#still sad for didi though

[randomnameless]

Revisiting Yuri and Dee's support in Nopes :

It has bonkers things like :

Yes, and it's also got me thinking about how best to help those of more meager standing. Originally, I'd thought that establishing medical facilities or investing in the church were the best pathways to this cause. But after seeing the people here, I realize they are not indigents standing around with open hands awaiting salvation.

What are you talking about Dee? Medical facilities aren't anything like "salvation", it's just a place where people are healed?

Sure, some people want to participate in their life, decisions and politics so to associate them to those processes is an interesting thing... but they'd still need somewhere/someone to help/heal them, right?

And it's really where Yuri shines - and reminds us that this support can only happen in AG - because he completely corrects Dimitri, if Dimitri wants to associate commoners to decision-making, they should at first receive education :

Of course, they're already fully capable of telling you when they're hungry or if taxes are too high... But they'll need education to understand the policies and laws established by their lords and hold any kind of thoughtful opinion on them.

I love this last sentence, because man does it ring differently when you consider Yuri was the de facto guy in charge of the Abyss - where people complained in every explore section about Church/Nobles BaD - special mention to Hapi "CoS BaD they promised me they'd cure me but it has been a year since I'm here, I know I am a danger to the people living on the surface, I most likely never told them who experimented on me nor where she was nor what kind of stuff she did to me, and I haven't been cured since!"

Thoughtful opinions on policies and decisions uh?

Problem is, people aren't in the mood to learn anything when they don't know where their next meal is coming from or where they'll sleep that night.

I know some politician I love to joke about once said "morality don't feed your belly", but this is in the same vein - people can think about education/doing the "right thing" and whatnot... only when their lives aren't in immediate danger, like, say, because they're starving or on the streets.

That's where I think we have the closest "thoughts" Yuri has about the Abyss - sure it's not all roses and daisies, far from that, but it's still a place where people who have nowhere to go, well, can go, and eat.

Regardless of the Abyss...

Yuri is here to remind Dimitri that people still need to survive before receiving proper education, aka, they need "support" to be able to walk on their own legs, or decide to do what they want.

Compare this to Supreme Leader's "if the weak remain weak it's because they're too used on rely on others" and while I really dislike how Dimitri was teetering to close to that edge on his own and only reconsidered when Yuri reminded him of, uh, something that should be common sense - for a Fodlan game, I still find it very nice that this issue was adressed (and it even recontextualises the Abyss from FE16, something FE16 couldn't do bcs, Church BaD).

Now, I know Yuri can join Tru Piss and Supreme Bullshit, but is it any wonder that his paralogue is AG oriented, his supports are AG oriented (save for the ones who are always available + Marianne) and he has no interaction with members of the Empire?

Mmh...

[jaimebluesq]

oooo for the AU Ask Game, an alternate universe where JYL marries someone else who isn't Jin Zixuan? (your choice on who she marries and why!)

Oooh this is a fun one! All right, here we go... this might change EVERYTHING lol

Who does JYL marry? There is absolutely no question in my mind that the best option in terms of inter-sect connections, and a desire on JC and WWX's parts that she be safe and cared for, is for her to marry Nie Mingjue. She would have had a chance to get to know him during the Sunshot campaign, and we all know NMJ drinks respect -women-juice for breakfast - and is a big softie, like look what he lets his brother get away with >.< So yeah, JYL goes to Qinghe and gets a spare didi out of the deal!

But why does she marry? Because yes, she still has feelings for JZXuan, but he's still a man-child who doesn't know a good thing when he sees it ;) But seriously, we have YMJ which is still rebuilding after the war and likely getting more and more in debt to get the supplies and manpower to fix up Lotus Pier, not to mention attracting new disciples to feed and clothe, so they'd need an alliance with another great sect - one that's stable financially and could even help YMJ. Gusu is still rebuilding as well, so they're out, and we've eliminated the Jin. THankfully Qinghe is a solid option all around (as stated above). And JYL has known from the time she was young that she would marry for an alliance, not for love - she would be the one to sit JC and WWX down to tell them it needs to be done (when they hear her suggestion of NMJ, that's the thing that gets them on board - they would have fought just about anyone else).

So at Koi Tower, things might be a little more uncertain because these clans are based on hereditary hierarchy, and without an heir along Jin Zixuan's line, his position is uncertain even if he's the only legitimate son. So JGS pushes for a marriage - even worse when he sees Qin Su's pursuit of JGY, because he'll be DAMNED if he allows JGY to marry before JZXuan. Sadly, I have no idea who he'd marry, probably the daughter of a smaller sect's leader (Yao or Ouyang maybe), but it would be a rushed deal and will make poor JZXuan miserable - but he'll do it because it's what's expected of him, and even though he will not love his wife, he will still give her far more respect than his father gave his mother (I know, low bar, but the boy is TRYING).

So with JYL engaged to NMJ by the time of the Phoenix Mountain Hunt, things go a little different - yes WWX will bust out the Wen remnants and fuck out of dodge, but JYL will go to NMJ and ask him to help WWX (at the very least give him a chance to explain instead of denouncing him with everyone else). This turns the tide for many things because once NMJ sees the conditions of the Burial Mounds and what's left of the Wen, he will be amenable to helping - but will do so under the condition that WWX give up demonic cultivation (and in fact he suggests Nie cultivation as an alternative - this will lead to a sad moment when WWX FINALLY comes up with a proper story and claim that WZL melted his core to explain that he's core-less, and after much crying all around, they can finally move forward from this mess).

So the Nie will lend their protection to the Wen in the Burial Mounds and actually suggest they move up into Qinghe - not by the Unclean Realm, but he will give them land to live on that isn't full of resentful energy, and they will have QHN's protection. This is good, and in return, a certain doctor meets NMJ and will start researching his condition to treat (and hey, if you wanna have fun, have her join NMJ & JYL, I'm easy ;)

So yeah! One change and everything changes like dominos :D

Thank you for the ask!

[maidstew]

hello! prepare for sadness because i'm here to drop some thoughts about time travelling persephone price!

angst version

after a disaster wedding (in which livia clocks coriolanus with a bottle of wine), persephone is desperately wishing she and festus had just signed the papers in a courthouse. it would have saved so much trouble. but hey! it was over! they were married! everything is happy and great, right?

WRONG.

persephone falls asleep with her new now-husband and wakes up with a start. festus is still nearby, she's not in a bed. she's not even the age she was yesterday. instead, she's eighteen again, in her academy uniform, being startled awake having fallen asleep at the mentor desk. mizzen is alive. mizzen is in the arena.

she's carried that guilt of not being able to do more to save him- he was thirteen and persephone should have been a better mentor. coral wouldn't have killed him. maybe, if he had made it to the end, he would have gotten to go home. but those thoughts weren't enough and time moved on. until it moved backward.

it's too late to prevent anything. arachne is still dead. pollo and didi are still dead. gaius is still in critical condition, and persephone knows that snakes will be dropped in the arena soon. how soon? she doesn't know. what day is it? she's still trying not to freak out that her husband isn't even her boyfriend, or anything at all. he's just her mentor partner.

the hunger games are in progress, and there's the time-sensitive question of what to do? what can she do?

persephone has the terrible feeling that the answer to that is "nothing at all" (she's not ready to accept that, though. she has to try. it makes it more painful when her efforts aren't enough.)

(i'd love to read your thoughts on this!)

OH MY GOD THANK YOU IM SO EXCITED FOR THIS

god, poor persephone. having a nightmare wedding (thanks cardew and snow) and then waking up back in what i would consider to be one of the worst times of her life.

and god, the devastation that’s she’s there but she can’t actually do anything because it’s still too late.

but she would try. she’s carried the guilt of losing mizzen for years. she sees him in every brown-eyed little boy, she thinks about him anytime she drives past the aquarium, and god- she can’t even eat fish anymore.

so she knows that she has to do something. she at least has to try.

and she decides that she can trust her future husband enough to explain the situation. sure, she risks seeming like a crazy person, but she can’t do this alone.

and festus, sweet festus, goes along with it. he’s a little annoyed that persephone is distracting him from coral and the plinth prize- but there’s a fire in her that he has never seen from persephone price.

they play with the idea of bringing felix ravinstill into this mess but quickly throw it out. who knows if felix would even believe them- he’s never been persephone’s biggest fan. and besides, everyone knows there’s a strange relationship because the president and dr. gaul, he would never override her for persephone price.

so they’re on their own to do the only thing they can think of- get rid of those damned snakes. it’s too late to make sure the drones can’t be tampered with- there’s already too many in there. persephone just prays that as long as mizzen doesn’t have to run from the snakes then he won’t be high enough to be hurt by urban’s little genius girl.

and somehow they pull it off! festus in all his ingenuity comes up with a plan so simple that persephone can’t believe she never throught of it- break the glass and let the snakes out before they go into the arena.

so with one of his fathers old pistols, festus aims for the snake tank. and it works.

but they didn’t consider the consequences of that. they didn’t think about the avox workers that would be killed for this. they didn’t think about the lab workers that might be harmed by the snakes.

they didn’t think about how easy it was to trace the bullet back to festus.

nor did they consider that one of their classmates was a cheat.

or that watching mizzen die again for seemingly no reason was almost worse than watching him fall from the beam.

[evolutionsbedingt]

For this WIP Wednesday have another piece of this MJTY fic, though it's quite a bit earlier in the story than the one from last week!

★★★

“Zhanglao, ge. What seems to be the matter?” he asks, coming to stand next to Yue-zhanglao and doing his level best to calmly meet Shangjue-ge’s eyes.

They’re the same as they were four months ago and Yuanzhi tries not to let that distract him, tries, valiantly, to keep his mind from gallivanting off onto a magpie bridge. It’s made much harder by the way Shangjue-ge’s eyes soften with both sadness and relief and Yuanzhi clenches the fist behind his back until the leather of his glove bites into his hand.

“Jue-gongzi is rather adamant that he needs to see you,” Yue-zhanglao says, his voice still terribly cold and far from the unaffected tone he likes to use. “I don’t see why I should let him, considering your seclusion was entrusted to me and will continue for another three days.”

“Yue-zhanglao is being far too protective,” Shangjue-ge says lowly, sounding strained. Then his eyes flick back to Yuanzhi, giving him a quick once over. Something catches his eyes and before Yuanzhi knows what’s happening, Shangjue-ge has gripped his arm and pulled him to his side. “Didi, what happened here?”

His question is accompanied by a finger tracing Yuanzhi’s neck and the flare of pain drives a telling heat into his cheeks. Of all the ways Shangjue-ge had to find out, this is the one that Yuanzhi had least hoped for.

[beatsboy]

8.4.24 / 6 weeks of romanticizing my life until i love myself again

(day 42)

and today came and went like most days do as of late when it’s 88 degrees and only 8 degrees cooler in your apartment it rushed by, too quickly, not enough time to breathe, to pause, to take a moment and make sure: have we covered everything yet?

i saw friends i hadn’t seen in quite a long time, one of whom was my best friend from elementary school who i reconnected with in the last year after discovering her sister lived in la (i should hang out with her sister more) and her mom came and my mom came and my mom was dreadfully late due to some collision related traffic en route from orange county (an hour and forty drive) and of course i absorbed so much anxiety about this because my mom was anxious, because it was hot, because what else am i to focus on when this is my life in this moment, waiting for you to arrive to brunch? and of course, i was late too, rushing from my apartment after waiting for sweet pea to eat (he didn’t)

but those are not the things we remember, hopefully, if we are people who are at peace in the world we are patient and understanding and forgetful of the things that bothered us so greatly in the moment and have long since passed the way i think back on complaining about the heat to myself when Kingston wanted to be outside on a beautiful day it’s interesting how inflexible we can become when we spend a lot of time just with ourselves i’m still working on it

after brunch with old friends, the friends departed and my mom and i went to the grove to meet af at the movies. we saw sing sing, which was not the plan (we were supposed to see either harold and the purple crayon or didi but there weren’t seats for didi and my mom said the reviews for harold looked not so good, which, fair), so we ended up seeing a last-minute showing of sing sing, a film that came out in 2023 and is now in theaters, featuring a wrongly incarcerated man who finds solace in a prison theater group, based on a true story and including actual members from the program.

the film was beautiful, tears slowly crawled down my cheeks throughout the whole movie, at times from sadness or hurt, and other times, merely joy it was the most beautiful piece of art i’ve consumed in such a long time, though it feels insincere to call it art, or to call that which receives it consumption; it didn’t feel like art so much as it just felt like life as i’m reading, though, in music: a subversive history, there is no art without the creature, when we sing, we are only grasping at what it means to speak back to the earth, who has, since the dawn of time, been singing to us.

[truly-morgan]

[Possessive & jealouse LXC, feat. Wen brothers]

XiCheng | Mo Dao Zu Shi Modern AU 29-08-2021

[#xicheng, modern cultivation, possessive and jealous lxc]

Set where Lan Xichen and Jiang Cheng have been turning around each other for a certain time now (believing they are discreet when everyone knows about it). It takes months before they finally start officially courting (of course two sect heir cannot just start dating like that without following traditions! Who do you think they are?)

things are going great, his courting goes smoothly and it is even close to an end! They can soon start an "official" relationship! But then jc is sent to one of the lectures given in qishan, where he will stay for at least three months. This makes lxc a bit sad because it will make it hard for them to meet, but jc does sound rather excited to go study over in qishan so he will support his choice to do so. ("The wens might have enormous egos and be arrogant, but they are still strong, plus they are not as bad as centuries ago," jc told him).

Plus! He will go with nhs, wwx and lwj, he knows he will be in good hands anyway. He is a bit nervous because it is the first time in months that they won't really be able to meet as often as they did (although they can still Facetime, call and text each other.) and well even if the wen are not as bad as they were in the past, jfm didn't have the best of relationship with wrh in the latest years. He simply hopes everything will go alright for his boyfriend.

The three months session starts, and everything goes well, jc let him know how everything is going and he is reassured. Then he notices nhs socmed post. He knows the young man is rather active on them (contrary to lwj and jc), so he isn't surprised to see him post about what happens (he is even happy to see jc happy with his friends.) but then he notices that wrh boys are often around in the latest updates. He is a bit surprised and curious because he knows wc can be a bit to handle sometimes.

"Wen heir showing us around Nightless City, this boy is not as bad as we first thought 😜 even my best friend agrees for once"

accompanied to the post is a picture of the group at a restaurant, nhs and wwx making peace signs to the camera, lwj drinking tea on the side while wx seems to be showing something on the menu to jc. They are rather close, even for the small booth they have, although he tries to let anything bad come from it.

"A-cheng is having a good time trying qishan specialities, it alright," he tells himself. after all, who's better to suggest good qishan dishes other than someone who grew up there?

He thought it would be a one-time thing, yet as the days go by, more and more posts made by nhs include either or both of wrh sons. and the more it goes, the closest they seem to be to jc too.

He tries not to care, not to let that possessiveness in him make him fly all the way to qishan so he can kidnap his boyfriend. "I think you need to stop stalking a-sang account" jgy suggest when he met up wth his best friends, "I doubt jc will suddenly decide to marry one of the wen".

"All I see is nhs not studying enough" nmj mentioned (although he takes note to ask his didi not to post as much maybe, it would be bad to have to deal with lxc if he loses it fully because of his post).

yet, after that dinner, nhs seems to post even more!?

"Training is nearly as strict as back home 😩😭 though chengcheng seems happy to train with wen xu"

added to this a video of jc and wx fighting "Finally the weekend, out with our new friend for good food and drinks😋🫕"

added to this is a group picture, jc sitting between wc and nhs while wc has an arm around jc.

(Also are they letting a-cheng drink?!?)

"poor wen, believing they had a chance against chengcheng in a swimming competition 🤭"

added is a video of them swimming showing jc win, joined soon after by wx and wc who mess around a bit with him in the water and it goes on and on like this, where he sees his boyfriend slowly getting closer and closer to wrh sons. Even when jc talks about his days it drives him crazy how much they seem to be around him so suddenly (obviously this is all internally, he couldn't force jc to stop hanging out with friends because of his own issue).

but the more it goes, the harder he can channel out this jealousy and possessiveness. things are going great with jc, but he wishes he could share all these more /with/ jc too. He doubts any of the wen would even try to get jc after the news of their courtship went around the cultivation world.

but the three months are coming to a close soon and lxc suggests being the one to go get lwj (lqr doesn't object as he assumed it will give him a small break from lxc acting weird all the time). So he goes to go get lwj, although the first person he goes looking for is jc. He finds him walking outside the wen residence with wx helping him carry his bags.

he doesn't hesitate when he walked quickly to him, calling out to him so jc will turn in his direction, hugging him and lifting him. he is happy that his arms quickly reciprocates the hug and to hear jc calling to him happily surprised. when he finally puts him back down he keeps an arm around his waist, keeping his boyfriend close to him (he missed that so much).

he doesn't miss the smirk on wx lips, as though the young man knows what he is doing.

lxc is quick to fully kidnap jc, helping him with his bags. he won't leave jc side for a good while for now. He catches up with jc, the man happily telling him how the last days went by (also lots of kissing, which jc is happy to give).

they do eventually join wwx and lwj, ready to take jc back home with him even after wwx protest (thankfully jc agrees to it so the head disciple cannot say anything 😌).

jc somewhat already know why lxc seems so needy suddenly and he will happily indulge in erasing all his jealousy and possessiveness by letting lxc do everything with him too as he stays a bit in cloud recess.

also, a 100% nhs was trying to tease lxc to see if the man would run back to his beloved after seeing all this (he is impressed by lxc self-control).

also, a 100% wx was in it and was a bit more touchy on camera than he would be normally, just to annoy the lan heir

I don't why, I just like the idea of the wen boys not being /that/ bad and friendly once you get past all the arrogance and ego they might have.

Original

[ktzt96-blog]

Gong Yuan Zhi found someone special? (ep-1) First Meet

2 months after the battle with WuFone , Gong Shang Jiao needs to go out of the palace. To investigate the remaining WuFone hideout and want to wipe out all at once.

Yu Palace , Elder Council

"I don't agree....if you must go bring me with you" Gong Yuan Zhi said firmly

"Please consider again Master Jiao" the elder persuade Gong Shang Jiao

"Elders, I understand your worry, but we can't let WuFone reunite again, this time we got lucky and barely protected the Mighty Fire and Back Mountain. Even though I disagree with Gong HuanYu plan, I agree with what he said about WuFone. We shouldn't sit back and wait for their attack every time." Gong Shang Jiao well said and everyone silently agrees.

"For Yuan Zhi DiDi, I also know you worry about me. According to Gong Clan rules you can't leave Palace yet"

"Who cares about stupid rules? JinFu is still need to rest he can't accompany you this time. Ge ~ please let me help you" Yun Zhi uses all hot and cool ways to persuade his brother

"No, as long as you're the person from Gong Clan you must follow the rules" Gong Shang Jiao said coldly and every who heard this can't help but chill in spine

"Ge~ we all know that Gong Clan rules are easy to bend, right Sword Master" Yuan Zhi dragged Gong ZiYu who sat on his throne like he's an outsider

"If I say no it's no..." Gong Shang Jiao gritted his teeth

"Ge~ why are you ...." Yuan Zhi don't give up

"Because you're not good enough to accompany me, If I take you with me I can't concentrate probably, and waste time," Shang Jiao said emotionlessly and everyone was shocked.

!!! Gong Shang Jiao attacked people with his verbal skills is not a surprise, but the person who got attacked was his beloved spoiled little brat Gong Yuan Zhi!!!!!!!!!!!

Yun Zhi looked at his brother in disbelief, his eyes were full of tears and sadness. He gets up and storms out of the hall.

Everyone's eyes are on Gong Shang Jiao; he calmly drinks his tea and stays indifferent. But inside, he feels like someone grabs his heart and squeezes. This is the only way, or else Yun Zhi won't stop and will still insist on accompanying him. The outside world is so dangerous; Yuan Zhi is still young. This time, the mission might be vicious as well. If something bad happens to him, he can't leave Yuan Zhi alone in that situation defenseless.

**********

"Shang Jiao Ge, please do remember that for Gong Clan there is nothing more important than your safety" Gong ZiYu expressed his concern to his brother.

"I keep that in mind Sword Master" Gong Shang Jiao answered calmly and looked up in the direction where Zhi palace was located.

"You really don't wait for him" Gong Ziyu questioned his brother, he knew how much these two brothers loved each other.

"No, I better set off. Sword Master I have one request please take care of Yuan Zhi DiDi. If anything happens to him, please let me know and hold before I arrive" Gong Shang Jiao hops on his horse and takes off.

**********

"Sword Master where do you headed?" JinFan question him, that mean he doesn't know where Gong ZiYu going ... he just wondering

"You don't know where I'm going? Don't you really think it strange? Gong Shang Jiao left 3 days ago and Gong Yuan Zhi didn't make any move." Gong ZiYu fasten his step, something is fishy

*******

"Sword Master can you stop walking around the room?" JinFan groan

"How can I stop! Gong Yuan Zhi is missing ... that little devil I know he is doing something. JinFan what should we do?" Gong ZiYu is so stressed.

"I've already expressed my thoughts, to inform Master Jiao. But you still pretend you didn't hear." JinFan complain

"For this one, I don't even need your advice, stupid" Gong ZiYu mock JinFan. That damn Gong Yuan Zhi, he surely followed his brother.

**************

Gong Yuan Zhi followed his brother for days, he made quite a distance and almost lost them. Now in the city, he needs to find out which guest house has my brother. He looked left and right carefully, and suddenly noticed a familiar figure come out from the guest house. He turned around so fast and bumped into someone.

"Oh~ careful" the stranger held YuanZhi slender waist and said softly.

"Ah, I'm sorry," YuanZhi apologized, and was about to leave. To his surprise, the man held him again. Both of his hands put each side of YuanZhi's arms together and held him firmly. 

"That man look into this direction" he whisper while looking Yuan Zhi eyes

YuanZhi felt anxious, what should he do, if my brother found out I sneaked out, and followed him. I won't see the sun again.

"He walks over here" that man inform him and YuanZhi body tense

"You can't be found?" He asked softly and YuanZhi nodded slowly

"Come on .. I'll help you" He suddenly put his arms around YuanZhi shoulder and dragged him along the market.

Gong Shang Jiao thought he saw someone look like Yuan Zhi. He wanted to find out, but he's got company and walked away. Did I mistake?

**********

That man didn't mention where are they going and he didn't ask either.

"We're not being followed anymore" he let go and smiled at the boy, but that kid didn't even bother him and glued his eyes on the circus show.

"Come on let's move closer and take a good look" he didn't wait for his answer and dragged him along the crowd and moved forward.

YuanZhi enjoys the show and he even forgets to breathe. At that time the performer blew the fire towards them and YuanZhi automatically reach out his dagger. But the man stop his action and whisper in his ear.

"Relax Young Master they're not gonna hurt you" the boy seem embarrassed

"I should leave ... thanks for your help," he said a quick goodbye and dashed away.

Brother said the outside world is full of danger, and now it's not that bad. But what my brother said was right so, I have to stay alert. YuanZhi stayed in a guest house that faced his brother's place.

************

Around midnight he heard noise from outside and saw some people fighting and running above the guest houses' roofs. He secretly studied the situation and saw his brother. He's about to go out to backup his brother and he heard .....

"YuanZhi don't come out" YhanZhi feels like he got struck by lightning. When did my brother find out? Two guards show up near him and are ready to defend him. They're protecting me from what?

************

"I thought I saw you, so I asked the guards to pay attention and they found out you stayed there" Gong Shang Jiao answered his thought

"Ge I'm sorry ... I .. I was.." he don't know how to give excuse

"Who was the man who took you yesterday?" Gong Shang Jiao suddenly asked

"um it's ... that's .." Gong Yun Zhi shutter again

"You don't know him and even followed him" Gong Shang Jiao glared his brother

Gong Shang Jiao looked at the boy who was slightly shaking and low down his head with guilt. He sighed while pouring the tea and gave the teacup to his brother.

"Tomorrow ..."

"Ge! Please don't send me back"

Gong Yuan Zhi anxiously pleaded, but he was bewildered by his brother's small smile

"I want to say for tonight it's too late so, you can sleep in my room and tomorrow I will arrange a room in this guest house"

Yuan Zhi feels confused by his brother's actions. First, he didn't scold him for sneaking out; second, he didn't send him back; and lastly, he even arranged the room for him, which means he allowed him to go along with them.

"Don't think too much ... I'm glad you're here safe and sound ... go take a rest." Gong Shang Jiao pat his brother's shoulder and walked then he stopped

"Yuan Zhi" he called out his brother's name by back facing him

"Ge you have something to say" Yuan Zhi questioned out of inpatient his brother seem hesitant

"I want you to know you're more than enough, there're not many people who are capable like you at your age, and I'm so grateful and proud of you" After the lantern festival accident and itchy powder case he promised himself he'll be more openly towards YuanZhi and now he did it. He knew this word alone made his brother absolutely happy.

YuanZhi was stunned and his brother walked away, his eyes were blurry and he feels like in a cloud.

######

[popculturebuffet]

Top 20 Animated Episodes of 2022, Part 2: 10 to 1

Happy new year all you happy people and welcome back to my best of the year list. If your just joining us ..

YOU CAN FIND PART 1 HERE

To breifly recap for those who didn't go click that link

Now your all caught up, let's get to the list itself.

10. Who Violently Murdered Simon S. Salty? (Smiling Friends)

"And none of you are leaving until we solve this!" "You didn't need to raise your voice man"

Look i'm a sucker for restraunt based shows, humor and what not. I just love food, and love stuff set around it. I'm an easy orangutan resembling a person to please. So a fast food based mystery with a bunch of weird mascots ranging from the more understandable (A ketchup packet, a mustard packet and a drink cup), to the slightly abstract (Said drink cup being a man horrifyingly poured into it, a pile of salt and a pile of pepper) to the smilng friends of it (A pile of grease who cheerfuly wants to be included, two manic eyeballs and a century egg), and having all have various quirk (Mustard being a femme fetale who ends up taking too long with the build up, salt and pepper liking to kiss in the closet ("that that's beauitful), said cup talking WAY too loong about his doodies or whatever the fun twins were up to), it wasn't a hard sell. But the episodes still a nice break from form as the police have outsourced to our heroes so when Charlie and Pym find the head of Charlie's faviorite restraunt murdered after undergoing a menu change, it's up to them to solve it. It's just a densely packed, wondreful little joke fest, cumilating in EVERYONE having tried to kill him while no one actually didi t and our various supsepcts being free to run riot in the streets.. somehow. Pure comic magic.

9. The Circus (Helluva Boss)

"Son Cease this bitch crying"

Helluva boss had a BIT of a rough time getting to season 2: it took half the year, the intended season finale , a one off special that wasn't plot relevant was held up in some sort of legal trouble Vivinzie likely can't talk about legally, and in general it was just a headache inducing wait for the fans.

Said wait was well worth it though as we go tthe Circus an episode that gave a suprising backstory for both Blitzo and Stolas, and their relatoinship. It also gave us Jonathan Freeman, aka Goddamn Jafar as Stolas dad and got him to say Jafar's signature catch phrase"cease this bitch crying". Good times.

Said bitch crying is because as many fanas guessed, Stolas really had no choice in his relationship with Stella, and given Paimon's never had to actually.. you know get his sons to agree with more than that, he bribes him with the circus… the same one Blitzo grew up in.

I honestly didn't see the two being something resembling childhood friends coming.. well friends is pushing it, to Blitzo he's just a kid who was kinda neat and who he robbed a bit because his dad is the worst and sold him for an ultra slim condom and 5 bucks. Honestly it's hard to tell which father is worse, but it's clear his time with Blitzo is one of the only times Stolas was ever happy. Which is just sad. It also explains a lot… part of how stunted he is emotoinally.. is that he was kept in these palace wals never really allowed to grow or taught how and stuck in a loveless marriage.

Said marriage is somehow WORSE than it appeared.

Yeah really. Stella holds a still not divorced party and talks shit while he's right there. I'm mixed on this.. not on her being awful, given she's willing to scream in front of her daughter on a DAILY basis, treats Octavia more as a prop to get back at Stolas than an actual daughter, and called out a HIT on stolas, we knew she was bad. We just didn't know how abusive, selfish, or cruel she was. It shows why Stolas clings to blitzo so much: Sure they have actual chemistry.. but around him he can actually be himself and any demaning stuff.. is simply Stolas not realizing how much it hurt Blitzo to be treated like a toy. He can be himself for the first time instead of having to drink all the abysnth just to function.

We also see that Blitzo.. forgot any of that happened and in typical Blitzo fashion his plan for the grimiore was just to.. steal it and no one would eve rknow.. and gets caught almost instanlty. The only reason he's not dead is Stolas is horny for him, though we do see Blitzo's barb wired, land mined, and set on fire walls go down a sec as he plans to just abandon stolas in bondage.. only to realize Stolas really needs this and a few or so hours later

It shows the story of two deeply traumatized people who badly need each other.. but don't really know HOW to communicate that. Blitzo probably needed it as much as stolas did, he's just been hurt enough and it took seeing him vunerable to see past the rich asshole to the vunerable manchild underneath.

We also get ONE HELLLLL of a cathartic ending as after singing out his misery Stella barges in, berates stolas.. who finallys tands up to her. While his adultry isn't great and I do like that the series dosen't hide the effect the divorce has on octavia even if it's LONGGGGG needed, we get the sense that like so many failed marragies he tried. He tried to love her, he tried to make it work but it's clear any attempts at that are long past.. and given Stella tries to hit him when he declares their divorcing, damn the consequence,s he catches it. He's finally free, for whatever that costs him. And god it feels glorious. HIm breaking her things next episode helped even if the timing was fucking awful. I cannot wait ot see where this goes.

8. Whispers At the Zigguarat (The Legend of Vox Machina)

"I broke the world for us"

You heard me gush about Vox Machina plenty in part one

This was one of the two best shows of the year, and it knew how to close things out. We'll get to the second part of this finale later, as it's enough of it's own thing to warrant two slots, but after a season of well done storytelling as Percy shot his way through the list of people who wronged him, found out his sister was alive only to seemingly loose her again, and the party as a whole fought it's way through jail cells, half assed solo fancy mansions, crotch lightning duels, silver tounged Stephen Roots, and naked acid baths… it finally comes down to this. Vox Machina versus the Briarwoods and a brainwashed Cassandra and Vax, all to stop the power couple from destroying the world.

The episode is almost entirley one long fight scene, with the party nicely divided up: Pike and a silenced Scalan take on Necromancer supreme Deliliah, Percy tries to fight both his possed gun and his sister to snap her out of her possesion, Vex tries to hold off vax, Keleth tries to reawake the suntree and Grog gets his rematch with the vampiric brute with the cool sword that's TOALLY not going to be a problem in of itself next season, Silas.

The resulting fights are gorgeous and well built up: We've seen how much Vex relies on vax and thus her forced to fight to the death with him destroys her, we see Percy fight his need for vengance and growing possesion to save the only family he has left, and pike and grog's fights nicely give both payback for the party's first fight with the briarwoods: After getting utterly curbstombed in his first fight, Grog uses all his wits

Which amounted to fighting blind and using the fact Silas coudlnt enchant him to empale and suplex the fucker, then pull a raditz when Keyleth used sunburst.

While after Deliliah breaking her phalicry (and Ashley filming a tv show in the original stream), left PIke mia and nearly killed her future husband, pike got to strike back and show her just why Delilah was wise to take her out. The resutling fight is just one long brutal climax as the Brirarwoods get what they deserved and deliliah is left without her husband, her attempts to summon her god seemingly futile, with her sheer brokenness DESPITE being such a huge monster, amazingly conveyed by Grey Deleise in one of her finest voice acting roles. She was the crews first and top choice and their faith was ENTIRELY justified. She's left at the mercy of percy.. whose looking a little shadowy there buddy.. percy.. percy.. ohs hit. We'll get back to this later just.. hold on pal alright?

7. Thanks to Them (The Owl House)

"Dear diary: All I ever wanted was to be good at something, to be around people who also liked that something. And when I found the Demon Realm, I thought, 'Wow, I found it. I can learn magic. I can be a witch! I-I won't have to be the dummy in the principal's office anymore!' But I messed up too much, and put everyone in danger. Mama said I have to learn from my mistakes, so… I know what I have to do now. On Halloween, after the Hayride, I'm telling everyone I'm staying in the Human Realm. Permanently." So after a 6 or so month hiatus, the Owl House returned for the first of it's three finale movies, which hopefully won't be the last as said movie…is on the cusp of breaking FIVE MILLION views on youtube.

Yeah i'm proud and this episode easily shows why. Like the other owl house episodes I did a whole review on this but in shor tit finishes the rehabilitation of Camilla's character, both giving an in character reason for her hating conversion camp.. and ocne she has context fully accepting the isles as a part of her child;s life: she accepts her coming out with pride (As we all expected), basically adopts the kids temporarily (Except Hunter, he has a foreve rhome now), and most importantly outright walks Luz back from trying to abandon her friends and the isles. It's a story about forgiving yourself, something I struggle all too freaking often to do, and thus related to heavily. But quality wise it's just objectively good cramming at least a four or five episode arc into two episodes of special.

We also get great hunter moments, Veesha, and Belos back, which helped my only gripe about the collector: Given the entire series was set up with Belos as it's true antagonist and even the collector being free was his fault, i was worried about him being a quick boss just for this special.. and while his possesion of hunter was horrifying if smelling of

It still gave us a tense fight scenes that leaves our heroes going into the next fight with TWO villians to worry about, the fate of two worlds at stake and a dead bird corpse freshly baked into a teenager. It's… it's going to be a lot and I can't wait to see it in two weeks. As for it leaking.. yeah i'm stayin away from that so if you need me

6. The Feast of Realms (The Legend of Vox Machina)

"YOUR SOUL IS FORFEIT"

Yeah i've never seen a show go from excellent to HOLY FUCKING SHIT so fast, so soon but after a two episode pilot that set a lot up, had david tennat playing another money hoarding creature of legend, and was generally good, the next episode is where the series really stepped up it's game now everything was in place and set the arc of the season in place.

In this case our ragtag bunch of heroes have just found respectablility as the protectors of emon, a new house, and a rousing round of ball tag. Seriously the joke shoudln't work this well, much like the literal pissing contest from final space, but the combination of Vax wincing "I didn't even agree to this stupid game" despite already having a point meaning even with that he's still participating, to his later revenge sucker elbowing Grod in his balls of many sperm for a three pointer and of course scalan knowing all the ins and outs apparnetly having become referee for hsits and giggles.. it's beautiful.

The real meat though is on our heroes having to mingle with high society…. which while not going how percy planned (Scalan accuses a noble of hitting on him for shits and giggles while Pike and Grog pound wine flutes like shots, as is custom), they get infintely worse when the Briarwoods, our big bads and the ones who murdered Percy's entire family show up and send him into ptsd. He opens up and our team heads on the offensive, with Vax sneaking out to go investigate while the rest of the heroe sput their apperance in at dinner.

Naturally.. none of this goes well. Percy has an outburst after Dellilah, clearly recognizing him, gleefully blames Percy's family for their own downfall while Silas enchants the kings mind, and Vax quickly gets caputred after. While he barely survives, it leads to a massive brawl, which not only puts the already awesome dragon fight to shame.. but shows our heroes arne't quite ready yet in a way that dosen't diminish their badassery: they had no ieda what they were expecting.. and thus while they fight the briarwoods well enough, they still mostly get laid out and Deliliah taking pike out early means an easy loss with the team minus a healer and the team dropping like flies, with Delilah cheerfully telling percy to stop by any time. Grey's performance as Delilah, as I said, is one of her best and this clinches it, the way she gives the necromancer plenty of personality and charm.. while still conveying she's pure evil to be stopped.

The scene tha tclincehs this episodes spot though is a draastic turn that, due to not having done any research on the campagin at that point, something I was NOT prepared for: Percy's response is to snarl "You let them get away'". While the entire main cast and our two main villians (Including Critical Roll dm and master voice actor himself Matthew Mercer as Silas), are fucking amazing, Talisen Jaffe does the legwork as percy and I was impressed to learn later that a LOT of Percy's most cutting lines and moments in this season were entirely just Talisen improvising. His various backstory monlogues are taken from the game, as is this moment as Percy SNARLS as he confronts what's clearly an innocent coach driver the briarwood left, leaves the poor man crawling.. THEN SHOOTS OFF HIS HAND as he puts on a creepy bird mask radiating shadows, while his teamate sna the audience look on in object horror. While Percy was no nonsense before he had a noblity about him, and not just because he rich.. and seeing his tightly put together mask of civlity peel off as a combination of possesion and his own need for vengance consumes him. The chillingly calm "Your soul is forfeit!' never ceases to amaze me and it' sonly our heroes getting arrested that stops him. It's one hell of a moment that sets the stage for 9 great more episodes of television and leaves the first batch of three on one hell of a cliffhanger, all thanks to good ol No Mercy Percy.

5. Fire and Ice (Craig of the Creek) Kelsey pondered her literary predicament. Was Kelsey… truly like Fire? Was Stacks truly like Ice? Were Kelsey and Stacks like… Fire and Ice? W-would that… be okay?

Another episode I reviewed, as part of a decent sized middle finger ot the don't say gay bill, and another classic. It also cements that had I gotten my act together Craig of the Creek would've had a place high on this list for some time, but even with a show this high quality that essentially serves as the spirtiual sequel to Recess, updating it for modern times with way more diversity and having it after school instead of during to allow for more creative freedom, this show is an absolute delight and this is easily one of it's best episodes.

See the show had long hitned at Kelsey being gay with her subtext with a blatant crush on wildernessa nad plenty of muttual ship tease with Stacks. The show didn't really make a bit deal out of it it was just clear she was likely into girls. The creators even just casuallyr evealed she and stacks were both gay via word of mouth. But the clever trick here is that just because the audeince could tell to the points the creator sdidn't bother waiting to confirm it.. dosen't mean the CHARACTER knows their gay.

As such this episode is one long coming out story for Kelsey and even then only the first, most important, and most nervewracking party ESPECIALLY for a young child: admitting it to yourself. Like Kelsey I ha dcrushes on men before realizing I was bisexual, but just.. never relaized it was more than appricating a man looks good. And I was about twice her age when the wave of terror of realizing hit me. So all these feelings of realizing this is real, not knowing what to do.. are hard.

It's doubly hard on Kelsey who has this relization in front of a target and is crushing on someone who not only may like her back, but is one of her closest friends. Kelsey's friendship with Stacks steadily grew over the series, the extroverted kelsey suprisingly meshing well with the introvert who prefers to stay in the library. The two even shared their love of reading with a secret society/book club that's progressed into writing their own books, all set up by previous episodes.. for the payoff here. Kelsey writes an adventure story reminicent of she ra with obvious avatars for her and stacks.. that are into each other. The problem is Kelsey and Stacks, being childrens, didn't realize their avatars were each other nor what that meant till Craig blurted it out for everyone. In his defense he both ENTIRELY doesn't realize what this means for both of them or the pain it would cause and as we see later in the same season wit his own love life it took him MONTHS to realize Wildernessa liked him after flat out confessing during capture the flag, and the obvious tension during breaking the ice. Craigy Boy is many things, most of them good.. but oblvious is very much one of them.

So this leads Kelsey into a panic as she realizes what this means and avoids stacks worrying about both destroying her friendship and how to progress the story… knowing it could mean progressing her relationship. We also get a nice moment as Craig misses the point.. but in a nice subtle bit JP POSSIBLY dosen't. It's left nicely vauge: my surrogate son is entirely dense… but there are little cues int eh animation that tell me him taking Kelsey to Kat, his sister Laura's girlfriend who turns out ot be a writer, wasn't just for writing advice.. but to help his friend sort out her feelings with people who not only likely had been there but who can ease her into it.

What follows is a truly great scene as Kat helps guide Kelsey, not only praising her writing.. but helping her realize that these feelings, while panick endusing are a bad thing.. and she should embrace htem. That having your feelings come through in your work isn't bad.. and said feelings are a good thing. ONe generation helps the next.. and through that Kelsey's able to not only finish the story.. but tell Stacks how she feel, leading to adorable handholding. Granted the story.. is far from over and hopefully we have enough time in season 5 or later this season to continue this before the series ends because damn you zaslav, as there's still a few steps in her journey to go but I can't wait to see the

4. Screech Leeches (Tuca and Bertie)

"Bertie you weren't a creep, you were a high school girl with too many hot wet sloppy high school feelings to know what to do with. Be kind to that creepy baby bertie, she wormed her way into my heart. " "Awww i'm your heart worm"

Another show bows out of this list though unlike Close Enough, where it comes off as JG Quintel has moved on… eeriley well at that, it's clear Lisa Hanawalt hasn't given up yet and the show might find yet another home. And given Season 3 was as good as ever and left with a lot of places to go, i'm hoping for. For now though the show left with a stellar season and one episode in paticular sucker punched me in the emotoinal gut. And while it sadly lacks Matthew Rhys using his belos voice as a sexy tree, speckle for more than one cameo or Tuca giving literal birth to bertie

It was easily the best of the season. Screech Leeches is really a stand alone, focusiong on Bertie as she spirals over her high school friend Muriel making a jordan peele style horror film that she feels is about her. What follows is a very long very painful flashback that shows just how lost Bertie was after her molestation: Her parents, as already establisehd didn't want to talk about it, her counciler was useless and her friends were worse than useless, none of them realizing what they did wrong or that it wasn't scoring… though one did go professional at being a bitch so… good for her..

Bertie does find a friend in Muriel who for the moment is what she needed: someone willing to lash out, who also had been sexually asaulted and gotten no help, and who helped her be angry. It's the kind of friendship we've all had: where you find someeone cooler than you and latch onto them.

And as we see while Bertie does start copying Muriel not only did muriel encourage it.. but then lead her on by kissing her. While Bertie then became a bit.. too obessive, it's as Tuca says at the end: She was a little creepy.. but also awash in 80 pounds of hormones, at a loss of any directoin. It makes Muriel rejecting her and tearing the poor girl apart so painful and there's no real cathariss: the film wasn't about her, and there's no real indication things would ever get solved. And that's how life is sometimes. Sometimes one of the worst moments of it. .is just an object lesson more than something you'll ever get real closure on. Hopefully the same won't be said for this series

3. The Beginning of the End/All-In/The Hardest Thing (Amphibia)

"Change can be difficult, but it's how we grow. It can be the hardest thing to realize you can't hold on to something forever, sometimes you have to let it go. But of all the things you let go, you'd be surprised what makes its way back to you."

Amphibia came to a close and while as I mentioned last part, the last batch of episodes was more.. okay.. the finale.. was true magic. While it's first part, The Beggining of the End was part of WHY that batch was okay, having the assembled army just go

When Anne was captured, which made little sense and felt like we just wasted a good chunk of build up building these armies when it amounted to fuck all. It's why this one didn't score higher, despite making it all the way to #3: it felt like an insulting waste in a series that really wastes little.

Thankfully what followed is easily one of the best tv finales i've seen, a masterful hour and a half (While the hardest thing was seperated it's basically one big movie) of payoff. And one of the first things it does once our heroes escape the floating castle, is make something I disagreed with, Anne's Parents staying behind, into something badass as they've become trained badasses in super suits and Mr. X, having done his face turn we all knew was coming now he realized that not all aliens are bad, just the one with floating final boss castles.

We get the epic battle we were promised.. as well as three excellent payoffs to each of the calamity trio's arcs: Anne shows how far she's come whil epunching a dictator in the face, Sasha fights her own self doubt and Darcy, and Marcy herself rejects what she's always wanted after realizing what other people wants matter and she can't just avoid reality. We also get abuses of goverment property, the Plantars conquering the very beings that took the kids parents so long ago, and k-pop, which is better than I ever thought it'd be. Yes i'm old. I know.

The final part dosen't let up with one final battle with the Core (Who I felt ended up underdeveloped , another small crtique), with an utterly epic version of no big deal.. and a truly tearjerking goodbye as our heroes have to accept amphibia is gone.. and instead of feeling like a copout.. it worked. I didn't like all the seperation.. but it worked for the theme matt was going for: Sometimes you have to say goodbye, nothing lasts forever.. but what the people you met taught you does.. and maybe just maybe they'll come back to you. And all live in a house together and be gay with each other. one can only hope. it was a truly fitting end to a truly amazing cartoon that became so much grander than I ever imagined and will stick me with me for some time. It's hard to let it go.. but this ep made it so much easier.

2. The Darkness Within (The Legend of Vox Machina)

"I know your in there. Darling, take off the mask…

See I hadn't forgot Percy getting ready to murder his tormenter. I did however didnt' mention things were even worse as Keyleth tearjerkingly took the bullet for Vex, who had been absolutely terrible to her all season worrying she'd loose her brother if he shot his shot with the ashari. Oh and Pike is gone, her astral projection she'd been using having run out

So it's not the best time for Orthax, the shadowy demon Percy unknowingly made a pact with and who increased his bloodlust for those who wronged him, to fully posses percy as Delilah taunts him, wanting him to finish the job.. so he can take full root in the man's soul and full control of the metaphorical demon he's unleashed, the creation of the gun. It's Percy's long dark knight of the soul and while it's clear Orthax nearly has him at this point and he knows he's being controleld by something.. he's not resiting at first. After all Deliliah destroyed his life, killed almost everyone he's ever loved, tourtured everyone in his home town, done countless other attrocities.. why not put one between the eyes? And the answer is simple: he does.. and that's it. Percy is gone.

So it becomes a tense battle between a possed no mercy percy and vox machina, who both don't want to hurt him and have to play keep away with depowered deliliah. While the fights in whispers were gorgeous, ther'es a reason it's on the list it's this fight that honestly compells me more. The fight there had plenty of character but this is the real climax: Percy versus his need to fill the void left by the briarwoods genocide of his family, versus the literal and metaphorical demon inside him, a living representation of vengance and how even if done for the noblest of reasons.. it only keeps going. As The List adds vox machina to each barrel it's clear this will never end if Percy isn't stopped.

It's also telling that what stops Percy isn't the fighting.. but a plea from Vex, love of his life and the only person able to get through to him so far. It's risking her life to stand up to him that finally get shim to relent if only for a second, taking the mask off.. and the animatoin is stunning as it is horrifying here as we see percy SOBBING with fear as he tells her when she asks him to put down the gun "I .. .can't it wont' let me".. and his solution is equally heartbreaking.. to put the gun to his chin and as Vex and Cassandra both beg him not to his response "I don't know what else to do"

Thankfully the shadowy demon puppeting him intervends then suggests him to psychological torment to try and get him to continue doing his bidding.

What we get is a truly gruelingly long nightmare as Orthax reveals himself, that he was there all along.. and uses hallucinations of Percy's family to torment him as he attacks unknowingly attacking his firends. Once again wha tfinally wins the day.. is love. This time the love of family as Cassandra takes her own turn, at vax's urging, begging him, getting him to let go… and let a round into his hand, freeing him from orthax.

The rest of the episode is largely wrap up, but well done: Percy apologizes for his actions, Scanlan wisely decides to just throw his gun in acid instead of dealing with it expense sbe dammed (Which Percy is righ tpissed about.. until a shadowy bird demon made of acid pops up as it screams it's hopefully last scream.. then he's a bit cooler about it), and Delilah gets hers… courtsey of cass. While Percy forgave her for his own soul.. she didn't have to.

Our heroes survive, whitestone has a chance to rebuild, Cassandra a chance to lead them, and our heroes are free to prance off to clear their name, taking a few days off.. which was good because the next shit show is literally around the corner. That dragon they killed.. was one of FIVE. and the others are bigger, meaner, smarter.. and heading right for Emon. See in you in a few weeks boys and girl! For now though it was an excellent way to end the season as Percy finally gets to breathe.. can he forgive himself? Can he move on? Will it take as long as it did in stream fo rhe and vex to see their menat for each other? All good questions.. but he's now free to answer them on his terms.

Hollow Mind (Owl House)

"Do me a kindness would you and call me by my real name?

After only making it to second place last year, Owl House wins top honors this year. It also FINALLY gives me a defending champion, as the last two years the winner was either on it's last season (BoJack Horseman ) or took a year off (Invincible), so while Owl house only has one more year to it, it has a very good chance of giving us our first two time winner!

For now though, it's gladly won top honors. It wasn't easy, I went back and forth between the top two a lot.. but in the end while both have some waking nightmare in there, the tight plotting, horrifying reveals, and sheer nightmare of Hollow MInd won out. In 22 brillaint mintues, we're taken inside Belos head… and neither Luz , Hunter nor the audience come out of there okay.

The setup is simple: Hunter barged in on the future CATS trying to get into Belos head, and not having fully been deprogrammed yet, tried tos top them. Luz trie dtos top him.. and so both ended up in his brain. It's a nice tense build up as the various flashbacks and a ghost child show us how Belos got here: We know he's phillip at this point, Elswhere and Elsewhen made that very clear, but we see that indeed his connection to the titan is bullshit

And in actually shocking news.. the sigils, while always figured to be something bad.. are designed to MURDER the participants. There was a lot of speculation as to what belos was planning, what his end goal was. And finding out he was phillip

So the reveal.. is painfully terrifying, and shockingly realistic… while he's using magic to do so and it's fantastical enough to slide by disney censors. .his end goal is still plainly, clearly, nakedly.. genocide. He wants witch kind dead.. nothing left and feels as a witch hunter that' shis job. That's all he's eve rwanted, why he made a pact with an elder god all of this.. was just pure bigotry in it's most gastly form. It's a simple motive.. but one that makes Phillip that much more horrifying as an antagonist. We all thought there was more to it.. but that's really all he wants and what all this was for and it suddenly changes the game: we needed to stop him.. but now if he's not EVERYONE who has a sigil dies. Every adult character we know except Eda is marked for death.

The reveal itself is chilling coming shortly after we find out Hunter.. isn't the first of his kind. Every one of the guards has died because Belos simply coudln't accept his brother was a bigot.. including the original Caleb as seen in some background flashback paintings. Belos has killed dozens of beings just for the crime of not being what he fooled himself into thinking his brother was. It's utterly chilling and Matthew Rhys gives the performance of his career as he gladly reveals everything, coldly tries to kill hutner, then gleefully tells Luz her paret in aall this.. I feel her not getting he was phillip soone rwas denial.. and finding out hits her hard. She helped cause this.. everything she loves is going to die.. and the guy responsible has the gall to ask for her help. She says no, he "can't reason with crazy" and luz BARELY surivives… it's a truly horrifying, long walk that ends with our heroes now having a short time to save the world, hunter runing and both our main heroes for the season utterly broken. It's a majestic half hour of television, the finest episode in oen of the finest shows i've ever seen.. and it firmly deserves this honor. A true masterpiece if there ever was one.

Thank for reading all of this. if you want more of my nosense you can find me HERE on twitter, and here's to another great year of reviews. Thank you all so much for your support. I love you all.

[thebiscuiteternal]

I love your "Huaisang transforms into a changyuraptor and forgets he was human" A/U idea. The level of guilt Mingjue had to have been feeling about what happened to his didi...

The original idea.

Guilt, sadness, resentment, the whole package of classic negative emotions is there.

Sometimes when he looks at the raptor that Is/Isn't Huaisang anymore, he still occasionally finds himself thinking that if Huaisang hadn't been such a brat to begin with, this never would have happened.

Even if he's partially right, he's immediately sick with himself for even letting that enter his head. To still be playing blame games at this point.

Most of the time, though... he just wants his brother back.

All of him.

[sassandsnapshotswrites]

A little blurb for @big-d-little-i-big-n-little-ozzo for our latest verse. A little peek into the New Orleans office the day after Andie left.

~~~~

It was far too quiet for Special Agent Christopher LaSalle’s liking when he entered the office that morning. Usually his fellow agent, Andie Thomas, was there before him, sipping her coffee while listening to some playlist straight out of the 90′s as she did paperwork or caught up on cold cases in the spare time they had between cases. Her desk now sat empty, no more twinkle lights and knickknacks or scattered papers. Just a normal desk as if no other person had ever sat behind it.

It didn’t sit well.

Supervisory Special Agent Dwight Pride walked in right as LaSalle sat down, frowning as he too took in the absence of Agent Thomas. He sighed as he settled at his desk and did his best not to focus too much on the silence that had so suddenly descended.

Finally LaSalle couldn’t take the quiet any more and spoke. “Did you have to let her go, King?” he asked, dropping his pen as he leaned back in his chair. “There really wasn’t anything you could’ve done to keep her from gettin’ sent to D.C.?”

Pride had known this was going to crop up, thinking back to the last conversation he’d had with Andie before he’d made the official announcement to the team.

Pride was far from happy as he argued with Director Shepard, explaining why she couldn’t just up and take one of his agents despite being the head of the agency. He glanced over at the agent in question and saw the pensive look on her face, asking for a moment to them to speak privately.

“You’ve got your thinkin’ face on, Miss Didi,” he said, settling in his chair. “Care to share?”

“There’s a reason she’s asking for me specifically. What it is, I don’t know yet. Could be a power play concerning Jamison, thinking if she moves me up to D.C. she’ll get in his good graces,” Andie said, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “Could also be a threat, trying to make him behave if he’s getting too close to something she’s trying to hide. It could also be completely unrelated where she’s just playing normal office politics with me as a pawn.“

“Those are all very good points, that being said, I still am not set on you leavin’,” he replied, frowning. “I chose you for a reason, you’re a valuable asset and a member of our family that I do not want to lose just because our lady director sees you as means to an end.”

Andie nodded slowly, before shifting in her chair. “I don’t want to go either. Do you think there’s any way outta this? I don’t want you to end up gettin’ the boot just cause of me.”

Pride laugh softly and shook his head. “I’ll fight for as long as I can, I know where and when to stop pushing, cause I know you’ll kick my ass if I get myself fired. That doesn’t mean I’m giving up on trying to keep you with us though.”

In the end he’d lost the fight to keep his agent, and it wounded him to think about. Andie hadn’t blamed him though, she’d thanked him for doing what he could and promised that she’d find her way back where she belonged. He promised to check up on her when he’d taken her to the airport.

“Short of gettin’ both me and Didi fired, which wouldn’t have done anybody any good, there wasn’t anything else that I could possibly have done,” Pride replied, looking over at LaSalle with a sad smile. “I wouldn’t worry too much though, I have a feeling she’ll be back before too long. We just gotta keep checkin’ in with her and making sure she has the support she needs cause I have a feelin’ she’s gonna get dropped on Gibbs like a bomb.”

LaSalle winced, shaking his head. “I’ve heard that story, and that won’t end well for Agent Gibbs. I don’t like how quiet it is without her, but she knows how to handle the bureaucrats better than either of us. Hopefully it won’t be too long without her.”

[plungelo]

it is day 6 in philly, but the fifth full day. my adjustment has been very pleasant but it has yet to set in that i'm gonna be here in this apartment for another twelve months. when that sets in i hope it's a good feeling and i think it will be.

the first few days were very productive and standard for the earlytimes of a new move: unboxing, refurnituring, and touristing. i spent quality time with ellie and their parents, who i had only met a day before. we got some delicious kbbq and then went to the rocky stairs, where the clouds were going crazy.

ellie and i were both ready to be on our own by the time their parents left, and so we celebrated by watching peppermint candy over at the philly film center. it was beautiful and sad and difficult and good.

i memorized the wifi password despite its auto-generatedness. i've been applying to jobs but every time i do i feel like i'm dropping a day's worth of cover letter/resume work into a black void that will never email me back. plus the captain at the trader joe's that i intended to transfer to was not in and "won't be in for a while" according to the manager i talked to. i talked to the person scanning my groceries and when i asked whether they liked it here they hesitated and said "yeah it's, good." so maybe i should check out the one on arch street instead or just go full throttle with non-TJ's applications.

my room on day one was a mess and it still basically looks like this. i need a desk but now that there's no car i'm debating just chilling without one. our landlord has said nothing about our broken washer since informing us that it was broken on our move in day, so i still have no clean sheets to put on my bed.

yesterday ellie and i explored south street and went to the magic gardens. it was very beautiful and very cool to walk through. i was a bit tired throughout so i got a dirty chai after and ellie and i watched the barista and some guy get into a fight and then went to a cool bookstore. i had the below-pictured spirally, eye-like bit from the magic gardens in my mind the entire rest of the day.

we watched aftersun and connected with ryan the last couple days. a big thing on our minds is safety and making sure we're walking in the right areas of town when we go to and from the house. boston was extremely safe so this is, though dangerously real, an exciting new element of life to get accustomed to. and today we waited for a man who never arrived to look at our gas meter because it's in the basement that we don't have access to.

now all i'm waiting for is some tea that i ordered and an original nintendo DS i got off facebook marketplace. getting it in a legit retro games shop has been a bit of a white whale for me so i just sucked it up and bought it online, but i'm really excited to have a new system with a backlight(!!!) to play all my gameboy games on. plus i beat link's awakening today too so i'm ready to delve into the 2D zeldas from the DS era.

overall it feels really good to be on my own away from what i'm used to. there's always something to do and i'm usually getting it done because i'm unemployed, which is very good for me at the moment. tomorrow i'm seeing didi and probably la haine, yay!

[haquyen23]

WEEK 7: Beauty Standard and Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)

Thanks to the expansion of social media platforms, Internet users frequently notice the presence of stunning celebrities, influencers, and models. This tendency results in flawless beauty standards, which vary by gender and nationality. Nonetheless, persons who want a flawless look are concerned with their digital image as well as criticism from others. In 2019, British fashion photographer Rankin shot 15 teens for a project called "Selfie Harm," in which he asked them to edit their photographs to make them "more social media-ready." (Germany, 2019). Even though most teens liked their raw photos, they all made the decision to alter their appearance digitally in order to appear on social media. Many drastically changed the shape of their noses, eyes, chins, lips, and/or skin, applied theatrical makeup, and smoothed out their skin to the point that they became unrecognisable, even funny (Germany, 2019). This poll provides evidence for the digital perfectionism that leads Internet users to associate cyberspace with a certain level of beauty.

However, these beauty standards, which are formed from the expectation of society, have had a greater impact on people suffering from BDD.

First of all, Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) is defined as "a relatively common disorder that consists of a distressing or impairing preoccupation with imagined or slight defects in appearance" by the National Library of Medicine (Bjornsson et al., 2010). BDD is frequently thought to be the outcome of viewing social media's "perfect bodies" and establishing a standard of attractiveness based on those images in this digital age. Patients typically aren't aware of their depression since BDD develops over a lengthy period of time and builds up gradually. 

BDD has a number of negative effects on people and society, such as psychopathology, sadness, and even suicide thoughts.In a poll, 12% of plastic surgeons said that a displeased BDD patient had physically threatened them (Bjornsson et al., 2010). It seems as though there is an all-time peak in suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, and completed suicides. It is estimated that about 25% of those with BDD have tried suicide and that 80% of those with BDD have either had or are now experiencing suicidal thoughts (Bjornsson et al., 2010) 

A solution seems to be more positive for BDD is that many individuals who were experiencing psychological problems decided to have plastic surgery to correct their flaws. Even still, people continue to have dissatisfaction with their cosmetic procedures, which makes them angry or even violent.

Generally, due to beauty standards in this digital age, the effects of BDD on a person's life are profound as it shapes and even regulates how its sufferers view their looks.

References:

Bjornsson, A. S., Didie, E. R., & Phillips, K. A. (2010). Body dysmorphic disorder. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 12(2), 221–232. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.31887/DCNS.2010.12.2/abjornsson

Germany, J. (2019). Combating “Social Media Dysmorphia” | Rush System. Www.rush.edu. https://www.rush.edu/news/combating-social-media-dysmorphia

Nicewicz, H. R., & Boutrouille, J. F. (2022, September 28). Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD, Dysmorphobia, Dysmorphic Syndrome). PubMed; StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK555901/

[ecsundance]

2024 Sundance Film Festival Buzz

We made it! We are finally at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

We are about four days into the festival which runs from January 18th to the 28th. Even though it is early in the festival, there is already a lot of buzz. In case you don’t know what I mean by that, buzz refers to what everyone is talking about, what they are all excited about, and what they are all thinking about! This could be about the films, the different events, the celebrities, etc.

No matter where you go you hear buzz. People are talking buzz on buses, in ticket lines, at restaurants, coffee shops, and basically anywhere you can think of.

Many films are getting a good amount of buzz with some even getting picked up by major studios and streaming services.

On January 19th Variety posted that one of the first festival sales had occurred. This was the Netflix purchase of the documentary, Ibelin. This film is about a Norwegian gamer, Mats Steen, who at 25 years old died of a degenerative muscle disease. His parents, sad because they felt their son did not have many friends due to his illness, learned through condolences from Mats’ fellow gamers that he had friends from all around the world.

Channel 4 News San Antonio also announced that Hit Man was bought by Netflix as well. The rom-com film, directed by native Texan Richard Linklater, was inspired by a true story about a man that goes undercover as a hit man. Things soon become complicated as a potential client is a woman in distress.

I have also heard some buzz about Freaky Tales by multiple people on buses and in lines, etc. Basically, they are saying that the film is not living up to all the hype that it was given. After initially reading about this film, I really wanted to see it but couldn’t seem to procure a ticket for it. However, when I went in person to waitlist for the film, I was lucky enough to be gifted a ticket for it. After seeing it, although I did enjoy it, I unfortunately tend to agree with this buzz that the hype surrounding Freaky Tales seems to have been unjustified.

I also heard a lot of buzz about DiDi, Presence, and Krazy House.

For DiDi they stated it is a great film and a must watch at Sundance this year. I am hoping I still have a shot at getting a ticket for it.

For Presence, the buzz is that it is also a great film, but it is so scary that it is causing some people to have to walk out of the theater. I have not seen this one yet and I am not sure if I am up to being scared like that.

I have seen Krazy House, and I do agree that it is a great film. It is so funny and there is never a dull moment even during the violent killings. They land perfect jokes that make everyone laugh.

Before the premiere of the Greatest Night in Pop at the Eccles, everyone was very excited to see the film. There was a lot of good buzz leading up to it and it did not disappoint. Afterwards there was a Q&A session that included the director, Bao Nguyen, producer, Julia Nottingham, as well as Lionel Ritchie. It was cool. One of the questions asked was how Dan Aykroyd qualified to be in the group. You just have to remember he was one of the Blues Brothers.  

In addition to hearing buzz, I have also seen buzz posted online. One item that I found interesting involves the discreet transportation arrangements for celebrities. I saw this on ABC4 Salt Lake City. In this report it explains how some celebrities try to maintain their privacy when arriving at the Sundance Film Festival. They do this by flying into Heber Valley airport which only accepts small private planes. By flying into Heber Valley, celebrities can avoid the paparazzi. It is worth noting that the number of arrivals increases during Sundance from ten to fifty a day. Tight airport security helps keep VIP arrivals under wraps. One can only imagine who is on these flights. As much as I would love to get a glimpse of them now and again, I can understand they want to maintain some privacy. As Wendy Swann who is one of the transportation providers stated in the article, “They’re normal, everyday people that have a job to do, like everyone else.”

That’s all the buzz I have! Until next time!

Ryan McCormick

[yoon-ji-hoo]

-Joy Sadness Anger Disgust Fear-

Dearest, no need to continuously apologize. We are okay. All I’m asking is for fair warning and I’ll act how I desire after. There are day I wish you’d destroy me in a good way and other days I just want to be pampered. We are good. Don’t worry.

We are not okay.

Clearly….

We have to be careful now though. Baby.

Anything we do right now isn’t going to harm them as much as you think. Once we start showing we have to be careful.

I still don’t understand why we have to be pregnant. We are just going to be miserable. Tired, alone, stressed. Why would we want this?

Because we love having them and making them. There’s so much love in it.

Yeah, love, sure.

You really need to relax Didi. You’re being a pain on purpose.

Well no duh.

[brainrot-yumm]

PR ep7 play-by-play

I won’t be able to do this for a few days cause things are picking up a bit so let’s make this count hell yeah

whoops got distracted for 40 minutes by Spotify playlist organization. You don’t understand how elated I am over the fact that I’ll be getting assessed for ADHD soon

also my mom thinks I definitely have anxiety which was a wild thing to think as that’s the one thing I was 100% certain I didn’t have

g-gozar? Is that it? Gordon? Gorzon?

“I just wanted to get your attention” “maria just be yourself” maybe she’s the type of kid that wants to turn off the hot water to the showers. Actually how did she find that though? Is that supposed to be in public? 

Trini does good voice acting but not the best physical acting. I mean, it’s been decades since this show came out, I’m sure she’s better now, but

p-power eggs?!

hey it’s that same cave from two episodes ago!

“Only a child can open this box” ??????????????? why

oooh putty stopmotion I think! Actually no I think machines made those goobers move!

wh. why did you want a chunky chicken. After last time you think you’re gonna kill the rangers with that? Seriously?

that girl is definitely voiced over by someone else doing a kid voice. Why did they do that. Was there a sweepstakes.

stop talking about friendship god

“This is really turning out to be more than just a bad hair day” lets keep that one for the pillows

YO THATS A SICK ASS CAR

how could you possibly steer a car going that fast

woooOOOOOoooWOOOoooAHHHhhhAHAAAAhhhhpowerpoint lookin ass animation (lovingly)

you know it really wasn’t that hard for Rita to locate the power eggs

THE MORPHINE MASTERS?!

“Why can’t we do the cool car thing again?” “Because, we ran out of budget.”

hit them with the car. Do it.

Man I’m so fuckin hungry I ate at 5 and it’s 3 in the morning

wait what the fuck are the blaster pyramid they’re doing??!??!?! Don’t remember that??!?!?!

I still just love how Kim very obviously doesn’t know how to use a bow

 wait I’m so confused why is Rita on an old fashioned bike????? Why does it feel like we skipped ahead???????? DIdi they think the kids wouldn’t notice????

It’s Rita Repulsa alright

aight I remember the crystals at least. I have some hold on this world which is no longer my own

you know it’s so sad they can’t make the pterodactyl pink for Kimberly because then the chestplate of the megazord would be pink and pink is for girls or something

you know wait I don’t think we’ve ever seen Rita on Earth yet this is crazy

god it’d be so cool to own one of those helmets

wait rift scissors?! SVTFOE RIPPED OFF POWER RANGERS>!?!?!?!!

“Yeah guys we got it!” “MORPHIN’!” I’m gonna start using “morphin’“ as a positive response from now on skfhas;dg

Ayo wait people know it’s Rita Repulsa doing this shit? It’s not just “alien fuckwads” no it’s “RITA’s alien fuckwads??” Man that changes stuff everyone has the full hot goss except for who the rangers do be

oh bulk skull hi!! 

oh I can’t tell what’s gonna happen since you just showed the bullies (with the goofy bully theme in the back) and then made Kimberly hold a hot bowl of chili over her head I couldn’t possibly tell you

you know it wasn’t even like he was doing anything. You weren’t even making a fat joke about him he was just having a regular bowl of ice cream. What the hell Kim give him $10 or something for being forced to deal with that. He’s still a regular paying customer somehow despite this being a terrible place for him and his shit ego so if he wasn’t doing anything shouldn’t the owner do something? Bitch ass kids

bitch ass karmic retribution

also if I was a kid still I can just tell I’d probably have a crush on Skull or something. These days I’m just like “wow that is dope character design I love the bandana/chain mix that’s cool”

alright I have to get up in 4 hours so night I’ll try to sleep at a normal time (4 am is not a normal time)

[ladybirdanimalsanctuary]

Sad news. We had to say goodbye to sweet Didi. Since the last update, Didi’s health went downhill. Last week's ultrasound showed a mass on her kidney, and the biopsy of the facial scabs had come back as cancerous. Though these two things would have been an issue, we still don’t know exactly what was causing the infection in Didi’s system that was making her so ill. She spent three days at the vet clinic, and though she received every available treatment possible, she just couldn’t fight all the issues that were plaguing her. At the end of the third day at the vet, Didi crashed. When we realized she was past the point of medical help, we had to let her go to end her suffering. Thankfully, Didi’s foster mom could be there with her, and we take comfort that Didi wasn’t alone at the end. Though Didi was only with us for a few weeks, she will leave a hole in the hearts of everyone who met her. Rest in peace Didi. We’ll never forget your sweet face. https://www.instagram.com/p/ClsLPngO3jc/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=