#with someone who is actually a fully formed 3-dimensional character

[niuxita21]

ClassofO7 really had a chance to do something interesting in terms of romantic pairings with so many complex f/f relationships to explore if they didn’t want to forego having a “main slow-burn ship” with an all-female cast (Zoe/Amelia obviousy but also Genevieve/Saskia and even Phoebe/Renee) and yet they went with the laziest option possible in terms of representayshun by making the one lesbian character the comic relief side character whom it’s clear they never had any intention of giving a romantic storyline to

[thrill-seeker-if]

Brace yourself for question gallore👀💅🏻💅🏻

1. What's a show you've watched recently and what we're your opinions on it?

2. What's your research process for your if like?

3. Do you come up with characters or plot first?

4. What's the first thing you do when you get a bright new shiny idea? Do you like to sit on it or start working at it straight away?

5. What's an if you played recently? What did you like the most about it and why?

6. What's your favourite band/singer and if you could reccomend one song from them what would it be?

7. If you could travel to a fictional universe which one would it be? Would you fare well in it?

8. What is one TV shows/books/movies you would love to see in if form? Who would you romance?

9. What did the ROs want to be when they were younger? Would their younger selves have been able to predict where they are now?

10. Who was your fictional celebrity crush when you were younger as well as the ROs ones?

From mosquito allergy anon 👁️👄👁️

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️✨✨✨✨

OMG!!! thank you for all the questions!!! and good to see you again, twin!!!

1. What's a show you've watched recently and what we're your opinions on it?

Hmm.... I don't actually watch a lot of shows! I've been watching a lot of danny gonzalez, kurtis conner, and drew gooden videos. I love those, LMAO. OH! this might not really count as a show, but I also really love Gemini Home Entertainment (it's on youtube!!) I also love Nexpo's video analysis on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X1xYpPmKvA&t=751s

2. What's your research process for your if like?

Just imagine the writer stereotype of 'how long does blood stay wet' 'how much blood do you need to lose to die' 'what are the study requirements of a teacher' 'what surgical tools could kill someone' etc etc. I'm sure my agent knows i'm a writer. Either that, or I'm on a watchlist.

3. Do you come up with characters or plot first?

Plot! But it's really a three step process. I get a rough outline of the plotline, less than a first draft, and then I go through a bunch of characters and traits I would like to use. The characters help me to build plot, and then I return to the plot once more to wrap it up!

4. What's the first thing you do when you get a bright new shiny idea? Do you like to sit on it or start working at it straight away?

I write it into my notes app! All my best ideas come like just before I hit REM sleep (since I go to sleep at 8:30, that's about 9) so I just launch up, grab the phone, type it in and then hit the hay again! I mostly forget it until like 2 days later and then I bask in my genius!

5. What's an if you played recently? What did you like the most about it and why?

I played Eye of the Moon (made by @eyeofthemoongame) pretty recently, and it was so beautifully written, I just love reading it! What I really like about it is just how atmospheric it is. It sucks you in, and then you just can't get away from it, you really just read it in one flow!

Another one I did recently was Oathbreaker, season 2, as it just fully completed! It's more of a visual novel, but I think we can include it. I really recommend playing the game, it's just so beautifully written and it's only gotten better in season two. The art is beautifully made, the main character is allowed to be truly morally gray, the characters are diverse and no one is just one dimensional!! Seriously, check it out!

6. What's your favourite band/singer and if you could reccomend one song from them what would it be?

My favorite band is Lamp!! The song that made me start listening to them was Yume Utsutsu, but THIS is my favorite song of theirs. I'm not gonna include the name cuz I want it to be mysterious <3 But also, check out their whole album, its really amazing!

7. If you could travel to a fictional universe which one would it be? Would you fare well in it?

This is so hard.... but I think the one I would travel to is the one from my very first dream, back when I was about 8. I would fare pretty well in it, there wasn't really anything to harm me, I had everything I could ever want.

8. What is one TV shows/books/movies you would love to see in if form? Who would you romance?

DC. Has not released a dating sim for Nightwing. And why not? What's holding them back??? I would do anything if it had him in it. But also Maid Sama! I would romance Usui!

9. What did the ROs want to be when they were younger? Would their younger selves have been able to predict where they are now?

Hannie wanted to be an astronaut. They knew pretty quickly they would never be given that chance, and they knew they would be where they are now.

N wanted to be a doctor ever since MCs mother helped them as a child. They wanted to help other people, too. Before their health issues, they wanted to be an actor.

Oli wanted to be a teacher, probably towards younger kids, like k-4. They wouldn't have guessed they became a police officer.

10. Who was your fictional celebrity crush when you were younger as well as the ROs ones?

When I was younger... my very first celebrity crush was... Ed Sheeran. It's a very long story. I will only explain if prompted since this post is already really long LNSDIFUHFUID

But for the ROs: N would have a crush on basically any woman they see. Elastigirl, the aunt from big hero 6, Rihanna, Britney Spears, basically anyone. And then, once their moms show them bollywood movies... Shah Rukh Khan, probably!

Oli's first would probably be Ray Toro from My Chemical Romance and also Zayn from One Direction.

Hannie did not have any celebrity crushes!

Hope this answered pretty well!! have an excellent day <3333

[skellebonez]

For that ask meme, I give you two characters: Wukong and Scorpion Demoness because I'm a useless simp

LACE YOU SENT AN ASK AFTER MY OWN HEART!!

Sun Wukong:

favorite thing about them: I love how complicated he is. He's such a complex, 3 dimensional, fully realized character with levels to him. There is so much about his past we don't know, but can infer based on how he interacts with the rest of the characters and the actions he chooses. I LOVE HIM.

least favorite thing about them: COMMUNICATE YOU DUMBASS.

favorite line: "You should have stayed buried."

brOTP: I thought about this a lot, I think (outside of him being a father figure to MK) my favorite platonic dynamic is the one I see often with Sandy in fanon. They have such a good brotp set up, especially if Sandy is Sha Wujing in disguise.

OTP: You know... as much as I still like ShadowPeach, I have to say I think there's a little something called EchoShipping that is starting to squirm into the spot the more I think about it. (... EchoShipping is... SyntaxSWK... because I am a predictable idiot.)

nOTP: Don't wanna get into ship drama here, but one ship... that I don't wanna name makes me deeply uncomfortable.

random headcanon: HE PAINTED THAT MURAL ON HIS WALL HIMSELF AND HAD MK DESTROY IT BECAUSE HE COULDN'T BRING HIMSELF TO AND AS TRAINING FOR DESTROYING LBD'S MURAL HE WENT TO.

unpopular opinion: SWK's choices make total sense if you view them through the lens of a hundreds of centuries years old monkey born of stone who has seemingly lost all of his friends in some way and isolated himself for possibly hundreds of years and is terrified of the fact someone who he thought was dealt with is back and can kill his student and the rest of the world if he fucks up the wrong way.

song i associate with them: Surface Pressure from Encanto (but like, Caleb Hyles' cover specifically)

favorite picture of them:

Scorpion Demoness:

favorite thing about them: I love how she is in one episode for such a short amount of time, but just enough is revealed about her that we get a good idea of how she feels and what she wants. Also: Amethyst.

least favorite thing about them: SHE SHOULD BE A RECURRING CHARACTER.

favorite line: "OK, FINE FINE! I'M A DEMON OK! YA HAPPY!?"

brOTP: Tang, best buds and/or adopted siblings. Whichever floats your boat.

OTP: You know. 83c But also her and Spider Queen is SO CUTE.

nOTP: ... I... have not thought about this yet? ... I dunno.

random headcanon: I think she gets used to Tudi in time and actually becomes genuine friends with him. ... a long time.

unpopular opinion: I honestly think it was kind of meh to leave her with Tudi, even if that did solve the problem I guess and they had to move on.

song i associate with them: Dunno yet, gonna think on that.

favorite picture of them: I actually would have picked a screenshot of her demon form, but she looks so HAPPY HERE.

[violethowler]

More Machine Than Man: Using Character Parallels to Predict Echo’s Journey in The Bad Batch

Echo was one of the first fictional character deaths that genuinely moved me when I was a kid. 

Sure, there were a lot of character deaths in my formative Disney movies that made me sad, but no death had ever gotten such an emotional “How dare they!” reaction as Star Wars: The Clone Wars did on Friday, March 4, 2011, when Echo got blown up at the climax of Season 3’s 19th episode. 

So when Dave Filoni revealed concept sketches of what the production team had been planning for future seasons at the time of the show’s cancellation, finding out Echo was going to come back - that he was still alive after all - was a tremendous joy for me. Getting the story reels depicting his rescue was a gift enough, but actually getting to see his return as a fully animated episode in all it’s glory when Season 7 finally released on Disney+ last year was a dream come true. 

While I wasn’t particularly invested enough in the Bad Batch as a group to be excited when their spinoff was announced, the fact that one of my favorite clones (second only to Rex and Fives) was now a co-star of a spinoff show was enough of a thrill to keep me invested.

And yet, despite being highlighted as one of the main characters, Echo has not gotten as much focus as Hunter, Tech, Omega, Crosshair, or Wrecker since the show began.  

A lot of this can of course be put down to the fact that while audiences have already had years to get attached to Echo, the rest of the Bad Batch are still relatively new from an audience perspective. Only four of the eight episodes they were planned to appear in for Clone Wars were ever finished, and they were all presented there as stock action movie archetypes. So in a show where these relatively one-dimensional characters are supposed to be the main protagonists, the writers need to spend a lot of time early on fleshing these characters out, making them more rounded, and giving us a reason to care about them besides looking cool and being connected to Echo. 

But just because they haven’t done anything outwardly obvious with Echo yet doesn’t mean the writers aren’t planting seeds now to lay the groundwork for his evolution later on. 

And after thinking some more about “Aftermath” - plus a comment somewhere on twitter, tumblr, TVTropes, or Jedi Council Forums that I frustratingly cannot track down again - I think I might have a general idea of what the writers have in store for him. 

In the first episode of The Bad Batch, Tech refers to Echo as “more machine than man.” 

Now, I’ve seen a lot of people up in arms claiming that The Bad Batch treats Echo like a droid and other arguments, especially after the whole “sold as a droid” scam they pulled in Episode 04. But aside from that one elusive comment I mentioned, I have not seen anyone taking into account that line’s potential as a flag to mark a parallel that could be used to start predicting the direction of Echo’s character arc.

Because while I can’t speak for the novels or comics, but the only other time I have ever seen that specific phrase, “more machine than man” has been in a conversation about none other than Echo’s former General, Anakin Skywalker. Or as he now goes by in the time frame of The Bad Batch, Darth Vader.

It may not be obvious at first glance, but when you look closely at Echo’s designs from Season 7 and his story arc in The Clone Wars as a whole, you’ll find multiple visual and narrative similarities with the story of Darth Vader. 

Both are extremely pale after a long period of time without sunlight: Echo was kept in a box for over a year, while after becoming Darth Vader, Anakin spends all his time in his suit and only takes it off to soak in a bacta chamber like the one at his castle on Mustafar in Rogue One.

But suffered severe injuries that resulted in parts of their body - including being replaced with cybernetics: Echo in the explosion of the shuttle at The Citadel, Anakin by the burning lava of Mustafar. Both of them even lost their right arm specifically. Both of these transformations are also visually associated with fire, and their primary color schemes following their transformations are black and red, along with some dark grey thrown into the mix.

Both are manipulated into aiding the enemy of their respective groups - The Separatists experiment on Echo in order to rip Republic military tactics directly from his mind against his will, while despite Palpatine’s grooming him to become a Sith Apprentice, Anakin still consciously chooses to turn to the Dark Side.

In both situations, Echo and Anakin return back to their original allegiance thanks to someone they care about. Rex saves Echo from his imprisonment on Skako Minor, after which he returns to Republic service. Meanwhile Luke’s love for Anakin eventually brings him back from the Dark Side in Return of The Jedi.

And in each case, their return coincides with them bringing about the defeat and death of the person who they had previously been “working” under. Echo is instrumental in securing Trench’s defeat at Anaxes, leading to his death at the hands of Anakin. Decades later, Anakin kills Palpatine in order to save his son, thereby resulting in the deterioration and downfall of the Empire.

As I discussed in my earlier Ventress meta, the major thematic core of Episodes I - VI of the Skywalker Saga is Anakins’ fall to the dark side and his eventual redemption. When a character is that central to the narrative, several other characters typically serve as mirrors that show how differently things could have gone under different circumstances.

Echo was first shown in his new armor in the animatics for the unfinished Kashyyyk arc shown at Celebration Anaheim’s “Untold Clone Wars Stories” panel in 2015. The production codes put this episode as having been near the end of Production Season 6 in between the first half of Dark Disciple and Son of Dathomir. Based on the dates listed for the concept art for those arcs in their respective galleries on Star Wars.com, this means that Echo’s new Bad Batch armor was originally designed between September 2012 and January 2013. 

Meaning that these references and allusions to Vader were not something that was conceived recently just for his role in The Bad Batch, but something that has been in the works for years. 

So I, for one, cannot wait to see what unfolds because of how many different possibilities there are for the directions that Echo’s character can be taken in with these parallels in mind. 

There’s too many different possibilities to speculate on a single route for Echo’s character arc just yet, but I have a feeling that the more this new series goes on, the more similarities to Vader we’ll start to see.

[life-rewritten]

Manner of D*eath (MOD); Hansel and Gretel, Victims or Victors?

I don't know if anyone is like that shocked by the ending of episode 10 of MOD, I mean I think we can all tell it was fake, and I think we also are coming to terms with the villains/ the actual suspect of Jane being revealed. I don't think the show is still mysterious or still has so many hidden plot twists left. If there is then, I'll be happier. Anyway, episode 10 was intense and crazy in terms of what was shown on screen however as always I try to show you how the show gives you clues apart from piecing together what's on the surface, about the MOD of the characters, their actions, choices and who the suspect is and what their plans are now? We get a new fairytale, and can I just say I am loving the use of these fairytale meta for the show: this time Hansel and Gretel foreshadows the secrets of episode 10, clues to our villain and more deeper looks into family dynamics and dimensionality of our characters especially Tan. At the end of episode 10, Tan is forced to eliminate the person he loves (calling back to Little Mermaid analysis here that foreshadowed this) and also becomes a victim to a powerful person that has him entrapped with no escape. So I have a lot to say about these two fairy tales again and why MOD is creative when it uses them, how it makes things more fun to analyse and watch see unfold. Let's begin:

Hansel and Gretel: Victims or Victors

So as always you get a small recap of the fairy tale from me. If Little Mermaid was about forbidden love and betrayal and sacrifice, Hansel and Gretel is more about torn families, more betrayals, trickery, trauma and plot twists. Let's recap: Hansel and Gretel are the children of a very push over dad, with a very cruel mother figure, when a famine occurs in the land, the father is forced to let his wife discard their children in an abandoned forest, left to fend for themselves, so there is more food for their neglectful parents. Hansel though is brilliant, so he overhears and discovers the truth and prevents his sister and him from being lost at first using pebbles to find his way back home. However, the mother continues to send them out and abandon them; unfortunately, Hansel tries again to do so, but he uses bread crumbs as a way to track and sadly has bread crumbs eaten by birds, so he loses his way back home. So after they wander in the forest now fully scared of their situation, they get lured in by a candy house, which has the food they want and is sweet, it's owned by this older woman who is seen as sweet to kids, and friendly and protective. 

However, once they enter the house, Hansel is imprisoned and is going to be eaten by this blood thirsty witch(the older woman's true form). So Hansel has to find again a way to trick her into thinking he's not yet ready to be eaten, he uses a bone to make her believe he's still not eating well enough to be plump for cooking. However, the witch grows impatient and decides to eat him just like that. But instead of just Hansel, she also decides she wants both the siblings. Gretel is still able to walk around and also the witch is blind, so she struggles to see, and she's slow to things. She tries to trick Gretel into entering the oven so that she can eat her, but Gretel like her brother is smarter. So she knows what to do, she ends up tricking the witch into thinking she needs help entering the oven and the witch in annoyance bends down to check the issue and ends up being pushed into the fire and burns. Gretel frees Hansel they discover a lot of treasure at this witch's home, and they take it and go back home with the help of a swan (I don't really understand how it found them and led them home, but you know it's a fairytale) and they reunite with their father who apologises for being a pushover, he didn't want to let what happened to them happen, but the woman forced him to do so, now their mother/stepmother,  was eliminated by the famine and so she wasn't there no longer to abuse them and make him do things he didn't want to do. Hansel and Gretel because of the treasure they found, live successfully, wealthy and happily ever after with their father. The end.

First, it's not as romantic as Little Mermaid is it? I feel like Little Mermaid was more dramatic, painful and sad and had many selfless characters. But Hansel and Gretel is interesting. One, as Tan calls out it's not a romantic storyline, it's about siblings, but Bun and Tan (one of our mirrors of Hansel and Gretel) aren't siblings, you know they're lovers, and so that's also interesting. However, I find it really fascinating and interesting that Tan does mention that because it's important later on in again helping unveil who the villain is. I'll explain later on. Let's look at what we should focus on when talking about this fairytale.; 

1. Hansel and Gretel were victims of family dysfunction; they had an abusive family member who was looking for a way to get rid of them no matter what because of selfishness and greed and lack of love. 2. Hansel tries to survive his fate three times, by being smart and creative about how to escape his situations. The third time Gretel is the one who helps him escape. 3. Things that seem sweet and protective are actually not but traps for someone else's gain. The witch was trying to look like someone who was trusting for kids and who had what they need to run away but she actually wanted to get rid of them and keep surviving and being strong. 4. The witch is blindsided by Gretel because of her little weaknesses and her ability to overlook the kids. 5. Hansel and Gretel survive their trauma by trickery, cunningness and thinking ahead. They reunite with their family member and get rid of the witch (the powerful source holding them hostage), they gain money, wealth, and love by the end of the story.

Alright so let's keep those in mind and carry on with analysing the past episodes 7-10.

Family Dysfunctions and Cruel Abandonments

So I found it really interesting, in episode 10 when Tan starts to speak about his plans for his mother in the past, his relationship with Por and his relationship with Pued. We knew the family was going to be a focus because Tan, Pued and Por looked dysfunctional and also had severely different dynamics with each other. First of all, Tan and Pued apparently were loyal to each other by default; they loved each other despite disagreeing and fighting; they'd do anything as long as the other is safe. Pued may be this horrible person that we unveiled him to be, but he did have some kind of heart, and he did care about Tan, Bun and maybe even Jane though I don't want to say that about him. Pued paid attention to Tan despite his other family members abandoning him and leaving him as a puppet with no love and no care.

In fact, once Pued is eliminated and Por has a chance to react, Por immediately closes his mind and abandons Tan because he had no love, loyalty or trust for him. He's been looking for a way to get rid of Tan from the beginning. Who does that sound like? It sounds like the mother in Hansel and Gretel. The thing in the fairytale is that it's not evident if the mother is their blood mother or if she is a stepmother or if she's even the witch they later encounter there to lure them and get rid of them. But I'm seeing her like Por, someone who is forced to deal with Hansel and his sister not because she loves them but because she had to put up with them because of the father. The father is a failing figure like Tan's father; he's put the children under the care of someone who doesn't even care or respect them enough. And that's how Por treated Tan. So Family dysfunction is real in Hansel and Gretel, and Tan like Hansel is also deserted by a family in 7-10 as he struggles to stay safe and fend for himself and his lover. And the thing is it's messed up because Por loves Pued so much despite knowing how cruel Pued can be, (Por knows about Rung and Pued's involvement in the drug ring) but for Tan, he sees him as a nuisance, someone who's taking from him not helping him, same as Hansel's 'mum' saw him and his sister. And it makes you wonder what kind of family can become this way, why are people so cruel and why do they not treat people equally with respect. Just like the mother is the one who put Hansel and Gretel in danger, and she ensured it because remember they tried to come back and she sent them off, even more, deeper into the forest. Por also did the same thing, he chased cruelly after Tan and wanted to get of rid of him for Pued twice after he discovered Tan escaped from jail. Make it make sense. Like that's your family member.

Anyways so that's the first reason Hansel and Gretel were mentioned. But before I continue, I also wanted to bring up that Tan and Bun weren't the only mirrors for this character. That as always being Tan's shadow character also actually held more resemblance to the kids, he's younger, he's also imprisoned, and he had a girl to protect and watch over like a sister;Nam. Nam and That try to escape this episode with That being the one to make up the way for them to run away, but they get caught. I just wanted to show that imagery as well and connect it to Hansel and Gretel because as Tan mentioned, they weren't lovers, they were siblings.

However I think there's two more people not mirroring them but is being foreshadowed by them, that's Rungtiwa and Pued. Hear me out before you get confused. In episode 9 Rungtiwa that witch, she said that Pued, Tan are like brothers to her. And it made me laugh because obviously using little mermaid analysis, Rungtiwa and Pued were having an affair, and she's the one probably who got rid of him. Also when Pued was eliminated Por said only a family member knew about his condition, well Rung knew about it because she was acting one on the surface like a sister figure to him, but also she was his lover probably. But why I think it's interesting, it's because Tan misunderstands if Hansel and Gretel could have been lovers before Bun corrects him, and since Tan and Bun are mirroring them, I also think Tan was also foreshadowing the confusion and connection of Rung and Pued. People think like Hansel and Gretel, she's a sibling figure to him, but actually, she was his lover theoretically. Just like Tan confused the dynamics between the two siblings. Some people who are meant to be seen as 'siblings'/'friends' are probably more. That's just me just picking on things. Let's continue with what the show is showing in episode 10 through this fairy tale.

Futile Escapes and Cunning Mindsets 

In episode 7-10, Tan has to had to escape a situation he was set up in just like with Hansel in the fairy tale trying to protect Gretel. Can I first mention how similar the roles of Hansel and Tan are in the protection role. They have to be one step ahead, to protect the person with them, like Tan has to use the information he knows to protect Bun and escape Por. So like Hansel, Tan has to escape his situation three times before see him fail entirely in episode 10's ending. The first time he gets set up is jail where he is beaten and has to use his strength and will to stay safe until he's bailed out, the second time he escapes is his own house with Bun because Por wants to get rid of him, and the third time he's in danger is at the cottage house (he ran to, to think ahead, also the house Bun calls a trap/candy house this episode) where he again has to escape by hurting Bun and getting eliminated at the end of the episode.

By the end of episode 10, like Hansel also captured in the iron prison with no way of escape, Tan also ends up having no way to escape and is shot and pushed of a cliff on the run. He basically has a reached a point where all his energy and hard work to protect has been for nothing. Like Hansel realising the witch losing her impatience meant he and Gretel were both doomed, he couldn't protect her anymore. Just like Tan with Bun realised, he couldn't save Bun anymore; he couldn't save him self anymore, they were truly imprisoned by a powerful source. Obviously this is what the show is saying on the surface, that Tan and Bun like Hansel and Gretel became victims with no way out. And it's depressing if you let your self follow the storyline, it makes it even more scary and sad when you see both Bun and Tan get shot by people they trust like Inspector M. So Hansel and Tan both find themselves in a place where they can't use anything else anymore to escape and run away from their troubles, they're screwed by the end of the story at first. And things look dark for a while until Gretel shows up. This is why I think Bun like Gretel also has used his own mindset to think of way out, and be one step ahead. But before I explain about that, let' talk about our suspects, our powerful sources and our witch.

Candy Houses and Powerful Sources

These three previous episodes of MOD have been a ride. We unveiled that the Police Commander and Mayor are dangerous and will do whatever happens to ensure their secrets aren't unveiled. Like being happy to frame Tan for something, he didn't do. I just want to keep repeating however that they are not the suspect we are looking for, they're the red herrings, they're baddies but actually not that threatening. They don't like to take a life, apart from maybe Pat but they don't normally use that as a way of power, they're cowards, they do kidnaps, shipping people of, framing etc. but to actually use their hands to take a life is not on their agenda. That's why they're not the suspects of Jane's MoD, or Pued's either. I think they're being shown now because they're meant to represent one of the links to the witch in Hansel and Gretel, Power. But they're not the actual witch.

Let me explain more, you can see they don't get their own hands dirty, they have puppets to do so for them, for example, Tan to get rid of Bun, Inspector M to get rid of Tan, they're not the ones who used their own hands to take Jane's life, they either had a puppet do it (Pued), or they didn't know she was going to be eliminated yet. My theory is yeah, they had Pued do it, but they also had Rungtingwa who they underestimated. So I don't want to spend all the time talking about these two like I said we find out how wealthy and powerful the witch was in the tale and how her demise led to Hansel and the family living happily and successfully. Getting rid of the mayor and police commander will do a lot of good for the people at the end of episode 10, it'd promote Inspector M (if he is on the good side like I'm suspecting), it'd also give freedom to Tan and Bun and raise their reputation in a good way. Those powerful forces won't be able to hold them captive anymore. But LR you say, isn't Tan and Bun gone? Didn't Inspector M go bad and shoot Tan? Yeh, that's what the show is showing on the surface, but as I'm slowly getting to, the plot is shadowed by Hansel and Gretel, tricksters, cunning mindsets, one step ahead, it's foreshadowing; a ploy and M is part of that.  But I'm getting ahead of my self, let's focus on Rungtingwa and her witchy ways.

So in episode 9, Rung starts showing up again. In fact, she's our prominent supporter, she helps bail Tan out of jail, and she believes in him like a brother wholeheartedly, she calls Por out on his behaviour and callousness, and she also shakes her head at the police for their slowness with her sister's case. She's so elegant and pretty and smart and protective. She is the family member Tan needs in his life; she cares about them so much. In episode 10, she's even more of a saint-like at first. Because you got to start soon realising things aren't adding up a bit with her. One she's trusted by the police that they send her girls who are in need of money, home, safety to stay at her spa because they were going to be arrested to investigate their illegal whereabouts, this well off company that protects and keeps them taken care of.

Only all of a sudden for those same women to be transported to the mayor and the police commander to be abused and drugged repeatedly. Getting it? Rung's candy house is her spa. Like with Hansel and Gretel, the witch doesn't first show up as a witch to them, no she lures them in with the idea of one protection (they didn't have anywhere else to go), provision (they were starving and her house was made of cakes, bread etc.) and prevention (of them being alone, of their lives etc.), Rungtiwa shows up and does just the same thing. She offers protection by helping Tan leave the jail, and calling him her brother, a family member that he craves for because of his own dysfunctional relationship with Por.  She offers him provision of information, she offers not just them but the women and the police a space for the women who think they're safe with her in her spa, food, and anything they want. And she offers them prevention because these women weren't meant to be running away or being shipped, don't remember properly what the mayor said, but this was meant to be a safe spot for them, they were wowed by her spa, they felt comfortable and at peace. Like Hansel and Gretel were the first time they entered the candy house.

But looks are deceiving which is Rung's link to the tale. The witch sheds her skin and transforms into someone who's not only blood thirsty, (Rung is our suspect and has probably gotten rid of two people her sister and her ex-lover) and someone who only lures people in for her benefit, for her greed, power, satisfaction, strength. Remember Rung like Pued is doing all of this for power and reputation, and she's hiding the truth so she can be saved and protected by society because she's innocent. And the thing she's cold-hearted, she doesn't care about anyone in episode 9 she stands up for Tan and believes he's not the suspect (well because she knows he's not she is), but then she switches in episode 10, she blames him for taking the life of Pued in front of M and she says it in an anxious and shocking way that the brothers were this awful to each other when she said previously she knows Tan didn't do it. It's how she covers her self, how she hides who she is, as the witch to lure the kids. Hansel and Gretel weren't the first kids taken by this witch, that's what the bone was remnants of another kid eaten and destroyed by her. Rung is like that she leaves trails of people being discarded wherever she goes, she plots, and she plans her own way out. And if Pued wants to talk, then she has to get rid of him. This is why I know she knows who helped her take her sister's life. Sigh. But again I commend her villainy. She's cruel, but it's very very wanted in a villain, she isn't weak, and she doesn't let people get in her way. That's w a villain hatis meant to be. Right now she's winning because no one has suspected it's her, but I think she forgot one thing like the witch; Gretel, but also she was blindsided. Let me explain

Shocking Additions and Sneaky Weaknesses

Rung didn't expect Inspector M to be one of her weak spots. In episode 10, Inspector M discovered some of the truth and started to notice that he was in a corrupted system. Right now, Commander is thinking Inspector M is on his side and has given into corruption because of fear and power however no matter how dumb he is, Inspector M has always been for justice that's his flaw and character, like Bun he's been trying to do the right thing. Now he's slowly piecing together that some people are not to be trusted in this scenario; for example, Rung's spa because she's aiding the commander in hiding those girls. She underestimated him, and that's going to be her downfall.

Also, the commander and mayor are ruined because they've let in someone also in a mask, Inspector M is working with Tan and Bun to hide their plans. So like Hansel, Tan has found a way to think one step ahead. Like Gretel Bun has let himself be the one that is sacrificed as a guise actually to sacrifice the witch, to lure all of them out in their pride and triumph, to expose them. Tan pretended to get rid of Bun this episode 10, to make everyone involved calm and weak and unsuspecting and that's important, that's how Gretel tricks the witch, however, the witch's blindsight is pointing to Rung and the others not knowing Inspector M is involved and is determined to help solve the crime and find the suspect. So Tan, Bun, M have all joined together to find a way to expose the powerful sources and get rid of their captors also to save the other people especially Nam and That. So everyone who is still in shock by episode 10, know this, Hansel and Gretel is about being one step ahead, Tan and Bun are one step ahead of the chase, the only way to win and overcome their captors was to surrender or pretend to surrender (like Gretel and Hansel did) and next week all of them will start to crumble one by one. But if you're still worried about how the show will end, then focus on the ending of Hansel and Gretel

Triumphant Victors and Enhanced Reputations

So let's review the ending to make you all calm down. 

One Hansel and Gretel come out alive, they get rid of the witch. Everyone is safe. That's important to know Tan and Bun, That hopefully as well (not sure about him though) are safe, they're going to be okay. 

Two they get rid of the witch, Inspector M will get his answer and find the culprits. 

Three, they reunite with people, especially family and are seen in a different way, apologised to and taken care of. Tan and Por will reunite, and the truth of Pued will come out, making Por realise the error of his ways. Tan will reunite with his family and get the love he wanted and craved. 

Four they end up all successful, happy and wealthy. I think this one is pretty obvious getting rid of the powerful sources of the town opens up places for change and for more people to be put in authority. Bun's words will be taken seriously and respected. Tan gets a job he's happy with, and M will probably be promoted. In a way, M is also like the father figure that needs to apologise and say he's sorry because he's also been like Por neglectful and troublesome, an obstacle and so he also needs to agree he's wrong and reunite his friendship with Bun. 

So Hansel ends up actually surviving after being helped by others to get to his destination and reunite with his family again. Tan will finally have that happy life he wanted, and he no longer has to be a puppet for others and do things without his will. He also has love differently, he also has Bun, and the two husbands can go back and be domestic and happy solving other issues and crimes whilst mourning Jane and maybe others and letting her go peacefully.

So you see why I love fairy tale meta? It helps you uncover the truth, leads you to knowing why they add some dialogues or hints in the show. It also reveals the facades of people who are not what they seem. Rung is getting away with everything she does, and we the audience picked up on it in the surface, we also probably understood it was a staged event that Tan shot Bun but it's nice to have something else that shows you the show is clever and one step ahead. When I first heard Hansel and Gretel, I panicked because I was like what do you mean Hansel and Gretel like that's sibling bond, I don't know what similarities they could possibly have with the show like Little mermaid made so much sense because I could tell Tan would be forced to get rid of Bun, and that's a theme in the fairytale. Still, Hansel and Gretel, I couldn't put my mind to it. And yet here we are, the show is brilliant, there is meta, there is foreshadowing not just with on the surface clues but also with subtext, there's a reason why the plots in episode 10 went the way they did, there's a reason why we ended up hearing about certain things, and I think that's a good sign of a good show, more in-depth and thoughtful. So I can't wait to see the reveal that our husbands are okay and they are going to win this battle however we still have four episodes so maybe let's not yet get comfortable. I still hold on to my theory. Pued is one of the suspects of Jane, and Rung helped him, but she also is the one who got rid of him. If not, maybe someone else Oat? Haha, but no seriously I would really love another plot twist. But I also like the show having layers and being so thrilling every episode, always making us want more. Well done to the cast and crew for a good BL, unique, smart, and one step ahead. I enjoy it. Thank you.

[finalheaven]

Hi guys, here’s a translation of Ayumi Ito’s interview from the newly released Material Ultimania. We also translated Sakurai Takahiro’s interview and will share it this week.

We love Ito. She is such a warm and intelligent woman, and you can tell she really loves and enjoys voicing Tifa. Did you know she took kickboxing during the recording period to better perform as Tifa?

More can be found behind the cut!

Q: Please share your reaction when you first heard that FFVII Remake would be made.

A: I couldn’t believe that they would want me to play Tifa again, and I was like, “Are you fine with me?” I was very anxious to be able to show how much I had developed, and I’m very thankful for the staff who believed in me, so I thought that I’d try my best to not go against their expectations. Actually, I asked Irino Miyu (Sora in Kingdom Hearts) who I co-starred with before, for advice to prepare for recording. I still have difficulties performing using only my voice and without using my body and expressions, so he directly taught me various techniques.

Q: What kind of performance plan did you have in mind for playing Tifa in the original FFVII story?

A: In FFVII: Advent Children, I had the impression that she was relatively anxious and seemed to watch over everyone one step away, but this time Tifa gives off an enjoyable presence and charming side to herself. For example, she giggles unintentionally at Barret and Cloud’s banter, shows a little bit of a strong stern side… There were times when they used lines when I naturally laughed when recording while listening to Barret and the others’ voices that were previously recorded.

Q: I believe this is the first time that you’ve been a VA for a whole, fully voiced RPG, so please share your thoughts during recording. 

A: I was very moved when it ended because recording took 2~3 years. Acting jobs take around 5 months at most, so it was a new experience to be able to play one role for how many years, and I was careful to not pull in from roles in other works that I was playing in parallel. Once again I felt how amazing VAs are for performing various roles at the same time.

Q: How did you try expressing Tifa’s personality which is said to be “acts cheerful but is relatively timid on the inside”?

A: While discussing with the staff, I performed each scene being quite particular in regards to how much of her delicate side should show. Shaken up, acting cheerful, or really enjoying herself; I thought over and created her emotions for those moments in detail.

Q: Please share what you kept in mind when you acted the scene where Tifa let out her emotions to Cloud in the flower field in the night before going to rescue Aerith from Shinra.

A: I actually cried while performing that scene. The thoughts that Tifa carried all came out at once and it was a very memorable speech. Usually Tifa tends to repress her feelings, and I was struggling with the subtleties of how much emotion she should speak with. So, it was easier to straightforwardly get all the feelings out.

Q: Was it tough to act being more and more tired and keep the conversation going during the scene where they climbed up the emergency staircase to the 59th floor of the Shinra building?

A: Tifa wasn’t that tired and rapidly goes on ahead, so it wasn’t that hard. Instead, it was fun to bring out Tifa’s stern side as she severely scolds Barret and Cloud who are behind her.

(Editor Notes: lockharts would like you to know Tifa is basically telling Cloud and Barret to get their shit together. 😂)

Q: What do you think about the different difficulties when acting out event scenes and battle lines?

A: While I understood in my head the kind of action, I had a hard time when it didn’t go according to what I imagined. For example, when asked for a “shout when jumping around 50m,” I imagined the kind of strength if I were to actually jump, and performed while actually putting strength into my body. Actually, I wanted to perform while feeling the physical all body movements in the fight scenes this time, so I started to learn kickboxing during the recording period. Thanks to that, I was very happy when the sound director said to me, “You were able to express Tifa’s strength more than before.”

Q: What is your most impressionable Tifa line in Remake?

A: I can’t forget the lines in the flower field scene, but my favorite is the scene where she receives a flower from Cloud who just returned to Seventh Heaven. I believe it is a very lovely scene that includes Tifa’s liking towards Cloud. Also, it was very amusing to perform the banter when meeting crossdressed Cloud at Corneo's mansion. It isn’t a line, but I personally kind of like the scene where Cloud jumps out of the train while holding her tightly (laughs).

Q: Please share if you have any unforgettable memories while recording.

A: I remember when my growling stomach was picked up by the microphones a lot, so I concentrated to somehow not let it growl (laughs). I guess other times for scenes that did not have the video completed yet, I acted while recalling Cloud and the others’ forms in the space in front of me in order to grasp the distance between me and who I was talking to. I couldn’t do it before due to my lack of technique, but now I can visualize the other characters and voice acting became even more enjoyable.

Q: After Remake, has your impression regarding Tifa changed?

A: I was able to feel a more three dimensional sense of her humanity and way of thinking. There were lines in the script that for a moment made me go, “she’d say this?” or “she’d go this far?”, but over time while recording I came to understand that “Tifa has sides when she’d say things like this”, and I was very happy that Tifa’s character was steadily fleshed out within me. 

Q: What do you think makes Tifa so appealing?

A: This is just my own interpretation, but probably how her maternal quality and strength are subtly hidden, and at her core she will “definitely see it through to protect someone”. She is reliable and you want to protect her, and I can’t describe her in one word; she’s a very endearing woman. It is a common occurrence when playing a role, but for example, if the role has a subtle personality, there’s a tendency for that to be it without depicting other characteristics. I believe that only in a game where you can spend a long time portraying a character you can feel so many different sides of her.

Q: Please share your expectations and enthusiasm for upcoming Remake projects.

A: In order for everyone to enjoy it even more, I would like to give it my all at those times. It is probably difficult to find a portrayal for everyone to understand, but I would like to get close to that level as much as possible. I’m honored to be able to play a wonderful character like Tifa, so I will continue to concentrate on expanding her appeal more deeply. 

Q: Please give a message to fans of the FFVII series.

A: My friend who is a FF fan said to me, “I’m very thankful that despite the difficult time the world is in, I was taken to a world different from reality while playing this.” There aren’t many works that can influence someone like this, and it might be presumptuous for me to say, but you can enjoy the wonderful performances of the cast, and I hope you thoroughly play through it all and look forward to the next game.

Notes:

Translated by tsubomi from FH

Edited by lockharts from FH

HQ scans provided by mayaaris from FH

Follow @finalheaven​ and @bestofcloti on Twitter for more content.

[bigskydreaming]

That post about "I'll keep reading a fic that mischaracterizes Dick even if it angers me because the plot is interesting" but with Scott McCall. I'll come across genuinely interesting concepts and plots and power through for that even when Scott is portrayed negatively in the story, he's there at least and it's either that or wading through 99% of fic which centers Stiles/Sterek and the most common Scott tag being "Scott's a bad friend" ya know?

Honestly, what is it about Scott McCall and Dick Grayson that gets them (mis)treated so similarly by their respective fandoms?

Oh yeah, definitely. Tbh, part of why I’m so loud and obnoxious in Batfandom is because in TW fandom it eventually got to the point where I just had to stop reading fic completely, because I wasn’t finding anything that was Scott-friendly outside of the handful of writers I was already friends with and I just got fed up. And I’m too stubborn to do the same thing twice in two separate fandoms so I just....refuse to give up on DG fic by way of a rousing morning “Not today Satan” pep talk. fhslakhfkal

But honestly, the parallels, there are more than a few:

1) Obviously I do think the racism element has plenty to do with it. Especially in the way “is Scott really even Latino on the show though, I mean did they ever actually SAY it” arguments could be swapped out almost word for word with the “is Dick really even Romani in the comics though, I mean it was just a retcon” arguments. With the primary aim of arguments against this being a factor focusing on just invalidating the idea that either are characters of color in the first place, rather than examining the way people engage with these characters for signs of racism. Instead of trying to refute that there’s anything wrong with certain ways people interact with these characters, people jump right into “well there can’t be racism if the character in question isn’t even REALLY a character of color, y’know not like, a board-certified one with proper accreditation and everything.”

But its definitely interesting when you look at how Dick Grayson’s been perceived by fandom overall, like, in terms of looking back over the years. As someone who’s been in and out of DC fandoms to various degrees since the late 90s, as in before Dick was retconned as being Romani in the first place, and as I’ve said before, he used to be a LOT more popular and forgiven for stuff in the past in fandom.....like, I maintain that if you look back at the early 2000s-2010, aka when that retcon was not just written, but gradually and more fully spread into the fandom’s overall awareness and perception of the character....you can almost like, SEE the empathy gap suddenly click into place once he was more fully solidified as a character of color in a lot of fans’ minds. Even if they won’t admit it because that would require admitting to the racism that then began to seep into how they interacted with this character now, compared to how they’d interacted with this character in the past.

And I think the empathy gap - and the complete refusal to admit that’s even a thing, because its not like these are REALLY characters of color so why would it even apply - like, I think that goes a long way to explaining the way both Scott and Dick consistently have their traumas invalidated and ignored by large parts of their fandoms, with the focus always being shifted to how bad things that happen to them are really MORE bad for how they affect the people around them, etc.

2) It also I think has a lot to do with their personalities and the archetypes they both embody as empathetic caregiver types. I think I described it pretty well here in my BUABS fic:

“What do you know about Impostor Syndrome?"

"It's a term sometimes used to describe over-achievers who have trouble internalizing their accomplishments. Perfectionists who think they're frauds because they don't know how to take credit for their own achievements and say its because of luck or timing or something other people did," Dick frowned, puzzling through both the question and the aim of it. He raised an eyebrow. "Doesn't sound like something that applies to someone as arrogant as me."

"Don't be a little shit, Dick," Dinah said with small smirk. "And you're right, I don't think any of that applies to you. However, it's also used in another capacity, to describe trauma survivors who are unable to internalize their own trauma. Who deflect from it, or mitigate it, treat it as less than it is on the basis that it wasn't as bad as what's happened to someone else. It's especially common in trauma survivors who are noted for being especially empathetic or who have caregiver personality types. People who are so used to self-identifying as someone whose role or purpose is in helping others, that they find themselves unable to identify as traumatized because it might shift the focus to themselves instead of people they feel need it more. Does that behavior sound a little more familiar?"

(For the record, that fic is set in the YJ universe, not the comics, and I go with the approach that Dick and Bruce have a much better relationship there than they do in the comics, and thus overall Dick’s mental health and self-esteem are better than in the comics, generally speaking. I only mention this as a tangent, but like....I think Impostor Syndrome as an issue for perfectionists and over-achievers with low self-esteem DOES pertain to comic book Dick Grayson as well as its trauma interpretation. But anyway).

But point is, I think that describes both Dick and Scott, and their respective approaches to dealing (or not dealing) with their personal traumas. This isn’t a problem in and of itself, as its a valid survivor reaction and issue plenty of people deal with....the problem lies in the willingness of fans to capitalize on the OPPORTUNITIES this presents, as fans of other characters, to keep the focus trained on the characters around these two, and THEIR issues, even at the expense of these two.

Basically, its not in either of their natures to ASK for help and forcefully DRAG focus and awareness to themselves and their issues, for a number of reasons including the fact that I don’t think either character feels they ‘deserve’ that focus or need that help more than other people need theirs. 

And because these characters are the empathetic caregiver archetypes in their respective ensembles, ie the ones who usually take the lead in reaching out to even characters who don’t normally ask for help themselves....there’s often no one else immediately popping up in reader awareness as like, a likely candidate to extend that same awareness and offer of aid to Dick and Scott even without them actually asking for it.

(Which, is a large part of my commitment to the theme “Stop assembling your ensembles with just ONE of each archetype, mix and match more, or like....use more hybrid archetypes so you don’t HAVE this problem, and also, stop limiting characters to JUST their archetypes, three-dimensional people aren’t confined to only acting upon a limited menu of actions and impulses, and neither should three-dimensional characters be.”)

And then of course there’s the additional component, linked to point #1, that a lot of people refuse to write other characters seeing their need for help or support or offering it even when they do see it, simply because like....they don’t WANT these characters to HAVE help or support.

3) The Intelligence Factor - as in, do they really have it? Both Scott McCall and Dick Grayson are repeatedly and consistently established in their respective canons as being extremely intelligent, and no, not JUST in emotional intelligence. I don’t like sounding like I’m undervaluing that particular form of intelligence, I’m just really irritated by the way people go about saying “oh I do admit they have very high emotional intelligence” like they’re throwing them some kind of a bone. LMAO. No. They both have high emotional intelligence, true, but they’re also extremely intelligent across the board in all other ways. Both are excellent strategists, quick-thinking and repeatedly out-maneuvering even other noted strategists, both display a quick grasp of new information and an ability to see how and where and when to PUT that information to use in practical applications, etc. These are not dumb characters, at ALL.

But fandoms have this weird committment to the idea that only the Smartest Person In The Room REALLY matters, and like, there can only be one of those per room, or like, at most two, so that they can be a matched pair and make kissing noises and then very smart babies, or like, they can be the doting (smart) father and his adored (smartest) son, all others can go home now.

Like, no, that’s not how that works. A room full of geniuses does not suddenly become a room full of ONE genius and a bunch of random and irrelevant cuz they’re dumb non-geniuses the second someone deemed King of the Smarties enters the room. That’s not a thing. Stop acting like that’s a thing, fandoms. Nobody’s intelligence is actually threatened by the presence of more than one character with notable intelligence. Also fuck off with the adoration of notable intelligence like people have more value the more decimal points of pi they can recite off the top of their head. That’s not a more evolved human being, that’s just a nerd. Nerds have value but no more than people who like, chose other life pursuits aside from nerddom.

(Not actually intended as a slight against nerds, just for the record. I say that as both a self-described nerd and also a self-loathing nerd and also lol I’m not a nerd. Look, I’m a very nuanced person okay. I put the complex in complex organism).

But the point here is not just that people are weird about there only being one true genius allowed per ensemble, its that people are WEIRD about how in order to ACTUALLY be smart, you need to like.....accurately match the factory specs for “this is how a smart person looks and behaves.”

And Scott and Dick do not look and behave that way. The sheer number of times - and similar ways - people try to completely discredit the idea they have more than one brain cell by pointing to times they’re being INTENTIONALLY goofy and being like “oh yeah, would a smart person do THAT, hmmmm”.....

Its like...yes? LOL. There is no law that says that a smart person can not be a goofball, or that they are no longer smart if they fulfill a certain quota of actions deemed ‘dopey’ by the official arbiters of smartness.

Similarly the way people like to point at stuff like “my mom buys the groceries” when the writers BEHIND the characters were intentionally trying to play up a comedic moment rather than make a sealed declaration of IQ, and be like, “see, would a smart person be THAT dumb, hmmm?”

First of all, yes, even going off the same canon people try and cite as proof Scott and Dick are too dumb to actually be smart.....you can literally find similarly ‘dumb’ moments for every other TW character....the Sheriff expressed incredulity that Stiles didn’t know what a pendant was, and Lydia was like wtf how are you this dumb at Stiles when he asked if she read the movie the Little Mermaid because he didn’t know there was also a book.....Allison made the same mistake about bestiary as Scott did because the writers were so impressed by that joke they literally had to do it twice....and do not get me STARTED on the number of moments I can point to in comics AND movies AND cartoons where everyone from Bruce to Tim to Jason to Damian and more, like, make utter bonehead moves or utter completely bonehead sentences.

Despite what rumors of my being an ancient eldritch being might have some believe, I did not actually know Albert Einstein personally, but I can still with complete confidence say I GUARANTEE that at more than one point in his life, even he did things that might have been pointed at by time-travelers on vacay as evidence that geez, old-timey smart people were really dumb, huh.

And I think we would all agree that Albert Einstein was actually a very smart man.

But yeah, point is, both Scott and Dick are very smart characters who for a lot of reasons - including personal choice, as in, they don’t really see the appeal in conforming to standards of what a smart person is SUPPOSED to be like (especially when those standards have a weird amount in common with tendencies often described as elitist or condescending or like, having or pertaining to the qualities of an asshole) - like, they just don’t typically behave or conduct themselves in ways that match up with a lot of the assumptions people have for what ‘makes’ a genius or what that’s supposed to look or sound like.

And because they don’t SEEM like they’re that smart, a lot of effort then gets put into insisting that they’re definitely not, and they can’t be, because see look how dumb here and here and here.....which then leeches over into other aspects of the characters and their stories and dynamics, and then combines with the issues resulting from Point 1 and Point 2 and probably two more I’m not thinking of at the moment but are definitely there so that by their powers combined.....fandom summons Captain Dumbass to take over most interactions with these particular characters. And thus repeatedly and insistently engages with these two and their stories only in very dumb, very limited, and VERY annoying ways.

[emma-what-son]

(Echee post) Emma Watson gets drunk and scales a fence naked

Posted on March 20, 2014

In her new interview for Elle Emma admitted something that correlates a tweet from a witness from in July 2011 on location filming Perks of being a Wallflower From snitchseeker.com May 2014, "Among her exploits: She dated a costar Johnny Simmons, and she broke into a swimming pool at 3 A.M. "It was at a hotel," she reports happily. "It had a gate around it. My friends turned around and basically, I was gone. And the next thing they saw was me seven feet up in the air, scaling this fence." This, apparently, is not as out of character as we might suppose. Watson says coyly: "I shouldn’t be able to get away with what I’m getting away with." Here is the tweet from July 2011 and here is a POST I originally posted it in at the time "@_MarieChristine $*MarieChristine; Saw @EmWatson get so drunk that she got naked n climbed the fence to go into the swimming pool at my friend's hotel......http://twitter.com/#!/_MarieChristine." So it was true. I'm not posting the quotes here (I'll link the posts with them below) but to generalize this is a girl that claims to be shy and doesn’t like to party and doesn’t drink to have a good time because it makes her really sleepy and she’s just so boring she says and blah, blah blah. She sucks people in with these statements are herself that makes people like her. It's not just about drinking and getting drunk but everything. Nothing about her is genuine in any shape or form. She is a fraud.

In a recent interview for Wonderland Magazine Emma admitted like she always has which has been one big lie that she's boring and doesn't like being the center of attention.

So in her Wonderland magazine Emma says she shy, socially awkward and a introverted person. For some reason I don't believe her. There are certain things about her that leads me to believe she is not shy or the least bit introverted. The first part of this question asked her straight out as she ever wanted to go off the rails and get drunk and she talked about getting a tattoo but never fully answered that question. The follow up question which is split below in two parts was, "But you’re not as puritanical as that, Emma" So let's look at some thing 1.) From wonderlandmagazine.com Feb 2014, "The truth is that I’m genuinely a shy, socially awkward, introverted person." Posing half naked

For years Emma has said she was shy. From topcelebrityheadlines.com June 2011, "I’m shy." From zimbio.com May 2011, "It's really hard to have a love story for me. I'm a famous actress. And I'm shy." From digitalspy.com October 2010, "Actually, I'm quite shy. I've never liked attention." From iheartwatson.net June 2011 “I still feel shy, but I feel more like I can accept it.” Her come hither looks which I limited for space reasons. There are many and I left out new ones from the Noah premiere. This is not a trait of shy and introverted people.

I doubt a truly shy and introverted people are going to say they'll strip to gain approval for anything. From mtv.com November 2010 (NYC Deathly Hallows) When we caught up with Watson just before she ducked into the theater, we informed her that 90 percent of our viewers had given her wardrobe choice — a specially made Calvin Klein gown — an enthusiastic thumbs-up in an MTV News online poll "Awww, really? Wow, that's such a high percentage!" she exclaimed. "Wow, I aced it, obviously. That's great." While 90 percent is definitely a high number, what might she do in order to get the full 100 percent of viewers' approval? "I don't know, take it off?" she quipped. Then there is her modeling which doesn't strike me as someone that is shy or introverted.

So shy and introverted she can tell a radio host some guy thinks she looks good naked From nudography.com 2008 'Harry Potter' film actress Emma Watson has said she would do a nude scene in a future film or stage role if the script called for it. Watson got on the topic of getting naked on BBC's Live Five radio "I think it's wonderful that Daniel is willing to be so brave for his craft. It's a big risk doing something like this while being so internationally known, but he's a true professional". When asked if she would ever bare all for her art, Watson replied, "Yes, absolutely. I would do it if the script called for it. I guess I would be a little nervous, but I've been told I look good naked, so I guess I've got little to worry about". When Shaffer asked Watson who thinks she looks good naked, she playfully said, "Now, now! I won't say. But I trust his expert opinion." Then there is her attention seeking along with her sultry poses and outfits she sometimes wears. Below is a series of photos from the Cannes for TBR. Everyone is walking up the steps arm and arm but Emma stops to grab the spotlight. Once she takes the arm of a cast mate she can't stop turning around smiling, giggling and waving. Once she gets to the top she hooting and hollering and then blows a series of kisses as her cast mates walk inside. This is not someone that is shy and introverted.

Claiming she wished she did more naughty things is yet another example of what a shy and introverted person would not say. From harrypotterfan.net Nov 2010, "I wished I’d done more naughty things. Three months ago I cut my hair and at that moment I felt I became a woman. I’m ready to start taking risks. I feel less girlish than ever." ... cough ... cough... From emma-watson.net September 2013 (GQ awards), “Given the perilousness in the journey from child star to adult, any award with ‘Woman’ in the title is frankly a relief!” <---- thought she, "I’ve never been in a terrible rush to be seen as a woman.” Then there is the choices of some of her outfits. If you're shy and introverted you're not going to show some flesh and you're certainly not going to show some flesh on TV or at a strip club. The last thing you want to do is draw attention to yourself. You'd be more than happy to dress modestly. There are just a few and I limited them for space reason as well. I left out her recent plunging neckline outfit from the Noah premiere in Madrid and many others like her famed 2009 HBP premiere wardrobe malfunction outfit.

From Elle magazine April 2011 iheartwatson.net, "Does having short hair make you dress differently? ’I think it’s made me bolder in my fashion choices. It’s allowed me to dress more sexily.’” cough ... cough... From omg.yahoo.com W magazine May 2013, “I’ve never wanted to grow up too fast: I wanted to wear a sports bra until I was 22! The allure of being sexy never really held any excitement for me. I’ve never been in a terrible rush to be seen as a woman.” Never heard of a shy and introverted person want o dress more sexually because of a haircut. Then there is her constant blowing of kisses which she does a lot of which all the classic pin ups like Marilyn Monroe ands other used to do. I guess it has nothing to do with shyness but introverted people are not going to go around blowing kisses at people or into the camera.

Then there are moments like this. Who does this? Shy and introverted? I think not. This is begging for attention and just plain weird.

Blowing kisses, posing, giving that sultry look and just enjoying all the attention is not the trait of a shy and introverted person.

Now the only thing I believe her on is the socially awkward part.

Now to the second part of that quote 2.) "At a big party, I’m like Bambie in the headlights. It’s too much stimulation for me, which is why I end up going to the bathroom! I need time outs! You’ve seen me at parties, Derek. I get anxious. I’m terrible at small talk and I have a ridiculously short attention span." I doubt this is true. She loves to be the center of attention on red carpets. She loves the attention. So why would parties be any different? At Coachella (bottom left photo) she was moshing at some points on stage.

This video shows her dancing on stage but there is another I lost of a video shooting down from the stage over Emma's head and you can see she's in plain view of the thousands in attendance. When I find it I'll post it. Shy and introverted people that can't take all the stimulation like she says would not put themselves out there amongst strangers and onlookers. If so, what kind of shy and introverted person is that? To see her drunk/leaving clubs and to read her contradicting quotes about drinking click these links below Emma doesn't like to party Emma never goes clubbing Emma can drink like sailor Emma lied about not drinking at Brown So basically like so much I covered on this blog by exposing her BS this is yet another example One more thing and it's a quote I've posted many times but she keeps on changing her tune In this new interview I started this post off with she also said From snitchseeker.com May 2014, "I was being offered roles that I didn’t feel were very complicated," she says. "Women that were a bit one-dimensional. Roles that required me to be one thing. Real women never are." So, rather than embrace mediocre work, she hid out in Providence, Rhode Island, emerging only for projects that would both stretch her muscles and challenge her public persona." But yet she said something different during her time at Brown From aceshowbiz.com November 2010 She tells U.S. magazine Parade, "I get some amazing offers to act, and sometimes it's hard to say, 'No, I'm going to stay here and do my homework.' People are like, 'What do you mean she's not available?' This college experience is really important to me, and I won't give it up." And yet it was not about roles at all two years ago. It was about her studying From nytimes.com September 2012, “Why hasn’t she done more films before now? “I think at first I didn’t because I was always either studying or filming, I didn’t have time to go off and do other films or other things to sort of show people that, Oh, she is not just Hermione, she is an actress and she can go and do these other parts and roles." So which is the truth and which is the lie?  So Sam in Perks and Nicki in TBR were complicated roles that she ended up leaving two Universities for? How about her small role in MWWM that took her a little over a week to film?

[calliecat93]

Top 5 Things I Liked About RWBY Volume 7

(Top Dislikes)

Gosh, we are so close to Volume 8 now, and it’s driving me crazy! But we’re not there yet. So let’s continue to remember what Volume 7 delivered upon us. Last time I did the Dislikes post, so now it’s time for the Top 5 Likes post! Which this was so, SO much easier to come up with than the Dislikes list! Like I said there, this volume is so well-written and jam-packed full-on content. It was a rollercoaster of a ride where even though I didn’t want to get back on for a while, that thrill was everlasting. Whether V8 will give the same result will be determined soon, but for now let’s go over the Top 5 Likes of RWBY Volume 7. As always, just my opinion, so take with a grain of salt~

Okay, let’s go!

#5. Oscar Development

By far one of the biggest criticisms against Volume 6 was how it handled Oscar. There was a LOT of good setup concerning his identity crisis as he struggled with keeping control, maintaining his own identity, and the potential burden of just being another of Oz’s wasted lives. While he DID reach a new confidence by the end which was nice, it... was more or less offscreen. To many, myself included, Oscar felt wasted and I specifically criticized how the execution made it feel like depite what Ruby said and what the narrative is trying to say, it DOES feel like Oscar’s viewed as just Oz’s vessel and that’s all his importance amounted to. I was hoping that Volume 7 was going to rectify this like they did with Ruby in Volume 6. Did they do so?

Absolutely yes.

While they still have a bad habit of setting up Oscar in trouble but it turning out to be a fake-out (his disappearance due to Neo), the volume did a LOT to improve his position. With Oz gone, Oscar has to be diplomatic on his own. He’s in a position where he can get close to Ironwood in a way that the others can’t and see him actually vulnerable. Unlike the others, who keep just pointing out to Ironwood how his actions are problematic to varying degrees, Oscar can see what’s really causing it: fear. Which is something that Oscar can relate to. After all, he was terrified when his quest began, but he always faced it and went forward everything to do what was right. Even when it meant leaving home, even when it meant facing unjust anger from others, he did so.

Oscar tries to reason with Ironwood. He tries to have him realize that it’s okay to be afraid. That it’s okay  to be honest with those around him. That it’s okay to be vulnerable. Ironwood isn’t the only one either. In the beginning, he’s worried about Ruby’s lie because of how much it reminds him of what Oz did to them. You could argue that he’s developed into the conscious of the group, but he knows how to reason with these matters in a peaceful way. He’s becoming more of a diplomat similar to Ozpin, which even Ironwood points out in Chapter 9.

Then there’s the finale. Sadly, despite all of his pleas and how much he reached out to him, Ironwood ultimately rejected him and Oz. He rejected the route of trust and embraced fear, sealing the deal by shooting Oscar. But while he couldn’t help Ironwood, he did help someone else: Ozpin. His words convinced the former headmaster to at last return and face his own fears, saving them both. It also allowed Oscar to gain more of Oz’s power and memories. The boy has gone form a scared teenager entering a world he doesn’t truly understand, to becoming a courageous young man filled with compassion and hope for those around him. And this time, we got to actually see that growth unfold. He’s still got a long path ahead of him, but this greatly amended Oscar’s character and I am grateful for it.

#4. Penny Polendina

SHE CAME BACK! YAY!!! I MISSED HER SO MUCH!!!

Every since hr death in V3, I fully expected Penny to come back at some point. And indeed, she did! And with her memory intact, thank goodness! While I do wish we got some more exploration in how she felt about dying and such, her role int his volume was so well done I can forgive it. She has more screentime in this volume than Volumes 1-3 combined, and I love it! A cute new design, her struggling between duty and her own wants, trying to understand feelings and finding them to be a beautiful thing, there is SO MUCH going on with her here.

Penny is part of Ironwood’s inner circle, having been assigned as he Protector of Mantle. She takes her job seriously and does her best to protect the citizens. She’s elated to see Ruby and the others again and tries to assist them as much as she can. But as the volume goes, we see how much she struggles between her dedication to Mantle and Ironwood’s orders. It’s especially clear fter she is framed for the massacre during the elections. The poor girl is mortified, everyone viewing her as just another of Ironwood’s robots. Even Ironwood feels this way with his insensitive comment bout her being ‘under his control’ during the Council Meeting. The poor girl just needs a hug.

But this helps set Penny apart from Atlas. Unlike the others, who are following orders, Penny is trying to follow her heart. She tries to encourage Winter to do the same when she snapped at Jaques, even saying that all she did was speak form the heart and has no reason to feel ashamed of it. After Ironwood declares martial law, she is clearly upset and outright says that it’s wrong. She even asks Winter if this bothers her, and isn’t very convinced by her argument about the general taking on the burden. Penny chooses to embrace her feelings, not reject them as Winter, the Ace-Ops, and Ironwood have done.

It ends with Penny comforting Fria as her Maiden powers go out of control. How does she do this? She simply goes up to her and gently asks her if she’s okay. She shows the old woman more compassion and care than she’s probably had in quite a while. As a result, Fria ultimately transfers the Winter Maiden powers ot her. It proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that despite being a robot, Penny is a real girl. Hell, she is by far the most human of the Atlesian characters in this volume. She ultimately feels disheartened by Fria’s death, but still goes with Ruby and the others because that’s the right thing.

Penny’s character arc was a delight. There were so many expectations with her return, and I am so happy with the result! Penny feels so much more three-dimensional now. She still has the sweetness that made us love her before, but she also grew as a character. She embraced her feelings, she made choices for herself after having to abide by Ironwood’s rules for so long, she even managed to get some payback on Cinder for her death. Her good-heart and kindness was rewarded at the end. I do worry for her, especially since Salem’s Whale Grimm is absolutely a Montstro reference, but I’m still so happy with her in this volume~

3. The Atlas/Mantle Conflict

I am... not good at talking about this kind of thing, so I apologize if this seems rambly or all over the place. The big conflict pf the volume was the division between Atlas and Mantle. We knew going in how Atlas was seen as a bastion of civilization, but also full of snobs and an army leader who doesn’t exactly have his priorities straight. We knew that Mantle was the former capital and it was easy to assume that it probably wasn’t in the best state... and HO BOY were we right.

While Atlas looks futuristic and pristine, Mantle is run-down and out-of-date. The former capital and it’s people have not been treated well and worse, Atlas controls everything including their heating system. Ironwood has forced the city to be without essential provisions for Amity, and has therefore left them vulnerable to the Grimm. It’s easy to see why Mantle would resent Ironwood and Atlas as a whole, and why it was easy for Watts and Tyrian to widen the divide. It’s like the Chorus conflict in the Chorus Trilogy in RvB, only we’re there to see the division outright instead of coming in many years later. Our heroes are trying to mend the divide, but it’s so much easier said than done when neither side will budge.

There’s a lot of contrast with the two sides. Ironwood is a seemingly cold man with an authoritarian streak. Robyn is more laid-back, if a little cocky but her heart is very much set on helping Mantle. Both can be very brash and place trust above all else. But they both run their respective groups very differently. Robyn views the Happy Huntresses as her friends, while Ironwood trained the Ace-Ops to be his loyal attack dogs. Robyn is willing to give her trust until it gets broken, while Ironwood is wrapped by his own paranoia. We see how these two groups function. They have similarities, but are also very different especially when it comes to how their leaders treat their respective groups.

There is a HUGE class issue between Atlas and Mantle. It’s not helped by Ironwood’s plans causing further suffering, and of course in the end he chooses to leave it open to Salem in favor of saving Atlas. The fandom has fought back and forth for months over if this was right or not, which only proves the point of the division. You can see where each side is coming from, and we care for the people on each side. The conflict was presented throughout the volume with the heroes trying to help, but they sadly fail. The moment Tyrian’s slaughter happens in Chapter 6, you can break the tension with a butter knife and it doesn’t let up. We’ll probably only see more of it with Volume 8 now that Mantle has no protection. But as far as this volume goes, it was presented very well and very strongly.

#2. The Fall of James Ironwood

Love him or hate him, Ironwood is by far one of the strongest written characters in the show. Ever since his intro in Volume 2, we have been building up to this moment. The man has a LO of flaws. He’s arrogant, brash, favors military might over being discreet, and has a bad tendency to not learn form his missteps. These flaws contributed to the Fall of Beacon. But we also saw a man who was honest, righteous, respected Ozpin, and for all had flaws seemed to have good intentions. He was always willing to put himself on the front lines and took none of Jaques’ elitist shit. Sure he caused the Dust Embargo and closed Atlas down, but he also defended Weiss in Volume 4 and was clearly upset about the Fall fo Beacon. We saw a flawed, but still good man and if he could just embrace his flaws and open his heart, he could have been the great hero that he appeared to be.

Sadly thought, that wasn’t meant to be.

Ironwood is shown to be dishelved and plagued by paranoia, but he HAS created a plan to re-establish communications and expose Salem. But his police state with Mantle has the heroes concerned, so they lie to him about Oz and the lamp. The man continues to make questionable decisions, like I already said about his treatment of Mantle. But he still seems devoted tot he cause and like despite these calls, his intentions are still good and it will pay off even with the bad press. Heck, after Robyn tells him to trust her in Chapter 9 and with a push form Oscar, he seemed to FINALLY be doing the right thing. he revealed the truth about Salem to everyone, he worked alongside Mantle, and he faced Watts in the same place where his greatest failure had occurred. It seemed like all the begging and pleading had worked.

Sadly though, it all fell apart once Ironwood saw the glass chess piece.

Ironwood’s greatest enemy isn’t Salem. It’s not Robyn. It’s not he council. No, it’s himself. He has closed up his emotions and his hear to everyone around him. He has buried himself in his paranoia and his pursuit in defeating Salem. With every mistake, Ironwood failed to learn and move forward. He just became more and more consumed by his own fear. He wanted to be a strong leader. To be like Oz. But like Oz, he ended up losing himself and unlike Oz, he couldn’t acknowledge where he went wrong. In many ways you can sympathize with him because of the bleak situation and him trying to do what he can with what he has. But sadly, none of that can justify the path that he ended up taking.

Ironwood is angry at Team RWBYs lies. This and Salem’s approach pretty much causes him to snap. He’s going to let Fria die so that Winter had the Maiden powers. He's going to abandon Mantle to their demise in a futile plan to raise Atlas into orbit. When RWBY opposes this, he orders them to be arrested. He even coldly confirms that he’s leaving Mantle to die. However one feels about this choice, as a cruel but necessary choice to save what can be saved, or a needless sacrifice made by a fascist dictator, one can at least make an argument about either point that makes it hard to say who was right. Him snapping at Oscar and knowingly shooting the kid to his demise? No. That one cannot be justified at all, especially since he was as cold as steel when he did it.

This moment has been built-up since we met him all those years ago. We wanted Ironwood to do the right thing. We all hoped that he would. But he didn’t, and it isn’t shocking at all. We saw enough to like Ironwood, but to also be very much aware of his faults that he just never seemed able to conquer. His fall form grace is tragic, yet done in such a satisfying way as well. I felt for him, but there was no justifying his actions. I kept hoping that he’d pull through, but once Chapter 11 hit, I knew we were at the point of no return. The James Ironwood we once knew is no more, consumed by his fear. What will happen to him next? Will he manage to realize his wrongs? Or will he continue to fall until there’s nothing left to salvage? It’s hard to say. But for now, the tin man has lost his heart,. A very sad, but very well done, character arc for sure.

1. The Theme of Trust and Fear

When I first heart this volume’s opening, Trust Love, I liked it... but the more the volume went, the more the optimistic song felt out of place for the dark volume. Considering this IS an anime, that’s probably intentional. But the more I examined the lyrics, especially after the full version came out, the more I truly realized how it fits with this volume. The song speaks of one trying to live in their dream world, but they need to face reality and trust those around them. They need to stop waiting for a miracle, they need to take control of their life now and move forward. hey need to... well, trust in love. Then you have the finale song, Fear, which  outright asks ‘who will you be when you are faced with fear? Will you see the person you hope to see? Or will you see a stranger?�� Will you feel proud? Or will you feel betrayed?

This is the theme of the volume. The theme of trust and the right thing against fear. Ironwood claims to trust the heroes, yet he can’t trust anyone else and his own fear is slowly consuming him. The heroes are mistrustful of Ironwood, but they trust each other and want to help mend the divide between Ironwood and Mantle. But at every turn, fear gets ii n he way. Tyrian’s slaughter makes Mantle afraid and enraged. Ironwood’s fear keeps him from opening up and it leads to his downfall as I already described. The Ace-Ops don’t fight together as a team, which leads to Team RWBY who DO trust each other to defeat them. Clover is blinded by his loyalty to Ironwood to recognize that he’s doing the wrong thing, and it leads to his death. Not to mention the mistrust between him, Qrow, and Robyn lead tot he crash to begin with.

As Oz says in his monologue, fear is the greatest thing that everyone shares. We see everyone afraid. Ironwood is afraid. Ruby is afraid. Ozpin is afraid. Even Cinder is afraid. It’s all for different reasons. Ironwood is afraid of Salem. Ruby is afraid of the uncertainty ahead. Ren is afraid of failing Nora and the others. Cinder is afraid of failing to achieve her foals. Qrow is afraid of bonding with others, especially considering what happened to Clover. Ozpin...d o I even need to elaborate on him? The title to Chapter 13 is ‘The Enemy of Trust’. What is that enemy? Fear. Recently, I’ve been feeling that same fear of trust. Fear of being hurt. Fear of being betrayed. Fear of the unknown. It’s a VERY powerful force, and a tempting one at that.

The message of the volume ultimately si that it’s okay to be afraid. It’s perfectly human to feel that way. You don’t need to get over it. It doesn’t matter if you’re afraid, it’s what you do in the face of it that matters. Will you face it? Will you do what’s right? Will you find it in yourself to trust and love again? Or will you succumb to it? Will you end up repeating your mistakes because of your fear? Will you make the wrong choice? What will that say about the person you are? One way or another, we all will find out the answer to that question. We may not know the answers for a long time, but you ultimately need to try and do what’s right. You can’t let the fear control you. You need to decide who you will be when ti comes, and if in the end you will be happy with who you are left with.

Ironwood chose to repeat his mistakes, and is now a heartless tin soldier. Ozpin ultimately chose to return and face it and while only time will determine how that goes, it’s a step in the right direction. People like Ruby and Oscar still tried to do what thy knew was right. Weiss was afraid of her father, but faced him to gain her freedom. Blake feared Adam and the White Fang and chose to run, but eventually decided to fight back and ultimately won. Yang was afraid after losing her arm and of being abandoned, and while she struggled she ultimately faced it, proving herself stronger than her cowardly mother. Even after Ruby broke down when it became clear that Salem killed her mother, she still faced the wicked witch, told her off to her face, and pulled herself together enough to warn everyone about Ironwood and stand her ground. And there’s so any other examples that I could list. 

I think considering the times right now, this message is incredibly important. It’s been a major part of the series since the start, but Volume 7 especially made it prominent. We need to trust in love. We need to be courageous enough to do the right thing. We need to be able to express our fear and doubts with others to become better. In a world where everything 9si uncertain and everyone is on edge, I think that the themes here are more relevant than ever, and was handled very well. Especially with that monologue in Chapter 13. As such, this is my favorite part of RWBY Volume 7 without a doubt.

Well, that’s it folks! It was nice to revisit Volume 7 again after so long~ But as we close the book, we’re about to open another for Volume Eight. What’s gonna happen? I don’t know. Am I scared? Oh big time. But I’ve come this far, I’m not backing out until the very end. So I hope that you all enjoy Volume 8, and as always I look forward to reviewing it all~ See you all on premiere day~!

[fauzhee10069]

Caato’s Stand and its mechanism so far (Jojolion)

Caato’s Stand, which until now has not been named yet, often becomes the object of hype in its ability and discussion in its name. I’m also interested to discuss both, but maybe I will focus more on its ability.

As her character is heavily a reference of French playing cards, Caato uses her playing cards as medium for her Stand ability.

Caato can store objects between her cards, making them appear or disappear like a magic trick. The first object we saw when she demonstrated her Stand for the first time was a cellphone. The phone is smaller in width and length, making the cards able to fully conceal it.

The second time we saw her Stand, she tricked Joshu to tidy up her cards, indirectly hurting him by the impact of the chair she stored into her cards when he took the cards that were stacked. With this second demonstration, we can sort the mechanism of her Stand:

She can store objects between her cards, making them appear or disappear like a magic trick

Anyone can release the objects that were stored inside her cards

She can store the objects with size much larger than her cards

Another interesting thing here is that the chair came out of two separate cards, it makes me wonder of the possibility that she could separate parts of an object and release them separately. There are also two things that I see as another mechanism of her Stand, though it’s still hypothetically speaking as the scenes were just mainly implication:

How she hid the chair between her cards? Did she slam the chair between her cards? If so, why no one noticed her while doing it (taking out two decks of her cards and putting the chair between them)? Two people might not had noticed that moment: Daiya (due to poor eyesight) and Joshu (being too distracted), why did none of the rest of the family notice that? Which led to two assumptions:

Caato does not need to take out (use) the cards to hide objects, she simply needs to will it

She does need to take out the cards, it’s just the family being too oblivious to notice that

Or some of them might actually noticed that but kept silent because Joshu definitely deserved that (LOL), the scene was focused on him afterall. Anyway, I’m more into the later, this reunion scene with her is not to be taken too seriously (in gauging the actual power as it is not a serious Stand battle).

In addition, a crucial thing that is easily overlooked in Caato’s words: “there certainly are a lot of chairs in this house, so you wouldn’t notice if I hid one between my cards, would you?”

Considering the hype from her supporters who frequently compare her Stand with D4C because their "dimensional-based" ability and "caught-in-between" mechanism?

「D4C」 has access to different parallel worlds/dimensions, it can also pull other people or items to other dimensions.

But in the case of Caato’s Stand and her words: she took out a chair from her cards, a chair that belongs to Higashikata's house, which is in the same world as her and the family. In other words, Caato’s Stand does not cross between dimensions in its mechanism, therefore the hype that her Stand has the same ability and power as the 「D4C」 has not been proven!

Notice how the warden took Caato’s cards, the decks were slightly open but nothing came out from them, but a few panels afterwards we see Caato took out her cellphone from the cards. Why didn’t the warden accidentally brought out the phone? It’s either:

Only Stand users (like Joshu) who can release the objects stored there besides the user (Caato)

Caato can control the timing of the stored objects to be released (and anyone who can release it)

I’ll pick the later too. However, there is also the possibility of luck as the decks, that were slightly open, were not storing her phone atm.

Now, regarding the hype she gets, many readers compare her Stand with Valentine’s D4C for being dimension-theme, though currently Caato’s Stand is still paled in comparison with D4C. Let’s see how D4C is capable of:

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (D4C)

SBR chapter 75: D4C – part 8

Take a note that the info explicitly said that D4C can send both living being and inanimate objects into another dimension, therefore it’s not limited to person.

Valentine sent away a man into another dimension, the caught in between two objects part is what makes the readers comparing this with Caato’s Stand. This comparison also conceived the idea of Caato being the part 8 main villain. The time-based theme that incidentally became the pattern of main villains’ Stands in Ireneverse (part 1-6) causing the readers to think that the reboot/SBR verse (part 7 onwards) will have the main villains with dimension-based Stands (in which this is still unconfirmed and purely assumption).

But if you consider the ability-based as the pattern, you should consider the form-based as the pattern as well. What kind of Stand the main villains always have so far? It’s always the humanoid-type. I don’t think Caato’s Stand is a humanoid-type, it looks more like a tool or bound-type.

After that, we saw that Valentine can also send intangible/non-physical objects such as Stand attack (Johnny’s Tusk) to another dimension, besides physical objects. Actually, he was unable to do that in Johnny’s case as Johnny’s Tusk Act 3 can also move through dimensions, but he did try it, meaning that under normal circumstances (non-dimensional Stand attacks), he can do that.

What makes D4C different from Caato’s Stand?

D4C ability can only be done by Valentine alone

Valentine does not need a certain medium to use D4C, he can use D4C with any objects that are available to be slammed together (since his Stand manifests in humanoid form)

Unlike D4C, Caato’s words in chapter 58 implied that her Stand does not cross between dimensions in its mechanism

While people like to compare Caato’s Stand with D4C, I’d like to compare her Stand with Terunosuke's Enigma which I found more similar to.

Enigma

Enigma, in the form of folded paper, can store any objects inside it just like Caato’s Stand, however Terunosuke has to fold them inside the paper which kinda reminds me of Paper Moon King visually.

DIU chapter 142: Enigma Boy – part 4

He can also store the object that much bigger than the paper itself, when the biggest object Caato had stored so far is a chair, Terunosuke had stored a taxi car (including the driver, btw).

Just like Caato’s Stand, anyone can release the objects that were folded inside the paper. Not only that, it can also store intangible object such fire and electric currents there.

And a living object such animal (scorpion).

Enigma can also trap a living person in paper, however, Terunosuke must discover the habits the target displays when afraid.

DIU chapter 141: Enigma Boy – part 3

He can also transform himself into a paper, by bringing a gun, he can surprise the target who opens the fold and harm them.

Damaging the piece of paper results in an equivalent damage on said object or person inside it.

What makes Caato’s Stand similar to Enigma?

Storing the objects inside medium (playing cards & paper)

Both can store the objects with size much larger than the medium

Anyone besides the users is able to release the objects from the medium

Even so, I'm a little confused, about the difference between the two. Does Terunosuke keeps some papers as medium or transform the object/target into a paper (which is then folded)?

I think it’s more the later, he did transform Tomoko into a paper rather than engulfed and folded her inside a paper, whereas in Caato’s case, she likely brings her playing cards as tool for her Stand ability.

We have seen very little of Caato’s Stand, thus, it raises quite a number of questions regarding its full capability:

Can she store living object?

My guess is she can. It’ll be cool if we see her trapping someone with dangerous animals such as killer bees, snakes or scorpions, though I’m not sure if she can store a human being.

JJL chapter 107: Kaato Higashikata's "Attack"

UPDATE! Eventually, the new chapter of 107 has shown that Caato is capable to conceal her grandson Tsurugi. Then it can be concluded that she can hide living object between her playing cards (though I think) as long as her playing cards perfectly stack.

Can she store intangible objects as well?

I think it is possible, I can imagine her working together with Jobin in a Stand fight (if he survives in the next chapter). It’ll be cool fight as well.

Is it only limited to her special designed playing cards?

Caato’s playing cards do have unique design, the back of her cards have the Higashikata fruit seller mark. I’m not really sure but I guess this can be limited to her special cards alone. Why would she keep these decks and use her Stand through them? Perhaps if the playing cards aren’t that unique, she can use her Stand ability through any playing cards, but let’s see it more in the future.

The exclusiveness of Caato’s playing cards as medium for her Stand kinda reminds me of Hot Pants’ Cream Starter.

Which can be used by anyone besides Hot Pants and still functions even though its user is already dead.

Does it have its own (humanoid-like) form?

I think it's possible, even every ability (non-power) based Stand such as Fun Fun Fun, Vitamin C, California King Bed, Walking Heart, Blue Hawaii etc have it. I hope it has a cool design. However, Tsurugi’s Stand Paper Moon King also hasn't shown its humanoid form yet, even though we have seen a lot of its abilities. 

However, Caato’s Stand seems to depend on her special designed playing cards which made it more like a tool/bound-type Stand and I haven’t seen any bound Stand that has its humanoid form. 

Perhaps, we will be really able to determine the type of Caato’s Stand if we have a chance to see its abilities further in a serious Stand battle.

UPDATE! The new chapter of 107 has shown that her Stand has its own (humanoid-like) form:

JJL chapter 107: Kaato Higashikata's "Attack"

At this point, it was most likely that all of the Higashikata family’s Stands have their humanoid form, bar Tsurugi… but I think that 「Paper Moon King」 will also have its humanoid form which it just hasn't revealed yet.

Next related post: The True Mechanism of Caato’s Stand, 「Space Trucking」

At the same time, the name of Caato’s Stand was finally revealed as 「Space Trucking」, it follows the ‘KING’ tradition just like every member of Higashikata family (including Mitsuba who joined the family through marriage).

Hence the speculation below that there will be the word "queen" in its name or that she is an exception due to her disowned status has become pointless LOL:

The Name of  Caato’s Stand

And last, about the name of Caato’s Stand, many readers (and JoJotubers) have talked about it. Some proposed names that appeal to me are:

Queen(s) of The Stone Age

Styx’s Queen of Spades

Queen’s The March of The Black Queen

David Bowie’s Queen Bitch

But why “Queen” instead of “King” (which becomes a trend in Stand naming among Higashikata family)? Perhaps because she is considered to be an outsider to the family as she disgraces the family’s reputation (for getting into prison) and divorced with the head of the family.

I am most interested in Queen of Spades just because I really like the album artwork “Pieces of Eight”. I think I’m gonna draw Caato in that album artwork style if this becomes her Stand’s name. A Caatofag also said that the lyrics are really complimentary to the lyrics Norisuke IV’s Stand, Metallica’s King Nothing, as if they are singing to each other.

Read also:

JoJolion Cardspiracy: Caato & Damokan group

Is Caato a Rock-Woman?

How does the hype of Caato turn really bad?

Edited:

Changed the spelling of 「Kaato」 into 「Caato」because it’s Caato, not Kaato.

[kattaloop]

Lexa IS More Than A Symbol

I came to Tumblr for the Clexa GIFs and stayed for the very occasional long-form contribution. So I don’t know what’s being talked about and how, but a few friends asked me to comment on this. A week ago, @rivertalesien offered a lengthy reply to an anonymous question:

“Why is Lexa the one that people want to fight for but seems to be the only one kept dead? Not that ODAAT and WE had dead lesbians but they were cancelled and fan efforts brought them back like why is Lexa the only one who can't? She has to be more than a symbol though?“

I have my own thoughts on this issue, some of which I can’t publicly elaborate on. Let me just say that you’re right, Lexa absolutely is more than a symbol and should be treated as such. But what did River have to say about it all?

“First of all, the situations with ODAAT and WE are completely different: those involve complex negotiations with advertisers in order to cover the costs and where the show will be hosted. I know it’s fun to believe that fan campaigns had anything to do with it, but it is always, ultimately down to negotiations with advertisers and studios. It makes the producers and all look good to praise their audience for the “hard work” trying to save the series, but they all know better.“

It’s right to say that money is a driving force in any decisions the networks make. But you can’t isolate a show from the broader programing strategy, and, as far as I know, advertising deals are  bundled. As with any business, money isn’t the only deciding factor, either. Power and prestige have important roles in this game of film and television, and personal preference absolutely exists. As for fan campaigns, they add a voice, one that may have, and has, in the past, convinced executives to revisit the  issue in the first place. Would they have done the same thing without that little nudge from viewers? Maybe, but probably not.

“And Lexa is “kept dead” because, and this is only inference, but I think it’s a strong one: Jason Rothenberg lost a huge business/development deal as a result of the Lexa/Clexa fan drama.“

You did your research, I’ll give you that. But I’m unsure how well you understand the reality of this business. Considering that failed pilots are more common than green-lit ones. Considering that any pilot is a collaborative process with too many components in play than for an outsider to pinpoint exactly one reason as to why it failed. Considering that this industry, for all its rigid hierarchy and rules books, can also be one of the most unpredictable - one person leaves and the whole house of cards can crumble. Considering that you refuse to entertain the pros that would accompany Lexa’s return, pros that someone with Jason’s disposition might be equally interested in as in the more petty revenge fantasies.

“Jason Rothenberg spent the days, weeks and months after Lexa’s death cutting himself off from those fans who were hurt by his actions and no doubt working behind the scenes to make sure he didn’t lose his job over his unethical, unprofessional behavior. His supporters in the cast were openly derisive of Clexa fans who spoke out and a tone of trying to ignore or undermine the fan fallout was the given order. Showing real empathy and offering to work with the audience in order to heal the divide might have gone a long way for improving his image and the show’s. Rothenberg decided to hide instead.“

Yes to everything but the last sentence. You’re assuming - sorry, inferring. I happen to know that it was not his decision. Once again, isolating one aspect from its context and environment usually leads to wrong or, at least, incomplete conclusions.

“One very clear consequence of his queerbaiting is that Greg Berlanti, the very successful (and openly gay) producer of many DC shows including Supergirl, stepped out of a development deal for a new series tentatively titled The Searchers. The project was likely mostly Rothenberg’s, but without Berlanti’s backing, it was dropped. Story was that it was too “expensive” to produce, yet Berlanti went on to get a huge deal with the CW, producing Riverdale as well as the upcoming Batwoman. Would Berlanti want to be associated with Rothenberg after the Lexa debacle? Probably not and that’s probably closer to the real reason the deal went south.“

Except the queerbaiting isn’t even fully acknowledged, still. That’s a lot to base on “likely” and "probably.” Berlanti was already getting these deals. He also had his own issues to deal with. If the production was deemed too expensive, it doesn’t mean that there’s a conspiracy beyond the normal industry processes.

“Outside of The 100, he has no produced credits to his name and how he got the job of showrunner when he had no previous experience in any capacity in a writer’s room or on a production staff is certainly baffling. He very quickly proved he didn’t have the professionalism for the job and anyone else would have been dismissed.“

But he wasn’t dismissed, and that should tell you enough to not be baffled by the fact that they hired him, even without knowing the industry from within.

“The 100 went from 16 episodes to 13 because the order for renewal had already been given and the WB/CW put out feelers in the form of polls asking the audience directly: will Lexa’s death affect if you watch the show? Who does that unless they are seeking to reassure the advertisers that Lexa’s death wouldn’t be a big issue for long and spoil their investment?”

In conjunction with a noticeable drop in ratings and other measurable factors, this is probably a reasonable conclusion. They were hoping for a surge and were slammed, instead. There were a lot of whispers, but nothing I’d consider to be confirmed. What does this have to do with why they wouldn’t bring Lexa back? If anything, it suggests they know of her value.

“Fans are capable of all sorts of interpretations of a text (oh boy are we), but one thing that I think is generally considered across the board is that with season 4, the tone toward Lexa was more than a little OTT and a tad spiteful.”

I’m glad you acknowledge that much of this is based on interpretation. In summary, the praise Lexa received in S4 felt unauthentic, the Flame and Lexa were used as an emotional device, and Clarke’s actions were problematic. How’s that any different than post-307, when nobody seemed too bothered about losing their beloved Heda, when the Flame and Lexa were used as an emotional device, and when Clarke had sex as a coping mechanism and even questioned Lexa’s humanity? The latter were all written before the backlash. It mostly speaks to the show’s persistent issues with continuity, character development, and representation.

“This is just my interpretation, but with fans crying out for her return, pleading for a spin-off and so on, and generally being the most out-spoken fandom for LGBTQ rights and better representation in media (and a never-ending drag of Rothenberg’s name), is it likely that a production that never did anything to try and make amends ever going to give in to such pleas?”

As likely as any other production, to be honest. Allow me to go back to your earlier assessment. “They don’t care about fans’ pleas.” Would they bring Lexa back for the fans? Doubtful. “They care about their own benefit.” Would they bring Lexa back if it benefited them? Now we’re talking.

But they can’t just do it any odd way. As you also said previously, they know better. They may ignore us, but they watch us. They would’ve assessed the different scenarios. From a business point of view, they’d want to avoid another backlash. Then you have a diva showrunner to consider, and a guest star who is in work and, hopefully, wouldn’t return for a guest stint if it didn’t benefit her and Lexa. It’s a tricky balance, made even more difficult by a fandom that likes to tear itself apart over conflicting opinions every 3 months or so.

Considering all of those circumstances, I can’t think of a reasonable way to bring Lexa back other than at the very end. Which would benefit the production, but more importantly, a large number of fans, the tiny matter of representation, and ADC - if done right, which I give her enough credit to make sure before agreeing to anything. I’m not saying that it will happen or that it won’t happen. I’m saying that there’s a strong case for it happen, to balance out your rather one-dimensional approach.

“There is a cruelty to this because almost any other kind of story of this kind would involve a moment of catharsis, but that moment is constantly suspended, always dangled, but never in touch.”

Personally, I’d agree with that, but I can also think of writers who’d be into it. We’ve already established that Jason and his immediate team are lacking awareness and empathy. It makes little sense, therefore, to expect them to act differently, especially if they’re leading up to another shock twist. My guess is as good as yours on whether that’s something good or bad.

“They know what fans want and it’s arguable too that Rothenberg has twisted what the fans want for his own benefit: a spin-off of The 100, but one entirely about something decidedly unrelated to Lexa. Showing online fan interest might be one way of telling advertisers: see, there’s a demand for his work.”

No offense, but this makes no sense and it’s probably the most contradicting and subjective thing you’ve said thus far. If they know what fans want, then there’s nothing to twist. It’s actually part of the reason why the Lexa spinoff campaign started while the show’s still on air: to get the word out, to make sure they know exactly what and who we want, and what and who we don’t want. Jason started talking about a spinoff before 307, so there’s literally no ground for this argument, which also has no bearing on the question. So why bring it up?

“Unless advertisers demand it, is it likely that this unprofessional queerbaiting producer would do anything except the most spiteful of nods? That’s all he’s done at this point and the story this season looks more and more like they are going to finally close the book on any Lexa mentions ever again.”

Unless advertisers become involved in the creative process, this argument is also invalid. Thankfully, there are regulations in place to avoid that. And unless you know what motivates a person, you can’t speak to what they will or won’t do. Even if you did, you can’t be certain. Once again, this is a collaborative process even under the worst of circumstances. Things could go either way.

“Fight for Lexa, there is nothing wrong with her being a “symbol” of a fight for better representation.”

It feels wrong when you reduce her to a symbol, when you put her in the past, when you tell others to seek out other representation, when you dismiss her implied humanity. Our emotions in relation to Lexa are real, and that makes her real in all the ways that matter. What happened to “she’s more than just a character?” Well, she’s also more than a movement. Let’s not use their excuses when they kill of one LGBT character and put another on their place against ourselves.

“Keep using her light, but never forget where it really comes from, something Rothenberg will never understand: it comes from you.”

Now see, this is a great statement. I, too, believe that Lexa is a part of us. Her light guided me out of the complete darkness I had lost myself in, and it became part of my own light. I’ve never come across a character like that, or person, for that matter. A sentiment that still reverberates through the fandom and beyond. I believe that her light can help so many more people whom she wasn’t able to reach in the short time she was given. And so, part of my fight for better representation, better storytelling, will always be to let Lexa’s light shine again. She deserves to live. She deserves to have her story told!

[sponfawn]

MTH - Buttercup & Mitch, Floyd, Lloyd, and Harry

This one goes out to a certain anon~ So this is surprisingly one topic that I haven't thought about extensively regarding MTH, but it’s a really interesting dynamic to think about. I wasn’t sure if by pre-breakup interactions between BC and the guys, anon meant like pre-relationship as a whole, or post-relationship but pre-breakup. So I thought about both. Disclaimer: because we don’t really have much to go on in terms of pre-relationship interactions, this is gonna be a bunch of conjecture based on how the characters currently behave and interact. I also gotta be honest, Harry and the twins tend to kinda clump together in my mind. I know what they looked like at 5yo, but in terms of current characterization they’re similar enough that they exist as a group in my head. Tho Harry does end up as the butt of a lot of jokes, more so than the twins. I guess that’s to be expected when your name is Harry Pitt.

This may have been stated in MTH in one of the early chapters, in which case, nevermind. But I feel like Buttercup probly started hanging out with the guys more starting at around when the Girls were 7 or 8? Blossom began her dance lessons at around 6 or 7, and I think 7 is around the age where kids in school start solidifying more who they consistently hang out with, and start subtly drifting a bit from siblings of about the same age. And as they got older (like maybe around 11/12) is really when Buttercup more clearly diverged from her sisters’ friends. In middle school, Blossom and Bubbles were both in choir apparently, and Buttercup rejected that completely. I’m guessing around that age or a year or so older is when they started wanting to form a band together, and then freshman year they actually started to play together as No Neck Joe. I think the guys started liking her pretty early in their collective friendship. I can imagine them all kinda realizing that they all had a crush on her. It’s possible it caused some mild conflicts between them, but I can’t imagine it lasted long at all. Then they came to a mutual agreement to prioritize their respective friendships with her. Honestly when Mitch and she started dating, I feel like Harry and the twins saw it coming and resigned to it without fuss. I just can’t see those 3 getting all pissy over it. Awkward? Yeah. Disappointed? Yeah. But not angry.

From what we see in their interactions after Butch becomes their buffer, I think they used to interact as a group much like how they did in chapter 9 at the Boys’ apartment, and in the video clip. Lots of ball busting, ribbing, general goofing off, and comfortable banter. Tho obviously with one difference being the current distance between Mitch and Buttercup. At this point in the story, while Buttercup and Mitch are starting to relax slightly around each other, they still kinda skirt the edges of the group and avoid much direct interaction. In group settings, Mitch was probably in a similar position that Butch currently inhabits, at least in terms of his closeness to Buttercup. That’s not to say that Butch is just a Mitch replacement tho. More that Harry, Floyd, and Lloyd are both relatively close to, and distant from, Buttercup. They’re in her closest friend group, but were never the closest to her within said group. Mitch and BC were BEST FRIENDS before ever going out, and that is the most obvious shift in the group as a whole. In my mind, Mitch likely interacted with her in less rough ways compared to Butch, both in term of rough housing (knowing that even if he could dish it out he wouldn't be able to take it), and dirty jokes aimed at/about her. I mean the guys have probly liked her for many years, and since they all were trying to hide their crushes i doubt any of them made many jokes suggesting any kind of attraction towards her. After Mitch and Buttercup started going out, that inclination would have probably increased (at least for Floyd, Lloyd, and Harry). Tbh, from the video Mitch was so earnest and sincere that I doubt he ever made dirty jokes about them as a couple, anyway. I feel like he’d be shy/awkward about that, especially knowing that she’d be flustered about it.

Based on the scene in the mall where the guys ask Buttercup to hang out with them for anti-prom, it’s pretty clear that not only is she just as shitty at communicating with her friends as she is with everyone else, but Mitch is as well. (To refresh memories, they're like “We don’t know what we did to piss you off, but whatever it is we’re so sorry and please be our friend again”, and she’s internally like “oh shit, that’s right they didn’t actually do anything and it’s not their fault, it was Mitch who told me”). I can understand why Mitch wouldn’t wanna talk about their breakup and the fact that he spilled the beans on all of them. But I bet it’s been lonely for them. Aside from the jealousy they probly had over Mitch being the one she chose to go out with, it was probly like being 3rd, 4th, and 5th wheels around them at times, cuz they were best friends even before dating. And in this situation, it wasn’t just feeling like an awkward entourage, it was like they fully lost one friend and the other one refused to clue them in as to why. I think if given the opportunity to be emotionally supportive in some way, theyd be fucking dorks about it but they’d try their best. But they were never given that opportunity by Mitch or BC, despite being friends since kindergarten. I feel like that probly hurt them, to be treated like it had nothing to do with them, even tho they were all friends. They haven't really addressed it, partly out of not wanting to accidentally push Buttercup away again, and partly cuz they’re just so relieved that they’re all friends again. I doubt they’ll ever decide to bring it up. Tho i could see Harry having a sudden outburst about it if she ever tries to ghost on them again. Idk why exactly but I feel like he’s the one most likely to have the guts to be vulnerable like that (both in expressing discontent/anger about something like that, and in terms of possibly invoking BC’s wrath). He seems slightly more assertive in some ways than the twins, and I feel like the twins look to each other a lot to decide what to say and when to speak up about something, which makes both of them hesitant to be the first to bring something up. Whenever I imagine who first brought up the idea of them forming a band, it’s always either Mitch or Buttercup, and Harry and the twins jump on the bandwagon. I think all 3 of them are less inclined to take the lead, but when necessary, Harry nervously steps up to the plate. After all, he is “the most determined drowning man of them all”, who spoke up first and ended up actually inviting her to their mini anti-prom.

I’ve been in BC’s position before, unwittingly pulled into the crush zone by friends, and I know the heartbreak over finding out someone just hung out with you cuz they wanted to get in your pants. But I don’t think that's fully the case for Harry and the twins. I’m sure they fantasize about it, but I think they genuinely care about her and value her friendship. At one point, she’s thinking about how she thought the guys “saw her” as a person, but after finding out they all liked her she feels like they didn’t actually see or like her as a full person at all, just as a “girl”. And again, I fully understand that feeling. But I think it also speaks volumes about how she perceives crushes and guys who have them. She knows that guys objectify girls, and I think she’s really internalized how attractive women are portrayed in various media, as well as how her sisters are perceived by virtual strangers - girls/women are not attractive due to their athletic feats, their sense of humor, their thoughts, their personalities, or their strength. They are attractive due to physical looks and femininity, and she equates being seen as “attractive/desirable” with being seen in a 1 dimensional and objectified way. She’s surprisingly like Blossom in that way (I’m thinking specifically about the scene in the diner and how she reacts after the photoshoot where she was asked to pose on the cover of a men’s magazine - “I don’t have a problem with people thinking I’m pretty... But... I do all this other stuff”), altho the way it manifests in their behavior is different. With Mitch she was ok with him liking her, and I think that’s partly cuz she liked him back but also cuz of how close they were. As best friends, she felt he saw her more completely than anyone else - until she realized that he thought she was interested in the other guys as “backups” and didn't see how much she loved him. (Which is interesting to me, cuz while she didn’t voice her feelings much to him, even Butch “emotionally constipated” Jojo could see how much she loved him through the videos and pics. It’s normal to feel insecure or unsure about someone’s feelings if they don’t communicate them, but I wonder if Mitch ever looks at those pics and realizes in retrospect how much she loved him.)

It makes me happy that she’s at least marginally getting better about communicating, even if it’s just with Butch (I hope that ability grows to other ppl for her as well). But for me it just highlighted how Buttercup doesn’t really have a support system. With the guys, she never talked about the tough stuff. I mean they didn’t seem at all surprised that she wasn't telling them why she was upset with them. She is very adverse to showing any sign of what she perceives as weakness, and since even Mitch had a hard time understanding her feelings, I’m sure it hasn’t been easier for the other guys by any means. They have fun together and share common interests, which is great, but she really keeps them at arm’s length. This is another aspect that's similar with Blossom, even tho Buttercup goes out with friends more often. They’re both quite emotionally isolated, tho Buttercup is now sharing more with Butch and Blossom is quite close with Bubbles. Of course, this isn’t due to a shortage of ppl around them who want to be close to them, but their own issues with showing vulnerability. I hope we get to see them open up a bit to more people. Now I’m honestly really interested in seeing how Harry, Floyd, and/or Lloyd would respond if Buttercup had like a serious conversation with one or all of them.

[palmer20mccain-blog]

your five Tips For Choosing this Right Chiropractor

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In some other phrases, would your pain appear on all of a sudden from the injury or have that set in more slowly due to something you repeatedly do? Abrupt pain typically means an injury occured. Sometimes that is some sort of car car accident, or perhaps a autumn, or perhaps a athletics injuries. These type of accidental injuries might be what a good particular kind of chiropractor centers on or even offers certification and increased lessons in. In cases of these types of types of traumas you'll need a chiropractic specialist who can with confidence treat sprains and traces, who can differentiate diverse types of injury, in addition to who else will realize as soon as a good injury is simply too significant for them and can be also persistent enough for you to see certain recommendations together with refer you to additional providers when necessary. Numerous alternative chiropractors, nevertheless definitely not all, are usually likely for you to viewing the spine inside terms of subluxations just and may as a result miss out on typically the subtle signs of a more intense injury that requires the experience of a good specially-trained chiropractor, an orthopedist or even specialist. Though not really a new company rule, an even more mechanistic chiropractic specialist may be a less dangerous bet when a painful injury is involved. four. Just what professional associations assist typically the chiropractic profession, plus how can easily this aid you find the ideal DC? There are several large countrywide organizations the fact that represent chiropractic doctors: the ACA and the ICA. The particular ACA is the Us Chiropractic Relationship and typically the ICA is the Meeting place Chiropractic Association. The ACA is more mechanistic in addition to the ICA is additional alternative. State associations are usually more assorted, so it is hard to ascertain much about a chiropractor by looking at his or her state connection membership unless you look into the political or maybe philosophical leanings of that corporation - a lot of work with finding a chiropractor. To make factors simple, know that many ICA chiropractors actually oppose often the ACA, and vice versa, to help you contacts more coming from their a regular membership (or non-membership) in national organizations than you can from all other issues you might find on the website or perhaps online goods for a chiropractic specialist. It's important to certainly not read a lot of into this particular bit of details, although, and of course to help consider that most people are usually multi-dimensional and could certainly not fit into the dichotomy I am describing. Still, while part of a bigger collection of information to create a judgement, this can easily be helpful to look at. 5. Should you think about their websites, reviews, together with testimonies? And how significant are individual referrals? Anyone may possibly determine soon sufficient that many chiropractors apply one of a handful associated with companies to help make their sites. This implies that if you get to 10 different chiropractor's websites you could possibly see typically the same website again and again having just a different DC's name on it. This kind of means this article is imitative and you in all likelihood are unable to learn much concerning the chiropractic practitioner from their website. That reduces the value connected with the web site. Chiropractors will be better off simply by ditching the spinning 3D spines and instead positioning actual content on his or her sites. These sites are filled with content but little or no, if any, of the info on the site is definitely unique to that chiropractor. Even articles with bylines that include that chiropractor's brand are probably not really articles written by simply the fact that genuine chiropractor. Suspect rational laziness and chicanery as soon as any kind of professional puts their name and even credentials on an article he or she as well as she did not author. While it is a good common training, that really does not mean that could be the right way to promote yourself. On-line reviews, this kind of as Yelp! and Google!, are great. Often , though, businesses game the system by simply making fake reviews. Are the reviews from often the identical approximate time? With regard to example, will be ten opinions all by March spring 2012? If so, that is definitely suspect. If the reviews look legitimate they may well give you some understanding into the particular kind of DC, but in the event they are dubious next you should remember the old adage "buyer beware". Very often a bad examine (that is legitimate) will certainly be implemented with several illegitimate fine reviews throughout order to drown out your bad one. Getting after illegitimate reviews you may really be able to get hold of some sort of wide range of good facts from looking at reviews, thus don't hesitate to make use of a search engine to seek for "jones friends and family chiropractic reviews" and see just what comes up. Testimonials ought to be appeared from as marketing, nevertheless they most likely are true stories through real patients. The chiropractic specialist is selecting what meaning you want to hear. If they choose your five people who talk about the chiropractic specialist curing their very own back pain, then that chiropractic specialist wants you to see them as a professional in back pain. In the event they talk about young children and allergies, that will be what they want you to realize they specialise in. Inside this way, testimonials enables you to get a look with the chiropractor. Particular recommendations are the best resource of details since the idea is typically unfiltered and even direct. Ask a good friend or family fellow member and you will definitely get an unbiased thoughts and opinions. The perfect chiropractors (and the best lawyers, realtors, in addition to even bakers) all of get most of their new business because they treated the particular customers they previously have very well. People are rapid to complain about inadequate service, while someone provides a a valuable thing to say about how they have been addressed then you ought to recognize this specific as worthy of your focus. Believe of it like this particular: that person experimented with a new chiropractor so you don't currently have to. A new personal affiliate from an individual you faith is very easily the the majority of valuable info you will certainly come around.

[tedlyanderson]

Annotations for Adventure Time: Beginning of the End issue 3!

Did you enjoy my annotations for issue one and issue two of this miniseries? If so, good news! (If not, shove off!) I have annotations for the third issue, right here waiting for your lovely eyes! Obviously, as with the previous posts, this will have great big massive spoilers for the issue, so take that into consideration. Please enjoy, my pals!

Pages 2&3: Okay, there’s a lot to unpack on these pages, haha. First and foremost is a reference to something other than Adventure Time for once: Jake’s monologue on these pages is a loose reference to one of the very best issues of classic Fantastic Four, number 51, “This Man ... This Monster!” In that issue, among other events, Reed Richards travels through the Negative Zone and muses to himself about the nature of reality:

There are cameos on these pages from a bunch of the “cosmic” things of the AT universe, including the Catalyst Comet, the Lich, a copy of the Enchiridion,  Glob Grob Gob Grod, the Finn Sword, and Prismo (in a rare 3-dimensional appearance). There’s also a herd of Time Lards with clocks on their bellies.

Also in this image, note the most minor and in-jokey reference in this entire series: the satellite on the middle-left with the word “FELIS” on it. In the episode “Fionna and Cake and Fionna,” someone asks Ice King where he gets the ideas for his Fionna and Cake stories, and he replies that they’re “beamed into [his] melon every night.” Later that episode, we see him sleeping as a pink laser zaps into his head, carrying images of Fionna and Cake. I chose to interpret this as a reference to one of my favorite authors, Philip K. Dick, who believed that he was receiving knowledge in the form of an information-rich pink laser beam from a satellite called VALIS. So this satellite, FELIS (get it? like cats?), is the source of the Fionna and Cake stories—in my version of the universe, anyway.

Page 4, panel 4: Chronologius Rex declares that he is the lord of Time, not meatloaf. Meatloaf has been established multiple times as Finn’s favorite food.

Page 5: And here we come to the crux of this issue: Finn’s possible futures. Issue 1 of this series was about Finn’s past, issue 2 was about his present, so naturally issue 3 is all about his futures. Obviously none of these should be taken as “canon;” I just came up with three possible paths Finn might take based on what we’ve seen him do throughout the series. I’ll explain my thinking after the third sequence.

All three of the futures are color-coded—the Candy Knight future is pink, obviously.

Page 6: I love Mari’s designs for Queen Bubblegum—the high ‘80s shoulders are great! My suggestion for Old Peppermint Butler was that he be smoother and shinier, as if he’s a candy that’s been sucked on for too long.

In panel 2, the “Dinner Kingdom” is kind of a half-reference to the Breakfast Kingdom in present Ooo.

And in panel 5, note old Finn’s Jake medallion.

Page 7, panel 4: I am not sorry for the “bunch” of banana soldiers joke.

Page 8, panel 1: Beards are indeed a factor in many of Finn’s futures: pretty much every time we’ve seen an older or artificially-aged Finn, he’s got a beard of some sort. I continue the trend in this issue.

Page 8, panel 5: This is a futuristic version of Founders’ Island, the main human settlement outside of Ooo, fixed up and fully repaired. The implication is that Finn not only returned to the human islands, he also helped fix the place up.

The color scheme for the Teacher Finn future is blue, connecting with the water and sky surrounding them.

Page 9, panel 2: I love Teacher Finn’s design so, so much, you guys. I described him as a lovable old professor, someone with his mother’s compassion and his father’s roguish charm, and Mari knocked it out of the park. Note his Jake hat.

Page 9, panel 3: “Homies help homies: always!” is the Adventure Time philosophy in a nutshell.

Page 9, panel 5: Note that Finn is still using his old, trusty sword Scarlett in this future. She’s even more nicked and battle-scarred, but I’m sure she’s still good in a fight.

Page 10, panel 2: Dodging eggs while fighting was part of Finn’s training from Rattleballs in his eponymous episode.

Page 10, panel 2: When it came to Finn’s human wife, I told Mari to make her look a little bit like a human version of Flame Princess. I figured Finn if has a type, it’s her!

Page 11: The third and final possible future is the Space Captain Finn future, which is green-themed for no particular reason. This future is based on the idea that Finn and his Candy Kingdom pals team up with the remaining humans to build a spaceship to take them away from Earth, which is about as likely as anything else in Adventure Time, haha.

Everything in this sequence is of course heavily inspired by Star Trek: the Next Generation, a show that I love and grew up watching. The Minerva A.I. is the ship’s computer, obviously, warning of “excessive sparks detected on bridge.” Jake is Finn’s right-hand-man, just like Riker was to Picard (and Finn even calls him “numero uno,” like Picard’s “number one”). Lady Rainicorn is the equivalent of counselor Troi, Fern is a bit like Data, and Jake’s skateboarding granddaughter Bronwyn is the hotshot kid pilot, like Wesley. Princess Bubblegum is the engineering chief—she always struck me as preferring the role of scientist rather than royalty, frankly—assisted by Frieda and BMO. Flame Princess, upgraded to Plasma Princess, powers the ship as a whole. And Finn himself sports a beard similar to Commander Riker’s—which is appropriate, as a future version of Finn was voiced by Riker’s actor, Jonathan Frakes!

When coming up with these futures, I thought about what the Finn we knew might be most drawn to doing, and boiled it down to three major options: fighting and defending (the Candy Knight future), teaching and training (the Teacher Finn future), or exploring and leading (Space Captain Finn). For what it’s worth, I don’t really have a preference, or any opinions on which future is most likely—one of the strengths of Adventure Time has always been finding ways to surprise its audience with something that makes total sense in retrospect. If Finn does have a “canonical” future, it’s probably something I would never have thought of, but which makes perfect sense.

Page 11, panel 4: Princess Bubblegum yet again mentions “zanoits,” which are maybe some kind of mysterious particle? It’s a funny word and deserves to be used more often.

Page 12, panel 1: I mentioned in my annotations for the previous issue that I felt bad making Susan revert to her simpler speech patterns, since by this point in the series she’s perfectly capable of using big words. I tried to make it up to her by making her the ship’s communications officer, who would use big words all the time.

Additionally, the “Tuffbone sector” is a reference to Meredith Gran’s Adventure Time miniseries, Marceline: Gone Adrift. In that series, Marceline explores space and meets other races, including the Tuffbones, dog-like alien critters.

Page 12, panel 2: Note that Shelby (the worm who lives in Jake’s viola) is wearing a bandolier similar to Worf’s. I was particularly proud of that idea, haha.

Page 12, panel 4: Jake’s exclamation of “Outrageous!” is a reference to another role by his voice actor, John DiMaggio: it’s the catchphrase of Aquaman, from the Batman: the Brave and the Bold series.

Page 16, panel 3: A “dead world” is another bit of unexplored Adventure Time lore: they’re apparently where people go when they die, but they’re not quite the afterlife as we think of it? Or it is, but there’s a lot of them, like at least fifty? Unclear.

Page 16, panel 4: I had to work in the title of the show somehow.

Page 17, panel 3: I wanted to make sure I referenced my favorite song from the show, “Everything Stays” by Rebecca Sugar, and this seemed like the perfect time to bring it up, as Jake discusses the inevitability of change.

Page 17, panel 4: When I described this panel in the script, I specifically mentioned the series Neon Genesis Evangelion, one of the weirder depictions of the end of the world you can find. I love the image of the enormous stone blocks sinking into an endless sea.

Page 18, panel 5: Chronologius’s epithet for Jake, “starchild,” references Jake’s actual origin as a half-alien creature. I checked the dates, and apparently I finished the script for this issue just a couple weeks after the episode “Jake the Starchild” aired, in which Jake’s parentage was fully revealed.

Pages 20-21: Finn’s final “confrontation” with Chronologius might feel a bit underwhelming—essentially, all he does is convince Chronologius to give them an opportunity to escape. There’s no big battle, no war of wits; it’s already been established that Chronologius is basically invulnerable, so it’s not like Finn could beat him in a fight. It’s not terribly exciting, but that’s kind of the point: over the course of this issue, Chronologius becomes more sympathetic to Finn and his plight, particularly after seeing all the good he did (and might have done) in the world. So it’s less about beating up some big bad dude, and more about convincing someone to act like a pal. In a way, Finn beats Chronologius by making him into a friend.

Would it have been better if the ending was more exciting, action-packed, crazy-style? Maybe! Looking back on it, I feel like I could have given Mari more chances to do cool art stuff—the first half of this issue has some pretty far-out sequences and nifty new things to draw, but the second half is basically three characters talking against a mostly boring background. Thematically I feel like it’s better to have Finn succeed by befriending the villain, rather than just punching his lights out, but it definitely doesn’t have the same visual impact. Overall, I’m still proud of it, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be improved.

That’s it for issue three! Join me next time for—issue four?!? Yes! This three-part miniseries is in fact a four-part miniseries, ending with Finn and Jake’s adventures through time! Look forward to it, my chums!

[mischiefmakingmuses]

Tawagoto’s Gate: The Disappearance of Tokyo Ghetto

[Here is a fanfic I wrote for all you lovely people, I hope you have an enjoy.]

Chapter 1: The Adventures Of Mumu-chan

In a world where darkness and light intertwined heavily and lovingly, never fully separating from each other and always continuing through existence in their dance of love and death, lived a Girl by the name of Mumu, who was secretly the Moon in a previous life. When Link did not manage to save Termina from Majora's Wrath due to being distracted by a Massive Display of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, 2,400 Doughnuts All Shaped and Flavored Like Several Pokémon, Yokai, and Digimon (As Created For "The Great Mons Game War Against Pretentious Pokémon Fans Who Think Pokémon is the Only Mons Game When in Reality the Megami Tensei Series is the Literal Ur Example of All Mons Games"), all of Termina was banished to The Shadow Realm, but in the middle of The World of Light, and it was here that the Moon took her new form as Mumu-chan.

By Day she was a regular Schoolgirl, and By Night she became The World's Greatest Magical Girl. She was The Only One who could save the town's cats from falling prey to the Evil Tree Organization, who would often capture the poor cats and trap them up on high branches from which they could not leap down from. Every other night, she was visited by her Good Friend Tuxedo Mask...a month ago, Tuxedo Mask had begun to help out a Man from town named Mike Dawson, who was trying to find out what happened to his Totally Not Girlfriend, Rita Scanlon. Even one day, Mike Dawson interrogated Tuxedo Mask.

"Tuxedo Mask, what was YOUR relationship with Rita," asked Mike Dawson.

"My work here is done," Tuxedo Mask declared before being beamed up by his spaceship and transforming into A Whole Chicken In A Can.

It was when Things were beginning to fall apart. At One Point, Mumu-chan saw Nobita and Doraemon at a candy store!!! And she saw Kitaro and Nezumi-Otoko getting ramen at a ramen stall!!! What was going on?!

Chapter 2: Chapter 2

In this hard boiled world there is only one hard boiled detective named Gummie, who was a octopus bat alien thing given form on Jack Box's Drawful 2 one day when the Author wanted to be cute in a Twitch stream they frequented.

With a Large Pretzel Stick in their mouth, Gummie looked over the case files while her dear friend Star Sheep sat in the corner playing Splatoon 2 For The Nintendo Switch™, for the Salmonids were something Star Sheep became really obsessed with because they were Funny Fish and Very Interesting.

"Do you think this is a homicide case?" Gummie asked Star Sheep, pulling the Pretzel Stick out of his mouth and acting as if it were a cigar.

"Sorry, I'm Splet," Star Sheep replied.

"Hmm. That's true," Gummie mused, lifting up her hat to look outside the window. It was a Marvelous Night, but they had not been making much headway on the case so far. Perhaps it was time to get Reinforcements involved. "We don't even have a sus cuz the sec with a mo's got a perf al."

"Eko, You Don't Drink," Star Sheep commented wisely from the corner.

"Shut up, Maya, we're getting burgers," Gummie proclaimed loudly as he put the Pretzel Stick back in their mouth.

Chapter 3: Help Me Dr. Cox

The Next Day Gummie and Star Sheep left to find Reinforcements, first coming by Richard AKA Dr. Dick AKA Dr. Cox because the Author Wanted To Be Meta and The Real Dr. Dick knew Everything that they had planned for the week that had passed.

In front of a Dollar Tree, Gummie and Star Sheep awaited for Richard to show up, playing a bootleg version of Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego? For The Nintendo Switch™ which landed on their doorstep one day. The reality of the situation was that the game functioned almost entirely like the PC version except that The Baron wasn't called Baron Grinnit, but Baron Wasteland Because I Think That Makes More Sense.

"When my mom and I played this game, we really liked Ivan Idea," Gummie admitted.

"How are we even doing this?" Star Sheep asked, without the monotone tone that this fanfic is read in as it's being written Because It's Ironic. It was then that Gummie squinted their eyes at the screen, only for the screen to melt away and turn into The World Ends With You: Final Remix.

"Oh hey, look, it's Neku," Gummie murmured happily. "Y'know, I really love Neku?"

"Yeah, I know," Star Sheep replied. "Comfort character, right?"

"I'm inclined to believe so," Gummie answered as he attempted to play the song Calling which was her favorite song because he first heard it in the DS version in 2012 and it really stuck with them.

It was then that Richard had finally shown up. She looked around with shifty eyes, seeming a bit nervous and unsettled.

"I don't think I'm supposed to be here," Dr. Dick admitted.

"I'm vaguely getting that kind of idea too," Gummie commented. "Anyway, so I heard from my friends Smile, Urien, Netalina, Gambit, and Jizo that their friends Nobita and Doraemon have gone missing, and have no idea where to go to find them."

"Eko?" Star Sheep began, pulling on Gummie's wing. "I'm sorry, but...how do you know about the Yokai?"

Both Richard and Gummie looked at Star Sheep wide eyed, in Gummie's case you couldn't tell very well because they always made it a point to never reveal their eyes.

"Shit. Shit. SHIT. I don't know what's going on." Gummie grabbed the sides of his head in confusion, narrowing their eyes at the ground. "Something's extremely wrong here."

It was then that Kaite20 had suddenly shown up. Yes, her name is actually Kaite20 because she feels the need to constantly append the "20" to her name even when just "Kaite" would suffice.

"Hey, you guys, I found a portal somewhere and it kind of looks like one you might see in Puyo Puyo Puyo Puyo Puyo Puyo Land. Is that...supposed to be normal?"

Gummie stared at Kaite in shock.

"Like hell it is," they responded. "Guys, we're going to the portal. Don't be surprised if we end up having Adventures in Bootleg again."

Chapter 4: Peter Was Not Available So Phoebe And Plumule Are Here

Through the portal, they had reached the home of Mumu-chan, in a place between the Shadow Realm and the World of Light. It wasn't QUITE time to play Lifelight, though.

"This feels more like how in ChalkZone, half of the world was day and half of the world was night," Star Sheep commented. And she was right, as the town was split entirely between night day, right down the middle.

"...this is cool but complicated," stated Dr. Cox.

"Focus guys, I'm inclined to believe that Nobita and Doraemon are here somewhere. I dunno how the FUCK they ended up here, but I imagine that they HAVE to be here," Gummie commented.

"Do you think it's because of...HIM?" Kaite asked.

"Absolutely not, because if anything makes sense in this goddamn world we're trapped in, it's that They Above wouldn't fucking put him in this story. Then again, I have no idea who else it could be."

"You're getting KINDA too meta, now," said Richard. "Sounds like a fanfic."

"It IS a fanfic, Dr. Dick," Gummie responded. "So that means that we'll probably meet the Kitaro Family and Ittan-Momen will be really suave and shit despite not being a major character. Also we now have an autistic girl and her baby bird monster friend on the team because They Above asked a certain someone if they wanted some influence on the story."

"Actually, he's more or less my tulpa." And there was Phoebe, with Plumule right next to her. The tiny bird monster chirped in an affirmative manner.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. It's tulpas all the way down. ANYWAY, you guys, we need to find Nobita and Doraemon. The first step is finding Ittan-Momen flying around because like Hell he won't be here."

As if on cue, a dashing white cloth with beautiful blue eyes flew through the area and down the street.

"Fuckin' typical; OK, let's go." Gummie spread their arms...wings and took to the air, trying his best to keep up with the white cloth. Naturally, being part of the Kitaro Family and being Objectively The Best Kitaro Character In The Universe, at least according to the Author, Ittan-Momen was very fast and hard to keep up with. "Hey, sir, would you mind slowing down? I'll buy you some sweet potato sake if you do."

"Huh, what? Are ya talkin' to me?" Ittan-Momen flipped over in the air to look at Gummie, who wasn't keeping up very well. The cloth stopped and allowed the alien to catch up to him. "Do ya need me for somethin'?"

"First of all, very honored to meet you. Congrats on actually making it into a written work made by my Ghost Writer! They really like your voice and manner of speaking...down to the subtitles that Crunchyroll gives you."

"...Huh...? What...? I don't really understand," Ittan-Momen said. He was blushing though. "Anyway, what do ya need me for?"

"Gonna take a wild guess and say your friend Kitaro is somewhere in the area! Have either of you happened to see a boy in glasses, yellow shirt, black hair, kinda looks like a loser? Or his robot cat friend, no ears, bright smile, red collar with a bell, white belly, a pocket on said belly? I'm inclined to believe that we have a trickster afoot and that those two have been taken here for some reason...as well as you and Kitaro."

"Err..." Ittan-Momen tilted his head slightly to the side. "Yeah, I think so. I'm still not sure I really understand, though..."

"Don't worry about it!" Gummie piped up. "Just let my friends catch up with us and then you can take us to Kitaro, alright?"

"Cotton shochi!"

Chapter 5: When You're Too Afraid To Wake Up

At Ittan-Momen's introduction, the group found Nobita and Doraemon, who were actually having a conversation with GeGeGe no Kitaro himself. While presenting himself politely, it seemed like a lot of the futuristic aspects of Doraemon's existence had confused Kitaro quite a bit. He was just getting used to the fact that people had Smartphones, what was this about a 4th Dimensional Gadget Pocket...?

"Really glad to meet you, Kitaro! Yes, They Above is right, you are definitely Badass Adorable," Gummie gushed.

"Um...thank you," Kitaro replied quietly. "Ittan-Momen, who are...your friends?"

"Don't know. The purple one asked me to bring them to you."

"Sorry, Eko, I'm kindof tuning out here, hahaha. Everything I know about these guys is just what you've told me before..." Star Sheep laughed nervously.

"Trust me, if this got any more out of control, then fucking Ashens would've been mentioned. By the way, he gave the whole chicken in a can a negative review because it just looked like a melted chicken carcass.

"Anyway, Nobita, we've finally found you--and GeGeGe no Kitaro, to boot--at Urien and friends' request, so I'd consider this case closed..." Gummie adjusted her glasses. "...except that someone obviously was behind everyone's displacement, including ours and Kitaro's. So that means the case is still open...until we find the culprit!"

"I thought it was just Ekoro," Nobita replied.

"Ekoro?" Kitaro asked.

"Who's Ekoro?" Richard asked as well, despite the fact that The Real Dr. Dick knew very well who Ekoro was.

"I don't know any Ekoro," Phoebe replied bluntly. Plumule cheeped in agreement.

"I thought you said it couldn't be Ekoro," Kaite responded.

"I did," Gummie said. "So that means that it's someone we don't actually know. Kitaro, do you sense youkai activity?"

"Yes," Kitaro replied without skipping a beat. Gummie's sight wandered to the top of his head, where his ahoge was pointing straight up.

"Well, golly gee, that was fucking easy. Which Youkai of the Week do you think could've possibly done this?"

"I don't know," Kitaro responded. "It's not any youkai I've ever encountered."

"But they're a youkai? And they're close?"

"Yes."

"I wouldn't consider myself a youkai, per say..." came a voice. Everyone looked around, but to no avail. Suddenly, the world fell apart. The group panicked for a second, until the voice came back. "Give it a moment, I'll send you all back home in a second!"

They tried to focus on the source of the voice. It was coming from a definitive direction, but it still seemed like no one was there...

"I'm right here," came the voice again. Everyone looked downwards. In the middle of the group was...something. Almost exclusively what could be made out was a white mask with three heart-shaped holes in it and two horns. The rest of...whatever it was...was completely transparent. Its shaped was also inconceivable, almost as it was hardly there at all.

"The fuck are you, a Phanto?" Gummie asked in a sassy tone.

"Not...really. I'm not a youkai, either. Or a demon. Or really anything...I guess that means I'm...nothing?" It seemed to put a hand over where its chin would be. "It's kind of hard to be here, sorry."

"O...kay...so why did you bring everyone here?"

"Oh! I just wanted to have some fun and let you all construct a silly story in a world of my creation! I hope you enjoyed it! Happy April Fools'!" Nobody seemed impressed. "Aw, c'mon, I can't imagine it was that bad? I understand that all of you enjoy ridiculous humor like this! Not counting Kitaro and friends, of course, because they don't really represent anyone in The Other World, but surely the rest of you found parts of it funny!"

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Dr. Dick asked.

"I don't really know! I would say I'm Nanashi but Kitaro and Ittan-Momen would get mad. But similarly to him, I have no name. No one's given me one, and I might never have one."

"Oh, I know you," Gummie responded, "you're the one They Above have been struggling with for a while; they call you Not Melon."

"Ah, but that's not actually my name. Similarly to how they've called other characters in progress 'Not Ekoro' and the like. I don't have a name yet. But, I do have a birthday! It's today! April 1st is my birthday!"

"I'm inclined to believe that's bullshit because your concept has been floating around for more than a fucking week," Gummie grumbled.

"Well, they didn't make Smile on May 18th, and yet that's his birthday, right? And Urien was conceived sometime in November or December, but his birthday is somewhere in June or July, but it's still not decided because they want a date that would perfectly reflect Urien's personality similar to how it seemed to happen with Smile, right?"

"Wait, Urien's birthday is in June or July?" Nobita asked. "It would've been great to know that last year!"

"Yeah, but the date's still up in the air. Plus, that plot thread was going to be explored with Ekoro, with Star Sheep's Ghost Writer taking the role of Ringo so she and They Above could roleplay some fluffy EkoRin stuff. And then they decided that they didn't want to do anymore, and ran out of time anyway."

"...I think that's beyond even my understanding, Mister...err...what did you say your name was again?" Doraemon asked, tilting his head.

"Ah, well...firstly, I'm not a mister...and secondly...I don't have one. However, my birthday being today was inspired by Subeta's Elwood's birthday being today, and that Elwood's Pizza is in between time and space, kinda like me! Ultimately They Above decided they actually wanted to go down this route for me!"

"...OK." Both Nobita and Doraemon had given up at this point.

"Actually!" they piped up, clapping their hands together...or something? They were so intangible it wasn't really clear. "They Above decided to plan all this out as a way to introduce me, even though I kind of don't fully exist yet! That's part of the reason why you can't really tell what I look like...the only thing confirmed is my mask, you see?

"Anyway, that means that you, I, and the Yokai might all meet up sometime soon, in another universe! Exciting right? I'm really looking forward to it!"

"Did you understand any of that, Kitaro-san?" Ittan-Momen asked.

"No," Kitaro answered bluntly.

"It's OK, you aren't really involved. They Above are just such a huge fan of you guys that they wanted to include you. Anyway...as much as I'd love to stay and chat with you all, it's time for you guys to go back, and for this story to come to a close.

"It was really nice meeting you all! Especially because...I don't really have any friends yet! But, again, I hope you all enjoyed your time here, and I'm looking forward to meeting you all again! I'm not sure when or where, but it'll definitely happen!"

And all will fade to black.

Chapter 6: Home At Last

Gummie awoke with a start. Apparently they had fallen asleep on their desk. Star Sheep was in the corner, playing Splatoon 2 For The Nintendo Switch™.

"Star Sheep, what the hell happened last night?"

"I'm not really sure, but I had a really crazy dream where we went to solve a case...something about two people going missing? And then Kitaro was there?"

"Kitaro? You mean like GeGeGe no Kitaro Kitaro?"

"Yeah. Also there was that guy, there was that guy you like."

"Ittan-Momen?"

"Yeah."

"Fuck yes. I had the same dream too. Ittan-Momen was fucking incredible." Star Sheep turned to her friend's general direction and gave him a warm smile.

"Glad you liked it."

At the end of the day, much fun was had...and also Nezumi-Otoko Is Still Underground.

Thank you to @astarrymusenight, @jellipuddi, @robocatandboy, @timeandspaceandmagic, and my Twitter friend Peter Puzzling for letting me use your characters/personas!

[ninjagoat]

Notes on Supergirl 4x07

This week on the Metaphor For Racism And Xenophobia For White People, last episode's Dumbest Motherfucker contest comes down to the final three:

- Kara spends a lot of time trusting Manchester Black, who then betrays her. Kara's conclusion from this is that "I guess people only show you what they want you to see. And that's not always who they are," which is an incredibly trite observation for someone who is a) a journalist, and b) has a secret identity.

- There's also a 'witness Supergirl's strength and determination' beat; which, like last episode, doesn't really fit her emotional journey... but then, this is yet another episode where Ms. Benoist is on a reduced schedule for cross-over, so there's still very little actual story content for her.

- James is offered the chance to be part of the story by the Children of Liberty; and by offered I mean forced, and by 'part of the story', I mean 'blow up the Statue of Liberty stand-in'. He initially says no; but if he escapes, his Liberty mate (the one that's just 'misunderstood') will be murdered, so he stays to go ahead with it.

- This story is SO WEIRD. James stays because Rando's life is more important than James's reputation. James's reputation has been under discussion for precisely three episodes, including this one. It never came up in the two years of Guardian prior to this; except, possibly, 3x19, for which the structural racism that drove that story appears to have outright replaced by the Metaphor.

- ON TOP OF THAT, it has no consideration for the following things: 1) that one of the world's most prominent pro-alien public figures committing a world-level act of terrorism is probably worse than letting Rando die; 2) James's reputation is probably not as great as he thinks it is, given that he's publically and repeated unrepentant about committing violent crimes and obstruction of justice; 3) James is the world's most successful black man, so blowing things up will likely have wider consequences; and 4) we, as an audience, don't give a damn about Rando. WE DON'T CARE. YOU TRAINED A DOG TO HUNT ALIENS YOU SICK FUCK.

- All in all, this would have been a decent finale to James's story... But MY version of James's story. The one I've interpreted on this blog and in fic; the one I have been endlessly pissed off as being presented as morally pure, when it has so many issues. Having this big speech appear now, with no real set up, is such an odd choice.

- Onto Lena... *sigh*

- I'm going to preface this with the following: over the past two years, Ms. McGrath and - through no fault of their own - the SG writing staff have done stellar work in creating a nuanced, three-dimensional, and fully realised character in Lena Luthor. Unfortunately, this portrayal is of a vapid, morally-bankrupt, entirely self-absorbed libertarian sociopath that should never be permitted within arm's reach of power or responsibility - and would never, were it not for enormous, unrestrained wealth and privilege. That's the character.

- This week, she's murdering a dude to prove that her method of mutating humans to give them superpowers works, so a genetically-superior form of humanity can win a race war. This is the stated plan.

- She has chosen her victim via a specific question on a psych exam, which I'm fairly certain has been stolen from Blade Runner, to which she herself gave the same answer. Whether or not this is because she believes she deserves superpowers; or that this is an act of self-loathing, and she considers this individual expendable precisely *because* he gave the same answer is hard to say - but given that much of the rest of the episode is her giving yet ANOTHER sob story, I'd say the latter.

- Long story short, the dude dies, and Lena collects the results. Cold. Clinical. She'll justify to herself, of course. This is a thing that must be done, and only SHE, no matter how monstrous she believes herself to be, has the strength to do it.

- This will not be her justification forever. Once she has results that are more positive, she will use them to justify themselves. We know this, because we've seen her do it before. Over and over. The ends will ALWAYS justify the means.

- There's a nice moment when James comes to visit Lena at the end where she's genuinely touched that he came, and you can *see* her wanting to let him in... But she can't. He wouldn't understand, and she knows it. I like the beat, and it's good work from Ms. McGrath.

- In other news, Mr. Harewood is great in his final scene, and Manchester Black is a fun anti-hero.