#this isn’t a paid promo or anything

[figwhine]

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They’re based in Australia but ship internationally, and can do discreet packaging if you need.

They offer heaps of designs and lengths of binders, as well as a size guide on their website, and encourage exchanges if your original order isn’t a perfect fit.

I’ve been working with them for several years now and have been wearing the binders which are all hand-sewn by the owner.

As well as this, they’re incredibly affordable and made with high quality fabrics, and will last for a long time if they’re cared for properly.

Please consider checking them out or recommending them to a friend, these owners are some of the most supportive and caring people I know.

[starglitterz]

serendipity. (vii)

─── chapter 7 ! ~ my bff thinks she’s sherlock holmes (…what?)

summary; when you, a waitress at the local coffee shop, are paired up with the new recruit scaramouche, you’re pretty sure both of you are going to get fired within a week. he’s just quit being a social media influencer and after being forced to work here to make ends meet, he’s ready to let everyone there know how much he hates it. the worst part? you can’t shake the feeling that you know him from somewhere. but as he slowly warms up to you, scaramouche realises that having a fresh start isn’t that bad after all, and perhaps the two of you meeting like this was pure serendipity.

a/n; hiii it's me again ! i'm so back >:) hope you missed serendipity bc i definitely did hehehe,,, also for further context on some details mentioned in this chapter, you should totally read cynosure 👀 (shameless self-promo LOL) anyways i hope u enjoy this chapter !!

warning(s); a lot of swearing, scuffed pics 😔

previous.┃masterlist.┃next.

please reblog w comments ! it helps a lot :)

private messages #1 !

phone call !

incoming call from kokomi at 1.30 p.m.

kokomi: hi, y/n! it's your lunch break now, right?

y/n: yep! i'm surprised you remember.

kokomi: hey! i just visited you the other day, my memory isn't that bad!!

y/n: yeah, yeah, whatever you say. anyways, what did you want to tell me? it sounded important.

kokomi: well… you know how we met childe and signora the other day, right?

y/n: yeah, i could barely believe they knew scara. i mean, this is the same guy who complains about the stray cats making a mess outside the cafe but still leaves leftovers for them. i wouldn't have expected him to have such famous friends.

kokomi: me too. and i actually wanted to talk to you about that.

y/n: why, what is it?

kokomi: i was curious about how scaramouche knew them, so i asked gorou to do a little digging.

y/n: what? kokomi, why would you do that?

kokomi: this guy shows up out of nowhere and ayaka hires him, and it turns out he has friends in such high places? it's suspicious!

y/n: what the fuck, kokomi? what's gotten into you? this is my colleague we're talking about. he's literally just some random guy ayaka hired, why do his friends matter? it's not like they're bad people!

kokomi: they might not be, but he is.

y/n: and what's that supposed to mean?

kokomi: check the link i just sent you.

y/n: fuck off, kokomi. i'm not dealing with this today. what's wrong with you?

kokomi: y/n, please just click it. i really think you need to see this.

you click on the link kokomi sent you - it's a youtube video titled 'the rise & fall of scaramouche'. you watch it in silence with kokomi still on the phone.

kokomi: you see? he was a drama youtuber and he got clout off of ruining other people's lives - he even got fired from genshin impact! when genshin threatened a lawsuit, he agreed to settle privately by deleting all his accounts. genshin must have paid to scrub all the traces of him they could from the internet too. i knew there was something fishy about him!

y/n: honestly, fuck you, kokomi.

kokomi: what?! why me?!

y/n: because who cares what his past was like? yeah, maybe he used to be a shitty person, and yeah he's still a pain in my ass, but he's changing. scara hasn't done anything bad since he started working here, i don't know why you're so against him.

kokomi: i just don't want you to get hurt, y/n. we all know you're still looking for that mystery guy from when you were younger, and this is the first time you've liked someone without mentioning that. i'm worried he's taking advantage of you.

y/n: get a grip, kokomi. i'm a grown adult, and you're not my mother. i can make my own choices and deal with the consequences.

kokomi: well forgive me for being worried about my FRIEND.

y/n: just… leave me alone. goodbye, kokomi.

call cut from y/n's end at 2.17 p.m.

private messages #2 !

twitter !

i'm curious, what do u guys think abt what kokomi did? are you on her side or y/n's side? i've personally experienced a lot of friends getting defensive whenever you point out anything wrong with their rs/bf so i guess this is partially inspired by that LOL

© starglitterz 2024. do not repost or modify in any way.

[nightgoodomens]

A lot of asks under the cut:

I think we figured out that this fandom can’t take criticism of anything, they had a meltdown when people called out a fictional character for being an ass, so I can imagine with them being unable to comprehend that some people do not like their queen.

I don’t understand why the concept of some people not liking other people is so horrifying and impossible to understand.

They’re all public figures, people base their opinions on what they see, some people will be indifferent, some won’t like them, some will like them, some will love them, some will hate them.

Looking for all the excuses right out of the ass why someone would hate them and it’s definitely not the idol’s fault… it is just… it ain’t that deep.

It’s fucking embarrassing honestly.

You will need to be a bit more specific regarding which issues 😅

I don’t know what she was thinking or what MS was thinking and I’m pretty happy that their situation isn’t my problem and I don’t need to go too much into it 😂 What they’re showing the public is painful to watch. We will never know what exactly was going on there but what we see/know isn’t pretty.

She shouldn’t be in the limelight because she hasn’t accomplished anything to deserve it. She isn’t in one anyway, the only people who know about her are people interested in Michael enough to care who he has kids with and find out her name AND then actually care to follow her.

I love that you said “wives” because their fans keep on making AL a wife but MS had her pop two kids out but didn’t pop the question himself.

Throw in a few “ewww” “disgusting” “depraved” “sickos” “sexist” and you’re nearly there 😂

Oh yeah - if this was about a man and a woman and they’d do 5% of what MS/DT do then you’d have articles written about it and everyone talking about it. It’s only automatically a joke because they’re two dudes.

Imagine if a man said “she’s easy to fall in love with” “I love her” “she’s my lover” stared at her lovingly constantly, called her “his partner”, and his other partner would call them “boyfriend/girlfriend”, media would be all over it and nobody would be screaming “disgusting” or a joke.

The biggest irony is that this fandom is supposed to be open minded 😂

She got pregnant at a young age by a stranger and ever since has been living in a bubble where she’s worshipped for existing by her man’s fandom who’s ensuring her she doesn’t need to do anything to be called a queen. The only jobs she scored were sorted out by him. I’m not surprised she’s still a muppet who’s learned nothing and doesn’t want to leave the fantasy bubble tbf.

She’s been obsessively copying GT to the point where I think GT has been smoothly taking the piss out of her partly for it. From “soooo linked” to “throw her a hashtag and see if it sticks” to “oh you have Getty image, here’s a cute selfie my hubby took with your man when he was happy”. Song choices have been funny too.

This fandom went downhill really quick. I scroll my dash maybe once a day and hope to see a few nice arts, scrolling through words. Art gives me the ick sometimes too unfortunately. Every time I read something I don’t even know wtf people are talking about anymore. It has nothing to do with the show.

When S3 comes out I will watch it and never check what anybody else thought about it. People ruined S2 for me and I’m not letting them do the same with S3.

Thank you for still reading this blog :)

Bruh I wish. I fucking wish. But suddenly it won’t apply when he goes all nepo on this show anyway. It’s gonna be spot the relative season.

You’d probably need to ask him this question 😅

They had one night stand, she got knocked up, he sold a lot of what he had and moved to Wales, she wanted to be big shit but the only jobs she scored were sorted out by him, she got pregnant again, she likes to take digs about him and his looks, he started looking miserable as hell with her, he paid her for a photoshoot and had GT do her promo, yet again it flopped, so now she’s suddenly feeding everyone how she totally luvs him (still slips a dig in because she can’t help herself) because heart grows fonder when shit doesn’t work out.

I don’t know why he’s with her. Maybe he’s actually deeply in love with her but decided to show the whole world that he is miserable with her for shits and giggles. Maybe they play up zero chemistry for cameras for some reason. Maybe he loves her so much he never speaks about her but perks up the second “DT” is mentioned and goes off about how much he loves him, how easy he’s to fall in love with, how good he looked in a kilt… Yeah that makes zero fucking sense, doesn’t it 😂

Responsibility I guess.

[issdisgrace]

YOUR SUGAR DADDY​

WARNINGS: None​

I check my suit in the mirror one more time before heading out to start the promo for my upcoming match with CM Punk. It was going good as always until Punk came out and ruined it. 

“How about you tell everyone about your sugar daddy?”

God that made my fucking blood boil. Ever since I got with my fiance, he’s been called my sugar daddy and it’s fucking annoying.

“He’s not my sugar daddy and you damn well know that Punk.”

“You sure. If I remember correctly, the suit your wearing was bought by him, as well as the watch and shoes your wearing. Oh, wait sorry I remember now your whole wardrobe was bought by him.”

“He did not buy my whole wardrobe for you information. I’m making plenty to buy my own things. Oh, wait I got it now. You're jealous that I have someone that doesn’t sit on their ass and do nothing like your wife. What she hasn’t been relevant since you were.”

 “Max, your only clam to fame is your sugar daddy.”

“Fuck you, he isn’t my fucking sugar daddy. I get it. He’s 8 years older than me, but that doesn’t mean he’s my sugar daddy.”

“Your sure about that, Max. What do you call a man that pays for all your flights, hotels, rentals cars, suits, watches, and those ugly scarves you wear?”

“Go suck it Punk. He’s not the only one who spends money in our relationship. I pay for all our vacations, hobbies, and dinners. Also, even if he paid for everything what’s the big deal? Huh, he has the money to do so. It’s not like he’s going to break the bank doing so what the problem,”

“The problem is, he has made you think you're so fucking high and mighty. You are nothing, Max. You will never be anything, Max. You're just a pathetic little boy that gets whatever he wants when he wants from his sugar daddy.”

Punk says, getting in my face. I take the opportunity to deliver a low blow. God, do I love low blows. They’re so fun and it’s amazing to see their pain when it happens. Punk hunches forward, clutching his crotch before he can say anything I say,

“That’s what you get, Punk. Now keep my fucking fiance out of your mouth or next time it will be much worst.” After I drop the mike onto the mat and leave. Well, that was eventful. I bet Y/n’s gonna get a kick out of this later.

[louisisalarrie]

Hello! The LATAM dates anon is me. Ahh sorry I gave you a bit of a chaotic ask! I’m not sure if LATAM really isn’t selling well - Lou’s Mexico dates look sold out - but I read stuff on Twitter via various fan accounts that made it seem as though sales in some countries were slow and they were really trying to drum up sales by giving tickets away etc. I also saw a couple of other tumblr blogs mentioning poor sales but I realise now these accounts are kind of ‘Louis hate accounts’ (urghh) and they’ll say anything to put him down.

I guess I just wondered if you’d read anything different about LATAM? I want it to be amazing for him. He’s such a gem and I really want him to do have great shows out there.

Can’t remember what other stuff I asked…but thank you for taking the time to respond! Xx

No don’t stress at all lovely!!! I appreciate the q’s, but they were different topics so just wanted to break them down xx

Alrighty, let’s look at LATAM ticket sales. Anon, welcome to the show.

Let’s look at some tickets available, capacities, and then I’ll chat more about venue modes and draping etc for some more context.

So, the best selling show in LATAM looks to be Arena VFG, in Guadalajara, Mexico. I’ve had a bit of a look online, and it looks like the show is entirely sold out. That has a capacity of 15,000 , and looks full concert mode, but that doesn’t mean he will have use of all 15,000. The capacity would prooooobably look more like 11,000 - 12,000ish, as an estimate. I haven’t been to the venue so I can’t be 100% on that, but they’re not selling 15,000 tickets to it. We’ll circle back to this later.

Then, his show at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, is a race track used for Formula 1 events, music festivals, and stuff like that. It’s said to have a capacity of 110,000, but of course would be a reduced mode due to the fact that well… that’s pretty impossible for any artist to sell out. Hell, TS’s biggest concert ever was 96,000 people at the MCG in Melbourne, Australia in 2024. Ed Sheeran did 109,500 people in one night at the MCG in 2023. Harry’s biggest show in Australia for LOT was 69,512 people at Accor Stadium in Sydney, which for both show nights, had a capacity of 70,170 people (the first night sold 66,791).

Louis’ show at Arena 1 in Lima, Peru, has a promotion on until the 15 Match 2024 for 25% off certain tickets (the promotion started on 2 November 2023). It can hold up to 16,000 people, and by the looks of it is mainly used for concerts, not sporting events. So they could be selling an amount of tickets that’s closer to their actual capacity, as opposed to the other venues. Again, I haven’t been to it so I can’t be sure. The discount on these tickets, however, is only for people using payments of “Credit, Debit, Business, and Working Capital Cards”. We see similar promos with other artists, such as MasterCard pre sales, American Express presales, etc., but I haven’t seen discounted tickets like this for other artists off the top of my head. However…

I looked at Louis’ 1st June 2022 show at Arena Peru Explanada in Lima, Peru, and according to Team Louis News on Twitter, it sold out. They said it has a capacity of 15,000 people, but again, doesn’t mean every seat was utilised, but it doesn’t look like it’s used for sport, so they could’ve gotten close. And, funnily enough, at this arena and show, there was a 15% discount if you paid with an Interbank Credit or Debit card.

A lot of stadiums are owned/sponsored by banks, or insurance companies, or these companies may have a large share of profit for the money they invest in it etc., and it’s a great way of advertising. Signing up for a bank for discounts of tickets at their venue(s)??? Yes please. So, you can see the appeal. And I can 100% guarantee you that this is a partnership and a condition of said bank investing in the stadium. A quick look at their other shows, every artist (Lauren Jauregui from Fifth Harmony, Paramore etc.) has a special discount based on if they used that bank’s cards to pay for tickets. So it’s not “oh louis could NEVER sell enough tickets, he’s a flop” and whatever these losers say, it’s that certain arenas (clearly more prominent in LATAM) will have discounts on tickets due to the partnership with the bank that invests in them.

NOW

let’s circle back to capacities. this frustrates me to no end because people throw these numbers around all the time and it just… that’s just not how it works.

You can find a capacity of a venue pretty easily when you google said venue, and often people go “oh wow, this artist is playing a venue that holds 100,000 people!!!!” which is yeah, you’re right, that venue does hold 100,000 people, but that depends entirely on the mode, stage setup, and how big the artist is. Also, if it’s used as a sports stadium as well, it’s gonna hold a hell of a lot more people than a concert mode, because they can utilise every seat. You can’t just sit behind the stage at a concert, but you can sit anywhere during a football match. So that’s a major difference in ticket sales already.

If you’re someone like Harry, who has a big old T catwalk and a larger built out base/main stage, that’s gonna lower the capacity of the venue. So then they make more of it GA on the ground as opposed to seating, to make the capacity higher again. But he plays stadiums, which are used for sport, and so he’s not utilising the whole capacity as it is.

BUT Ed Sheeran did the thing.

At the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground, used for cricket and AFL etc.), Ed Sheeran sold sooooo many more tickets than TS, because he had a 360 rotating stage in the middle of the stadium. SUCH a good idea, but that doesn’t work for an artist like TS or Harry. They perform and run up and down cat walks and dance and flail about, Ed Sheeran doesn’t. So, yep, the stage setup can seriously affect the capacity.

Then, estimated ticket sales. Louis sold out his last time in Peru, at a different arena, but it’s pretty safe to say he’ll sell out this one too (hopefully). But, that arena last year might not have been utilised at 15,000. So it’s a bit of guess work too, and finding out what he sold last year (which is easy if the same promoter is hosting but idk I haven’t looked that deep in hahaha but I’d say it’s the same one still).

And when tickets go on sale, they’ll release a certain amount (obviously smaller amounts in pre sales to see how it’s selling), but the ticket website doesn’t tell you how many tickets are left. Why would they? That defeats the purpose of trying to tell people that they might miss out. If the website says there is 10,000 tickets left, you’ll wait til closer to the time to buy one because you’re not worried. But, that skews ticket sales and a show can be cancelled over that, which is happening a fair bit at the moment with ticket reselling websites that aren’t authorised by the venue. I can go into ticketing and ticket reselling further if you’d like but yeah… best we stay on topic.

So, if a show sells enough to at least make a small profit, but isnt sold out regardless of capacity size, the promoter will often put a thing called “drapes” over a certain amount of seating to the side of the stage. These are just big black curtains that cover those seats to make it look more full. It’s what you’d call a “reduced mode”. And, that’s also a way they can use bigger venues if an artist won’t quite sell it out, but they’re too big for a smaller scale show and either don’t wanna do a couple of nights in a row or the smaller venue is super booked out etc. And, artists can sell out a reduced mode, which is great PR for them.

Anyway, there are a million variables that happen with shows. But, capacity does not equal ticket sales, discounts at venues does not equal the size of the artist, and I’m sure Louis is gonna do great in LATAM. I’ve seen so many people excited!!!

Hope this helps/makes sense. Thanks anon!

[hiyyihrts]

Just as many of us are thrilled to see rep in s3, many, many women were thrilled at the idea of representation for themselves in s2. It isn’t unreasonable for them to notice the discrepancy in how one actress was treated in comparison to the s1 and s3 white female leads, and it takes nothing away from your love of Nicola / Polin to allow them to express their feelings about that without trying to gaslight them.

It wasn’t the pandemic that made Netflix not do a couple’s poster, or one for Simone alone, or deny requests for joint Johnny and Simone interviews. It wasn’t the pandemic that had Netflix do that and give the EW article to other characters, rather than Simone, Simone and Johnny, or heck, Simone, Johnny, and Charithra. No, y’all essentially got a Polin shoot for s2. Which, yay for you, but think how you’d feel if this season it was all Benedict or Francesca promo instead of Penelope. Wouldn’t you think Netflix was wrong? That it was fatphobic? I would. I therefore think what they did for s2 reeks of racism.

It wasn’t the pandemic that had the writers compare the Sharma sisters to horses, literally, horses in a horse race in s2, and pit them against each other for a white man.

I could go on, people post receipts of this all the time, and you don’t need to take it as personally as many have, but don’t gaslight fans who saw it. Don’t encourage white fans to dismiss the people who are deeply hurt by it. No one is saying not to celebrate what y’all are getting, but there is a discrepancy and pointing it out and demanding better is a good thing that in no way detracts from the fact that Nicola / Polin / s3 is getting everything and more than y’all could ever ask. It’s gross to tell woc to shut the fuck up and be grateful when they got so much less than what the selling point of the show (diversity) promised.

I normally don’t get involved in this kind of stuff but your post was in the Kanthony tag, so I felt it merited a response, knowing how much it would hurt people. People who have already been deeply hurt by Bridgerton and the fandom. This isn’t some kind of shipping war, it’s so much more important, and I’m dismayed at how callous the fandom is being about all this.

I haven’t and will never say that people can’t be upset by the blatant differences in how the seasons have been promoted. Nor have I said anyone shouldn’t talk about it or to be quiet about it. I see now that it was wrong to say the pandemic influenced what went on, bc people have sent me things since indicating that there very much is a lot of racial differences and unfair treatment for both of the leads the last season. It’s true Simone and Johnny both were paid dust, and to have the sister’s stories altered and changed is not something I agree with. I’m not trying to encourage anyone to do anything. The only thing I don’t agree with and I’ve said before is making it seem like any of these actors chose things that production did. I wish Simone and Johnny were featured more in this season and got more than what they did in the last! It’s Netflix and Shonda that are the ones pushing these things and deciding what does or doesn’t happen. Blaming the actors for it doesn’t do anything because they don’t have a say in what is or isn’t done, that’s all Netflix and Shonda. I don’t understand throwing vitriol over couples and actors who don’t decide things. I don’t agree with anyone doing that. And I’ll make it clear now that I don’t agree with Netflix or Shonda or condone anything they’ve done that has hindered Johnny and Simone in any way, shape, or form, or has caused fans to come after them for starring in a show and playing characters that people connect with and love dearly. I wish there would’ve been better representation than what we were given, and I hope the future seasons have even better representation and they take the criticism over racist descriptions and lack of promotion to their heads and it actually clicks that what they did wasn’t fair or right.

[goodboypolly]

A long thought about surprise queer representation:

The term ‘“getting ‘EVERY’ed” isn’t something that can just happen in any context.

The thing about the original EVERY is that it was from a completely unrelated multi show promo from Amazon’s Twitter, and no one paid that split second of Good Omens any mind for a good couple of days. Why would there be a Good Omens kiss in a queer kiss compilation for pride month, after all? Then someone actually watched the promo and went ‘wait a fucking second…’

It was out of fucking nowhere. We didn’t see a kiss coming in a million years.

When I first read the book years ago as a teenager, I fell in love with the idea of Aziraphale and Crowley. But it was a book that was finished and we would never get any new content. So I read every fanfiction written.

Then a show was announced. A mini series. A one off. Six episodes to tell the story of the book updated to the modern era. Like most of us who were fans of the book before the show, I was cautious. It could have been a dumpster fire.

And then it just wasn’t. I remember seeing a post way back in 2019 that summed it up perfectly: I knew I was going to like Crowley. I was always going to like Crowley. But I wasn’t expecting to LOVE Aziraphale. (Or something like that).

They were perfect and the extra scenes and watching these amazing actors actually play these characters gave us so much more fuel. The fandom exploded and we were so lucky to have an influx of ridiculously talented writers and artists and cosplayers joining our ranks.

I saw Neil Gaiman give a talk a mere week before the season 2 announcement was made. He is a professional like no other. I was fully fooled by him sadly saying that Good Omens was only going to be one series. He signed my book and was lovely and fully knew the whole time that he was going to change the trajectory of my fucking life the next week.

The announcement came and I lost my shit. This was something that was never going to get any more content. I was happy watching the same episodes over and over again and listening to different versions of the book or flipping through and rereading my favourite bits.

We were getting more content.

I never expected a kiss.

I don’t think any of us did. I thought we were always going to be living in the ‘it’s a love story, we’re just not going to show it or talk about it’ world. I’m used to being told that my existence as a queer person is meant to be kept as subtext.

It was days out from the show that EVERY dropped. Someone I followed on Twitter reposted it so I saw it. And I froze. I genuinely thought it was an edit. I had to tell myself it was an edit or I’d go insane. For the most part we all stayed silent on the subject. We didn’t want to spoil it for people who hadn’t seen it.

But I was going fucking insane. We weren’t getting a kiss there was no way we were getting a kiss.

When the show dropped I was there the first minute to binge the whole series in one go.

EVERY sitting in the back of my mind for the 5 or so hours of episodes.

Episode 6 was happening. I was 10 minutes out from the end. EVERY hadn’t happened. It must have been an edit.

Schrödinger’s EVERY, if you will.

Then it very much wasn’t.

It was real and it still is and I still lose my mind when I remember that it actually happened.

I don’t think anything else will ever feel like this.

—

For those who never saw it, I present:

[ncisfranchise-source]

NCIS on Monday paid its final respects to star David McCallum, who died September 25 at the age of 90.

A fan favorite, McCallum was the last remaining original cast member on NCIS, in which he played an eccentric but highly efficient investigator Donald “Ducky Mallard” for two decades.

As heavily teased in the promos, the episode dubbed “The Stories We Leave Behind” opened with Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen, who co-wrote the episode) arriving at Ducky’s house to find his mentor — dressed in his monogrammed jammies — dead in his bed, with his sweet corgi looking forlorn in the foyer.

“Dying quietly in your sleep isn’t the worst way to go,” comments Timothy McGee (Sean Murray) back at the NCIS offices, after wrapping up a call with Scottish parliament who apparently wanted to send “a mountain of thistles” to honor their native son’s passing.

“He lived a very long, very rewarding life, which he would want us to celebrate more than anything,” added Director Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll).

So that’s exactly what the episode did — show old scenes from past seasons to remember the character who once said “we all die twice; when our bodies give out, and again when are stories stop being told.”

There was a flashback featuring Leroy Gibbs (Mark Harmon) with Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) and Ziva David (Cote de Pablo). Then came a scene with Ducky and Abby Sciuto (Pauley Perrette), followed by one with Ducky and Gibbs talking about how the latter never really shared personal stories at work.

But first, there had to be a case du jour: the last thing Ducky was working on involved a dead soldier named Danny whose name was getting smeared by an ambitious councilman named Allan Berger (um, not to be confused with, we guess, veteran talent agent Alan Berger). The official word was that Danny died in an Afghan brothel, his body riddled with heroin — but his daughter, Serena, suspected otherwise.

So did Ducky. The team does some digging and it turns out Danny was a former bodyguard for Berger, who previously worked as a contractor in Afghanistan and took money on the side from a local heroin operation. Once Danny threatened to expose the shenanigans, Berger had Danny killed.

With the case in the bag and Danny’s good name restored, the team could then move on to Ducky’s memorial. But first, a surprise was in store for Palmer, who was prepping to deliver a eulogy. In walks DiNozzo, who brought Palmer a special gift — a bowtie similar to what his mentor used to wear in the lab.

“He had a good friend in you,” DiNozzo tells Palmer. The two then head to the memorial, after Palmer turns the light off in Ducky’s former workspace.

Weatherly hasn’t appeared on CBS since his drama Bull ended in 2022. He left NCIS in 2016.

The episode ended with a title card that read, “In memory of our dear friend and colleague David McCallum. We will miss you.”

[no-not-without-you-blog]

Whumptember 25th: Nightmare

Warnings: Language, Slight Canon Retconing (Fuck Endgame)

Prompt by @comfortcap Graphics by @firefly-graphics

The four of you walked out of the theater in complete silence. You walked down the road for a while and then went into your favorite diner. You settled into a booth with Bucky sitting beside you and Sam and Valerie, his girlfriend, on the opposite side. You all sat there for a moment, not saying anything until all of the sudden you all busted out laughing. Bucky was laughing so hard that he was crying, Sam coughing from laughing so much. Whenever there was a calm in the laughter, you would all bust out laughing again. 

“I can’t believe we paid money to see that.” You said while taking a drink of your drink, hoping to calm down some. 

Bucky wiped the tears from his eyes. “They tried to give us tickets to the premiere and be a part of all the promo for it. I’m so glad we said no. Could you imagine? It would have been an absolute nightmare.” He busted out laughing again.

“Please tell me you recorded that whole thing.” Sam asked you. 

“Yes. Me and Val got it all, whether you can hear it at all over the two of you snickering the whole time is a different question.”

Bucky just shook his head. “We couldn’t help it. It was awful. They made Steve out to be some sort of goody two-shoes who was just so Star Spangled Awesome. They conveniently left out all the times he was a right bastard.” You all giggled at his statement, thinking about all the times Steve was anything but some glorified hero.

The waitress came by and collected your orders. Once she was gone Sam looked up at you. “Are you going to send it to him?” 

“Um, abso-fuckin-lutely. Why do you think we recorded it?” You and Bucky laughed again. Sam chuckled but Val seemed confused.

“Wait, who are you sending it to?”

You all three looked at her confused but Sam was the one to speak up. “Steve…who else?”

She seemed even more confused. “But I thought Steve went back to Peggy. Didn’t he?”

You all laughed loudly again and Bucky was the one to answer her. “God, no. Did he go see her in the past? Yeah. He remembered how she had always wished they could have gotten their dance. But she was happily married and he had moved on years before. It would have been insane for him to stay in the past.” 

“So…where is he then? I mean, don’t get me wrong sweetheart, I love that you’re Captain America now, but where the hell is Steve?”

You spoke up now. “In Montana. He bought about 100 Acres up there years ago. He’s been building a house up there for the past year or so. It’s really nice. Bucky and I are going out there in a few months to spend some time away. He seems really at peace finally.” 

“Wait, really? Steve’s just out there living his best lumberjack life?” Val was so taken aback by that. 

“Yeah. But don’t tell anyone. We don’t need any Cap die-hards roaming the wilds of Montana trying to find him.” Bucky laughed. “Besides, I hear he’s got a girl these days.”

“Yeah, America’s Golden Bachelor isn’t so alone anymore.” You added.

“I’m sure she’s gonna get a kick out of the musical.” Bucky said.

“Oh man, you gotta record his reaction to that nightmare of a show.” Sam begged you and you laughed. “And her reaction. I can just see the blush on him now.”

You all laughed as your food got delivered. Yes, the musical may have been a nightmare, but the night in general had been great. Spending time with friends and having a great laugh was just what you had needed.

Taglist:

@annasrefuge @chrisevansdaughter 

[nikibogwater]

Niki Blethers: Daniel Spellbound first impressions:

I’ve only watched the first episode, so I’m not considering anything I talk about here as Spoiler Territory, but if you want to go in to this show absolutely 100% blind, maybe skip this post.

The short version: Color me intrigued. 

Followers of mine already know that I am a huuuuuuuge fan of the Tales of Arcadia series on Netflix (sans the movie–we don’t talk about the movie), so when I first heard the premise for Daniel Spellbound, it immediately struck me as being in a similar vein as that series.

It’s an urban fantasy following the magical misadventures of a teenager and a talking pig. What’s interesting about this premise to me is the fact that our main characters start the series already fully aware of and participating in the magical underground that exists beneath New York City. Daniel isn’t some normal kid who discovers this magical world by accident, he’s been living and working in it for years by the time of the first episode. 

Speaking of Daniel, I like him as our main protagonist so far. He’s a quick-thinking, fast-talking, maybe-sorta-rule-breaking kid who has obviously been alone for way too long. He works as a Tracker–someone who hunts down magical artifacts and ingredients for wizards to use in their spells–but he doesn’t take any pride in his work, and even describes magic as “a scam.” Right out of the gate he’s shown to have no qualms about taking even the lowest, most disgusting jobs if it means getting paid (our introduction to him is literally him sticking his arm in a mound of troll crap to retrieve the mushrooms growing inside). But there’s also a quiet warmth to him, which comes out most prominently in his interactions with Hoagie the magical talking pig.

I’m gonna be up front here, when I first saw Hoagie’s design in a promo image, I was SO ready to hate him. Like, I know it’s not fair to hold him to the same standard as Archie the Cat-Dragon from ToA: Wizards, but I couldn’t help it. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that Hoagie….is actually very tolerable. And there is an in-universe reason for the eyepatch, a very dark and traumatic reason that hasn’t been outright stated, but heavily implied. 

Hoagie himself is actually very similar to Daniel, being a little self-centered and extremely sarcastic. I really like the dynamic between the two of them as a result. They butt heads more often than not (Hoagie’s best character moments are when he is just aggressively sassing the ever-living daylights out of Daniel), but their back and forth can be very fun, and it’s really satisfying to see them come out of the first episode as a newly-formed team. 

I can see Hoagie’s character being obnoxious to some (especially since he spends the majority of the first episode being a pain in Daniel’s neck), but I ended up tentatively liking him, and I really like the potential for friendship that has formed between him and Daniel. 

This show’s portrayal of magic is very fun and creative. From a hotdog vendor making duplicates of himself to expand his business reach, to a half-pint witch known for her highly dangerous magical pies and her propensity for holding intense grudges, it really feels like magic in this world is full of infinite possibilities, and not just limited to flashing lights and floating books. 

The magical environments reflect this as well, creating a very cool contrast with the drab and mundane New York City. I especially love the creature design of the trolls in the first part of the episode.

The animation is serviceable. It’s pretty obvious that they were on a tight budget, but that’s not something I hold against them. In fact, I have to commend the animators and directors for their clever management of limited resources. As I said above, the magical environments are extremely creative and even downright breathtaking in some shots. Character animation can be a little weightless from time to time, especially during an action sequences, but if that’s the show’s biggest flaw in terms of visuals, they’re doing pretty good. 

The dialogue can feel a little weird and choppy here and there, but it’s definitely nowhere near as bad as some other shows/movies I’ve seen. 

Overall, I’m interested to see where this series goes. I want to see more of the magical underworld, I want to learn more about Daniel, and I’m eager to see more of him and Hoagie bonding (or just Hoagie sassing him some more, honestly both are good). I don’t want to jump the gun and say it’s great, but from the first episode, I can safely say that it’s got a lot of great potential, enough that I’m going to keep watching and see where they go with that. Depending on how it turns out, I may do a longer and more comprehensive post about the series as a whole, but for now, I can at least say that it is worth checking out and seeing for yourself. 

[audhd-nightwing]

let me just say, i fucking love etsy

it’s supporting small businesses, and genuinely cares about the creators and clients

honestly the etsy home page explains it better but they also do a lot of eco-friendly transportation and they like actively do stuff to help marginalized people ?? especially artists

i swear this isn’t paid promo or anything i’ve just been ordering a bunch of stuff from etsy recently cuz i just got paid woohoo

anyway,

use etsy or similar sites instead of amazon!! give money to small businesses instead of corporate dicks that are already rich!!

also, everyone on etsy is so nice?? it’s a very refreshing break from the internet’s toxicity tbh

[mysmorgasbordoffantabulosa]

Radio play isn't really the members choice.

My guess is HYBE's International distributor, Universal Music Group (UMG) have done a marketability feasibility study of all the members and most likely believe JK has the best chance based on various matrixes. So have informed HYBE of such and both have made the decision that for JK there will be a radio push//

Completely agree with it’s not member’s choice. We all know this needs money and company should be willing to do that, it’s completely business choice

second part sorry totally disagree. As a market researcher for a company l would say even UMG did a research they know ML popularity will make it work with radio play regardless the genre. Ex CT a OST surviving in x’mas week and still chart in hot 100. Also bunch of other US artists did well regardless the favourable genre or popularity level purely due to radio play and playlists

It’s not UMG’s call, it’s Hybe and what they want and amount they willing to spend on artists they manage. Best example is how Hybe new groups rocking in int charts due to playlists payola and radio play. And they reach higher chart positions in beginning of their career which bts got long time to do. Which proves Hybe pay regardless the popularity level if they want to and accordingly planned business Any bts member with good tactical promo, playlists and radio play would do better especially members who has army streaming support. It’s just whom Hybe trust more, who they willing to spend money on, who has been helping company narratives, who has been obedient to company.

As a long term jk bias l don’t hesitate to say this. Jk isn’t the person he used to be before 2017. He grew in to a person who understands the idol business, kpop companies, management and it’s politics also find a way to corporate and negotiate in his favour. He knows without giving he can’t expect anything in return from company plus no pain no gain. Which helped him to get constant projects, collabs and promo from 2018 including screen time and positive narratives which helped his journey to success. Rest is all his pure talent that make it work

sorry this gotten so long. I hate to see when ppl go like he has been getting promo and now solo era he gets even more promo and push. SO WHAT? Man has suffered enough, gone through so much pain, compromised his relationship with tae, even now let scooter handle his career!!!! So many risks. It’s his moment to shine and he paid the high price for all the promo he gets for years

I didn’t write this to shade tae but l have to tell it’s kpop, heavy politics and bias choices. How tae has been, Tae’s personality, ethics, strong stand and non negotiable nature not helping him and his career top of that his unstoppable stand on tk. Even with his high popularity and social standing (which Hybe didn’t spend anything to boost or uplift rather tried hard to dim) their not willing to take that risk nor forgive him for being non negotiable throughout the years especially involving himself with company asset jk.

last but not least, even we like it or not it’s on Hybe and bang’s hands and they decide and finalise who gets what, it’s simple as that

Look I understand all of that and I agree with a lot of what you say, other parts not so much, but I have to quibble over the HYBE / UMG relationship and the notion that UMG has no say...

Technically in the USA and most of the rest of the world, BTS and the individual members songs/albums are currently done through UMG's Interscope label, and therefore that label is responsible for the marketing and promo for markets outside of the Korea where HYBE is responsible. Those labels will set marketing budgets based on expected returns as the international distributor for BTS, not HYBE directly. So they have to have some say in how that money is spent in partnership with HYBE. So to say UMG makes not decision is probably false.

[sadaveniren]

tysm for putting together all the movie info! one thing to add that might also be interesting: whether it’s an mcu project or a sony project, both teams laid out their planned upcoming movies for the next few years at comic con this year, and neither mentioned a project that could be olivia’s movie. that’s not to say it’s not getting made, because obviously these things are planned out years in advance, but i do find it interesting that we first heard about this in 2020, have heard nothing new since, and it won’t be out until at least 2026 (based on the other movie timelines we got). so even if she hasn’t lost the project, equally concerning for her probably is that she doesn’t have any projects lined up for a long while (and so won’t get paid for a long while).

Anon I had a nice long answer for you about this but then tumblr’s app crashed 🙃 so I’m gonna try again and hope I don’t forget anything I wrote.

In my research I found that in 2020 Sony hired a few directors to develop different projects for them. As someone with working knowledge of film production and the film industry (though I do not currently work in it so things could change 🤷🏼‍♀️) this sounds to me like they were looking for ideas first and hoping they liked the ideas enough to develop them. Obviously in hiring the directors they did they have faith they would like they ideas but there’s a lot that goes into developing an idea and who knows how much control Sony wants and what checkmarks they want hit versus what the directors want to do.

But like you pointed out it isn’t exactly inspiring confidence that the film won’t be released until 6 years after it is conceived. I am not the kind of person that thinks “developmental hell” means the film is gonna be bad. I am aware there has been a lot going on in the last 2 years. Howeverrrrrr Sony isn’t exactly inspiring confidence in their own projects by pushing the first movie they got out of the 2020 hires back to February. February and January are the worst months for films to be released and are known as “dump months”.

And yes before anyone comes with it, I am aware there are exceptions: both Black Panther and Deadpool were released in February. But those were two highly anticipated films from established comic book characters. AND Deadpool absolutely smashed expectations they’d had for the movie. Like it had been released in February specifically because they didn’t think it would make much… which goes back to the fact that February is a dump month for films.

Also your last sentence is A+ and something I have been thinking about frequently whenever I try and contextualize Olivia’s career moves. The film industry is not a salary job. Unless you are actively releasing a movie/filming a movie/working you are not making money. Olivia began production on DWD back in 2019. She has been working on this film for 3 years. I’m going to go out on a limb and say she gave herself a salary for acting in the film, and maybe a small salary for directing, but the bulk of her return is going to come from profits of the film as she’s an executive producer. She also probably put in a SIGNIFICANT amount towards the 20-30 million dollar budget, which her salary does not cover. So for her to get anything else from DWD she needs to make back the budget, pay back everyone who loaned that money, pay back any other expenses that might be rolled into the box office (promo from the studio etc) and then she gets to get a profit. And guess what? If she plans to direct again? She’s going to want to keep a sizable amount of that to finance the NEXT film she wants to shoot. So when people say she’s desperate… yeah she is. This is how she gets paid. Literally.

[rougedraconteur]

It’s all about that reboot,

That reboot,

That reboot.

Or so we hear from the gossip site. True or not, if it was mine, and it isn’t, here’s what I would do.

Reboot on the streamer, to draw the most attention, pull people back in, and then the streamer can add the old episodes to their current catalogue. Everyone still receiving residuals would benefit.

The funny girl is producing. She needs a career reboot, and the timing is right. Everyone is talking about her “comeback.” And she has always been crazy talented, just in need of constant therapy and some tough love to keep her awful in check. She is a diva who should be put in her place regularly. A new contract should include that, to ensure she does not disrupt a set any more with her constant drama. She should want this, and say so. Say she’s obsessed with the work, but her real friends have made her a better person by calling her out in private., and continuing to do so while supporting her. Because they KNOW her. This reboot will be one piece of that comeback, but a big one. It will help relaunch her sagging career, and put her back into play. Make that existing contract of hers useful for the new owners. (All Glee originals were signed up for at least three Glee-related movies, under their old contract, to be exercised by Fox, as needed, and only one was made.Also, this clause can be exercised to pull others back in for a short stint, while releasing them from what remains of that awful original contract.)

She has been hanging out with the Broadway stars, her two “besties” who get her the best press and positive comments, to draw them back in for what will be a short season. Surely both can find the time for a couple episodes worth of filming time, plus rehearsals for dance, recording songs, wardrobe fittings, etc. This show is never a quick and easy shoot, but they are old hands at this, and have done it before, they are both quick studies, and know how to handle her crazy. A week here, a week there, some finishing touch reshoots and follow-up background promo work done onsite for later release like articles, commercials, social media, and an hour-long+ episode of a full-blown musical is in the can, PLUS a “making of… show,” which is pretty common filler for the streamer. And they get paid double, and fulfil the remainer of that contract with two shows in one.

The children’s author has taken a break from writing, per his comments to Fal/lon/Tonight Show, and has been slowly making singing appearances, warming up his voice. Making himself known again as a performer. Maybe now his career can move forward.

This could reposition all the old episodes, as well, if written well, with great stories and songs and actual continuity. It could take away the bad aftertaste of the old show, if RM and BF stay far away from the writing (and most anything else). If they could mostly allow the kids to run the candy store, they could still get all the credit for discovering, launching, and mentoring all that incredible talent, act more like proud papas instead of creepy old men reliving their childhoods or spoiled brats trying to punish every person who did not kiss the ring, and still get their cut of the money as creators, along with IB. The ACTUAL creator.

Just stay off the damn set. Take a giant step back from the showrunner and his exec producers, but use a “here’s what I learned from Glee,” type backstory to showcase the positives, and minimize all the negatives. Make something right somehow with all the loss from that show, the actors know how to do that but the showrunner and his co-horts have no soul and are not capable of that. Do some real-life rehabbing by showcasing SOME of the bts from the old show, along with new show, talk about the actors, the characters, their journey, where they go next, especially if it is to the streamer’s new product. The streamer needs tons of content, for lots of different channels, and these people can help.

RM should use that director’s program of his, let his stars each write, produce, direct, an episode. Choreography, song selection and acquisition of rights, recording studio, securing location shoots, etc. Let them each say where their characters are now, and push forward their own backstories and future projects. Give them a budget, let them go. Glee, at its best, makes people happy, and with the world as it is now we all need a happy ending, both for the characters and the actors, even the ones we lost. When the reboot is successful, and the old shows have found a new home, everyone can move forward, showcasing new projects off of this, maybe having their contracts extended in a new place for other work. Maybe the showrunner will dodge a bullet and salvage a career that is a little precarious right now if he does right by these actors. Maybe. While I would love to see him burn in hell, and he should, as should BF, if this can happen this way, I will forgo that desire for now and pretend those two who enable one another at every turn are at least almost human. I won’t partake of their projects, but I won’t speak ill of them for however long this can last, either. I won’t speak of them at all, as a former Glee fan, which is what RM and BF hated the most. Us, and how we called them out on their shit, and still do. How we catch things. How we don’t forget. How we saved the receipts. How we caused them so much grief at times, how we still can. Just think about how RM has tried to reboot this show already, and fans burned his suggestions down to the ground.

All the BTS can be about old friendships and new projects, for the streamer or otherwise, and can be the show ABOUT the show. If they don’t write it, someone else will still gossip about it. Be as honest as they can without being too detailed. Show everyone as flawed humans, but also mostly good people. No one will believe nothing ever happened, so give them something, but not everything. Don’t oversell. I don’t want to see giant doses of Monchele drama again, since I never believed it anyway. Tell his real-life story, and hers, with a focus on his legacy, not their so-called romance engineered by RM. Just touch on that, say what you want to say about it “I loved him, he loved me, that’s all I can say,” and move on. Even I would believe that. Use his legacy to raise money to provide music in schools in Canada. The streamer could be in charge of that. Show it actually happening in band rooms and chorus rooms across that country. Or place Glee gardens in selected cities, filled with outdoor music stages and permanently placed outdoor instruments like drums, where kids and their parents can go to play and make music.

Same with Na/ya. I would see that some old clips of hers were used somehow, and see that her son actually got the residuals in perpetuity, with matching interest from the streamer, for a scholarship fund, since the Showrunner and Co. promised and failed to do so. Da/na Wal/den can see to that, she owes them that much for looking the other way so much. Let the actors set it up with her family. Let there be some public component to go along with her legacy, like music and parks in largely Latino and African-American communities and for other minority communities.

With Ma/rk, don’t ignore it, simply talk about the importance of mental health, and how to help oneself, ask for help, find help, and support others. Also, don’t completely ignore the issues on set. Talk about the ridiculously long hours, and how in producing the mega show, the producers “temporarily” forgot about the actors being young people with minimal life experience in an extraordinary experience that they shared, but who are not machines. They have to accept some guilt, the showrunner and producers tried to whitewash all this, say RM had a crazy creative vision that got out of control, BF as his long-time collaborator enabled him too much, the others were too caught up in all the bells and whistles it took to put the show together (and here actual hours spent and number of cast and crew supported, plus budget, plus profit for Fox, should be listed, this is the time to renounce so much capitalism that happened at the cost of human lives destroyed by the machine) to reel the two in to reality. The old parent company stockholders looked the other way, the CEO’s and studio heads did too. That was a mistake they all wish they could rectify. But they can’t. They can only go forward, and try to do better.

Then actually let them go, the ghosts and the ugly rumors, the binding contacts and blacklisting, the non-compete clauses, the blackmail, all of it, whatever hangs over everyone’s heads like a guillotine, including the evil showrunner, and his nasty partner in crime, let them go, make things as right as can be made, and let them move forward to whatever new start and future they deserve and can make for themselves.

[pinball77]

—EMERGENCY COMMISSIONS.

Hello. Once again I’m getting screwed over and I need to make some money extremely fast in order to pay rent and make sure I have a way to work every morning.

Long story short, I was told by my rental company that I was going to pay out regular rent and such and not the new increase + utilities on Nov 1st. She told me that we were going to pay what we were paying. Okay. Cool.

I find out at 2:30am that isn’t the case and we were charged that. I don’t know if she didn’t know or she lied to me or what. Either way, I’m forced to use my only money I have for my bus tickets to hold them off for now, but it’s still not enough ( since that’s only like…$25 or so. ) so I need about $100 ASAP to cover everything ( the bit of rent that we apparently have to pay now + bus tickets for work ). This wouldn’t be an issue if the way i get paid wasn’t changed at a terrible time ( I’m out $800 this month bc of it. )

I’ve reduced pricing for this by about half for some things. I do have a queue going right now for commissions, but I’m hoping to finish those this weekend, as well as I have a holiday next weekend which means I have an extra day to work on stuff.

If you don’t want anything, but you’d like to help, my PayPal is: candied.feathers@hotmail.ca

*please make sure you use .ca! People use .com by mistake often and I won’t get it.

—PRICING.

Promos: Any style ( single, 2 panel, 3 panel, 4 panel ) $30 $15

Banners: $5 each $10 for 3.

Icons: base icons only (no border) $0.50 $0.25 per icon

Headers: $10 $5

Most recent examples are also under the cut. Mostly of promos; I can DM examples of other things to you as well. Thank you.

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super 128

Hey, it’s the Cbat episode.

I should explain that.  Some time ago this guy posted a story on Reddit about how he enjoyed making love to the song “Cbat” by Hudson Mohawke, but his partner didn’t like the song or the quality of the sex.  This caused something of a stir as people would see this tale and look up the song to hear it for themselves, and yeah, it really sucks.  I mean, whether or not it’s a good soundtrack for sex almost seems irrelevant, since it’s so terrible in general. 

I don’t want to be too hard on the dude, since apparently he got a lot of online harassment after this whole thing went viral. Nonetheless, the song went viral for being horrible, and then someone realized that Toonami had used it for a promo of Dragon Ball Super Episode 128.  No one probably paid any attention at the time, but now the song was infamous, so it takes on a new significance.

Anyway, I need a palate cleanser, so let’s look to a far better song for having sex, “Sure Know Something”.  Why are people fooling around when they have the entire KISS discography to serve as background music for their bedroom activities?

All right, enough clowning around.  So last episode, 17 blew himself up to buy Vegeta and Goku a little time to recover and try to fight Jiren again.  But the boys are exhausted, and Vegeta’s the only one who makes it back to his feet.  He can’t even transform, so he just attacks anyway, doing anything he can to keep this fight going.

There’s a flashback montage that helps him muster the will to get back up and keep trying.  I find it amusing that this train ride from Episode 2 made the cut. 

Beerus is astonished to see Vegeta continue to get back up and keep fighting.  I guess this sort of closes out the relationship between Beerus and Vegeta in this series.  There’s always been this casual disrespect Beerus has shown toward Vegeta.  I think it’s mostly done to prod him into getting stronger, but now Beerus has been stuck on this bench for the whole arc, and his divine power means nothing while he’s reduced to a helpless spectator.  Beerus’s own continued existence is on the line in this fight, and Vegeta is fighting tooth and nail to buy them a chance.  

He still looks goofy as hell in some of these shots.  I miss @awkwardvegetaphotos​, you know?

At one point, Vegeta gets knocked out of the ring and hangs from a floating fragment of the stage.  He nearly passes out, but he hears Bulma calling out for him to keep fighting.   I had forgotten this scene, but I think this was done as a tribute to Hiromi Tsuru, the original voice actress who played Bulma, who died tragically before this episode aired.  I’m pretty sure they just used previously recorded lines for this, and Tsuru’s final performance of the character was in Episode 96, when she saw the team off. 

Well, sometimes you just gotta pull yourself up to your feet and keep going.   It doesn’t matter if you can win, you just have to drag yourself forward.  Sometimes people are gone and you just have to do the best you can on your own. 

To his credit, Vegeta manages to perform a Final Flash, but all it gets him is a punch in the face and some words of respect from Jiren.  Vegeta’s done.

But before he gets teleported back to the bench, he sends the last of his power to Goku, and pleads for him to win this somehow, so that he can keep his promise.

I’m too old for this shit, but I still dig how gigachad it is for Vegeta to be the most badly beat up dude to arrive on the bench.  He fought until he could fight no more, true to his principles.  Krillin gives him a senzu bean and everyone congratulates him on his performance. 

As for Goku, the boost he got from Vegeta helps him get back to Super Saiyan Blue, but it isn’t enough.  Jiren clobbers him and he drops back to base form immediately.  There’s just nothing left for him to work with.

Honestly, this part of the episode just feels like a repeat of the first half, but with Goku taking the beating instead of Vegeta.  Goku keeps trying because 17 and Vegeta sacrificed so much to give him this chance, and they’re trusting him to make the most of it, but there’s just nothing he can do.

Finally, Jiren prepares to finish Goku off...

And Goku has a flashback to all of his teammates asking him to continue.  Also Frieza just says “dance for me, monkey”, which kind of spoils the mood. 

And suddenly Goku vanishes before Jiren can hit him, and then... Well, I think you know what’s next.

That’s right, Goku’s reached Ultra Instinct for a third time.   And this time...

There will be punching.

Yeah, eat it, you creepy jock.  Plenty more where that came from.

So now it’s time for the real main event.  The past few episodes were nothing more than an ordeal to push Goku into this moment.  Now he’s here, and the time has come to see if his Ultra Instinct can get the job done, or not.