#they'll save going all out on that for Season 3 IMO

[nono-bunny]

Obey Me Nightbringer lesson 36: aka Lucifer third wheeling on MC and Mephisto's date

No but fr I always get so happy whenever he appears, this lesson is such a blessing!! There was even a small romantic moment!!! Thirteen and Raphael have also been having their moments lately and I genuinely feel that with how close we're getting to season 3, they might finally debut as LI!!!! Honestly I just mostly want Mephisto,,, But Raphael and Thirteen are really fun characters too and I just know they'll be great romancebles too

This post has been in my drafts for a bit so now lesson 37 came out and!! Oh my god I am so jealous of Belphie, I wanted to make a deal with Mephisto wtf :'(

Anyway after this lesson I feel a bit more confident about season 3 being the one to finally introduce Mephisto, Thirteen and Raphael as LIs, because they really all seem to be perfectly placed for it rn- Mephisto joined us on a mission to save Lucifer, Thirteen has once again established herself as a trustworthy confidant to MC, and Raphael is showing doubts toward the Celestial Realm... All of them are the closest they've ever been to the MC rn (at least in NB, I'm still in early season 3 of OG and have to constantly use rainbow lights hhh) while we're super close to the end of season 2... Idk the cards just seem to align!!! I'm honestly really hoping I'm right on this because fr the past two lessons only further reinforced for me how badly I wanna romance Mephisto lol

Also, I was half expecting Simeon to get sentenced too but obviously that hasn't happened yet and Barbatos, Solomon, us and Simeon himself are the only ones who could possibly know rn about how his future is to fall sooo. Makes sense that he didn't but... It really made me think of him lol.

Also I genuinely think THIS is the moment where the timeline diverges too much for us to be able to go back to our future. Everyone is at the edge of some sort of breakthrough that contradicts how they start off in OG, and like. Obviously Lucifer is gonna make a pact with us by the end of the season, and? Either that ends NB and continues the OG story which will be about dealing with the fact that all of the cast now has different memories of the past which now includes us, which is why OG is still active (unlikely, I think it's pretty much abandoned and they're just keeping it up for as long as possible rn which. I'm cool with, NB is much more fun, they should just add an archive in NB so the OG stories aren't lost and take it down imo), or... We find out that our future no longer exists, which is how we return at the start of season 3 of NB after departing at the end of season 2- there's no going back anymore after how long we've stayed and how much we've changed.

[gren-arlio]

Yeah, I'm still doing this. Shocking, I know. Welcome to Season 2 of Episode 3 of Waku Puyo Translations.

(...I can't explain what happened here today.)

Hey, Gren here. It's been a bit and I took a break for Christmas and New Years to spend time with family...and as of currently writing this, it's snowing outside. But during that time, a teaser was thrown out for an actual translation team working on Waku Puyo Dungeon. Shocking, IK.

This is also late because imma be real with you...I didn't save this once and the entire thing was gone. Pain.

I'm happy about this, genuinely am, but it also sorta left me in a...moral dilemma. I'm glad it's being worked on, but should I even continue, despite it not going to be as good as the actual works? It's probably just a iffy feeling I'll experience for a week or two, but eh, we'll see.

With that, here's the video I'll be translating.

Timestamps:

Intro: (0:18)

Suke Boss (2:19, defeat at 4:25.)

Serilly Boss: (5:25, defeat at 9:00)

Apologies if this isn't up to par. Enjoy.

Intro: (0:18)

Scaly Lady: (Mermaid Girl/Woman/Lady also work here honestly.

Kyaaa~

Arle:

Woah there! What's the matter with you?

Scaly Lady:

You're here to bully me, aren't you? Please, please don't bully me...

Please - Don't - Do - It ~ (...Whar)

Arle:

Err...

Scaly Lady:

Everyone always bullies me since I look like some sort of fish...

Arle:

(I really dunno what to say here, maybe we should head back...)

[Somehow Suke enters the scene]

Suketoudara:

Whew! Hey, I'm right here you know!

Scaly Lady:

Eek! You're here to bully me too!

Suketoudara:

What- no! That ain't it at all! I'm Suketoudara!

Scaly Lady:

... ... ...

Arle:

Umm... I don't think she really knows you, ya know?

Suke:

Gaah! (Appropriate response.)

Scaly Lady:

Ah...

Suketoudara:

That's awful, Serilly!

Arle:

(Aha, so her name's Serilly...)

Serilly:

Wait, hold on! How do you know my name? (I assume it's to Suke.)

Arle:

Eh? They both went in...

There's no one here now. Maybe I can enter too?

Carbuncle:

Gu!

------

Suke Boss: (2:19)

Arle:

Wait, you're-

Suketoudara:

Wait, you're...that gal from the entrance!

Arle:

Yeah, I'm Arle. Nice to meet ya.

Suke:

And I'm Suketoudara! (He starts to dance, and honestly? It's either Sha or Cha IMO for Onomatopoeias.)

Arle:

W-Wha? What's with the dancing? It's so odd, please stop!

Suke:

Hey, what the!? You insulted my dancing!

I won't forgive anyone who does that!

Arle:

I'm being honest though! Look, if you really wanted a fight, you could've asked for one!

----

Suke Defeat: (4:25)

Suketoudara:

Oh no, Serilly will forget about me now...

It's just not my day today! Feeesh! (...I hate translating this guy.)

Arle:

I told you to stop with that odd dance!

Suke:

It's like no one here understands my sadness...

Arle:

(...Nothing I do seems to help.

There's plenty of people[?] who won't listen to others...it's an issue.)

Suketoudara:

Serilly...you're so kind, yet you forgot about me...

Arle:

...I don't really get it but alright.

Carbuncle:

Gugu?

-----

Serilly Boss: (5:25)

Serilly:

Even all the way here...you still want to bully me?

Arle:

That's not it! I'm here to play and enjoy my day...

Serilly:

What in the world did I do?

Arle:

... ... ...

Serilly:

Please, just leave me alone!

Arle:

Hey! What did I do to you!?

Every time you interact with me or anyone else you tell them to go away, or they they'll bully you!

Serilly:

It's because it's true!

Arle:

You're driving me to my wits end! Are you going to fight or not?

Serilly:

Hey, even I get mad sometimes!

-----

Serilly Defeat: (9:00)

Suketoudara:

Hey, wait for me!

Arle:

Oh, you're...

Suketoudara:

I've had enough of this. Give her a minute.

She didn't mean any harm either. (...And then he Cha and Sha dances again..)

Serilly:

So, you're here to bully me also?

Suketoudara:

S-Serilly...you know that's not true...

Serilly:

You and everyone here, you're all here to bully me, aren't you!?

Arle:

What you're saying right now is worse than anything you've said so far!

I'm upset also, yet Suketoudara still wants to be your friend!

Serilly:

Wait...? My friend...?

Arle:

...if you keep pushing everyone away from you, then no one will want to become your friend!

Serilly:

... ... ...

Arle:

(Sounds like I was preaching. Are you going to cry from that?)

Serilly:

Um...do you hate me?

Arle:

Eh? No, not really, but...

Serilly:

Uh...I'm sorry...

[And she leaves.]

Suketoudara:

Hey, wait for me Serilly!

Arle:

Go after her! Be a good friend for her!

Suke:

Gya Gyaa! I'm out then!

[He leaves.]

Arle:

...She's a nice girl, but I feel like it'll be hard for you to be friends with her...

Carbuncle:

Gugu?

-----

And that is IT. Expect delays and sort now because school is getting significantly more challenging + midterms, but with that, that'll be all.

Adios.

[sick-bay]

A list of my favorite whumpees (and characters i want to see more whump of!)

Zuko (from ATLA) - back when I was a kid and watched the show on TV I didn't even know what whump was but I always loved that final fight against Azula (you know, the one where he gets hurt)

Ace (from One Piece) - he’s always been my favorite OP character and I like the found family trope he has going on so I like fics and stuff where the other crew members are taking care of him (pls don’t mention his d-word to me, i WILL cry. Actually, he's alive and well!!)

Todoroki (from BNHA) - he's my favorite character in BNHA and tbh he’s very whumpable (also I really enjoy fics where Aizawa ends up looking after him like the dad he is)

Hak (from Akatsuki no Yona) - he canonically gets hurt A LOT and I'm enjoying it. Big, strong, tough guys getting hurt is just chef’s kiss! (I wish there were more fics about it but the manga itself is feeding me quite well so I can’t really complain)

Kaito Kid (from Case Closed/Detective Conan and Magic Kaito 1412) - he's always been my favorite character in the anime and even though I don't keep up with the anime itself, I've watched all the episodes and movies he shows up in lol He's just so whumpable and I love it when when he gets hurt and Shinichi ends up saving him, even though they're rivals.

Vanitas (Vanitas no Carte) - I don’t actively seek out whump content like fics for him but I did enjoy that one episode where he got hurt and ended up with a fever and all that.

Zack Fair (from FF VII) - the kind of whumpee who's loud and cheerful but gets uncharacteristically quiet when he's hurt and/or sick imo! There really isn't enough whump fics about him... Especially not about mentor Angeal and mentee Zack...

Cloud (from FF VII) - another big, tough guy! Very whumpable as well (though there is surprisingly little whumpy fics (and I'm not a fan of psychological whumpy stuff, I prefer it physical with the characters getting bloody and all that <3))!

Noctis (from FF XV) - I only played the game a few months ago (no, we will not talk about the ending. It’s not real) but I've read whump fics and sickfics about him a few years ago already lol Again, I love the found family kinda trope (is it found family if they've all already known each other and have been close for years? Anyways, I love the bond the group has). There is a lot more Noctis whump content than there is Cloud or Zack whump content.)

Suguru Geto (from Jujutsu Kaisen) - HOW COULD I FORGET HIM??? Well probably because there is nowhere near enough whump/sickfic content for him… I am in desperate need for moreeeee!! Maybe the anime onlys will feed me once the new season is out and they'll get to know him… I am hoping that will happen…

Leon (from Resident Evil) - there is NOT enough whump content for Leon! That being said, I enjoy fics where he works together with the BSAA and everything goes to shit and he gets hurt <3 (In my mind he's besties with Claire, Chris and Jill even though canonically he's never even interacted with Jill as far as I'm aware of but that doesn’t matter to me!)

Ghost (from CoD) - honestly I played most CoD games way back when I was in middle school but I never paid much attention to the story itself lmao But because I played the previous games all those years ago I got the new one that was recently released (just because nostalgia, you know?) and it started this new found love for whumpy Ghost. There is NOT enough content of that though (please, I am literally begging, give me more Ghost whump). Another big (like literally, the guy is huge <3), strong dude that I like to see bloody and hurt.

d'Artagnan (from The Musketeers, like the movie or the show or the book idk, just d'Artagnan) - I've known about the Three Musketeers since I was a little girl idk everyone knows them I guess?? ('All for one and one for all!' and all that. It's just famous) but I've only watched that one movie a few years ago (the one with Logan Lerman). Anyways, I enjoy whump fics about him. Simply because he's the 'baby' of the group and the others are like mentors to him and more experienced and even though he's talented and he can hold his ground, I love it when he gets hurt and the others take care of him.

Legolas (from The Lord of the Rings) - I've always loved him. He's always been my favorite but for some strange reason I never thought about whumpee Legolas until like a year ago??? I absolutely love the bromance between him and Aragorn and Gimli and the idea of him talking in elvish with Aragorn when he's hurt and/or feverish is just so dear to me!

[jeanmoreaux]

MICHELLE PLEASE LMK UR THOTS ON THE SHOW WHEN U FINISH (IM ON EP 7 ATM)

LYS I PROMISE I'LL ANNOY YOU IN THE DMS GDHSDSDJKJKSD i finished episode 3 earlier today and my ambivalent feelings are still very much a thing. here are some of my thought i had while watching the first three episodes to give you a taste of some (hastily scribbled down) thoughts i had so far.

MALINA KISS 🥺🥹😭

i'd die for inej 🥰 she can do no wrong in my eyes

the editing of the fight scenes is.......weird??? i hate the slow mo stuff. like pls just don't.

the editing between scenes is a little disjointed but PARTICULARLY the editing when returning from one storyline to an ongoing one is often a little jarring. the feeling of the continuity is a little wonky imo.

having people go "CRIMINALS!" not once but TWICE when dealing with kaz and jesper 🥴 very much made me cringe in context. who thought that was good dialogue??? why have these people say that as if they have no idea who they're dealing with????? it's just bad, i'm so sorry.

the dialogue in general is a little stiff and inorganic at times.... the chemistry between characters truly is doing some heavy lifting, saving some scenes. the cast is doing A LOT (all of them, especially the crows—though i have to admit the scenes with the darkling and crew are a little 'meh' at times).

talking about cast, freddy is very enjoyable to watch. i am also beyond ready for kaz to enter his deranged bastard era 🫶 patrick's nikolai is really working for me too so far. i think he strikes the right balance. archie's performances have been great as well! that scene between alina and mal after nikolai proposes marriage in ep3???? SO GOOD OMGGGG <33333

not sure how i feel about a lot of soc plot points playing out already. i honestly don't want stuff from that storyline happening NOW. i thought this season was gonna be more buildup, but like even in these first couple of episodes they already went strong with the wesper & kanej stuff for example so idk i can see them going there this season already (not with kanej, but maybe with wesper) even though internally i beg them to NOT. it would be enough to create some tension imo. having these characters prematurely stuck in these soc/ck dynamics will inevitable change the ice court storyline and everything beyond that.

the scene with the crows on the roof watching the crow club go up in flames???? love it. peak cinema.

also i really can't tell what route they'll go with wylan (ultimately). but if they’re gonna go the uwu innocent little baby boy with no badassery behind it i’m gonna throw fists. he has a moral compass he mostly adheres to and is generally a kind guy, sure, but he's also a little cunning shit at times and i hope they'll lean in to that over time.

always love seeing the darkling doing horribly. love that we get to see him being his fucked up guy. i hope people can stop romanticising him now that they saw him cut off his mother's finger. if not i hope they'll get well soon <3

there is something bugging me about the pacing but i can't yet put my finger on what exactly isn't working for me. maybe because after 3 episodes it still feels like we're in the "set up" stage of the story. REALLY hoping ep4 will pick up a little.

[ly0nstea]

I think a lot of people are too hard on Zuko for turning on Aang in the Season 2 finale. Free Will is based on viable, feasible, and realistic choices. If you set unrealistic expectations for other people then that borders on cruelty, and I think it can be argued that there may have been mental and physical factors preventing Zuko from joining Aang in the Season 2 finale. After all, even the act of freeing Appa caused Zuko to pass out. It's possible that the act of joining Aang would have been..

enough to kill Zuko 10 times over. So it might not even be reasonable to expect Zuko to have joined Aang at that stage. If you place unrealistic expectations on other people then that's cruelty. Not in a cruel to be kind sort of way, but it's just cruelty. You have to take it slow. So I think some people were too hard on Zuko. And Azula, and even Ozai. I think the writers of the comics knowingly placed unrealistic expectations on Azula because they hated her and wanted to be cruel to her.

-------------------------------------------------------

I'm gonna come at this from 2 angles, from a more meta narrative standpoint, and from a character analysis standpoint, so forgive me for the longpost.

From a narrative standpoint, these characters don't have free will, they aren't real, it isn't Bryke's job to make them make the most realistic choice, it's their job to make the characters make a decision thats realistic enough for our suspended disbelief to allow, while producing a good story. Zuko joining the Fire Nation isn't a good story, the first half of season was some of the weakest writing the show really had imo, especially in the Fire Nation, all that was achieved by Zuko going back to the Fire Nation really is Zuko finding out about his heritage. A realisation that could have been made easily out of Zuko being in the Fire Nation, and I'd dare say it would be better had Zuko discovered it alongside Aang as it would have given a reasonable way for Zuko and Aang to develop any sort of genuine connection. Zuko could prove himself loyal during the Black Sun, and the later field trips could have focused more on relationships instead of being forced to make Zuko likeable to the gaang so they'll like him. Likewise, they did nothing in the first half of season 3 to make Azula an antagonist toward Zuko to make the finale feel any kind of satisfying, in fact Azula is overly nice to him, it sometimes seems that they're 'rivalry' is just Zuko being bitter that he's not as good as her, while she doesn't really care about it, save for a throwaway line in the finale that seems shoehorned in to make her seem like she thinks Zuko is greatly worse than her, namely, "You can't treat me like Zuko!"

Azula and Zuko irrefutably have unrealistic standards placed on them, the height of which being 'find the avatar' and 'topple Ba Sing Se' (both of which they managed to achieve to their own degrees). But to say that Zuko defecting from the Fire Nation is unrealistic is just not true. Zuko is more or less already completely rid of any Fire Nation loyalty by the end of season two, it's literally his whole season two arc.

From a character analysis, again, it's really stupid. Zuko was working towards breaking free for the whole season and to see him turn back on that is not very satisfying to watch, and i feel like a lot of people gloss over that frustrating in favour of going with the 'best redemption arc ever' status quo. Zuko doesn't realise anything new in the Fire Nation other than his grandfathers, he already knew the Fire Nation was bad, he already knew the war was wrong, if they want Zuko to be a hero, he has to be heroic, he needs to do the right thing depite and because of its dificulty. It honestly feels like they sent Zuko back to the Fire Nation just for the purpose of giving him a big dramatic confrontation with his father.

[willel]

I read this Reddit thread and I also found interesting some posters worrying that Will’s personal arc in the final season being more about Mike (and maybe the other boys) learning to accept his friend’s homosexuality than about Will himself. I never really thought about it but unfortunately it does seem like a possibility, especially since the Duffers don’t really know what to do with Mike since S1. I don’t see any other reason why they connected Will’s homosexuality to Mike.

They connected it probably because it was the easiest way to show audiences that he is gay without him outright outting himself or coming out. They seem to be saving that part for something else, but everyone SHOULD know by now that Will is gay. (it was so funny seeing people still denying it despite it being SO obvious at this point. Also really annoying that some people were attacking Noah/the writers for not writing it more explicitly even though it's as explicit as you can get without Will coming out imo. But that's a topic for a different day)

I do have that fear as well. That Will's coming out story and sexuality will be TOO much tied into Mike rather than himself. Or even vice versa, that once again Mike isn't going to have much personal agency and his entire story will revolve around Will and El's romance stuff again.

At the very least, I DON'T think they'll make Will's story too much about Mike. Even though some of it was added to the script after the fact, it feels like they're trying to bring Jonathan into this plot more and more.

If we compare it to season 3, they didn't involve Jonathan in Will and Mike's dilemma at all. It's like he couldn't perceive Will's issues and struggles at all. I'll never get over how Jonathan was just blankly staring forward in the mall as Will has having a panic attack right next to him while they were hiding from the Mind Flesher.

In season 4 it's the complete opposite. Even in scenes where Will and Jonathan say nothing to each other, you can see Jonathan in the background looking at Will and taking in all his reactions.

It starts at the airport. Jonathan is on a constant swivel between Will's painting, Will's face, and Mike. He doesn't say a word, but he definitely knows that painting is supposed to be for Mike and that something is up.

You see it again when he drops them off at the skate rink. He clearly knows Will is being third wheeled and sends him off with a "Have fun" and then a look of concern once Will turns his back.

Then you have the infamous car scene where Jonathan is looking and listening the entire time. He's so worried and heartbroken for his brother that he starts to tear up.

And all that culminates into the pizza scene where Jonathan gives Will a safe place to come to for anything, including THAT, without actually saying it.

I hope this trend continues, that when Will's sexuality is hinted at or even slightly mentioned, the camera goes to Jonathan rather than Mike or something. I hope Jonathan or Joyce are the first ones to hear it out of Will's mouth.

Like, I'm not entirely sure if this is a story about accepting the truth about himself (he seems to accept he is gay and he might hate himself for it so it's not like he's in denial), but more like... coming into his own maybe? Being comfortable in his own skin I think is a proper way to say it.

Imo, that involves a lot of self reflection and undoing years of self hatred. I hope that development is not entangled into Mike's development.

You know how El has a lot of personal demons in her past and every time she has to confront them, the plot yeets her to an entirely different state? (literally). That's almost how I feel about Will's personal story. Maybe it concludes with some romantic drama or something I dunno, but I hope at the core of it, Will first gets to deal with his issues WITHOUT the romance. Like, I need more Jonathan and Will like scenes of Will confronting his own issues first. THEN once he's figured some things out and understands himself more you can move onto the other stuff.

Anyway, very long ramble. They did an ok job separating Will's character plot from his romantic one in season 4 for the most part, I just hope the trend continues.

[aurelion-cerulean]

Not Another Military Plot (S5 Predictions)

Great another military plot... 

Well at least we won’t get a military plot AND a secret power testing facility plot (probably).

So there is always some sort of military plot in the seasons. But this time in S5, I predict that it is going to be heavily tied to an opposition force against the main team as the main team tries to save the world.

Presence Based on Time Skip

Operating under my idea that the time skip will happen in episode 2 (at the end, between 2 and 3), I think that the military are going to be jerks to the cast in eps 1&2. They are still chasing El from the Nevada test site. I see them arriving in Hawkins, and in the first two episodes, hunting El down. They probably interfere with the main group which causes issues. I see them doing one of two things. Either they let El go or she becomes a fugitive again. Either they accept the mess in Hawkins or believe it is El’s fault. 

If I’m wrong and the Time Skip happens after episode 1 (between 1 and 2) or even halfway through 1. I don’t think they will show up at all. TBH too many things need to happen and honestly, they’re not that important. If they do show up, it won’t be for long. Maybe an interrogation to learn more and then to tell the cast to stay out of the mess. 

If the Time Skip, for the 2 years forward, happens towards the end (last ep or whatever), then no issue. They’ll just be a menace through the ep 1-preskip. And after the time skip they go away (maybe a reference to the next series but not much more).

After Time Skip

I can see:

The military controlling Hawkins (With no civilians inside, and they were forced out)

main cast are operating as fugitives under the radar, they are going to be avoiding them all the time and constantly having run ins.

Possibility of martial law in the town and citizen activity being heavily monitored, if the citizens still live in the city.

Possibility of the town being quarantined, and the general public who remained, not liking this. (If the citizens are allowed to remain)

Regardless if the city is martial law/quarantined or if Hawkins is abandoned sans the military, the actual military interference is the same, IMO.

AKA, they'll be a nuisance and control Hawkins.

And since we know they won’t be able to get away with people vs the government imagery considering the current political landscape, something is going to happen that makes the military support the main cast. Once they do, citizens and military will act united. Personally I hate it. I want them going against the military and for it to be a citizens only thing, but we know that won’t happen. After all Netflix can’t lose investors. 

Questions We Will Get Answers For:

Why Russia

World Involvement

How the rest of the world sees what’s happening in Hawkins

Military involvement in the Upside Down (and hints to possible spin offs)

Cast and the Military

There is the possibility of during the split up (which will happen) that some are captured by the military and they have to break out. This is likely, but not a definite IMO. 

There really isn’t much for the military to do otherwise, outside of being a general nuisance to the main cast anyway. I don’t see this being a pivotal plot point, but at least a visible obstacle. 

A few other possibilities that could happen but I don’t think are likely:

Breaking into a military facility (we’ve done it a lot)

Two interrogations (we already get one, we don’t need two)

A stand off between military and the maincast/citizens (due to the imagery. But if there is, the military will stand down immediately, and support the citizens.)

[thisnerdsadventures]

a 2021 update

Ah, so I have forgotten to update in a million years, per usual

~ Random thought section ~

I woke up this morning and read this tweet thread about Alice Wu's director's note for her movie The Half of It. It's streaming on Netflix, and I highly encourage to go watch it, it's probably one of my favorite movies from the past few years. Anyways, she talks about how she produced the film while digesting the heartbreak of a friendship breakup - the whole thread hit me on a different level, but here's a quote that really hit home for me, especially a month from graduation: "The end of the film is each of their beginnings. And for my characters, I can think of no happier ending." We spend a lot of time worrying about the end of things and the uncertainty of things to come. Yet, there was a time where we worried about the exact same things for the very chapter we are now so nervous about leaving.

1. I'm nervous about leaving school and starting the..... rest of my life???

2. I'm nervous that my friends will slowly fade away. I'm nervous that they'll get on with their lives and I'll be slowly still trying to get my bearings, stuck in limbo.

3. I'm nervous that starting adulthood will be difficult because there are no more college orientations, no more awkward freshman dinners, perfect opportunities to meet new friends who are just as nervous as you are.

In writing this out, I felt a sense of deja-vu, like I had written these words before. So I just looked back at some of my posts right before entering college, and lo and behold:

08-18-2016: Today I said goodbye to one of my closer friends, and i realized that without even knowing it, Sunday’s party was the last time I would see some of my closest friends. It’s awful that way, that you don’t even know it’s the last time until it’s passed, and you’re left to pick up the the end of a chapter of a relationship from the scraps of an unexpected and improper farewell.

I feel like I’m in a weird twilight zone between college and high school where my present friends are all beginning to fade away to move on in their lives, and I’m yet to really meet anyone in my class yet, so at the moment,,,,,,there really isn’t anyone.

I wrote this less than a week from moving to Boston, and it's so shocking to me that I also experienced the "unexpected and improper farewell" part in senior year. It's almost the exact same thing that happened in COVID and is continuing to happen. You never know when the last time you might see someone might be, except instead of consolidated over the course of one pre-college summer, it's over the course of more than a year, the time that this pandemic has been going for.

And I hate that I said the "fade away and move on" thing verbatim, literally nearly five years ago. To be honest though, it's true, a lot of them did fade away and move on. But so did I, I wasn't left behind. To some extent, I was the one who did a lot of the moving away. And like many things in life, a couple of us continue to hang around, and maybe our friendships cycled in and out over college, but have come around again after a few years. I guess those are the ones that you know will stick around. The limbo period between chapters is a hard one, and it's nice to know that present-day me isn't the only one who has felt this. It's nice to know that past me met so many incredible people so fast, that I forgot this limbo period happened.

I know this part is getting a little long, but there's just a couple more snippets I want to share:

08-13-2016: I recently read Marina Keegan’s essay The Opposite of Loneliness, and one line resonated with me a lot: We’re so young. It seems silly and almost pretentious for me to think that this party would be so final, and yet it does, even though we have decades upon decades to build and connect or reconnect.

We’re so young, but that doesn’t stop the understanding that we are going to a new chapter in our lives and that it’s going to redefine our relationships. I hope it doesn’t change them too much.

I suppose much of the anxiety of going to college results from having to build my own community from the ground up again.... I tell myself the pieces will fall together and everything will be ok, but it doesn’t stop the increasing anxiety from, well, increasing.

I loved this collection of essays, if you haven't read it, I recommend you do. In moving around for so many years, I haven't been able to keep a lot of books in my possession, but I kept this one because that essay really hit home for me, and continues to, no matter what part of life I'm currently experiencing.

I think moving to college did change my relationships. But change is not a bad thing - your childhood friendships, the few of them that survive, end up strengthening and growing into adult friendships. And in the end, isn't that better than not changing at all? I'm hoping that a few of my college friendships will do that too - we'll go from college friends to family friends, and my kids will call them "Aunt" and "Uncle" and they'll grow up watching their parents talk for hours in the front yard before finally getting in the car and leaving for home.

08-13-2016: But hey, this is part of what I signed up for, I knew I wasn’t going to have much of an initial safety net, but I’m sure I’ll survive. We, as humans, always find a way to adapt right?

I think I survived and adapted. Not in the way I saw things going, but we can never really fully predict things, can we? One day, I'll learn to give myself a safety net for the next chapter, I'm sure. Today's not that day though.

Going back to her director's note, there was one more thing that just struck an emotional chord for me:

Fun fact, Alice Wu actually went to MIT for a bit before transferring to Stanford, and then she became a software engineer at Microsoft! I relate a little too much to her. Maybe one day I too will dump coding for my art form. But for now, in this above example, I relate far too much. I worked on my album, Imperfect, a little too obsessively this past winter while trying to digest the throes of heartbreak from one of my own friendships that ended. I still don't know if there was an ending for that friendship. I think I've spent a lot of time trying to put off the end, like a TV series that just keeps adding more and more seasons. Regardless of whether it needs to end or not (which I have not decided and will continue not to do so), I spent a lot of time thinking about who I was before and after that friendship, and I've concluded that a lot of who I am now, what my life looks like now is a result of that friendship. I'll give you a hint: I really like who I am now, compared to who I was before, and it showed me a lot of parts of life and friendship that I never expected would happen. That friendship was (is?) one of the most beautiful things that has happened to me in my life.

Let's finish off this reflective post with a quote from Khalil Gibran, that's kinda related to that point about how transformative the past can be, and how we're far better off in future chapters of our lives because of it.

When you part from your friend, you grieve not;

For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.

Again, if you haven't read his collection of poems, you should absolutely 100% drop whatever you're doing right now and do so! Wow, I really just assigned an entire reading list in this post.

I hope in making this movie, Alice found peace. I would hesitate to say that I found peace when making my album. I wrote a lot of songs about the heartbreak I felt from that whole experience. But the last song I wrote, "Best Friends," ends the whole thing on a positive note, that at the end of the day, I remember how my friends (past and present) literally saved my life and how things are looking a little better, and whatever happens, I hope my best friends will be there waiting for me, whoever they end up being.

- OK I PROMISE I DIDN'T SET OUT TO BE 100% SO EMO -

But yeah, I haven't really been doing much otherwise? I guess just tryna stay alive, I've been cooking a lot and cooking a lot of good good food, I did apply to an MBA program, I got my COVID vaccine (second shot this week!), I am excited to announce I am publishing a paper in my MEng lab, which is a really big accomplishment imo, I am thriving in my (1) econ class that I kept, even though I didn't realize we had readings assigned like for the past month, I went to try pastries from this Turkish bakery, I biked, probably, 15 miles over the past month, I've read at least 4 or 5 books this year so far, and am hoping to knock another one out today. Currently dying because trying to finish my thesis in like . a week, which is looking a little challenging, but I'm sure it'll happen!!!??

[manders1984]

What do you make of Cait saying they'll be in SA for a little more than another month? They are shooting the finale and they need more than 4 weeks? WTF? Or do they ADR in SA as well and that take so much time? The production time seems to be completely OTT compared to other shows with the same quality. I don't get it. They seem a bit inefficient.

Hello Anon! Now, I know this is going to shock people (lol), but I really do think this is the most inefficient and ass-backwards production. I don’t get it. Weather isn’t a problem. I don’t want to hear about how boats are difficult (I’ll save you the “Black Sails managed just fine” rant) or there’s more CGI. I love Cesar but he is at the pool and/or playing with penguins and seals almost daily, according to his Instagram. Sam has spent a shit ton of time at Roark gyms or doing Barbour shoots. Sorry but I can’t help but side eye this. Because when you give fans nothing about your day job, yet you can constantly update about your side projects, this is what happens—they scrutinize and speculate about where your focus is. Caitriona is certainly not exempt from this scrutiny either.

They probably decided to take their sweet ass time once they found out they weren’t coming back until September—and they’ve probably known that for a while. Anyways, maybe they're saving time for any pickups that might be necessary. Because it’s probably not feasible to go back and shoot those in South Africa, as compared to Scotland—like they did with episode 208. Charlie Hiett, who plays Captain Leonard, is on his way back to SA, probably for pickups or reshoots. I think ADR can be done anywhere. Sam did it in LA for Season 2. Fun fact: According to Ron's podcast, the one person who does the most ADR is Sam in order to tone down the Highland accent. They can get rid of voiceover for the second half of the season, IMO, once it’s a shared narrative post-reunion. It’s not really necessary. Show, don’t tell. Kthxbye.

All I have to say is the premiere and finale better be a substantially extended episodes—all of Season 3 should be, frankly. Ron should never have mentioned on his podcast that Starz is pretty generous in run time. There’s absolutely no excuse for cutting down scenes.