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spaceorphan18 · 5 years

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Thinking about All the Other Ghosts

So - I just finished up Rainjoy’s All the Other Ghosts for the podcast episodes that @notthatbea and I will be doing...

This is the first time in a long, long time that I read it and really, really read it. Rainjoy’s writing can be so dense at times that you really have to pay attention, so sometimes you can reread the thing and only catch certain things, or only read elements or chapters you really liked. But this was interesting. To read it on a really analytical and academic level.

Of course, I’ll be going super into it on the podcast - but just to get the thoughts out of my brain.

I’m partially torn?? It was both a rewarding and tedious project to do.

Some (opinionated and therefor possibly alienating and polarizing) thoughts...

The bad:

The characterization of Kurt and Blaine is just /off/. RJ obviously took a left turn from season 2 and never looked back.

Kurt was female coded nearly the whole way through - to the point that sometimes he felt more like a woman than a man or even someone who walks that line (or is gender fluid), and there’s a lot of strange things about gender that I think unintentionally come up - because I think Kurt becomes a stand in for a lot of (understandable) issues that RJ felt passionate about, and passionate writing about. Some of it fixed itself the more women characters were introduced in the story. Still... the whole thing went in an odd direction when it came to Kurt that I don’t fully know how to unpack other than - this doesn’t feel like Kurt.

Meanwhile, Blaine, by default, gets the masculine role - and Blaine doesn’t feel like Blaine either.

Is it weird to say that I think the weakest element of this phenomenal fanfic about Klaine is Kurt and Blaine themselves?

This whole story makes me question the line of - how far can you go AU before it hits original fiction?

The sheer repetitiveness of inner monologues. I’m not judging fanfiction lack of editing because people do this for free and out of love, so this really isn’t a criticism per se. But I feel like about 1/5 of the story could have been taken out, and the story would have been just fine.

I’m going to praise her writing in a minute but, besides the repetitive thing - sometimes there were sections that were almost too vague. Like? What is the action going on in this sequence? How did we get from point A to B? Sometimes the imagery is too fuzzy to get a clear picture, and sometimes a plot point is in a single sentence buried around a lot of other things going on that it can be easily missed. And every once in a while, I’m not even sure what was going on. (Again - it needed an overall editor, but I get why it didn’t, really no judgment, I swear!)

I think the beginning-middle-ish section 5-15 suffered from dragging along. Fanfiction doesn’t need to have any kind of structure but I think this particular story worked better when it was working towards the goal of its plot more than the repetitive introspection of the characters. (And I don’t think introspection is a bad thing either - I just think there were parts that felt like the story was spinning its wheels because it was waiting to get to a certain point.)

The Good:

RJ is a phenomenal story teller. Really, besides my gripes up there - she has a great eye for detail and atmosphere. When she does describe something and its clear, you can really feel the emotion and reality of what’s going on. She can suck you in with the words and make you feel like you’re right there - and that’s pretty impressive.

She’s (mostly) great with structure. She understands story telling, and the reason I’ve been so fascinated to look at this one in depth is because it works beyond how fanfiction usually works and is an actual novel, a structured traditional narrative.

She really understand fandom. Really understands it, and is able to use it, not only as a fourth-wall breaking, meta commentary on it, but can use it as a narrative function as well. It’s possibly the best thing about the story, tbh.

She really understands the superhero genre. Again, really understands it. She knows how the tropes work, and I’m guessing is either super into the films or really does read comics and understands how they work. This fic hits all the tropes and does them very well - maybe even better than some actual comics I’ve read over the years.

She really understands symbolism, allegory, and multi-layered story telling. There is a lot going on in this story to unpack that goes beyond just the plot of the story, or even understanding Kurt and Blaine’s emotional journey together. I don’t expect every story I read to have lots of shades of grey going on, but man fanfic doesn’t usually have it, and even published fiction doesn’t always get as complex as this, so I find it fascinating.

She really understands world building, and while fanfic can give you a template to start off with, she was able to mold that template into something uniquely her own.

The main plot (that wasn’t the Kurt and Blaine emotional arc) was incredibly well done (when the story picked up on it). It’s intriguing and specific to Glee, but molding it into something of its own, which is incredibly impressive. It’s almost like a perfect crossover without being an actual crossover. She handles that AU elements very well, as well as having the plot itself be incredibly engaging.

While I do have criticisms with the characterization, I think she handled the emotional arcs of Kurt and Blaine (mostly) well - and I appreciate that it wasn’t a slow burn, but a journey of figuring out who you are with your partner, which in this story’s case, is the better story to tell.

The side characters were pretty well done. Except for Burt, who I’m meh about, I think the other characters were great. Finn and Rachel are better than their canon counterparts. Cooper has more depth to him. Mike, Tina, the other little cameos, well done, imo. She even was able to bring in a few original characters and make them work - which is always tricky in a fanfic.

She was able to fold in enough Glee-ish things that it still felt connected (in unique ways) to canon. When you trip over little tidbits that are nods to canon, it doesn’t seem out of place or gratuitous, but handled really well.

So yeah - that’s where I’m at with ATOG - and like I said, we’ll discuss it more in-depth on the podcast.

Still.. It’ll be interesting getting into Grey, which I think is both better than worse than the original?

#that's how s.o. sees it #atog #probably better that i'm posting this in the middle of the night #i have many complicated feelings about this whole thing #the story is fantastic #the characters are frustrating

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nachtgraves · 6 years

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Hey, I'm a fan of your work over in Ao3! I have a prompt idea for a Yuuri! On Ice fic. Could you do a 5+1 kinda thing where Yuuri and Victor are dating (I was kinda picturing it to be an AU because we all know they would move in together) and whenever Yuuri comes over to Victor's apartment and stays late he hints around to staying over for the night but Victor is a very dense boy and doesn't get until, like, the end. BONUS If you put an unnecessary amount of angst and then a huge amount of fluff

I FINALLY FINISHED IT. I’m so sorry it took forever but it is done! I deviated a bit with your prompt, but I hope you still enjoy (: This is also my first 5+1 type of thing so hope I did that decently. And thank you!

Title: Five Times Yuuri was Obvious and the One Time Victor Finally Got It // AO3Word Count: 4,960Tags/Warnings: G/PG. College AU, misunderstandings, established relationship, Victor is oblivious but means well, minor background relationships.

Yuurireally likes Victor. Like a lot. He’dnever have thought that the guy he saw coming into the ice rink where he workedpart-time would ever look twice at him. But now here he is, on the olderRussian’s couch watching some dumb TV show he, at least, has not been payingattention to, while said Russian is getting the takeout they ordered from thedoor.

“—nkyou. Have a nice night.”

Yuuri’sphone buzzes. A text from Phichit. Victor’s moved to the kitchen and Yuuriknows from experience that Victor will bite his hand if he tries to help.Victor has weird and outdated views on hosting guests, especially boyfriendshe’s still trying to do the whole impressing thing with. Yuuri doesn’t know howto tell the man that he just needs to laugh and Yuuri is gone.

From Phichit / 7:34 PM

So ur not coming back tonight riiiiiight?????Ive not taught u well if u doI will be v disappointed yuuri

Yuuri’sface heats even though he did come over to Victor’s with the intention to notbe sent off to the trains to go back to his and Phichit’s apartment at the endof the night. He doesn’t even care if they do things. Well, he does, and would not be opposed, but he mainly justwants to wake up to Victor in the morning.

It’sa weekday, but neither he nor Victor have classes or work in the morning. Yuurihas work in the afternoon and that’s during the time Victor usually comes tothe rink to skate, now with the added bonus of light flirting and making plansfor date nights when it’s Yuuri’s shift to moderate the skaters. He’s preparedto withstand the teasing from Phichit and Yuuko should he and Victor come tothe ice rink together, Yuuri wearing the same clothes Phichit had last seen himin, or, better yet, in something of Victor’s.

To Phichit / 7:37 PM

We’re eating takeout and watching a movie.But if I happen to miss the last train…

Yuuriadds a fingers crossed emoji before hitting send. Phichit’s reply is immediateand Yuuri’s cheeks flush at the series of peach, eggplant, and kissy faceemojis.

“Dinneris served!”

Yuuristuffs his phone face down in his lap, startled by Victor. His boyfriend isstanding with two plates loaded with naan and a chicken curry at the foot ofthe coffee table. He tilts his head. “Is everything okay, Yuuri?”

Yuurinods, mentally willing the flush on his cheeks to die down. “Yeah! Yup.Everything’s fine.”

Victorraises a brow and sets the plates on the table. “Okay… Well, do you wantanything to drink?”

Theydecide on some wine and Yuuri vocalizes that he is limiting himself to oneglass, two glasses max. Victor laughsat him but puts the bottle away after pouring the both of them modest glassfulsbefore joining Yuuri on the couch.

“Atoast?” Victor asks, raising his glass.

“Towhat?”

Victorhums, lips pursed in thought. “Delicious food, a hopefully interesting movie,and the best company I could ask for?” The little smile Victor flashes isentirely unfair. Yuuri’s face is bright red when their glasses clink togetherand Victor is unapologetic.

Theystart the movie, an action-adventure-comedy type thing that had won severalawards that neither of them had managed to see when it was in theaters. As theyclean off their plates and nurse their wines, Yuuri gradually closes thedistance between Victor and himself until their shoulders press against oneanother. Yuuri curls his legs up and leans against Victor. His boyfriendglances away from the screen and huffs a laugh, but throws an arm aroundYuuri’s shoulders and lets Yuuri lean further into Victor. They meet for abrief kiss that has Yuuri arching for more when Victor pulls away.

“We’llmiss the movie,” is Victor’s excuse in the face of Yuuri pouting. Hetemporarily placates Yuuri with one more kiss and tucking Yuuri closer to hischest, cheek against Yuuri’s head.

Yuuri’sonly got half a mind on the movie, even though it is actually interesting andif Yuuri wasn’t thinking about other things he would have been just asenthralled by the plot as Victor is. But it’s getting later and later and themovie is longer than Yuuri thought it was, but it works in his favor since thelast train he can catch to go home arrives in the next twenty minutes at astation that is a ten minute walk away and there’s at least another thirtyminutes left of the movie. Yuuri fights the urge to stare at the clock on hisphone to see the minutes tick by.

Themovie ends and Yuuri’s missed the last train by eight minutes, assuming it wason time.

“Ohshit, I’m sorry, Yuuri. I lost track of time.” Victor looks incredibly guiltywhen he sees how late it is.

“Don’tworry about it,” Yuuri assures him. He feels a little bad that he somewhatorchestrated the situation and Victor seems to feel really bad about it.

Butthen Victor perks up in that way he does when he believes he has an incredibleidea. Yuuri has to hold back the preemptive yes.

“Lyft!”Victor exclaims.

“Ye—what?”

Victorgrins and unlocks his phone. “I’ll call you a Lyft. Let me just download theapp real quick.”

Yuuridoesn’t tell Victor that he has Lyft, as well as Uber, on his phone. While hehas found the services to be incredibly useful during nights out where no oneis capable of getting themselves home, currently, he has some very differentfeelings on the matter.

“Ah,yeah. Thanks.” Yuuri sighs as he gathers his things and Victor sorts out the Lyft.Victor cheerfully announces that Yuuri’s ride will arrive in moments. When itarrives, Victor walks him to the front of the building and Yuuri gets a kiss onthe cheek before sliding into the car.

Yuurireally likes Victor, but he wishes Victor could take a hint.

WhenPhichit is determined, nothing can deter him.

“Okay.So clearly, your boyfriend is a little slow on the uptake, but! Now that I’mtaking charge of this, you will not be coming back here if I can help it.”

Yuuripretends to look affronted. “Are you trying to kick me out?”

Phichitplays coy and twirls a lock of hair. “Well.Only for like a night every once in a while.”

“Likeme being home hasn’t stopped you before.” Yuuri nudges his best friend. He’sgotten used to seeing, and sometimes hearing, some of Phichit’s closer friendsthe occasional morning.

Witha laugh, Phichit lets his entire weight fall onto Yuuri, causing the two tospread out on Yuuri’s bed.

“Phichit,get off!” Yuuri laughs. Phichit squirms until he’s pretty much starfished outatop Yuuri. “I can’t breathe!”

Phichitraises himself up and smirks at Yuuri. “Well, I wonder if there’s a certainRussian we know that would help you out.”

Facepink and laughing, Yuuri pushes Phichit off of him. “Shut up.”

“Alright,back to business. When is coming by?”

Yuurisearches for his phone, lost amid blankets. It’s trying to hide in a pillow andflashes several notifications from social media and a couple texts. There’s atext from Victor, flooded with exclamation marks, saying that he finished hiserrands earlier than expected and can be ready whenever Yuuri is.

“WheneverI want, it seems,” Yuuri answers. He shows Phichit the text and is just barelyquick enough to keep his phone out of the Thai boy’s reach when he grabs forit. “What are you trying to do?”

Phichitshrugs, eyebrows high on his head, eyes directed to the corner of the room.“Nothing,” he draws the word out like he’s not even sure what lie he was goingto come up with. “Anyway, time to slut you up.”

Yuuriis slightly afraid.

Victor’seyes widen when they meet up and Yuuri grudgingly admits to himself thatPhichit does know what he’s doing. Even if Yuuri wants to pull at the too-tightshirt that belongs to Phichit and squirm in the jeans that supposedly make hisass look ‘bitable’ and are definitely going to be more of a struggle to takeoff than they were to put on.

Theygo out to see the movie Victor’s been looking forward to and grab dinner at acute Spanish restaurant after. Victor animatedly goes over his favorite partsof the film, praising directing, acting, cinematography. He goes over the partsthat were lacking, but overall his expectations had been met. Yuuri watches himfondly, chiming in every once in a while, nodding along or disagreeing with oneaspect, but overall he lets Victor lead and is content with sipping wine and cataloguingthe Russian’s every gesture.

It’slate when they leave the restaurant, the walk to the nearest station quiet andmostly deserted. Victor reaches for Yuuri’s hand, and their fingers are linked,warm and loose, for the walk. They come to the point where they would need topart if they went to their own homes. Yuuri, gnaws on his bottom lip, wraps hisfree arm around his middle.

“Well…”Yuuri trails off, awkward, hopeful, waiting. “I’m that way.”

Victorfrowns slightly and Yuuri traps his bottom lip between his teeth, biting downhard. He looks up at Victor through his lashes, eyes wide, Phichit’s voicerunning through his head giving orders: Curve you neck, draw attention to yourmouth, show a hint of tongue—a hint, a flash! You gotta tease, Yuuri. You are not ice cream in an ice cream shop, there’sno sampling. You’re the display piece they can look at through the window, andcan only have if they take you home.

WhenVictor comes closer, leans down, Yuuri closes his eyes and meets his boyfriendhalfway for a lingering kiss. When they part, Yuuri is ready to nod, stomachfluttering and heart jumping.

Victorsqueezes Yuuri’s hand before he lets go. “Get home safe, Yuuri.”

Yuuri’shands, both empty, slide into his coat pockets. “Ah, yeah. You too.”

Theywalk their separate ways and Yuuri sends a text to Phichit.

To Phichit / 9:48 PM

Mission failed

“Idon’t get it,” Yuuri whines. He shoves away his textbook and notes, floppingover on Victor’s coffee table. Victor, fiddling with a pen as he reads throughstudent work for the class he’s a TA for, looks up from the essay.

“What’reyou stuck on?”

Yuuriturns his textbook around and uses his pencil to point out the problem he’sbeen stuck on. God does he hate Gen Ed requirements.

Victorlooks over the page and comes around to sit beside Yuuri on the floor, lookingover Yuuri’s notes and the in-progress assignment that’s a review worksheet fora midterm-like test.

“You’reon the right track but you’re using the wrong formula,” Victor says after amoment. Using his pen, Victor writes out an equation that looks vaguelyfamiliar to Yuuri and he’s fairly certain he knows what some of the variablesmean. But it still doesn’t really help.

“Victor,” Yuuri whines again after attemptingthe problem with the new equation. He’s flipped through his notes and thetextbook, but still can’t figure out how and what to plug in to get the rightanswer. He’s really not looking forward to the upcoming test. Yuuri can alreadysee all the red marks that will make themselves comfortable on his paper.

Victorchuckles and ruffles Yuuri’s hair. “How about a food break?

Thespeed at which Yuuri perks up is comical, if the way Victor’s chuckles turninto full blown laughter is at all telling. Yuuri puts his schoolwork to theside in a somewhat organized pile, clearing space as he gets up. He followsafter Victor into the kitchen, seeing his boyfriend looking through his pantry.

“Areyou feeling pasta tonight?” Victor asks, looking over his shoulder.

Yuurinods, “Pasta sounds good.”

Withinthe hour, Yuuri and Victor are back in the living room, plates of some lemon,butter, garlic, and herb chicken and angel hair pasta set before them that hasYuuri salivating. They eat on the couch with the TV on and once the food iscleared, Victor pointedly looks at Yuuri’s incomplete assignment. Yuuri slidesback down to the floor with a put upon pout.

“Thisisn’t even graded,” Yuuri grumbles.

Ahand comes to rest on his head, fingers curl into hair. Yuuri looks up with aquestion on his tongue, but a mouth presses to his in answer before he canspeak.

“Mightnot be a graded assignment, but the test counts for a lot,” Victor says oncethey pull apart from the brief, far too brief, peck. “But a boyfriend can givehis boyfriend rewards for a job well done?”

Yuurifocuses more on the assignment than he’s focused on any class that he’s ever enjoyed.Victor’s smile as he finishes up doing his TA work may be incredibly cocky andsmug, but being able to wipe it away with kisses and some hair tugging while inVictor’s lap more makes up for it.

Yuuriis very comfortable in Victor’s arms, and the way Victor’s holding him feelslike Victor won’t be letting go any time soon. But when they break for air andjust rest against one another, Yuuri’s head on Victor’s shoulder and Victor’scheek against Yuuri’s head, Victor sighs. “It’s getting pretty late and youhave class in the morning.”

Yuuristills for a moment against Victor before releasing a sigh of his own. “I kindof wish I lived closer to school like you do. You’re what, a twenty minute walkand maybe ten by car?”

Victornods against Yuuri. “Yeah, about. Depending on traffic it can take almostthirty by car. The street one over from the coffee shop everyone goes to? Theabsolute worst during the lunch rush.”

“Ohyeah, that street is awful,” Yuuri says. “Still, you don’t even have to wake upas early to get to classes on time. I’m jealous.”

Victorlaughs and presses his mouth to Yuuri’s forehead. “But you live closer to theskate rink.”

Yuurican’t argue with that, but the conversation is not going where he hopes itwould. He doesn’t know how else to get Victor to suggest he stay over, since,clearly, it’d be easier for Yuuri to get to class in the morning.

“Ugh,”Victor groans. “C’mon I need to get you home before it really gets too late.Don’t you also have to see your advisor tomorrow?”

“Shit.”Yuuri had completely forgotten. So maybe this time wouldn’t have beenconvenient to stay over. “I forgot. And all the things I had to bring her areat home and—”

BeforeYuuri can spiral into full blown panic, he finds himself much higher off theground than the couch and Victor’s lap, legs swinging freely in the air, theonly point of stability being Victor’s arms, one under his knees and the otheraround his back.

“Victor!”The man only grins. “What? I’m getting you home.”

Eventhough it is the best idea for now and Yuuri had not planned things out well atall, Yuuri can’t help but wish that Victor was carrying him towards the bedroominstead of his coat and shoes.

Yuuri’srelationship with alcohol is one that everyone around him enjoys while heremains oblivious to his actions until days, sometimes even months later. Hehas no memory of the first time he met Victor at one of Chris’ parties and madean absolute ass of himself when Victor sought him out at the ice rink not toolong after. It was only on one of their earlier dates before they officiallyfinally got together that Victor brought up the first time they met. Thepictures of that night are ones Yuuri still can’t look at, much to Phichit’ssadistic glee.

Andyet, Yuuri will still find himself a few too many drinks deep every once in awhile. Especially at one of Chris’ parties where it’s rare to have an intactmemory of the night.

“Ithink you’re done for now,” Victor says, taking Yuuri’s newly filled glassaway. Yuuri pouts, and while trying to reach for his drink, finds it too taxingand simply slumps onto Victor, arms draped over the Russian’s shoulder.

“M’fine,”Yuuri mumbles into Victor’s neck.

Victorwraps an arm around Yuuri’s waist, holding him up. Yuuri settles further intothe warmth of his boyfriend.

“I’msure you are right now, but you won’t be later.”

Yuuriwants to sulk, argue with Victor, but he also really likes being in Victor’sarms so he settles for lifting his face up briefly to give Victor furrowedbrows and jutting bottom lip before settling his head back in the cradle ofVictor’s neck and shoulder.

Victorleads them out of the kitchen – away from the drinks – to one of the couches inChris’ living room. Various people, all somehow associated to Chris, mingle anddance and drink around them. Phichit’s dancing with two of Chris’ coworkers, JJand Isabella are canoodling on an armchair made for one but can apparently fittwo, Sara’s sneaking off with Mila while Emil distracts Mickey, not that that’sany sort of hardship for the lovable Czech.

Yuurileans heavily into Victor, eyes drifting almost shut as he dozes. Yurio andOtabek join them at some point, before Victor’s teasing makes the other Russiansputter insults and storm away, face red. Otabek follows after, the tips of hisears and cheeks almost as red as his not-yet-boyfriend’s. Yuuri’s vaguelyconscious when Phichit swings by and lets Yuuri know that he’s leaving with thetwo guys he had been dancing with most of the night. He must have fallencompletely asleep at some point, for a few minutes at least, because Victor iswaking him up and getting to his feet.

“Yougood to go home?” Victor asks.

Ittakes a moment, groggy as he is, but Yuuri nods and manages to sort himself outwithout relying on Victor too much. Most of the partygoers have gone or are inthe process of leaving. Chris is wrapped up around Masumi who looks nothingshort of fond. Their cat has slunk her way to them now that the house isquieter, curled up on the armrest by Masumi’s arm.

Victorand Yuuri say their goodbyes and head out. Chris and Masumi live pretty much atthe heart of the city so there are plenty of cabs around. Victor hails onequickly and helps Yuuri in.

Yuuri’snapped and dozed and had some time to let all the liquor he’s had go throughhis system enough for him mind to fix on the fact that he and Victor live incompletely opposite directions and Victor’s apartment is closer.

ButVictor rattles off Yuuri’s address to the cab driver.

“You’recloser though,” Yuuri argues.

Victorhesitates, doesn’t look at Yuuri. “It’s fine. I want to make sure you get homesafe and it’s not that far from yours to mine. Besides, I have to do a thingfor the class I’m TAing in the morning so.”

Yuuriknows Victor’s fibbing. Not entirely, but he’s not being completely truthful. Yuurilooks away, down at his hands in his lap. “Oh. If you’re sure.”

Victorruffles Yuuri’s hair. “It’s really fine.”

Yuurigets dropped off in front of his apartment building with a brief peck and ‘seeyou later’.

MaybeVictor just has a thing. People havethings they’re weird about all the time. Yuuri knew someone who had a thingabout how they eat their food, eating the smallest items on their plate firstand moving their way up. Yuuri had a thing about having people he didn’t knowto a certain, abstract level being in his room when he lived in the dorms hisfirst year.

Butthen he sees Chris’ Instagram post of him and Victor in pajamas, in what Yuuriknows is Victor’s bedroom, Victor in the background holding pillows and extrablankets, captioned ‘sleepover!!’ with an arrangement of emojis, and doesn’tknow what to think.

“Doeshe not actually like me?”

Phichitwhacks Yuuri with the pillow Yuuri hasn’t been hugging to his chest, sulking.“That boy is completely gone for you, Yuuri, shut up. It’s probably justsomething else. Like, Chris wasn’t taking no for an answer or Victor doesn’tcare about Chris spending the night because Chris isn’t his adorable boyfriend.”

“But—”

“Justbe more aggressive the next time you’re over!”

Yuuripouts into his pillow. “I can’t do that.”

Phichitrolls his eyes, “Just get some drinks in you and I’m sure you’ll have noproblem with voicing your wants.”

Yuurifinally relinquishes his hold on his pillow to throw it at his best friend.Unfortunately, Phichit catches it out of the air easily and now has both thepillows. He drops the pillows and shuffles on Yuuri’s bed so they’re side byside, Phichit with an arm around Yuuri’s shoulders.

“Butreally. You won’t get what you want if you’re not vocal about it. Apparently,your Russian is oblivious to actions that, knowing you, are far fromsubtle—don’t hit me, you know it’s the truth—so just be upfront and tell himyou want to sleep over.” Phichit adds on with a wink, “Or not sleep.”

Yuurirolls his eyes and shoves Phichit. He has to get ready though for a doubledate.

Yuurishows up at the restaurant early, but he sees Victor is already there. Victorgreets him with a brief kiss that has Yuuri sighing and leaning in for more. They’vegot a few minutes until the time their reservation and knowing Chris andMasumi, more Chris, they probably had a little more.

Yuurican only think of how the universe is probably laughing at his expense that rightafter he had seen Chris’ Instagram post, Masumi and him wanted to grab dinnerwith Yuuri and Victor the next day. He doesn’t know how to bring it up withoutsounding stupidly jealous when there’s no reason to be. Instead they talk aboutschool and work as they wait for Masumi and Chris who show up with Chris allbut clinging to Masumi and Masumi looking fondly exasperated.

“Sorrywe’re late,” Masumi says, he doesn’t give an excuse, only looks to hisunashamed boyfriend.

“Youcan’t blame me when you get all dressed up,” Chris throws back, flirtatious asever. Yuuri feels his cheeks pink at the implication. Victor laughs and Masumijust shakes his head as they enter the restaurant and get seated.

Dinnergoes well. It’s not often that Yuuri hangs out with Masumi or Chris with theirbusy schedules, Masumi travelling often for his work and Chris busy with hisown. They talk about work and school and future plans, Masumi and Chrisplanning to take a few days off work to go travelling, visit their familiesalong the way. They promise to come by the ice rink some time too, both of themmiss having the freedom to skate and hang out with everyone.

It’swhen the bill has been paid and everyone’s ready to part ways that Chris bringsup how he thinks he left his scarf at Victor’s the other night.

“Ah,yeah, I found it have it hung up. I forgot to bring it with me but I can dropit off at yours sometime if you want.”

Chriswaves him off, “I can swing by and get it myself whenever you’re free, don’tworry about it. Thanks though, and see you too soon. I have a well-dressedboyfriend to…pester. And I’m sure you both do too.” Chris leaves them with asmirk and clings to Masumi as they head home. Masumi manages a wave but there’sno hint of resistance to Chris dragging him away.

Yuuridoesn’t know what to say, he more than hopes that Chris’ assumption andsuggestion would lead anywhere but his track record lends to the contrary.Victor clears his throat and offers his arm. “Sometimes you think you canhandle Chris, and then learn you were very incorrect. I’ll walk you to thestation?”

Yuuritakes Victor’s arm. “How was that sleepover, by the way?”

Victorlaughs. “Chris was very excited. We just watched TV and ordered in takeout. Ithink he’s been a bit stressed about something at work and didn’t want to putit on Masumi. I offered to let him stay the night since we’d been drinking andMasumi was in the middle of some high priority work Chris didn’t want tointerrupt.”

Andthere went Yuuri and Phichit’s theorizing that Chris had invited himself over.If only Victor was that blasé about asking Yuuri to spend the night.

Havinghad some wine with dinner, and envy filling his head, Yuuri comments, “SinceI’ve known you, I don’t think you’ve ever had people stay the night at yours.Sleepovers don’t seem like something you’d do.”

Victorshrugs, “Not often, no. But sometimes being alone in an apartment that is kindof a little big for just one person can get lonely. Date nights at mine areprobably my favorite kind of date nights because of that.”

Yuuriwants to strangle Victor. It would be so easy to ask why Victor has never evenseemed inclined to get Yuuri to stay the night, extend date nights into datemornings. But they’re at the station and Yuuri’s train is rolling up and whileit’s late, it’s too public a place to be potentially humiliated.

“Goodnight, Victor. See you soon?”

Victornods and bends to kiss Yuuri before he has to catch the train home alone.

+1.

Yuuri’snot avoiding Victor. At least not on purpose. Schoolwork has picked up and he’sbeen covering at the ice rink more often and he’s just too tired to do morethan go home and pass out in bed with take out and something playing on hislaptop. So he hasn’t seen Victor in a while for more than a brief hello aroundcampus or while he’s working at the rink that’s been busy with tourists andlocals taking advantage of deals and sales and whatnot because it was that timeof year.

Buthe runs into Victor on campus at the library, Victor at a desk with a pile ofbooks on one side of his laptop and a stack of essays and papers on the other.

“Yuuri!”Victor beams. Yuuri stops by and leans down for the kiss Victor pulls him into.

“Youlook busy,” Yuuri comments.

Victorpouts. “You too. I’ve missed you.”

Yuurifeels a flush of pleasure at the words. “I’ve missed you too. Just the time ofyear, you know?”

Victornods, “Trust me, I do. But doesn’t mean I can’t miss hanging out with you. Thisweek should be the last of it before finals season but are you free thisweekend? Just a night in with takeout and some TV?”

Yuuritakes a second but nods. He has a fair number of assignments all due the nextweek that he should work on this weekend, but he has missed Victor and, despitehis hopes, it’s not like he’ll be spending the night, as he’s learned.

Fridayrolls around Yuuri can tell he’s not the only one immensely grateful for theweekend. He finishes up his last class and heads straight to Victor’s, havingswitched shifts with Yuuko he doesn’t have work until Saturday afternoon.Victor lets him in almost immediately, pulling Yuuri inside and mouth on hisbefore the door even clicks shut.

“Hey,”Yuuri laughs once they part.

“Hello,”Victor grins, still holding Yuuri around his waist. “Ready for the weekend?”

Yuurifalls into Victor with a sigh. “You have no idea.”

Victorkeeps one arm around Yuuri and leads the way further into his apartment. “Well,I have Thai on the way and Netflix up and ready for our abuse.”

TheirThai food arrives halfway into the second episode of the TV show they startedto binge and Yuuri was quite invested. They eat as they continue watching halfof the season before Yuuri starts yawning and leaning heavily into Victor. It’snot even close to midnight but the week’s toll has weighed heavily on hisshoulders.

“Weshould get you home, I think,” Victor says quietly, hand brushing throughYuuri’s hair. Yuuri groans and presses his face into Victor’s shoulder.

“Homeis too far. Your bed is so much closer,” Yuuri mumbles without thinking. As thewords he carelessly said process in his sleepy, fuzzy mind, he’s suddenly muchmore awake.

Yuurilooks up and Victor is uncharacteristically flustered, stunned even. There’sreally no backtracking so why not continue to shove his foot deeper into hismouth?

“Whydo you not want me to sleep over, Victor? I feel like I’ve been pretty obviousbut…”

Victorrubs at the back of his neck, looks away. “Oh. I, uh, I thought you were just,being you, didn’t want to read too much into things in case that wasn’t whatyou meant.”

Yuuridoesn’t know if he should be offended by Victor’s implications of Yuuri beingthat aloof and unaware. There’s some truth to the unsubtle statement but still.

“Soyou’re not opposed,” is all Yuuri says in response.

WhenVictor looks at him again, there’s a heat in his gaze that’s fighting beingtempered. “Well you see, Yuuri, if youspent the night, I, well, sleeping would be very difficult.”

“Victor.”

“AndI don’t want to pressure you into anything, because I don’t just want to, youknow, but also just cuddling in bed and platonically, well not entirelyplatonically, but romantically? Just sleeping together and seeing you firstthing in the morning.”

Arambling Victor is a rare sight, and any other time Yuuri would let Victorcontinue and see where he trailed off into, but Yuuri is tired and happy andhas been patient long enough.

“Victor,” Yuuri cuts Victoroff before he can continue. With a smile, he leans up and pecks Victor’s cheek.“Just letting you know, I’m staying the night.”

#ask #victuuri #yuuri katsuki #victor nikiforov #Yuri!!! on Ice #anonymous #my writing #tumblr fic

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ejmcmoon · 7 years

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HP and the Birthday Weekend: HBP Reaction

So I’ve been doing reactions for Freeform’s HP marathon. Freeform is skipping OotP, so here’s HBP (stupid Freeform). If you don’t want spoilers, don’t read.

Poor Harry. He looks so sad while his picture’s being taken. Poor kid needs a break.

I’ve always found it weird that the Death Eaters can fly without brooms. In the books, only Voldy and Snape can do it. Here it seems like they just add it for flashy effects.

Lol Dumbles is like “Forget the pretty girl and take my arm.”

Slughorn is so damn Extra. He fucking destroyed the place so that it looks like he’s already attacked. What a drama queen.

“I do love knitting patterns” Dumbledore is the embodiment of gay stereotypes and I’m not sure whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

YASSS the twins’ joke shop!

“How much is this?” “Five galleons” “How much for me?” “Five galleons” “I’m your brother” “Ten galleons” I LOVE THESE TWo

When Fenrir Greyback almost saw the trio spying on the Malfoys in Borgin&Burkes, I got literal CHILLS

GINNY’S SO CUTE WITH HER PYGMY PUFF

Honestly, I don’t understand why Romione (especially Ron) don’t think Malfoy is a death eater. After all the animosity between them and Malfoy, I think they’d be a little suspicious Malfoy.

DRACO STOP BEING A BITCH

Lo Flitwick is being petty af

Luna’s great. “No but I’ve done several toes. How different can they be, really?”

Hermione gets mad at Ron for eating while Harry’s missing, but honestly I would be too. It’d be more like stress eating, but still.

Draco looks so depressed my poor bby

Minnie ain’t got time for that slacking off shit lmao. Also, I feel so bad for Ron. People always sideline him for Harry

OMGS SEAMUS IS StILL BLOWING UP SHIT

Okay, but the potions lesson scene is the one time where Hermione’s hair is as frizzy as should be. Smh

Ugh, NO DUMBLES. Harmione is NOT a thing. It’s all about Hinny and Romione.

I really wish they’d shown more of Voldy’s memories. They were really important plot points.

Whose decision was it to make Draco consistently have a green apple? Not that it’s bad but I’d just like to know which department instigated the Drapple fandom.

“SHUT IT” The one part where Movie Ginny acted like she was SUPPOSED TO

Why you little snitch Ron. Harry’s relationship with his book is very intimate and personal (Jk I love Ron.)

Ron jfc. Ginny can snog whoever she wants to

“What if she saw you here snogging me? Would you expect her to get up and leave?” Hermione you sly mofo.

Aww look at Hermione wrapping her arms around her boys

Katie NUUUUUU

“Why is it when something happens, it is always you three?” Because they’re protagonists and shit must always hit the fan around them

“How grand it must be to be the chosen one” Would you like some fries with that salt, Sev?

“She’s got nice skin” YES SKIN THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO KISS

“Hermione’s got nice skin” Lol they’re both WHIPPED

Belby devouring his desert like a caveman is my aesthetic and mood whenever ice cream is in the vicinity

Good job Harry just abruptly stand up and making A HUNDRED TIMES MORE AWKWARD

Ron why are you acting all condescending?! She low-key asked you to the dinner party!

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Luna’s lion hat?

YAS GINNY YOU FLY THAT BROOM LIKE A BAMF

Damn the Weasleys are on fire today

“You didn’t put it in. Ron only thought you did” Yes because Harry is slick af and also Slytherdor af.

“I think this room’s taken” Yes now gtfo. Also, I hate how Lavender was black but they made her white when she had any huge significance to the story

“But I am the chosen one” *slap* Come on Hermione let the boy have some confidence. Hitting him is a bit abusive

LOL when Cormac threw up on Snape’s shoes I was like, “Boi you’re fucked.”

Wow Lavender is so extra. She has good writing on foggy windows skills, tho. Mine usually turn out really ugly

I wish she’d (Ginny) fed him a canary cake and then he turned into a canary. And ugh Ron is such a cockblock.

Ugh they fucked up all of the ships in this movie? All of the Hinny scenes were awkward as hell and Ronks wasn’t even canon during that burrow scene.

Speaking of the Burrow scene, I think it’s cool, but they could’ve taken it out to include scenes like Voldy’s other memories, Hinny scenes that aren’t bullshit, tc.

Also, Ginny wouldn’t have just been STANDING there letting Harry defend her. She’d’ve hexed those Death Eaters into next week!

“Excuse me while I go and vomit” I’d wanna vomit too Mione

Oh gods here comes the scene where Harry is so unbelievably not smooth about asking Slughorn for the memory. Prepare for a massive cringe attavk.

“Is that what you told Tom Riddle, sir?” WHY ARE YOU SUCH AN IDIOT HARRY???? LIKE FUCK

“The map’s wrong” THE MAP NEVER LIES HERMIONE

“They [the cauldron cakes] were lying on your bed. I thought I’d try one.” Oh Ron your love for food is gonna be the death of you.

Rupert’s acting like he’s wasted is spot on. OMGS when he hugs Slughorn, tho!!!

Gods Slughorn is such an incompetent teacher. DON’T JUST STAND THERE DO SOMETHING GOSH DAMMIT

“And for the record, I’ve always found him interesting” We know Mione we know.

Ugh wonderful the Sectumsempra scene is close. Harry does so many things that give me second-hand embarrassment in this movie.

What I don’t get is how Lav is at a different table when she’s in Gryffindor. They could’ve had her sit at the Gryffindor table for the trio’s in sync judging stare

OH NO THE SCENE’S COMING

NO HARRY DON’T DO IT YOU BLOODY IDIOT

UGHHHHHHHHHHH

“Did you and Ginny do it then?” “What?” “Hide the book?” *wiggles eyebrows* They did more than that

Ugh why did he drink the whole damn bottle of liquid luck? He was supposed to save it for Ginny and the trio!

On the other hand, Harry being high and cocky af is the best thing!

“How on earth did you get out of the castle?” “Through the front door”

“Harry!” “Sir!”

Aww Hagrid bby don’t cry #ProtectHagrid2k17

Wow Slughorn and Hagrid are so fucking drunk.

Hey at least they included the fish story! That was super cute and feels destroying. Damn this scene tugs at my heart strings.

WHY WOULD A FORBIDDEN SUBJECT BE FOR HYPOTHETICAL USE???? (I mean unless you’re writing a book, but that doesn’t apply here) I love Slughorn and think he’s an interesting character, but fuck he’s so dense

YES THEY ACTUALLY EXPLAINED THAT THE ROOM OF REQUIREMENT ISN’T ON THE MAP. They should’ve included it on the DVD! This would’ve made Ron’s line about Mione saying that in DHpt2 make so much more sense. Ugh this movie has so many plot holes it physically hurts

“Has it ever crossed your brilliant mind that I don’t want to do this anymore?” For once I agree with Snape. Dumbles is a manipulative asshole.

Okay, so in the books when Sumbles and Harry get to the cliff they swim across the sea or ocean or whatever to get to the cave. And I guess they skipped that part, but still had it happen? So how tf did they swim across it here? The water is way too strong? Apparition maybe?

THAT BOAT LOOKS HEAVY. Why make Harry pull it out all by himself?! You’re a wizard, Dumbledick! Use magic!

Dumbledore yelling that it’s his fault breaks my heart now that I know the context. Like, yeah, he’s an asshole, but poor guy. It’s so tragic.

“Don’t worry, sir. We’re almost there.” “I’m not worried, Harry. I’m with you.” Oh the fucking irony.

The added choir scene is so haunting

NO DRACO DON’T DO IT DON’T LET THEM IN

The way Snape walked in gave me GOOSEBUMPS. And “Severus...please.” UGH MY HEART

Nooooo! Hagrid’s cabin! What about Fang?!

So Harry just walked in Dumbledore’s office and ARE THOSE LEMON DROPS ON DUMBLEDORE’S DESK??? FTW!

Ugh I hate how Ron’s in the background for most of the last scene. He’s a part of the trio too!

Aww Fawkes don’t make me cry! Great now I’m emotional.

So overall HBP is my least favorite movie adaption because of how sloppy it is. But damn that ending scene got to me.

I’ve had loads of fun doing these. I guess I’ll both DH movies tomorrow and then OotP on Monday. Later!

#harry potter and the birthday weekend #freeform #half blood prince #golden trio era #harry potter

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mmeaninglessnamee · 5 years

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Best Things 2019 list

Welcome to my best of the year list, where you get ambushed by Anime at every turn because I refuse to make a separate anime-related category because all movies are films. [Pronounce this line very snobbily]

If you’ve never read one of my best-of-the-year lists, I don’t blame you, they are usually full of garbage except for this one which you should care deeply about. Anyway, this is the best things I first experienced on the past year, which often has a lot of things that didn’t come out this year, because I inevitably miss some things and there was a lot of good media from before I was born.

Anyway, on to the list! The one thing a year I actually use Tumblr to post!

Best Movies:

There’s only two movies that make this list entirely on their own merits this year. Last year I had a top ten, but I watched significantly more movies in 2018 than this year.

Angel’s Egg

Angel’s Egg is art-house anime at its peak. There’s not so much a story here as an uneasy feeling, symbolism, and probably 30 lines of dialogue total and an extremely limited color palette. You could interpret it as about becoming disillusioned with religion, or the complete opposite and see it as a lost, obsessed soul being redeemed. Or something completely different. It’s art for art’s sake.

I inevitably have anime on my best-of lists each year, and I try to not have it over-represent the scope of things I watched each year. But I’ve seen a lot less anime than other genres I like, so there’s a huge amount of really good anime I’ve never seen. I can watch 10 anime movies in a year and they can all be pretty good because there’s just a lot of good ones from a 50-year period that I haven’t seen, while I’ve seen most good sci-fi movies and a lot of the “classics” films and pretty much left with just watching new ones that have come out recently. And it’s not like I’m not watching western animated movies, there’s just not a lot that I would put on a best-of list. While last year had Isle of Dogs and Spiderverse, this year had some forgettable sequels. Anyway, that was a long aside to start this list, but I would love to get more good entries in my favorites every year. I can only hope Star Trek directed by Tarintino actually happens.

Synechdoche, New York

– ultimately will probably never make an all-time favorites list from me, but still a very good piece of filmmaking. It’s extremely dense with layered symbolism and tons of rewatchability. Yet, I don’t really feel the need to rewatch it. It’s very good, but not the kind of good that I feel the need to sing the praises of. If you like extremely well-planned, detailed filmmaking, there are many more-glowing reviews out there for it. This is a huge favorite among film critics, and I can respect why, but I am not a film critic. I don’t get burnt out watching bad movies because I don’t watch movies I don’t think I’ll like, unless they are into “so bad it’s good” territory.

Speaking of the act of watching movies: Best theater experience: Promare

Surprise, it’s Anime again! This movie wasn’t an all-time great, but it was big and stupid and exciting, and I got to see it in a packed theater with tons of Studio Trigger fans who cheered for every reference and visual nod. And the references were great, although they sometimes were a reminder that other similar plots were done better than they were in Promare. But Promare was definitely done gayer than any of the previous shows it took its style from.

That’s all for movies. I did not watch nearly as many that I loves as last year

Best short film:

There were no short films I loved this year. I saw some decent ones, and there’s always some interesting animation from short films, but there weren’t any that stuck out as much as anything last year.

A special mention goes to Age of Sail from John Kahrs with Chromosphere and Evil Eye pictures.( This was distributed by Google Spotlight Stories, so you can easily find it online.) This story had good enough characters that at the end I was left wanting more to their stories, and the visual style was memorable as well.

Best Shows:

The Good Place

I have a lot of things to say about The Good Place, but I really don’t want to spoil the show if you haven’t seen it, so I’ll try to be brief because most of the longwinded things I could say about it have to do with its reveals and plot progression.

What I will say is that one of the great things about The Good Place is that anything could happen, and suddenly, not just in a finale at the end of a season. But what initially got me to watch the show is its strong premise. Elenore wakes up to find out she is dead, but is in The Good Place. The only problem is that she was an awful person who doesn’t deserve to be there. So, she tries to learn to be a good person before she is found out so that she can stay. The show has a lot to say about ethics, morals, and what it means to be “good”, but it’s also primarily a comedy so it’s usually not very heavy-handed about anything.

The final season of The Good Place aired in 2019, but I’m not actually caught up on it yet so I don’t know what the ending is, just that it ended.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumia

I like shows that are constantly surprising and unpredictable. I just said the same thing about The Good Place. Haruhi has a lot of faults, but makes up for them by being not just unpredictable but also very novel or sometimes just bizarre in its presentation. It has the same sense that anything could happen to suddenly change the story that The Good Place has, but in intentionally confusing ways. The two most interesting attributes of the show aren’t even its characters or premise, but two series of episodes: the first season episode order and the Endless Eight. The first 13 episodes of the show were initially broadcast completely out of order, and they are better that way. The first episode is entirely a bad student film that doesn’t even properly introduce any characters, and its backstory isn’t covered until the second season. But it’s an amazing introduction to the series. The series overall doesn’t have amazing visuals beyond some strange framing choices, but this episode also has lots of little details to sell that it’s a bad film, like camera shake and shots that aren’t entirely in focus.

The Endless Eight is the same episode eight times in a row. It’s was actually one of my favorite parts of the series, although I can see why people would loath it, especially if you were watching the show when it aired and had to wait a whole week to see the same thing happen again and again.

There’s also a silly dance with the ending theme. Every fad needs a stupid dance to go with it.

And then there’s the movie, the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumia, which caps off the series, or at least the anime’s run, and is nearly 3 hours long. It’s actually the second-longest animated film ever made, trailing the extended cut of Final Yamato, a space opera from the 80’s, by one minute. The movie caps off the whole series, reincorporating many events that already happened in the series and showing some characters in a new light. Before the movie, I had no idea why there was an alternate-universe spinoff series about a normal version of one of the main characters, but now I completely understand it. Although the erratic pacing of the whole series may turn people off, and it is far from perfect and filled with enough cliché moments to fill a uh, something large, the moments where the story hits hard are extremely memorable.

Best web original programming:

“4K cab view - Geibi Line Hiroshima Station to Fukuen Line Fuchū Station, Japan”

Let me try to explain why a 4-hour video of railroad tracks is amazing.

1: I like trains 2: It’s really relaxing to just look at the scenery going by

3: I think that this specific video is good rather than just the large amount of transport cab-view videos in general because it’s long enough to be an experience, not just a video. That might sound corny, but you really go on a journey with this video, from city to countryside, and perhaps more strikingly from pre-dawn early morning to full daylight. I did not sit and watch this all at once, but I certainly could.

Best Music Videos:

OK Go Music Videos

Do you like cool ideas for music videos? OK Go has cool ideas for music videos, to the point that the videos are better than the music. You may remember their original hit which was a dance on treadmills. They have only got more elaborate since, with a rube Goldberg machine, a super-slow-mo video, hundreds of choreographed dancers, a car used as an instrument, and my favorite: a video shot in zero-g. To make things even better, most of their videos are in a single take which just makes them all the more impressive.

BEASTARS Opening

Opening themes to anime are basically just short music videos. Usually they aren’t too special, but I also think the vast majority of anime shows themselves are nothing special either, so that’s not saying much. However, sometime you get something really good like the Beastars OP, which in addition to having a jazzy song uses stop-motion animation for its visuals. Stop motion animation is always cool. I think it’s also thematically appropriate for a 3-D animated show to have an intro using the oldest form of 3-D animation.

And since we’re on Music Videos, let’s just go right into the next main section: Music.

Music:

Gregory and the Hawk

Gregory and the Hawk is an indie folk artist with a weird name. She sings sweet-sounding songs about troubled lives, and I like how her music sounds. It definitely won’t strike a chord with everyone though.

Not much to say about her, I just like it. Her best song is “Oats We Sow”.

Mariko Goto / Midori

This isn’t anime music. Mariko Goto didn’t appeal to me because she made music for some anime that I liked. I just feel like my best-of lists get heavy with anime-related things a lot for reasons I already discussed that back in the movies section. Anyway, Mariko Goto’s music is weird. This also includes the work of the band Midori, which she was a part of.

Midori was a jazz-punk-fusion band. That probably doesn’t bring any particular sound to your mind, but I can’t describe it well either. Mariko as a solo artist is also kind of the same genre, except sometimes. Many songs never quite find themselves coming to rest, either on a major key or sometimes even all on the same beat, while Mariko does a kind of overly-cutesy screech over the instrumentals. I would describe some of their music as sounding like a waking dream you would have while trying to rest with a fever.

I would say her best songs are “Swing”(with Midori), “Drone”, and “@HφU☆少女。。”(however you pronounce this mess) and best overall album is “299792458”

Angelique Kidjo – Remain in Light (Album cover)

A.K. is a Beninese music artist. She did a full cover album of Remain in Light, one of my favorite albums by one of my favorite bands. Talking Heads were one of the first mainstream rock bands to use (or depending on who you ask, steal) African polyrhythms extensively, and now Kidjo has taken them back. I have heard a lot of good covers from this album, most notably another entire-album cover by Phish, but this is the best one by far.

Her other, original work is okay too, but wouldn’t get on my best-of lists by themselves. Remain in Light was released in 2018, but I didn’t hear it until this year. Here’s some more music from 2018 that I didn’t hear until this year:

Revue Starlight soundtrack

Revue Starlight was a pretty good anime that aired last year. But wait, aren’t we past the audiovisual media section? Yeah, we are, because Starlight had some problems in my opinion. The soundtrack, both the original songs and the background score, were not one of the problems. The soundtrack was the best part of the show, which is why I’m putting it on my best music list. The genre is best described as modern classical. Most of the orchestration is a traditional string orchestra, but with different songs having distinct accents, like mechanical distortion, a heavy electric bass line, more traditional Japanese strings and woodwinds, or a screaming guitar solo. I think some of the songs are actually better absent of the show, because especially some of the revue songs were not used particularly well. My favorite song from the show, A Song or the Blooming of Flowers, especially got shafted in the anime by having characters talking over most of it and having a rather lackluster fight. The best pieces from the score however, Rondo Rondo Rondo and the transformation theme, were used well. But it baffles me that someone decided that songs with thematic lyrics should be spoken over with dialogue saying basically the same thing thematically as the lyrics.

The Protomen

The Protomen have a lot of musical talent and I really like how they sound… on their second album. Their first album blows. Also all of their original music is based on made-up backstory to the MegaMan video game franchise. You gotta write about something I guess. Like I said, I really like some of their tracks, but I’m really not sure if I recommend they entirely.

Of Monsters and Men – all the tracks that didn’t get radio play

Of Monsters and Men is a pretty good band. I had already heard all their songs that were widely popular (so pretty much just Little Talks) so those don’t count for being something new I heard this year. But I also don’t really care for Wars, their new song that has got radio play this year. But I really like most of the rest of their tracks, and I also love the aesthetic of the visualizers for My Head is an Animal.

And here’s some individual songs where I didn’t like the artist’s whole catalogue but I liked certain songs.

God Knows – Aya Hirano

This is a rock song from The Meloncholy of Haruhi Suzumia. (oh no we’re back to anime) Haruhi is not a music show, but it nevertheless has a music episode out of nowhere. As in two of the characters perform this song in the show with no build up to it and with one of them never having shown any musical skill, so of course she can absolutely shred on guitar. This song basically got me to actually watch the show now on my favorites list even though I knew it was just a one-off in a single episode, so I think that’s a pretty solid statement for being one of the best songs I heard this year. Aya Hirano produced some other music as well, but I don’t like anything that I’ve heard as much, which might just be God Knows having the benefit of context. Since Haruhi, she’s performed with the stage theater company that inspired the anime Revue Starlight, the music from which was also just on this list. Everything’s connected!

Girls Dead Monster

Speaking of anime music, GirlDeMo is also anime-related music. GirlDeMo is the band in the anime Angel Beats, but they also produced some real albums with additional music, not just the songs used in Angel Beats. Unlike the Revue Starlight soundtrack, this isn’t a bright spot of an okay show, it’s on this list as a stand-alone because I really like female-lead rock music. Not every song is a masterpiece, but I like some of them enough to put them on this list. Best tracks: Crow Song (this was in the first ep. of Angel Beats) and Little Braver (was not in the show, but is coincidentally the only GirlDeMo song I’ve found a Clone Hero beatmap for, so someone else has good taste as well.) Also an honorable mention to the rock cover of the Angel Beats opening theme which is performed in-universe at the start of an episode.

I think that’s all the things related to anime on this list now. There’s a lot of anime with some very good high points, but yet very few that overall come all together to make a full package that’s good all the way through. Just having one aspect of something that people like a lot is better than nothing though, but that’s why it got spread all across this list instead of being confined to movies and shows, it spreads like a sickness across the land, creeping up and night and stifling life.

Speaking of creeping up at night and stifling life:

LEATHER TEETH – Carpenter Brut

This song is a piece of heavy horror electronica, and it slaps hard. Slashes hard? The music video is about a slasher-movie serial killer, but the track has plenty of atmosphere on its own. The rest of the album is also good, but does not reach the peak of the title track. They all have very high amount of violence and sex in their videos though, so beware who you watch them around. One of them has a YouTube-friendly version where all the gore is left intact but the nudity is censored with lots of guns.

Curses – The Crane Wives

This is a good song, but I don’t like most of The Crane Wives’ catalogue as much as this one song. That’s all I have to say about this one.

The chorus is really catchy, or maybe just the singer’s smoky delivery is inherently memorable.

I Am The Antichrist To You – Kishi Bashi

This is a surprisingly slow, melancholy song, from the title you would probably expect some heavy metal. This song is carried by the vocals.

Borodin – Polovstian Dances from Prince Igor (Choral version)

Here’s something not even remotely contemporary. Did you know that this piece was originally written to have lyrics? I didn’t. Did you know that this piece is AMAZING with vocals added to it? Now you do.

Arriving Somewhere But Not Here by Porcupine Tree

This was probably the best prog-rock song I heard all year. Yeah, that’s all for this one.

Dream Sweet in Sea Major

Joe Hawley, Allison Hanna and Bora Karaca are three people I have never heard of who make very strange alternative music that sounds like it belongs playing on a phonograph, except when it abruptly shifts to some other various genre. This song got the YouTube algorithm blessing, but the band the artists are a part of, Tally Hall, apparently has some amount of online following. I’d never heard of them. The side project that produced the album “Hawaii Part II” that this song is from has an entirely Japanese name for some reason. (None of the members are Japanese) I guess if you’re making a weird side project, make it as weird as you want.

Did you know Rob Cantor (who wrote Running for your life from Shia LeBeouf) is part of Tally Hall? Now you do. He didn’t work on this song, but looking up stuff about this song was a huge rabbit hole.

25 Color Twilight from City Connection from Voez

The rhythm game Voez has some good music. I put Night Keepers, the most-featured artist, on my list last year. This particular song is a reimagining of the main theme of City Connection, a NES game where you run away from the cops with a bunch of paint dripping out the back of your car. Why? Because. I’ve played it and didn’t think it was very fun, but anyway this song is great.

HM: Aqualung – Pressure Suit

HM: Heart of Glass - Blondie

HM: Locomotive Breath – Jethro Tull

These songs aren’t Honorable Mentions because I only kind-of like them, they are HMs because I had heard them before but only really listened to them a lot this year.

Locomotive Breath is just a good song that always leaves me wanting more at the end of it. So I listen to it again and again.

Heart of Glass is just really really catchy and I love how it draws attention to its own skipped beat in the chorus. There are lots of songs that skip a beat to smooth over a song transition, but this song skips a beat to become rougher.

Pressure Suit has a story to it. I first saw the song’s music video on an MTV-style channel on a TV at a college campus cafeteria. I was in middle school at the time. The video was very memorable to me, and the TV had subtitles on it so I remembered the chorus lyrics, but there was no audio. Amazingly, I remembered this and found the song much later, and even more surprisingly actually liked it.

Games:

The Beatles Rock Band

Since we’re coming off music, it only makes sense to start with a music game. Remember Guitar Hero? The series is still going with Guitar Hero Live, but it really died out years ago. Despite that, it’s still great fun, and the popularity of Clone Hero shows that people still love the idea. Most of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games really emphasized the aesthetic of grunge and heavy metal, and had some face-melting solos and heavily technical songs. The Beatles Rock Band has neither of those things, which is a lot of why I like it. I mean, I also like The Beatles, but that’s kind of assumed since I liked a game that’s entirely their music. Even on expert mode, this game is laid back and relaxed, with some of the songs have videos that travel from the studio to psychedelic landscapes. I never owned this game when it came out, but now I bought it for $3.

Celeste

The last section to write. I have so much to say about how good Celeste is.

Celeste is by far the best game I played this year. I have a hard time loving 2-D platformers because they so often feel slippery and imprecise but demand perfection from the player. Old Mario games are icons of the genre. Mario slides off everything and needs momentum to get anywhere off a jump. Meat Boy is a game with death everywhere for the slightest mistake, but by design you slide up walls while having to be very deliberate with your jumps to get the correct arc and height. Celeste improved the controls and feel of the game to the point that it feels perfectly precise, and mistakes you make are your own, not Madeline sliding a little bit too far or a jump having to have too exact an angle. Just a single linear dash in the air opens up so many possibilities for design, but the biggest aspect is wall climbing. You can just hold on a wall for a second or climb up over the top of a ledge instead of having to be constantly jumping, and this makes long sections without ground or with difficult timing feel much more manageable.

Also the game has a strong emotional story, which is now commonplace in well-received indie games but is still a rarity in platformers. Go rescue the damsel, the end. In Celeste, you’re only fighting against nature and yourself.

Also the soundtrack is beautiful, ranging from apprehensive to reflective and tense to triumphant. First Steps is a great, memorable introductory theme. Capping things off, Reach for the Summit drives you to have to finish the game. And the b-sides remixes are nice reinterpretations of the tracks to match the reinterpretations of the levels they accompany.

Also, I’m using “Also” to start another point too much, so let’s also talk about some other games.

Quiplash

It’s a great party game that you can play with people who aren’t gamers!

The Jackbox Party Packs overall are great party games, and Quiplash is the best for people for whom the hardest part of the game will be correctly operating their phone to connect to the Jackbox server. Take this to holiday gatherings and play with family.

Ultra Fight da! Kyanta 2

The only fighting game that came out this year that I actually like. It’s extreme kusoge. Technically it came out last year on itch.io and I did play it back then, but it came to Steam and got more popular and people ran tournaments for it starting this year.

You have teams of up to three characters, groove selection per character, parries, walk-through crossups, normals with free air movement , extremely high damage and ridiculous supers, roman cancels, and all sorts of other character-specific degeneracy like jumping lows or unblockable projectiles that hit both players, and that all adds up to a very fun game.

Oh yeah, and it looks like it was made in Microsoft Paint.

Tetris

Tetris has been around for decades, but there’s always new ways to reinvent the game and I want to talk about 3 different ones I got into this year.

First, Puyo Puyo Tetris. It’s three games in one, and pretty much the standard for competitive modern tetris. Or modern Puyo. Or Swap Mode, which forces you to play both games alternating every 30 seconds, which is where the game really shines.

Then, there’s tetris effect, which is the best single-player tetris game around, at least the best available to buy normally. The Tetris the Grandmaster series is also great but only on arcade boards. Tetris Effect is the only tetris game where the graphics and soundtrack actually matter, because it’s a visual masterpiece and great game experience. However, it has no direct multiplayer at all.

Finally, if you really want multiplayer tetris but beating up to three other people at once in Puyo Puyo Tetris isn’t enough, there’s Tetris 99, the tetris battle-royale game. Because there’s basically no downtime in matches and you can start a new match almost immediately, it’s easy to play one more match for hours in this game.

These three games together are just many facets of one great game: Tetris

I also played a Tetris The Grandmaster arcade board for the first time this year. That’s another good tetris game, but even better was its full name: Tetris The Grandmaster 3: Terror Instinct. And VideoGameDunkey did a video on Tetris this year, that was great too. Tetris.

HM: Defunct

This game is great. However, it’s an HM because it’s only about an hour long with not a huge amount of extra stuff to do. But the replay value is still very high, because mastering time attacks or just moving with style is very fun. I’ve considered doing speedruns of this game, but only actually did a full (20-minute) run once.

HM: Catherine Classic

This is an HM because I have played the game before on PS3. I’ve entered tournaments for Catherine. But I never played the story mode or actually owned the game until it came to PC. This is a very unique puzzle game that is worth your time, and a type of story about actual long-term relationships that games don’t tell often. Yes, the story has character portrayals that are problematic, but most of the time that’s the point; most of the characters are kind-of awful and are unable to move beyond their past relationship issues.

Books and other writing:

The Hero with 1000 Faces (1949)

This book is all about heroic myth around the world, and more specifically about how many myths worldwide have significant similarities. If you want a really in-depth look at the Hero’s Journey, this is your book.

This book is very well-known among writers and very easy to use to compare different works. George Lucas said it influenced Star Wars, so that’s something.

Mimusubi (Blog)

This is a blog by and Englishman who lives in Japan and works for a national Shinto organization. It is all about Shinto as a religion and its place in modern Japanese society. It’s an interesting read, although it ended up being entirely useless related to the research I was doing when I found it initially. I don’t frequently read blogs, so this is a weird entry on my best-of-the-year list.

Best Theater:

‘Romeos and Juliets’ by the machine lifeforms in the amusement park from Nier Automata So, I didn’t actually go to any plays and only one concert this year so I don’t have much to say about live performances, but this bizarre identity crisis misinterpretation of Romeo and Juliet is certainly entertaining (although quite short). And like all good stories within stories, it just maybe has a lot more to do with the overall plot than you would think.

This is really just another alternate way of putting in an Honorable Mention for Nier Automata, which is a good game, but I just have a lot of problems with the gameplay part of it that keeps it off my best games list. The ending is extremely strong, but it took me 30 hours to get there and its hard to ignore that significant portion of the game, especially when the actual gameplay part was often the least-interesting aspect.

Sorry if anyone was actually watching this for theater recommendations. Since I like things that are about theater so much (see Revue Starlight also being on my best-of list), you think I would actually get to more live theater like I have previous years. The one thing I went to was a performance of Dvorak’s New World Symphony, but again, I have nothing to say about that, I’d heard the piece before so it can’t even go in “best music” since it wasn’t a mind-blowing performance. I don’t know, maybe I should have just removed this section. If you want recommendations, watch Avenue Q I guess.

Best Credits Sequence:

Here, I found an award to give Nier: Automata.

Best Memes:

SA2 Realtime Fandub by SnapCube

I’ve come to make an announcement: Here’s one final thing from this list that was from 2018 but I didn’t find until a year later, but this one didn’t really blow up until then. Eggman pissing on the moon is the single biggest highlight of this hour-long epic, but it’s hilarious the whole way through and endlessly rewatchable. Sonic Adventure 2 is a perfect source for parody for so many reasons, but the improvised character dynamics here really highlight how absurd so much of the story is. Why is NASA there? Why is the camera zooming in? This is a must-watch if you loved SA2’s corniness, as long as you don’t mind some characters swearing like wounded sailors.

Places I discovered I want to visit:

Museum Meiji-mura

Here’s a new section for this year’s list that I probably won’t repeat!

A long time ago, in a country far, far away, Frank Lloyd Wright designed a hotel. Unfortunately, the hotel was in Tokyo, Japan. It survived the 1923 Tokyo Earthquake and World War Two, but did not survive the economic realities of being a low-rise structure in downtown Tokyo, one of the densest cities on the planet. It was replaced by a much larger hotel in the 70’s.

But, the entrance building was saved and rebuilt in Museum Meiji-mura, near Nagoya, and I absolutely want to visit there if I ever go to Japan, because it’s a large collection of architecturally historic buildings from Japan, and as a student of Architecture, that would be really cool to go see.

That’s all for my list this year. I’m planning on making a video version of the list this year, but that won’t be done for a while.

#best of 2019

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casualarsonist · 7 years

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Parental Guidance: Madagascar

I, for one, don’t quite understand the Madagascar media empire. I’m yet to watch the sequels, and I suppose a better reviewer would have researched a bit more about the films and games and spin-offs that sprang from this original movie, but I’m intentionally keeping myself in the dark so I can avoid an outside influence in my uncovering of these films. Which means I’m going to have to watch the other two. Which is something I just realised and I’m not particularly excited for. And now that I’ve cast a pall over the review by making such comments in the opening paragraph, let’s move on so I can give a more detailed description of all the reasons why this movie is just okay.

Madagascar is the tale of Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), at least for the first third of the film, who is getting restless after a lifetime of being stuck in Central Park Zoo. He yearns to go to the ‘wild’, a dream spurned on by the bright mural of rolling grassy plains and dense forest wilderness that covers the wall opposite his enclosure. His friends, Alex the lion (Ben Stiller), Melman the hypochondriac giraffe (David Schwimmer), and Gloria the sassy hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) are all far more adjusted to their life of luxury and the routine of the their day-to-day lives and fail to give much creedence to Marty’s complaints, until the day he goes missing. Assisted by a quartet of the best characters in the film - penguins intent on making their way to Antarctica (Tim McGrath, Chris Miller, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Christopher Knights) - the animals escape the zoo, wander the streets of Manhattan, are rounded up by animal control, and, their escape being seen by the public as a sign of their loathing of captivity, are shipped across the sea to Africa. During the long boat journey, the penguins take command of the ship...somehow...and in the ensuing chaos the four friends fall overboard and are beached on the coast of Madagascar. As the others adjust to life on the island, Alex, unused to hunting, begins to find himself hungry, and starts to see Marty as less of a friend and more of a meal.

At this point we’re about 45 minutes into the film and the first hints of a narrative arc are beginning to show their face, and I found myself engaged for the first time by the glimmer of hope that Alex’s transformation exhibited. But sadly, this glimmer amounted to little more than that, because at this point the movie is too far down a hole of narrative unfocus, and here we encounter my main problem. Y’see, there’s not a single coherent overarching story in Madagascar. It has fragments of a story, sure - Marty’s story is that of a zebra in captivity that yearns for the wild, and finds it to be exactly as good as he hoped; Alex’s story is that of a lion happy to be caged, who is dragged along into an unfamiliar environment and confronted by his innate desire to hunt his friend; Gloria and Melanie’s stories are...that they get to come along, I guess? The penguins also have a separate story in which they wish to travel to Antarctica. They get there, and in 5 seconds decide that it sucks, and leave in order to appear again at the end and set up a sequel. The closest of these that comes to an actual character arc is Alex’s, but let’s take a look at the way a three-act narrative arc should pan out, and discuss why Madagascar manages to bungle it by lacking focus and a consistency:

ACT 1 - The set up. The characters are introduced and a premise is established.

In this case, it’s that Marty wants to go to the wild, and his friends get dragged along. It seems that Marty is the main character, because the plot developments are all driven by him; he’s the only character with any desire for change, and he's the only person that takes action; all the other characters are padding and are simply dragged along by the plot.

ACT 2 - Confrontation. The characters are faced with a struggle that they must overcome.

At this point, Marty’s goals have been achieved without struggle, so the focus shifts to Alex, who can’t eat what the others can and begins to starve, leading to him reverting to his predatory ways and becoming a threat to those around him. It now seems that Alex is the main character because the plot developments are driven by him, but this feels incongruent given that he never wanted to leave the zoo in the first place, so there’s no lesson to be learned by the character undergoing the struggle, and no struggle undergone by the character that catalysed the plot of the film.

ACT 3 - The resolution. The characters overcome their struggle and (usually) become better because of it.

Alex isolates himself while repeatedly wondering aloud what is happening to him. It’s clear that he’s starving for meat, but for some reason none of the characters address this or try to solve the problem - they simply treat him as if he were crazy. Marty comes to find him in his isolation and is attacked by some carnivorous Foosa. Alex fights them off, and then, despite the fact that his wildness has only been temporarily suppressed, they’re all friends again. After the emotional climax of the film has passed, the penguins feed Alex sushi and everyone is happy once more, except for me as this final development is clumsily shoe-horned in at the end as if it wasn’t the resolution of the story driving the entire second act of the film (as well as being inconsistent with the internal logic that establishes that Alex is bad for wanting to eat other animals, but for some reason fish and beef don’t count).

So what are we watching here? If it’s a story about four friends going on a great adventure to the wild, then why is the adventure over half an hour into the 90 minute movie? If it’s a story about four friends being pushed out of their comfort zone and enduring the hurdles of a strange and unfamiliar place, then why is it that only one of the friends involved has trouble adapting? If it’s a story about four friends, then why are Gloria and Melanoma little more than filler characters? If it’s a story about two friends, then why do Gloria and Mailman exist at all? If it’s a story about friendship overcoming adversity, then why is it that Marty and Alex’s friendship is never tested, merely questioned briefly? Madagascar doesn’t know what it wants to say and therefore doesn’t say anything with conviction. The clever moments (and some of the moments are clever) are undermined by the greater inconsistency. This doesn’t make the film bad, just forgettable.

But of course, after all that, I know this is a kid’s film, and it’s likely that you child won’t notice or give a shit about anything that I’ve said, so now that I’ve written about a thousand words regarding the things I dislike, let me try to redeem this review by mentioning that the film is rather harmless otherwise. There are some rough sides to the CGI visible in the low resolution and some of the animation, but everything is pleasantly stylised in a way that transcends any technical limitations and it achieves a rather timeless look. The performances of the leads are competent and Chris Rock is a surprise standout, who, given his capacity for shrillness, avoids much of the obnoxiousness that plagued Shrek’s Donkey. He lends Marty a great deal of emotional range and heart, and is a good foil for Stiller who gives a solid, if forgettable, performance (as recognisable as he is on screen, his voice could belong to almost anyone). Pinkett Smith is strong and sassy as her stereotype demands, and Schwimmer is utterly insufferable, as his stereotype demands, but I was happy to see him getting work (right up until I wanted his character to fuck off). Baron Cohen is also memorable as the lemur king, but I never want to hear the words ‘I like to move it move it’ again, and Cedric the Entertainer is wonderful and dry as his offsider. The best voice performance however, hands down, comes from Tom McGrath as Skipper, the leader of the penguins. Although they’re merely a distraction in terms of the overall story, the penguins are actually one of the most reliably entertaining parts of the film, and it’s easy to see why they became so popular as characters and managed to get their own spin-off film. I’m looking forward to watching that more than I am the Madagascar sequels, to be honest.

All in all, Madagascar is not as good a film as the success of its franchise suggests. It made over half a billion dollars at the box office for some reason, although it’s clearly aimed at a younger audience and relies on a lot of slapstick and bad jokes for laughs so perhaps it was a hit with babies. There are few reasons to preference it over many of the other CGI films of the time, and the inclusion of Mulled Wine the whingey bitch, and that god damn ‘I like to move it’ song make it more annoying than it has the right to be. The sequels are reportedly better, so I’ll get back to you about them some time in the near future. Until then, I’d recommend looking elsewhere for the time being.

Laughs: 6

Occasional laugh-out-loud moments are overrun by rather lame and simple humour.

Visuals: 7

Another alumni of the CGI-boom era of kid’s films that suffers from the infancy of its technology. Thankfully, its stylised enough that it still holds its charm, but there’s something weird about the low resolution of the images, and the animations.

Performances: 7

The performances are fine for the most part, but nothing particularly remarkable. Ben Stiller makes a pretty ineffectual lead to be honest. Chris Rock and Tom McGrath are great.

Plot: 5

It doesn’t really seem to know where it’s going for the most part, and kind of wanders around between plot points. The second act is the only part of the film that seems to have any kind of recognisable intention.

Obnoxiousness: 7

If I hear the words ‘I like to move it move it’ one more time, I’m going to kill someone. Also David Schwimmer’s hypochondriac giraffe needs to be put down.

Timelessness: 6

The visuals aren’t too bad, and the performances are still peppy enough to keep everyone entertained. The film is predominately let down by the lack of an interesting narrative.

Hardcore Rating: 2

That’s a light 2 as well. There’s next to nothing scary about this film - everything is cartoony, right down to the drama. Even at its darkest, it’s Lion King Lite.

Overall: 6/10

I kind of want to give this a 7 because it’s a competent film for the most part, but it’s just not that interesting, frankly. It’s a small cast, so it stings when a few of the characters are gratingly annoying, and it doesn’t do enough with its bare threads of a plot to make it anything special. Its most notable because of the franchise it kicked off, but I personally don’t see why so much came from this film.

#madagascar #parental #guidance #film #review #children #kids

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