#the only reason i'm not totally writing her off is that the scene outside shows she does care for patients

[fictionadventurer]

Belle's first scene as a nurse in The Artful Dodger is a masterclass in how to get every nurse in the hospital to hate your guts immediately. They should show it to new grads as an example of everything not to do.

[genericpuff]

To be fair, a country can have more than one head of state. Political systems aren't as consistent as we might think them to be and even absolute monarchies like Spain have a prime minister. Then you have things like elective monarchies and hereditary republics. From what I remember, the idea of an election isn't even really treated as that big of a deal... but that right there is the problem. The first and I think only time it actually gets brought up is when it's introduced for a single panel, and even then, it's only in relation to Persephone's trauma. No one really comments on it afterwards. Even in Apollo's own episode, he very briefly comments how he could do a lot as king—not president, but king! Ergo, overthrowing Zeus. So either the whole president thing was a dropped plot point or Rachel couldn't think of any other reason for Apollo to be on a giant poster.

Regarding Eros' comment, Apollo is the god of medicine and the literal god of doctors is his son. Even if Asclepius himself doesn't have a bad record, he'd have reason to be wary. It's why I don't blame Hebe for automatically believing Apollo that nothing can be done about the poison after he simply touches Zeus, given what one of his domains is.

And speaking of Hebe, again, to be fair, a lot of people don't notice their surroundings when they're grieving and her back was clearly turned anyway, so I don't think this should necessarily be a strike against her. I honestly didn't find anything off about Apollo gaslighting her either (I mean, besides the obvious; gaslighting is horrendous) and he'd also just threatened her, so I don't blame her for running away either. Plus, the episode just ends with her noticing the snow soon after, so it's not like we get her thoughts on this one way or another. I don't have fastpass, though, so does it show her actually believing she'd somehow poisoned Zeus in a future chapter, or...?

Hebe poisoning Zeus also wouldn't necessarily be outside the realm of possibility either if Apollo were to argue she did it for Hera's sake or something and then she just snapped. That said, it is still ridiculous she's the first deity he would frame, rather than someone alot more believable, like Ares. Didn't Zeus sleep with Aphrodite that one time? And we know how protective he is of Hera. Or hell, if he wanted to topple the current monarchy entirely, he could've just framed Hera herself! Maybe even Hades!

And if this were any other comic, I'd say Apollo returning to the scene of the crime and then calling the media is just him being a narcissist, because some narcissists can be really, really dumb. But the chances of it being framed that way are practically at the bottom of the Aegean Sea. Even a single panel of someone asking why Apollo called a journalist first is doubtful.

But yeah, not trying to slam you or anything and sorry if it comes off that way. I really like your analyses and I love Rekindled, I'm just trying to offer a few explanations here. I do agree with you overall, though! Rachel has alot of great ideas, but the executions of said ideas are just terrible.

Okay so, while I really appreciate the amount of effort you put into defending these points and I can totally get the points you're trying to make in many of them (and yes this is the part where I respond with my own points, as we do) I think the fact that you presented all of these "well to be fair" talking points is just highlighting and further proving LO's biggest problems in its writing, one that I've talked about before on here but I think bears repeating.

And that's the fact that we (the readers) have to make massive assumptions just to make the plot make sense.

Yes, to be fair, there are government systems that run with a dual-system of monarchy + diplomatic government, but there was never any implication of this being a thing in LO until all of a sudden Rachel dropped the "Apollo for President!" plotline in S3.

Yes, to be fair, Apollo is the god of medicine, but we've never seen him actually fulfill a single duty regarding that, Asclepius is far more qualified as an actual doctor than Apollo (*from what we've been shown), who we've only ever seen apply a bandaid to Persephone's hand five years ago.

Yes, to be fair, people in shock may not take in their surroundings fully, but it seems really silly to have Hebe positioned in front of a window that has a FULL VIEW of what's going on outside and still have her just freeze in time when she's offscreen so she doesn't see or hear anything that's going on just several feet away through a sheet of glass. Just get rid of the window and find another way to force Eros and Psyche into confrontation with Apollo.

Yes, to be fair, Hebe could have a motive, if she were written as someone with some vendetta against Zeus. But she wasn't. That version of Hebe does not exist and, as you said yourself, there are way more gods who would have reasonable motive to poison him. We've only ever seen her dote on him and love him unconditionally as her father, and we've even seen scenes of them in S1 where they have a functional father-daughter relationship (if anything I'd be more inclined to believe she'd have a vendetta against Hera for being an alcoholic mom during her childhood but I digress).

Through all of these "to be fair's" when do we actually stop and ask ourselves why we have to constantly have the benefit of the doubt and jump through all these logical hoops to make sense of the plot to begin with? Again, all this just lends to how poorly structured and written the comic is, and all of these 'to be fair''s you've presented cannot reasonably apply to LO because LO never wrote those things. They never showed Apollo being an actual god of medicine, they never showed Hebe having ill will towards her father, and they never showed Olympus running with a monarchy + presidential government system. So to fill in those blanks ourselves is to do the legwork for Rachel who's only managed to write half a plot. It's why it's so jarring for random plot points like this to happen because it's just like "wtf do you mean Apollo is running for president? He can just do that??" That's not something that should be established five years in, it makes it really hard to just give benefit of the doubt because if that was something that actually existed in this world, it should have been established ages ago when the foundation for the story was still being built. We're in the endgame now, this is NOT the time to be throwing in new random plot threads pulled out of thin air.

This is what I mean from my essay post earlier that Rachel constantly fails to provide context for things she's trying to say, while overexplaining things that are already being shown onscreen. It's completely imbalanced between what we have to know and what could have stayed on the cutting room floor, and it makes for a messy story where people have to make gracious assumptions and do all the thinking for a plot that was never fleshed out to begin with. Why should we as readers have to do all the thinking for Rachel's lack of storytelling ability, when she clearly couldn't be bothered to put any thought into the narrative or the worldbuilding or the characterizations to begin with? It's lazy low-effort writing.

[aintgonnatakethis]

9 people you want to know better tag game

Thank you @bagheerita for the tag! ❤️️ Template is at the bottom below the cut.

Three ships: Young/Telford/Rush from SGU. I won't, but I could include other combinations of them and totally cheat this question - these three are the characters that just click with you, that will stick with you for your entire life.

John/Scorpius from Farscape. Me as a wide-eyed 7 year old watching a torturer clad in a leather suit come on screen: 😮😮😮

Sheppard/Todd from SGA. It's not always monsterfucking with them, but when it is... Oh boy! 👀

First ship: Third Doctor/Delgado Master from classic Doctor Who. My mum was involved in the convention scene back then so I grew up surrounded by it and we had a massive wall of every story that had been released on DVD. I hope they all made the move with us. I remember being a young kid and her bringing down a boxset with the faces of the first 7 Doctors; I'd point to one of them and she'd pick us an episode of theirs for us to watch. (Simpler times but not really)

Last song: Currently listening to Hell As Well by We Three, a band I found through @frostysfrenzy. My best songs playlist has 140 songs if you want to know my music taste without being overwhelmed.

Last movie: The Road. I saw a meme that had been made for it on here and remembered it being an excellent book, so gave it a shot. It was better in book form unfortunately. I remember it was the first time I'd seen the sentence structure of 'this happened and this happened and this happened' outside of "bad" or "childish" writing. How it was used to successfully show someone's declining mental and physical state has stuck with me.

Currently watching: Rewatching Being Human (US version) and Firefly. Trying not to let unpleasant people being involved (Mark Pellegrino and Joss Whedon respectively) ruin things I've long-term loved. So I'll engage as long as I'm not providing them financial/social/political influence to harm others. Yes, I am looking at people who still pay for Harry Potter merch.

Currently reading: Here, have a google drive full of SG1 and SGA books. I can't remember which blog linked it originally, but I'm on book 6 of the SGA Legacy series, which is basically the plot of season 6 if they'd been renewed. (Though I do side-eye some things in there, like Sheppard instantly getting together with Teyla and there being a hint to Keller being abusive in her relationship with Rodney. I don't think they would have done the former on TV as even though Teyla isn't military she's still under Sheppard's command so it would reflect poorly on the real life US military - which is the only reason O'Neill and Carter didn't get together properly, if I'm remembering right? The latter... I've seen too much of Keller bashing in fandom. I don't need it in my "official" content too.)

Currently eating: I just finished some garlic and chilly chicken drumsticks and rice. I've been eating good since my boyfriend got into cooking. 😁

Currently craving: Hmm... I think I'm good. Full of food and an extra of my ADHD meds because I'm running on night-mode currently, meaning I'd be going to bed around 6-7am except I need a doctor's appointment so I'm gonna have to stay up and tough it out. Took it at 11pm so should have worn off enough for me to sleep after my appointment. (While the able-to-focus effect only last 8 hours, the you-will-stay-awake part persists for 12. 🙄)

Tagging: @frostysfrenzy @autism-purgatory @froggy-pposto @paeliae-occasionally @the-golden-comet

@dream-i-die @gioiaalbanoart @wyked-ao3 @worlds-tallest-fairy @chaniis-atlantis

Template:

Three ships: 

First ship:

Last song: 

Last movie: 

Currently watching: 

Currently reading: 

Currently eating: 

Currently craving:

[accidentally-in-fictional-love]

Things I Noticed While Writing Light The Fuse: Part 11, Episode 4

This one may be just about one Phoenix but finally I get to show Ethan some love hehe 🥰💛

Before we get to him though, a clock! An actual, working clock! The rare showing of time that helps me figure out how long this show is actually going for!

Here it is, my Timeline. The furthest it goes is the 23rd, and he would be checking more pages if it went further to see if she was/had been there, so I placed Cop Night on July 23rd with this scene taking place the next morning on the 24th, therefore Ethan starts dating Matty and Johnson on July 23rd to go along with Matty and Johnson's anniversary on July 1st in Fucked / Up ❤️💛💙

Going off this single date I ended up having the fic start on June 7th with Ethan arriving on the 8th by the end of my figurings, and I have a column in my notes just for dates based on what everyone says, their runs, and outfit changes, all thanks to this single crumb. And now we have all three of their Phoenixversaries, Johnson on February 2nd (with his bday), Ethan on June 8th, and Matty exactly two months later on August 8th~

This still isn't Ethan but this scene will forever haunt me WHY IS HELL ITSELF AT THIS MOTEL???

Okay now it's Ethan Time, because this scene makes me insane for a different reason. Him saying later that he literally just trusted her through everything really confirms that Ethan is a canon dumbass, like dude you can still trust her but you had to have some idea! This is why I made him so aware of what's going on that he held info away from her as well. I really loved writing this scene, I love writing all their scenes, him constantly trying to cut ties with her and failing each time she calls because of their bond is so important to me with all the angst possibilities

Like this right here, with that smile of hers knowing that he will, and him doing it. Add in the fact that he also knows he will even when he's catching on that she's not the Doris he knew anymore, I love that so much and I'm so glad I got to write it all out amidst him hanging up on her after making her panic that Burt already got to him before he namedrops Matty for the first time

Also Ethan having this convo directly next to a Pinup room when he's trying to be stealthy is so funny to me

That's because you just spoke to your adoptive mom after gaining not one but two boyfriends, of course you're feeling weird. Also since when does Ethan wear a black undershirt, that's Matty's! I'm insane!!

Comfy??? My man's all spread out, ditched the coat, he is there to stay

Matty: You heard it pays?

Ethan is so bad at lying how has Matty taught him nothing by now it should be a second language by this point

You're killin' it man she totally believes you

Meredith is so cute here, I love her genuine shock that he'd really think she'd take one of them, I wonder how many actual conversations she has in this place outside of Joel (for the most part) and Matty and her friend Tina

Ethan is so cute I love his smile so much 🥰🥰🥰

The fact that he hasn't had this talk with Johnson in canon is so weird to me, he's around him so often that I bet he'd talk about it with Matty there, I don't doubt that cause I'm obviously upping his mystery in my own way since I don't know what his actual deal is. It makes for a nice bonding scene with Meredith, but they really underutilized Johnson also being around for so long so many times which is just criminal honestly

I really wonder if she was ever able to talk about this, since it was such a big thing, a war so bad Joel's even afraid of it and she was just a child during it. I really never shipped them even before my eyes were opened to the Phoenixes being boyfriends, so them having this conversation as friends is so important to me. It's a romance that doesn't need to happen for them to stay close, just like she is with Matty, and I can only pray they stayed this way in season 2.

Their friendship is everything to me. At its basis, these are two people who need friends more than anything, people to listen and be there for them as they come to see that they're already home, if season 2 had come out and had them suddenly start making out sloppy style it might've actually made me upset and that's no joke

Episode 4 down, I can tell already that ep5 is gunna need several posts but I am so ready to talk about it hehe 💛

[navree]

the fact that we all watched a black man (vaemond) be extrajudicially murdered by a white man (daemon) in full view of the entire court, and not a damn thing was said by so-called fans and critics regarding the optics of that scene left me totally appalled. like, how can they all just sit down and have dinner after that bullshit? baela, who has no doubt been around her great-uncle for like 6-10 years during the timeskip has no thoughts or feelings of discomfort about witnessing him just cease to exist before her very eyes? why aren't she and rhaena with rhaenys watching his body be prepared to go back home or even discussing what the repercussion of this are going to be???

Some of it is just bad writing (it should not be possible for the king's brother to lop someone's head off in open court without trial for no reason without there being some repercussions), like Rhaenys being on board with the betrothals of her granddaughters to the Strongs, or even Baela being on board with it, seeing as again she doesn't know Jace at all and has been around Rhaenys (and yeah, presumably Vaemond) consistently for a decade at this point*. And Baela (and to a lesser extent Rhaena) should not be fully on board with just sitting down and eating with Daemon after that, and should at least have some pause with Daemon in general given that he's just shown himself to be an unhinged psychotic killer. That's bad writing, which would exist regardless of the characters involved.

But when it comes to things outside the writing, like fan and critic reception, then yeah it's a bit skeevy. Again, I'm likely not the best person to speak on this, I'm not Black, but considering that this fandom has a real problem with blood supremacy talk (some of the more virulent Team Black people really need to check themselves with the way they talk about blood purity and pure genetics, it's getting a bit German), people just going "yass king!" about Daemon murdering Vaemond doesn't entirely sit right. Vaemond is in the objective right in 1x08, Lucerys has no legitimate claim to Driftmark and everyone knows it, it should pass to Baela or even Rhaena and it is fair of him to bring this up with the closest legal authority he has, the Crown. He's an absolute asshole about it, calling Rhaenyra misogynistic slurs that aren't even accurate (she had a committed long term relationship with a man she wanted that was entirely consensual, and even with the approval of her husband though Vaemond doesn't know that, calling her a "whore" is uncalled for and vile), but him understanding Punnett squares isn't a sin. The show has made it plain the Strongs are Strongs, Vaemond is right, so him being murdered for it isn't a slay (especially given the historical trend of Black men being extrajudicially murdered by white men based on false allegations and untruths by other white people).

And writing wise, yeah, there's something that stinks in the lack of care that's given to the interiority of the Black characters. I've said this before, that Baela and Rhaena were basically not given any characterization at all in season 1 and that Corlys's character writing was really schizophrenic, and it does feel a bit iffy considering that, again, these are our only main characters of color. It speaks to a broader issue in the writing of the Velaryons in general that was really emblematic in season 1 Baela and Rhaena, that there was an extreme lack of care in crafting anything for characters you knew, and given that the decision to make the Velaryons Black was done pretty early on, hmmm suspicious. Maybe it wouldn't be much of an issue if they hadn't, but they did; they made the Velaryons Black and then chose not to put any effort into writing them cohesively, coherently, or even at all. And that doesn't sit right.

*I'm assuming they're retconning the second time skip into a full ten years because again, based on the timeline the show gave originally, the second time skip should have been only six years, but then everyone made fun of them for saying Ewan Mitchell was a sixteen year old and also the compression of the timeline in general so they padded it out.

[brionysea]

hi! sorry for the brother, i'm reading your posts about mike of st, and thank god you don't ship him with anyone, so i'd like to know a neutral opinion about a writing choice made for him in season 3 where it was show mike say sorry to el for lying to her, while he did not the same for will. It was show an attempt, but in the end the writers choose that mike didn't brother with an actual apology to will. In my opinion mike show his love through his actions, more than his words, and that's the point of his arc in season 4.

(yea mike apologizes to will in season 4 but for his actions at the rick o mania, but he never say anything about the fight of s3, so mike meant those words even if he was a bit rude the way he said them :/)

Thank you for your answer,

have a nice day :)

yeah you're right anon, i don't really care about ships. like, i do, but in an Intellectual, "what does this reveal about their characters?" way, which is definitely not the vibe for most of this website. i'm just here for mike tbh

it took me a second to remember the apology you were talking about. the thing is, like with most of season 3, mike kind of had to have his hand held through it to get there. it was mostly lucas doing his whole wingman thing but max was also put in a position of trying to get mike to do better (even if she was more shouty about it). i see that scene and mike's realisation that he needs to get over himself ("i like that you and max are friends now") as him taking all max's comments about el being a person and not his little pet that he can just hide in the basement to heart and realising she's right. it also goes the other way with max and mike working together to protect el when they're trapped in starcourt, since that was mike's side of the argument

and the way mike says he was jealous of el spending time with max and that's assumed to be romantic... this was the same episode as robin told steve that her being jealous wasn't because she had a crush on him. and there's been a lot of platonic jealousy on this show - lucas over mike and el; mike over lucas, dustin and max; steve over dustin and eddie; eddie over dustin and steve. like, it's not that out there, i'm just saying. friendships matter on this show

and with will... honestly, i think mike was trying not to think about him during season 3. and even though the season 3 apology was never heard, by doing that in the first place, mike was doing what max said ex boyfriends should do when dumped - come crawling back, begging for forgiveness. mike was... very unbothered after el dumped his ass. but when will tells him he's ruining the party and runs off? mike bikes to the other side of town in the middle of a storm, bangs on the door like his life depends on it, and immediately starts begging for forgiveness. max said that in the same episode. i cannot stress enough how much i don't care about the love triangle, there are too many of them in this show and they're boring every time, but just looking at those two reactions when el and will respectively decide they're done with him... yeahhhh, it's telling

also, i think that season 4 apology was meant to encapsulate everything that's gone wrong between them. it's the only way mike saying "the past year has been weird" makes any sense to me, outside of these two just being overdramatic teenagers for no reason; things were weird before the byers moved (which we know they were, because mike was acting like a total jerk and ignoring anyone whose name wasn't el for months), we're just not allowed to see why because mike's pov is holding way more secrets than el's or will's are

back when i first watched season 4, before my brain decided to latch onto mike wheeler for no reason, most of his scenes just bored me to sleep because all he would talk about was el, and he didn't feel like himself in those scenes. i specifically remember thinking that the most mike scene in the season was the "friends, best friends" scene, because i just enjoy him so much more when he's with will. it lets him be all the things i love about his character, strong and brave and smart and caring, and when he's with el, mike himself feels like he can't be any of those things. and that goes the other way too; el was putting on a front for mike, pretending to be happy and normal when she's not

i care about these characters being able to be themselves and just be enjoyable to watch, on an entertainment level, and when mike and el are together romantically all they do is bring each other down and hurt each other constantly. mike doesn't get el's experience with bullying, doesn't get that girls do it in subtler ways, and that el was reacting to months worth of being poked at. el doesn't get mike's experience with bullying, tells him that he doesn't get it, when she was literally there the day a bully made homophobic comments towards him (whether mike is interpreted as queer or not, that was homophobic bullying) and later forced him off a cliff. bullying is one of the first things they bonded over way back in season 1. it feels important that they've lost that ability to communicate (about this and many other things) now that their relationship has shifted

i don't "ship" mike with anyone, but by god i need them both out of that relationship because all they're doing is hurting each other. if byler lets mike stop being so heart breakingly depressed all the time - which i think it would, because if anyone could see through mike's bullshit of pushing people away because he doesn't think he deserves them and realise he's hurting too, it would be will "too selfless for his own good" byers - then i'm all for it. also, a queer relationship as central as byler on a show this big makes me kinda giddy to think about

[wxtchpilot]

[ Suletta has seemingly gotten over a lot of what she went through off screen but I may or may not write her emotions out more in either drabbles or roleplays depending on the context.

Because I'm the type of person that loves delving into a character's way of thinking or their emotional/mental state. Because while I'm happy she admitted being a repli-child to everyone, I'd love to explore how she came to terms with it, or if she even still is. Because that has to be hard to accept. Suletta loves Prospera and Aerial, and then to find out that you're basically a replica who's been used/manipulated by said mother (yes she can still love Suletta but there's no denying that she did use the girl) and then you get dropped off in space randomly after your family cuts you off.

Even if we have behind-the-scenes information, Suletta doesn't. She was left with all this on her own and really on had Earth House to support her. So it makes me wonder how she may feel about herself or how others would perceive her.

The whole "starving herself" episode makes me think that it could have either been like, not only depression, but because "what's the value in a replica?" Like, to see her struggle with her identity after that, re-thinking on everything she's been through, all the interactions and friends she's made, what would they think if they knew? Would they treat her differently? Would they consider her a fake too? Since Aerial and her mother knew that all along, was all their "kindness" fake? Did Miorine know? Is that why she cast her aside so harshly, just like her mother and Aerial? These would be thoughts in her head, even if some sound irrational, if that makes sense.

I just wouldn't want her to suddenly "get over it", and I don't mean to do this for only "angst" reasons, but for exploration for her character, to see how much stronger she gets as a character and how she becomes her own person.

I don't think having a moment of weakness sometimes means that the person still hasn't come to terms with it. It's just...sometimes it's unfortunate. And for Suletta, in my personal opinion, learning that you're not your mother's "real daughter" is still a lot to process, especially given how she was raised.

I also want to explore any other emotions she may have outside of sadness, because (kind of like how I wrote Hibiki), there's some pent up frustration somewhere within. As in, Suletta totally has a right to be upset or angry, but normally tries and forces herself NOT to be angry. Her anger might not even be loud, it could be something more subdued and it all depends on her body language and words she used. But again, that's just my personal takes on the characters.

Not sure if I make any sense really, I just want to explore her thought process more and to see more than we do in the show due to, admittedly, pacing issues.

Been trying to wait a bit until its over to do this stuff but it's just so interesting to me that I gotta figure out how to even portray it good haha. ]

[praublem-child]

I know this isn't my fandom blog, but it is my main blog and I've been talking about Bubble for a paper I'm writing in my abnormal psych class, so I'm just gonna post this here.

Normally I don't like to hype Netflix movies because I think Netflix is a fairly predatory streaming service (they all are really, but still), and their movies and shows often get cut off before they can really get going, but holy shit this one was good.

I don't normally watch movies and stuff because I like to stick with my current hyperfixations, but because I'm writing this paper I ended up picking it after finding myself in a reddit hole after searching for "animated autism movies". I'm not entire convinced that the characters are autistic, but I certainly related to them more than I do most characters.

Hibiki has confirmed sound hypersensitivity. He was taken to a lot of doctors as a child to figure out why, we even got an MRI scene where he was visibly flinching from the noises. He got overwhelmed easily by the sounds of the city, and we have a few scenes where we see his mother progressively lose hope and eventually she drops him in what looks to be a special education class. Throughout the movie we see him being very protective over his headphones and wincing at multiple sounds, showing an obvious disinterest in socialization, and he has a grand total of two interests that we see, both of which he seems incredibly good at. Hibiki is also awkward around socialization, hyperaware of his surroundings, and I noticed a general lack of emotions and empathy compared to his teammates. It wasn't completely gone, but it was noticeable if you were looking (I was looking bc of this paper).

The other main character is named Uta, who isn't actually a human at all. I never actually figured out what she is? She's like,, literally a bubble. But also not? Anyway, aside from the movie's main problem not making almost any sense, Uta is nonspeaking for the first part of the film, and only speaks in simple words and references to the little mermaid which she read early on. Both her and Hibiki seem to connect in ways that neither could with any of the other members on the team. I'm not gonna give spoilers that I don't think are relevant to this autism thing, but there's probably several reasons outside of that. Regardless, it made sense to me that if they were both autistic they'd be closer to each other despite barely knowing each other. I know I've always found it easier to connect and communicate with other autistic individuals in my life.

Uta also has some fairly weird mannerisms and very clearly doesn't understand social cues. This makes sense given the fact that she's literally not human, but I couldn't help but draw parallels between her behaviors and how I acted as a kid (re: like a feral cat).

Now I know I didn't talk about everything in the movie, I'm like three hours past when I should have gone to bed and I need to save some of this brain power for the actual paper, but if anyone actually reads this post please go watch Bubble on Netflix. It makes no sense, I still barely understand what was going on in the movie, but it was so pretty to look at and the main characters are autistic coded at the very least. The music is also going to be stuck in my head for weeks.

Anyway. (not so) Mini rant over, time to sleep and try not to hyperfixate for the next week on this movie. It's already like two years old and had barely anything about it online, so I seriously doubt I'd be able to find a solid amount of fanfiction to fuel me if that happened. /hj

Trailer (the english dub is rlly good btw): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pbWblLkHHk

[my-mt-heart]

Hi again! Do you remember me still? I left a couple of reviews before for Diverged and Find Me. Thank you for all that you do on here. I read your review, and wanted to show my support again. My only disclaimer is that I cannot catch everything but these are my thoughts. Here you go.

1. First up, the laughable theory that Leah would be coming back with Daryl's child has been permanently debunked. It seems like no one can pass gas in peace without the Pope sanctioning it, so pushing out a whole baby is out of the question. :P

1b. On a serious note, however. It seems that Leah prefers and values a family that wars together, a family she can "create" over a family she is related to by blood. This is like Carol and Daryl. But darkly inverted.

2. It was not lost on me that Leah and Daryl's first meeting and reunion was mediated by Dog. But you know what I caught, as well? This is interesting. You do not see Leah interacting verbally with Dog at all. There's nothing. And Dog is very obedient, with no character at all. I have a hunch that this is set up that way on purpose. Because when Carol is introduced to Leah (and trust me, I feel she will be) we are going to see a very animated Dog. That bonding with Carol in Diverged was not there just for filler or giggles. Pay attention to all of the scenes. With Dog. Daryl, most importantly. With what outsiders in Leah's group are making of Daryl and Leah's relationship and sex life. It is setting the stage for Carol to appear.

2b. On a lighter note, Dog is totally a ladies dog. Because if Leah was named Leon instead and was a man, Dog would still be with Daryl. I am sticking with that theory. And I'm not sorry. :P

3. Carol's absence. Seriously. Think about it. In Find Me, there were constant comparisons in the scenes between Leah and Carol. But there is none in this episode. That is not lazy writing. The reason Carol is contextually absent in this episode, is because there is nothing in Daryl's mind about Carol to relate Leah to. Not only is she not the Leah we saw in Find Me, but she is NOTHING like Carol in Daryl's mind. He knows Carol is loyal, fierce, and a warrior. She would do anything for her family. But she is not cultish and ruthless, unlike Leah, who is.

4. Did we notice that Daryl and Leah got a chance to speak a few times this episode, a couple times they spoke about them, their relationship? I. LOVE. THIS! Why, oh why, you may ask? Because, it is the exact opposite problem Carol and Daryl are having right now! They aren't taking about THEM. EACH OTHER. Their RELATIONSHIP. The fact that they show Daryl and Leah speaking openly about it, with her group making jerkface comments about it, juxtapose to Daryl and Carol always speaking privately about their relationship and everyone just knowing and honoring the bond Caryl share afar off, shows that strength of the Caryl relationship and its superiority over the Daryl/Leah one. Again, the fact that they can speak openly shows communication was never their issue. And that their relationship was not really special. But something about the Caryl dynamic seems very sacred and a space just for the two of them. And to put it more simply, communication is an issue for Daryl with Carol unlike with Leah because his feelings for Carol run far deeper.

5. Pope mockingly talks about Leah having a "fishing expedition" with Daryl. Interesting word choice, methinks. Because 'expedition' conjures up images of exploration, don't you think? Which is in the future for Caryl via the spinoff. But when Pope uses it in reference to Daryl and Leah, I understand that the technical definition of expedition is exploration for the purposes of war or research. Which means...that sort of confines Leah to this category where Pope is basically telling her that her feelings for Daryl are really serving their family. It isn't of her own doing. Hmm. But Carol chooses to love Daryl and her feelings for him are as boundless and borderless as whatever exploration they undertake.

6. Pope seems to think because he is "chosen" that also makes him a prophet, apparently. That comment about Daryl's true motives wanting to be intimate with Leah shows he knows no more than the rest of his people and he clearly doesn't know Daryl. Because, sure, that's what he would be thinking about, knowing that Maggie and her people are in danger, he is trying to get some. 🙄 but if they misread Daryl's feelings, that works for me. I think Daryl would want to be misinterpreted in these circumstances if it camouflages him a bit.

6b. Do not want him having to have a trial of being intimate with Leah to prove anything, though. Unlikely. But because Pope is willing to set other people on fire, I cannot honestly say it would beneath him since...well, that is my next point.

7. *Sigh* I will start this off by saying, the next statements I write are for educational purposes only. I am not making any claims to spark a debate on religion and its factions. These are just my findings and how I believe they shade in Pope's character more. (1) First, the dark lighting, the candle lit rooms that do not look romantic or homey in the slightest, the jargon their group uses, Pope speaking in riddles like he's received some divine enlightenment that makes him judge Jury and executioner, and their rituals come across as positively cultish. Cult movements characteristically strip its members of their individuality and brainwash them into believing that they are special for all the wrong reasons. This repeated indoctrination allows them to commit merciless and ruthless crimes. Their understanding of love and devotion is warped. It is strange to me that God, Jesus and other figures from the Bible are at the focal point, since the early movements of Christianity were movements of brotherly love, servitude in love, self-sacrifice and a nonviolent approach to the problems of a corrupt society. But here, Pope thinks that he is ordained to put someone else's life on the line (Leah) or take another's life (Ossie/Aussie his name was?) To judge if another is worthy or chosen/validated? This is abusive. And I can see him abusing his authority in making Leah throw herself at Daryl or testing Daryl with it (particularly when Carol comes into play) regardless of it being likely or not. Their view on sex seems to be a war tactic, as well.

8. It is interesting that Pope loves the "forging/trial by fire". It has a Biblical feel to it, and I can see the parallel in the prophetic ending of the world by fire, and those making it through the fire are the chosen ones, which Pope seems to echo. If that is the case...Carol and Daryl coming through this and venturing out on their own into the world (totally new and unseen to them) makes them a post apocalyptic Adam & Eve, doesn't it?

9. Sadly, cults and gangs have one thing in common: you can't ever really freely leave. Getting killed typically is the only way out. Which to me...foreshadows Leah's demise. I could be wrong. But that is what I am picking up. When Pope says that you "never leave your brother in a fire" that seems to be indicative of something pertaining to someone in that group. Daryl and Leah can't ever really be brother and sister since it is established their relationship was categorized as romantic at one point, and Leah reiterated that in the episode. However, she is a sister to the rest of them there (and a 'beloved' daughter of Pope. That will be tested. And I think she will fail. And then will be scorned when she learns that Daryl did indeed lie to her -and by omission- since I am willing to bet she does not know about Carol. At. All. Leah is going to crash and burn after that.

10. Bonus notes: the abuse Daryl is put through in this episode makes me miserable. I am sick of him being handled roughly, and put in a cage. Carol would never subject her family and loved ones to that, not even putting on an act.

11. I love how when Daryl and Leah meet again, there is literally no hug. I mean, it reminded me of the No Sanctuary/Terminus Reunion. In the woods. Daryl escapes the people out to get him. Leah appears out of nowhere. Just like Carol, Daryl thought he would never see Leah again. Emotions are heightened. Aaaaaannnndddd....no hug. LOL! That is a big clue right there.

12. When Leah says "you're filthy" to Daryl...like, yeah. That's his M.O. Duh. That is not new. Now if she looked at him and said "you're clean" THEN I'd be concerned.

13. Daryl sounding like his earlier season self in this episode gave me feels! 😍

14. Leah saying that they "wouldn't have worked out, not in this world." It is not because of the lives they lead, really. It is because Carol happens to BE in this world.

15. This interpretation of fire in this episode is perfect for Carol's kind of fire and what that represents in her life. She is the Phoenix of TWD.

16. BONUS: Also, the way the Pope talks about trial by fire is so different than the way the original team family experienced it. They relied on each other. Rick never sacrificed his people as the leader. He sought a cooperative effort from his family and prioritized their strengths and they fought through the world together. Daryl knows where he belongs.

17. Lastly, when Leah said that "her family found her. They never stopped looking for her." Ouch! But on a positive note, I hear Carol's lovely voice telling Daryl "until you found me." Daryl never found Leah because he was never meant to. He found Carol because she was his to find and they belong together.

Hope my review was okay!

I do remember, and thanks for taking the time to submit your own review. Some interesting observations here, particularly about all the religious ties. Don't be a stranger!

[diamondcitydarlin]

The kate used the trans community as an advertising pick-me-up anon here: It might just be me, but I'm semi-optimistic for the next season tbh. For a lot of reasons, but mainly:

It's clear now from the start Loki was never actually about Loki, it was about Kate and Sophia using personal nepotism to make it a vanity project.

They only really cared about making it about Sophia and her character spotlight over everything else. It shows how broken the show was that Marvel/Disney itself told them to go back and rewrite/remake parts to make it more about Loki and less about Sophia/Sylvie, and the fact Kate considered that a funny whoopsie.

Whoever the next director will be, whatever else that happens, at least they won't be marred with that massive favouritism, and will probably actually give the Loki show back to Loki. knock on wood

See, this is rather strange to me because in the projects I work on the director rarely has that much of an independent creative say outside of how scenes should be shot (but then I work almost exclusively right now on music videos, commercials, modeling shoots and those are jobs with clients that mostly say how a thing is going to be, though sometimes musical artists will choose their own director and give them a ton of creative leeway ok sorry I digress). I mean, good for Kate I guess that she seems to have gotten a good bit of creative say, just wish she hadn't used it solely for self-indulgence, terfism and nothing else. This is a show for, like, millions of people to watch after all.

But lets not let Michael off the hook too quickly; the Loki script was ofc based off of his original screenplay that incorporated a strong sexy kickboxing woman whose personality is 'pretend not to be attracted to the mediocre main male character even tho I am because the man writing this demands it' and it's rather clear to me that's where Sylvie came from. The original screenplay doesn't (imo) have main mediocre male character longing as openly for this female character as the final cut of Loki has Loki doing to Sylvie, so I guess I'm saying this smacks of a team effort to do some self-indulgent nonsense under the assumption that it would come across as good writing that multiple people could relate to. Or, they just said 'fuck it we do what we want', which also seems likely.

But the downside of of trying to tack on actual quality storytelling about Loki and giving him a relationship that actually enhances his character and his story rather than steamrolling it to make him into the perfect love interest is that the show comes across as terribly disjointed and, ultimately, a huge disappointment. The show that is set up in episodes 1 and 2 is not the same show the last episode takes place in. Nothing that happened in those two eps (or indeed in any Loki media to this point) had much or any bearing in what came after that.

I mean for fuck's sake, even the marketing and trailers and glimpses we saw don't match up to what we ended up getting. All these repeated shots of President Loki like he's going to be a focal character, maybe even a main villain- nope, he literally just cameos for 5 seconds, does some dumb shit, and then gets his hand bitten off. Scene after scene of Owen and Tom being centered as the show's main duo. KING LOKI THAT JUST TOTALLY DISAPPEARED.

But yeah they really wrote what they did and expected people invested in Loki's character to be happy with him being sidelined for someone we 1) have never met before, 2) is not even fully fleshed out in the 4/6 episodes she dominates. I mean, honestly, what? Loki is a character with a 10 year history in the MCU and a beloved fan favorite, marketing success. And yall really thought this was just...gonna be acceptable?

But I'm speaking as if these people actually care about fans, the fandom, and/or the integrity of a beloved character and the truth is they don't. The 'creatives' don't because why should they and the executives don't care until they're forced to upon the risk of losing money.

So I guess my hope is the same as yours, and more specifically, I hope that pressure has been enough to make the powers-that-be reevaluate the direction of the second season.

So yes of course, I hope more than anything that you're right. This show had every potential to be a great character piece for Loki as well as, idk, maybe one of the first Marvel properties that considered and more explicitly incorporated the queer experience as indeed I thought they were doing by ep 3 (not me thinking sylvie and loki are clearly gay twins, not me thinking their convo in the bar sounds so much like intimate, nonsexual conversations I've had with my gay friends, not me allowing myself to think maybe we'll get to see masculine/feminine intimacy that is not motivated by a sex and/or relationship at the end of the rainbow, not me seeing the 'found family' tropes and thinking it was part of this effort to tell a queer story-) and, in truth, that can still happen. I can easily see how it could still happen.

Remember, I've just been around a very long time in fandom and now that I work in entertainment and better understand the mindsets of the people who work within and dominate it, I have very little faith in the integrity of most shows I watch. For this reason I actually don't take on new media any more as often as I used to, but the Loki show came to me at a time when my family was going though a very difficult situation and my brain latched out of selfpreservation, I think. You need a hyperfixation, my brain said, and look at Loki in this impossible, dehumanizing situation, isn't it awful?? Isn't it almost like YOURS? But wait...Owen Wilson is here. And he speaks softly and he's so comforting and he actually gives a shit and I can see why Loki takes to him so quickly. (Also I was eagerly watching each Marvel show addition for hints of the X-Men and I'm still doing that smh)

Give me an impossible situation, a character that has hit absolute rock bottom and another character that reaches out their hand and says 'hey lets get you out of here' (my sole survivor x nick valentine from fallout 4 is one of these...Lokius Fallout AU when???)

Anyway. I hope you're right. I want nothing more than for season 2 to be the version of the show it should've been from the start.

[mist-sly]

Sing of the moon

Chapter One: Coffee talks

This is a Wolfstar MMA AU that's on AO3 that I have been writing. However I'm gonna start posting it on here too because its easier for me to kept track of what I wrote. Any ways Hope you enjoy!

It was the biggest fight of the year. The middle-weight title on the line. Millions of people watching around the world. The champ, Sirius Black facing one of his biggest rivals, Severus Snape. It was a long overdue fight, the two constantly targeting each other on social media and making comments to the press.

The hype had been real. Every press conference was another layer of added tension and anticipation to the fight. No one wanted to miss it. Sirius was athletic and had every technique known to fighting in his arsenal. A predictable fight many had said. Others argued that Snape’s slippery, submission style could be enough to beat the champ.

Either way, it had drawn the attention of everyone. Even those who shied away from the bright lights of UFC. It lured those who lived in the shadows of the fighting scene.

A large flat screen TV had been set up in the old underground stadium. A crowd of fighters all gathered round to watch, each one sitting on some old create or broken chair. “Its not looking good for him wolfy,” said a teenager with dyed grey hair. He was sitting cross legged on the floor. The TV screen reflecting of his blue eyes. “Ill say. Every punch Black is receiving is drawing blood,” a big, bulky red-haired man said. He scratched at his beard and looked over to his left staring at the young man who was sitting back on the old, patchy red couch. The young man’s eyes darted around the screen, zoning in to one thing specifically as Snape aimed a body shot. “You see something, don’t you wolfy.” The other fighters dragged their eyes away from the screen to look at the young man.

Remus Lupin sat forwards, his elbows resting on his thighs, his hands covering his mouth and nose as he stared at the TV. Remus’s golden amber eyes narrowed right as Snape connect a light jab to Sirius face. He watched as a small cut formed on the champ’s cheek, drawing blood. He drew his hands away from his face showing his frown.

“There’s always something with an opponent like Snape,” he said in a low voice. The camera angle changed on the screen. A close up of Sirius’s face, enlarged for everyone to see. One eye was swollen shut, the other turning a mix of blue and purple. You could not see where cuts began, and trails of blood ended.

This should not have been the outcome. A total of three rounds the fight went on for. Thirteen minutes and a gory scene that would make any viewer feel sick. Three minutes into the third round and it was over. The champ got hit and did not get back up. The group of fighters where quiet. This should not have been the outcome.

However, everything happens for reason.

~

It had been exactly thirty-seven days since he lost. Thirty-seven days of thinking how? How did he lose that fight? Sirius had gone through it a thousand and one times in his head. He was quicker than Snape. Had a harder punch than Snape and was far more intelligent when it came to thinking on his feet?

Sirius shook his head to rid him off the thoughts. He was on his daily run to clear his head, not bring back more memory’s and questions. He stopped, his breaths heavy, panting as he ran a hand through his incredibly dark locks of hair. “Shit,” he muttered as he looked around. The area was unfamiliar to him. Small shops and old building surrounding the street he had just came down. Clearly it was in the more run-down part of Gryffindor. Sirius didn’t even know there was a run-down part of Gryffindor.

He spotted a small coffee shop further on down the street. A few people where sitting outside it but other than that, the street was relatively quiet.

A bell rang over head as he entered. The smell of coffee and baked goods immediately hitting him like a bus. It was warm inside, a delightful change from the nippy autumn air outside. The walls were painted a vibrant orange, the furniture looking old giving the whole coffee shop a warm and vintage feel.

“Hi, what can I get you?” asked a girl behind the counter. She had long, flowing red hair and beautiful green eyes. A sweet and pleasant smile on her face. “Sorry, I’m a bit lost. Could you tell me how to get to the upper side oh and a coffee, black?” he asked the girl.

The girl snorted turning away from him. “An up sider? How did you end up down here?” the girl asked as she started to brew a fresh pot of coffee. “Went for a run, got lost in my head.” Sirius give the girl a smirk as she looked over at him. Her eyes travelled up and down his body, taking in his appearance.

“Guess that explains why your sweaty. What about the bruises?” she asked staring at the faint mix of yellow and brown that covered half his face. Sirius smirk dropped. The girl knew she struct a nerve but before she could apologise, the bell above the door went again.

“Hey Lils. Can I get the regular for the trio and a peppermint tea for me?” Said a young man who walked towards Sirius. Tall, Sirius first thought upon seeing him. Skinny too. He watched as the young man walked towards him. His hair was curly, a caramel brown colour that Sirius doesn’t think he has ever seen before. He wore an old orange jumper that had seen better days and a pair of grey sweats that were rolled up at his ankles. Sirius looked at the bottom on his sweats surprised, surly no one that tall would need to roll up their cloths.

The young man nodded at Sirius before standing beside him at the counter. “Three sugars wolfy?” the girl, ‘Lils’, asked. The young man nodded.

It was quiet after that. The sound of coffee machines running and ‘Lils’ humming echoing around the small coffee shop.

“Here you go Up sider. One Back coffee to go.” The girl slid the coffee over to Sirius before scribbling something down on a piece of paper. “Up sider?” The man asked suddenly. Sirius looked over at him. His amber eyes sparling with curiously as he looked at Sirius.

It was now that Sirius got a good look at the young man. He had handsome features, that was for sure. He had a nice jawline, not to strong and not to soft. Freckles littered his face likes stars in the night sky. He has long eyelashes that seemed to make his amber eyes brighter.

He would have looked soft, too soft, if it weren’t for the scars on his face. He had one across the bridge of his nose and another one on his left cheek going down to his jawline. The young man had a fresh cut above his right eye that was bruised.

However, as Sirius looked at the man, the man also looked at Sirius. That was not good in Sirius’s head. The last thing he needed, was for the media to know where he is.

“You shouldn’t have lost your fight,” the young man said bluntly as Lils set the piece of paper down with directions in front of Sirius. The statement had taken Sirius by surprise. So, the guy knew him, that was great but to say something like that irritated Sirius. He didn’t see Mr tall and skinny facing a world class fighter like Snape.

“Excuse me. I’d like to see yo-“Sirius started only to be cut off by the young man saying, “Snape’s gloves were loaded.” Sirius blinked at the man, “tampered with,” he added in case Sirius didn’t understand.

Sirius couldn’t help but burst out laughing. Who the hell was this guy? Some losers who clearly knows nothing. Sirius took a deep breath and looked at the man. “Look. I’m not sure how much you know after fighting but official gloves have to be worn, not to mention that the gloves got checked and nothing was off with either one.”

The man however kept looking at Sirius with those amber eyes. “That wouldn’t necessarily matter. There’s always ways around the system.” He shrugged. Sirius could feel the laughter starting to bubble in him stomach again. “Ok then. Enlighten me, how were the gloves tampered with?” The man narrowed his eyes, a darker look falling over his once soft face. “A layer of padding was taken out of the gloves. That would have been obvious if they had not replaced it with something else. That other layer would have had to been roughly the same weight as the padding. My guess is that they used soft cast.” Sirius snorted.

Sirius knew what soft cast was. What fighter didn’t? It was an old scandal back in the day with a boxer. It had long since been forgotten though. The man continued, however. “It would make the hits harder on your face not to mention as the soft cast scratched the leather of the glove it would wear the material down.” He raised an eyebrow at Sirius to see if he was keeping up.

Sirius nodded and gestured for the man to continue, taking a sip of his coffee. Sighing the man rubbed his eyes, as if he were trying to teach a child how to read a simple word that they couldn’t quite grasp. “The soft cast would scratch against your skin and the impact of each punch would increase as the match went on because the cast would harden over time. Didn’t you notice when you were fighting, how the first hit was not hard but still drew blood? How as the fight went on Snape put less effort into each hit but was still able to increase the impact every time?” Sirius stopped drinking. His coffee cup frozen at his smooth lips. He blinked at the man as he thought back to the fight. When Snape landed his first punch, he was off balance. The punch shouldn’t have had enough force to bruise his cheek so badly, the way it did.

The more Sirius thought about it, the more he realized how much of what the tall, skinny man was saying, was true.

He shook his head and narrowed his eyes on the man just as ‘Lils’ brought over four take away drinks in coffee cups. “Here you go wolfy! One hot chocolate with cream for Seb, a black coffee with two sugars for Harley, warmed milk with coco powder on top for Cain and your peppermint tea, three sugars,” ‘Lils’ said happily with a bright smile. The man, ‘wolfy’, nodded his thanks and took the four drinks.

“Wait! How did you know about the gloves?” Sirius asked before ‘wolfy’ could leave. “I watched your fight. Noticed what was happening and put it together with an old street fighting trick.” He shrugged and opened the door with his back.

“A little too good to be true, don’t you think?” Sirius said with a laugh, but the young man didn’t laugh back. He shrugged and turned his back to Sirius. “If you don’t believe me then check for yourself.”

Sirius watched as the door closed behind the man. He stayed in the coffee shop, not taking his silver eyes away from the door. The conversation replaying in his head like a broken record. He turned back around to ‘Lils’ who was wiping the countertop. “Do you have a phone I could borrow,” he said in a rush. Like somehow, he would forget everything the man just told him.

The girl smiled at him and nodded. She took out her iPhone from the pocket of her green apron and handed it to Sirius. He wasted no time in dialing a number. Listening as it rang in his ear.

“Hello. Yeah, James it’s me. I need you and your dad to check something out for me……”

P.s this is my first proper time writing so I'm not the best. 

[okaywitheverything]

Konoha X Reader ♡1

A/N: So I’ve been really inactive I know but its because I have a lot of tests coming up. Here is fun series I wrote long ago which is sort of everybody flirting with you in Konoha. Hope you like it. Here’s part one of three.

"Yeah, it would be a nice change of space. I've been cooped in one place for far too long I feel. I've always had a nick for travelling and exploring." You answered with an adorable smile on your face.

"Is that the only reason? Pardon me for questioning you but I need to be completely sure about approving your request to move here to Konoha. I can't take any duty of mine lightly."

"Nothing less would be expected of you Hokage-sama. You truly are as intellectual, perceptive and ingenious as people say."

The Third Hokage laughed lightly at this. "As flattered as I am dear, I am not cutting you any slack." He replied smugly.

"I'm an okay Jounin-level kunoichi that feels the urge to start anew. Oh come on, I'm not an assassin in disguise! I could have fooled you if I actually wanted to." You replied as serious you could, slightly staring at him to try and intimidate him.

Don't think it's working at all.

"I'm actually in a disguise right now."

That's seemed to have caught him off guard. You smirked a little. "You haven't even checked my ID yet. The photo it has right now, doesn't match my current self. Wait! Don’t peek! Let's make this interesting. You'll see my abilities as a ninja as well. What do you say?"

Tempting the Hokage was probably not a good idea, but you have never been one to shy away from risks.

"Oh I'm not doubting your ability of deception. Say what, that door leads to a bathroom. If you manage to amaze me with a different disguise that matches whatever is in your ID, I'll let you move here, no more questions asked." He said, propping on his elbows, leaning forward. This old man was surely fun, you had to give him that.

"Alright, give me five minutes."

You looked at your appearance right now. Really big dorky glasses that hid your beautiful features under its frame. A really tight braid with middle parting of your hair. You looked oh-so-nerdy right now. But only you knew that on the removal of these two things, your entire appearance did a one eighty degree. And that's what you intended to do as of right now.   

 You looked at yourself with awe in the mirror. You never bragged about your appearance or thought of yourself as superior to basically anyone. 

But you weren't one to willingly drag yourself down, you remained confident with whatever you wore, whatever you had. Sure everyone had bad days, but to make a routine out of it? That was not you. Right now, your beautiful (h/c) tresses cascaded down your body to (whatever your hair length is).

Your cherry pink lips glossed more as you reapplied the lip balm. Your (favourite colour) blouse was the one thing that remained the same. You swapped your baggy pants with a similar (favourite colour) skirt that reached your mid thigh that matched your painted nails. You had removed your glasses already and replaced it with contacts. (Or just removed if you don't need contacts)You were thankful for all the accessories you kept in your (favourite colour) purse in case you needed to party anytime.  

But you really outdid yourself by taking out matching heels from the bag and replacing your flats. 

Guess the female purse is really a mystery.

You readied yourself and stepped out.

 Go big or go home, right? 

The Hokage looked up from some documents he was checking and Kami, you could have sworn you saw blood trickling down his nose. You instantly grew worried, was he having a seizure? 

You then saw him frantically grabbing your folder and snatching out your ID. His widened eyes darted back and forth from the photo on the ID to your  confused face. 

"Are you going to say something?" You said after few minutes of silence.

"I think I need to check the bathroom to see if you swapped places with someone. As shocked as I am to admit this, I was totally not expecting that. Keeping my end of the deal, as you have truly amazed me, I can only hope this will help our undercover missions. Anyways, welcome to Konoha!" The Third replied with a grin, a narrow strip of blood still gushing down. 

You responded with another charming smile of yours. However, before you could say something, the door abruptly opened revealing a large man with really long white hair and a lady close behind who had beautiful golden locks."Hokage-sama, did you hear about Oro- Oh! Hello there. I don't believe we have met. I'm Jiraiya, a renowned writer and appreciator of beauty and grace. And you seem just the kind of elegant lady that I was looking for."

 The man started but changed his composure entirely when his eyes met yours mid sentence. You tilted your head in slight confusion and saw the lady behind him come ahead while smacking the back of his head. However, as soon as she saw you, a slight pink tinted her cheeks.

 Maybe at the embarrassment of realising someone else's presence?You wondered.

"Hello I'm Tsunade. I haven't seen you around, you seem new." With pink cheeks, she put her hand forward which you gladly accepted giving her a small smile.

"Yes, I arrived here today. I'm (Your first name) (Your last name)." You replied.

You didn't realise at what point exactly did the white haired man had moved to the corner of the room during your conversation. You saw him squatted down, vigorously writing down something and mumbling incoherent words along the lines of 'new characters initials will be (your initials)'.

What surprised you was the river of blood gushing down his nose, blood almost thrice the amount you witnessed on Hokage's face earlier.

He seriously looked like he was about to pass out.

Is the weather here really this hot and cruel?  Good thing I'm wearing a mini skirt right now.

You came out of your thoughts when you heard knuckles cracking quite loudly and saw Tsunade glaring at Jiraiya that he totally ignored as his eyes only travelled between your face and his book. 

The Hokage, about whom you had completely forgotten until now stood beside Jiraiya, leaning to read what he wrote, giggling like a lovestruck teen.

 "Is this how you are supposed to behave?!" Tsunade pulled Jiraiya up by his ear, and to be honest she even scared you. "And you sensei, supporting him like that?!" She continued and you praised her confidence and unwavering voice.

If you hadn't witnessed the scene, you would never believe she was talking to The Lord Third. 

The Third sheepishly scratched his neck, embarrassment coating his cheeks. You felt you should excuse yourself before the situation escalated to another level. "If my request is approved, I'd like to look around the Village." You said moving towards the door. "Let me assist you with that. I know all the exclusive spots in the vill- Oww   ow what?!" You heard Jiraiya exclaim from the corner.

"Have you forgotten about the important matters we came to discuss here? It's not like I'd rather stay here than show her pretty ass around but we have some duties." Tsunade said making you blush.

'Pretty ass' caught you off guard. Both the curse and the compliment. 

You grabbed your folders and put them inside your purse and headed out, not before flashing a bright cheeky smile to all the three people in the room as you heard Tsunade say, "We hope to see you around soon." 

The two guards outside almost didn't recognise you as the same girl who entered the office. They exchanged quizzical glances while all you could wonder was how could they let Jiraiya and Tsunade intrude like that. Maybe because it was an emergency. You gave them both genuine smiles and shrugged to yourself while moving to find the exit. 

This wasn't how you planned on exiting and roaming, in such a short skirt but you had no choice because of the intrusion in the office. You didn't mind though, Konoha seems to intrigue you in a good way and you found yourself excited to explore, looking like a total bomb in that sleek, sexy (favourite  colour) outfit of yours.

A/N: this was just some meaningless drabble of sorts. Hope you enjoyed.

[kitkatopinions]

You know what always bugged me about Jaune attacking Oscar (aside from the obvious)? It felt like he took advantage of the fact that Oscar was a defenseless child. I doubt he'd have the gall to attack Ozpin in his previous body. Now with Qrow on the other hand, I'm not too sure. One of his more consistent traits is picking fights when he shouldn't.

I don’t know, Jaune didn’t have any trouble charging at Cinder, or lashing out at Qrow around the campfire (though he didn’t attack him physically.) It seems like Jaune was willing to lash out at anyone who might have possibly sort of contributed to Pyrrha’s choice and he seemed more controlled by his grief more than logic or power complex. Idk, thinking he’d be just as physical with adult Professor Ozpin doesn’t seem too far off base. He was pretty illogical. Like, not trying to throw shade. And he did get it right to blame Cinder, obviously, although I feel like Jaune of all people charging at Cinder should’ve resulted in more injury to him than it did.  His actions were frustrating, but were at least understandable for someone (especially a teenager) dealing with grief. But Oscar deserved a sincere apology from him and I’m so glad we started moving on from that.

...If Penny’s death triggers an ‘aggressive Jaune trying to find someone to blame and lashing out at everyone 2.0′ I’ll be very annoyed.

As for Qrow, I didn’t think he’d punch Oz at all before it happened and it confused the living daylights out of me. His fight with Winter was when he was seemingly in a pretty good mood and it seemed like a mutual grudge match he was more or less enjoying. And even though Winter seemed to take it much more seriously, there were moments where she was acting like it wasn’t all that serious too.

Qrow Vs Winter really read like an anime fight where you knew the stakes were low and they weren’t really out to hurt each other - and the person that actually got the closest to breaking that feeling was Winter. Qrow’s other conflicts like his spat with James and his arguing with Raven, those were all verbal fights. Qrow and Winter was (if I recall correctly) the only time we saw him actively get physical with an ally or even a former ally who hadn’t revealed themselves to be working with Salem yet, and again, Winter was the one who first started trying to deal blows and she’s the one who seemed more violent.

I mean, this is Qrow with Raven pre-her working with Salem.

And this is Qrow when she showed up at Haven with Cinder to help her steal the Relic.

So the understanding I at least was working with was that Qrow - while prone to arguments and being rude and disrespectful - wasn’t just a violent person. He fought with Winter because they had some messed up understanding linked to their school-rival-like relationship, and she was the exception, rather than the rule. Outside of her, he only seemed to get physical when the situation demanded a fight.

So Qrow just punching an ally - and longtime friend - because it’d been revealed that he’d lied to Qrow - albeit, about an important detail - seemed really out of left field for me considering the prior established thresh-hold of who he’s willing to attack. Qrow didn’t even reach for a weapon with Raven in the bar while she was getting in the way of Oz’s life saving plans out of selfishness and cowardice and being dismissive of Yang’s pain to his face plus acting kind of aggressively herself. But he was ready to shoot her the minute he thought she had gone to Salem. But Oz wasn’t revealed as having done some horrible, evil, non-understandable thing. He was revealed to have lied out of desperation about something admittedly important in his effort to do what he could to save people. Although I  would’ve liked Qrow to take his side from the beginning, it makes sense for his character to have been mad, upset, and to have lashed out. Like I said before, what Qrow is known to get into is serious verbal fights. But punching Oz? When Oz clearly wouldn’t defend himself? When he’s in a body of a child? When his abuse at the hands of Salem was just revealed? That so didn’t even feel like Qrow!

In my opinion, the punch wasn’t a trackable, Qrow-like reaction that made sense. The punch was what started the whole ‘Qrow is violent’ spiral. It was so out there that I had tried to come up with an explanation (like 'maybe there was an Apathy near by they just didn't know about?') And then I started trying to reason that Qrow seeming to slide into deeper depression and drinking heavier was because he felt super bad about it and he was going to give a big heartfelt apology in Volume 7 when Oz came back, which obviously didn't happen. And then the writers randomly had Qrow fight Clover with Tyrian and decide James was at fault for it and get determined to kill him for most of a season without even having gotten the whole story, plus picking fights with Harriet, only to try and talk her down in the next scene he's in?

Qrow punching Oscar felt like an isolated incident that I was willing to consider a really weird and bad mistake on the part of the creators without throwing out the character, but then in seasons seven and eight, he got more violent and less loveable. But confusingly, sometimes Qrow acts like he used to. He waffles between Good Qrow and Bad Qrow sometimes, and sometimes on a scene by scene basis. Good Qrow would totally try and talk Harriet down, whereas Bad Qrow would totally knock her to the ground and taunt her about getting that fight she wanted. It's so weird to see such disjointed writing that makes characters feel so back and forth. It’s not just Qrow, the CRWBY writers have a tendency to just write whatever they think feels valid in the moment without considering the larger character journeys, I think. And once they start hearing complaints, sometimes they double down, but sometimes they start trying to write their characters to act differently without addressing the flaw itself. Like having Yang act like Summer is her mom again, or having Blake suddenly acting like she's really close friends with Ruby, or having Winter suddenly act like she was against the things she’d been totally fine with last season. So there's every chance they're just gonna pretend Qrow never did the violent things he did, and never address the punch or how he helped fight Clover or how he wanted to kill Ironwood. It's possible season nine or ten will feature Qrow acting like his Volume 3 - 5 self again and the writers just expecting everyone to roll with it.

... I spent way too long talking about Qrow. XD Oh well.

[mishavacado]

SPN has so much spinoff potential and so much canon to work with, it's such a waste that none of it's getting used. This post is just all of my spinoff ideas, I'll apologize in advance because it is VERY long.

Wayward Sisters, obviously. There are so many possible storylines to work with, so many stories to tell. I'd really love to see some Charlie, Eileen, or Krissy Chambers cameos. I think that Charlie and Claire would get along really well (just read this post). Rowena is another character that I think could easily be worked into the canon. She could teach the girls all kinds of magic and be the fun wine aunt that spoils the girls on their birthdays. I don't think that Claire would like her very much, but, Rowena and Alex would probably get along just fine. How much I need this in my life: 1000000000000000000000000/10 when I heard that this idea had been tossed out I was so angry. Why doesn't this exist?

Men of Letters prequel that's mostly set in the bunker. This show could really expand on the canon lore and give us some more background on the Men of Letters, as well as any other similar/rival organizations that were around before the main show's time. The Men of Letters have so much story potential for a spin-off; corrupt leadership, new monsters, other organizations, expanding the MoL to outside the U.S. Episodes could be in a monster-of-the-week (MOTW) format, starting and ending with the Man of Letters the case is assigned to making notes in his journal or case file or talking about the case, as well as the overall season arcs. Episodes would be titled by their case number, i.e S1 E1 Case No. 1925-4, etc How much I need this in my life: 1000000/10, the supernatural/historical drama combo would be absolutely stunning.

A series focusing on all of the alternate timelines and universes, both the ones mentioned in the main show and ones just randomly created for an episode. There are infinite possibilities. Each episode would be in a MOTW format, but with different versions of Sam and Dean. The HunterCorp universe, Jared and Jensen from the French Mistake, a universe where their names are switched, a universe where Dean went to college and was the one with the demon blood powers, a universe where they drive a Mustang instead of the Impala, a universe where Sam isn't scared of clowns. I could go on, but I'm going to stop myself here. How much I need this in my life: 9/10 I think it would be pretty funny, but it's not my best idea.

A Bobby and Rufus spin-off where they talk about cases they worked on together or with other hunters, but the stories are told similarly to Tall Tales. It's the same story but told from different points of view depending on who's talking. I wish we'd gotten to see more of Bobby and Rufus because I think those two are hilarious and really think that this could be funny, even if it was just a web series with twenty-minute episodes. How much I need this in my life: 10/10, I love Bobby and Rufus and I think that they have a lot of interesting hunting stories to tell.

GHOSTFACERS GHOSTFACERS GHOSTFACERS. How much I need this in my life: 100000000000000000000000/10, I love the Ghostfacers. That's my whole idea.

A Jack-centric show that's almost a political drama. Jack is the ruler of heaven and is constantly being manipulated by angels, demons, and Death herself. He just wants to make an afterlife paradise, but power-hungry angels won't leave him alone. Remember that Jack is very young and trusting by nature, so there is a lot of potential for disaster if he gets goaded into doing something, like making new universes or ending existing ones. Cas is a main character and he does his best to protect Jack, but he has to be careful to not seem overprotective/like another manipulator or Jack won't trust him either. I have no idea if I'm making any sense, but shoutout to me if I am. For some reason, I've always thought that heaven would be an interesting setting for a spin-off, and those angels are pretty similar to power-hungry politicians. How much I need this in my life: 800/10, I would totally watch this.

A very short series that just destroys the canon finale. Twelve episodes, detailing the storylines that were ignored or destroyed by Carry On. E1: Rescuing Cas from the Empty and he and Dean have a long talk about their ~feelings~. They kiss, and for the first time, Dean’s mind is free of doubt about whether or not anyone could ever love all of him. E2: Eileen returns. She says nothing when she sees Dean and Cas holding hands, just raises her eyebrow and smiles knowingly. Some excellent movie night content. E3: 1 year later. Sam and Eileen’s wedding. Dean and Cas aren’t legally married, but their matching gold rings are very prominently shown. It isn’t mentioned. The wedding is almost canceled because of the rain, but with a wave of Jack’s hand the clouds disappear and the birds start to sing. E4: Sam and Eileen have moved out of the Bunker. Cas finally convinces Dean to downsize, so they find a little house in Lawrence and settle down. Cas works as a special ed teacher. Dean works as a mechanic. Miracle loves the backyard but makes sure to stay away from the beehives in the back corner. E5: Sam and Eileen’s twins, Mary and Maura, are born. Dean and Cas love their nieces, and Jack loves them too. He doesn’t know what to call himself, so they settle on Uncle and call it good. E6: Deaths. They all die old. Cas’s vessel has aged, but he can’t die, so when Dean finally passes away in his sleep, Cas scatters his ashes in the woods and disappears, ascending to heaven, to spend eternity with Dean. The closing scene is a dark screen, with the whoosh of wings and a soft “Hello, Dean.” OK. That was a long one. My apologies. How much I need this in my life: 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000/10. I would reach nerdvana thirty seconds into episode one.

Another spinoff of that idea is just...Dean and Cas living a normal life. Short episodes. Cas goes to the grocery store. Dean drags Cas to a horror movie fan convention. Cas meets a roomba. How much I need this in my life: I can’t type enough zeroes to express it.

Campbell prequel that focuses on Mary and her childhood. Mary being raised as a hunter but not being allowed on hunts. Mary rushing home to finish her chemistry homework so she can help her dad track a nest of vampires moving east. Mary missing her prom to help Samuel on a hunt. Mary trying to keep her real life secret from John, a man she knows loves the parts of her he knows about. Mary always being an outsider, the kindest and most beautiful girl in her class, but so slow to trust and quick to speak that everyone is afraid to be her friend. Mary is a character that has the potential a lot more development, for twelve seasons she’s the burning martyr in every Winchester’s imagined paradise. She deserves more. How much I need this in my life: 11/10, Mary isn’t my favorite character but I would die for her.

Gabriel spin-off. That’s it, that’s the idea. How much I need this in my life: 10000000/10, Gabriel is a character that we don’t know a lot about so there are so many possible directions for a story about him to go.

Show set in the SPN universe that doesn’t really interact with the main show’s canon. It’s about two cops in the 30s that become hunters by accident. After investigating the apparent suicide of a hunter in their small town, they become enthralled by her library, filled with books about ghosts and vampires. They pour over her journals on their own time, fascinated by what they’re reading. They get to know the hunter through her writings, her accounts of her hunts and travels. Eventually, a nest of vampires settles in the town and the two put their newfound knowledge to the test. This show would just be based on canon lore, there wouldn’t be any mention of the Winchesters or other main characters, although a few MoL team-ups is definitely a possibility. The two become quite a team, tracking werewolf backs on bulletin boards in their basements and hoarding rock salt. How much I need this in my life: 89/10, I think this could be really interesting and I am a sucker for historical hunters.

Speaking of historical hunters-Samuel Colt prequel. Cowboys, vampires, cowpires. Hunting in the wild west, galloping across the prairie chasing a pack of werewolves. This show could also tell us a lot about how different types of monsters spread across the U.S. Ghosts will go anywhere people go, but what about vampires? Shapeshifters? Ghouls? What was it like to hunt without technology to help with research? The hunters in this series would be the authors of the journals that modern hunters use every day. They’re the ones that tested tracking and trapping methods. Again, no idea if this is making sense, but I think that a supernatural western would be really awesome and would expand/substantiate the canon lore. How much I need this in my life: 1000000000000000000000000000000/10, I love cowboys and I love Supernatural. This is literally the best thing that could ever happen to me.

Crowley. I want to know more about him. A series that tells us all about Fergus Roderick MacLeod, starting with when he was born in Scotland and ending with his death in All Along the Watchtower. We know that Rowena was his mother, that he was a tailor, that he sold his soul for an extra three inches ~down there~, and that he was a terrible dad. I want to know more about his childhood, about the people he made deals with, about how he became king of the crossroads and of Hell. Crowley was a very interesting character that was abused by the story. I want to know more about him. How much I need this in my life: 10000000000000000000000000000000000000/10, I really do love Crowley and I would watch this a thousand times over.

Final idea: MOTW only. No season arc, no overall storyline. New hunters every episode, from all different times, from over the world. All kinds of monsters. One episode in Victorian England, the next in 1990s Los Angeles. Very few recurring characters, if any. The recurring characters would be the Bobby Singers of the world; the lore guys that you call when you need help. Each new character has their own style, own car, own music, own personality. The show could have some a m a z i n g guest stars because they’d only appear in a few episodes. There are so many possibilities for episodes, even if they weren’t full length. How much I need this in my life: 100000/10, I love MOTW episodes and would really like to get to know the characters. It would be very easy to write one-off fanfics for this show, and also very easy to introduce this show’s characters into Supernatural’s canon.

You made it to the end!!!!!!!! That’s all I have for now. Sorry for writing so much, I just can’t stop thinking about SPN and all of the wasted stories.

[clownkiwi]

rubys thoughts on the new presidents snevil movie

hiiii besties, i just got back from my first movie experience after the initial lockdowns from the past year and a half!! resident evil: welcome to raccoon city!! as a new fan only getting into the series seriously this year after enjoying the re2 fandub & watching snapcube play re7 & re8, i've grown a fond appreciation of the franchise. i haven't personally seen the previous film series, i'm only familiar with the original playstation games, re7 & re8, and i'm also well aware of some of the jokes these games generate. i can totally see and get how groundbreaking these games were, and how they shaped not only a whole franchise from them, but revolutionized the horror genre. so i was pretty excited to hear that the next resident evil film would be a reboot more closely following the games rather than the milla jovovich movies. heck, the writer and director of this movie boasted how much of a resident evil fan he is, and how he hoped he'd be able to translate his passion of the playstation games onto the big screen.

so, did it work out??? did this film accurately recreate the classic games for a modern audience onto the big screen, or is it just another average horror movie with nods to a 25 year old video game that built capcoms horror house??

tldr if you dont wanna read below as i go into spoilers, but yea!!! i like this film quite a bit :] i'll go into more reasons why down below, but if you're a fan of the games and want a fun film to watch that recreates everything that made the playstation games great, then check it out for yourself

anyways,

PROS

theres defo a lot of good things that i love and appreciate about this film!!! having familiarized myself with re1 through my own streams & re2 through snapcubes fandub, i can say johannes roberts certainly did his homework and it shows off on the screen. from the tone, to the writing, to even the camera work of certain scenes, and even the designs; this absolutely feels like i'm watching the original playstation games on the big screen!!

with that said, this film does make some changes from the original games that i'm fine with and think work well for a fun, cheesy horror movie. the first obvious changes are the casting for our main leads. in terms of main leads i love the most, leon nails it perfectly. he's a new police officer that just moved in, and he's kinda a hot wimp. but that's what i think work for his character!!! and i loved seeing him everytime he's on screen. and in terms of pretty strong characters, i think claire redfield ain't too bad either!! her origin story she shared with her brother is pretty good and i think it fits in well at the climax of the film. claire and leon are definitely the stronger characters of this film, they practically carry this film on their back.

i also really appreciate how this adaptation actually brings in a character from re1 that isn't too well known outside of fans. lisa trevor and her role in the story as this tragic child who was tortured through umbrella's experiments is very heartbreaking, and while you only get a glimpse and assumption of what she went through, at the same time, you feel really bad for her even though she's this movies first scare. she's just a victim in a tragic story, and even though she isn't in the film that long, she definitely left an impact on me i feel.

the mid credits scene is also pretty neat, not only by setting up albert wesker as a future villain, but by setting up ada wongs role, i thought that was pretty neat.

speaking of wesker, ehhhh??? i'll be entirely honest, the re2 side of this film had pretty strong characters, altho that's because re2 is definitively one of the best games in the franchise by fans (both the original and remake). with that said, i feel that the re1 side of things aren't. quite as strong. again, i think the references they make to re1 are pretty neat, and there's some interestingly shot scenes. but idk, i felt that this films connections to re1 arent nearly as strong as re2, and that sentiment also goes to the actors

in terms of how id rank the re1 characters in this film, here's how i'd rank them

1) lisa trevor

2) albert wesker

3) chris redfield

4) jill valentine

yea, while lisa trevor was one of the stronger parts of this adaptation, the rest of the re1 cast aren't nearly as strong? like, i think albert weskers & chris redfields castings are spot on. whenever i think of wesker & chris in real life, that's who i think of. and i don't think jill valentine was a bad choice either, i like their introduction scenes together, i think they wouldve made for fun characters!! but as soon as they go in the mansion, they all kinda turn into stale bread that just shoot zombies, explore the mansion, and play out the main narrative beat of re1.

and, ok, while chris redfield i believe was certainly stronger due to his connections with her sister (it was very nice for me to actually see them on screen interacting with each other), i don't know if i can say the same for jill valentine. after the mansion, she doesn't have much of an impact. she's just following chris redfield because wesker betrayed them and she needed to stick together with someone, which is fine, but i guess i would've asked for more character from her part.

also i think this film setting up wesker & jill's relationship is pretty ok too??? i don't think it's super strong, but it's whatever.

actually, seeing the re1 & re2 characters interacting with each other were pretty novel, and i enjoyed any interactions they had!! really makes me wish we got a game that actually was just re1&2 happening at the same time just to see these interactions, and i think this flim does that pretty fine!!

so from the sounds of it, i really enjoyed this movie, and i still stand by that. however, i do have a few disappointments i do wanna get off my chest

CONS

where's mr x??? where's the giant meat train at the end of the film??? this film was building up to a giant meat train, but all we got were the lunchables and its 2 forms. not having mr x in this film really blows considering how important he is to re2. i'm also a lil disappointed that the film didn't end with saudade from re2make. and like i said, the weakest parts of this film are still the weakest parts of this film

i also feel like this film was kinda short??? like, they did their best to fit in 2 games into one movie, and i think they did as best of a job as they couldve, but i feel like this film couldve asked for. 20 more minutes at least. i couldnt tell if it was just how fast the finale went, it wouldve been alot more fun to introduce the lunchables halfway through, and build him up to the meat train, but what we got was fine, i guess.

but hey, i did say i have a few disappointments, and that was about it. maybe mr x will appear in the resident evil show coming to netflix in sometime or in a sequel, along with the goopy grandma house from re7, who knows

Final Thoughts

despite what i just said, yea, this film is fun. don't expect coming into this film expecting a critically acclaimed subversive masterpiece that'll change you as a person; it's resident evil. resident evil has always been cheesy and fun, from it's outdated 90s classics, to the boulder punching shenanigans of the 2000s games, and i think this film absolutely captured it well. yes, it has moments of depth to it, for sure; just like the original games. but it's also able to have fun, and for once, i can say it doesn't feel like watching an mcu film; which is honestly the highest praise i could ever give a film

so yea!!! if you wanna have a fun time watching a film i feel accurately portrays the zany goofiness of the playstation classics, go check it out in theaters!! or wait until it comes to streaming, if you want

[lizacstuff]

I'm sure others will ask this but what are you thoughts on the episode of SCK?? I love your in-depth analysis lol. I personally loved it!!! Also can I just say that the edser/hanker chemistry is off the charts lol. If this was the first episode I watched ever, without subtitles, their scenes would be a giant neon sign that says "THESE CHARACTERS ARE MADLY IN LOVE!!!". Eda was beyond cute/in love/adorable in this episode with serkan, girl has got it bad and I wish she didn't have her stupid grandmother and these insecurities in the way ahhh. I really love the Ayfer/Aydan duo, they're fun when they're together and Ayfer wasn't annoying like the last few EPs. Also, Balca can go choke lol, I'm so glad Serkan didn't fall for her trap for him to stay over!! He was like nah come to the party (my girl is waiting!!!). Was serkan about to tell Eda that he had to stop by her house? He seemed really nervous. ANYWAYS, I love EdSer and am going to go watch their scenes 1000x before next week 😭🥰

Thank you! I love Edser too!!!!  Like you, I enjoyed this episode, though it was despite some of the narrative issues (that I posted about here.) There were good, meaty Edser scenes, which is why I watch this show. Once again I'll start with the non-Eda/Serkan thoughts and then get to the feelsy stuff at the end.

Babaanne's introduction did not disappoint. The actress has the right energy for the role. I guess we now know why Eda has been adamant about cutting her out of her life, Babaanne is next level controlling and vindictive. We'll have to see how she develops and what her endgame motives are. Does she want her revenge more than she wants her granddaughter and daughter in her life? Or does she think if she wins and arranges everything including an advantageous marriage for Eda, Eda will eventually go along and decide it's awesome and reconciliation will come about that way? *evil laugh* She doesn’t know her granddaughter at all if she thinks that’s a possibility. 

(more under the cut)

I enjoyed her non-Balca scenes, especially when she was going toe-to-toe with Eda. That scene in Serkan's old upstairs office was intense, both actresses really brought it and kudos to Eda staying true to her defiant character. No one pushes her around. Prepare yourselves to see her waver a bit, I'm sure it's quite jarring to see your loved one in jail and know that he's there because of you, but she'll get to the point of fighting beside him. I have no doubt.

It was nice to see Ayfer protecting Aydan and Seyfi, it made for some great comedy and it was a good change after all of Ayfer's annoying, unrelenting negativity in general and about the Bolats. We'll see what happens between the two now that they appear to be vying for Chef Alexander's attention. Nesilhan just cracks me up when she's portraying Aydan play acting, the stilted voice she takes on is always hilarious to me, like when Ayfer was introducing "Aisun" to Serkan.  As we move forward, though, I want to see some badass Aydan. She  was introduced to us as a force of nature, so I hope we see that woman, a woman who will go to the mat for her son and Eda, emerge at some point. No hiding from Babaanne long term. Everyone needs to gear up to fight!

Peril and Engin got married! Their scene at home was really well done and gave me a bit better insight into them and why they might work. The only thing I was disappointed about here was that Serkan was not their witness. He counts them as some of his only friends and they didn't call him? Come on, show!  They could have easily structured the ep to have him get the call while there was chaos at his loft that morning and it would have been the perfect excuse for him to grab Eda and head to the wedding leaving the moms and Babaane to Chef Alexander.  It wouldn't have changed anything about the episode because Eda still could have gone to do her thing after the wedding and everything else would have been the same, except it all would have had a bit more heart. Missed opportunity there. 

I've decided that Ferit is a catch. At the beginning of the show he was just so naïve, that he seemed foolish, but he's really turned into a sweet, upstanding man. You hold on to him, Ceren. The irony in his relationship with Serkan is just outstanding to me, because ALL of this started because Serkan was willing to upend his own life (and Selin, Ferit and Eda's) will the sole goal of keeping Ferit out of his business, and now here we are 24 episodes later, Selin is long gone, Eda is the love of his life, and Ferit has turned into a solid, trust-worthy business partner and friend who is putting Babaanne in her place on the first day. Love to see it. 

Balca, that snake just gets more unhinged as we go along. Good GAWD. WTF is wrong with her? Her eventual comeuppance better be big. I'm really to the point that I can't enjoy any scene that she's in, it's just too maddening, because neither Serkan nor Eda are taking her seriously enough. Which I realize they don't know what we know, but dang I hope Serkan is finally connecting the dots because her behavior is not normal. As Eda says, who gives a gift like that to their boss? Who calls their new boss instead of the police when there's an intruder in the house?  By now he should be able to figure out she's manipulating him.  

Also how was she not daunted when she called and Eda was there?  What did she think would happen when he came to get the gift when he had Eda to get home to? On top of everything else she's shameless and delusional.  As for the gift, that was creepy AF. Did she seriously think that her boss, who she's known a week, would be romanced by that?  Or any man for that matter? Did Selin give her the impression he was so arrogant that this would be the perfect thing for him? As much as I want less of her on screen, I would like to know the thought process behind that embarrassing monstrosity. Because it was not a savvy move. But the good news is that no one was more creeped out by it than Serkan Bolat. It seemed to really unsettle him, which it should. It was nice to see Eda getting over her jealousy, perhaps that came with her decision to try and move forward. Before she was in this state of flux, deep-down wanting Serkan to be hers, but not being able to admit that and feeling an outside threat during that confusion. 

I saw some criticism of Eda because she was openly mocking and dismissive of Balca. However, while I agree her behavior was a tad immature at times... Balca was totally asking for it.  She's been at the company for mere days and her weird, manipulative, obsessive behavior is totally inappropriate. Also if she didn't take a hint from Eda opening mocking her, Eda picking out her gift from Serkan, Serkan deferring queries about his NYE plans to Eda, Eda being at his house when Balca called, I think we can safely say that Balca in unaffected by any of Eda's behavior, thus Eda isn't hurting anyone. While Balca is over here, claws out, trying to start a war. Balca is the villain here, not Eda for recognizing and making fun of it.

Despite the emotional inconsistencies between Eda and Serkan in this episode, during one scene they were hot, the next, one or the other was cold without rhyme or reason, there were many great conversations. I really enjoyed their conference room scenes in particular. Serkan confident and calming her down, Eda being enraged by Babaanne, but listening to him and letting him calm her down. 

His little Eda Bolat coffee cup gag was priceless, he did succeed in both diverting her and flirting with her in one suave move. Also a nice bit of foreshadowing there, which there was a lot of this episode. Not just this and the bouquet catch, but also every single one of their domestic scenes. 

As I said in this post, the rewrite, or whatever happened this episode, did cause some pretty big emotional inconsistencies from scene to scene. I know most people loved the scenes when Eda went to find Serkan, but it was a little whiplashy for me.  We go from Serkan being calm and collected and happily flirting with her about being Eda Bolat at the office, to a short time later him being moody and standoffish with her at his house? It's understandable that he would be upset at her suggestion that she leave the company, but I would think the man that broke her heart for her own good, would understand why she might think of  leaving in order to get rid of someone who is threatening him! 

It just felt like a weird time for him to hit his threshold with her, especially since this was when they were supposed to be heading to Paris (huge writing fail that there was no "Oh I guess we have to postpone Paris" throwaway line).  However, perhaps that was accelerated for him in the face of a real threat?  Like if it was just another day he's fine with her waffling and their little contract game, but he feels in his bones that this is go time and he needs to find out if she's ready for what's coming?  (Look at me finding reasons for the inconsistencies as I answer this ask, lmao).

Then the shaving scene was interesting. She starts by saying "Leaving was a dumb idea, I'm still here, I'll be by your side," which YAY and seems to me to be a huge step forward for her.... but then he doesn't feel it. Why exactly, didn't he feel it?  So then she transitions to the biggest head scratcher of the episode for me, and I really hope it's a translation fail. She basically references the movie they saw and says,  "If I could erase all memories of you, I would." Um... what? Is she really saying to him she wishes they never met? I sure hope there was some modifier in there, like "bad" memories only or something. It seemed way harsh and inconsistent with their feelings for one another. However, once he starts talking about being a machine before meeting her and his heart being too heavy without her, the dialogue is pretty great. He really bares his soul and she reciprocates with intimacy.  The second half of this scene is absolutely lovely. 

The visit to Aydan's house was interesting.  At some point I'm gonna need Aydan and especially Ayfer to step up when it comes to Babaanne.  Ayfer ran scared the whole episode and it's just not fair of her to leave the burden on Eda. Hopefully, she'll get there. There was a reason Babaanne told Eda not to tell Ayfer about the threats, and threatened harm to Serkan and family if she did so. I'm guessing Ayfer may be better equipped to deal with her mother than was suggested in this episode. The conversation about Eda running from her grandmother as a child and losing the bracelet was very affecting and well done, and thankfully Serkan was out of his sulky mood and in full-on supportive boyfriend mode. Phew, good to have you back, Serkan.

That throne Babaanne brought in was something else. Worth a good laugh. However, I feel like it highlights a few cracks we've already started to see in Babaanne's scary façade. First, there's the one I just talked about, with Babaanne not wanting Ayfer to know what she's up to, so we now know who might be successful in opposing her or might know things that could shut her down.. her daughter. Then this ridiculous throne move had to be her way of unsettling everyone, but as we see that fails with Serkan. He's pretty unflappable when it comes to her nonsense antics. 

Then Babaanne singles out Balca as her ally, which on one hand, it was astute of her to figure out who was the outsider, ripe for the picking, but she straight up choose the wack job, who let's face it, is not going to be all that competent of a foot soldier for her, because she has no allies and she's not in anyone's confidence. Plus she made that critical error with the present being so off-putting to Serkan. Balca might be able to cause problems, but she can’t get Serkan to transfer his affection for Eda onto her, so her usefulness here is limited. Babanne needed to try and fool someone like Melo, Ferit or Leyla. Prey on the nice ones who might try to be accommodating just so everyone gets along. 

Anyway, I loved the Edser scenes in the office, he brought her lemon water! My heart.  And I loved the meeting with the inner circle. Serkan has a plan! Of course our boy does, he wouldn't be Serkan Bolat if he didn't. It's always fun to see how much they all trust him to lead them through these tough times. He will once again emerge victorious. It just may take some time on this one

Note Blaca wasn't invited to that meeting, someone already can sense she can't be trusted. In the meeting later with Babaanne, I loved how Eda was sitting next to Serkan at the head of the table, totally squared off against her grandmother. That blocking was not by accident. It showed them facing her. On the same side. Together. United. That's what we call foreshadowing and that's how they're ultimately going to defeat her. Together. 

It's interesting to me that earlier in the day when Eda tells him maybe she should leave the company he gets upset, but when she shows up at his house and straight up says they can't be together, he's completely calm and is his normal confident self, talking her into staying the night with his usual ease. I'm thinking her manic rambling about him getting tired of her and her grandmother separating them was just too obvious of an emotional spiral after an exhausting day (that lasted 47 years and multiple wardrobe changes) so he didn't take any of it to heart.

As for the reason she needed a place to stay, WTF is Ayfer doing letting Babaanne stay in their home??  Kick her out for the love of God. I don't mind, since it gave us this fabulous sleepover, but come on woman, at one time you were strong enough to remove your niece from her which could not have been easy, where is your backbone now? Find it. Fast. 

LOVED LOVED LOVED every second of domestic Edser. How cute are they? Serkan wheeling her dinosaur suitcase was so adorable. And how cute is it that he bought hot chocolate for her? And THEN, THEN when they went to look at the stars? My heart melted clean out of my chest when he said, "I'm already looking at the most beautiful star."  Remember in 13 when he asked her, "How are you real?" and she basically told him to be careful or she'd get spoiled and expect that kind of romance all the time? Well apparently the romantic robot has an endless capacity to generate heart-stopping one-liners so she really needn't have worried. 

Eda's phone call with the girls was another whiplash moment for me. So wait... all episode her trepidation has been around her grandmother interfering or Serkan getting tired of her, but now she's back to wondering if he can change? Ne? And she isn't articulating what she wants him to change, or talking to him about change at all, only asking her friends if they think it's possible?? The change thing made perfect sense to me in eps 20-22, because she was coming off of his lie that broke her heart, but now I can't figure out what she wants from him. I think this is another casualty of whatever writing changes happened in this episode. I really hope the writers pull it together and figure out what the character's headspace is and stick with it. It's one thing to yo-yo from episode to episode, but to yo-yo scene to scene is too much. 

I know that they're trying to create suspense for whether she would meet him to ring in the New Year, and start fresh, but there are much more elegant ways to do this than constant retread conversations that don't make sense in context with the scenes that came before. Honestly, this episode had a LOT of wonderful scenes and humor and heartfelt moments, but it also felt like a franken-episode,  like if different writers were assigned different scenes and then they assembled the episode without going back to smooth out the tone and emotions.

That leads us to Serkan discovering Eda in the bath. What do we think was going through his mind there? lmao. He looked exceptionally pleased and he did the jokey flirty thing, taking a mental picture, but then when she comes downstairs in her jammies, he has gone into stone-cold work robot mode. I suppose the best I can guess is that he knew she was confused, he knew he had convinced her to stay under the guise it would be platonic and the "last time." 

He's always been a gentleman with her. So perhaps he felt compelled, for her sake, to keep it in that place, but seeing her in the bath send him into overdrive and the only thing he could do is throw himself into work to make sure the situation didn't go any further before she was fully ready? That's my best attempt at explaining it.  Still she was flirting hardcore with him when she came downstairs, it feels like that was the moment he's been waiting for since episode 19, and he let it sail by.  Ah well, at some point soon both their engines will be revving at the same time and we’ll finally get to the sexy times. 

The next morning was 100% adorable. Serkan Bolat serving breakfast in bed. I swoon!  What a sweetheart, because I'm pretty certain that Serkan does NOT like crumbs in his bed so this was a big gesture. And you could see how much she appreciated it, despite teasing him about the portion size. Eda, that breakfast would have been just fine by me, but if the girl has a big appetite, so be it.

Also, Edacim, it would be a lot easier to buy your "confusion" if you hadn't brought him a heartfelt gift that would have taken a good while, like weeks, to procure and then sketched in it for him!!!!  She had to have been planning that for some time.  Anyway, a very sweet gift and one of those moments where actions speak louder than words. We all want to hear Eda say the words "I Love You," but she just said it very loudly here in the form of this gift. Even if she wasn't fully aware she was saying it. It's obvious where her heart is, she just has to give herself permission to follow it.

This ep also brought the funny when half the cast of characters barged in on Edser’s little love nest. Good for both Eda and Serkan for refusing to be a part of the subterfuge for Babaanne. I'm hopeful we're going into a secret relationship/engagement storyline, but at this point I like that neither were cowing to her. Eda is an adult and it's nobody's business but her own where she stays the night! 

It cracks me up that Eda and Serkan were discombobulated by the intrusion, had the silent #married conversation, and headed upstairs together. Mostly because they are the two in the dark, what are they going to figure out by going upstairs alone? What they really needed was to talk to any of the other people to find out what in the hell was happening. Not that I blame them for wanting to escape that scene together. However, what was beautiful was their connection in these scenes. They were functioning as partners, as each other's person, as the one each turns to when they need support (or escape).  And that's really saying something since they were in a room full of the people they're both closest too.

Finally, I'm glad they spoiled the final scene in the fragman, because I would have been too stressed watching Balca's psychotic efforts in keeping Serkan away from the party, and Eda, if I hadn't known he would make it.  As it was, it  was too much to watch. They've done absolutely nothing to make her even a little sympathetic. I feel zero empathy for her, I don't understand why she's willing to take these risks. No man is worth it, girl! Especially not a man you just decided you wanted because of his initials!  The character needs to serve her purpose and go. Soon.

As for Serkan making it in time, THANK GOODNESS. I don't think Eda could have handled being stood up again. Even taking her call was a mistake. That's why we have voicemail, Serkan. And clearly he should have called the police on his way. I sincerely hope that he finds out the break-in was a fake and that's what makes him realize what level of crazy he's dealing with. I assume, because he didn't know what else to do, he left Balca in his home and that's what he wanted to tell Eda right before the police arrived. I shudder to think what damage she might do there alone. Installing a hidden mic or camera for Babaanne? Going through his things? Planting more items. Ew. If that spec is right the place will need to be fumigated.  

Serkan's gift was, of course, perfection. Talk about love in gift form, and did you notice that one of the charms was an "E" and one was an "S"? A sweet, heart-felt detail and a nice little nod to which initials really matter on this show.  Interestingly, after a full episode of inner turmoil, once Serkan arrived, Eda seemed to be all-in. She was bubbly and happy to see him and definitely acting like he was her date. And then the hug! Finally! They've obviously been physically close in recent post-break up episodes, for example elevator, pottery, dancing, skating, but what a relief to finally have this pure, intentional display of affection from her to him. Also a cheek kiss! This show, I swear it makes me grateful for the most chaste of moments.

As I said in another ask, I think the, "Will you be my girlfriend?" was in Serkan's head. We didn't see him say it, she didn't respond and the audio was hollow like it was a thought or memory or dream. However, what I can't answer is why we heard that. Why put it in there? We know he wants them to get back together, so that line doesn't inform the audience of anything they don't already know. So maybe proposal foreshadowing?  On the other hand, there is the line earlier in the episode that was voice over added after the fact (when Edser are in the small conf room and Serkan says he’s going home) so maybe they added the audio after the scene for some reason? I don’t know with this episode anything is possible. 

Then, of course, Babaanne ruins their moment with her evil plan. Next episode will she be sitting on her throne stroking a hairless cat Because it feel like Babaanne may like a bit of evil aura to surround her. Anyway, next stop... jail! I'm honestly excited to see how the next ep plays out. We're going to go through some things, so prepare your soul, but I honestly think we may end the ep in a better place. (new cliffhanger notwithstanding) We shall see.