up with Jolene’s jaded attitude towards love and her pull towards a more hedonistic lifestyle, I went with the good old cliche of Heartbreak Was The Culprit. (With so many cliches in my character builds, is it a wonder why I just stick with fanfiction... the characters are already created...)

Jolene had her heart broken five times between the ages of 13 and 21. She was the type who fell quick into love, and fell HARD into it, and always felt intensely betrayed by her lovers when they left her. To be fair... they did routinely leave her for a woman of better social standing, or - in her youth - someone more willing to put out, or just straight up abandon her without so much as a farewell note. Eventually, she gave up on trying to find love, and joined a brothel, and then the thieves guild, and then headed out on her own from there.

The DM thought it unlikely that she was a prostitute for the better part of 5 years without a single pregnancy, so he rolled for it, and Jolene had one miscarriage, one still born, and one healthy child she gave up for adoption. I was not expecting to include that in her backstory, but it actually worked fairly well.

And all of that was the subject of my NaNo project: Lost Loves and Paramours. Jolene’s full biography leading up to the campaign: every man she fell in love with, every person she slept with, the one client who tried to murder her to avoid a scandal of his lust getting the better of him, the pain of her miscarry, the devastation of her stillborn, the heart break of giving up her surviving child, the struggles against a stalker, and her over-all YOLO attitude.

(Bitmoji is a beautiful thing...)

Well, second long post of this series is now complete. Next week, I’ll talk about the IRL inspiration for my Glitches characters. Thank you so much for indulging me on these epic ramblings.

#writing #LycoRogue writing #OCs #Meet My OCs #character creation #IRL character inspiration #writing process #cliches #long post #Gyateara #Amara Yori #Jolene Crisslebalm #Natalie #Connor #series post #2 of 17?#LycoRogue original

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eponymous-rose · 7 years

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Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E1 (Jan 16, 2018)

Tonight’s guests are Liam O’Brien, Taliesin Jaffe, Travis Willingham, and Laura Bailey!

There will be a new-season makeover for the Talks Machina intro video, coming soon (also illustrated by @wendydoodles).

Announcements: issue 4 of the comic to be released Jan 24, teaser poster for sale, definitely not changing the name of the show.

Full character artwork by @ornerine released! Everyone agrees that she was a great pick for the official artwork.

When asked for notes, Travis was really specific about Fjord’s bracers and dinged-up armor. He’s near 30 but “has lived a hard-earned 30 years”. “That red rope? I took it off of some curtains.”

Mollymauk’s official pronouns are he/him but Taliesin figures he would be chill with anything. His note? “I would like to cause cosplayers to have a nervous breakdown.” The pendant is very specific, as are a lot of the symbols. The robe is embroidered silk.

Travis did not realize Nott’s face was a mask at first. Liam requested that Nott’s ears be hidden away for Silhouette Watch, just to keep fans guessing.

Laura on Beau: “You can see how drunk she is based on those half-lidded eyes.” Brian: “I think people will finally understand that there’s a difference between Marisha and Keyleth this time around.”

Laura on Caleb: “Liam, look at that. He looks like he rolled in shit.” Liam had to request a messier look for the art three separate times. Frumpkin looks clean because he hangs out in a pocket dimension.

Laura points out the jewelry on Jester’s tail. Laura and Taliesin realize they both did the horn-to-ear decorative chain thing. Laura originally wanted bells on her horns and tail, but realized it would be a stealth concern. The freckles were Laura’s idea---originally the art was very elegant, and Laura requested more “cute and awkward��.

Travis on Yasha: “That is a bottle of trouble right there.” Brian is a little smug about knowing her backstory and hints that a lot of stuff on Yasha’s person has specific significance.

Travis rolled a natural 20 as the last roll of the last campaign... and the first roll of the new campaign. He also rolls a nat20 as the first die roll in the intro! (Everyone jokes that Taliesin had to roll it for him.)

@critrolestats is back! 215 gold spent in C1E1. Coin spent in C2E1? 4 silver.

Total damage to defeat Vecna: 1,890 damage. Total damage to defeat this week’s undead creature: 74 damage.

Last time Sam sang “I Will Always Love You” was in episode 55.

Laura edits all the thumbnails for the episodes. “The amount of Sam crotch happening in those group shots is so offensive.”

The shot in the opening credits that took the longest was the wind blowing. Brian: “Can we talk about Taliesin casting an actual spell in that opening?” Taliesin: “No, we can’t.”

Everyone likes the seating arrangement, but everyone was also so disoriented during the game that it was hard to even process the change.

Liam and Laura went for lunch together and tried only talking in their new accents. Everyone expects to take a few episodes to settle into the new accents.

Generally, everyone was trying to sit with new people, allowing for some seating based on the episode-zero interactions.

Mollymauk has barely changed from the version of the character Taliesin came up with as a backup for Percy after episode 68. “Percy is one aspect of my personality [...] I would love to play with this part of my reality a bit.” He originally wanted Molly to do a show about the Terrible Tinker of Tal’Dorei.

Laura brought Jester back from the one-shot she played with Kinda Funny because even back then she had a lot of ideas for the character.

Travis decided against a werewolf character because so many people were pushing for it that he felt like there wouldn’t be a surprise. He really wanted to cast a spell after five years without casting. He looked at eldritch knight and paladin, but liked the imagery associated with warlocks, and the Hexblade’s sentient weapon won him over.

Travis played his session zero intending to do a normal voice and he didn’t enjoy the experience at all, especially when Laura and Marisha had such distinctive voices. He did a recording session 48 hours before the game where he had to do a Texan accent and just decided to go for it.

Liam started thinking about Caleb’s accent a few months earlier when Matt talked a bit about the inspirations behind Wildemount.

Taliesin and Laura both wanted to play a lavender tiefling with a sickle sword and an eastern European accent, so they split it up. Taliesin felt like he couldn’t fast-talk as well until he got the Irish accent going. Laura picked the accent because she was especially comfortable with doing it naturally, which helps a lot with improv.

Liam points out that it’s going to take a few episodes for everyone to settle into character choices and stay consistent; things will probably shift for a while. Travis accidentally called Taliesin “Percy” (not in a character sense) right before the show started. It’s going to take a bit to get used to the change.

Travis really wants to dress up as Fjord and was thinking about that cosplay when he picked the race (but hints that there’s more info coming). He was looking at tabaxis and was like, “Do I really want to put a cat nose on?”

Liam knew he wanted to be a wizard for a while but hadn’t picked a race yet until he realized everyone else was going really outside-the-box, so he opted to go human.

Session zero game details: Jester was one failed saving throw away from death and Fjord saved her by giving up his healing potion. Caleb also almost died. More details will be forthcoming in-game, probably. (The sessions were not recorded.)

Sam and Liam decided to team up for their session zero a few months ago. Taliesin had the circus and invited anyone to join that session; Marisha considered but wound up switching. Travis and Laura already knew each other’s character backstories, so they found a way for them to intersect, and it made sense in-context for Marisha to join in.

Jester and Fjord have known each other about a week longer than they’ve known Beau, but they’re all pretty fresh acquaintances; not even close to a year.

Caleb and Nott have known each other for longer than the trio have: for months. Liam describes their relationship as “a very new friendship”.

The carnival troupe members were mainly Matt’s creation but there was a bit of back-and-forth with Taliesin in developing their relationships (and many were based on people they knew).

Fanart of the week!

Travis wants Fjord to talk to Nott and Caleb more. (”Can’t say why.”) Molly already doesn’t like Beau, but the tieflings want to chat with each other a lot more (Jester also wants to talk more with Nott). Liam points out that despite being the quietest, Caleb and Fjord have the highest charisma, so they might end up acting as the negotiators. Laura points out, in Jester’s voice, that some people might blunder in without realizing they have low charisma.

Laura likes organizing and keeping track of things, which is the main reason it bugs her to no longer be treasurer; she has no problem making bad decisions with money in the game, but not getting to write it down bothers him.

Mollymauk’s deck is an original creation of Taliesin’s, still in progress. He worked with his brothers (one makes games and one DMs) to start putting it together.

Laura got Taliesin an experimental fortune-telling deck for Christmas.

Liam and Sam were brainstorming, and Liam brought up goblin rogue as an idea alongside a bunch of other ideas, and Sam shrugged it off, then decided on it after all and proclaimed that Liam chose his character.

Travis is having some trouble removing the Grog-filter of what he wasn’t able to do at INT 6. Everyone’s still developing the way their characters work.

Both tieflings have humanoid legs rather than goat legs to make it easier on cosplayers. Laura points out that Jester is already pretty far over on the humanoid scale.

Everyone was most surprised by Sam’s accent. Travis was surprised at Taliesin’s shit-stirring right out of the gate, while Liam and Laura expected it. Liam wasn’t expecting Ashley to be so intense and creepy. Brian: “That’s a lot closer to how she is in real life. You cut her off on the 405...”

Travis picked the falchion just because he saw the picture while flipping through the PHB and it really spoke to him. He looked up a lot of pictures and found a stout and straight one with a curved, sharp tip, and really liked the look of it.

Jester’s deity hasn’t changed from the Kinda Funny one-shot.

“How does it feel to be starting in prison again?” Taliesin: “Feels like coming home.” Molly really doesn’t like cops. “He’s never going to keep his mouth shut.”

Frumpkin was the name of Liam’s cat when he was four. Travis is horribly allergic to cats in real life. Just at the thought of a cat, his nose started to tickle, and it was inevitable that Fjord would be allergic. He did have a cat growing up: “Once she slept on my face. I went to the hospital.”

The different accents and seating make it easier for Liam and Laura to keep from slipping into being twinnies. Liam points out that they’ll always be twinnies, and everyone immediately notices that they’re sitting exactly the same way.

Laura is offended by Sam’s lack of dice, especially with sneak attack damage. She’s told him he’s not allowed to touch any of the dice she’s already sorted. Liam promises to buy him a box of d6s.

Is Laura worried about being the only one with healing right now? “I’m not worried about it at all. I’m very good at healing. We’re safe. ...no, we’re fucked. I only have three spell slots.”

Liam won’t talk about why he picked transmutation, but he’s really excited to get into a support/tactician role as a spellcaster.

Talks Machina Becomes The Darkness on Alpha:

The group hasn’t really figured out battle tactics yet (apart from Laura knowing she should hang back after almost dying). Everyone’s really feeling the lack of a bard... and the lack of magic earrings.

The main reason Taliesin keeps going for Matt’s homebrew classes is because he played a lot of D&D as a kid and wants to do something new.

Everything stops when Laura points out that she and Liam are sitting the same way again.

Travis refuses again to answer why Fjord doesn’t have the half-orc tusks.

Liam is tasking himself to be a more responsible thinker at the table, less impulsive, because it suits Caleb’s character more. Travis feels like Fjord’s tactical potential is currently hampered by not really knowing the rest of the team yet. Liam: “I do promise to make real bad decisions, just in a different way.” Taliesin high-fives him for that one.

The minis were designed before the character art came out. Liam’s favorite mini of the new bunch is Nott.

Gilmore wasn’t a source of inspiration for Molly, but they have a lot in common. “They’re both characters who have spent time externalizing a lot of internal stuff.” The name came from the movie Lord Love a Duck, which Taliesin’s grandfather directed.

Everyone had to really strongly justify their character-building choices related to their backstory to Matt. Taliesin wanted a tenuous connection to the last campaign, but Matt nixed it. Liam feels like he got to do exactly what he wanted to do.

Everyone feels like Laura and Liam were the most prepared. Liam says he was scared to death, but he thought Laura was right in the groove from the start. Each of them had a moment where the shock wore off enough to feel like they had a glimpse of what the rest of the campaign was going to be.

125,000 viewers on the new episode (on all platforms), which is way higher than it’s ever been. They’re very nervous knowing the numbers.

#critical role #critical role spoilers #talks machina #talks machina spoilers #long text post

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renaramblesaboutcomics · 7 years

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Wednesday Roundup 8.16.2017

Slightly overdue and quite possibly not at all aniticipated, I have at last finished the Wednesday Roundups and have come to give my usual reviews and ratings~

So let’s get into it

DC’s Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows, DC/IDW’s Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures, DC’s Batwoman, Image’s Descender, Marvel’s Generations: Wolverine & All-New Wolverine, DC’s Gotham City Garage, DC’s Justice League of America, DC’s Super Sons, DC’s Wonder Woman

Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows (2016-present) #10 Ryan Stegman, Nate Stockman

It’s amazing how, for close to ten years now, I have felt like Peter Parker -- as I knew him and grew up with him -- has been a shadow of himself in Marvel comics. The potential for his growth, the sense of personal responsibility, everything that I had felt him growing toward while I was an avid Spidey fan felt gone back when I stopped reading because I felt like the illusion had been purposefully broken.

Peter was never going to grow up, he was never going to move forward, and his lifetime of adventures were never going to have consequences that truly stayed and mattered.

Now, that’s a general disillusionment longterm comic fans all have to face some time, and it’s always going to be felt most severely on those that brought us into the business to begin with, but it’s one I always struggled the most with when it came to Spider-Man. Because the MC2 had sort of given me a “preview” to what his next steps could have been, and how his story could continue as a father and family man. I knew it enriched the parts of Peter I liked rather than took them away. Missing that in current iterations was dreadful.

But, amazingly, and wonderfully, Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your vows seems to provide for me what a decade of previous Spidey books could not. My Peter.

Story: Considering this is a one-and-done story, albeit one obviously leading up to the upcoming arc, it feels like it completely uses its pages and panels to their fullest with no wasted time and no sense of drag. Honestly, the fast pace in this issue is more reminiscent of classic pre-trade comics rather than the current lay of the land which seems more interested in first expanding and dragging stories out. And this manages to do it with three stories wrapped up by the end.

The main story is about Normie Osborn, his birthday, and what will be his driving motivations to become the next Green Goblin. It’s honestly heartbreaking to see the complexities of a completely bratty kid whose suffering ultimately stems from the anger and frustration of having lost his father at a young age and feeling completely alone and misunderstood because of it. As the main POV character, we honestly get to dig into his rottenness and his tragedy more than most new villains you usually see and I love that as simple as his motivations are, you can really get the sense that it’s believable for a kid to fall into these trappings through his inability to properly grieve. It sets him up to not only be the antithesis of Annie, as I’ve been imagining he would be, but a foil to Peter as well, and that’s pretty fascinating in a character I genuinely feared was going to be pretty one-note.

For the B story we have Peter and Annie May bonding on a father-daughter day. I think this is vital not only because we just came off a Mary Jane focused story but because it’s that relationship that ends up saving them in the end. I love how Peter’s both protective of Annie, but supportive and grateful of her in a way that’s both completely Peter and also the signs of a great parent who is not ashamed to be surpassed by his child and wants her to know when he’s proud. They’re absolutely adorable, and relateable, and I love that Peter has obviously taken after Aunt May and Uncle Ben when it comes to being a parent. Usually it’s seen as “cooler” or “more interesting” to have good guys/childhood heroes grow up to be bad parents even against their characterizations beforehand just because it’s edgy, and I’m just so grateful that Renew Your Vows hasn’t fallen into that.

The less expanded other subplot in the background is of the Lizard and his son desperately trying to get some sort of Oscorp chemical to save the son from... something. I may need to reread, but I’m fairly certain this will be set up in the future for a continuing storyline but it also works well here to emphasize the importance of parent-child bonds.

Art: I honestly have been really impressed with the art on this title from the start. It’s very agile and creative while also not stylized to the point of being cartoony. The colors find a nice balance between being bright and having a touch of grunge and texture to it. If you’ve been a fan of the art for the book beforehand, you’re going to keep being a fan because I know I am.

I also want to take a moment and applaud a book for doing the rare thing these days and maintaining its art style and individual character for ten issues. That may not seem like a whole lot, but nowadays it feels like such an accomplishment to just have an artist on two consecutive issues let alone a rotation of artists who at least attempt to adhere to the certain style of the book.

Characters & Dialogue: I went into Normie more above because he was so central to the plot of this issue, but it stands to be said again that I’m just genuinely floored by how well this comic does with making a layered and rounded villain out of what could have so easily been a stock Evil Child Genius version of Norman Osborn. I mean it was even in the name, and that impresses me so much. I like how there’s a sophistication to his dialogue, but also both his dialogue and running monologue are shorter sentences than you usually see with such educated words, which still makes it feel like the voice of a child. It was a neat little touch.

Peter also is just such a great character in this book. He gets less panel time than Normie, but in that time we see the layers of Peter. He’s protective, he’s funny, he’s supportive, and he’s quick to leap in head first. But while this Peter maintains all the fun of a younger Peter Parker (one that lets his daughter eat a disgusting amount of ice cream to be on her good side), there is a kindness and push toward empathy that seems more nuanced and matured to him than the Peter of old. His final words to Normie are both heartbreaking and full of pathos. He obviously regrets not being able to save his friend, but he’s also recognizing the signs of tragedy repeating itself in Harry’s young son. It’s a great, subtle moment.

Annie doesn’t get as much time as Normie or Peter, but we can see that her skills as a vigilante are advancing quite nicely, but her confidence is still stunted slightly. At least, it is around her father, who is of course her biggest inspiration and biggest hero. Even when she saves him, she is cautious to be excited about it, both because she’s concerned for him and also because she is concerned about making mistakes. Ultimately she’s adorable and full of sugar so I don’t think there’s anything not to love.

DC/IDW’s Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2016-2017) Matthew Manning, Jon Sommariva

Honestly I don’t know why I’m being rewarded lately with my favorite franchises getting amazing official crossovers, but I am, and I’m so happy about it. IDW and DC have been collaborating quite a bit for the past couple of years -- with IDW getting to release those original Mister Miracle omnibuses and now getting all these crossovers with arguably their biggest property to date and DC’s biggest property to date. Twice.

The thing is, I was a pretty big fan of the first Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover by Tynion and I wasn’t really all that sure what to expect with this new crossover and whether or not it’d repeat the same steps or if it’d be able to capture either the DCAU or the TMNT2012′s tones in the process of telling its story.

Fortunately, today’s all about me getting squarely handed my butt with these surprises!

Story: My concerns about this retreading the meet-and-greet storyline of Tynion’s crossover were pretty much immediately dashed thanks in no small part to Manning absolutely nailing the tones of the two cartoons right from the start. There’s monsters, there’s mayhem, there’s an actual mystery to solve (holy crap remember when Batman used to solve mysteries) and the badassness of the Shredder was on display without allowing him to make a cakewalk of the Rogues Gallery.

I just loved how everything was able to tie together with these two continuities so neatly, and how it made it just that much more interesting for the ultimate reveal of who was behind the whole even, even if it was hinted at from the very first issue. It was a great mystery story of following the clues until we got to the end.

Oh wait. No. It didn’t get to the end because the story wrapped up in issue five of this six issue series And I’ll be honest... this really baffles me to the point of almost taking me out of my praising mood.

Like... I’m not going to say that this was perfect at all until #6, but it was well paced, well choreographed, and it made full use of a huge cast of characters with lots of neat crossover potential satisfied nearly on every front -- we got Bats in NYC and we got Turtles in Gotham, we got respective villains in both. It was an incredibly solid, fun crossover that had a very satisfying conclusion. And then another issue.

Obviously they wanted to expand on this story more. The Gotham Rogues shined the most for the first five issues, really driving the plot on all sides, and then #6 had the Kraangs taking advantage of the previous mayhem to enact their own invasion of Gotham. And there were obviously a lot of years that passed in between -- obviously in Gotham since we moved from B:TAS to TNBA, but also the Turtles while eternally teenagers seemed a bit older, and I don’t think it was a mistake on Manning’s part that April or Karai or any of the other growing Hamato clan’s members didn’t come through the portal with them. With a series that is still very much airing, they just couldn’t risk too much continuity plot holes since who knows what’s happening next.

And I really get that, but if that’s the case, then perhaps the first storyline should have been 3/4 issues, and then allow this second storyline to have at least more than 1 issue. The way it stands now it seems more like a cruel epilogue teasing a future crossover continuation than an ending to what was otherwise a super solid and tightly written crossover.

Art: The art was fantastic. Seriously, not only were both of the very different animated series’ styles represented in the art, but it was still very much its own blend. Everything felt cohesive without being overly off model from the original designs... Okay Barbara had some pretty strange anatomy in a few panels. Or pages. More than a few. Look, we have to do something about boob sock costumes especially if she’s going to be standing right next to April -- who’s her size and not that much younger than her -- who proves that this artist has at least seen someone wearing a sport bra before.

But other than that, I really liked the art and I believed the colors REALLY popped. And I have to also thank this publication for having the common human decency of putting the covers between the issues which the collected version of Tynion’s crossover did not have in the least.

Characters & Dialogue: Obviously a crossover is going to boil down all characters to the characteristics fans identify them with the most both for recognizability and so that we have the fun of seeing favorite characters bouncing off each other through a crossover. What’s the Joker like with Shredder, what’s Raphael like on fear gas, what’s Batman’s exchanges with Leonardo like.

That’s the fun of a crossover and I don’t really expect noncanon crossover comics to dive into a character study and provide any type of growth throughout the issues. It’s good fun.

That being said... I’ve never been a huge fan of Don’s girl craziness in the TMNT 2012 series but could let it pass for his genuine affection for April that is beyond “oh wow a girl!!!”, they have a genuine relationship. But having him drooling over Barbara all the time just makes me annoyed.

And also means that we can add Donatello of the freakin’ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to the never ending list of characters in comics who have hooked up with or fallen in love with Barbara Gordon. Let the woman live, people.

Other than personal nitpicks, though, the characters are great and it felt like the best of what I love from both of these cartoons brought together.

DC’s Batwoman (2017-present) #6 Marguerite Bennett, James Tynion IV, Renato Arlem, Adriano Lucas

Oh, my long standing annoyances, will you ever allow me the peace of just enjoying a story instead of giving me a reflexive groan to the heavens each time I start reading tropes I don’t like. Like Bad End Future flash forwards where everything is fascist and terrible?

Maybe. Depends on how gay things are allowed to be. So let’s get into it -- can Marguerite Bennett’s ability to write almost anything to my liking, can she make a Same As It Never Was Future Tense The Savage Time Futures End 2099 Watchmen Current America that I’ll appreciate reading?

No. But the effort is incredibly commendable!

Story: As is probably gathered by my response here to begin with, I’m not easily won over by this “darkest timelines” filler stories be it in comics or movies or television episodes. It just rarely affects the current storyline of the characters, will be retconned or lead to huge plot holes in the future, or just in general has nothing particularly fun or interesting to say.

And I’ll be honest, current times just make me that much less interested in fascism being used in my escapist media. Like. Guys I just want to watch superheroes punch Nazis, not my lesbian Jewish superheroes help begin some sort of fascist totalitarian state with way too much Nazi imagery like good lord.

Anyway, there were things that I found interesting from the start. Kate seems to be trying to dismantle the system she is guilty of starting, Jason is... honestly he’s somehow the Dick Grayson of Batman Beyond 2.0 and working with Kate so that’s weird.

Somehow, beyond all common sense, Harvey Bullock is still alive?

I do like Renee as Commissioner but as sweet as it is to have older lesbians in a comic... *long suffering sigh* Look, I might be sensitive to this because I just watched Atomic Blonde or maybe because I’ve always been pretty uncomfortable with the treatment Renee has gotten compared to Kate but... There’s just something supremely off putting to me that a brown woman is portrayed as having the long standing unrequited love and can’t move on to find her own happiness and then dies for the tragedy of the white woman.

We really have to look at these patterns and start questioning things here.

Also Tim is evil Batman. Again. Stop doing that, Tim. I barely put up with it during “Titans Tomorrow”, and I don’t nearly have that much of a relationship with your current incarnation that I had with that Tim. Just saying. Watch your butt, Birdboy.

Art: The art is very good. There’s a few fun action splash pages, I thought the panels were organized and flowed really well, and best of all I really enjoyed the fact that Gotham actually had color to it for once.

Too many times artists seem to think that Gotham can only work in shades of gray, but I found the cityscapes a lot more interesting and popping with this style. So that’s encouraging that we may once again get a change in how Gotham looks.

Characters & Dialogue: Bennett is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers so far as characters go -- I’ve enjoyed almost all her work from both DC and Marvel and she maintains that here. I don’t know how much input Tynion has on the Batwoman scripts right now to earn that writing credit but being more familiar with Bennett’s work now I really felt this story was more hers than his.

That being said, and as strong as the characterization is, I’ve always felt that Bennett does have a tendency to write internal monologues from characters with this distant narration that feels cold and impersonal to the story being told. That works here, given the circumstances and how this is supposed to feel alien and unfamiliar to the Kate we have been reading in the previous issues. But I would argue that it’d work better if most of the internal monologuing and narration didn’t come off that way in other stories.

Image’s Descender (2015-present) #23 Jeff Lemire, Dustin Nguyen

Man is Image killing it with their creator owned line. It’s hard to imagine what sci-fi could really elevate the genre in comics more than the likes of Saga but it absolutely feels like Descender is aiming squarely for that spot, taking the more cerebral route of an AI or Blade Runner which is needed more in comics in a way that’s still approachable. But other than nerds like me, does it manage that approachability?

Couldn’t tell you since I am a nerd like me, so I’ll just lay out my perspective.

Story: It feels like for over 20 issues now we have been building to the point where all of these factions of characters would meet and their plots would begin to overlap, which makes it all the more just shocking that we’re at that point. It’s definitely a huge task given the sheer number of characters in the cast at this point, but I am also incredibly tempted to say that because we’re in the middle of this “chapter” (and yes I’m saying that a lot this week) you really feel the lack of a beginning or ending on this one. We have so many characters we’re following at one time that there’s not really any other way to tell this story but in fractions. And as enjoyable as that is, it means you either have to sacrifice POVs every couple of issues, or you have to drag out tension for each plot across multiple issues. And we’re doing the latter.

Now I don’t want that to come across as a condemnation, it’s just a fact of the way this story’s being told. And personally I don’t think that makes individual issues as rewarding as it is to read a whole chapter in succession. And yet, I can also say with confidence that what I do love about this story and how I’m hooked on finding out what happens next, I personally feel invested enough to buy per issue rather than wait for trade, at least for now. So perhaps I’m too analytical on this issue right now. After all, I’m not having difficulty remembering from issue to issue what each group’s plot is or what danger we left them off at the time before, and it’s usually when that begins to blur that I feel a comic is worth waiting until the trade.

Art: I am a huge fan of Dustin Nguyen, as always, but I’m once more burdened with the question in my own mind “is the water colors fitting for this harsh, slick, futuristic setting” and I just still can’t say that I feel that it is. It’s beautiful, and as someone who has been reading comics with Nguyen’s style since all the way back during the Winick run on Batman, it’s impressive how far his style has developed and how much he’s honed his craft. But that doesn’t mean that specifically the choice to make this a textured water color comic rather than a digital comic was the best aesthetic choice, and I know at this point I am beating a dead horse with that opinion, but it’s just what strikes me as so off putting each issue. Especially since we are in a science fiction story, taking place almost entirely in outer space, and yet the majority of backgrounds as well as space between panels is white. It’s just a real disconnect that I can’t tell yet if it’s being inventive or going to eventually have a symbolic meaning with the story.

Guess I’ll have to wait and see with everyone else!

Characters & Dialogue: Another difficulty with this kind of storytelling and seeing every character for a few pages each issue is that there’s not a whole lot of time to really advance characterization unless it’s over the span of a whole chapter. So I have to imagine that things that seem small in the moment -- Tim-21′s escape, the doctor saving Telsa, Effie telling the Nagoki what he “wanted to hear” will all have vast implications in the upcoming issues, but it’s not something I can dissect as it is now.

That being said, I really do love all these characters and I love how lovable they can be while still understanding how they can view each other as utter monsters due to their own pasts and motivations. It’s pretty amazing work on Lemire’s part.

Marvel’s Generations: Wolverine & All-New Wolverine (2017) #1 Tom Taylor, Ramon Rosanas

Somehow, someway it snuck up on me over the past year or so that Tom Taylor just has absolutely made my life better with his contribution to comics. Like, that’s a weird epiphany to have in the middle of a Wednesday night, but my friends on Discord with me last week got to witness it in real time. I love Taylor’s writing, and most importantly I love how he writes Laura, I love everything about her under his pen and I’m glad to have back-to-back weeks of his Wolverine.

This week... with a TWIST!

Story: So what’s happening in the Marvel universe right now? Couldn’t tell you. I imagine the timey wimey shit for Secret Empire has allowed for this crossover within a crossover within a summer event but I have no actual context other than I wanted to pick this, the Ms. Marvel, and the Spider-Man comics up. Because that’s how I role. I have wisely stuck to my guns throughout this summer and only read Marvel titles which, y’know, fucked off into space for a whole summer-long arc rather than stay around for Nazi Apology feat. Steve Rogers of Earth-whatever. I’ve been much happier for it!

The point is, we get a crossover with Wolverine and Wolverine. A Logan from before he knew Laura, and a Laura who... looks like she’s in her X-Force uniform for some reason? Uh. Again I’m completely going in blind on this one I have no context, but we’ll assume it’s a pre-All-New Wolverine in spite of titles because she doesn’t seem to have any problem murdering people and that’s like a whole Thing in All-New and I can’t imagine Taylor, who’s writing it, would like... forget that.

Anyway, it’s an excuse for a team up where Laura is helping Logan same Amiko from being kidnapped by the Hand and gives her some life advice while getting some much needed life advice of his own. And it’s as simple as that and yet not simple at all. Like most of Taylor’s stuff, the embrace of the general comic book premises belies a much deeper purpose that you can look for, and this is all about Laura and Logan’s relationship, or at least the relationship they both wish could have been. It’s closure in a way, for Laura to receive an open hug from a Logan that’s still very much her Logan, but is not yet as jaded as to not give her a much needed hug.

Oh, Logan. Whenever you eventually reincarnate yourself back into the main Marvel Universe as yourself and not a clone or another universe’s son or another universe’s angry grandpa or as another long lost son or as another clone or as a dying salamander, I hope you keep this message to heart.

Art: It’s wonderful. I mean the anatomy’s great, the colors are muted but still varied, there’s some real tone to Laura that some artists don’t give her enough of. I could nitpick a few things like costumes (woops already did) or that Logan didn’t meet my personal Hairy Enough for Wolverine requirement, but the main criticism I’m really going to have here is that this had a very simple panel structure for the majority of its pages which could use some more variation, especially for action scenes. But then again the best scenes weren’t action but were of the characters actually interacting so I think simple panels for simple things is more than appropriate.

Characters & Dialogue: I’ll be the first to admit that Logan’s not really my guy. I don’t go out of my way to read a lot of Wolverine where he’s not in a team book or a crossover or a team-up or another team book or another crossover or a tv show or another team book. And I have a lot of frustration with him in the majority of those. It’s kinda my thing with Bruce Wayne -- when I love him, I love him, when I don’t, I really don’t.

But, to me... this was good! It was maybe even great. Strangely dynamic for Logan and it was just overall interesting to see Logan written by Taylor and it not being from Laura’s perspective. I’m so used to his voice for Laura that the gruffer, less nonsense and more weary tone from Logan was surprising and fitting. And it made the final pages just that much more poignant.

And of course Taylor’s Laura is just my tastes to a T. So everything’s good by my account.

DC’s Gotham City Garage (2017-present) #1 Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Brian Ching

I had no idea this book was coming out. I had never seen advertisements for it. I had no idea what to expect. And what I got was Robo Cop meets Fury Road meets Road Warrior meets DC Bombshells. And maybe Blade Runner.

Given that this is a digital first and I wasn’t really sure what to expect and I still have... no idea where this could be going or what it’s based off of other than those statues that used to be sold by DC with everyone on motorbikes and the mentality of “hey people like Bombshells! Let’s try this statue collection too!” with apparently no memory of how that worked out for them with Ame-Comi Girls.

Did I mention this is trying to repeat the lightning in a bottle of Bombshells? I feel like that can’t... really be... overstated.

Story: uhhhhhh Well. This is tough to nail down because as a Digital First it’s very short and I also have no idea what’s going on so my judgments here are... lacking, let’s say. And I have nothing but questions. Like. Why is it in Gotham and fascists are Batman themed while Lex Luthor is in control. Why is Kara adopted by Jim Gordon. Why is there a picture of Barbara and Kara together but no mention of Babs in Kara’s monologues or so on. Why are humans robots and robots humans. Are humans robots at all. How did Jim know about Kara’s super powers if she’s never been in the sun before.

I k now I’m just listing questions but that’s basically everything that happened to me while I was reading and I just... have no answers to give you.

I just think we can all agree that Big Barda does, indeed, wear a mohawk just like she wears everything else: like a boss.

Art: It’s fine. I mean, digital comics are always a bit rougher around the edges due to their incredibly tight update schedules and I always try to account for that. And it’s a cute, inoffensive style that definitely is going to try to undercut the no doubt supremely scanty clothing of the... garage...girl...people. And I liked how dull and gray toned everything around Kara looked in the Garden while outside there was almost a sort of sepia tone but the real colors came in with the... garage....girl...people. But even then, there are little visual cues throughout, like Kara’s own colorful accents despite wearing “assimilated” clothing. No doubt that’s going to be gone soon when she joins the...

Again, I can’t express enough about how much I don’t know what’s going on.

Characters & Dialogue: We really only have Kara as a character right now and while she definitely has a voice, it’s not really one that I would say stands out in the crowd of YA character types. I’m not trying to be dismissive of that -- I actually think that Kara has always worked best as one of the Youths’ outlets in comics, but it’s basically just. Too early to really give my feel on things.

Basically I feel like I wasted everyone’s time with this review lol

DC’s Justice League of America (2016-present) Vol. 1 Steve Orlando, Ivan Reis, Andy MacDonald

I have some huge reservations about this title, but after really thoroughly enjoying the Road to Justice League of America Rebirth storyline that came before this, and loving the majority of the lineup as much as I did, I was ready to give this comic some time to really find its feet. Not to mention I’ve enjoyed Orlando’s work in the past. But now we have to see how well lofty expectations hold up.

Story: I’ll be honest with you, the most distracting part of this entire project is that Bruce is like... bankrolling 40 different superhero teams right now with none of them being the Outsiders and I find that shocking and unusual. Especially since there’s already a Justice League, Bruce seems to be making this particular team all about “second chances” and...Lobo’s on it.

But to my surprise, this was actually addressed by the story. Not answered by any means, but the characters for the most part seem very self-aware of the oddness of their team given Dinah and Frost’s conversation with each other on the subject. They allude to there must be some reason that Bruce has decided on the team that he has if he’s willing to go through all of this trouble.

Especially Lobo. Who is on a Justice League team. This is... Well it’s a thing, for sure.

Throughout this volume all of the cast gets major moments to shine, I felt like, and the relationships were explored to quite an extent, but this falls into the problem that so many other comic books from DC does too, and that is that no moment can be too great or grand... without Batman immediately showing you up, taking credit for the situation, or just completely dismissing it out of hand. Oh, classic Batdickery.

Art: I actually felt the art was very good under both main artists on this title. It’s very house standard, in that it’s very much trying to replicate the Jim Lee standard style that almost all the DC line was all but forced to produce at the start of the New52. But it’s still fun and I enjoy the costume designs for everyone, especially Vixen who seems to have my favorite costume I’ve seen on her yet.

Characters & Dialogue: This is a huge cast, so the ability to focus on any character... other than Batman, I’m sure for regulars to comics this is the furthest thing from a surprise. Still, there are some genuinely unexpected relationships, most of my favorites revolving around Ryan Choi.

Most of these characterizations aren’t going to be groundbreaking for any of the characters, but of course this is also the only place where you can get most of these characters anymore, which sucks especially if they’re some of your favorites. So there’s that.

DC’s Super Sons (2017-present) #7 Peter J. Tomasi, Jorge Jimenez, Alejandro Sanchez

The real question of the ages is, does there exist a title that is having more fun with its premise right now than Super Sons? And honestly, I don’t think the answer to that question is “yes” because Super Sons is a complete riot every issue and it continues to invite everyone along for the ride. It’s honestly really impressive.

This issue continues with Jon meeting Damian’s Teen Titans and getting his foot through the door for a real team up. And that’s exactly what the world needs.

Story: We have another mid-storyline issue here but once more we have one that knows how to make a single issue feel really encompassing. We have Jon joining the Titans, proving himself to everyone but Damian (who’s just a grouch and old and it’s hilarious that he looks like Old Man Bruce from Batman Beyond), and really beginning to finally fight back against some of Damian’s nastier moments.

It’s simple, but it works because of that simplicity and fun. The premise is easy to follow and I can easily see a new fan picking this issue up as their first comic and being engaged from start to finish.

And then we even get left on a cliffhanger that is beyond just “uh oh bad guys!” We just learned that Damian’s treatment of Jon and his insistence that they’re “training” is at least partially because Lois is behind it.

Mind. blown. Way to go, Maaaahhhhmmm!!

Art: I have absolutely fallen in love with Jorge Jimenez’s art on this series. It’s so unique and fun. I love how fantastic the colors work with the bright storytelling, the way action scenes really do seem diverse and varied. But most of all I love that it’s just so expressive for Damian and Jon, their adorable faces make a great range of emotion and look endlessly endearing.

Characters & Dialogue: This is mostly Jon-centric, though Damian gets some good moments too. And for Jon, what his character needs and has needed for a while now is confidence and a belief in himself. He wants praise from Damian and other superheroes, but even in the moments where he gets that, it’s clear that his father’s words about needing to help people are at the core of his real desires, and that’s what has carried him this far.

And while I do think that Damian’s prickliness is lovely and a trait which should never go away, it’s honestly really encouraging to know that, for at least this story arc, a good amount of his treatment toward Jon has been revealed to be because he feels responsible for Jon at Lois’ request, and I love that about Damian. It’s a similarly frustrating trait he shares with his father, I must say.

DC’s Wonder Woman (2016-present) #28 Shea Fontana, David Messina, Romulo Fajardo Jr.

Just as I wasn’t really hesitant to call out Rucka’s run on this title, I held nothing back in the last issue when it came to my reservations about the current storyline and whether or not Fontana’s voice would really capture the essence of what had made not only the previous run so great but had made Wonder Woman so great throughout it.

Reservations are gone because I’m officially on board with this run and feel like we have regained the momentum and understanding of Diana’s character that I had dearly missed, specifically her relationships and how much she treasures them to her literal fault. But let’s not give it all away.

Story: Like I’ve said many times before, the midsection of any ongoing storyline is going to be difficult because there’s this real lack of a beginning and ending to it most of the time, and one of the strengths that I praised Greg Rucka for in previous Roundups and reviews on this blog is his ability to know how to make a comic feel like a completed arc of its own while feeding into a greater narrative, which is something of a dying art even among the greats in comic book writing today. While I wouldn’t say there’s necessarily resolution in this issue, Fontana proves that she understands how to make a single issue story work.

Diana has a bounty on her head, something that doesn’t seem to really surprise or upset her that much, as it shouldn’t since not only is she Wonder Woman but she has a bit of a stubbornness to her that is a fairly defining feature. What drives Diana here and therefore the drama of this storyline is actually her guilt over how her presence can endanger others -- an interesting continuation of Steve’s worries back in Wonder Woman: Steve Trevor (2017) I reviewed earlier this year. Not only that, but she has a genuine guilt and fear that she will eventually survive the ones she loves most outside of Themyscira -- Steve, Etta, and assumedly all the other people she has come to cherish.

That’s a far more interesting perspective on Diana’s fears and character than almost any writer has tapped into before and it’s honestly kind of shocking that it’s taken so long for that source of internal conflict to be focused on as it is here.

There’s a lot of levity to subside the emotional turmoil, and of course great action in which both Diana and Etta get great moments. But as I said, as the middle of a story, there’s not really a solid end here so much as a TO BE CONTINUED sorta feel, as to be expected. But I loved the arc we got to see in drama being presented for Diana’s relationship with Etta, it coming out in the open, and them attempting to address it before being interrupted by bullets all within a single issue. Good good work!

Art: I was worried about the art for this run as much as I was about the writing but I am always pleasantly surprised to have my fears proven wrong. because this was some great art. I don’t think the artist worked well with Etta’s hair texture (or knew what to do with her hair in general) and there was at least one panel where the colorist.... unfortunately swapped color palettes on Etta and whitewashed her to Diana’s skin color. It’s stuff I’d hope they would look out for.

I do love the variations in body types and NOSES especially in this issue, though. I always look out for that in comic books, especially ones that feature lots of women and I was incredibly surprised by that. Though I wish so much that Diana would be allowed to have her curls again.

Of course, I’m biased in that account, though.

Characters & Dialogue: Since Diana and Etta’s characters drove the plot for most of this, there’s only a few little moments I want to cover that weren’t mentioned with the story summary. Diana’s compassionate and forgiving nature was consistent throughout -- her mourning of the doctor, her tenderness toward Etta, her fear of endangering others, and even her compassion for the hemophiliac sniper that almost gunned them down.

I love how badass Etta’s allowed to be in her current incarnation, I love that her grudges and anger are not only justified but aren’t minimized or looked down on by Diana even though it’s a huge difference in opinions between them. And I love the comfort she has around Diana and wants to do her best around her as well.

Also I want to thank Fontana for remembering that Diana is vegan, like I just about teared up because holy crap, she GETS it, she GETS Diana.

There was a surprising amount of variation this week, which I hadn’t really been expecting given that the majority were DC books to begin with. But picking favorites is fortunately not hard when you’ve got a Class-A contender in the ring punching my lights out with feels. So for my single issues of the week I have to go with Generations: Wolverine & All-New Wolverine

Between our two trades, I had the most un and joy from reading Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which would seemingly be for super obvious reasons.

But I thought all the comics were great this week and highly recommend you check them out! Of course I’d love to hear back from you – agree with me? Disagree? Think I missed any comics I should’ve picked up? I’d love to hear from you.

Before you go, however, I need to share that I am in a bit of a financial crunch for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which being the medical bills I’m paying for my dog, Eve, who experienced a catastrophic dog fight and underwent surgery just yesterday actually.

As such, I really would appreciate if you enjoy my content or are interested in helping me out, please check out either my Patreon or PayPal. Every bit helps and I couldn’t thank you enough for enjoying and supporting my content.

You could also support me by going to my main blog, @renaroo, where I’ll soon be listing prices and more for art and writing commissions.

RenaRoo Patreon

RenaRoo PayPal

#SPOILERS #Wednesday Spoilers #Rena Roundups #Amazing Spiderman: Renew Your Vows (2016 )#Batwoman (2017 )#Descender (2015 )#Super Sons (2017 )#Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2016 2017)#Marvel Generations #Generations: Wolverine & All New Wolverine (2017)#Justice League of America (2016 )#Gotham City Garage (2017 )

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renaroo · 7 years

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Wednesday Roundup

We have an interesting week! Not the least of which because of Saga’s newest volume release which I have been highly anticipating for months. There’s a lot of storylines beginning, ending, and everything in between this week, and we’ve got a spread between DC, Marvel and Indie. So let’s see how it plays out!

Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows, DC’s Detective Comics, Image’s Saga, DC’s Titans, DC’s Wonder Woman

Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man: Renew You Vows (2016- ) #6 Gerry Conway, Ryan Stegman, Jesus Aburtov

We’ve officially gone into territories that I honestly hadn’t expected for this series to take, that being the confirmation as of this issue that this is a parallel universe where the Superhero Registration Act and Civil War never happened. But... oddly enough it seems to also be a world where Conway is happily ignoring Slott’s miniseries that started Renew Your Vows because the X-Men, including ones we very much saw were dead in the mini, are well and alive and running the Xavier institute just fine.

And just to add to weirdness, everyone’s in their 90s uniforms but Jean is married to Logan and they have an adorable daughter. How’s that supposed to work with my perception of reality? I have absolutely no idea, but Annie gets a possible future friend in little baby mutant so I think I can consider myself happy.

It’s interesting to see Gerry Conway, who in many ways as I revisit the various comics of the past (as you may have noticed through my liveblogging here) really is fundamental for me personally in how I perceive Peter, MJ, and their relationship, is writing the first book I’ve been able to read in a long time that feels like them. And it’s not perfect marital bliss -- there’s conflict, opposition, and a sense of flaws that both of them bring to the table.

Basically all the things that Slott and co. whined and bemoaned were gone simply because Peter and MJ tied the knot. y’know. Thirty years ago.

Still enjoying the book, but I’m extra curious/worried where our cliffhanger leaves us. Also wow, poor Beast.

DC’s Detective Comics (2016- ) #954 James Tynion IV, Marcio Takara, Marcelo Maiolo

*long heralding sigh and a wistful look into the distance*

We’re smack in the middle of this storyline and I’m sure there’s a lot of things that will be better once it’s fully played out, but I’m running out of ways to defend Tynion’s run on ‘Tec. Mostly because for all the frustration that I have with people being way too critical of this run -- which there more than has been -- I’m getting less and less out of Tynion’s work that fills me with the joy and exuberance that helps me want to defend his comics to begin with.

Probably because I have always said his pacing is awful, his reveals have almost no setup, he repeatedly robs us of emotional catharsis, his views of morality are about as black-and-white as someone can get out of a high school creative writing class, and just structurally I’ve never enjoyed his arcs.

What I do like from Tynion and have defended again and again is his understanding of the main team’s characters. The Belfry team, as written by him, have so many amazing character moments that they far outshine his stories and villains time and time again. He understands why people love these characters and he wants to share why he loves them, and that enthusiasm has repeatedly been a saving grace on issues that had everything else working against them during his run.

Soooooo This issue is completely devoid of those good things. Because our only goodguy left standing is Bruce. I continue to be... less than apathetic toward the Colony and the assassination of Jacob Kane’s character, or Ulysseus’ gamer-brat return. Bruce continues to be an IDIOT about this League of Shadows thing to the point that my brain breaks trying to figure out why in Detective Comics it seems like the World’s Greatest Detective can’t get a clue. And it all just blehhhhssss toward the middle.

Now for the controversy. Because god forbid we not have controversy every week ‘Tec comes out. Cass’ reentry in the last two pages is awesome for the first page and stupid on the giant splash page. yes, she’s going to be the one to take down the League of Shadows, and she’ll probably FINALLY get to say one of her famous lines herself for once (IMAGINE). but Tynion or Takara one dropped the ball on that last page by having Cass holding bloody katanas and make it look like she had actually killed Shiva’s ninjas. If this was a mistake, DC is... itself again and we’ll have to ignore it. If it’s meant to make us doubt Cass and that she’s taken Shiva’s words to heart it’s a cheap cliffhanger and we know better. If if if, doesn’t matter, it’s not what it seems and it annoys me.

I was annoyed by this issue and outside of Takara’s continued excellent work in the art department this is going to be lost in the overall storyline of this arc like every single other middle issue Tynion has written for this run. Nothing was gained for this experience.

Well, it gave me the energy to rant. And I know that’s what some of you come to this blog for, so it gave you that much.

Image’s Saga (2012- ) Volume 7 Brian K. Vaughn, Fiona Staples

Few comics hit the milestones and accolades which Saga have without stumbling across bumps in the path, and that goes nearly triple when it comes to pushing the envelope with themes of interracial relationships, multiethnic found families, clashing cultures, war, sexual politics, and discussions of sexuality and gender all at once.

But somehow, amazingly, Saga not only continues to maintain this path and always manages to find new and impressive ways to surprise me -- someone who I’d consider to be a pretty hardened veteran of nearly all forms of storytelling in comics at this point -- but it manages to make each punch still feel like a direct hit to my gut.

There is so much anguish in the trials of our space opera family for this adventure, so much loss that it’s hard to pin down what hit me harder -- the loss of a long time friend, the sanity of a former dignitary, the home of a beloved survivor, the respect of a former mentor, or -- as Hazel herself so eloquently put it in the last pages of this volume -- the loss of things that never were, the missing energy of what could have been.

There’s a lot throughout this, and as always Saga delivers. We continue to have one of the most badass trans women I’ve seen in comics to date, the fall from grace of Marko’s professed pacifism, and the fear of Sophie’s inevitable manipulations at the hand of The Will, something that will break my heart a thousand times more.

Fiona Staples’ art is next level comic storytelling, but I also need to emphasize just what a fantastic writer Brian K. Vaughn truly is. As someone very aware and concerned about portrayal and voices of women in comics, I have to say that Vaughn is up there with Rucka as some of the few male writers that write female characters in a way that truly speak to me on a fundamental level.

DC’s Titans (2016- ) #10 Dan Abnett, Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund, Andrew Dalhouse

Our fight with the Fearsom Five comes to quite the stunning end, really utilizing all of our characters and their strengths as well as their weaknesses. But what really captured my attention here was just how well the comic did when it came to showing off how truly formidable the Five were, with maybe only Gizmo not getting a real moment to shine out of the entire lot.

The Titans were believably taken down, but not without showing off their prowess first and foremost, an that’s really all I ask for in a story where our heroes ultimately don’t win -- that their strengths are still on display and it’s believable how the battles’ outcome got to where it was.

Perhaps our Seventh Ranger’s late entry with Bumblebee really showing off her powers and surprising us all does seem like a cheap way to end a battle the Titans mostly lost, but I think that was softened by showing that, in return, Karen has lost something that we have spent many issues building up as being highly important to her: her family and the memories and love she holds for them.

That plus the reintroduction of H.I.V.E. and Deathstroke has me very curious about just how the “Lazarus Contract” is going to play out here, especially with its title’s obvious signifiers.

Very good issue through and through, really enjoyable.

DC’s Wonder Woman (2016- ) #20 Greg Rucka, Bilquis Evely, Romulo Fajardo Jr.

I have been incredibly curious to see what is Veronica Cale’s motivations in all of this and why she wants to get to Themyscira so badly, and it seems as though our past and present storylines have finally come to a head, proving my suspicions correct that the two Doberman that Cale has with her are the twins -- though I thought they were common disguise and not binding of them thanks to a revamp of Circe.

Now, of course, if you follow me long enough to know my Wondy opinions, you know that Circe is by far my favorite villain in Diana’s rogues gallery, and so I have been very excited about her turn to come into Rucka’s reimagining. And it didn’t disappoint, I rather like her modern redux.

And in all honesty, Rucka’s second time around with Veronica Cale has been delightful to see take form -- moving her motivations to something more powerful and more relatable than “women be jealous of other successful women” is just so much more engaging. There’s definitely been a lot learned since his last run of Wonder Woman and I appreciate it.

The art continues to be just beautiful for the past storylines, I mean beyond gorgeous and so colorful. Which just makes me dread the upcoming more dour, dark, and all around depressing take on the present.

And if that isn’t a culmination of my feelings about comic trends in general I don’t know what is.

If I didn’t think it’d be entirely unfair, I’d easily give this week to Saga which just continues to impress and amaze me every volume, but as I read it by volume rather than by monthlies, that seems completely unfair.

Usually my weeks are difficult because there’s more than a few standouts but this week I didn’t really have anything that really stuck out to me. But, ultimately I’m going to give my pick of the week to Wonder Woman. Rucka’s past storylines are just a joy over and over again.

#Rena Roundups #SPOILERS #Wednesday Spoilers #Saga #Detective Comics (2016 )#Amazing Spiderman: Renew Your Vows (2016 )#Titans (2016 )#Wonder Woman (2016 )

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iamlordmoldyshorts · 8 years

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In direct contrast to my trip to Spain, my trip to Belgium was entirely relaxed. Rather than flying, I decided to take a bus just so I’d be able to say that I’d partook (partaken?) in that particular experience. (Never Again)

My trip to Belgium fell directly on the tail-end of my trip to Spain. Upon arrival at the airport from Madrid, I hopped on the bus and went straight to Kings Cross Theatre, determined to see if I could wisely conduct my 18 hours in London before departing for Brussels. As it turned out, I ended up with a ticket to see In the Heights (again) at 8:00pm that very night. With six hours to spare before the show, one would think I’d use my time wisely, go home, unpack, repack, relax a bit before traveling again.

One would be wrong.

I went to go see Rogue One.

I finally returned home at 11:00pm and got my life together. I was up at 5:00am the next morning to book it to my bus. (I very nearly missed the bus due to the confusing system of six different bus lines heading to the same place…but I made it!)

I slept through roughly the first two hours of the trip but was wide awake by the time we reached Dover. (You know…the one with the cliffs? I couldn’t get a great photo from the bus, but here you go anyway.)

After waiting quite a while to get through passport control at the docks, our bus drove onto a ferry where we were told the crossing would take about an hour and a half. We were allowed off the bus, so I went to explore the ferry a bit. Found a seat by a dirty window and proceeded to be impressed and intimidated by the vastness of the Dover Strait.

The water was very choppy but we survived.

First view of France! Calais.

Second view of France. Looks a lot like midwest USA, to be honest.

Once we hit Dunkirk, we hung a right and traveled Southeast towards Lille, then Northeast towards Brussels. I arrived at Gare de Bruxelles-Nord (the Northern train station) at about 6:00pm (it was a looong day on the bus…) and took the metro to get to my hostel (that was an adventure all on its own).

Brussels was the very first place where I opted into a mixed dorm rather than a female dorm (simply due to cost) so of course, when I went to drop my stuff, I discovered that I was more than likely rooming with three guys (they weren’t there…but I could tell by the general state of disarray of the room.)

Anxious to be out and walking around (you would be too, had you spent that long on a bus,) I bundled up and went for a walk.

Stumbled upon a Christmas Market here.Wandered until I found some waffles…cause Belgium.

After waffles, I wandered through the drizzle and came across a plaza with a Christmas tree and this building. Stunning, but I had no clue what I was looking at…

From here, I wandered back to the hostel and relaxed for the rest of the evening. Read a book. Hung out in the common room (literally hugging the radiator) and talked to a lovely guy from Australia who was traveling Europe for a year.

By the time I went upstairs, the three guys I was sharing a room with were already asleep so I tiptoed around, getting ready for bed, and called it a night before midnight (unlike me, I assure you.)

The following morning, I realized I wanted to go on a walking tour, so I made my way to the center of the city to find the highly-touted 10:30 tour. As it happens, I got to the plaza early (10:10) and latched onto a 10:00am tour instead. Hindsight tells me this was a great decision because I got to experience Brussels through the eyes of Adrien Deslandes with Sandemans New Brussels and it was a wonderful experience.

I truly didn’t realize how much a tour guide makes or breaks your trip until my poor experience in Cambridge, so I’m quite glad that I found a fun and energetic tour guide with a propensity for bad jokes that no one but me laughed at.

We started the tour in Grand Place, a large Market Square. In fact, the same one I had found the night prior. Please note, to my eternal dismay, that the building itself is not symmetrical. WHY WOULD THEY DO THIS TO ME?

Adrien told us the history of Brussels in this square, including its destruction, reconstruction, and relevance to WWII.

Huge Christmas tree. (Slightly more decorous than the glowing blue monstrosity in Madrid.)

Cute little cottage in the middle of Grand Place.

A brief history of Brussels largely paraphrased from Wikipedia (history included only because Adrien made it so fascinating. Feel free to skip this if you don’t care about historical relevance. ;)

Brussels was founded sometime around 979 when it was determined to be an optimal position of trade between Bruges, Ghent, and Cologne. The surrounding marshes were eventually drained and by the 13th century, the city got its first walls.

By the 15th century, became the Princely Capital of the prosperous Low Countries, and flourished. In 1516 Charles V, heir of the Low Countries, was declared King of Spain and in 1519, became the new ruler of the Habsburg Empire and was subsequently elected the Holy Roman Emperor.

In 1695, King Louis XIV of France sent troops to bombard Brussels with artillery. It was the most destructive event in the entire history of Brussels. A third of the city, including 4000 buildings and The Grand Place, was destroyed. However, the subsequent reconstruction of the city profoundly changed the appearance and left numerous traces still visible today.

Captured by France in 1746 during the War of the Austrian Succession, the city was handed back to Austria only three years later. Brussels remained with Austria until 1795, when the Southern Netherlands was captured and annexed by France. It remained a part of France until 1815, when it joined the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. This was all well and good for 15 years until there was a revolution in 1830 that began at the opera house (a proper rage…at the opera house…)

Brussels became the capital and seat of government of a new nation.

Because of its convenient location, during World War I, Brussels was an occupied city, but German troops did not cause much damage. It was once again occupied during World War II and was spared major damage during its occupation by German forces before it was liberated by the British.

Because of its history, the people of Belgium speak two different languages; Dutch and French.

Wandering out of Grand Place, we crossed a few streets and headed for the second stop on the tour.

Adrien explained that comics were (and are) a large part of Belgian culture. As a result, there are art pieces like this all around the city, sanctioned by the city, complete with placard detailing where to find the next in the series. Like an art scavenger hunt, if you will!

Right around the corner from the first art piece, we happened upon Brussels most famous statue, Manneken Pis.

Mannekin Pis literally translates from Dutch to mean “Little man Pee.” No one actually knows the origin or inspiration of the statue. As Adrien tells it, this location was likely near the city tannery and the statue is an homage to these tanneries, where urine was used in the processing of leather, as the ammonia in urine helps make leather more supple.

Though he wasn’t when we visited, throughout the year, Mannekin Pis gets dressed up for a variety of holidays and has even been stolen quite a few times.

From there, we walked straight through the city:

Another comic installation.

Supremely cool facade of a building.

Not even original content, but it got a hearty guffaw as we walked by.

Our next stop was the Operahouse where we were told of the 1830 revolution. This is great.

Catholic partisans watched the unfolding of the July Revolution in France, details of which were being reported in the newspapers. On 25 August 1830, at the opera house, an uprising followed a special performance of Daniel Auber’s The Mute Girl of Portici, a patriotic opera telling the story of an uprising against the Spanish masters of Naples in the 17th century. After the duet, Sacred love of Fatherland, many audience members left the theater and started riots. The crowd poured into the streets shouting patriotic slogans. The rioters swiftly took possession of government buildings.

Never let it be said that the Belgians aren’t passionate about art.

We stopped at a restaurant/bar for a bit of a break, whereupon I went out to scour for some frites (french fries) because that’s a thing that happens in Belgium.

We trekked up a large hill and found ourselves at the St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral, the national church of Belgium.

Although St. Michael is the patron of Brussels, St. Gudula is the most venerated patroness. She is depicted on a seal of the church holding a candle in her right hand and a lamp in her left, which a demon is trying to extinguish. This refers to the legend that she went to church before daybreak and a demon, wishing to stray her off the right way, extinguished the candle, but the saint obtained from God that her lantern should be rekindled. She was interred in this Cathedral. However, in 1579 the church was pillaged and wrecked by beggars, and the relics of the saint disinterred and scattered. (Womp wah…)

From here, we continued our walk through the outer rim of the city and stopped at the Royal Palace of Brussels.

Wide street in front of the Palace.

The Palace itself, which, of course, has a controversial history.

First built in the 11th and 12th centuries, the Royal Palace has been renovated and updated several times, even being destroyed in a fire in the mid-1700’s. The most notable changes, however, were developed under the reign of King Leopold II.

After the Belgian revolution the palace was offered to Leopold I when he ascended the throne as the first King of the Belgians. Just like his predecessor, he used the palace mainly for official receptions and other representational purposes and lived elsewhere. During his reign little was changed. It was his son, Leopold II, who judged the building to be too modest for a king of his stature, and who kept on enlarging and embellishing the palace until his death in 1909. During his reign the palace nearly doubled in surface.

How’d he afford this, you might ask? Well…

Leopold laid claim to the Congo, (now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo,) and at the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, the colonial nations of Europe authorized his claim by committing the Congo Free State to improving the lives of the native inhabitants. From the beginning, however, Leopold ignored these conditions (like a dick…). He used great sums of the money from exploitation of a mercenary force in the region for public and private construction projects in Belgium.

Leopold extracted a fortune from the Congo, by the collection of ivory and eventually by forced labor from the natives to harvest and process rubber. Under his regime anywhere from 2-15 million of the Congolese people died; a consensus growing among historians that the total was around 10 million. Human rights abuses under Leopold’s regime contributed significantly to these deaths. Reports of deaths and abuse led to a major international scandal in the early 20th century, and Leopold was ultimately forced by the Belgian government to relinquish control of the colony to the civil administration in 1908, just one year before his death.

So all in all, he was kinda an asshole. Good times.

We finished out tour at Mont des Arts Garden.

Garden

Building-side clock.

Art piece surrounding a set of stairs. Even functionality can be beautiful here.

We asked Adrien why the trees were white. He joked that it was artistic in nature and when we just stared at him, he confessed that it was due to an overwhelming number of drunks running face-first into the trees at night. The city colored the trunks white so they could be seen at nighttime. (A MUCH better explanation.)

At this point, our tour ended, so another girl from the tour and I set off on our own to find food and wander a bit more. On the recommendation of a friend, we returned to the Opera area and visited a restaurant called Drug Opera, known for their waffles.

So sweet and fluffy that they aren’t offered with syrup.

We wandered a bit more and, determined to try all the foods, we stopped in at a Tex-Mex place to sample their wares. God, I miss Tex-Mex.

Fajitaaaaaaas!

We meandered the Christmas Markets a bit before going our separate ways.

An extremely blurry photo of a street-entertainer I saw on the way home. Playing three or four instruments simultaneously, he was also making two puppets dance. He had quite an audience.

That night at the hostel, I finally met my roommates, three delightful guys from Malaysia who were studying architecture in Germany. They had spent the day in Bruges, a pilgrimage I was making the following day, so I discussed the sights with them for a bit. (A good decision, as they kindly informed me that Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child was in Bruges…this statue being the inspiration behind the historically semi-accurate film/book The Monuments Men.)

I went to bed, thinking happy thoughts of the following day when I’d get to visit small-town Bruges and spend the entirety of the trip quoting a film I hadn’t seen in years.

But more on that in my next post.

All in all, I went to Brussels without a plan. I spent the majority of the time wandering around both with and without a tour guide. I scoured several Christmas Markets (as one does when in Europe during Christmastime.) I made friends with Malaysians, Australians, and Canadians. I enjoyed the simplicity of visiting the city–the fact that I didn’t have to stick to a plan aside from traveling to/from each city.

I don’t necessarily think I’ll be able to handle traveling without an itinerary every time I travel, but for the first time I could definitely see the merits. (For example, I’m doing three nights in Latvia later this week. No plans. Just…three nights in Riga. More to follow.)

Next blog: Bruges!

Waffles and Fries but Not at the Same Time In direct contrast to my trip to Spain, my trip to Belgium was entirely relaxed. Rather than flying, I decided to take a bus just so I'd be able to say that I'd partook (partaken?) in that particular experience.

#Belgium #Brussels #Europe #Travel #Wanderlust

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hermanwatts · 4 years

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Sensor Sweep: Rialto’s Market, Castle Amber, Freas, David Drake

Fiction (Goodman Games): Jack Holbrook Vance was summoned into this world just over a century ago in San Francisco on August 28, 1916. A writer of multiple genres, he is best known to fans of Dungeons and Dragons for his Dying Earth novels, one of the inspirations for the magic system, often called ‘Vancian’, in which magic-users memorize spells from their librams, and once cast, forget them for the day.

Gamergate (Walker’s Retreat): Among all the other events of the last week or so was the anniversary of Gamergate. To which I find this Tweet and its pic very much my mood.

Poetry (Kairos): Kipling’s famous–some might say infamous–poem “The Wrath of the Awakened Saxon” has gained a great deal of traction in dissident circles. I maintain that a major reason why this poem has resonated with the current generations of young men on the right is that it highlights the masculine virtues they were never taught.

Fiction (DMR Books): Since April 9, 2018, I’ve been periodically posting blog entries devoted to what I call the “Forefathers of Sword and Sorcery”. Those would be the men—writers like Doyle and London—who influenced the First Dynasty of S&S authors such as Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith and C.L. Moore. Apparently, there are some very confused people out there on the Webz. I thought it best to define some terms and parameters so further misapprehensions don’t occur.

Art (Rafeeq McGiveron): s July draweth to a close, I suddenly realize that the last month and a half has been pretty busy in terms of updates to my Heinlein cover art galleries. In addition to new-to-me editions of books like Waldo and Magic, Inc., Orphans of the Sky, The Man Who Sold the Moon, Time for the Stars, and Podkayne of Mars, I also have come across quite a bit of things from magazines.

Terry Pratchett (The Wert Zone): Following the publication of yet another publicity image from BBC America’s The Watch, a TV series loosely “inspired by” Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books, his family and associates have once again made it clear that they do not approve of the project and have distanced themselves from it.

Pulp (Pulp Net): I recently obtained The Doc Vandal Omnibus: Vol. 1, which has the first three novels by Dave Robinson featuring Doc Vandal, a steampunk take on Doc Savage. Doc Vandal was influenced by Doc Savage, but also Captain Future and Perry Rhodan. He exists in a different world where aliens exist and other strange things. Born on the Moon and raised by alien AIs, Vandal is an improved human who uses his skills and knowledge to create inventions and stand up against evil.

Gaming (Grognardia): Naturally, we’re not playing these games face-to-face. Instead, we’re making use of VASSAL, a virtual tabletop created for wargamers (specifically Advanced Squad Leader). VASSAL has proven surprisingly easy to use, not to mention fun. Based on my friend’s recommendation, we began my education with GMT’s Falling Sky: The Gallic Revolt Against Caesar. Partly this was done because it’s a period of history I know a bit about and partly because Falling Sky is an entry in GMT’s COIN series, which my friend thought would appeal to me.

History (Legends of Men): A while ago, I picked up an old book on pirates for cheap at a used bookstore. It’s General History of the Robberies & Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates. by Daniel Defoe. You may recognize the name Daniel Defoe as the author of Robinson Crusoe and other novels. He’s one of the first early English novelists, and his authorship of this book is disputed but highly probable. This book is loaded with more than 20 stories of actual pirates, their exploits, successes, failures, and deaths.

Fiction (Benespen): King David’s Spaceship [Amazon link] is the first book by Jerry Pournelle I remember reading. I picked it up from the local library in 2006, and I could not put it down. Colonel Nathan MacKinnie’s desperate quest to find a forgotten database of ancient technology on a barbaric planet, and then spirit that information home under the watchful eyes of the Imperial Navy is a classic adventure. Jerry Pournelle’s style is the place where intrigue, politics, and technology meet, often with a heavy dose of military tactics. King David’s Spaceship is all that and more.

Conan (Conan.com): We’re happy to announce the launch of the official Conan store, called Rialto’s Market, here on Conan.com! It’s headed by the merchant Rialto, someone you’ll learn more about in the near future. We’ve got T-shirts, Thulsa Doom bottle openers, phone cases, mugs, and more for you in Rialto’s Market. You can also pre-order the Conan the Cimmerian: The Tower of the Elephant board game, if you missed out on the successful Kickstarter.

RPG (Pelgrane Press): The term: table sense. It’s what developers look for when you write scenarios or source material for roleplaying games. It’s what game masters need from you when they read your material. Table sense is what it sounds like: the ability to forecast what will happen at the gaming table when the scene, magic item, background detail, monster or whatever it is comes into use. How do you get it? By playing roleplaying games of the sort you’re writing for. And more importantly: by picturing the play experience as you write, away from your table.

Vampirella (Monster Librarian): From the Stars…a Vampiress provides a great reference guide to one of the most recognizable female horror comics heroines, Vampirella. The first section, “The Vampire Who Fell to Earth”, tells her story from her initial creation by James Warren and Forrest J. Ackerman, and other writers and artists who helped her development such as Archie Goodwin, Jose Gonzalez, Trina Robbins, Frank Frazetta, Gonzalo Mayo, and many more, to her cancellation in 1982 after Warren Publishing closed its doors.

Science Fiction (Digital Bibliophilia): Rogue Ship is one the novels Vogt constructed from previously issued stories into a ‘fix-up’ and has a complicated history. From the notes in my 1975 Panther paperback edition it started life as three seperate stories that were rewritten for this single novel. Beginning in 1947, with Centaurus II, which was first published in ‘Astounding Science Fiction’ (which became the magazine ‘Analog Science Fact – Science Fiction’), we then move on to Rogue Ship published in ‘Super Science Fiction’ three years later, and lastly have a story called The Expendables published within the pages of ‘IF Worlds of Science Fiction’ in 1963.

RPG (Goodman Games): It’s time! We’re opening the doors on Original Adventures Reincarnated #5: Castle Amber, and you are all invited inside. The fifth release in our Original Adventures Reincarnated line is now up and available for pre-order from our online store. It’s your chance to get in line for the first wave of shipments of this great new release.

Cinema (Flickering Myth): When The Expendables was first announced in late 2009, my excitement levels went through the roof. Initially it was Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham and Jet Li on board and that was exciting enough. Then Dolph Lundgren signed on, and the rest followed. By the time a mid-shoot addition of Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger was announced (in a surprise cameo where the surprise was blown long before release sadly) I was bouncing around like a toddler high on Dib Dab. The first film came out 10 years ago today.

Cinema (Made in Atlantis): During the 1899 to 1901 Boxer Rebellion, Peking is an open city with the Chinese, and several European countries vie for control. The Boxers, who oppose Christianity and the western powers, who still exercised complete sovereignty over their compounds and their citizens. The head of the U.S. garrison is Marine Major Matt Lewis (Charlton Heston), an experienced China hand who knows local conditions well. He meets exiled Russian Baroness Natalie Ivanoff (Ava Gardner), with whom he falls in love.

Science Fiction (Frank Ormond): I have previously written on my favorite science fiction series, Count to the Eschaton Sequence, before. The first book is Count to a Trillion and is an excellent adventure science fiction novel. This retrospective was a long time coming. I’ve found John C. Wright’s work fascinating, if not a bit verbose in areas, and creative. He’s held up in some circles as a master of the craft, and it’s easy to see why.

Art (DMR Books): The late, great Kelly Freas* would’ve turned ninety-eight today. As I’ve noted elsewhere, Freas started out in Weird Tales and could have had a fine career illustrating fantasy and weird fiction. However, he tied his star to the burgeoning science fiction market and became one of the all-time greats. For me, without question, Freas’ art epitomizes the look of what’s known as the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Gorgeous color, beautiful women, sleek spaceships and a universe blazing with stars.

Comic Books (Comicsradio): Everyone falls in love with Cave Girl. It apparently can’t be helped. Over the course of the first three stories included in Cave Girl #11 (her debut issue despite the numbering), two men have fallen in love with the blonde Jungle Girl already. In fact, in this issue’s final story (still written by Gardner Fox and drawn by Bob Powell), Luke and Alan haven’t given up yet. They are attempting to cross the mountains that surround Cave Girl’s home jungle, still determined to talk her into coming back to civilization and claiming her inheritance.

Anime (Karavansara): As a kid I watched a lot of movies and TV series, cartoons both western and Japanese, I read comics, I read novels and short stories and non fiction… each of these shaped the way I think about stories, and I think it might be fun to try and take a look at all these influences. And I’m starting with anime because… ah, because we need to start somewhere, right? As I probably already mentioned in the past, Italy was at the forefront of the anime invasion that started at the very tail-end of the ’70s.

D&D (Mystical Trash Heap): As a hobby for nerds, there’s a strong appetite among D&D fans to make lists and categorize things, and this extends not just to elements within the game but to meta-level discussion about the game itself. The most obvious breaking point is TSR-D&D (1974-97) and Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro D&D (1998-present), with the 1998-99 period (after Wizards took over but before D&D 3.0 was released) as a transition period. The next most obvious is the various editions: Original (1974-77*), 1st Edition Advanced (1978-88), 2nd Edition Advanced (1989-99), 3rd (2000-2007), 4th (2008-2013), and 5th (2014-present) editions.

Science Fiction (Chapleboro): David Drake almost missed our interview. Although the incident occurred two weeks before we met, Drake was directly involved while riding one of his three motorcycles. As we discussed the crash, Drake casually stated that being rear-ended on his bike was one of the ways he thought he might die. Fortunately, he walked away with nothing more than a few bumps and bruises – not too bad, considering his motorcycle was sandwiched between two SUVs.

Sensor Sweep: Rialto’s Market, Castle Amber, Freas, David Drake published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/

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mastcomm · 5 years

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Your Monday Briefing – The New York Times

Coronavirus deaths exceed toll from SARS

As many people across China return to work today after an already-extended Lunar New Year break, the country is confronting two bleak statistics:

The novel coronavirus has killed more than 900 people in the country — more than the 774 people who died worldwide from the SARS epidemic 17 years ago.

The number of new deaths that the government reported on Sunday — 97 — was the highest so far in a single day.

Here are the latest updates and a map of where the virus has spread. The World Health Organization’s director general said on Sunday that an advance team was on its way to China to help the government contain the outbreak.

Analysis: Officially, the virus has sickened 40,171 people in China. But experts say that deaths and infections are probably being undercounted because testing facilities are under severe strain.

Inside the outbreak: In Wuhan, the center of the outbreak, our reporter met a family in which three generations have been sickened by the virus.

In Beijing: The outbreak is testing an authoritarian system that President Xi Jinping has built around himself over the past seven years. A writer in the Chinese capital described the outbreak as “a big shock” to the ruling Communist Party’s legitimacy — second only to the government’s armed crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters in 1989.

Sinn Fein poised to enter Irish government

Preliminary results from Ireland’s national elections over the weekend show that Sinn Fein, a party that was once the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, is on the doorstep of joining a coalition government.

In doing so, Sinn Fein would break the hold that two center-right parties — Fianna Fail and Fine Gael — have held on the country’s politics for 90 years.

“This is changing the shape and mold of Irish politics,” Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Fein’s leader, told reporters in Dublin. “This is not a transient thing — this is just the beginning.”

Why this matters: Sinn Fein has long been ostracized over its ties to sectarian violence. But many younger voters don’t remember that. Instead, they see the party as the only one responding to their day-to-day grievances on issues like soaring rental prices and corporate tax breaks.

By the numbers: Fianna Fail was on track to win about 45 seats in the 160-seat Parliament, followed by Sinn Fein with 37 seats and Fine Gael with 36 seats. The final results are expected today or tomorrow, probably kicking off weeks of coalition negotiations over who will control Parliament.

Germany’s political red line

A political drama in Germany last week — in which the far-right Alternative for Germany party played kingmaker for a center-right candidate on the state level — set off spontaneous protests in a country that is still deeply conscious of its Nazi past.

It also raises a question: Will mainstream parties ever feel pressured to break their own taboo against working with the AfD, the first far-right party to enter the national parliament since World War II?

“For many Germans, allowing the far right to be kingmakers conjures up dark memories,” writes our Berlin bureau chief, Katrin Bennhold. “It is a red line that many do not want to see crossed.”

Context: The drama took place in Thuringia, an eastern state where the Nazis first won power locally in the dying days of the Weimar Republic. They later won nationally, with the help of conservative parties.

Related: A researcher in Germany discovered that a 17th-century painting, on view for years at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, once belonged to a Jewish art dealer who fled the Nazis and lost court battles to win the artwork back.

The hydropower dam that has Egypt worried

Egyptian and Ethiopian officials are set to reconvene in Washington this week to discuss a colossal hydroelectric project that some fear could bring the two countries to blows.

For Ethiopians, the $4.5 billion project, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, would confirm their country’s place as a rising African power. Ethiopia’s young leader, Abiy Ahmed, has said that “no force could prevent” the dam from being completed.

But the Nile is under assault from pollution, climate change and population growth. And many Egyptians fear that the project, whose reservoir is about the size of London, will cut into their precious water supplies.

Details: Egypt has justified its dominance over the Nile partly by citing a colonial-era water treaty that Ethiopia does not recognize. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt has insisted that he wants a peaceful resolution, but he has been accused of sponsoring anti-government protests and armed rebellions inside Ethiopia, among other destabilizing tactics.

If you have a few minutes, this is worth it

An uneasy political alliance

By becoming the junior partner in a coalition government led by conservatives, Austria’s progressive Green Party was able to put climate change on the country’s political agenda.

But now the party is also becoming complicit in Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s hard-right immigration policy.

That is particularly difficult for Alma Zadic, above, a daughter of Bosnian refugees and Austria’s first minister with a migrant background: The coalition charges her to defend policies that were designed to effectively keep people like her parents out of the country.

Here’s what else is happening

U.S. budget: President Trump is expected to propose today a $4.8 trillion budget that includes billions for his wall along the border with Mexico and steep cuts to social programs like Medicaid. Congress can ignore the budget, but it will feature in Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign.

Switzerland:Voters in Switzerland agreed on Sunday to greenlight an amendment to an anti-discrimination law that had not provided protection for lesbians, gay men and bisexual people. The national referendum had been forced by critics who said the amendment threatened freedom of expression.

Thailand: The country’s deadliest mass shooting ended on Sunday, when a rogue soldier whose shooting rampage at a military base and a shopping mall left at least 29 people dead was killed during a firefight with the authorities.

Rocket launch: Solar Orbiter, a European-built spacecraft that launched from Florida late Sunday, is expected to complete 22 orbits of the sun in 10 years — and perhaps help solve mysteries about how that fiery star works.

Snapshot: Migrants play soccer at a refugee camp on the Greek island of Samos, where asylum seekers are waiting for approval to travel to the Greek mainland to pursue new lives. Few on the mainland want them, and other European governments have mostly closed their doors.

Oscars: The South Korean film “Parasite” won best picture, a first for a foreign-language film. Follow our coverage and check out our roundup of red-carpet fashion.

What we’re reading: This essay in Essence, addressing the attacks on the broadcast journalist Gayle King after she raised the question of a 2003 rape accusation against Kobe Bryant in the wake of his death. “The term misogynoir — the special type of hatred directed against women of color — says it all,” says the briefings editor, Andrea Kannapell.

Now, a break from the news

Cook: Italian pasta and chickpea stew cooks in just one pan and can be vegan by leaving off the final dusting of pecorino.

Watch: The final season of the show “Homeland,” starring Claire Danes as a brilliant C.I.A. officer with bipolar disorder, is now playing on Showtime.

Smarter Living: Want to improve your sleep? Our Wirecutter colleagues present hacks, tips and products that actually help in their “Five Days to Better Sleep” Challenge. (Sign up here.)

And now for the Back Story on …

Revisiting ‘The Year of Africa’

Seventeen African countries shed their colonial status in 1960. Sixty years later, our archival storytelling team, Past Tense, paired photography from collections at The Times and elsewhere with writers and thinkers of African descent for a special section, “A Continent Remade.” Veronica Chambers, the editor of Past Tense, spoke with Adriana Balsamo about the project. Here are a few lightly edited excerpts from their conversation.

Can you speak to the decision to have more youthful writers be a part of the project?

We really wanted a certain dynamism to the conversation. And we thought that it would be interesting to ask youngish people who are really connected to the continent … and who have a sense of pride about it. David Adjaye, for example, spent years cataloging the architecture of Africa in a way that had never been done before. But he grew up half his life off the continent.

There’s always a period of discovery for someone who has a foot in a country but didn’t necessarily grow up there. And especially because the countries are so young, it felt like it’d be interesting to ask these young people who in some ways really benefited from all of the good of independence — their lives were shaped by everything that came after — to look at the pictures and respond.

What is your favorite photo?

I think the mother and baby picture [with Imbolo Mbue’s essay] and the Miss Independence picture [with Luvvie Ajayi’s essay] were really important to me because those were the two I found first, in October 2018. I held onto those two pictures as a kind of proof of concept. I also love the picture at the United Nations by Sam Falk [with Mr. Adjaye’s essay]. He’s so special to the history of The Times and just to know what it must have meant for those men to be able to go and represent new nations. To say, “Our country is three months old and here we are. Let’s talk about how we fit into the rest of the world.” I think that’s pretty powerful.

What do you hope readers take away from the section?

We are really hoping that people on the continent will read the digital version, and we’ve worked really hard on the interactive. When you look at the news photographs, it was a time when very few New York Times readers would have been to the continent. And so when we look at where we are at 60 years later, there’s still a lot of people who have never been and may never go.

And I hope what readers will take from it is a sense of possibility on the continent that I believe continues to this day. A sense of beauty, a sense of community. And I hope, interest: I hope they will continue to read some of the writers we featured.

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Mike

Thank you To Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford for the break from the news. You can reach the team at [email protected].

P.S. • We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode is on the lawyer behind Harvey Weinstein’s legal strategy. • Here’s today’s Mini Crossword puzzle, and a clue: Where the heart is (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here. • The 1619 Project is the centerpiece of a new wave of ads from “The Truth Is Worth It,” a Times campaign.

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livelikebrent · 6 years

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Stop 8: Portland, Oregon

"Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out." - John Wooden

Solid quote, right? After planning a trip to Seattle I wanted to hit Portland while I was out there. I had the time. I didn’t take much time off the year and a half prior. If I did, it was usually last minute to get to the hospital because something had happened with Brent. I’m not complaining by any means. I didn’t take vacations, only weekend trips with Brent to Ocean City Maryland, or back home (both of ours). Time is something you’ll never get back. It’s something that should be spent wisely but not cautiously. When making my plans to be in Seattle with my brother and friends, Josh and Hannah, no one signed up to come on my Portland trip. I was actually pretty keen on the idea of having some time to myself, in a city I knew nothing about and spending 5 days with no where to be and no one to truly answer to. I mean, traveling alone was something I had become pretty used to when Brent became sick. I’d travel for hours by train, subway, car, by foot etc. to see him in New York City, Northern New Jersey, back home in Wilkes-Barre or during the weekdays in between visits. I’ve always been a rather independent person...so it had never intimidated me.

My brother and I shared an Uber to the airport before the sun even showed up on Tuesday morning. He made his way to departing flights as I went to rent a car. I hopped into a black economy class car. I actually did look into splurging on a Mercedes or something I probably won’t ever own myself. But it turns out even renting one for only a few hours would cost close to the amount of money I’d been spending on Airbnbs for the week. But as I made my way south, I had an outstanding purple and magenta sunrise along with a Seattle throw back hip hop radio station. Aside from the sky everything was green, the sky had begun to drizzle, I stopped at a Starbucks (shocking, I know), ordered a coffee and plugged Cannon Beach into my GPS. I couldn’t tell you how I knew about Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach. I figured everyone knew it existed and that was one of Oregon’s iconic spots. Turns out, not so much. It was an easy drive as I drove along the coast and I passed through a half dozen small coastal towns. One of those towns was Astoria, Oregon, which brought me to my first official stop: Rogue’s Ales Astoria Public House. The establishment wasn’t even open yet but as I drove across a one way wooden boardwalk out to the bar which is the old Bumble Bee Tuna Cannery, I cracked my windows and listened to seals barking.

I walked inside, the bar tender in a Tommy Bahama button down told me to take a seat anywhere and asked if I was alone. I sat myself at the bar and as I stared up at the board of what was on tap, he poured me some beer to try. I ended up with a sour and a cup of clam chowder. It was most definitely a soup type of day. The bartender asked me where I was traveling from. I explained I was on a trip from Philly and had just made my way down from Seattle. We chatted for a bit about road trips, the Pacific Northwest and whatnot. I grabbed a shirt to buy for my Dad and as I was closing out my tab, I asked the bartender about a sticker. I told him I had noticed that it was a relatively clean looking and a sticker would look out of place. He pulled over a wooden Rogue napkin/condiment holder that already had a “Be nice you’re in Oregon.” sticker on it...he said, “You can put it right here.” I told him about Brent and why I was there. He told me about a buddy of his that was in surgery that very moment to have a cancerous mass removed. I shook his hand, told him I wished the best for his buddy and continued my way down to Canon Beach.

I think it’s kind of silly to describe a rock as majestic. But there is really no other way to explain it. First of all, it’s a massive rock on a beach surrounded by other rather large rocks. As I drove through the small town and wound up the road I saw Haystack rock on my right just beyond some homes on the hill. I pulled my rental over grinning from ear to ear and hopped out. I snapped some photos from up above. Then I tried to figure out where I could ditch my car so I could walk on the beach. I found a nearby lot and walked along the water in my vans, jacket and hat to try and stay a bit warm from the breeze and lack of morning sunshine. It was awesome. I wanted to stay on the beach all day to just take in the sights and sounds. I need to plan a trip to travel back for warmer weather and book a little beach bungalow cottage off of the main road so I could soak it all in for a bit longer.

Recognize this beach? The Goonies was filmed here. *Insert truffle shuffle move here* After my long walk on the beach I had a friend suggest a place for a bite and a brew right on the main street by Haystack Rock called Cannon Beach Hardware & Public House. The answer is YES. It is exactly what it sounds like. As I sat in an old airplane seat eating an ahi tuna salad and sipping on a hard cider, a man was buying Gorilla Glue and some screws. It’s a hardware store with a bar on one end. It was one of the most interesting places I have ever been and I would highly recommend it.

I continued to Portland winding through towering Douglas Firs and I couldn’t get over how green everything was. If I wasn’t surrounded by some sort of pine it was a tree absolutely covered in moss. It started misting on my drive and a fog hung out at the top of the trees. It was just all so lush and so refreshing to see. I couldn't tell you why but I simply couldn’t get enough of it. If I didn’t have to return the rental car, I would’ve spent hours just driving around. I wouldn’t be surprise if I swung through Ferngully at one point.

I finally checked into my Airbnb which was ADORABLE and located in the Hawthorne neighborhood of the city. You can view the entire place here! I decided not to stay in the heart of downtown Portland because I figured staying in a different neighborhood would force me to check out different areas. But the place I stayed in was everything I needed and nothing more. It was a one bedroom basement apartment right off of one of Portland’s main drags. It turned out that one of my college buds lived a couple blocks away with his girlfriend. So I could easily meet up with him later in the week after work.

What did I do in Portland? I walked. Then walked. Walked and walked. Why? Because I had a pair of Vans and all the time in the world. I’d rather see a city I’ve never been to before on foot anyway. Day one I walked downtown to hit up Voodoo Donut. The weather ruled...again, I do realize I lucked out with weather on the trip. One of the many things I did not know about Portland is that they have several (a total of 12) bridges. Crazy. As I spotted a bridge to cross I stumbled upon a place called Urbanite. I unexpectedly spent close to an hour in there walking up and down the aisles checking out the eclectic consignment booths filled with home decor, art work, furniture and odds and ends. Had I not only traveled with a carry on for this entire trip, I probably would’ve made several purchases...I even considered shipping stuff back to Philadelphia. Also, can we take note of the extremely creepy coat rack in the photo below that took 1.5 deer to make?

As I walked across the Burnside Bridge, one of Portland’s main arteries, I came across Portland’s infamous White Stag Sign.

Right over the bridge was the doughnut shop. Right outside of the shop were a couple of homeless people who knew EXACTLY what they were doing. They stood outside of the all cash establishment nabbing pretty much tourists all day long. So nobody could go to the easy go to line of, “Sorry, I only have my card on me.” Also, I will say they were pretty aggressive. I didn’t expect to be harassed trying to simply buy a bacon covered doughnut. Along with said doughnut, I purchased a couple of post cards to mail out. Again, I’m not sure why I love postcards so much. Sometimes I just write a quick note to people and others I’m trying to squeeze in as many words as humanly possible in my message. Side note: Feel free to send me some on your trips! I got my doughnut, post cards and found a spot to sit outside as I continued to listen to tourists heckled by Portland’s finest.

After my mid-morning snack I went to a couple of shops including Adler and Co, Stumptown Coffee, Union Way, Powell’s, Made Here PDX and Porch Light. Shout out to Haley for all of the recommendations! I linked the last three because they were amazing. Powell’s is the world’s largest independent bookstore. It’s like you’re in a completely different world in there. While I spent some time browsing, reading and wandering around, I heard multiple parties lost over the loud speaker. They have sections of the book store marked in colors...so they had to ask the lost humans to report to the purple section or orange section of the store.

Made Here had a TON of products that were made locally in Portland. They had everything from candy, jewelry, leather goods, art to beauty products. I kept seeing salted black licorice everywhere. My mom is one of those people that loves black licorice and yes, black jelly beans...but I think a lot of moms do come to think of it. Needless to say, I bought it for her. Still haven’t heard how they are...I suppose the jury is still out on that one.

Porch Light. GAH. I spent SO much time in there. I didn’t want to leave but I was terrified of buying almost EVERYTHING. Disclaimer: Their website doesn’t have half the stuff they have in store. But I did end up treating myself to a pretty little ring to remember the trip and such a wonderfully dreamy establishment.

After I was done with shopping and browsing there was a Deschutes location: the Deschutes Public House. The brew pub’s 26 taps featured Deschutes beer plus a selection of seasonal and experimental beers developed and brewed on site exclusively for the Portland pub. I had a sour, fried cauliflower and made my way back to my apartment. I ended most afternoons on the cozy, green velour couch with Nextflix, a cup of green tea and a nap. But that evening my college bud, Sean, hit me up for a drink. I met him at The Nest which is a local’s bar off the main drag and not terribly far from where I was staying. It was a dive bar with board games, video games and ping pong. We grabbed a seat outside on the patio, caught up and then Sean showed me around the neighborhood. We ended up at Quarter World Arcade. It was basically Philly’s Barcarde but on steroids and it was awesome. We probably spent a decent amount in quarters and I introduced Sean to my favorite arcade game, Tapper. Tapper is game where you are the bartender serving up Budwisers to dozens of thirsty patrons. It makes me so anxious playing but it’s so much fun..

Thursday was a day I spent in the Hawthorne section of Portland. I walked to a place called Pine State Biscuits. If you know me, I’ll have a biscuit with every meal if possible. So I walked a bit to earn my biscuit brunch and ordered The Money Ball which was biscuits and gravy topped with an over easy egg and a tall glass of sweet tea. I sat there and took my time...it was absolutely delish. I thought about asking to put a Live Like Brent sticker up since I had yet to place one up in Portland. But it was a cleaner/sleeker type of establishment in ambiance. So I figured it wasn’t the right spot.

After the concrete settled in my stomach, I continued to walk. I came across a smaller Powell’s location and tons of small businesses. Portland is extremely supportive of entrepreneurs which was really neat. I fell in love with a shop called Tender Loving Empire. Similar to Porch Light, but more within my budget, I did not want to leave and I wanted everything.

Friday was another day of walking. I walked 5 miles across the city to see the International Rose Test Garden and the Japanese Garden. Mind you, it was mid-March so it wasn’t exactly peek season for the roses. Honestly, they were all chopped down with the exception of a few. But I bet it is stunning in the summer time. Also, I really don’t know if that’s a rose pictured below. But it was pretty and there was an entire wall of them.

I got zen in the Japanese Garden and walked around. It was conveniently located immediately behind the Rose Garden. It was pretty interesting. There were interesting trees, greenery and moss everywhere and Koi fish in some of the ponds. There was a house in the garden with a back patio that has the best view of Mt. Hood in all of Portland. But guess what?! It was a drizzling, grey and overcast day...so there wasn’t too much of a view.

As it started to rain, I took another suggestion out of Haley’s guide to Portland email she had sent to me and went to Great Notion Brewery for a beer and a bite to eat. The brewery was awesome and definitely a place I would hang out regularly if I had lived there. It had a lumber jack theme and vibe going on and is known for fruity and sour beers...I had a Blueberry Muffin beer, a tart ale, which was pretty legit. I tried making conversation with the bartender and asking her for other suggestions in the area. Every interaction was brief. She wasn’t in the mood for conversation. So I guess then I wasn’t in the mood to over tip. Afterwards, I decided to leave the area and I made my way down to Mississippi Ave. to window shop and for another drink before heading back to the apartment.

I spent most nights at my Airbnb relaxing with a cup of tea watching Netflix. Some of you probably just read that last sentence and said, “Uh, what.” and then you probably thought, “Why would you do that on a trip when you could do it at home?” Well, it’s not something I do at home all that often. On the week days between my weekends traveling to and from New York to Brent, I would come home from work, throw on my pajamas, maybe make dinner and watch episode after episode after episode of The Office, Shameless, The Office again and whatever other sitcom I may have gotten into. My focus Monday through Friday was to work and just get through the week so I could hurry up to the next weekend to see Brent. But after Brent had passed I couldn’t do it. When he was alive (and home) we were always on the go, even when he was home and sick in his recliner, I’d be at the grocery store for him, picking up prescriptions, cooking food for him that he could easily reheat, so on and so on. Even after he had passed, the amount of phone calls, texts and Facebook messages to make plans never stopped. When they did finally slow down I would find myself after a second episode of Chopped twiddling my thumbs. I would stand up and need to do something. Sitting still became almost impossible. I felt useless. I felt like there had to be something better I could be doing with my time. So the fact that I had an entire 5 days to be alone in Portland, reflect and veg out...was exactly what I needed once again.

One night, I decided to find a movie from my mental list “Movies I should’ve seen at one point in my life but never did” and chose “Into The Wild.” For those of you who do not know the premise. It’s a 2007 film directed and produced by Sean Penn starring Emile Hirsh based off of the book about the travels of Christopher McCandless across North America and his experiences in the Alaskan wilderness in the early 1990s. McCandless graduates college, doesn’t want anything from his well to do family, destroys everything he owns and donates every last penny to charity. He wanted to live off of nothing but the Earth itself and disappear into the wild. He did fairly well for himself...during his travels, he meets a group of gypsies, make friends and along the way and works a couple of odd and end jobs to get him to his ultimate destination. He loved being on his own, earning every meal on his own and taking in the beauty of nature. He does make it to Alaska but being an amateur and not properly trained on this type of survival, his supplies begins to run out. As he decided to maybe make a return to civilization. When he packed up his home he had created in an abandoned bus and retraced his steps. He encountered the river he once crossed but didn’t account for the snow to thaw during the winter causing the water to rise a great deal. He retreated back to his bus to figure out how to continue and he goes into the wild to find something to eat. McCandless mistakenly eats a plant that ultimately killed him. When he realized he mistakenly ate a poisonous plant, he wrote one last thing in his journal: "Happiness only real when shared.”

At this point in the movie I’m ready to burst out in tears as I tell the television in front of me, “HE’S SO RIGHT.” As I sat there on the couch, curled up under a lavender blanket I was tired of taking selfies, I wanted somebody to share dishes with as I could never finish a plate of food by myself, it was nice to not be on anyone else’s schedule but it would be nice to share and experience Portland with somebody alongside of me. I had been blessed to have so many friends join me on my many stops for the Live Like Brent Tour. I was excited to have plenty of downtime by myself to explore and experience a new city. But what I had found is the same thing (in a much less dramatic way) as Chris McCandless. It’s great and wonderful to be happy with yourself, to be independent but what is life if you don’t have somebody to share it’s experiences with?

I shared my final day in Portland with Sean, and his girlfriend, J’ena. They took me to the Colombia River Gorge which itself was gorge - There was still a morning mist and fog hanging heavy in the sky. We stopped at the Vista House which is a free museum at Crown Point and also serves as a memorial to Oregon pioneers and as a comfort station for travelers on the Historic Columbia River Highway. We climbed to the stop of the house and we were able to get quite the view.

As we made our way along the Colombia River Highway we made a couple of stops along the way to hike and see several stunning waterfalls. During the car ride I learned more about J’ena. She’s kind of a big deal. She kinda was a very sought after NEW character at Disney. She Kinda was in the circus. Her family was kinda like gypsies. Again, she’s kinda big deal and I’m so happy for her and Sean.

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After we walked the final trail and saw the final waterfall. We made our way back to Rose City for a bite to eat. This is where I had THE BEST dish of my entire trip. We went to a place called Bye and Bye, a hip southern inspired vegan bar. When my best bud, Ang, went to Portland to visit Haley she wouldn’t stop talking about this place and the bowl she ate. And now I can’t stop thinking about this place and the bowl I ate! I had the Eastern Bowl which included nutritional yeast breaded tofu, broccoli, and brown rice with a spicy ginger peanut sauce, topped with sesame seeds. That spicy ginger peanut sauce was seriously the most flavorful thing ever. I couldn’t finish it but didn’t mind because it was something I was definitely ready to take back with me for a late snack. But we hung out for a bit more. We chatted about work, books we’ve recently read and other things. I expressed concern that I had yet to place a Live Like Brent sticker in Portland. I started to think that perhaps it was an omen. Brent thought about moving to Portland when we first started dating. Now here I was in the same city and couldn’t find the right spot...and I wasn’t being picky by any means. Sean then asked me, “Wait, wasn’t Brent into the Dead and like Phish?” Turns out there was a Grateful Dead bar in the neighborhood I was staying in and Sean told me to go visit it. It was called Fire on the Mountain.

I grabbed an Uber as the rain started to really come down. I got to Fire on the Mountain and it smelled like buffalo sauce. The two owners opened it because they felt that Portland needed a solid wing joint. I walked in and found an empty stool at the bar. I asked a guy sucking down beer and wings if it was open. I sat there, ordered an IPA Sean had suggested and an order of deep fried Oreo’s. Honestly, I wasn’t all that hungry from my delish bowl. But they did sound pretty good. As I sat there, it was the perfect place to put a sticker up for Brent. It was a funky spot with cool stickers all around, I spotted an A-Basin sticker in the kitchen on the door of their cooler. Side note: A-Basin was a mountain I snowboarded for Brent on the Colorado trip and it was one of his favorite spots to shred. Another notable sticker said, “Support Your Local Shake Down Street.” So I snagged a bartender’s ear for a moment and explained why I was in Portland and more importantly why I was at Fire on the Mountain on my last day of the trip. His response was kind and he was sorry for my loss, thanked me for sharing my story and told me that he would be honored to put the sticker behind the bar.

The guy next to me was just about done sucking down his chicken wings and said, “Boy do those Oreo’s smell good.” I IMMEDIATELY offered some as again, there was no way I could eat all of it. His name was Clay and he told me he was sorry to hear about Brent. We sat there and ordered a couple rounds of beers. He was drinking Rainier Beer which is comparable to a PBR I suppose. He grew up in Utah but moved around a bit for work, Portland was where he had landed and loved it. He double checked that I hit all of the spots that any visitor should. The one thing I did not do was eat from a food truck. There were PLENTY of opportunities, but it just simply never happened. After a while I decided to call it a day and ended my last night in Portland on the cozy green couch, under the lavender blanket, a cup of green tea, Netflix and the remainder of my Eastern Bowl.

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zenruption · 7 years

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AN UNDER-APPRECIATED PROBLEM WITH THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY IS HOW HE AND HIS STAFF CONTINUOUSLY NORMALIZE DISASTER. BECAUSE WE WITNESS NEW SCANDALS, GAFFES, COVERUPS, HYPOCRISY, MISDIRECTION, INCOMPETENCE, ATROCITY, CRONYISM, IGNORANCE, RACISM, XENOPHOBIA, TREASON, EMBARRASSMENT, LIES, DYSFUNCTION, POWER GRABS, WAR ESCALATIONS, ENVIRONMENTAL ASSAULTS, MISOGYNY AND MORE ON A DAILY BASIS, THE MAGNITUDE OF EACH IS DIMINISHED IN OUR CONSCIOUSNESS BY THE SIMPLE VIRTUE THAT WE HAVE BECOME SATURATED. BECAUSE OF THIS, WE AT ZENRUPTION WILL BE PUBLISHING A DAILY CURATION OF THE EVENTS THAT HAVE BEEN REPORTED, FROM VARIOUS SOURCES, INCLUDING LEAKS WITHIN THE WHITE HOUSE, SO THAT WE CAN FULLY EXPERIENCE THE LEVEL OF DISASTER OUR EXECUTIVE BRANCH HAS BECOME AND THE IMPLICATIONS IT HAS ON ALL OF US. TODAY, JULY 10, 2017

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By Jerry Mooney

From The Horse's Mouth (Trump tweets, then leaker tweets, then published reports)

The G 20 Summit was a great success for the U.S. - Explained that the U.S. must fix the many bad trade deals it has made. Will get done!