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ceealaina · 4 years

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Title: Caught Somewhere in Time Collaborator Name: ceealaina Card Number: 3088 Link: AO3 Square R2 - Time Heist Ship: Steve Rogers & Tony Stark Rating: Teen Major Tags: Avengers: Endgame - Alternate 2012 Timeline, Team Bonding Summary: There was something weird about the aftermath of the Battle of New York, too many coincidences and Tony hasn't been able to stop poking at it. Turns out, Steve's been noticing some weird things too. Word Count: 1703

SOMEWHERE IN AN ALTERNATE 2012

Tony frowned, watching the footage from the Battle of New York aftermath yet again. Something about that entire thing wasn’t sitting right with him. Tony wasn’t a big believer in coincidences at the best of times, and this was entirely too many of them. The arc reactor randomly malfunctioning, the Tesseract somehow ‘falling’ out of the locked case, Loki getting his hands on it and then using his newfound freedom to wipe the floor with Rogers, grab the scepter, and then… Disappear entirely? None of it made any damn sense. And there was something else niggling at the back of his mind. He barely remembered it, on account of being in the middle of dying at the time, but there’d been a SHIELD agent, someone he hadn’t been able to track down, calling for a medic in a voice that was painfully familiar but in a way that he couldn’t quite place.

Unfortunately, information from that day was seriously lacking. Half the lobby security cameras had gone down in the battle, and since the tower wasn’t supposed to be open to the public yet, and it wasn’t like he kept proprietary information in the lobby, he hadn’t bothered giving them backups and failsafes yet. Which meant he had exactly one angle that would show how the supposedly secured case spontaneously opened, and that was blocked by a view of Thor’s gorgeous rear end as he restarted Tony’s heart with a bolt of lightning. In addition to that, there was absolutely nothing on the mysterious SHIELD agent that nobody seemed to remember — although, there was an audio file of him calling for the medic, so at least Tony wasn’t making it up. He did have a clear shot of the Tesseract sliding to Loki’s feet only to have him pick it up and vanish, but there was nothing of Steve’s fight with Loki.

And that was something else too. Steve had been weird after that fight, obviously unsettled in a way he hadn’t been since Tony had met him in Stuttgart. The man had just woken up to find himself seventy years in the future a week ago, Tony had expected him to freak out any number of times. And sure, it didn’t take a psychologist to see that his mental health probably wasn’t the greatest, but he’d been fine — certainly as good as Tony on some of his better days. So what was it about that five-minute fight that had finally been the thing to throw Rogers off?

“Sir, you have a visitor requesting entry.”

JARVIS’ voice pulled Tony from his thoughts, and he blinked down at the camera feed only to startle at the familiar form of Steve standing at parade rest as he waited in front of the lab doors.

“God, I hope I’m not suddenly developing psychic powers,” he muttered before waving at the door. “Let him in, J.”

The last that he’d heard, Steve was supposed to be in Washington. After the mess following the battle, SHIELD had lost their shit, Alexander Pierce throwing a hissy fit and pulling rank. They couldn’t actually do anything with Tony or Thor, and Tony had managed to get Bruce tucked away before they could even try anything with him, but in revenge they had recalled both Clint and Nat. Then they claimed that Steve was one of their assets too, and while Tony had been ready to fight them on it, Steve hadn’t argued. Tony had let them all know that they had an open invitation to stay at the tower if they got tired of SHIELD’s bullshit, their biometrics already inputted in the system, but he hadn’t heard a peep from any of them in the six weeks since. So what the hell was Steve doing here now?

He swiped his hand, flicking away the surveillance footage just as the sliding doors opened and Steve stepped through. He was dressed in civilian clothing, a pair of well fitted jeans (thank god, Tony might have cried if he’d been back in those khakis with the grandpa pleats) and a grey t-shirt, but it didn’t stop him from standing at parade rest. Tony resisted the urge to roll his eyes as Steve tilted his head in a slight nod. “Stark.”

Tony gave an enormous, exaggerated sigh, letting his entire body heave with the force of it. “Jesus,” He drawled. “You’re killing me, smalls. Kick back a little, relax, cool it with the American soldier routine. We saved the world together, Cap. You can at least call me Tony.”

Steve gave him a crooked smile, some of the tension easing out of his body. “Tony,” he corrected himself, his voice a little warmer than before. “Sorry,” he added after a moment. “Washington has been… Hectic. Sometimes it’s easier to just fall into routine, wear it like an armour, you know?”

Tony arched his eyebrows, a little weirded out by how well Steve seemed to know him sometimes without even realizing it. “Yeah, I think I know what you mean,” he said with a rueful grin. “Still,” he clapped his hands together, titled back precariously in his wheely chair. “You’re among friends here, Steve.” He shifted forward again and hooked his ankle around the leg of another chair, hauling it away from the table. “Sit down, take a load off. Tell me what’s troubling that star spangled mind of yours.”

That earned him an eyeroll, but Tony could tell Steve was fighting back a smile as he dropped into the offered seat. “So the thing is…” He trailed off a moment, rubbing at the back of his neck as he tried to work out what he wanted to say. “I’ve been working with this new team, out of SHIELD? I think they were one of the teams that stepped in here, after the Battle?”

“And what, you’re missing the old crew already? Wanna get the gang back together?”

“No. Well…” Steve huffed out a soft laugh. “It’s not quite the same,” he admitted. “But that’s not why I’m here. There’s… There’s something up with the STRIKE team.”

Curiosity piqued, Tony leaned forward, elbows on his thighs. “Oh yeah? What’s up?”

“They keep saying weird things to me.” Steve met Tony’s gaze steadily. “Like, ‘Hail Hydra.’”

It took a minute for Tony to even process the words, and when he did he let out a low whistle. “Shit,” he said.

“Yeah,” Steve agreed. “Shit.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair. “I don’t know who in SHIELD is compromised, who we can trust… how this is even possible? I haven’t seen Natasha or Clint since we arrived in Washington, and well... “ He shrugged helplessly. “I couldn’t think who else I could come to with this.”

Tony arched an eyebrow at him. “You trust me?”

Steve gave him a pointed look. “We saved the world together, Tony,” he said, echoing Tony’s earlier words. “Of course I trust you. And whatever I think of your methods, I’m damn sure you’re not a fucking Nazi.”

Tony grinned, trying to ignore the ten-year-old Tony in his head losing his shit over the fact that Captain fucking America trusted him. “Definitely not,” he promised him. He hesitated a moment, and then flicked his hand again, bringing the surveillance he’d been purviewing back up. “You’re not the only one who’s noticed weird stuff, for what it’s worth.” He offered him a smile. “I’ve been busy, since you’ve been gone. We’ll figure out what the fuck is going on.”

Steve grinned, kicking his foot against Tony’s. “Glad to have you on my side, Iron Man,” he told him, and Tony couldn’t help grinning back at him. Then Steve’s smile faded slightly, a frown crossing his features instead.

“What?” Tony asked. “What is it?”

“There’s something else,” Steve admitted. “When I was fighting Loki, after he escaped?” He drew in a slow breath and Tony leaned back, waiting for him to finish. “I know you read my file, Tony. You know about the Commandos?” He waited for Tony’s nod before continuing. “He told me that Bucky’s still alive.”

“He… What?”

“Yeah.” Steve gave him a helpless look. “I just… I can’t get it out of my head. If it’s not true, why would he do that? If he was trying to throw me off to get an advantage, how would he know to use Bucky? That’s not how Loki’s powers work -- is it? And if, if it is true…?” He trailed off, looking so lost for a moment Tony felt like he should give him a hug.

“Okay,” he said instead. “So what we need is a team. People we can actually trust.” He hummed consideringly. “Thor and I have been working to try and track down Loki, not that we’ve gotten anywhere, but I don’t know how much help he’ll be. I feel like this’ll require a level of… subtlety that he doesn’t usually manage.” He grinned when that got a huff of laughter out of Steve.”Bruce is still lying low, which is probably for the best right now. I can find Clint and Nat, don’t worry about that, but we’re gonna need someone else, someone we can trust.”

Steve considered this, nodding slowly. “I maybe know a guy,” he offered. “Back in Washington. He’s sort of my running buddy?”

Tony arched a skeptical eyebrow. “You found someone who can keep up with you?” he asked, second eyebrow joining the first when Steve laughed at some kind of private joke.

“Nah,” he admitted. “But that’s kinda what I like about him. Anyway, he’s good, I know he is. I mean, I know it know it, but also I ran a background check on him?”

“You know how to do that?” Tony teased, laughing when Steve kicked the leg of his chair in retaliation. “Okay, okay, sorry. So we’ll bring in your Washington running buddy too. I know it’s not much, but it’s the start of a plan. And you are the man with a plan.”

Steve rolled his eyes. “Hilarious.”

Tony just shrugged. “What do you say, Steve? Time to bring the team back together? Take down the bad guys?”

Steve grinned back at him. “Avengers Assemble.”

@tonystarkbingo

#tonystarkbingo2020 #tsb2020 #tony stark #steve rogers #team bonding #alternate 2012 #fic #my fic

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jimlingss · 4 years

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pt.2 of yesterday

I don’t want to flood people’s dashes, so hopefully answering your messages here will suffice!

anonymous asked: Hi! I wanted to tell you how much I love your work and how you make me enjoy every Monday thanks to your regular updates ! I saw a previous anon telling you how your writings lacks of emotion and I totally disagree with them... obviously everybody won’t like it but your stories just DON’T lack of love or emotion this is madness I want to thank you for publishing your amazing stories freely here for everyone to read. (Sorry if my English is weird I’m french ejfjekfjd)

“this is madness” LOL

You’re hilarious, anon. And your english is perfectly fine!!!

anonymous asked: Hello! Im the culinary student anon who sent you an ask a while ago and i saw you received an ask about the lack of emotion from your stories. I read kitchen romance and i actually really really like it and don’t quite understand how it lacks in emotions as I interpreted the stories more like the beginning of the oc and jin’s love story and they are only starting to open up to each other so i guess thats why anon might feel like it lacks romantic vibe from both of the characters. (1)

Anonymous said: Just want to tell you that you’re one of the best writer and ive been following you for 2/3 years now, you never failed to amaze me with your writings!! All your stories are so well written that i sometimes wonder how do you come up with such an amazing plot every single time and your stories are always nice to re-read and the effort you pour into creating your stories is also admirable (2)

while i was reading kitchen romance and ive only started s&c (currently on chapter 4) i can say that its pretty similar with how it is irl (and the part where we find out jk is an iu fans reminded me of my ex-crush whose also a culinary student, i would like to tell you a story about it but ill just waste your time lol) , just want to send you a few encouragement and love for you and your writings *sending virtual hugs* (3) -👩🏻‍🍳anon

You’re too kind, thank you (and also, welcome back!). I’ll be frank, there was a hot second I was considering taking down Kitchen Romance but I didn’t cause I don’t want my efforts of editing it to go to waste asdfghjkl. I can’t believe you’ve been sticking around me for so long :’) it’s always nice to know some folks stay. Anyway, I’m glad that Sugar and Coffee is pretty similar to how it works irl since I tried my best to do research. I definitely love a good storytime as well so don’t worry about wasting my time :>

Anonymous said: a good majority of your fics display an unfathomable amount of DEPTH. regarding character development. plot. even the shortest lines of dialogue reveal so much more to the character and unveil their true emotions. i personally think the more REALISTIC side of love may be perceived as 'bland.' ‘emotionless.’ whatever you want to call it. nothing’s wrong with portraying a relationship that isn’t overboard with a whole lot of tooth aching fluff or lowkey annoying pda. +1

Anonymous said: there’s nothing wrong with taking out a bit of emotion to fit the PERSONALITIES of the characters. some people out there don’t necessarily feel a lot of emotions. so it’s honestly not really a mistake if a story lacks it (unless it was unintentional). subtlety is an art that is hard to master, but you’ve done it! and to respond to the anon, sometimes, if you skim through a fic without reading every word the author intended for you to read, +2

Anonymous said: then it’s quite common to not feel the full extent of the emotions you were supposed to feel. just a thought but no hate. we’re all entitled to our opinions. but besides that, kina, you write on a vast scale ranging from hardcore angst to diabetes-inducing fluff. and you do it beautifully. sure there are some stories that are better than others, but i believe a LOT of it comes down to personal preference and taste. +3

Anonymous said: even if you are feeling creatively limited, you work hard to continue writing for your readers, and your determination and diligence wILL NOT GO UNNOTICED. i just want you to know that you write amazingly. your syntax is practically immaculate, your characters feel real… the endings of your stories always wrap something up and the strings are tied—even if it isn’t necessarily a happy ending. you can convey hundreds of different characters through WORDS. +4

Anonymous said: i’ll have you know that it’s hard to write. it’s even harder to write about people who aren’t YOU. so as someone who looks up to you a lot, i want to commend you for your writing. some of your fics that i read on a monthly basis: tears of a villain, a piece of the moonlight, head over heels to hell, ghost in the machine, a mark of betrayal, a kiss of poison, until yesterday, the truth between us and arcadia. +5

Anonymous said: to be fair, there were way more fics but i didn’t want to make this message any longer than it already is LOL. i find these pieces wonderful. heart wrenching. and SO DAMN EMOTIONAL IT PLAGUES MY MIND FOR DAYS. also you’re literally one of the few fucking people who can use the em dash correctly. thank you so much for sharing your talent with us! +6

Oh my goodness. I don’t even know what to say, anon. This is a whole damn thesis and it’s about my fics :’> You know, it’s easy to brush off fanfiction as a ‘whatever’ thing and indeed, it isn’t that big of a deal compared to some things in the world. But I really do take all my stories seriously and put forth a lot of effort - so to see it recognized and appreciated it makes me beyond happy. It’s good to know that my efforts haven’t gone to waste at all and that there are people out there who will support me no matter the endeavours I take. Thank you so much. You don’t know how much this means to me.

((Also, honestly I picked up the em dash usage after I wrote The Truth Between Us with gukyi who used it. I’m pretty sure I’m not using it right but to hear that I am, god damn that’s a breath of relief right there))

backtobleuside submitted: Are you kidding me!? Your stories don’t lack love at all. They’re the kind of fics that you read, soak it all in and then come back for more. I’ve cried so much when I read Beyond reach, Boo-lieve in me, A piece of the moonlight, His name, Tell me lies etc. etc, and also laughed and felt the emotions of not just the OC, but also the other characters. Kitchen Romance was also so fluffy and sweet and personally, I don’t think that anything needs to be added to it. Anyway, your fics do not lack emotion—you’re probably the first author I send a message to because your stories impacted me a lot and left a strong impression on me. I even imagine your characters as real people who have real lives that continue on even after the story is done.

asdfghjkl thank you :’) I see you every week and sometimes several times at that. I really appreciate your consistent feedback and following. You never fail to send me a message too which I appreciate a lot. I’m glad you’re enjoying everything I’m producing!!

youngfleurever said: Would just like to say that your fics do in fact make me violently sob to the boy where my eyes are so swollen I have trouble opening them the next day and I wake up feeling like there’s sawdust in my mouth because I’m dehydrated.

oh my god. please keep yourself hydrated hahahahhaha more importantly, how do you know what sawdust in your mouth is like. WHAT have you been doing LOL

Anonymous said: I’ve felt emotions that I’ve never felt before when I read your fics.... so as a person that has read your entire masterlist, I DO NOT think that your fics lack emotion.... I hope you don’t feel disheartened because you’re one of my favourite writers, not just on tumblr but like, evER 💓💓💓💓💓💓

Please, even if I was disheartened, the overwhelming amount of feedback and praise has completely overridden it :’)

joonie-mono said: when tumblr deletes the first part of your ask 🙄😌✌️

LOOOOOOOL

haylo4ever said: Sorry had to add my 10 cents. You're such a talented writer,,, I WISH I could write a smol smol 1/1000000000 that you write,,, like I remember when I followed you bc I was in awe of your writing.... I mean?? Sure maybe not every fic hits it with someone but it's just ridic to name drop (a friend nonetheless) when you're all extremely talented writers.

Trust me, writing comes with practice!! I should honestly just tattoo that on me. God knows my first fanfic was absolutely GARBAGE. I didn’t know pacing, didn’t know that I should separate chunks of paragraphs, how to write dialogue or describe scenes properly. I went in blind. Even my second, third and fourth fanfic was garbage. You could definitely get to “my level” or even far surpass it with enough dedication and practice. I mean I’ve been writing for four years, so thank GOD there’s been improvement. I wouldn’t be natural if there wasn’t. But clearly the more you practice, the better you improve! That applies to anything.

The me in ten years will certainly be better now.

Anonymous said: Hi kina! I’m here in support of kitchen romance! I actually didn’t feel like it was missing a ton of fluffy moments (and I say that as a huGE LOVER OF FLUFF) but the story was just as entertaining in the whole chase of them getting closer to each other! It’s honestly one of my favorite one shots I’ve read lately and I’m not saying that lightly! Also, that anon that said your work lacks emotion has probably not read like half of your masterlist bc oO MAN QUEEN OF MAKING ME CRY- black heart anon🖤

Thank you :’]

Anonymous said: Ok I’m very offended wow the audacity!Specially coming for my baby kitchen romance like that story made me feel so much and it’s only one of the many fics you have written kina like I’m literally baffled like dynasty has made me cry scream happy and hot all at the same time and I was literally just thinking about it that whole weekend and this anon has the nerve to say your stories lack emotions?When you are literally the queen of show casing all types of emotions in your stories!You did it all

Anonymous said: Also 😭😭😭😂😂😩hoooooooow and whereeee did they see any lack of love and emotions like have you read jungle park???? Inside my mind??? FREAKING SUGAR AND COFFEE (like this fic is made with love and I- ) Actually you know what , just read the whole masterlist😩😩💗💗💗

LOL tbh I didn’t expect Dynasty to receive the love it has. I was actually kind of wary when posting it cause it’s kind of Wild.

bangtans-peaceful-piegon said: just gotta say u handled that whole anon thing so well which not only makes me admire u as a writer but even more as a person :] (i mean i knew u were gr8 before the whole deal but yeah love ya 💛)

tbh, I’m not sure how well I handled it cause I was flooded with over 30 messages afterwards (evidently) ;_; which I love and appreciate but I’m not really as hurt as some people think hahaha criticism should be received well but it’s still hard not to take personally tbh. It’s gonna have to be something I work on or perhaps it’ll be one of those things that I’ll take better with age.

#anonymous #👩🏻‍🍳anon #backtobleuside #youngfleurever #joonie-mono #haylo4ever #black heart anon🖤

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deltaengineering · 5 years

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Summer Anime 2019 Part 1: no more intros

Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo. / O Maidens in your Savage Season

❓ There’s an outbreak of puberty in a high school literature club and things get really awkward really fast.

✅✅ This doesn’t pull any punches with the horny content and it’s hilarious.

✅ I like the characters as well, they seem to have a bit more to them than normal but they’re still likeable.

✅ Nice looking and well directed.

♎ Mari Okada’s trademark blunt writing is still there, though it works better here than it usually does. She really has gotten a lot better since she started writing more personal stuff instead of just vague supernatural seishun feels.

Dr. Stone

❓ A mysterious disaster turns everyone on earth into stone. Several millennia later some shounen characters are the first ones to awake and they do some caveman chemistry.

✅ The idea is pretty novel by Weekly Shounen Jump standards.

♎ I have to say that for a WSJ joint, the writing is fairly tolerable as well. It’s still dumb, but not insultingly so.

❌ But in the end, it’s still WSJ and you’re still just watching a bunch of terrible looking meatheads doing basic science on the level of a YouTube primer and shouting about how awesome that is using assorted catchphrases.

❌ And it’s on the same day as another shounen-ass shounen, to which it is inferior. More on that later.

Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru / How Heavy are the Dumbbells you Lift?

❓ Doga Kobo x bodybuilding

♎ This is possibly the least surprising anime of the season, because all you need to know is what the Japanese bodybuilding meme is and what Doga Kobo usually does. Well, there’s no loli this time at least.

✅ Not surprising + Doga Kobo = looks good

♎ It’s not exceedingly funny but it’s competent enough at comedic timing.But some one-note jokes (such as Akemi being thirsty for muscle) get old.

✅ Doesn’t rock my socks off but it’s alright for the time being. Pretty competent and with room for improvement with more characters.

Enen no Shouboutai / Fire Force

❓ A boy with a hero complex becomes a firefighter. Since this is a shounen universe by the author of Soul Eater, this is rather literal: Get ready to punch fire demons.

✅ You ready for some DUMB ANIME SHIT? Because this is a lot of that, in a good way. In particular is gets the tone right and is neither too clowny nor too grim. Mostly.

✅✅ Looks amazing. The production is top notch and the fire is especially impressive - it better be, because there’s a lot of it. The design is also good.

❌ Shounen writing rears its ugly head again. I don’t expect subtlety, but a dozen flashbacks to Shinra’s not-very-complicated backstory plus his incessant insistence on being A HERO are not a good sign at all. At least this time the blah is limited to the thematic core instead of everything.

✅ I was entertained for now, but I’ll have to see if the good production values can keep it up and make up for the simplistic core in the long run.

Granbelm

❓ Average girl becomes magical, summons a mecha and gets involved in a magical mecha fighting ring.

✅ This looks pretty neat, seeing as it is made by the Re:Zero team.

✅ Since it’s an original, there is much less LN jank in the writing though.

♎ Still feels mostly like a mashup of very generic anime tropes - reminiscent of Mai-Hime, of all things. It might go somewhere, but might just as easily not.

♎ In particular, it might start copying Re:Zero’s derpier aspects. It already has a fondness for the ragefaces.

✅ Since it’s not in fact isekai, it is allowed to throw shade on isekai.

Joshikousei no Mudazukai / Wasteful Days of Highschool Girls

❓ Some highschool girls chat about boys and whatnot.

♎ There really isn’t much to say about it, to be honest. The characters are okay but very archetypal, it looks average, and the humor is neither amusing nor particularly annoying. It seems to have a severe lack of personality - especially compared to Maidens, which is this show with the safety off.

❌ It is, however, just far too long. These kind of mild 4koma antics wear out their welcome at full length and without anything else it becomes tedious. All the segments feel disjointed and random anyway, so there’s really no upside to yawning through 24 minutes of it.

Kanata no Astra / Astra Lost in Space

❓ Several anime characters get lost during summer camp on a distant planet and have to find their way home in an FTL spaceship they stumble across.

♎ Speaking of archetypal characters - you couldn’t put together a more anime cast together if you were making a parody. You got your spiky-haired protagonist, dim genki girl, big boobed shy fujoshi, sparkling ikemen, brooding rival, androgynous twink, glasses wearing supergenius, a tsundere and a loli. They work very hard to establish this too.

✅ Apart from this ridiculous assortment of memes, Astra leaves a solid impression. The scifi universe isn’t completely nonsensical, and the concept has potential.

✅ It’s well put together too, with good direction and high production values.

❌ The only real negative is that Astra can’t shut up about its protagonist’s backstory. There were about as many repetitive flashbacks in this episode as in the first episode of Fire Force, and it’s only not as bad because Astra’s was double length. If this remains persistent, it may be more annoying than it’s worth.

Katsute Kami Datta Kemono-tachi e / to the Abandoned Sacred Beasts

❓ In a grimderp version of the American Civil War, nobody stops to think that turning people into murderous animal hybrids might not be a good idea and might leave some grudges after the war is over.

♎ Looks average at best. If it’s trying to be Fullmetal Alchemist, I have some bad news for everyone involved.

❌ This definitely can’t be taken seriously, because it’s so contrived and on top of it the tone is all over the place. It can turn from graphic massacres to funny hijinks to inhumane experiments on a dime. To work as intended, it would need a far more delicate hand on all levels.

♎ That said, by the end of it, when there’s a pileup of tragic betrayals and one CAIN MADHOUSE turns out to be a moustache-twirling villain with a cackle to match, it comes close to being the entertaining kind of schlock.

♎ Since this was only the setup, it might be worth it to find out what the actual plot is like going forward.

The Case Files of Lord El-Melloi II: Rail Zeppelin ~grace note~

❓After getting punked in the fourth Heaven’s Feel, Waver decides he wants to try his luck in the viper’s nest that is the Clock Tower (if you did not understand any of that, this show is not for you)

✅ Fate has the moneybags and moneybags make shit look good

❌ I would like to watch a dark comedy about the backstabbing and incompetence at the Clock Tower - The Death of Kayneth, if you will. However, there are only the mildest traces of this in Case Files and it takes itself far too seriously.

❌ Since I bounced off this show the second time now (there was an episode 00 a few months ago) I don’t know if I want to give this show even more chances to prove to me it’s not heartachingly dull. It’s not really funny and there’s barely any action.

♎ That leaves character drama. I do like Waver but not enough to watch him mope about his bro Iskander being dead all day. The rest of the characters are a mixed bag and evidently not good enough to keep the show going on their own.

Maou-sama, Retry!

❓ 💩

💩💩 100% of all the isekai shit and nothing else. This is highly derivative and amateur even by the standards of highly derivative amateur isekai LNs.

💩💩 Looks like absolute garbage even at ep 1. I should be happy that no talent is going to waste here.

💩 The least offensive aspect is that our MMO-reborn haxlord picks up a tiny Ramrem for casual dadfeels. It still sucks and there’s another show this season that does this better.

Sounan desu ka / Are You Lost?

❓ Comedy short about girls stranded on a remote island learning basic survival skills.

❌ One girl is hypercompetent at survival, the others are not. Hope you think this is comedy gold cos it’s all we got.

❌ show bad

Tejina-senpai / Magical Sempai

❓ Girl with breasts is an enthusiastic amateur magician and is so bad at it that every attempt ends in some compromising position.

❌ We can only afford one joke per comedy short, okay? Do you think we’re made of money and/or talent?

❌ This one is quick on the draw with the segments at least, and crams in 6 instead of the usual 2-3. So it’s theoretically less tedious, but in practice it’s all a blur of unfunny either way.

❌ show bad

Uchi no Ko no Tame naraba, Ore wa Moshikashitara Maou mo Taoseru kamo Shirenai. / If It's For My Daughter, I'd Even Defeat A Demon Lord

❓ Handsome young adventurer finds an orphaned devil child in the forest. Dadfeels ensue.

✅ So this is the one that does Maou Retry’s core aspect better. And it does it quite well, in fact; it’s cute and wholesome.

✅ Basically it’s Sweetness and Lighting with JRPG questing instead of cooking. That show was alright.

❌ However, to make up for being good at something, know that it has absolutely nothing else. The setting is off-brand JRPG mush and not even attempting otherwise, the production values are pedestrian.

♎ Apparently this turns into a fantasy version of Usagi Drop down the line. I’m not one to mark it down for that now, but that doesn’t sound too great. However, it’s questionable if 1. the anime gets there 2. the anime goes there and 3. I watch the anime enough for the problem to even arise. It’s not that good.

#anime #impressions #summer2019 #Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo #Dr. Stone #Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru #Fire Force #granbelm #kanata no astra #to the Abandoned Sacred Beasts #The Case Files of Lord El-Melloi II #Maou-sama Retry #Sounan desu ka #magical sempai #Uchi no Ko no Tame naraba Ore wa Moshikashitara Maou mo Taoseru kamo Shirenai.#If It's For My Daughter I'd Even Defeat A Demon Lord #Joshikousei no Mudazukai #Enen no Shouboutai

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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 5 years

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Michael After Midnight: Natural Born Killers

Long before Joker taught us that we lived in a society… there was Mickey and Mallory Knox.

Natural Born Killers is a satire that focuses on the relationship between crime, media, and pop culture, and how the latter two make the former a hugely exacerbated issue. This movie is from 1994, mind you. In 1994 a movie came out talking about how the media sensationalizes murder and violence to the point where perpetrators become household names and counterculture icons years before Columbine happened, years before the internet made it horrendously easy to find access to gruesome true crime stuff, it was just a film that was absolutely ahead of its time! And yet… as is the norm for works like this, some people take it at face value, because no matter how blatant or obvious a satire is (and trust me, “subtle” is one thing this movie IS NOT), some people take things too far. The thing is, in this case, “too far” translates to “actively committed horrible murders in twisted tribute to the main characters of this film.”

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves; let’s look at the actual substance of the film, first and foremost.

The movie is actually an altered version of an exploitation screenplay written by none other than Quentin Tarantino, Mr. Foot Fetish himself. Tarantino has gone n record as absolutely loathing this movie due to the extensive rewrites and unlike the other screenplay he wrote but did not direct, True Romance, he refuses to acknowledge this as part of his Tarantinoverse. Here’s the thing, though: I honestly think whatever Tarantino had planned for this would not nearly have been as memorable as this movie is. Yes, this movie is over the top and really beats you over the head with its message, but I think the performances and surrealism really carry it, the latter in particular being something I think Tarantino would not have utilized well. Tarantino does a lot of things well, but he doesn’t do surrealism, at least not to the extent Oliver Stone does in this movie.

Perhaps the best example of this surrealism is the sitcom-style flashback sequence, which shows our leading lady Mallory’s shitty home life before she met Mickey and began her career as a serial killer. There’s a laugh track, an offbeat corny vibe, and Rodney Dangerfield is even here playing Mallory’s dad! Haha, so wacky! He’s a rapist who abuses his own daughter and is absolutely horrifyingly creepy! It’s actually a brilliant use of an actor playing against type; it kind of reminds me of how they used Jon Lovitz in Southland Tales, except this movie is marginally less insane and is legitimately good rather than hilariously bad. The entire sequence, and numerous other chunks of the movie, feel like an insanely bad trip, and that’s exactly what I appreciate about it. I’m a big fan of surreal movies in general (I love Lynch’s Eraserhead and unironically love Death Bed, for instance), and the fact that this one has such a solid message underneath it all helps a lot.

Of course, the surrealism only gets you so far, and Rodney Dangerfield is only in a small part of the movie; who’s carrying it the rest of the time? Well, we have our leads played by Juliette Lewis and Woody Harrelson, with Harrelson in particular defining his career for the next couple of decades with this role. Gone is the lovable idiot from Cheers, here is the crazy gun-toting violent loner we’d see in just about every role he’d play after this.Even to this day, this is still one of my favorite roles of his. Rounding out the rest of the cast are the likes of Robert Downey Jr., Tommy Lee Jones, and Tom Sizemore, all doing the jobs they need to do excellently.

So overall, this is a very good movie, with a great cast, lots of surrealism, and a message about how the media just loves to glorify murderers that resonates strongly today. Still, there are some problems with the movie, such as the lack of subtlety. I get that with a message like this it might be best to not hide it behind smoke and mirrors, but I really feel like Stone could have reeled it in a little bit and still made an effective movie. Sure, I think Tarantino is a moron for hating the sitcom sequence, which is absolutely the highlight of the film, but seriously, some of this could have been dialed back, particularly the ending bits which do drag on a fair bit and at the point they occur are kind of beating the moral into the ground. I also feel like the fact Mickey and Mallory get away with everything is a bit of an awkward ending, especially since an alternate cut has them killed by another killer, but at the same time it might be surmised that Stone may have done as many audience members did and just liked Mickey and Mallory too much to kill them… ironically falling prey to the very thing his movie is raging against.

Ah, but now comes the elephant in the room… unlike movies like Joker, which journalists seem to really want to inspire shootings and violence, this movie ACTUALLY DID inspire killings perpetrated by sickos who decided to emulate the characters in the film. Most of it was done by teenagers, which means yes, there are a lot of school shootings tied to this, and yes, the Columbine cunts are one of the copycats listed on the Wikipedia page. It’s honestly depressing this movie inspired so many sick fucks to commit murder and become glorified for doing so that it warrants an entire Wikipedia page. Again, though, I really don’t want to put a lot of blame on the film here, because the movie is so relentlessly in-your-face about what the moral is that it kind of baffles me how anyone could misconstrue it so badly as to see it as an endorsement for murder. Maybe it just worked a bit too well at highlighting the problem of sensationalization of violent crime in the media, and when twisted minds see a movie saying “This is bad that the media does this!” they end up just hearing “...the media does this!” and from there go to horrible extremes to achieve the very fame the movie is telling you is disgusting and abhorrent.

I still definitely think this movie is good, and if you can stomach intense violence and preachiness that would make Parker and Stone blush and turn away, and you also have a taste for surrealism, this is a really solid film, one I’d argue is one of the best films of the 90s even. It does a lot well, but I feel like its legacy was unfortunately muddied by the very worst kind of fan you could possibly have, which has led to the movie having a weird level of obscurity where it isn’t unknown, but I hardly ever see it talked about on the same level as other 90s films. It’s definitely not a film that teenagers or anyone who hasn’t fully developed their moral compass or critical thinking skills should watch, but it’s definitely an underappreciated classic, albeit one whose underappreciated nature is understandable due to the numerous tragedies attached to its name. It isn’t the movie’s fault at all, but when the Columbine cunts are citing you as inspiration… it’s hard to ever really detach yourself from that.

#Michael After Midnight #Natural Born Killers #NBK #Woody Harrelson #Oliver Stone #black comedy #satire #sensationalism

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jbuffyangel · 6 years

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A Moment of Joy: Arrow 7x14 Review (Brothers and Sisters)

Felicity told Oliver she’s pregnant!!!!

and some other stuff happened. Let’s dig in…

Olicity

Obviously, Oliver finding out Felicity is carrying their love child is what we’re all here for. So, it’s not really a shock the writers waited until the last three minutes of the show for the big moment. They aren’t dummies.

However, what happens before Felicity tells Oliver is just as important than the actual reveal. Oliver and Felicity are on separate emotional paths for the majority of “Brothers and Sisters” but they each learn important lessons which will make them better partners and parents.

Felicity is freaking out. As evidence by Felicity’s nightmare of running through the forest of Lian Yu searching for her crying baby.

Raise your hand if Felicity screaming “Where are you? I can’t find you!” to her precious infant left you emotionally gutted.

This makes Felicity the only character other than Oliver to open the show running, so anyone arguing her hero’s arc is not on the same level as Oliver’s can pass me.

I wish we had a stronger villain who actually warrants a guest appearance in Felicity’s nightmare, but alas we are stuck with Diaz and have to pretend, yet again, he’s a viable threat.

I decided Diaz is representative of all villains Felicity has faced. He’s functioning as a source of all evil type of capacity. The dream isn’t really about her fear of Diaz. Felicity is afraid she won’t be able to protect her child, which is exactly what Diaz says before he shoots her. I love emotionally unambiguous dreams.

What’s interesting about the dream is the foreshadowing element. Felicity is searching for her child, but is killed thereby leaving the baby alone in the wilderness and unprotected from the evil coming after them. It’s particularly interesting we never see Felicity shot. We don’t see her body, unlike the dreams Oliver had earlier this season.

Source: olicitygifs

Sound familiar?

The dream is essentially what is happening in the future. Felicity is separated from her children and desperately trying to reunite her family. She is supposedly “dead,” but we haven’t seen her body.

Felicity is going to great lengths to protect her children and I absolutely believe this is all part of her plan. However, her absence has left William and Mia alone in the wilderness exposed to the world’s evil. All the anger, fear, panic and helplessness Felicity feels in the dream is what she must be feeling in the future as well. Any kind of separation from her children is unbearable. The flash forwards are basically Felicity’s nightmare realized which is exactly why the writers need to fix it RIGHT THE HELL NOW.

Diggle finally comes clean about Diaz to Oliver and Felicity.

Source: olicitygifs

He explains there’s a more dangerous threat the A.R.G.U.S. brass is preventing them from pursuing and Felicity instinctively puts her hand on her belly.

Source: hollandrooden

Watching Emily Bett Rickards weave in these subtleties is going to be one of the best aspects of the pregnancy storyline. Felicity is understandably and rightfully furious with John for working with Diaz and not discussing it with her first.

However, Oliver is not. He trusts John and believes Diggle would only work with Diaz if it’s absolutely necessary. Some may have been surprised or even frustrated with Oliver’s chill response, but it is evidence of his evolution. Once upon a time, Oliver Queen would have reacted in anger to this kind of news. Felicity or Diggle or both would have to talk Oliver off the ledge.

Now Oliver is playing referee between Diggle and Felicity. His calm response is not evidence of apathy. Oliver is trying to see both sides. He trusts John, but understands why Felicity is angry. This is a more patient, measured and understanding Oliver Queen. It may not be the man we are used to, but it is the man we’ve asked him to be. This is what a fully realized superhero looks like.

This issue between Felicity and Diggle has very little to do with Oliver. He was the point of contention between the two as Felicity tried to free him from prison while Diggle toed the legal line. However, Oliver was in prison and cut off from what was going on in the outside world. Furthermore, Oliver isn’t angry John didn’t help free him. Diggle was doing exactly what Oliver asked. He embraced the freedom Oliver’s sacrifice bought him and turned away from the vigilante life.

It doesn’t make what John did right though. My primary frustration with this canyon between Diggle and Felicity is they haven’t really discussed it in any meaningful sense in 7x02. They are finally given some screen time and Felicity gives John the comeuppance he deserves.

Felicity: You realize that this is the second time you have prioritized your job over keeping your friends safe?

Felicity just had a nightmare about Diaz roaming free and now Diggle is telling her Diaz is roaming free. It’s difficult for Felicity not to feel her dream is prophetic in nature. If your next nightmare is Oliver turning to dust as you reach for him and whispering, “My soul,” please don’t have sex with him Felicity. #BuffyTheVampireSlayerTips

Felicity hacks the bomb in Diaz’s head and employs her murder companion, Bl*ck S*ren to finish the job who balks (more on that in a minute) and then “guesses” Felicity is pregnant. We knew they were going to do this. We knew BS would be first to find out Felicity is pregnant.

However, the evidence BS uses to deduce Felicity’s pregnancy is hilariously ludicrous.

First, there’s a lack of alcohol. Umm… it’s well before 5 o’clock so why is BS expecting booze at 10 o’clock in the morning? I thought we were done with the alcoholism stories. Felicity isn’t mainlining coffee, Coke or Red Bull for half a second so of course PREGNANT.

And that isn’t a pregnant lady amount of chocolate. It’s a Tuesday amount of chocolate, which Felicity points out while simultaneously revealing she’s pregnant. Only Emily Bett Rickards and her sheer force of adorableness pull this scene off.

Source: nyssaalghl

BS comes back armed with healthy goodies like a mother hen and a hell of a pep talk.

I will forever be using this gif anytime an Olicity/Felicity Smoak hater comes my way. You’ve been warned. Sure, I would have preferred Lyla bring Felicity a roast turkey sandwich and reassure her fears. However, I think the pep talk means more coming from Bl*ck S*ren.

Source: felicitysmoakgifs

Oliver, Diggle and Lyla are Felicity’s family. It’s sort of like when a parent tells their child he/she is beautiful. A parent is legally required to say those things. Their love is without question, so it’s easier to discard the compliment. It doesn’t feel earned. Their positive opinion is an automatic because of the unconditional love.

At best, Bl*ck S*ren is a frenemy. She’s been learning toward friend versus enemy as of late, but we didn’t start there. BS didn’t like Felicity. In fact, she downright hated her and vice versus. Felicity has earned Bl*ck S*ren’s respect. She never judged Felicity’s murderous tendencies and Felicity saw real compassion in BS. They have evolved from enemies to partners to friends.

Bl*ck S*ren is a terrible person, but she can still see all the good in Felicity Smoak. She is someone who didn’t love Felicity and has been Smoak’d nonetheless. Even though she shares the same opinion as Oliver, Diggle and Lyla it feels more earned to Felicity. This is someone who can go back to snapping necks in a heartbeat. Even someone as dark as Bl*ck S*ren can see Felicity Smoak’s light. She’ not “just saying it.” Therefore, it must be true.

Discovering you are bringing a little human into this world can be one of the most joyful and exhilarating experiences of a person’s life. It is also incredibly terrifying. You are suddenly responsible for another person’s life. It is a massive undertaking and a complete upheaval to your everyday life. I was scared and I didn’t have super villains trying to kill me all the time. Of course, Felicity is scared. It’d be crazy not to be given the world she lives in. Every parent is afraid at one point or another.

The key is not to make decisions from that fear. You have to learn to live with it and focus on what is best for your child and family. Felicity can kill Diaz, but there will always be more after him because that’s the life she and Oliver chose.

Felicity was always the one who believed they could be vigilantes and build a life together. She has momentarily stopped believing in herself, which is why it is so important for BS to remind Felicity she has nothing to be afraid of.

There is no limit to my love for L*urel in this scene. It’s bizarre I buy this friendship more than the one between our LL and Felicity, but I do. I think one of the best aspects of BS and Felicity’s friendship is it has nothing to do with Oliver Queen. It is just about the bond these two women have forged. That’s nifty. Throw in a solid prison arc and these writers will have me on board with Bl*ck S*ren’s redemption.

Given the ridiculous conspiracy theories the LL/L*uriver fans had regarding Mia, it is pretty fantastic Arrow is using their fav to be Felicity’s number one cheerleader. Bl*ck S*ren’s entire function in “Brothers and Sisters” is to support Felicity’s storyline and her arc. She’s helping Felicity through the pregnancy L*uriver fans believed BS would have. This is going to drive the haters insane and I am petty enough to enjoy it.

Meanwhile, Rene aka Gossip Girl fills Oliver in on Emiko’s mother’s murder and her vendetta. XOXO.

Of course, Oliver wants to help Emiko with her investigation, but Rene reminds him to earn Emiko’s trust first. Rene is making a lot of sense in this scene and it’s unnerving.

Oliver brings a special gift from the missus as a way of earning his sister’s trust. Felicity found the rifle that killed Emiko’s mother. It’s not a bad approach. Everyone gets smoak’d eventually on this show and Oliver Queen is infinitely more likable because of Felicity.

Source: olivergifs

I understand why Emiko is angry with Robert and Moira Queen. I also understand Oliver wasn’t a stand up fella back in the day. However, Emiko has been running around in his hood so her adamant “Oliver Queen in the worst” stance is a real head scratcher. She finds some redeeming qualities about him otherwise why use his moniker, suit and methods?

Oliver was living the life Emiko was denied. She’s using the hood to steal Oliver’s identity like he stole hers. However, Oliver is no more to blame for Robert’s choices than Emiko. He’s just the one left holding the bag, so to speak. Emiko directing all her anger at Oliver is growing tiresome. She needs to thaw.

Thankfully, Emiko hears my complaints and lets Oliver in on her mission. Oliver tries to be helpful, but his way of being a big brother is control.

All of his tips for improving algorithms, arrow manufacturing and wrist snapping come from the best intentions, but it feels like criticisms to Emiko. Oliver ends up wrestling control of “the mission” away his sister and she’s forced to sit on the sidelines.

Rene in another display of logic (hold me I’m scared) urges Oliver to simply be Emiko’s brother and stop trying to protect her via control. Ya know, basically his entire Season 1-Season 4 arc with Thea truncated down to one episode.

Oliver and Felicity’s separate storylines arcs converge into one when he gets a call from Diggle. John wants Oliver to go out in the field with the Ghost Initiative and yes that includes Diaz. Felicity rightfully feels a little betrayed Oliver would even consider going out in the field, but he’s angling for husband of the year this season and sets her straight.

It’s Felicity’s choice if he works with the Ghost Initiative. Wait. WHAT? Oliver is relinquishing control, allowing Felicity to make a decision for their family and he will adhere to it no questions asked? OLIVER IS THAT YOU?

Ohhhh it gets better.

Oliver tells Felicity he knows she’s keeping a secret. Felicity thinks Oliver has figured out she’s pregnant, but alas I feel this is another area heterosexual men do not excel in.

The “secret” Oliver has deduced with his amazing powers of perception is Felicity is planning to kill Diaz. Dude, that’s not a secret. She’s practically hung a neon sign around her neck all season that says, “I WILL KILL DIAZ. ASK ME HOW.”

Felicity’s face when she realizes Oliver is clueless about the pregnancy is hilarious. Men.

Source: plotbunnyshipper

Oliver believes there’s a better way of handling Diaz, but he also understands that’s his choice. If Felicity is truly his partner then he can’t make decisions for her. He makes a rather surprising statement – Oliver is willing to back her play no matter what. THY NAME IS CHARACTER GROWTH.

Source: oliverxfelicity

If she wants Diaz dead then, after the mission with A.R.G.U.S., he’s toast. Oliver has Felicity’s back.

Source: plotbunnyshipper

Did that just happen?

There’s so much emotionally evolved Oliver Jonas Queen before me I don’t know what to do with myself. I don’t have to critique, encourage him to do better next time, examine the trauma impacting his decisions or lament there’s always next season. I can’t even call him a pine tree. I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO IF I’M NOT CALLING OLIVER A PINE TREE!

This is massive evolution. MAAAAAASIVE. First, Oliver gives Felicity a “find another way” speech, so we are officially full circle my friends.

The student has become the master. We’ve been waiting for Oliver to become a fully realized superhero, so he can be the man Felicity deserves. And low and behold here he is! He wants Felicity to find a better way, but he’s ready to throw down with Diaz if the wifey commands it.

THIS is the support Oliver always received from Felicity. She fell in love with Oliver when he was dropping bodies on the regular. Felicity didn’t necessarily agree with all those choices, but she always had Oliver’s back no matter what. She encouraged Oliver to find a better way with her love, belief, compassion, support and a healthy amount of firm nudging. She harnessed Oliver’s light by shining her own upon him. Felicity’s goodness was an example to Oliver. It helped Oliver find his goodness under all that pain.

However, Oliver fears his pain and darkness can infect the people he loves. He worries it’s like a contagious disease. Simply being around him is all it takes for Diggle or Felicity to fall off the moral path.

When Felicity made questionable judgments Oliver wasn’t able to back her up.

Instead, he stood in her way and became a road block she had to overcome. Oliver did this because he feared his impact on Felicity. He didn’t want the person he loves most in this world to be anything like him.

However, Oliver’s inability to let go was hurtful to Felicity because she felt it was a lack of trust. Felicity always trusted Oliver, even when she disagreed with him. She would offer her advice, but ultimately stood back and let Oliver make his own decisions. He is a better man for loving Felicity Smoak. It was her influence showing Oliver a more righteous path, but he is the one who chose to be a better man.

He can never give Felicity the room to decide for herself. Oliver either makes the decision for her or holds on so tightly she is forced to break free from his grasp. He’s done the same with Thea and now Emiko. Oliver is motivated by a deep need to protect those he loves, but that’s not the way Felicity needs to be loved. What she needs from Oliver is his trust and support. He can illuminate a better path, but Felicity must make her own decision. And Oliver must respect her choice.

Oliver acknowledging Felicity wants to kill Diaz also means he’s taken her off the pedestal. Felicity Smoak is not merely sunshine and rainbows. She’s a multi faceted human being just like anyone else. She experiences the human array of emotions just like anyone else. Sometimes Felicity is pure sunshine.

Sometimes she’s comfortably wielding a Makarov PMM. Get you a woman who can do both.

Both sides can exist in her along with a wide berth of grey. Felicity examining the darker end of the morality spectrum doesn’t make her evil. It makes her human.

But Oliver can’t keep Felicity in a box where she can function under pre-approved parameters. Felicity deserves the same freedom Oliver enjoys. He has to love all of her – the light and the dark – just like Felicity has loved all of him. The greatest gift God gave us is free will. Oliver needs to step back and let Felicity decide for herself who she wants to be.

"This is who I am, this place, this is where I belong. She came back because she found out she belonged here too. She chose for herself...God I loved her for that." Garret Blake, Message in a Bottle

Oliver is learning how to be a better leader and partner. He’s realized control only stirs revolt. The essence of true leadership is leading by example. Oliver can encourage Felicity to find another way through his love, belief, compassion, support and a healthy amount of firm nudging. He can harness Felicity’s light by shining his own upon her. But when push comes to shove, he needs to support whatever Felicity decides because that’s the love she’s shown him for seven years.

Source: plotbunnyshipper

Felicity agrees to the mission with A.R.G.U.S. on one condition – she’s coming too. It feels so good having Overwatch back in the field. THE BAND IS BACK TOGETHER YOU GUYS! The operation goes bust because when does an A.R.G.U.S. op ever go right? Diaz short circuits his chip and Felicity goes after him even though Dante is the objective.

It’s a bit of a redo of 7x06, but better. Felicity is a cool cucumber and I absolutely believe she would pull that trigger. What I believe more, however, is she doesn’t have to. She isn’t making a decision from fear, but strength.

Source: ebett

The gift Oliver’s prison sentence gave Felicity is the knowledge she can face anything, even a life without her husband, and come out the other side changed, but not broken. Felicity was alone in the wilderness and fed to the wolves this season, but she survived. She kept her family safe. Felicity flirted with the edge, but never became lost in the dark. She did what was necessary, but retained every ounce of her goodness. This is the moment Felicity Smoak decided for herself the kind of hero she wants to be.

Source: felicitysmoakgifs

Oliver packs up his “lesson learned” suitcase and heads over to Emiko’s to apologize. He overstepped with the mission because he was excited to recapture some of the time he’s lost with his sister. By overstep he means completely take it over. Oliver apologizing first is enough to convince me he’s reached superhero nirvana.

However, the surprise was Emiko admitting she’s having difficulty not seeing Oliver as their father.

Since she’s Oliver 2.0 I wasn’t expecting that much emotional awareness so early in the game. Oliver and Emiko hug and cry and learn and grow. Great… we done? Oliver has places to be and THERE IS ONLY FOUR MINUTES LEFT.

Felicity is sitting on the counter in her pajamas downing a pint of mint chip and it is the stuff of fan fiction.

Source: olicitygifs

THEY REMEMBERED THE MINT CHIP Y’ALL!

There is also a photograph of Felicity snorkeling on the refrigerator, so Mia was conceived on their honeymoon trip in Aruba they took over winter hiatus. Don’t @ me.

Oliver wants to know why Felicity didn’t kill Diaz and her explanation is relatively straightforward. Killing Diaz wouldn’t necessarily keep their family safe because they are vigilantes. There is always another Big Bad waiting around the corner. More importantly, Felicity decides she wants to live in the light like Oliver has been doing. His example was enough.

And then she drops the bomb with the word “children.”

Oliver didn’t hear a word Felicity was saying

because the mind was racing trying to puzzle it out.

He stopped breathing.

We get to watch as he puts it together. It’s like watching Oliver fall in love all over again. It starts slowly

and then it happens all at once.

Source: olicitygifs

Oliver and Felicity’s baby was foreshadowed in a heartbreaking scene.

Moments before Oliver breaks up with Felicity in “The Calm” he watches her with Lyla holding newborn baby Sara. Diggle’s universe changed when he first looked at his daughter, but Oliver’s changed when he met Felicity.

Embarking on a relationship with her was never about one date. It was about marriage, children, building a life and growing old together. Felicity was always Oliver’s forever.

He knows he’s looking at a life he will never have. Oliver is going to shut the door on a relationship with Felicity, so he allows himself one moment of wistful hoping.

Oliver gives into the dream and imagines the life he could have with the person he loves most in the world. Oh how he wished things could be different, but Oliver couldn’t fathom how to get from here to there.

Until… he did. Season after season.

Episode after episode.

Bit by bit.

Piece by piece.

Step by step.

Oliver Queen has built a life with the woman of his dreams. It was a painful and difficult road, but he found his way back to her again and again. Eventually, life stopped being about survival. Oliver began to reach for more because he realized what Diggle said was true. Something to Live For is better.

Oliver has fought for the people he is living for every day, which is why this moment is so earned. There is something infinitely hopeful about Oliver creating new life with his wife. He was once shackled to the prison of his painful past, but what lies ahead now is the freedom of a bright and brilliant future.

This was the quiet dream Oliver and Felicity kept to themselves for all these years, but now it is happening. It’s real. All Oliver can feel is exuberant joy. There’s no hesitation or fear it will all be taken away. Oliver simply lives in this moment, holds his wife and breathes it in. This is what it feels like to be alive.

Telling Oliver makes it real for Felicity too. She shifts her weight in place as if the news is going to burst from her. The surprise of this unplanned little one still hasn’t completely worn off as Felicity marvels, “I’m pregnant.” Whatever fear she was feeling evaporates. Felicity lives in this moment with her husband as he holds her.

Source: olicitygifs

“It’s gonna be the details that define us. You know… the moments.” Joey Potter, Dawson’s Creek

Perhaps, it all falls apart in twenty years as Oliver and Felicity fight for their family. Maybe they are all separated one day, but that’s even more reason to embrace the joy. This is a long deserved pay off for a storyline that’s been building for four years. It is a perfect happy moment for our two heroes.

A hero’s journey is a road filled with pain, loss and sacrifice. It’s important to take the time to breathe. We must savor the joy because there will always be another battle to fight. We need these moments to remind us all what Oliver and Felicity are fighting for.

John Diggle

Things start off rocky with Diggle. Again. He comes clean to Oliver and Felicity about working with Diaz, but stands firmly behind the decision. Felicity can’t fathom why John is choosing his job over his family and girl same. Pod Diggle is the worst.

Diggle: Working with A.R.G.U.S. does keep you safe because it makes the world safe.

Felicity: You can keep telling yourself that.

SO. MUCH. BURN.

When was the last time an A.R.G.U.S. mission accomplished their goal in any way? I’m seriously drawing a blank. I’d be more supportive of Diggle’s decision to work with A.R.G.U.S. if they’d been able to stop Diaz or protect Felicity and William in any way. I’m not wildly impressed with the Dante operation either. A.R.G.U.S. isn’t making anybody safe. Felicity is 100% right.

Diggle very enthusiastically wanted to get the band back together in 7x12, but I still feel resistance from him. I’ve gone on and on about Diggle’s midlife crisis, so I won’t repeat everything again, but he remains hesitant to leave A.R.G.U.S. behind and rejoin Team Arrow in his full Spartan capacity. I understand John wants to define himself outside of Oliver Queen and feels lost now that his protégé doesn’t need him to point the way all the time. But Diggle has his own path with Spartan. He just has to choose it.

We see the beginning of that choice in “Brothers and Sisters.” He puts family before the mission when it goes awry. Diggle has Felicity’s back instead of abandoning her. He makes her a priority and helps Felicity stop Diaz.

Source: @smoacs

HALLELUJAH! HELLO JOHN THOMAS DIGGLE I HAVE MISSED YOU.

We even get an apology from John.

Source: arrowdaily

Apology accepted. Seriously, I’m good. John is off the hook. He’s seen the error of his ways, made better choices while making amends and delivered a hell of a speech. *grabby hands at Yoda Diggle*

Diggle also takes the fall for Lyla over losing Dante, so he is officially unemployed. It’s fine John. We hated your career at A.R.G.U.S. Nuke it. This means Diggle will be available for a full time Team Arrow position. Our Yoda is finding his way back to where he belongs – with his family.

Flash Forwards

Katherine McNamara promised we’d get plenty of answers in “Brothers and Sisters” and that’s true, but it only leads to more questions. Let’s run down the revelations:

Nobody knew Oliver and Felicity had a daughter except for Diggle. Roy, Dinah, Rene and William didn’t even know Felicity was pregnant.

John told his adoptive son Connor Hawke to watch over Mia.

William never hears from Oliver and Felicity again after leaving to live with his grandparents.

Connor knew who Mia’s parents were, but she didn’t know his parents. Mia is a little pissed right now at Connor and my ship is totally setting sail.

There was only one eyewitness to Felicity’s murder, Paul Loiseau, and he committed suicide. So did the coroner.

Whoever is behind the bomb plot needs Felicity, so they faked her death and tied up loose ends by killing Liseau and the coroner.

It makes very little sense to me that William has not heard from Oliver and Felicity after living with his grandparents. We see Oliver leaving William a message, one of many, but the voicemail is full. It’s hard to believe Oliver and Felicity would let a full voicemail stop them from seeing their son.

Nobody knew Felicity was even pregnant, so Star City must become too dangerous and she leaves town to keep her pregnancy secret and the baby safe.

Dinah: We all knew Oliver and Felicity. They never had a daughter.

Mia: I guess you didn’t know them as well as you think.

HAHAHA. I love this kid.

If Oliver gets Felicity out of town then it is possible he would cut off contact with William to keep him safe. However, that must happen later on. It’s clear William is not getting Oliver’s messages, so his grandparents must be keeping them from him.

Joseph David-Jones, who plays Connor Hawke, was on Twitter and delivering David Ramsey level goodies, so the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Yes, Connor is the Diggle’s adoptive son and we will find out what happens to JJ in another flash forward. Joseph believes the reason he’s not playing JJ is because the writers wanted to give him a fresh beginning, separate from the storyline he had on Legends of Tomorrow.

It’s fine with me. Diggle and Lyla can adopt a whole tribe. I think it’s great. Nor does it lessen my investment in SmoaknHawke. Although, I sincerely hope we find out JJ is alive because it would be super fun to have a JJ, Mia and Connor love triangle. I’m sorry. The Vampire Diaries warped me. I can’t be normal anymore.

The highlight of the flash forwards is the bonding between Mia and William. It starts out rocky, but the two find some common ground in their wildly different upbringings. It’s not easy being a child of heroes. William always believed the reason his parents stayed out of touch was because they were keeping him safe from the vigilante life. However, Mia blows that theory all to hell and William decides they simply didn’t want him.

William gives me a headache sometimes. YOU CHOSE TO LIVE WITH YOUR GRANDPARENTS. OLIVER AND FELICITY BEGGED YOU TO STAY. WHAT ARE YOU EVEN TALKING ABOUT?

Clearly this boils down to the grandparents. This is like The Notebook, as Maddie pointed out in our podcast. The mother kept Noah’s letters from Ally, but on the other hand he could have gotten in a car and knocked on her door. Nobody needed to wait seven years for contact.

If the grandparents are erasing Oliver’s messages then there’s a high probability of William’s father kicking their door in so he can see his son. It saddens me William doesn’t know this about his father and cannot see if Oliver and Felicity were trying to keep Mia safe then they were also doing the same for him by staying away.

Mia refuses to believe Felicity is dead because no one has seen her body. Finally, a flash forward character that uses actual logic. It’s so refreshing. This kid absolutely has Olicity DNA.

Mia’s relationship with her mother is complicated, but it doesn’t mean she doesn’t love Felicity. Quite the opposite.

Source: ebett

I AM HERE FOR SMOAK WOMEN FIGHTING FOR SMOAK WOMEN. She’s adamant about finding Felicity on her own, but William finagles his way into Mia’s heart a little bit because he’s William.

For the first time William and Mia finally have another person to talk to about what it’s like being children of vigilantes. Mia thinks William turned out swell because he’s rich, but her tune changes once he lays out all the devastating loss that came from being Oliver Queen’s son. William may be convinced Oliver and Felicity didn’t want him, but Mia assures him being wanted wasn’t exactly a lifelong free pass to Disney World.

Ugh. Can we just fix this? Everything is awful.

Oliver and Felicity didn’t abandon their children. They did what was necessary to keep their family safe. William and Mia don’t understand that and it makes my heart hurt. It’s understandable why William and Mia feel this way, but it doesn’t make their beliefs true. We need Felicity Smoak to pop up in these flash forwards to explain what happened to her children. No matter what decisions Oliver and Felicity made I believe they had good reasons.

Even though Felicity told Mia again and again her father was a hero, she couldn’t believe it. The city said Oliver was to blame for everything going to hell and Mia didn’t know which was true. William is the only person she can ask, so she does.

Source: oliverxfelicity

Sorry Oliver and Thea there are new QUEEN SIBILINGS FOREVER in town.

William may be angry at Oliver for the way things went down, but he can still see his father with crystal clarity. He is also one of the only people Mia would believe.

Source: smoakmonster

Arrow has used the hozen as a symbol of reconnection. It’s a way to heal the pain caused by time and distance. From Shado to Oliver, Oliver to Thea, Thea to Roy, Roy to Thea, Thea to Felicity, Felicity to William and finally William to Mia. It’s how the Arrow family finds their back to each other. William realizes Felicity didn’t use the hozen to guide him back to her. She used it to guide him to Mia.

We get some quality sibling banter with cube in a cube and Mia reveals she isn’t a rookie. Felicity has trained her to think with her sharp mind and Mia knows another solve for the puzzle – a cube in a cube in a cube. Something not even William knew.

Source: arrowdaily

Inside there is a mini cassette tape, which I agree is a brilliant way to keep information safe. Although, cassette tapes being obsolete technology makes me feel really old. How does one listen to this little gem of information? Buy a mini cassette player off EBAY?

Watching Mia and William’s sibling bond develop is like infusing all this darkness with a spark of light. It is a moment of joy, which is unexpected in this flash forward world. I was concerned I wouldn’t be invested in the flash forward characters, but I am.

Source: ebett

I care about William and Mia’s relationship. I want the Queen family reunited. I want to know what happened to JJ and the rest of the Diggle family. Even though the flash forwards are dark and terrible, I am invested in these new characters. At this stage of the game that’s nothing short of a miracle.

Bl*ck S*ren and Diaz

This episode is the gift that keeps on giving. Diaz returns to prison, but someone lights him up. Yes, the dragon died by fire. It’s too good.

I brought marshmallows! Time for smores.

Diaz’s killer is off screen, so it is very much a “Who done it?” There are two viable suspects – Dante or Bl*ck S*ren. The whole fire thing works for either of them.

BS watched Diaz burn someone and it was supposedly the moment she realized he was terrible. BS killing Diaz in the same fashion has some poetic justice to it and it’s absolutely something she would do. I thought she doth protest too much when discussing killing Diaz with Felicity.

Source: hollandrooden

Keep in mind this is the same woman who was prepared to murder again in 7x11 with no questions asked. She wasn’t terribly invested in being a fake lawyer then and it’s not like she’s had some kind of internal awakening that murder is bad.

IF BS killed Diaz, and it’s a big if, I don’t think she would have done it to avenge Quentin. I think BS would have killed Diaz, after Felicity decided not to, as a way to keep her and the baby safe. I know BS said Diaz was no longer a threat because he was in prison, but her whole blasé attitude felt old. She made a big show about not wanting to give up her lawyer gig either, so it would be extremely fantastic if BS goes to prison for trying to protect Felicity and her child. I loooooove it sooooo much, which probably means I won’t get it, but then again we’ve been on a hot streak (Olicity baby, Curtis gone, Diaz dead, Diggle is normal again, etc). No harm in hoping.

Of course, the next likely suspect is Dante. The whole fire thing works with Dante’s Inferno and Diaz did betray him. It’s nice to finally have a villain who feels somewhat threatening. It’s been a long time coming.

Stray Thoughts

Wait. Emiko is evil? Either she’s working for Dante or she’s double crossing him. One of the two.

“Don't touch my things." Can the writers start generating some individualism with Emiko? She doesn't need to be an exact replica of Oliver

The banana is green. Who eats unripe bananas?

The fact William mentions his grandparents’ answering machine is just further evidence they kept all of Oliver’s messages from him.

China White kicking Diaz and Joe Wilson’s ass is the only part of Ghost Protocol I buy.

We missed out on Oliver comforting Felicity post nightmare in bed and it’s NOT okay.

Is Task Force X what they are calling Suicide Squad now because I don’t remember Task Force X?

Dante arranged the longbow hunters. So there’s that missing plot line.

Amy Gumenick cannot shoot a bow to save her life. She’s awful at it.

Oliver reading criminals their Miranda rights is just… wrong. I don’t know why it’s wrong, but it is.

“You’d be breaking the law, which you’re already doing!” OMG this was flat out hysterical coming from Oliver.

I am getting a bunch of questions on the length of the pregnancy scene. I was not bothered by it. I truly was afraid Arrow would simply skip past Felicity telling Oliver. They’ve done it before. There are plenty of moments we would die to see onscreen that happen over hiatus. Anytime there’s any real time jump between episodes I get nervous.

So, I was overjoyed to get the scene at all. I truly did not have any expectations other than Felicity telling Oliver she’s pregnant. That’s a pretty straightforward announcement – been through two myself. I didn’t have a stopwatch clocking it, but I look at the whole scene, with Felicity telling Oliver the kind of hero she wants to be, as a lead up to the pregnancy announcement. The reason this pregnancy is happening now is because both Oliver and Felicity are ready for it. They’ve evolved to a place where they can be parents and heroes.

Maybe some expected a more lingering scene because of 3x01, but for me they are two different situations. There is no dialogue in the scene where Oliver is staring at Felicity and Stephen Amell had to convey all the emotions on his face without saying a word. Even then he doesn't linger long.

This time around it’s a little easier because there’s dialogue and Oliver’s reaction is immediate. He’s immediately HAPPY, which is a million miles away from where he started. It didn’t feel perfunctory. Oliver has learned he deserves good things so there’s no facade. There’s only joy. Quick reaction? Sure. Unearned or glazed over? No. Not to me. I’m taking the win and enjoying the moment for what it is.

Disclaimer: Any gifs on the blog are not mine. If you would like a gif removed from my reviews, please message me. 7x14 gifs credited.

If you’d like to support the blog, please buy me a cup of tea!

#arrow 7x14 #olicity #olicity baby #oliver and felicity #arrow 7x14 review #arrow reviews #arrow spoilers #john diggle #william and mia #william clayton #mia smoak #mia queen #anti black siren #anti ricardo diaz #season 7 episode review #arrow season 7 episode reviews

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fire-fira · 6 years

Text

More TMNT Junk (this time 2003 post-canon!)

[Ao3 version]

Soooooo I was vaguely thinking about posting this, and then I saw shit that the soggy cheetoh’s doing on my dash, and decided screw it-- to temporarily shove aside that unpleasant BS here’s some more TMNT stuff.

(Full disclaimer, most of this came from me babbling to @sounddrive about this concept. Plus a couple added things thanks to @babblingweirdnonsense. Because why the hell not?)

Just imagine the 2003 turtles living a ridiculously long time. I mean ridiculously long. Like still going strong when they’re around 121. (You can’t really tell me that it couldn’t happen when the Ninja Tribunal are thousands of years old and still look like they’re in their 30s-40s. If they can do it, so can these boys.)

It might be their mutation or it might be their level of chi control (or it might be both), and somehow Usagi's hanging on as long as they have (because separating Leo from his husband after that long would be cruel).

Yes you read that right, we’re going full-on Leosagi/katanashipping for this.

Of course with them being so old that brings up the question of why they wouldn’t have been present for the events of season 6 (since most of it takes place 100 years after they were 18). But I’ve got an explanation for that!

20 years prior to those events they got caught up in a war in Usagi's world and got stuck there. It wasn't supposed to become a war-- it was probably originally just supposed to be a vacation, time away from loud city noises and all that-- but nope! One thing led to another and escalated out of control, and they couldn't turn their backs because that wouldn't be fair-- and then some pain-in-the-ass magic user tried to trap them in that world (maybe to make sure they couldn't get reinforcements).

- Needless to say, they weren’t happy about that.

- So much inventive swearing from Raph. SO MUCH.

Plus Mikey probably adopting who knows how many kids. Because it’s Mikey and he’d hate the idea of leaving any orphaned kid behind when he can do anything about it.

- Though of course this is in addition to any kids he had already adopted over the decades who were spread out over their world and Usagi’s. So he just ends up with even more kids even though he’s already a grandpa... and a great-grandpa... and very likely a great-great-grandpa.

- Mikey will not be stopped.

- Leo and Usagi probably also have their own gaggle of adopted kids/grandkids/great-grandkids (although some actually related to Usagi through his son Jotaro, which is the family secret everyone pretends not to know, at least in Usagi's world), but they've got nothing on the sheer number of children and babies Mikey has taken in. There've been jokes that Mikey alone is going to completely rebuild the Hamato clan just through the number of kids he takes in.

Donnie in Usagi’s world mourns his lack of access to the tech he's used to, but he's been figuring out work-arounds. Mainly because sometimes when he's out in the field he wants nothing more than to just electrocute someone in a fight. What scares others is that he's got several nieces/nephews/etc. who have taken an interest in his inventions and tech to the point that they're sometimes referred to as a specific 'sub-division' of the Hamato clan (which can 'command lightning' and other such claims that most of them scoff at).

Raph's also got parts of the family that will happily glom onto him and follow him around and gleefully switch into 'coordinated ninja mode' when he gives the signal. People outside of the family tend to see Raph as one of the most terrifying of the family, but everyone in the family see him as a big old teddybear.

- Raph tends to lean on the 'scary' facade to keep people at a distance, because by that point he knows that if he doesn't then he's going to end up with a fan club. Again. And people are going to be throwing themselves at him. AGAIN. And he learned his lesson the last time (mostly).

- Though not being able to go anywhere in Japan in Usagi's world when he was about 50 without having people trying to throw themselves at him in increasingly desperate attempts to court him or while pledging their undying love to him was enough of a nightmare that he's amazed that sometimes he still forgets about trying to maintain a distance. Even worse, he still has a few diehard hangers-on that have yet to give up even though they've been trying to chase him for decades. (Usagi thinks this is absolutely hilarious and routinely ends up in cackling fits with Leo over it.)

- Mikey sometimes helps Raph dodge his fans and plays innocent if they spot him.

- (Raph was not counting on being seen as so attractive the first time he went to Usagi's world. For several subsequent visits he still wasn't prepared. When he found out about the first 'fan club' the poor man almost fainted, only to end up hiding for about five hours instead.)

People in that world are reasonably unsurprised by the fact that the turtles are still around (because I can easily imagine turtles in that world on average probably being a little longer-lived), but the surprise comes in with the fact that Usagi's still alive.

- He has made vague comments that maybe living with turtles for so long has affected him.

- He's also made vulgar jokes of varying levels of subtlety that have led Leo to facepalm, blush, clamp a hand over Usagi's mouth, or deliberately interrupt so that he won't have to hear one more comment about how sleeping with Leo has 'magically extended' his life.

- Mikey is terrible and cackles every time. Naturally he encourages Usagi's comments just because Leo is 'Too Old For This Shit™', and therefore it's all the more hilarious to him.

- Usagi’s comments may have drawn them more attention than Leo would prefer.

- (You can thank @babblingweirdnonsense for this sub-point addition.)

Usagi: "The true secret of immortality is to worship the flesh of the Kappa Ninjas. I have bedded the leader, and he in turn worships my flesh and gives me life."

Leo: "Stop telling people that sleeping with me will make them live longer."

Usagi: -winking- "I'm trying to make our bed a bit more fun."

- Leo: "...Look what you did. I bet you're proud of yourself."

Usagi: -smirks- "I am indeed. After all, I know all about the magic of a skilled turtle."

Leo: ". . .I love you, but please stop saying words.”

- Raph and Donnie have mastered 'tuning this shit out for the umpteen-millionth time™'. (The kids still have various levels of shrieking about it though, which is part of what makes it so hilarious to Usagi and Mikey both. They both have a terrible sense of humor.)

Mikey's go-to excuse for why he won't settle down with someone while they're stuck in that world for those 20 years is that he's "married to being a parent" and doesn't have time for a partner. Considering the number of great/grand/kids he has, no one's going to disagree.

- It’s mostly because he doesn’t want to end up in the same situation as Raph.

Then there's the perpetual argument over whether Mikey trying to refer to their family as a clan of 'ninjurai' or 'roninja' is remotely acceptable. He insists that both mashup terms fit perfectly since their family is made up of so many ninja and samurai/ronin. Most of the family disagrees on the principle of 1) those aren't real words, and 2) as old as he is why does he still insist on butchering Japanese as much as possible? (He insists because even as an old man he gets a kick out of being a little shit.)

- Other contenders for mashup terms Mikey’s gotten his family to shoot down are: samuninja, shinorai, ronobi, shininja, and rinjarai.

- Even his great/grand/kids have jokingly threatened to disown him for that.

- The argument has had various iterations going for decades

Everyone who knows anything about the family knows that if they want to interact with anyone who gives a sense of being calm, respectful, polite, and so on to go to Leo. And yet despite this everyone also knows that the five old men are possibly the best fighters in Japan; that all five of them are skilled, resourceful, and responsible. It still doesn't change the fact that at times Leo seems to be the only one who cares even a tiny bit about formality anymore.

- It also doesn't help that Leo probably knows entirely too many secrets from too many high-ranking officials scattered throughout that world's Japan.

- 'Oh yes! The responsible one! The leader! Now we can get some proper negotiations out of the wa- Oh no. It's him.'

- Old man Leo keeping a polite face even while the barest hint of a smile is on his face and amusement is dancing in his eyes-- because he knows.

Donnie's gotten so used to saying outrageous things in a deadpan due to having to occasionally explain his tech as 'magic' that there are times where he'll say something like, "No, it's intended to make an entire wall of a building explode if you sneeze near it," without even giving a hint that he knows he said anything that doesn't make sense.

- Raph may or may not have scared off some obnoxious would-be trouble-makers by telling them that if they didn't straighten up that he'd tell Donnie to just go ahead and summon the demons already.

- Leo's given up trying to tell the two of them to not say things that imply they're sacrificing people in some sort of twisted blood ritual. He's just grateful that their reputation is so wide-spread and they're so well-thought-of (if regarded as very strange) that most people seem to know not to take those comments seriously.

- Usagi may have once claimed that he was sacrificed and brought back from the dead several weeks in a row. Leo just rolled his eyes and pretty much told him to stop telling people that he'd let his brothers ritualistically kill his husband on a regular basis.

When Mikey wants to be lazy or a pest at the kids, he absolutely pulls the 'I'm old, I'm so achy and tired, I can't possibly get to my feet and walk that short distance to get (insert whatever here)' card. No one buys it. They've seen him in a fight, during training, etc. They know he's not 'frail', 'weak', or 'fragile' no matter how much he plays it up.

- Which at least once has resulted in a bout of--

"I can't possibly go on! I'll just stay here. And die. Of thirst. Because my grandchild who I thought loved me won't help dear old Grandpa."

"Grandpa. You were running across rooftops an hour ago. I highly doubt that you 'can't' get up."

"Dying. Of thirst. Leo! Leo, are you there?! Everything... going... dark..."

Leo just shaking his head. "No one in the family believed it when we were kids, no one's believing it now."

"I... can't possibly... move..." Over-exaggerated theater gasp.

"...Grandpa. I don't believe you. That didn't even sound close to a death rattle. And you can see the tea kettle from where you're sitting."

"...Too bad I don't have a good swivel-chair here."

"Mikey, no."

- (This is another sub-point you can thank @babblingweirdnonsense for.)

Mikey: “Child! Please give me that plate of food one foot away from me. My knees hurt.”

Child: “Father, I saw you beating an enemy ninja not two hours ago.”

Mikey: “I am sore from the fight.”

Child: “You were doing a handstand five minutes ago.”

Mikey: “I can no longer walk on my feet! Only my arms work now.”

When they’re finally able to go back to their world (a year after their younger selves return to their time) the media almost has a meltdown. Especially since Cody is able to confirm that they’re them. (Because realistically you can’t tell me that Donnie isn’t a famous scientist in that time. All four of them probably ended up in history books.)

Donnie keeps his deadpan semi-nonsense explanations. (Explaining to family or someone who gets what he’s talking about or doing is one thing. To others? He’ll still say things like “It’s magic” and leave it at that.)

- "No, really, how does it work?"

"The power of jesus."

- It even carries over to Donnie talking to reporters.

Reporter: “Where were the four of you for all these years?”

Donnie: "I could tell you-"

Raph: "-but then he'd have to kill you."

Donnie: "-No I wouldn't. But it'd be difficult to answer."

Reporter: "Could you try to explain?"

Donnie: "...Somewhere over the rainbow and in another dimension."

Raph: "Don, we weren't in frickin' Kansas."

Donnie: "Close enough."

Raph: "No it wasn't. Wasn't even on the same side o' the planet.”

And to top it all off, there’s the random thought of someone trying to suggest that one of the older turtles should probably sit in a chair normally (while they're either sitting on the back or on an arm or upside-down, who knows what), mostly out of concern that they might fall since they’re so old, and just the whole,

"Child, I am far too old and nowhere near straight enough to care about how other people think about how I'm sitting when I'm comfortable."

#TMNT #TMNT 2003 #Donnie #Leo #Raph #Mikey #Usagi #katanashipping #Leosagi #long post #my fiction #I had way too much fun with this

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changeling-fae · 5 years

Text

I didn’t get any asks but I really wanted to do this so here we go!

1. What’s their name? Is there a reason why they were named that?

Maris (mah-riss) is Melody and Talbott’s son and Lorelei (lora-lie) is their daughter. Since Melody’s line has merfolk in it, it was important to keep the sea ties to their lineage.

2. Who are their parents? What’s their relationship with them?

Melody Prince and Talbott Winger are their parents and they have a very close relationship. This is definitely due to Melody and Talbott’s family trauma and their desire to make sure their kids didn’t endure what they endured.

3. Which relative do they resemble the most? Why?

Maris is not only the son of Talbott but is also the son of a Prince and all the Prince men are reserved and aloof.

That being said he is more... mischievous? He’s too smart for his own good and thanks to being a legilimens he knows a lot of secrets. I’d say he’s a good blend of both parents.

Lorelei is also a good blend but her aloofness is more whimsical than serious. She’s also a legilimens but doesn’t use secrets as a weapon like her brother. She’s a poet like her father and writes her own songs.

4. How much did MC influence their growth?

Quite a bit, she grew up feeling abandoned by her family and never wanted her children to feel that. She and Talbott make sure that their kids know that they’re loved.

5. How much did Jacob influenced their growth?

Assuming he survives the game, he doesn’t have too much influence. He and Melody’s relationship was never able to fully heal.

He’s of course welcome to the family and he does visit occasionally but he felt guilt for what he put his sister through and thought he didn’t deserve his place in her life.

6. Describe their wand.

Maris’ wand is 11in Elm wood with a scale from his great-grandmother’s tail.

“The unfounded belief that only pure-bloods can produce magic from elm wands was undoubtedly started by some elm wand owner seeking to prove his own blood credentials, for I have known perfect matches of elm wands who are Muggle-borns. The truth is that elm wands prefer owners with presence, magical dexterity and a certain native dignity. Of all wand woods, elm, in my experience, produces the fewest accidents, the least foolish errors, and the most elegant charms and spells; these are sophisticated wands, capable of highly advanced magic in the right hands (which, again, makes it highly desirable to those who espouse the pure-blood philosophy).”

Lorelei’s wand is 12in Beech wood also with a scale from her great-grandmother.

“The true match for a beech wand will be, if young, wise beyond his or her years, and if full-grown, rich in understanding and experience. Beech wands perform very weakly for the narrow-minded and intolerant. Such wizards and witches, having obtained a beech wand without having been suitably matched (yet coveting this most desirable, richly hued and highly prized wand wood), have often presented themselves at the homes of learned wandmakers such as myself, demanding to know the reason for their handsome wand’s lack of power. When properly matched, the beech wand is capable of a subtlety and artistry rarely seen in any other wood, hence its lustrous reputation.”

7. Do they have any pets? If not, how do they feel towards animals in general?

Basically just as many pets that Melody had growing up. They’re animagi like their parents and are good with animals, especially aquatic ones and birds.

8. How much of the Magical World have they already experienced before they started attending Hogwarts?

They were born into it, with Melody being a healer for St Mungo’s (and later Hogwarts) and Talbott being an Auror. They grew up in Melody’s childhood home which is tied to a magical reserve for aquatic magical creatures.

9. Do they have any muggle based interests?

Maris finds psychology and science fascinating. He can often be found reading muggle doctors textbooks. He’s also a big fan of HP Lovecraft, mostly because he finds the concept of muggles finding fish people horrifying hilarious.

Lorelei loves muggle music and has gone to quite a few concerts. People might be surprised to find that her favorite is heavy metal.

10. In which house were they sorted? How much do they fit the Sorting Hat choice?

Maris gets sorted into Slytherin like his mother and definitely fits his house. He’s cunning, ambitious, and very resourceful. He’s also John Oliver level of trolling ability.

Lorelei was sorted into Ravenclaw like her father and she also very much fits her house, especially the creative and independent part. She’s very open minded like her mother too (who had been a hatstall with Ravenclaw).

11. Which is the general opinion about them?

Maris is a sparkly, hot (heart of gold) asshole and Lorelei is a mysterious, whimsical space cadet.

Maris is following his uncles footsteps in having a bit of a fan club. The only difference is he’s more into it and will absolutely use it to his advantage.

Lorelei is the only one who can easily knock him off his pedestal when she feels his head is getting too big.

Lorelei is incredibly intelligent like her family but she’s such a daydreamer that upon first meetings, many people think she’s just an airhead.

12. What do the professors and the other people working at the school think about them?

Kind of a combination “oh no” and “huh, they’re not too bad”.

Maris and Lorelei are good students even with their quirks and they will never be as bad as Melody in breaking the rules.

13. Is there a professor they highly respect? Is there instead a professor they can’t stand at all?

Flitwick is a favorite to both kids and they respect McGonagall as Headmistress.

(If Snape were alive they’d like him to, especially Lorelei).

There isn’t really a professor they dislike but Maris likes messing with Trelawney because he finds it fun, especially being a legilimens.

14. Talk about their favorite subjects.

Maris loves DADA, herbology, and flying the most. He’s also really into arithmancy and astronomy.

Lorelei loves potions, charms, and divination. She’s good at transfiguration too.

15. Talk about their least favorite subjects.

For Maris, HoM, he just gets so bored and isn’t really a history fan.

For Lorelei, DADA, she’s just not an aggressive person by nature and is more passive in how she views the world.

16. Do they possess a broom? If not, do they have another devices that allows them to fly?

They do but they prefer to fly in their animagi forms. Maris is a belted kingfisher and Lorelei is a diving petrel.

17. What do they think about Quidditch? Are they part of the Quidditch team? If yes, in which role do they play?

Maris actually becomes seeker for Slytherin and quite good at it but he’s weirdly enough not really a fan at watching other teams. He just likes the thrill and competition but only when he’s involved.

Lorelei doesn’t care about Quidditch at all but she does watch on the days her brother plays.

18. Do they attend other club activities at school?

Maris becomes a Prefect and is the leader of the Gobstones club. He’s just as bad as his mom in leaving no survivors in the game.

Lorelei is part of the Frog Choir and is also a member of the potions club.

19. Have they developed any peculiar skill, magical or not?

Both are legilimens like their mother and animagi like their parents.

Maris is good at strategy games and enjoys muggle poker.

Lorelei is good with her hands and is actually a pretty good masseuse.

20. List five things they like.

For Maris; Intellectual stimulus, trolling people, swimming, fishing, and flying.

For Lorelei; Singing, song writing/poetry, swimming, making wind chimes, muggle aquariums.

21. List five things they dislike.

For Maris; Ignorance, blood purists, incompetency, boredom, hypocrites.

For Lorelei; Close mindedness, cruelty, assumptions, blood purists, dishonesty.

22. Have they any interest in dating? Have they a crush on someone? How do you think this someone feel about them?

Maris is a serial flirt and Lorelei believes things will happen when they happen. Haven’t thought further than that.

23. Are they able to cast a Patronus? If yes, what animal does it represent?

Yep, Maris patronus is the same as his animagus form as a kingfisher (so his form and patronus match just like his father).

Lorelei’s patronus is a moon jellyfish (so differs just like her mother).

24. What’s their greatest fear? How does it translate into their boggart?

Probably losing their parents or each other, they have a very happy childhood and would be devastated if something suddenly happened.

Boggart would be a dead loved one.

25. What’s their greatest weakness? How do they deal with it?

For Maris, probably hubris. He’s very proud of his skills and actually does work hard to maintain them so if he suddenly couldn’t succeed at something he put effort into, it would damage his esteem.

He’d turn to his mother for advice after a lot of angst because he knows that he got his overachiever attitude from her.

Lorelei’s weakness is probably passivity, as in she’s not really proactive. She’s fine with things just happening to her instead of seeking it out.

It’s mostly her brother who gets her to be more proactive, usually through brotherly teasing.

26. Is there an objective they’re trying to accomplish?

For Maris, be the top of his class and for Lorelei just graduate.

27. How do they change throughout their school years?

Maris becomes more cocky midway through but he settles down by graduation.

Lorelei becomes less dependent on her family and more comfortable with her place in the world.

28. Talk about their relationship with the other Fankids.

If anyone wants to their fankids to be friends with mine, please let me know because that would be awesome! (please)

29. Are they the “bully”, the “victim” or the “hero” of the situation?

Maris isn’t a bully per se, he’s not cruel, he just likes to tease people, but he does troll people he thinks deserves it (like bigots).

Lorelei is very accepting of people no matter their quirks so if someone needs help she’s good at making people feel good.

30. Use a meme to describe them.

Maris

Lorelei

#hogwarts mystery #Melody Prince #talbott x mc #hm fankids

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dangerscully · 6 years

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Yesterday I was asked to elaborate on my thoughts on All About Eve, having been lucky enough to see it on Wednesday evening - the first night after the press night.

First off - I haven’t seen the film yet. I’ve heard that it keeps a lot of the script and ideas the same, but as of yet I can’t comment on those similarities or differences.

This turned itself into a long post and I accept no responsibility for that.

Spoilers below the cut. (If the cut doesn’t work on mobile and you want to avoid spoilers, now’s the time to scroll quickly down).

I’m gonna go all in here and start with a seriously unpopular opinion.

I didn’t particularly enjoy Gillian Anderson’s Streetcar performance. I found it largely cringeworthy.

I acknowledge that it was good. But it was so melodramatic - and yes I know that’s what the role demands! - that it made me uncomfortable because I was constantly aware that I watching Gillian with a capital G perform it, something that she’s an expert in making the audience forget, usually.

And a large part of my discomfort could well be thanks to the fact that I watched it via NTLive, rather than in person. I had a similar experience watching David Tennant in a televised performance of a stage production of Macbeth, and yet I found him incredible on stage in Don Juan in an equally hammy role.

But anyway, I digress. I went in with lowered, slightly nervous expectations, due to this.

Gillian Anderson. The main reason I attended the play, let’s be totally honest here. And boy did she deliver. A masterclass in acting, from subtleties to quiet melodrama.

And now that part has been said, the main reason that most of you will have clicked through(!), lets go a little deeper into the show.

***

All About Eve is a hybrid between a theatre production and a cinematic one. It is done through the very clever use of camerawork that is projected live onto the lifted back wall of the stage, allowing action to happen off-stage while still enabling the audience to experience it live.

Over time, actors have found themselves having less of a restriction about into which box they categorise themselves. Film? Theatre? TV? Choose one - you can’t have more than one field! Luckily that is less so now, and Ivo Van Hove’s production is a way of celebrating that.

The live camerawork and editing is done so impressively and seamlessly that it’s almost unbelievable at times that you’re watching a live, single take of these scenes. It also allows for new ways for each performance to be slightly different each night. And it melds the intimacy of watching a live performance on stage, with the different kind of intimacy allowed by close-up, slow shots.

It’s also a great nod to the voyeurism and a lack of privacy that is a key theme in the show, thanks to fan culture. Scenes behind literal closed doors are still shown in detail to the audience.

And that live camerawork begins in the very first scene. Addison takes the stage, to introduce you to the story. And after a brief monologue, he walks off stage, with the camera following him. He is projected onto the empty stage, while he walks around “backstage”, introducing you to many of the characters and setting the scene.

I found that so innovative. And immediately impressive as a single take one-shot. (It had a very Birdman vibe to it!) The audience is told from the very first scene that cameras are going to be an important part of the play. This scene was the last minute addition that was not in any of the previews, and I’m so glad that they put it in. Hopefully it will be kept!

Coming to the play from a fandom perspective - although I’ve taken a fairly healthy step back in recent months - felt hilariously meta. So much of the obsessive, embarrassing behaviour exhibited by Eve towards Margo was recognisable in more extreme areas of this fandom! We didn’t queue up for the signing on Wednesday (the jury’s out on whether or not we will do the second time we see it) but we did feel - probably unfairly - a sense of irony as we walked back to the tube station past the long queue of fans waiting to meet the cast of a play that is essentially about the dangers of obsessive fan behaviour!

My favourite scene was, perhaps (lol) unsurprisingly, one of Gillian’s. And she’s not even the focal point of the scene. She is off-stage, in the bathroom which is totally shielded from the audience. And while a scene plays out on stage, a projection of Gillian in a very Blanche-esque moment - despite having no dialogue - absolutely steals the scene via a single-camera projection that ends in a graphic display of vomiting.

Another particularly memorable scene happened again in the bathroom. This time, a two-camera set-up was used, increasing the feel of watching a film or tv show even more, as it cuts between Karen and Eve’s faces as they have a crucial confrontation in the bathroom.

Karen. Karen Karen Karen. Monica Dolan, wow. Really, honestly incredible. No real words beyond that. This feels a particularly ineloquent reaction but she blew me away.

I’m gonna go back to the camerawork now; yes I keep focusing on it but it’s such an integral part of the overall production. After several live action projections from the same angle, we are greeted with a projection of Margo looking into the mirror, facing fears about her age and how it is affecting her career. Slowly, the projection shows her ageing. And it almost tricks the audience’s eye in that it takes a while to even realise that this projection isn’t actually a live one!

A similar CGI projection is used later in the show, to show Eve’s face transforming into Margo’s as she slowly takes over her life. It’s a simple concept, used over and over again in film and TV, but bringing it to a theatre stage was a new and exciting use for it.

I’m a big fan of PJ Harvey’s music. The music for this show was more like an atmospheric film score than a theatre score for a lot of it, again blurring the lines between a stage and screen production.

A lot of hype has been built up for Gillian and Lily’s moments of singing. Gillian was surprisingly good! You can tell she’s not a trained singer, but given that she is highly intoxicated at the point she takes the metaphorical mic, that doesn’t matter at all, and she still hits all of the notes in an authentic way.

Lily James, of course, has more of a musical background, but her performance was still to me, more lacking overall. I did listen to a podcast that said that PJ Harvey heard that Lily is able to play the piano, so planned her song around that. Lily is then asked about it on the podcast, and laughs that she’s not played since school and it must have been something she told a white lie about to embellish her acting CV! And fair play to her, she pulls it off very well if that’s the case!

I don’t want to write a totally unbiased review, so I’ll touch on the aspects I was less impressed with. My main criticism of the first half in particular, was the number of jumps, in both time and location, without any real indication given to the audience. The set remained the same, and the time jump could apparently happen mid-dialogue. It’ll be interesting to see if it’s easier to keep track of this next time I see the show.

It would have also been cool to see a more modern take on obsessive fan culture. There’s plenty of research material for that around these days! Social media creates armies of fans, obsessing over minor details about a celebrity’s life in ways that weren’t as widely possible when the script was originally written.

Lots of the reviews have criticised the fact that Ivo was trying to be “too clever” while putting this show together. And it could easily be argued that they have a point. Personally, I think it works, and as such the idea of it being “too” clever is voided. But it’s understandable that people may agree with the critics on this.

***

I think that’s most of what I have to say about the show! Given the number of changes that happened during the preview run (which, please remember, is essentially just a series of rehearsals to an audience), it will be interesting to see if the show develops any further. I will be seeing it again in April, over two months away, and I’m looking forward to comparing the two!

#all about eve #gillian anderson #all about eve spoilers #lily james

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ecampbellsoup · 7 years

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3x11 UNCHARTED REVIEW

So I am new to Outlander, but I am ardently in love with it.

I discovered this phenomenal show about 2 months ago and have already watched seasons 1-3 three times through. It has utterly captivated me. I haven’t posted any reviews up until this point but after this show, I felt the need to. I am pretty verbose but I think my thoughts are worth expressing (as everyone’s are!). So here we go!

Ep 3x11: Uncharted

Overarching thoughts:

* Sam Heughan is simply perfect. And I’m not just saying that because he’s beautiful. Anyone who truly understands what honest and genuine acting is cannot deny that he is TALENTED and does miraculous things with the material he is given. SAM. HEUGHAN. ALL. THE. WAY. One of the brilliant things about Sam’s work is his subtlety. He doesn’t have to go “over the top” or be forceful to get the script and story line across. His work is in his eyes, body posture: all slight movements and you can even see him thinking like Jamie in the scenes. I know people have criticized him for his reaction to Bree’s photos and other scenes but, to me, he does an EXCELLENT of being honest in all his scenes; he is BELIEVABLE. Can’t say enough good about him. He is the tour de force of this show.

* Cait is really growing on me. Don’t get me wrong I’ve ALWAYS loved her as Claire and she does have some strong, powerful moments. But her acting in season 1 and 2 has many moments of insincerity and “over” acting. She just simply wasn’t organic in some scenes (the scene where she asks Jamie to wait one year to seek vengeance on Black Jack always comes to my mind first). However, she has blossomed this season and is coming into her own. I think this is a direct reflection of working with Mr. Heughan and growing as an actor.

OK ALL THAT TO SAY: I did thoroughly enjoy this episode. Let’s start with my constructive criticism and then PRAISE.

Constructive Criticism:

Ok so my biggest beef with season 3 is that the last few episodes have been ENTIRELY off on pacing and story line. The writers simply are choosing the wrong moments to highlight and stretch for too long. Don’t get me wrong: “Slow” doesn’t bother me. However, you have to choose the right plot points to develop slowly. And I think that Heaven and Earth is a prime example of this. They took an entire episode to show characterization that could’ve taken 25 minutes or less. Literally. How I personally would have shot Heaven and Earth is condensed what they had into 25-30 minutes and then shot Claire on the island and ended the episode with Claire standing on the beach waiting for Jamie. This makes more sense IMO. Then Uncharted could’ve been the wedding and turtle soup and more into Jamaica. With only 2 episodes left, I am nervous about what will be left out and rushed.

Some of the dialogue has come off or translated as insincere and awkward on screen. Truth be told, the show has done a brilliant job of picking some of Diana’s best dialogue to keep in and weeding out the more trite/silly exchanges. That’s not a diss on D cause I LOVE HER. But sometimes her dialogue is just too over the top and lacks depth or realism. However. This season: Sometimes the writers have missed the mark with the dialogue choices which make it harder for the actors to “sell” the story.

Ok so those are my two largest complaints with season 3. They are not blanket staments for every episode, but more so just observations I’ve made over the course of watching the season through 3 times. NOW FOR THE PRAISE!!!!!

Praise:

The reunion on the beach was truly LOVELY. It was passionate, sweet, reviving, and sincere. This little moment was one of my favorites. And the build up of tension before the embrace was perfection.

The wedding was absolutely precious. Full of humor, love and excitement (just like real weddings are). The moment that eclipsed it all was OBVIOUSLY when Jamie claimed Fraser over Fergus. I literally had tears down my cheeks. This moment has more implications and tenderness to it than I can tease out in this post BUT: the fact that Fergus is officially, after all this time, stamped with the Fraser name AND WITH JAMIE AND CLAIRE TOGETHER NO LESS TO WITNESS IT, is simply beautiful. It has immense meaning to both Fergus, who has loved Jamie and Claire SO well since the minute he came to them, and Jamie, who is finally able to recognize that he did raise a child and taught him how to be in the world.

The moment with Claire and Marsali was brilliantly done. Props to the writers and actors on this one. The nuance we see in Marsali here is striking. Because you can see that she really does like Claire but she doesn’t want to betray her mother. It also reveals that she admires Claire and Jamie’s relationship despite what has happened. Props all the props.

Wowzie. Turtle Soup was quite different from the book but I personally loved it. Cait was hysterical. I mean truly hilarious. Their chemistry was playful and sweet which is so refreshing since it has not been this way for a LONG time between them. I also love the moment where Jamie cannot stab Claire with the needle because he couldn’t bear the thought of hurting her. Again, Sams facial expressions are ON POINT ALWAYS. Could’ve had the scene run for 2 more minutes but overall YASSSSSS.

ALSO SHOUT OUT TO WILLOUGHBY WHO MAKES ALL MY DREAMS COME TRUE AND IS THE BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD!!!!!!!! And Bear’s musical choices are ALWAYS incredible. This season particularly. The Willie theme and the music this episode stand out to me.

#outlander #sam heughan #uncharted #voyager #caitrionabalfe #season3 #JamieFraser #ClaireFraser

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greed-the-dorkalicious · 7 years

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FMA Extended Media Recommendations - Red Tier (First place)

FMA actually has a lot of material outside of just the manga and anime. For lack of a better term, I call these works the FMA “extended media”, and I think they’re all sorely underappreciated. So, I decided to give my recommendations, and hopefully you might find something new to enjoy!

Because there are so many different works in so many different categories, instead of just doing a top 5 or top 10 list, I decided to divide them into tiers based on the four stages in the creation of the Philosopher’s Stone. Remember that these are all just my personal picks, and it’s all very subjective, so don’t feel bad or get angry if your favorite gets black tier! They’re all fantastic anyway.

A few notes first: I’m only ranking things I’ve actually seen/read/played, so for example, a few of the video games aren’t on here. I’m also not including the character song CDs (which I highly recommend). I’m also not including anything related to Conqueror of Shamballa, purely because of the amount of context required to enjoy those. My final notes are that some of these are in Japanese only, and also, please don’t ask me where to buy/watch things- any answer I give you is just going to be what I got off Google anyway, so might as well cut out the middleman, you know?

Anyway, without further ado, here’s the red tier!

The Ties That Bind (Novel)

This is my absolute favorite of the light novels, by far. In this story, Ed and Al’s search for a rare book leads them to the town of Lambsear, where they meet a young boy named Kip. Kip is Ishvalan, and lives with his Amestrian adoptive parents, Shelley and Luon. Kip feels uncertain of his relationship with both his family and the local Ishvalan community, and as usual, some no-good alchemy is afoot.

This novel really puts an interesting spin on the effects of the Ishvalan War on a more personal level, and has some interesting discussions about community and what it means to be a family. The plot gets quite grim at some points, but there are more lighthearted moments, such as some time with the Curtises, and Ed’s apparent talent as a librarian.

Art Book 2 (Book)

Unfortunately I’ve never been able to find the first art book, but I do love this one. It’s a lovely book full of full-color images by Arakawa spanning from around the Dublith arc to... Just around the Briggs arc, I think..? I don’t really remember and I’m too lazy to go check, lol.

It includes not only manga cover art, but also character concept art, commemorative illustrations, things drawn for friends, and other pieces that might not otherwise be seen by the average western FMA fan. Each piece is also accompanied by Arakawa’s commentary, which ranges from insightful and thought-provoking to hilarious and nonsensical.

Curse of the Crimson Elixir (Game, Playstation 2)

Although this is the second of the three FMA games released for the PS2, don’t let the number fool you; it has nothing to do with the first game. The graphics are greatly improved, though! Like the first game, Crimson Elixir is a story-based fighting game, with gameplay similar to the Kingdom Hearts series (although thankfully not as complicated). It’s also a great game if you’re a fan of Hawkeye, who’s with the Elrics throughout most of the main plot.

Curse of the Crimson Elixir starts out as a canon divergent AU, mostly based off the manga. Mysterious, mud-like creatures known as golems have been popping up everywhere, killing people and even an entire town. With a mysterious, ghostly woman named Elma begging for their help, and a reluctant and bitter old archaeologist named Arlen Glostner, Ed and Al are led to the ancient ruins of Siam-Sid, where a man named Jack Crowley has been using ancient alchemy to revive a lost civilization and try to resurrect his dead wife. It falls to Ed and Al to put a stop to Crowley’s wild scheme before it’s too late.

Sacred Star of Milos (Movie)

Those of you who are familiar with Conqueror of Shamballa might be inclined to assume that Milos is a sequel to Brotherhood,but it’s not. It’s intended to be another untold story from Ed and Al’s five-year journey, although like Crimson Elixir, it doesn’t really fit in anywhere on the timeline.

In this movie, Ed and Al travel to the western border for the first time in FMA history. A group of people known as Milosians live in a garbage-filled valley between Amestris and Creta; Once a great civilization of its own, after Milos was annexed by surrounding countries, the Milosians were forced to live in filth and poverty, provide slave labor for Amestris and Creta, and act as disposable pawns in international politics. The Elrics meet a bright young lady named Julia Crichton, who wants to use legendary Milosian alchemy to aid her people’s attempts to reclaim their country. But the promising technique that’s brought the Milosians so much hope is based around, you guessed it, human sacrifice. Oops! Good luck, Julia...

Sacred Star of Milos may have its faults... boy, does it have its faults... But regardless of its critical reception and its place in the FMA timeline, I still think it’s a very entertaining movie to watch. There’s a lot of fun action scenes and visually stunning sequences, and it has an interesting art style and a great soundtrack. It may not be another Arakawa-given masterpiece, but for FMA fans, I think it’s a fun and entertaining way to kill two hours.

Yet Another Man’s Battlefield (OVA)

This is part of a series of short, Brotherhood-based OVAs that give insight into the lives of various characters in the FMA universe. In this OVA, we get to see Roy and Hughes’ academy days, including how they met and became friends, and their friendship with an Ishvalan-Amestrian student named Heathcliffe Erbe.

But of course, this is the military, and it’s not all fun youthful school days. It greatly showcases the racism against Ishvalans, and also includes scenes from the Ishvalan war that show the subtleties of the war and what it was like for soldiers on both sides. I think this makes it really important, especially considering how much of Ishval was cut from Brotherhood. It’s not a happy OVA, but it’s one I highly recommend watching.

#FMA #FMA light novels #FMA OVAs #FMA video games #I'm gonna do the rest of these later because this took longer than expected and I have a music lesson in a few minutes lmao

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cviperfan · 7 years

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OKAY DEATH NOTE 2017 THOUGHTS

Under a cut for length not spoilers because honestly who fucking cares

-So the movie commits many sins but principle among them are two 1) The Death Note is basically just a vehicle for gore porn, pretty much indistinguishable functionally from any other 'Cursed Object' type horror movie. There's lip service paid to the suspense trappings of the original work but Wingard is clearly much more interested in the kind of brutal deaths that can be extracted from the Death Note's flexibility of options and far less in the moral quandaries that such an object would create, and Wingard's pre-release interview that expressed an interest in creating a Hard-R version of the story was at least for me a clear indicator that he was Wrong for the project, since grisly deaths are not what makes the story interesting, or in fact are even a priority. The fact that the default way the Death Note kills in the original canon is a heart attack (by all intents a fairly 'clean' method of death) is there for a reason, as is the 2017 version's curious decision to specifically omit that detail.

(In Wingard's interview he expresses a desire to include the "adult themes of anime" which specifically include "nudity, swearing, tons of violence" to him, which suggests that his familiarity with the medium starts and ends with Ninja Scroll and nothing else and that he probably didn't actually watch Death Note outside of a cliffs notes he had an intern scribble out or something)

2) And this is much more fundamentally antithetical to the original work, but Light's transition from Villain protagonist to Reluctant Misunderstood Anti-Hero.

in the original canon it's certainly possible to find Light's end goal aspirational, even if the actual empathy with Light himself doesn't last very long, and part of the paradox of the manga/anime is Light being a pointedly and unmistakably Terrible Person while also being a compellling and interesting protagonist. Even if you don't necessarily want Light to succeed, watching him operate and maneuver through various obstacles on the path to his goal is fascinating on its own terms.

Death Note 2017!Light, by contrast, is given great, excruciating measures to make him Highly Sympathetic to the audience, and indeed we are meant to interpret him specifically as a Good Kid Who Took A Wrong Turn and is now Way In Over His Head. His mom died at the hands of Joe Chill a crook who got away with it, giving him a nice clean Batman justification, he's bullied at school, is extremely concerned with his actions being percieved as good and perhaps most crucially, tries to limit his body count outside of criminals (American!Light reacts extremely negatively to the mere IDEA of killing his dad when he calls Kira out, whereas canon!Light, while certainly not enthusiastic about the idea, was right there weighing the pros and cons, reasonably prepared to do so if he proved to be enough of a problem).

He doesn't even use the Death Note initially of his own volition; Ryuk has to be there to straight-up Devil on His Shoulder-him into it (in a hilariously over-the-top introduction, more on that later), and Misa (sorry, MIA) is constantly pushing him to go darker when his resolve wavers, and indeed seems way more into the idea of using the Death Note on a visceral level than Light is.

All of this is contrary to one of the crucial points of Death Note in its original form-- Light was a person of privilege surrounded by a loving family and with infinite potential who had absolutely no reason to have become a power-hungry arbiter of "justice" with a god complex, and yet when a bit of power happened to fall into his hands that's exactly what he became. He didn't need a traumatic event or a bad situation to become Kira, just the possibility that he could do it and get away with it.

But even in a Death Note adaptation where the first death we get is someone's head being cut off at the jaw with a fucking ladder, this seems like too dark a conclusion for Adam Wingard to come to, so even when his body count starts rising we get constant excuses and reminders that he's A Good Kid, Honest, He's Really Trying To Do The Right Thing He's Just Got So Many Bad Influences That Pushed Him This Way and in the face of the original work's frankness (and Wingard's talk of "adult themes") this just comes off as cloying and toothless.

Nevermind that in light (heh) of the extremely whitewashed nature of this adaptation, the almost fetishistic effort of the writing team to sanitize Troubled White Teen Boy Light Turner (Who Has His Whole Life Ahead Of Him) of as much active culpability as possible is certainly quite telling isn't it

Okay that out of the way, time for some just Random Bad Shit lol

-just so we know exactly what we're dealing with and what director Adam Wingard thinks is cool one of the very first shots of the movie is Misa (sorry, MIA) at cheerleading practice but see she's not like THOSE OTHER SHEEPLE who are all ACTUALLY PRACTICING AT CHEER PRACTICE SHE'S A COOL DISAFFECTED REBEL BECAUSE SHE DOESN'T WANNA PRACTICE AT CHEER PRACTICE god look at these PHONIES all having fun and laughing OUR GIRL IS SO COOL SHE'D MUCH RATHER SMOKE AND LOOK BORED WHAT A BADASS -And like later in the movie she's all to Light "I'M A CHEERLEADER nothing i ever did mattered before i met you!!" like then WHY ARE YOU A CHEERLEADER WHY WERE YOU THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE?????? YOU CAN DO LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE MY KIDDO -So the Light/Mia relationship is kind of a mess because not only do they try and play it up as the emotional lynchpin of the narrative (no, for real) but the reversal with Mia being the one who becomes super obsessed with the Death Note (even to the point where she tries to set up Light to die so she can get it) and her being the Other Bad Influence on Light really manages to make even the original Death Note's bad track record with its women fucking shine by comparison. If the original Light/Misa dynamic was basically a Joker/Harley setup written by someone who understood that it's an abusive relationship, new!Light/Mia is the Hot Topic Romanticized Joker/Harley but also Joker is the Real Victim here apparently -Like they literally get off to using the Death Note together and make out while scanning the internet for targets-- like there COULD absolutely be a place for there to be commentary on Bored Well-Off White Kids abusing power for the fun of it, but again there's no room for insight when there's those practical gore effects to throw around -Dear god there is not a HINT of subtlety in this fucking thing, an especially egregious stylistic choice when the manga/anime is (while ofc prone to Light's.... extreme and borderline comically evil reactions) overwhelmingly grounded with-- especially compared to many anime and manga in general-- comparatively moderate supernatural elements and touches, especially in terms of its visual detail and art direction. Wingard's Death Note on the other hand, has thunderstorms AND flickering lights that accompany Ryuk's appearances until they... don't (ARE YOU PICKING UP THE SUBTLE FAUSTIAN ELEMENTS HERE AUDIENCE????????), a trip through a Spooky Dark Abandoned Mansion that features a close-up of a busted doll accompanied by a creepy child's laugh NO REALLY IM SERIOUS and deaths that frequently end in torrents of blood because that's what we're really here for apparently -Speaking of a lack of subtlety, while I get the logic in casting Dafoe for Ryuk he ends up being both underutilized and a sadly uninteresting choice, since the apparent direction for him to go more Norman Osbourne really takes away any degree of ambiguity Ryuk has as a patently neutral party in the whole thing (at least as far as the original goes; this really wants to set him up as a Red Herring possible antagonist in a thread that goes absolutely nowhere and ends up meaning nothing). Like I think he could have worked if the performance was a little lower-key and he had not-terrible writing to work with, but at least someone's having fun in this mess so wth -L fans are gonna be fucking pissed off because HOLY HELL they didn't not fuck him up either -Canon L: Sherlock Holmes but with sweets instead of hard drugs and also he sits weird sometimes -Death Note 2017!L: Fucking Weirdo Asshole With Bizarre Rituals galore and also he can't sleep without Watari awkwardly singing the greatest hits of Celine Dion SHUT UP IM SERIOUS because okay -So the wierd race bullshit definitely doesn't stop at Light because the framing of L (who is played by Keith Stanfield, a black actor and OH BOY I CAN ALREADY HEAR THE IMNOTRACISTBUTS COMING IN) is pointedly, aggressively antagonistic. Rather than giving Stanfield the collected, analytical, somewhat awkward detective characterized in the source material, Death Note 2017's L's erratic tics and behaviourisms are meant to make the audience find him uncomfortable rather than compelling in his own right, because autistic-coded super detective is such an interesting and not at all gross and played-out formation of a character. Because again, the movie has no real interest in being suspenseful or focusing on the cat-and-mouse game, L figures out that Light is Kira with very little deduction or buildup, and indeed aside from a pointedly brief midpoint conversation and a completely stupid and pointless chase scene near the end, the two barely interact, so the whole aspect of two strong wills directly competing within inches of each other is tossed aside. -Also WHO THE FUCK THOUGHT A SCENE OF A YOUNG BLACK MAN BEING SLAMMED INTO A TABLE AND NEARLY CHOKED OUT BY A WHITE COP WITH ANGER ISSUES AND A SELF-RIGHTEOUS STREAK IN DEFENSE OF A GUILTY WHITE KID WHO ULTIMATELY GETS AWAY WITH IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TASTE WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT -Speaking of poor taste we couldn't find more than one Japanese actor for a speaking role (Watari, natch, with barely a handful of lines) BUT WE CERTAINLY COULD FOR THIS SEX CLUB SCENE WITH A ROOM PACKED FULL OF DEAD JAPANESE PEOPLE IN FETISH GEAR -Ryuk himself also looks Fuckin Bad and they know it since the overwhelming majority of his shots are him BLURRED THE FUCK OUT IN MIDDLE DISTANCE OR OFF IN THE CORNER -"many people have tried to write the 4 letters in my name into the Death Note but nobody has gotten farther than 2 :)" your full name was literally in there but ok -"all the deaths have to be physically possible" Ferris Wheel magically collapses for no reason to facilitate a death -"I need L's full name to kill him, I'll just take control of Watari with the Death Note EVEN THOUGH WATARI IS A FUCKING ALIAS" and also if this was in fact his real name and L knew it WHY WOULD HE HAVE LET HIM GO AROUND WITH HIS FACE UNCOVERED LIKE????????????????????????????????? -Reveals L without ceremony during the nightclub murder investigation/pretends like there's a mystery and a reveal to be had for the audience and awkwardly attempts to re-enact bits of the original introduction to the character anyway

Ultimately there's more that I'm probably forgetting but wow Death Note 2017 is just impressively dumb. Like, original Death Note could get pretty dumb especially in the last half, but that was more a case of working itself into a corner over time and its reach extending beyond its grasp on occasion. This just has no aspirations to even try.

Like, shit, I honestly don't like Death Note all that much but I can at least appreciate that it has some weight to it and made an effort to build a complex character-driven narrative while proposing a thoughtful moral paradox, which is more than I can say for the 'fans' who wanted to adapt it and decided this was the best possible approach lmao

#death note 2017 #WHENS THE RIFFTRAX

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silver-soliloquy · 7 years

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COMC week I don’t even know anymore but here are some Notes

XLIV

o Edmond, do you…do you know anyone who isn’t connected to this whole revenge nonsense? Have you ever spoken to a single person without a sinister ulterior motive? You might try it sometime, it’s fun o That said, Edmond Knows Nothing About This Backstory is always a hilarious game o So I think this is the first time Edmond’s used two disguises on the same person without being caught, as the Abbe Busoni and the Count? Mysterious Stranger level-up! o I also love that all his aliases apparently KNOW each other, half his social circle is actually just himself in different wigs o Oh, Caderousse. Yikes.

XLV

o I have no comments for this chapter except WHAT LADY MACBETH NONSENSE EVEN IS THIS o “I like ghosts” okay you goth weirdo

XLXI

o A retreating forehead!! Edmond, how did you not realize Danglers was evil when you first met him! o Edmond spying on people from his window with binoculars like a stereotypical suburban housewife on the hunt for gossip is the most amazing image ever, thank you Dumas o The whole horse theft thing is just SO PETTY. Like I know it’s part of a Scheme, but…sooooo petty. o The politeness mind games Edmond plays with people is honestly the most enjoyable part of the book so far, why can’t we have less obscure chess mastering and more clever social maneuvering?

XLVII

o The baroness Danglers is Terrible and kind of hilarious in her utter lack of chill o I’m not sure which headcanon I like better—Edmond actually spending the timeskip years hanging around theatres and annoying the actors into giving him lessons, or Edmond being super obvious and overacting literally all the time but everyone assumes it’s just part of his ~eccentricity~ and never calls him on it o He gave the horses diamond earrings. What the hell, Edmond. o Okay again, Edmond the shadowy figure pulling the strings of some mysterious grand plan isn’t that interesting of a character to me—Edmond the petty, passive-aggressive verbal sparer using rich people’s own societal convention and etiquette laws against them is FANTASTIC and I am totally rooting for him in those moments

XLVIII

o Not really sure how much of this Edmond actually believes and how much he’s just saying to weird out Villefort, but what the hell anyways o Nortier :(((((

XLIX

o Haydee!!! o …question, was Greece actually included in ~The East~ from a 19th century French standpoint? I don’t think I’ve ever heard it lumped in with orientalism before, but Haydee being Greek also seems to make her Turkish and generally ~Eastern~ as far as her wardrobe and interior decor is concerned? o Haydee definitely needs some friends, but she is awesome regardless

o The Morrels are adorable and I’m really glad they’re doing well o Watch it Edmond, you’re on the verge of making a friend o Edmond BLUSHED oh my god let’s keep Julie around always o Edmond’s identities are getting a little precarious here—if Maximilien ever talked to Franz about the whole Sinbad saving his family thing Franz would be only too happy to tell him that Monte Cristo goes by that name sometimes and “oh uh no there’s TWO Sinbads running around and the one who helped you is my weird English friend who just happens to look a lot like me” would be a pretty flimsy excuse o But possibly that would require a higher level of friendship than Edmond would expect, especially since he had no reason to expect Max’s social circle to overlap with his enemies’ kids’ o I would laugh so hard if all his castle of lies collapsed from a couple friends chatting though, oh my god o WAIT A SECOND, didn’t Albert talk about Franz’s Arabian Nights adventures with the Count at the breakfast that Max was AT? Come on dude, put it together, there can’t be that many people running around with that ridiculous an alias o Also, so far Mercedes and Julie are the only two who have even looked funny at the Count so far! A+ perceptiveness, ladies! o Also I’m so glad that part of Edmond’s disguise routine is tight corsets o I had to put down the book to go OOOOOOH at Morrel attributing his salvation to Edmond Dantes’s ghost, DANG Dumas I was not expecting that o Edmond: oh well I have no idea who that is but I have to leave right now immediately for totally unrelated reasons

o At least twice this chapter I found myself thinking “wow, this is really Pyramus and Thisbe!” before remembering that that is, in fact, the title of the chapter, so well done Dumas you got me o Also side note last time I read a thing where the heroine had an evil dad and the name Valentine was involved it belonged to the dad, so my brain keeps trying to autocorrect “Valentine” to “Valentine’s Daughter” o Be quiet, brain, we can reread Mortal Engines later o Valentine also really needs more friends! Can she make friends with Haydee, please? o @aporeticelenchus okay now it definitely makes sense that Edmond would have sought out Franz separately from Albert—I wonder what exactly he was hoping to find in his enemy’s future son-in-law, and if Franz met expectations? o Marking this down as another class-as-costume moment, now for romance purposes! o …I wonder what Franz did to make Villefort want him as a son-in-law so bad, since he doesn’t seem to like most people—maybe just being rich and titled, of course o I’m so sad about Valentine and Nortier’s friendship already :( o VALENTINE NEEDS A HUG o I’m glad she at least had a good relationship with her mom? Her mom was a good, from the little we saw of her :( o I love how much literally all the kids hate Danglers. He has a creepy laugh! Thank you, Valentine

LII

o This whole chapter is just…very extra. There is absolutely zero subtlety happening here. o Valentine is also definitely right to be scared of her stepmom, jeez. Now I want to hug her even more! o AU where Edmond’s grand vengeance is actually just raising all his enemies’ kids better than they ever could like in Maleficent o “this domestic pest answering to the name of Edouard” man I love it when the narrators get judgey o Once again Edmond pulls two disguises on the same person and gets away with it! although the fact that he admits it makes me want to think he actually hired someone else to play the doctor in Italy, just to be contrary o Edmond judging people’s parenting skills is also hilarious o (Maleficent au!!!) o EDMOND IS THE DREAD PIRATE ROBERTS, THE TRUTH IS REVEALED AT LAST

LIII

o Eugenie!!! o Albert is so rightfully terrified of her, this is amazing o I would actually kind of love for the two of them to get convenience-married and then just ignore each other forever? o Eugenie checking out literally every woman in the opera house is incredible, girl wouldn’t know subtlety if it bit her on the nose—but Haydee is a musician! Eugenie should invite her over for jam sessions with her and her singer girlfriend! FRIENDSHIP! o Please just give Haydee friends okay o Also the slave/princess thing Haydee’s got going is making people uncomfortable and unsure how to treat her, class as costume but the other way around maybe! o AT LEAST HAYDEE IS PAYING ATTENTION TO THE STAGE o Haydee backstory! Excellent!

LIV

o “ADORABLE” o Franz’s comments about the count in his letter to Albert—PLEASE CHILL??? o Unless Albert is making this up as an excuse to compliment the count himself, in which case YOU chill o Oh so Franz’s dad was a royalist! That would explain that arranged marriage o Albert’s really making a fuss about this marriage thing, Eugenie seems mostly indifferent? Well, maybe it’s just because she’s a lot scarier than he is

LV-LVI

o These are…a weird couple chapters o It’s interesting to see the behind the scenes of Edmond’s chessmastering though! o Also, these two are really terrible actors and I would not be surprised at all if they gave the game away o At the very least, we should get to see Edmond judging their acting prowess which should be ENTERTAINING o Again we have ~Andrea~ meeting Edmond in various identities without being any the wiser! I really want to do a comparison with Fantomina tbh o They’ve already broken character?? STANDARDS, guys

LVII

o I’m sad that Eugenie and Valentine aren’t friends, but at least they can talk to each other? o I do get the feeling that Eugenie wouldn’t have a ton of patience for Valentine’s woe-is-me spiel though, so okay o …did Nortier murder Franz’s dad, because I would scream o Honestly, all the next gen boys are so hearteyes about Edmond it’s hilarious o Sweet of Edmond to get Max that horse he wanted, though! And…he actually exercised subtlety for once in his life instead of just sending it to Max’s place with diamond earrings?? INCREDIBLE

#comc17 #book blogging #...should I be putting these behind a cut?

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youngerdaniel · 7 years

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2017: A Year at the Movies

It’s that time again, folks. A year has gone by, and I spent a lot of it on my ass in dark rooms watching moving pictures. But this year is special! For the first time, my annual list of films worth seeing comes with FILM SCHOOL CRED.

What does that mean? Well, I guess I could delve into a deeper analysis of the chosen flicks... But let’s be real, you’re not here for that. So let’s just give the cred its cred and get into it.

2017: The raging dumpster fire of a year seems to be built on a foundation of terrifying surprise and disappointment. Everybody’s saying it, because it’s very much the truth—the world has gone batshit.

But it’s also been a remarkably good year for movies. When I try to list my absolute favorites, it gets difficult to rank them. Some gems in the indie circuit; some solid blockbuster fare. So rather than rank ‘em, I say fuck the numbers. Here’s what you should watch. Top 10:

Call Me By Your Name

Jesus, Gawd. The last 20 minutes of this movie alone are worth the rest of it. A beautiful tale of friendship, love, identity... and how all of these things can be tremendously confusing. I wasn’t fully hooked until around halfway through, but good leftovers gravy am I glad I stuck it out.

The Big Sick

It warms my heart that this lovely gem of a film is based on a true story. This movie is... Well, it’s fucking great. Amazing comedy, perfectly timed and nuanced drama. For we of the cynical Gen Y/Millennial crowd, this is the rom-com we needed, because grand gestures don’t work, there is no rushing to the airport, and there’s some surprisingly deep work at play when it comes to a timeless conflict in matters of the heart: family values vs who you love. The cast is on fire. The script is gold. If you missed this movie, you’re using your smartphone wrong.

The Bad Batch

If you tell me Ana Lily Amirpour made a film, I already love it. I’d been wooed ever since A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT, and when the grapevine started juicing on Amirpour’s newest joint, a dystopian survival tale, I was sold. When I finally got to sit down and watch it, I was blown away by how much of a visual storyteller Amirpour is. The visual pallette alone is drool-inducing. But the amount of worldbuilding and character development done free of expository bouts of dialogue is just tremendous. Now, that being said, the story involves cannibals, a lot of dismemberment, and perhaps just a bit too much shirtless Jason Momoa... But if that’s your thing, this one’s for you.

Lady Bird

Look, everybody’s already ranted to you about how great this movie is. You should really see it. No? Okay. Fine. It’s a fantastic, fantastic coming of age tale. Herein you’ll find a dysfunctional family, some well-drawn mother-daughter tensions, and a beautiful exploration of the thing that happens to most well-adjusted adults—the moment where you realize you’re grateful to your parents for everything they’ve done, despite the fact you’ve been a shit about it for the past 6-10 years. If that doesn’t strike a chord with you, maybe watch this movie and get a therapist?

Wind River

And speaking of getting a therapist, you might need one after this. Wind River is not by any stretch an easy film to watch (CW: rape scene late in the second act), but it is a gritty mystery that does what any crime story should well: it highlights a particularly ignored dark spot in North American society: the unaccounted-for loss of countless First Nations women on reservations. The politics are tied to the heart of this story, but rarely does it come off as preachy or a gimmick. At its heart, this mystery is a character study. In fact, nearly all of the moments that really sing are the quiet moments between the bigger set pieces. That being said, there’s a standoff sequence that happens late in the movie that is FUCKING INTENSE. You need a strong stomach for this one, but I was really impressed with it; the simplicity and effectiveness of the writing, the stark visuals, the top-notch performances. It’s great.

Logan

Logan made my cry. Actually, I’m pretty sure all of these movies coaxed a tear. But here’s the thing. I don’t actually give a shit about Wolverine. He’s not my favorite X-person. He’s definitely not my favorite anti-hero... But this movie was fucking exceptional. Not only does it take Logan’s character to an honorable and earned conclusion, it shows us that superhero movies don’t have to be for kids; they don’t have to follow the same old formula of “good guys learn something and win”... Of course, conventions are played with in this movie, but almost always to toy with your expectation as a viewer. You never know for certain if Logan’s going to make it out of this one on top... And when it ends, you won’t feel the same “Enh” that usually comes with the credits of a big I.P. movie.

Baby Driver

If you go into Baby Driver planning to take apart the story or to really delve into the character study of a young getaway driver... You’re missing the point of this movie. Instead, go in expecting a musical that happens to revolve around crime, and a young getaway driver’s learning that crime is only fun to a point. It’s a great thematic deconstruction of heist and getaway movies, showing us why we enjoy these things before peeling away the layers of heightened idealism until we just see the truth: crime is where people die and innocence is lost. (CW: Kevin Spacey, one of the newly minted shitstains of Hollywood garbage men... But he’s a nominal force.) It also has a killer soundtrack, some of the best driving sequences to grace the screen for a while, and it’s all tied together with that expertly stylized fantasy vision that belongs to Edgar Wright alone.

Ingrid Goes West

The thing I love most about this fiendishly unrepentant social media satire is that it will legit piss off people who buy into the whole “Insta-lyfe”. It picks apart how easily one can manufacture a personality or brand online that in no way represents who they actually are. It also, with zero subtlety, highlights just how fucking batshit our world can get when we start valuing our online avatars more than the people behind them. Of course, it wouldn’t be a proper satire if the facade didn’t shatter, and where that takes the story of this troubled young woman as she tries to manufacture the life she’s been double-tapping in her feed? Well... I thought it was bloody brilliant.

Band Aid

A small screen gem that totally destroyed me on the first viewing. Strap in with tissues and follow this quirky dramedy which follows a couple reeling from the fallout of a miscarriage. They’re not coping well, and in order to save their marriage, they decide to start turning their fights into songs. Sounds cute, right? But that’s the thing about cute band-aids: they don’t heal the wound on their own. Check this one out for some brilliant and bizarre bits of comedy, some hilarious songs, and some moments that are just heartbreaking. I wanted to give this movie #1 with a bullet, but then again, I’m not ranking this year, and how on earth could I forget...

Get Out

This movie was amazing. I knew it would be from the first time I saw its trailer, but good zombie Jesus on a popsicle stick, did it deliver. Social horror is the best horror, because as weird and horrible as the movie gets, everything that happens in it actually fucking happens every day of the year. No, not not a young person of color getting kidnapped and brainwashed by a bunch of upper-class white people... Jesus, do you actually watch movies literally? Do you not understand allegory? Does the subject of race, and how privileged upper-class assimilation looks through a Twilight Zone lens make you uncomfortable? Then...

You thought I was gonna write “Get out!” didn’t you? Nah. Go watch this movie. If it makes you uncomfortable, good.

BUT DANIEL, WHAT ABOUT THE LAST JEDI?

I liked it, okay? It wasn’t perfect, and I’m sure I’ll get into that in more depth in a later post (or perhaps even in a podcast... that’s right, I’m working on shit). But all in all, a great entry to the franchise, and the first SW movie for a while to actually have the balls to move the franchise in a new trajectory and build off what the OT started. If you disagree, you can go wank your Return of the Jedi Luke Saber in the corner and cry about the lack of fanservice. Your days are numbered, cannon police.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

IT, GOTG Vol 2, and fuck it, I’m saying it: Dunkirk gave me a massive “meh.”

DID ANYTHING SUCK?

...The Election? Um... yeah, but I’m not going to the trouble of securing pictures for these. A list in short:

- Atomic Blonde

- Logan Lucky

- Kong: Skull Island

- Bright

- Max Landis in general

- Joss Whedon in general

And yeah. That’s a year at the movies. Toodles until 2018.

#journal #yearinmovies #2017

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