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onelinemanytimes · 1 year

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The “Protagonist” of Underverse 0.7 (Part 1)

Now, this is an interesting one. This is also a hot take, potentially, and maybe a bad choice of words- “protagonist” typically suggests a main character and Underverse is a series where a true one main character is hard to pin down. I’d say Protagonist is definitely the wrong word actually, thinking about it- but I’m not sure how else to phrase this…

Maybe it’d make more sense to call them the battle perspective. That is, the person you’re meant to be rooting for in this battle, and the person who’s side is followed closest throughout the conflict once it gets rolling.

Let’s talk about why in the WORLD I would think the character in this role is FRESH, and not Ink.

LET ME ALSO MAKE IT CLEAR NOW. I’m not about to suggest Fresh is the next main big character in Underverse or that he’s going to be saving the day or anything of the sort. If anything, I think now, he’s basically going to disappear until maybe the very end to show up in a final shot of some kind exactly the same as he was. (I would love to be proven wrong about that but I doubt it.)

I’m talking exclusively about the second half of Underverse 0.7 Part 1 that takes place in the Antivoid/Doodlesphere, specifically the conflict that happens in the doodlesphere. So just the parts Fresh is there for. Everyone clear on that? Yeah? Alrighty.

So, how could I possibly think FRESH is the main perspective on this battle and not Ink!?? Ink is present for all the conflicts much more directly as the focus, is the one who has a character arc in the episode, and has been super important for basically the entirety of underverse what with his connection to X Gaster and everything else. Ink’s TOTALLY main character material while Fresh is super background!! Surely this is me actually being out of my mind right?

Maybe. But hear me out, because I’ve got some interesting evidence for this.

Point 1: How Fresh arrives

Fresh shows up to the scene as one part of a duo with someone who is undoubtedly a main character, Cross. This still signs him up as a sidekick more than anything, on its own, but there’s more to this than that. Specifically; The Gift. AKA, Fresh’s Payment for the favor he did Ink, something Cross doesn’t know about, but has been used in promotion and as a symbol of this episode for a while now.

That Gift has so little to do with Cross that he didn’t even get told what it was in vague terms by Core, all Core said was “Don’t worry about it, just go,” even though Core could have answered that Cross was going with Fresh of all people because ink gave him a promise, or a gift, or a favor, or something of the like.

Cross is also kicked off into what we find out to be Aftertale within the first few minutes of showing up- I think it’s safe to say that for this episode, Cross is not a focal point for the part of the video I’m focusing on here.

There’s also what Ink is doing when they show up. Besides, y’know, being thrown around like a wet sock by Error.

He’s holding the gift and looking for Fresh.

He’s PROTECTING that gift very very hard. To the point of when error was throwing him around, his focus was on making sure he did not lose that gift, even despite losing his vials in a blast soon after this. Ink didn’t remember what it was initially! But when he realized that was singularly his focus; Get this gift to Fresh.

Error is obviously an antagonist here who is preventing Ink from delivering that gift to Fresh. Also not consistently present- definitely showing up multiple times, but not there the entire time. You love to see him throwing a fit about the lack of spotlight only to hilariously still be losing the spotlight to, of all people, Fresh.

We can tell that everything here is centered around Fresh and ceases to function without him here, but there’s a much more compelling reason why I think Fresh is meant to be the focus here and the lens through which we view these battles.

Point 2: The Vials

These are Ink’s Vials! Yes, I can hear the confusion starting again. These Vials, however, are what keyed me into the fact that Fresh is the one we’re watching, not Ink. If this graphic hadn’t existed then I wouldn’t have realized it myself- but they work in a very peculiar way in this fight/chase sequence.

Fresh, currently, has all the vials. He’s playing a game of keep-away with Ink, skateboarding away with them to keep them out of his hands, meanwhile Ink is trying to attack him to get them back, and drink them.

This graphic is pretty unnecessary if it was solid. You can know the colours of the vials if you look at inks design, so it’s purpose isn’t apparent until a few moments later, when Fresh tosses out the Green and the Yellow, which are then caught by Ink…

Who drinks them. Regular Ink behavior- but now we see what the vials are there for! Ink drinking them emptied them, marking them as no longer a piece in play, completely greyed out.

…That doesn’t make a lot of sense, does it?

Ink is trying to get the vials back from Fresh. If the visual was trying to keep track of how many Ink had gotten back, then all of them should be unavailable until Ink has them. Especially given at this point, Ink is being actively taunted about a variety of things I’ll dig into more in other posts- but that needless to say are encouraging him to magically pursue Fresh.

Perhaps they’re simply keeping track of how much material is in each vial..? But that would also be odd, wouldn’t it? Why would Ink need to keep track of which vials are full or empty? His magic isn’t tied to the colours he has access to, and the vials don’t change when magic is used by Ink, just when they’re drunk. Not to mention, Ink doesn’t have those vials yet- Fresh has them.

And you know who would profit from keeping track of their volume, and which ones have been consumed? Fresh would. It's VERY important that Fresh keeps track of which ones Ink’s drunk, for reasons that are made clear later. HE is the one that is making that visual matter- and it’s tied to HIS goal, not Ink’s. We’re seeing his side of this battle, the side where he has to know which vials are empty for the last part of this battle.

When the vials are no longer a checklist. They’re a timer.

These Vials, in the latter half of their fight, become a timer that goes down at a steady rate over the next few minutes. This timer is very very obviously for Fresh specifically, marking how much time he has to be in control of ink’s body. Anything he wants to do, he has to do it before he runs out of the material now in those vials- making this graphic undeniably one that applies to Fresh specifically, not Ink.

Why does this matter? What’s the point of knowing who’s perspective we have on this battle when we’re watching from the third person anyways? Well, for one it’s cool as heck to see this and ponder it, but for two; it’s so that the shift to Fresh!Ink isn’t that strange or jarring. Having Fresh take over the main character and perspective of the battle would be odd, and would mean forcing your main character to take a back seat. It’d mean Fresh was actively uprooting something planned and prepared before and causing a disruption.

That’s no good! But that problem goes away if Fresh was always the focus. No need to shift perspectives, no need to see how Ink feels while being possessed, none of that. Fresh is the one who’s in the spotlight- and this is further accentuated by how he acts while possessing Ink. He’s not talking to Error, that’s for sure, and he’s at best kind of talking to Ink, maybe.

That’s not actually it though. No, he’s talking to us, full on PSA mode, turned towards the camera and giving a guide on how he plans to win as he proceeds to. The spotlight on him makes overwhelming sense, with that- and it’s EXACTLY the kind of thing he would want, maybe even fitting payment that he decided to take for himself when Ink’s gift was so sub par.

He wants us to pay attention to him. He wants to be seen, to be remembered, to be adored and to exist without question. Because that’s what it means to be a character. That’s how you continue to be there, how you keep from fading away into irrelevancy- how you end up getting replaced, and written out of your own life.

And he is terrified of being replaced. He would do anything to keep himself important enough for us to care about.

Maybe the gift was the funniest thing in the multiverse after all. An opportunity for Fresh- ridiculous, overshadowed, often misunderstood and ignored Fresh- to temporarily take the biggest spotlight possible from one of the main characters of the series, asserting himself in legendary, radical fashion as an essential part of this otherwise very serious high stakes story that cannot be overlooked or replaced. Because you have to admit, THAT is hilarious.

#fresh #fresh underverse #underverse #underverse 0.7 #ink #error #cross sans #fresh!ink #truefreshinfo #This one is very speculative I'll admit #but it's cool to speculate on #and also I feel like I have something here #Surely it's not just me

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matan4il · 2 years

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Buddie vs Captain Swan meta

This is for the darling Nonnies who asked me to delve into the comparison! Thank you for your patience, I hope you enjoy it! xoxox

Abbreviations: OUaT = Once Upon a Time // CS = Captain Swan (the Emma/Hook ship) // SF = Swanfire (the Emma/Baelfire ship) // TPTB = The Powers that Be (the team making the decisions for a show) // ep numbers: 201 = ep 201 of 911; O201 = ep 201 of OUaT Unlike with other shows’ canon ships that I have compared in the past to Buddie in terms of what happens to them on screen, this meta is also gonna compare the two ships on the level of the decisions TPTB made (with the two levels not completely separate), which is a part of why this has been one of my fave meta posts to write, ever.

A love story on screen starts with love off screen

Alright, so let me start by mentioning that Hook’s actor (Colin) was only supposed to be on the show for a brief stint. I heard different reports on whether he was originally booked for one ep or five. Either way, it was officially confirmed that even before his first ep aired, TPTB already liked Colin’s performance enough to promote him to a series regular. Yes, before anyone at home even got to watch Hook once. They didn’t specify what they liked, but we can assume it was his acting choices, charisma, the color, humor and sex appeal he brought to the character, but also the chemistry between Colin as Hook and Jennifer as Emma, maybe as early as in rehearsals. Once they expanded Hook’s role so much, they had to tie him in with some of the other regular characters. Hook’s original link to the show was the revenge he wanted to take on Rumple (as established in O204, his first ep), but if he was gonna be a regular, he needed something more. So O205 introduces him to a group of our heroines, especially through Emma’s eyes (she’s the one who sees right through him), while the climax of this meeting plays out in O206, laying out the foundation for CS. Just keep in mind that on 911, Ryan got the part of Eddie because of how much TPTB liked and wanted to work with him. In other words, in both cases it seems the on-screen chemistry and joint journey of two characters started with an off-screen love of TPTB for a charismatic actor.

Both ships were given this initial trajectory of enemies to friends. In the case of CS, Hook starts out on the side of the bad guys while Emma is The Savior. He also uses a sleazy sort of flirting as a tactic: when his opponents are annoyed, it distracts them from his true intentions, and it also disarms them by making it seem like he poses no real threat since he can’t even “keep it in his pants.” He uses this on many, yet from the get go, he has a special focus on Emma. There are four heroines he meets in O205, but she’s the main one he negotiates with, tries to win over, flirts with and when the women have to decide which one of them would climb the beanstalk with him, once they chose Emma he even states, “I was hoping it would be you.” Even the way he puts the bracelet on her wrist is more physically intimate than it needs to be. That means we have an antagonistic start, alongside an undercurrent of attraction. That’s exactly what we have with Buddie as well in 201, when Buck starts out disliking Eddie, but under the surface it’s clear he’s attracted (and not just physically) to Eddie as well, to how incredible he is.

During the O206 climb, Hook starts a dialogue with Emma, but I mean, he really wants to get to know her. It’s still something he can rationalize away in his mind as him simply doing whatever serves his revenge (maybe in the long run this info might be useful), but he doesn’t strictly need this in the short run. Knowing about her first love doesn’t help with how they’ll defeat the giant and retrieve the golden compass. Yet, he wants to know. She intrigues him and makes him want more. It’s the only time we’ll see him in Os2 (other than the finale) doing something that isn’t directly needed for his revenge. In fact, the issue of whether he would betray Emma in order to further his revenge explicitly comes up (she assumes he would based on how Neal had betrayed her in the past), he doesn’t try any tricks when she’s wounded, instead he bandages her hand, goes with her altered plan on how to tackle the giant even though it puts him in a much greater danger (the new plan has benefits for Emma, none for him, yet he still accepts it), comments on how well they work as a team, and we also discover in O209 that he wouldn’t have betrayed her later on either (Hook tells her so when they both know Emma has a lie detection super power, showing that she got under his skin, to make him honest and loyal to her even when it doesn’t necessarily benefit him). My point is, this ep isn’t shy about setting up the possibility of CS being more than two people who temporarily share the same goal. This is so much like Buddie, whose compatibility is clearly cemented in 201 beyond just that one grenade call they worked on together in the ambulance, leading to them exchanging a vow to have each other’s back.

Emma’s reaction to him is played in a more understated fashion. She goes with him because they need the compass, but she doesn’t like the flirting, she openly doesn’t trust him and at first she doesn’t quite open up to his questions. However, we get a hint that her real reaction might run deeper than it initially seems because we get her flashbacks to Neal (the name Baelfire chose for himself in The Land Without Magic), the only love she’s had before. Those flashbacks are triggered simply by meeting Hook, later intensified by his questions. He got under her skin from the start. She also spots his tattoo and asks about the woman mentioned in it. She wants to get to know Hook better, too. When he doesn’t really wanna open up to her about his lost love either, she also guesses correctly what it is he’s not telling her. When he acknowledges she’s right by calling her perceptive, she returns his honesty by admitting she might have been in love before (despite lying about it earlier). That makes their interaction perfectly mutual. We get everything needed for the classic trope of enemies to friends to eventual lovers, not to mention soulmates. And again, the mutual nature of the attraction is so similar to what we get with Buck and Eddie, who both want to get to know the other one better even at the peak of not getting along. Buck still asks Eddie questions to better understand the new guy, while in all of 201, the only person Eddie is shown as being interested in on a more personal level is Buck, with that comment at the gym about knowing that he’s a good guy going through a tough break up, showing empathy, but emphasizing they’re on the same team...

Keep your friends close and your story telling options closer

But CS didn’t get a simple love story set up. I’m certain the original plan was for Emma to actually have a different endgame, which IMO makes the comparison of CS with Buddie so much more interesting. Os2 is full of hints that Emma’s intended endgame was Neal. SF as endgame includes epic symbolism: Emma, the daughter of THE Good Guys from the Enchanted Land, and Neal, the son and grandson of THE Bad Guys from that land, meet in the Land Without Magic, fall in love and have a child together, their union bringing eventual salvation for all. It’s the stuff fairytales are made of! I also have to say that I really loved Baelfire as a kid, so it makes sense that if TPTB set him up to be such a loved character, they would want him (and assume the viewers want him) to have the ultimate happy ending with Emma.

How does CS fit into that? Well, my theory is that when introducing us to them, TPTB saw dramatic potential in the chemistry between Hook and Emma, plus it helped link him to the show, but they hadn’t decided yet how exactly to play with this ship alongside their intended endgame one. I believe they saw three options, and they tried to create the foundation for CS so that it would reasonably lend itself to any of the three, though I do think they had a preference. The first option was to set up the potential of CS as a romantic ship, but then not follow through, making it clear that Hook is attracted to Emma, but that her link to him would just be as The Savior, with him being one of many she helps to save. In other words, Hook’s attraction would be one sided, but it would help him to redeem himself and at some point find his own happy ending. Another option, and I believe the main one they were considering during Os2, was for CS to grow into something romantic (and mutual), but not an endgame ship. It would be a station on Emma’s romantic journey, and the love triangle created by CS would be another obstacle for SF to overcome (and it makes me LOL forever that we got a bit of that love triangle treatment for Buddie when Taylor was around, even without Buddie going canon, unlike CS who had kissed by the time Hook discovers Neal is still alive). The last option is again one that I think TPTB were less interested in, but made sure not to close the door on, which is that the set up for CS would grow into an actual endgame ship.

Why do I think the love triangle option was the initially preferred one? IMO just like Os2 is full of signs that SF were meant to be endgame, we also have hints that TPTB’s course was to create that love triangle between SF and CS, for example in the O206 flashback to the time when Neal shoplifted the swan keychain for Emma. Right within the shot there’s a heart-shaped keychain with a pirate symbol on it. Another example that connects the two ships is that in this ep, Hook tells Emma about having been in Neverland, while in her flashbacks we see SF talking about settling down, and she jokingly asks, “Like, where? Neverland?” Also, on the beanstalk, Hook says he can tell she has the look in her eyes of a lost kid who’s been abandoned by her parents. We already know based on the set up of his revenge story that Hook’s a bit of a lost soul himself (and we’ll find out in O222 that he was an abandoned orphan, too). This was Neal’s background as well. All three are, in a sense, kindred spirits. In fact, while O206 establishes the start of CS and shows us SF for the first time through flashbacks, O221 is going to show us that, independent of this, Hook and Baelfire had also crossed paths and cared about each other, completing all sides of the love triangle. Notice how ALL of these things, because they connect and parallel Hook and Neal, can just as easily support the idea that Hook was always meant to be an obstacle for SF to overcome, or that Hook is Emma’s true love. This is what TPTB like, to keep their options open in case things (and their preferences) shift.

I see similarities here to what happened with Eddie’s character on 911. He was brought in because TPTB liked Ryan and wanted him on the show. They were reorganizing after Abby’s departure in 110, so they introduced Maddie’s character as the new anchor at Dispatch, as well as Eddie to make the team more dynamic. Both needed ties to the team. Maddie would have one in Buck, but she also needed a romantic connection. We know TPTB decided on having the new characters develop a romance. JLH took one look at the ship name and said, “Chim,” 'coz she’s a queen. Which means Maddie would still have her romance, but what would tie Eddie on a personal level to the 118? My guess is TPTB saw the chemistry between Ryan and Oliver, and decided to go with that as the significant bond they’d give Eddie. The changes were made before 201 even aired. Once the ep did, Eddie’s entire introduction is all about Buck, including some clear hints at the option of a romance, without committing to it yet. I’m talking of course about the way Eddie’s presented shirtless for Buck to take him in, the sexy tune “Whatta Man” playing in the background, plus of course the classic enemies to friends trope. Again, TPTB hint at it, lay out the foundations, but keep their options open. When you run a show, there are a lot of elements that might end up not playing out as you intended them to, so you have to reserve some level of flexibility, keep your plans in mind, but also be able to adapt to what ends up working on screen. That’s why I think there were other hints at a possible romantic Buddie throughout s2 (the most blatant of which was the Elf Lady scene in 210 and the social media comments about Buddie in 218), but without anything becoming explicit yet. I do assume back then, they hadn’t decided yet whether to go canon with Buddie or not.

A part of what makes the comparison off screen so fascinating to me is contemplating what made TPTB change course and decide that the option they’re going with is CS as endgmae after all, because it might reflect on when and how a similar decision has been/will be made on 911 regarding Buddie. I do think the ultimate factor was on screen chemistry that garnered CS tons of vocal fans even before anything canon happened between them. Does that remind you of a certain 911 ship? But then, I also think SF's chemistry paled in comparison (I can specify in detail why the ship fell short on the story telling level as well, but my impression is it was a poor decision to cast Neal without an audition, including a chemistry read for SF. CS absolutely sizzle together. Chemistry is a mystery that few have managed to decipher. It’s not about whether actors are good or not, it’s not about whether they like each other as people off screen, it’s an unknown. And it might also be, at least to a degree, in the eye of the beholder. I’m sure there are SF fans who think their ship’s chemistry was way better than CS’. But I say to a degree ‘coz there usually is a general consensus, and in the case of Emma, most viewers seemed to agree her chemistry with Hook was off the charts). If the only ship that OUaT set up in a way that could (and was meant to) rival CS was failing to do that, what were the chances that any other incoming ship would? I suspect this is what settled the score in favor of CS. Not only did they become a canon couple, not only did they become Emma’s endgame, they became in a sense the whole show’s endgame. OUaT’s main theme (explicitly repeated) is that anything is possible if you only hold on to hope. The last significant zoom in we get for the entire show is on CS hugging while holding their little baby girl, Hope. 911 is very similar in its hopeful themes to OUaT, so here I have to point out that no one gives Eddie or Buck hope that things can be good quite like the other man (just one example is Eddie struggling from the very start of s5, and Buck helping him and giving him hope in 514 in ways no one else, not even a therapist, can).

Basically, this dynamic of TPTB creating a ship and not committing to it, but wanting it present in the minds of the viewers and realizing over time that none other could compare to this ship is once more very similar IMO to Buddie. After scenes like the lasagna Buddifer one in 601, there’s no character in the world that can enter the 911 verse at this point and win viewers’ hearts as the endgame ship for either Buck or Eddie over what they have with each other. Ultimately, I don’t see how TPTB can make any other choice that would be satisfying (and acceptable) for most of the audience.

In case you’re wondering whether I’m wrong and CS was supposed to be endgame all along, OUaT actually hinted within the show that this is what happened. In O621, after CS had just been married and immediately torn apart, Hook gives a small speech that seems to reflect the decision making behind the scenes: “Look, we made each other better! All right? Emma and I were never a predestined love story, guaranteed a happy ending. We fought for our love, and we won.” Within the OUaT world, where a whole bunch of things such as Being The Savior ARE predestined, there's nothing that tells Hook he and Emma weren’t. So why is he saying that? It’s TPTB inserting a meta comment into the text. As I’ve been pointing out, I believe these words resonate true for Buddie as well, who might not have been the original plan either, but they found each other, made each other better, and have been fighting together for the little family unit they ended up having.

Love is stored in the parallels

It’s fascinating to me that after CS first meet, the rest of Os2 gives each a mostly separate plot, because they’re both still preoccupied with a former love and they’re not ready to be with each other just yet. Hook is chasing his revenge, haunted by the ghost of the murdered Milah, while Emma is surprised by Neal returning to her life and taking his place there as Henry’s dad.

I find it insane how similar this is to Buddie in s2. They meet as enemies, quickly become friends, but for the most part have separate plots for that season, where Buck has to find a way to disentangle himself from Abby’s ghost (which is how he defines her when he writes his letter to her), and Eddie finds that his one request for momentary help turns into Shannon surprisingly returning to his life and trying to re-take her place there as Christopher’s mom. I’ll repeat, Hook and Buck are both haunted by the ‘ghost’ of a past lover, while Emma and Eddie have to deal with their ex, who’s also the biological parent of their kid, returning to their life. When I tell you that this perfect parallel makes me wanna chew glass...

But this allows them to resolve their issues and come closer together. There’s a moment when Hook thinks he did finally get his revenge in O215, which leads him to ponder in O220 what will become of his life if he does kill Rumple. He realizes it would be empty, as he has no one to share it with. This is a change inspired by Emma. He grasps the emptiness of his pursuit since in spite of himself, he started caring about her. It’s because of what he told her in O206, that she’s “bloody brilliant” and because of what she tells him in O222, that they understand each other (as fellow lost souls). There is something real between them that is changing him. The Os2 finale forces him to choose between his revenge and his own life. It’s a choice that he had to make before and he always chose to put himself in harm’s way in order to avenge Milah’s death (in an O311 flashback he even explicitly tells Tink that dying for his revenge would be satisfying enough). But this time, he realizes he does want to live. And as Emma challenges him in this ep to care about anyone other than himself, he does. He cares about her enough to do the right thing, returning to Storybrooke to save everyone. He practically tells her she’s the reason, that she inspired him to remember he could care about others. When he realizes his return was too late for his initial intention, but he could still help by offering the magic bean to save Henry, he immediately volunteers to do so and even to join the search party. It’s during this time that we’ll see them really coming together. That made me think of the distance we saw between Buddie in 5a, which gave way to them growing closer than ever in 5b, as Eddie confesses his greatest fear to and finds comfort in Buck.

O222 still doesn’t commit to a specific CS option, though. It could be Emma as The Savior helping Hook become better without returning his feelings, it could be the start of something that will eventually make way for Emma choosing Neal once she’s reunited with him, or it could be the start of CS as a ship that OUaT is actually invested in, not just as an obstacle to SF. When did the show decide between those options? I suspect the answer is during the hiatus ahead of Os3. What Hook did in O222, when he chose to return, it was the first selfless thing we’ve seen him do. But is it something that means he’s worthy of Emma or can compete with the feelings she and Neal still have for each other? I would argue that there’s nothing in the Os2 finale to definitively answer that in the affirmative, at least not just yet. In the Os3 premiere, however, I believe we get exactly that. We have a moment when Hook and Regina discuss whether villains like them can get happy endings. It’s a continuation of their talk in O220, where for the first time Hook wondered about whether he should have something more to his life than vengeance. In O301, he lets Regina know he hopes they can get one. As their conversation ends, the camera pans from that to Emma. That may not seem so significant, but in O416, there’s a scene where CS talk about whether Hook, as a former villain, will get his happy ending. She asks him if he’s found it, and he replies, “Don’t you know, Emma? It’s you.” Visually, the show clues us in on this almost two seasons earlier, before Hook himself had even realized it, using that shot. TPTB have already chosen CS over SF, we just don’t (officially) know it yet either.

But it’s one of those things whose full significance you’re meant to only realize during a rewatch. That’s exactly what 911 gave us with that montage of memories Eddie has in 315, where he sees the family he recognizes he’ll always fight to come back to, and that family is not just his son, it’s about both Buck and Chris. As emotional and incredible as that scene was, we discover roughly a season later that it means even more than we realized, as Eddie reveals to Buck in 414 his decision to alter his will following that call, officially and legally binding Buck to their family. Now just imagine, maybe somewhere in what we’ve seen there’s already a scene that one day, with the gift of hindsight, we’ll watch and it will hit us that TPTB were using it to signal that they had already chosen to make Buddie canon, we just needed to wait for it to unfold...

I say this because even though O301 lets us know TPTB have already settled on CS, the show itself will continue to pretend as if the love triangle between them and SF is yet to be decided throughout the rest of Os3. Hook surprised Emma more than once along Os2, but as he chose her over his revenge, she got to really see the kind of man he can be. His bloodthirst for Milah’s murderer was always fueled by his love and by the kind of devotion that only lost souls can offer. If that was so intense, just imagine what he’s capable of feeling when he begins falling in love with the one woman who he thinks of as so amazing that she could even make him let go of his vengeance. Alongside this, TPTB still dwell on Emma’s lingering feelings for Neal. That makes it seem like an open race, but it was later confirmed in an interview that they knew they were going to kill Neal before Os3 even started airing.

There are still clues in the subtext that CS are it. For example, in O301 we get to see them as a battle couple again, something we hadn’t witnessed since their first quest together climbing the beanstalk in O206. Never estimate the power of this trope! Since the days of the ancient Greeks, it has been used to signify a pair of bonded souls, ready to kill and die for each other, playing on the duality of the fierce fight one conducts for the person they harbor the most tender of feelings for, with both partners being so in sync that their bond can be counted on even in the most life threatening of situations. And yes, of course Buddie falls into this long, intense (and historically, homoerotic) tradition, as we have seen them being the ultimate battlefield boyfriends multiple times.

Another thing is that the triangle’s two sides aren’t truly balanced. What I mean by this is that when a show hasn’t decided yet, and wants to build up both ships, it will make sure to balance every significant thing one ship has with an equal counterpart for the other. In O307, CS have a meaningful moment where Emma thanks Hook for doing the right thing and telling them Neal is in Neverland, so that he can be saved. She acknowledges this is something Hook did in spite of Neal being his romantic rival for her affections. Hook responds that when he wins her heart, and he will, it won’t be because of trickery, it will be because she wants him (there are actually three opportunities Hook has in Neverland to win her “unfairly,” and he resists using even a single one of them). What this does is cement the fact that the love Hook feels for Emma can help him be a better man, someone who he once was (as we saw in O305). It’s a redemption through love story. And Neal doesn’t have an equivalent to that. Another indication is in O311, when Emma and Henry have to leave Storybrooke, knowing that once they do, they will lose their memories of everyone else. Hook tells Emma there won’t be a day when he won’t think of her. She smiles and replies, “Good.” Hook on his part is confessing that his feelings have morphed into this hopeless, epic love that will haunt him even when they’re realms apart. Emma, by accepting that, is in turn admitting that she actually does want whatever it is that has started developing between them. But when Neal told her a moment earlier that it isn’t over and he will see her and Henry again, she didn’t answer. Again, these are small signs that TPTB already knew the endgame ship before we got Emma officially choosing Hook, but they still pretended as if it’s not settled yet, still acting as if the love triangle is balanced. And I am forever thinking about 911 and what TPTB have already decided, but still aren’t ready to admit...

The on screen parallels are, like love, endless

We talk a lot about what Buddie’s ‘Oh’ moment might be, that instance of recognition of what they feel. We might not have gotten one on screen yet, or we may discover later on that, like the visual clue in O301, we can only decipher their ‘Oh’ moment in retrospect. With Hook, I think he had his in O302. Emma has to admit who she really is, that she’s still a lost girl. We, as viewers, can tell how similar she is to Hook. When they talk about it later, he asks her, “And just who are you, Swan?” and she teases, “Wouldn’t you like to know?” Hook is usually the one to bring on the flirting that most women don’t take seriously, but this time, when it’s Emma who’s being coy, he reacts with unusual sincerity and responds, “Perhaps I would.” It’s that uncharacteristic intensity that lets us know, he’s admitting it to himself. In O206, we saw that he was interested in getting to know Emma, but he could still lie to himself, hide behind how the info might come in useful at some point in his pursuit of revenge (even though we don’t see him take a similar interest in any of the other opponents). But here, he’s already let go of the idea of retribution, and is admitting to himself he honestly is interested in her, that what he feels is more than just attraction or a means to a goal. He genuinely would like to be the person allowed in. And yes, once more this is very similar to Buddie, who gravitated towards each other from the start, how they both showed such an interest in getting to know the other man better, and we got to see how similar in their trauma and journey towards healing they are, as well as being each other’s person, the one allowed in.

Another thing we have is instances of mutual longing stares. These are supposed to quietly make our guts turn, because CS exchange them in Os3 precisely whenever it seems like they can’t be together. For example, in O306 when Emma discovers that Neal, the father of her child, is still alive and in Neverland, there’s an intense exchange of stares between her and Hook. It reminds me a bit of how Buddie sometimes stare at each other, such as when the the team is discussing Eddie and Ana going to an event as a couple for the first time in 501, but it’s Buck’s eyes that Eddie meaningfully catches...

There’s of course the classic instants of jealousy. They don’t necessarily develop into full plots like on some shows, but they do exist in the background as a reminder for who someone really wants, no matter what facade they may present to the world. In O310, for example, Hook has decided to let Emma go so that she could have a chance to see if she could work things out with the father of her son. But he’s heartbroken, so he tries to take his mind off the pain by hitting on Tink, who of course realizes exactly what he’s doing and says no. Nothing happens, but Emma arrives just in time to see the two of them together and be visibly displeased by the idea. This is a lot like Eddie, even as early as 206, disliking the idea of Buck with any other person, like when he saw Taylor speaking to Bobby in that ep and ignored it, but the second he saw her speaking to Buck...

And let’s talk about building a family unit together! Well, Hook being Emma’s co-parent isn’t exactly a focal point of OUaT, since she shares custody of Henry with another, adoptive mother. The show is preoccupied enough with both Emma and Regina’s journey to accepting their motherhood and learning how to be a good parent to Henry, on top of Neal discovering that he’s a dad (not to mention all the grandparents this brings into Henry’s life), that I don’t think the show has a lot of space left to delve too deeply into Hook as Henry’s extra parental figure. And yet, it does have a whole bunch of really lovely moments that it dedicates precisely to that. For example, in O316, before CS even get together, Hook spends a lot of time with Henry to help this kid grieve. Even when we don’t see these moments on screen, OUaT makes sure to include references that let us know these are happening off screen. And to really cement it, all of O606 is dedicated to establishing that Henry does see them as a family unit and accepts Hook not just as Emma’s romantic partner, but also as an additional parent.

I don’t really have to explain how this is very similar to Buddie, where there’s no question Chris has basically embraced Buck as his other dad, and that these three ARE one family unit, right?

Another thing OUaT did with CS once it decided they were endgame is to give them an epic cinematic point of reference. I’m referring to O305, when Emma and Hook kiss for the first time. Hook, the womanizing pirate, is visibly shaken up by it. Emma, however, is still in denial and right away says it’s just a one time thing. But as she sends him away, he replies with, “As you wish.” This is an obvious reference to the movie Princess Bride which established that saying that is another form of saying, “I love you.”

Buddie have their own cinematic reference built into the ship. Their promise in 201 to have each other’s back is a clear reference to Maverick and Iceman’s exchange at the end of Top Gun accepting the other guy as their wing man. If you ask me, that was a way of saying “I love you,” too. And of course, Top Gun came out in the 1980’s, when mainstream Hollywood was not filming gay romances, but this hit film is widely known and understood as a queer coded movie. In fact, Val Kilmer himself once referred to Iceman as his first gay role...

And God, that epic reference really fits CS. Even before they get together, Hook’s feelings for Emma are so grand, he chooses to follow her to the ends of earth and time, literally. Magical vortex that leads God only knows where opens up in O321? Hook wants to get out of there right away. It sucks Emma in? Hook deliberately lets go and allows the vortex to claim him as well, while he mutters that one day he’s going to stop chasing this woman (except he obviously won’t). You know who else follow each other into the craziest, most life endangering situations without a second thought? Yep, our resident moron in love firefighters. They will never stop chasing and saving each other either.

An additional way to build up CS as a ship and a significant one is to have them parallel the other canon couples on the show, particularly the ones that have such a sound foundation that viewers know their love is true. If CS parallel those couples, that means their love is true as well. I think the most obvious parallel on OUaT is between CS and Emma’s parents, Snow and Charming. They were THE romance in s1, cemented by their exchanged promise that they will always find each other. Just imagine how feral I went when in O511, we had Emma leading an expedition to the fucking underworld because she was hellbent on finding and saving Hook, and she utters the same epic promise of love her parents have repeatedly made to each other, that she will find him, she will always find him. Just in case we still had any doubts, in the underworld she has to undergo a test of true love, and unsurprisingly, she passes it. Hook and Emma get to spend the rest of their lives knowing that what they built together, by being there for each other, comforting and learning and saving one another, is true love. So I hope you get why it drives me a little crazy to think about how, in essence, that’s exactly what Buddie have as well, their relationship is built from the same building blocks. Not to mention, they’re also repeatedly shown to parallel the canon, foundational couples of 911, like Madney, Henren and Bathena.

Another of these parallels to Snow and Charming can be found in the language one partner uses when they try to revive the part of the ship. In O103, it’s Snow trying to save Charming in Storybrooke, and she’s begging him at first to come back to “us,” but that doesn’t really express what she feels, her desperation, so she switches over to “Come back to me.” That switch says everything about how significant the “me” is. It’s not just a general rescue attempt out of respect for the sacredness of all human life. This is personal. A loss that the rescuer cannot bear. And they have faith that the connection between them and the person they’re trying to save is another life line, in addition to the physical actions to keep the other person alive. That’s exactly what Emma is also begging Hook to do when she’s giving him CPR in O320, in those very words, after Zelena almost drowned him to death. That of course parallels Buck begging Eddie to stay “with me” in 414. Also worthy of note? None of these couples are together when one half of the ship has to rescue the other and ends up resorting to this intimate language.

A parallel I absolutely have to quietly scream about into my fist is the one about emotional walls. In O503, Hook confesses to Emma that he liked her exactly as she was. He tells her that he liked her walls, and he liked being the one to break them down. That confession holds so much, like the acceptance of the person you’re in love with as they are, with all of the parts of themselves that they see as the worst, like the love, patience and support that turns being there for someone else when they let you in on what they see as their ugliest parts into something you see as beautiful, and like that awe-inspiring realization that you are special to them because you’re the only one they let into their mess. Now tell me this isn’t precisely what we got with Buddie, when Buck physically broke down the door to Eddie’s most private space, his bedroom, and he wasn’t kicked out for doing that or met with any kind of resistance, instead what Buck got was Eddie letting down his emotional walls as well, not just in that moment, but also later on, when he allows Buck back into that mess, to help clean it up and fix his broken walls. Yes, the most significant emotional developments that happen between romantic partners are ones that Buddie got to have, too.

And lastly there’s of course the parallel that you can see in the header for this meta post, between the time Emma had to watch Hook be stabbed in front of her eyes in O423 and when Buck had to witness Eddie get shot right in front of him in 413. The way that scene plays out (one is fatally wounded, the other is horrified into paralysis, but then before they can rush in, a third party has to intervene and stop them, as the wounded partner reaches out to them) is a romantic trope in itself, because yeah, shows and movies usually only do it this way to one person when it’s their romantic partner who sees everything and is devastated by it. That Buck was put in the same position Emma during this scene, that says everything.

~~ Thank you soooo much to the amazing @buckleyirondad and @madsbuckley who shared the load of giffing for this meta (since there were so many scenes to gif). Your creations are breathtaking and so is your kindness! I seriously can’t thank you enough, I hope you had a blast making the gifs, and that everyone reading enjoys this meta! If you have, please consider supporting it by giving it a reblog, thank you! xoxox

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majachee · 5 months

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YOU HAVE A TMNT SHATTERED GLASS AU?!?!

I DO, I DO! It's been in development for a WHILE now, and I've offhandedly mentioned it once or twice on here. But I never really delved into it lmao

The premise is that the OG turtles get transported into the SG world as a last ditch effort to defeat SG Splinter and save the SG turtles! >:3c

SG lore copy-and-pasted from discord:

So for those unfamiliar with Transformers: Shattered Glass (source material that directly inspired this au); it's an alternate universe where not only the roles of villains/heroes are swapped, but the main personality traits of the individual characters get flipped as well.

For example: in this AU, Bradford would be a genuinely caring, teacher-esque guy who got famous for teaching kids self defense and responsibility with his martial arts skills. The Rat King would still be passionate about rats, but he'd be a behavioral scientist who studies the behaviors and intelligence of domesticated and wild rats in order to beat the stigma against them. Teehee.

I love using the canonical kraang technology and dimensional travel in the show itself, so the main plot is that the OG turtles get isekai'd into the "shattered glass" universe as a last ditch effort made by Good Dad Oroku Saki and Oroku Miwa to save the "evil" turtles and defeat the EVIL YOSHI.

Karai and the turtles' roles are flipped in the SG universe, yes. Miwa sees the turtles as her brothers and wants to save them from her wacky as hell bio dad.

Shenanigans DO HAPPEN because this is post-season 5 for the og turtles, and the awkwardness of cooperating with alternative, good guy versions of your enemies to fight against emo versions of yourselves is... wild. Lol. Teehee. :^))

The flipped personalities are way more obvious with the turtles lol

Leonardo is aloof and slacks off, purposely shoving missions and chores onto his younger brothers. He's also lacking the enthusiasm and passion OG Leo has for his interests. SG Leonardo wears disinterest like a badge of honor, though he's also severely lacking in that as well.

SG Raphael is quiet, a pushover, and is much more emotional than his counterpart. OG Raph covers up his insecurities with snark and anger, SG Raph's an open book and is very easily worked up to the point of blubbering out all his weaknesses to his enemies. He hides behind his brothers in battle until Leo or Donnie makes him fight. Saki and his team avoid fighting Raph for obvious reasons.

SG Donatello is a genius and he knows it, that is why he sabotages his underlings and his two aforementioned brothers. He does not use his brains to make inventions or plan tactics, instead he uses his brains to bully everyone else around him and purposely cause problems. He dangles his intelligence above others in order to make them feel bad, especially if they ever ask him to do something with said intelligence.

SG Mikey spent several years in Dimension X on a mission for Splinter, he is now several years older than his brothers and is the self-appointed leader. He is deathly serious, ruthless, has no time for pranks or jokes, and ends up carrying the weight of the team for a majority of their missions. (Because Leo and Donnie keep trying to make Raph do their jobs. 👊😔)

The time difference between Earth and Dimension X fascinated me. So yeah, SG turtles saw Mikey go into a pink portal for like 2 minutes and he came back several years older than all of them. And also a foot taller. That was a very "well damn" moment for them. Lol.

SG Mikey is a more central antagonist than SG Splinter/Yoshi. Evil Mikey centric YEAHHH

#maja needs to shut up tag #ask #text #shattered glass tmnt au #tmnt #tmnt 2012 #tmnt 2012 au #lol imagine fighting an evil version of your dead dad thats so FU

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fearandhatred · 8 months

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The Alternate Coffee Theory

okay i've been thinking about this a lot. like an unhealthy amount. so: the coffee that the metatron buys for aziraphale is obviously significant. however.

i'm starting to think that its significance really doesn't have that much of a role to play in season 3's plot as we might think, or as the coffee theory might suggest. it might honestly just be important because of all that it symbolises in the last episode, aka earthly desires and by extension, the metatron's hatred of humans and crowley. hear me out

Give Me Coffee or Give Me Death, aka The Metatron Hates Humanity

when i tell y'all i genuinely even tried abbreviating Large Oat Milk Latte With A Dash Of Almond Syrup in case there was some subliminal hidden message in that order... yeah that didn't work out. but honestly i think the main thing to take away from this scene is that the metatron hates humans.

the metatron (so demeaningly): your establishment. i assume they always ask for coffee (eye roll) (deep sigh) (dripping with sarcasm)

nina: no one ever asks for death no :)

the metatron (mockingly): no i don't suppose they doooooo. sooo predictable

the metatron does not mention anything about the world or humans when he's talking to aziraphale (at least not what is shown to us, but if he didn't at all then it's very interesting that aziraphale didn't pick up on that, but that's a whole separate thing).

what this scene with the coffee mostly does is establish the metatron as The Antagonist of season 3. yeah, it's already hinted by the second coming bomb drop, but this solidifies it: he thinks of himself as superior to humans, he genuinely does not care what happens to them. and it'll be harder to change his mind (which aziraphale will undoubtedly try to) because of this.

"Where Would I Get My Coffee?" aka Aziraphale Exposing His Priorities, aka The Metatron Hates Crowley

this is where i think the coffee is REALLY important. it draws out some interesting conversations between the metatron and aziraphale that go exactly how the metatron intended. and also, while the previous scene shows how he hates humans, everything from that point on shows that he hates crowley.

"shall i?" "drink it? of course. i've ingested things in my time."

this has definitely been said before but to reiterate, the metatron is trying to appeal to aziraphale here with human things, which is funny considering we've established that he hates humans. i think from this point onwards, the metatron is trying to parse out just how attached aziraphale is to humanity.

you can kind of see his intent when aziraphale says the coffee is very nice and he replies "yes, i should jolly well hope so". when i first heard that i was all ???? why the hell did he say it like that? but i think it's him confirming that yes, aziraphale partakes in earthly pleasures. maybe there's something to be said here about gluttony being a sin? no idea. so yes, aziraphale loves the world. but then:

2. "where would i get my coffee?"

now THIS is interesting. because aziraphale says "no, i don't want to go to heaven. where would i get my coffee?" and the metatron doesn't say anything like "as archangel you can go wherever you want. you can come back to earth and drink coffee. you can manifest coffee in heaven."

NO. he says "you can have crowley with you". it's a very pointed segue. and if we take it that we are shown all the important parts of the conversation, that means that aziraphale accepts the offer pretty much right after learning that he can be with crowley.

so in the previous point, in the bookshop, the metatron confirms that aziraphale loves and knows humanity. now here, he confirms (this is what he thinks, at least) that aziraphale loves humanity, and he loves crowley more. and to him, this is A Major Problem.

The Offer, aka The Metatron's True Intentions

okay, now let's talk about the metatron's offer to 1. make aziraphale an archangel, and 2. make crowley an angel too.

yes, the second coming is the metatron's major goal. yes, he wants aziraphale to help. but not in the way he thinks: he wants aziraphale to help by getting out of the way. this means that the offer to make crowley an angel again was genuine, because no matter which way it goes, him and heaven benefit from this.

aziraphale and crowley, together, loving humanity, is literally all that stands between heaven and The Ineffable Plan, because that was the case for Armageddidn't. if the metatron gets both of them to go to heaven, fantastic! the troublemakers removed willingly from humanity and doing good (aka advancing the plan).

if crowley refuses to go with aziraphale, fantastic! he knows how much aziraphale relies on crowley. he thinks they're weaker when they're not together. by separating him from all that he loves and directing his attention elsewhere, that's when they can really start doing things.

Coffee Recap and What This Means For Season 3

ok so. tldr. the coffee was placed in the show for symbolic reasons, to set up all these scenes and conversations and show the metatron's true intentions. maybe the coffee even represents aziraphale's attachment to things that are decidedly not heaven, but are in fact heaven's rejects. heaven's fallen. the metatron has decided to make that his problem.

now maybe they really will brainwash aziraphale in heaven, or refuse to let him go back to earth or communicate with crowley in any way. but that doesn't take away from the fact that aziraphale went up there for what he genuinely believes is right, and that is what matters to me, honestly.

but this makes the metatron a lot more sinister than i originally thought. he's very smart; that offer he made wasn't an offer at all, because either way it went would have benefited him. and the fact that he's thought this through means that this is definitely not the end. crowley is probably in danger. aziraphale will be put under a lot of control that would be hard to break free of.

i don't think there's a possibility of them changing the metatron's mind, but i might be wrong. i do think that the season will end with humanity saved and heaven becoming a better place, maybe a joint partnership with hell, but whether they defeat the metatron or somehow make the whole of heaven and hell see sense is past me.

#fearandhatred #fearandmeta #watch me be completely and utterly wrong #but i do think it's slightly more plausible than the coffee theory at least #it's 3am #good omens #good omens season 2 #ineffable husbands #aziracrow #crowley #aziraphale #the metatron #the coffee theory #good omens theory #neil gaiman #good omens meta

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imhereforonespecificpost · 6 months

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7 Things I liked about “Carry On” By Rainbow Rowell

Trying to get myself to write something, anything, to get out of a creative slump, so I wrote a review of “Carry On” by Rainbow Rowell! If there is a fandom I'm sure I'm late to it haha. Spoilers below the cut

In no particular order, things I liked about the book:

I felt like I got to experience a whole series condensed into one book. Before I discuss this one, yes, I know there are more books in the series. But I thought it was really cool how this book could stand on its own! It tells a complete story from beginning to an end I was satisfied with. And I thought it was cool how Rowell uses flashbacks or character conversations to cover the important events from “earlier in the series.” I felt like I got a series-worth of build up to both the main relationship and to the defeat of the main villain, without having to actually live through a slow-burn.

Agatha escapes the narrative. Again, maybe this changes in later books. But I had so much respect for Agatha leaving campus (and then the country!) as soon as she escaped the Mage and his threats to suck away her magic. For most of the novel she only sees her expected role as “girlfriend of the chosen one” and feels dutifully resigned to the accompanying dangers. I loved seeing her choose her own happiness and safety (in the non magical world, which she prefers!) after successfully escaping with her life. Very inspiring personally as I work on leaving a high demand religion. It wouldn’t necessarily work for all characters to do that, but I love that for her.

The existence and power of the Insidious Humdrum directly results from Simon's use of magic. This one is a twofer. A - I really like when an antagonist exists in opposition to the protagonist’s goals without any malice of their own, and the protagonist overcomes them in a way that feels more like a release than a defeat. No Face from Spirited Away serves as a good example of this kind of antagonist. After being corrupted by the bathhouse he causes a lot of destruction and hurt, but to solve the issue Sen/Chihiro didn’t fight him, but just got him away from the bathhouse and he was able to return to a calmer state. And for the Insidious Humdrum, he accepts and welcomes Simon un-creating him by pouring back all the magic. It felt very complete and satisfying, and a good ending for all parties. B - I love when the end of the story reveals new information that will change my perspective on certain scenes during a reread. I think this would be more prevalent if it were going on for a whole series, but even as is I think knowing the connection between Simon and the Insidious Humdrum makes a reread worthwhile.

The Mage, the real antagonist, is a tragic character. In the traditional sense of the word I mean, where he brings about his own destruction through a character flaw. He does some good things too, like opening the school to a more diverse group (countering both ableism and racism to some extent). But his hubris in thinking he can prevent the downfall of the mages through creating a savior (Simon) leads him to also create a force that destroys magic (the Insidious Humdrum). He has good intentions, but ultimately he frightens me just like a villain should, especially at his most desperate. In the ending scene on Christmas day he disregards both Ebb’s and then Agatha’s humanity, seeing only their power that he could use to save everyone (from a problem he caused). He also does not treat Lucy as a full person, sacrificing her health and eventually her life to achieve his goals. And even knowing Simon is his son he does not demonstrate any love toward him, only thinking of how to train him to defeat the Insidious Humdrum. He creates his own problems and hurts the people closest to him because of his determination to control the big picture.

Perspective jumping reveals the backstory to the audience but not the main characters. Because Lucy tells about her life with The Mage and giving birth to Simon, we as the audience know the full story, but the book ends with Simon and his peers not knowing the identity of his parents, nor that they intended him to be the mages’ savior. It feels more true to real life. We often don’t get to know all the answers.

Powerful Ebb chooses to live a simple life. She serves as a foil to the Mage. Powerful, but unassuming, she values people and relationships (like that with her brother or with Simon) more highly than anything else. Very cool character, especially at the end when she comes back to save Agatha. A classic, but you got me with the self sacrifice. I love her.

Penelope’s dad teaches Simon about damaged ecosystems recovering over time. Very sweet. <3 And such a cool way for the Insidious Humdrum to have had real damage and yet we end on a hopeful note.

I stayed up late to make myself finish this. Finally something I not only started but finished! Thank you for reading, if you made it this far. Hopefully I will create more in the future, either art or writing.

Love,

OOTS

#oots talks #oots #writing #rainbow rowell #carry on #simon snow series #simon snow #booklr #book review #please be nice to me

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romancomicsnews · 9 months

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5 DC Animes I want to see after My Adventures with Superman

My Adventures with Superman opened the door for DC in a big way. Not only did it revitalize fans for more Superman content ahead of Superman: Legacy, but quickly put Jack Quaid up there in the conversation for best portrayal of Superman.

While that conversation is yet to be determined, I think the fact that this version of Superman connected with people made one thing clear, people are hungry for more quality animation.

While I am excited at the potential of more Jack Quaid Superman, I think DC would be kicking themselves if they didn't branch out this universe and try to build to something greater.

I have 5 pitches for characters who I think should get a My Adventures with Superman style show, ideas of who could play them, and what they could bring to this already fantastic universe. Also I gave them all fun titles. Enjoy.

5. Mysteries of the Question

The Question is a character many know from the hit DC show Justice League Unlimited. A wack job with a theory about who is pulling all the strings in the DC Universe, The Question is a ridiculously fun character I'm surprised hasn't been seen in a while.

Putting the Question at the center of a mystery and having to solve cases day to day would make for classic television, all while setting it in a crazy DC world.

The cop chasing him could be the 2nd Question: Renee Montoya, and the mystery could be something as big as an incoming alien invasion or as small as who is leaving riddles across Gotham? Hell he could be after Amanda Waller.

He can run into other detectives like Detective Chimp, Martian Manhunter, even the Batman, and through this side character we introduce half the Justice League.

I'd love a comedian like Charlie Day to voice this mad man, but a good friend of mine brought up Will Arnett and I can't unhear it. The role could be overly dramatic and silly, but can go to the sad levels of Bojack Horseman. He'd be perfect for this universe.

Having a detective who needs to get the a major story out could lead him to our three favorite journalists, making a fun mini crossover imminent.

4. Strange Tales from Arkham Asylum

While What If? Is not my favorite MCU project, the premise itself is quite fun. A narrator telling warped tales of stories we know in a freshing new take.

I'd like to take that concept and add it to DC by exploring Batman's Rogues Gallery in one off, anthology episodes narrated by one Hugo Strange.

Fan favorite characters like Clayface, Mister Freeze, Catwoman, and yes, even The Joker, can be introduced via their backstory with exciting different voice actors, all leading to a breakout in Arkham.

I'd like this to serve as a partial retelling but also reimagining of new characters with an emphasis on the creepy, the macabre, but also the sympathy. I want this to fix the mistakes of past villains in My Adventures with Superman and make them more 3 dimensional and iconic.

For Strange we need a maniacal evil voice who can narrate and keep us captivated. I like Chiwetel Ejiofor for this, and will be happy for the inmates to take him down by the end.

3. Evil-Doers fear the Wrath of Wonder Woman

I'm having fun with these titles.

It is incredibly insane we do not have a definitive Wonder Woman show. I'd like a classic Spectacular Spider-Man or My Adventures with Superman style show centered around ya girl Wonder Woman.

Ares, Giganta, or Cheetah can be the main villain. Hell make her main antagonist Black Adam, but having a magical god character immediately makes the world bigger and the threats greater.

She can run into Shazam (due to their god powers) and round out the League more, but really this is just a project that should already exist. It's wild it doesn't.

Since it is voice acting and we can go any which way with it, I love the voice of Ming Na-Wen. Having a powerful Disney Princess playing Diana also feels appropriate, and brings a sort of wisdom to the League.

2. Blue Beetle Back in School

Blue Beetle in a character basically built for anime.

With the overall critic and audience reviews being positive but the film underperforming, it's clear Blue Beetle has an audience that can steadily grow over time. I think animation is a great way to softly continue the story without it technically being in continuity.

The story should center around Jaime continuing college post getting the scarab, and meeting young heroes like himself along the way all while trying to having a normal life. Classic superhero stuff.

This leaves room for it to be part of any universe you want it to be, or mostly be true, or not at all. Either way, we grow with the character of Blue Beetle, and await his return in the DCU.

This could be a fun way to flesh out the young heroes of the DC universe: Robin, Raven, Cyborg, etc.

It could also start a fun trend of Xolo playing the character across mediums. It's clear Xolo Maridueña loves the character, and if the voice fits, why change it? If Mark Hamill can play the Trickster across animation and live action, so can Xolo.

1. Green Lantern: Cosmic Chronicles

The character done most dirty since his live action debut, Green Lantern could add dynamic interesting fighting to an anime universe. Take Atom Eve from Invincible and her spin-off episode.

Using that type of animation and fluid fight choreography would make for excellent television.

Although we already have a fantastic Green Lantern show (Green Lantern the animated series) with an excellent narrative, I think introducing more Lanterns and wider universe of DC aliens could be really fun. Martians, Thanagarians, Lobo, Mongul, etc all trying to be contained by Lanterns but failing horribly would be awesome. It could all leading to an alien invasion on Earth, putting them directly in line with Superman.

A Green Lantern show could rejuvenate faith in Lanterns before its release, and lead up to the big anime crossover we know we all need.

While I'd love to see all Lanterns, I think having Hal Jordan at the center of it and bringing in others down the line is a good way to go.

Alan Ritchson has played Aquaman, Hawk and even Raphael in Ninja Turtles. A little more hard headed Jordan could be fun to pit against Jack Quaids more hopeful Superman.

While all these shows should get made, I think Lanterns is the most likely. Honestly, I'd be happy to see anything more in the DC Anime Universe.

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lunastars21 · 3 months

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So based on what I’ve been reading in the Fang mini series, it is possible that Bean and Bark might split up from Fang. Considering that it has been said that it takes place after Sonic the Fighters but prior to Sonic Superstars (where Bean and Bark do not appear). Though, I see it more as being temporary as opposed to being permanent. I do wonder that if there is a Plus expansion of Sonic Superstars, that there would be an extra mode where it takes place after the main campaign with it focusing on Fang reuniting with his gang. I have this little theory because Sonic mania and Sonic origins had their plus expansions adding new playable characters such as Mighty, Ray, and Amy. And the former’s encore mode taking place after the main story mode and by extension Sonic Forces. I also speculate that if this DLC were to happen it would be announced 8-10 months from Sonic superstars original release similar to what happened with Sonic mania plus and Sonic origins plus. I could be wrong though so I do not want to face inevitable disappointment if my theory is wrong. But overall I hope Bean and Bark do not split from Fang forever as although I do not mind if Fang is alone or if it is just Bean and Bark causing trouble with no sight of Fang in certain situations, I really like the trio’s chemistry together. I know some people are not a fan of the two being grouped with Fang saying that the latter is more of a lone wolf, as well as not liking the bird and bear being in more antagonistic roles due to it contradicting their original Japanese only bios from Sonic the Fighters and Fighters Megamix. And I respect their opinions. But I think that Fang’s gang are an entertaining trio and I do like how the comics made them more fleshed. Plus, they are not evil, they are just more in the grey alignment. Even with Fang, I don’t consider him to be on the side of bad since he is more in it for monetary gain.

I ABSOLUTELY AGREE!!!

You speak exactly as I think! This trio is iconic as the sonic heroes teams as well! (Especially since team hooligan was an original option for heroes if it wasn't for time) and I'm glad you enjoyed them too!

Also, what a coincidence you talked about theories as I have a few myself thanks to the release of the two miniseries issues I just wrote down! Shower thoughts be damned yall, so here it is

Fang the hunter spoilers ahead, read if ya dare

Yes I wrote all this down on Google docs xD

I literally went back to tails tube (which takes place in modern so it's WAYYY into the future) and the fang 101 video to get some evidence

And considering Clutch is the main antagonist of modern idw I wouldn't be surprise if this issue connects to him in a way!

But those are just my thoughts! ^^

(If ya wana see my evidence on the videos

Fang 101: timestamp 1:36

Tailstube #5: timestamp 3:18 )

Thanks for the ask! ^^

#fang the sniper #nack the weasel #fang the hunter #team hooligan #jet the jerboa #nack the knave #sonic the hedgehog #sonic #luna's shenanigans #bark the polar bear #bean the dynamite #Sonic idw #idw sonic #idw sonic spoilers #Fang The Hunter Spoilers #idw spoilers #clutch the opossum

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canonically47 · 4 months

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canonically47.tumblr.com/post/742593997706559488

this one

okay well total drama has a LOT of obvious mistakes and most of them come from the time in which it was written and published and the rushed season of only 13 instead of 26 episodes starting with ROTI

i also feel like they treat their characters and ships very badly, making them go right back where they started if they ever get any growth, which rarely happens. or their development is too sudden and not believable. priya, max, scarlett, that mini-arc shasmine had about splitting the money, aleheather in TDWT, prileb in TD 2024...

i rewatched ROTI and the girls were mistreated horribly. what can you expect from a season where the finalists are two guys? dakota’s internal issues were never discussed further than a funny haha moment when dawn read her aura, dawn never got to do anything for her team and her elimination was rushed, jo’s internalized mysoginy was a haha joke and never adressed properly, zoey had a whole villain-and-back-to-hero arc and STILL didn’t make finale???

also i hate when they introduce some groups and never further develop them, or develop them very little. lindsay, beth and ezekiel could’ve been an ICONIC trio. i miss leshawna and gwen’s friendship so much, and same goes for bowie and emma. jo and brick had so much potential to become allies or at least frenemies, amy and sammy were not handled well, THE E-SCOPE TRIO!!! i’m in shambles

so if i wrote TDI i’d just give the characters some proper development, more moments to shine, more fun relationships with the others. this show is based on its characters, they’re the stars!! so why not make them shine instead of burn??

gen 1 is too much work to rewrite but i’d keep TDI about the same except have a leshawna vs gwen finale, with leshawna as a ‘canon’ winner. TDA would have a harold vs lindsay finale with harold as the ‘official’ winner.

in TDWT i’d cut the duncney-gwuncan arc, make duncan never come back cuz fuck that guy, gwourtney wins. sierra gets better development. noah makes merge and fulfills his schemer role, constantly sabotaging alejandro. they become frenemies. aleheather still wins and goes to finale. alejandro doesn’t get the robot costume and we don’t hear from him again until TDAS.

for ROTI, would make jo a proper antagonist and make her butt heads with scott when the merge happened. my final six for ROTI would be scott, jo, zoey, brick, lightning and anne maria. yes, brick and anne maria, you read that right.

i still think scott shouldn’t make finale, and jo only if she got development. so maybe the merge could happen just two episodes earlier to get more stuff out of them, so the merge would include cameron and mike. scott would go before jo, and jo would be left to fend for herself after scott got cameron eliminated. this is where i would make her develop a friendship with anne maria and brick. get zoey in there and you have the anti-scott alliance. they get him out (NO TRAUMA CHAIR NEEDED, HE WILL BE FINE) and then lightning, then the girls unite against brick. sorry man.

the finale would be between two of the girls, i’d like to see jomaria or joey fight, jo needs that development. the one who gets out previously is an insta-elimination and not decided by the others.

and voilá! jo gets development and some healthy friendships! her and brick could also get together but maybe in another season. this season is for her alone to shine, she deserves it.

oh, and that’s the main thing about ROTI - i’d give them two more seasons. they deserve a WT-esque season.

i’d completely rewrite TDPI. make rodney first diss when the girls are disgusted by him (and also shit him cuz fuck him), dave an earlier boot, get beardo like third or fourth cuz i wanna see more of him, give scarlett a proper character arc instead of a rushed one throughout just one episode, make max a bit smarter and let him become a ‘hero’ rather than a villain he wants to be by rescuing everyone from scarlett since he knows her weaknesses best...

my ideal final five are shawn, jasmine, max, topher and ella. also my five favorites so no wonder. i’ll explain their arcs.

topher - 5th: shawn and jasmine, as well as max and ella, become duos after the scarlett incident (maybe it happens earlier?), and topher is outside of any alliance. plus he was getting kinda annoying, not to mention he gave chris too many ideas for challenges. damn it, topher!

ella - 4th: when she is forbidden from singing, she still goes behind chris’ back and does it, only that she intercepts sugar’s note and burns it. sugar is an earlier boot than originally because ella realizes she just hates her guts and she’s trying to befriend her for nothing. when ella stops singing, she puts her head in the game more than usual, but her refusal to hurt animals and serenade them instead gets her out eventually, by chris, not by the others.

max - 3rd: with no alliance and a softer spot than usual, he gets out at his own, last challenge.

finale: shawn vs jasmine

the same conflict about splitting the money, only that it comes earlier and is developed more. for one, chris shows jasmine the confessionals right after max’s voting ceremony.

shawn’s helper ends up being ella, but she’s been watching from playa des losers and is unhappy with how shawn treated jasmine. meanwhile, max is jasmine’s helper. max and jasmine sabotage shawn, ella doesn’t help him, but then when max and ella are given the controls for the island, they both realize the gravity of what they’ve done when they see shawn and jasmine buried in snow.

both jasmine and shawn get an ending. in both endings, jasmine gets out of the snow, doesn’t pay attention to the finish line, and goes to search for shawn, who pops out in confusion. the two have a heart-to-heart interrupted by chris to announce the race is still happening, and they have ten seconds left. in shawn’s ending, jasmine just nods to him and he crosses; in jasmine’s ending, shawn insists she crosses. pretty similar endings, the outcome is about the same, but i like to think jasmine’s is the ‘canon’ one.

and then they get another season!

so, our seasons are...

gen 1 - 3 seasons: total drama island, total drama action, total drama world tour

gen 2 - 3 seasons: total drama revenge of the island, total drama retour, total drama cruise or lose

gen 3 - 2 seasons: total drama pahkitew island, total drama reaction

gen 1 x gen 2 x gen 3: total drama all stars

TDAS would include eight contestants of each generation. gen 1 gets heather, alejandro, owen, noah, gwen, courtney, sierra, and leshawna. gen 2 gets jo, anne maria, zoey, mike, brick, cameron, lightning and scott. gen 3 gets shawn, jasmine, topher, max, ella, sugar, sammy and scarlett.

and then for the reboot i’d just make bowie win for the first season. the second season would have more development.

emma and bowie become friends again. mkulia become reluctant allies but still dislike each other. eventually they warm up to each other tho 👀. ripaxel also happens over the course of more episodes. couples butt heads - mkulia, rajbow and ripaxel - but mkulia dominate the game. short ripaxel-mkulia alliance in which they get out prileb (who have a better development trust), wayne and bowie.

damien gets to keep his immunity idol but doesn’t need to use it until the final five: axel, julia, mk, damien and raj. the girls unite against him, but he and raj voted for julia, so you can imagine mk is unhappy, but damien wins immunity. yikes.

so finale time is damien, raj and axel. everyone gets an ending, but damien is the ‘canon’ winner because HE DESERVED IT COME ON.

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moe-broey · 10 months

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I feel like. Book 6 should have been Book 3 actually. Book 2 could stay the same (well. Preferably without the racism LMFAO), it's largely to further establish our cast of characters and get us attached. Plus killing Bruno in Book 2 would pack less of a punch -- ideally actually if he gets to play a role in the background that would do the same thing, establishing him more and getting the audience invested.

Reason I think it should have been Book 3 is we get the much needed world building of Askr and Embla WAY sooner, Bruno isn't left high and dry for like. Real life years. And like. If he HAS to die, maybe that could be an interesting lead into Actual Book 3. Bring him back!!!!!!! I honestly don't know why it seems like they just. Never revisited the idea of people coming back from the dead, either as Hel's/Ganglöt's minions OR they have unfinished business (but are still ultimately under Hel's/Ganglöt's thumb).

I guess the complications with this though is I do think we have to build up to Alfonse's "I'm gonna kill you too" moment with Letizia. Like. I feel like that scene ONLY hits the way that it does when you have the context of Líf, and how Alfonse acted in Book 5 with Reginn and her brothers actually (offering a peaceful solution at first -- but once Fáfnir in particular makes it clear he has no intention of backing down, Alfonse becomes stern with Reginn. Trying to get her to see what must be done. WHICH... AUGH..... does absolutely carry A Lot of weight after Alfonse had to kill Gustav.) AND. ALSO. THE MOMENT RIGHT AFTER Letizia (where Sharena is scared and hurt by how Alfonse acted) wouldn't carry the same weight without the context of Book 5.

IDK. MAYBE. Things did have to go in the order they're in, for everything to hold its weight and pack the right level of punch. I'm just HUGELY bummed that like. They set up Bruno to be a main character. An antagonist, yes, but a main character. And then they did nothing with him. Until several real life years later they bring him back JUST to finally kill him off. Like. YEAH he was surrounded by death flags since day one. But like. Did they Have to do him so dirty. AND ALSO. LITERALLY. CANONICALLY . IT'S BEEN SHOWN THAT DEATH ISN'T EVEN ALWAYS THE END‼️‼️‼️

And he. Doesn't even have a base form.

#fire emblem #feh #i'm. just complaining. no coherent thoughts.#also in before i start obsessing over how alfonse regarded reginn actually.#probably seeing elements of himself in her but most strongly most likely seeing a lot of sharena.#and how he was stern with her but. kind of knew when to back off. trying his best to push her where he thinks she needs to be.#but also trying to be considerate. he does have. some emotional intelligence (as much as he possibly can being raised the way he was)#but ALSO. when he Did take things a step too far with her and got called out for it by both anna and sharena #ROTATING THIS........ in my mind..............#fe bruno #fe alfonse #just. tagging them i think.

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fatherramiro · 10 months

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I've been thinking a lot lately about the backstories we didn't see in 1899 season one, especially in the wake of Olek's postcard being translated. Obviously with an eight episode first season, you can't really get into everyone's backstories and some characters - like Sebastian - were always going to be held back for season two for Mystery Purposes. But there's still a deliberate choice in which backstories we see.

For the purpose of this post, a backstory is a flashback sequence featuring a character prior to the Kerberos, even if it isn't their story that's being told. It does not include discussion of backstories - because all these characters do is lie - or stepping into a memory if we don't see the full backstory. Ergo, the characters who see backstories for are Maura, Daniel, Eyk, Ling Yi, Yuk Je, Jérôme, Lucien, Tove, Krester, Iben, Anker, and Elliot.

That leaves us with several major players who we don't know the full story about, namely Olek, Ramiro, Ángel, Virginia, Clémence, and Sebastian. We know Sebastian is deeply tied to the Singleton family drama (and yet seems to posses a strong loyalty to Eyk). Everyone else is ostensibly as trapped as everyone else is. But I wonder if the reason these backstories were specifically selected to not be shown in season one is because these characters might be somehow more connected to the simulation plot/Singleton family drama than we previously anticipated.

Let's break it down under a cut.

The easiest character to apply this theory to is Sebastian. He's basically Noah from Dark in that we see him as an antagonist character in season one! He's betraying Eyk and the crew, he is the one that gets the mutineers to want to kill Elliot, he actively does murder Eyk, he kidnaps Elliot, he kidnaps Maura, he's working for our main antagonist (at the time of the season one finale, that is)... and yet what do we really know about him? Whatever his story is, there's a lot to be explored there, and it makes sense that he's got a larger narrative role to play beyond double agent. This is a Bo and Jantje show after all - they don't do anything simple.

Virginia is also a logical choice for mysterious backstory/potential connection. She practically screams "I'm going to play a huge role in the story" from the moment she walks on screen. She tells Maura within five seconds of knowing her that she needs to stop being a seeker ("aren't some better things left in the dark?") before she leads the room in picking up their cups at the same time. She knows more than what she seems to know, even if at the end it seems like she's dissolving into dust. It is her undermining Maura that leads to most of the survivors going through Spooky Memory Hell after they split up. And it's very telling that she's saved just in time from the calling. She's up to shit, and it would make sense for her to not only be a much bigger player in the story but for her backstory to be saved for season two.

Virginia also has a very strong, almost fearful reaction in episode two to the ship going back to England. There's a couple other characters who get equally as freaked out by the concept in episode one...

Olek's second scene is him panicking in the engine room because the ship is turning around. He grabs one of the other workers and asks "why turn ship?" We don't know much about Olek at this point, only that he doesn't want to return to England, but why? The postcard translation implies he's taken over the identity of someone else named Olek, and quite possibly murdered a priest and thrown him in an oil well (doesn't that sound familiar...). He also, unlike every other "ghost" that appears to the characters, seems to be physically able to interact with the world around him in episode eight. And finally, while I realize the answer is probably "the plot", he was randomly on the deck when Ling Yi needed help in episode three. Yes, plot contrivances, but also why has he left his post? Usually he just goes to the loading area, but he's suddenly on the first class deck? What sparked that.

There's also the fact that Maciej and Rosalie (the actors who play Olek and Virginia, respectively) share a title card. With the exception of Emily, Aneurin, and Andreas, who have their own solo credits, all the actors who share title cards in the opening credits play connected characters (Miguel and José, Yann and Mathilde and Jonas, Isabella and Gabby, etc.) I know contracts determine who gets billed when and where but also there was a choice, along the line, to not put Maciej with Isabella and Gabby. And I think that's interesting.

The characters who we see panicking immediately after Olek in episode one are, of course, Ramiro and Ángel. We know mostly why they'd be freaking out - they're on the run after murdering a priest! But of all the character backstories who were saved for season two, these two make the most logical choice to be shown in season one. Not only would it provide character depth for Ramiro, who's already showing himself to be developing across all eight episodes, but it would provide some much needed backstory for Ángel which in turn would not only contextualize his shitty behavior in the first few episodes but also maybe give the audience more reason to feel sorry for him. It would also make Ángel's sudden turn from smug douche to loyal boyfriend make even more sense. There's a lot we can assume from what we're told about both characters but there is also a lot left vague and that begs more questions.

Both characters also display fascinating behaviors throughout the show. Ramiro, even as the show's moral center, never talks about his past at all. We know he killed a man, and we know he's a servant, but unlike everyone else (except Olek and Virginia) we have no idea what his life was like prior to the Kerberos really. Everyone else will talk themselves silly about their home lives and their traumas, but Ramiro keeps his past under wraps, despite the narrative easily having space to give him a chance to monologue about it. Ángel, on the other hand, seems to have some precognition about the simulation. He draws the final scene in the engine room in his sketchbook. He's the only person on the ship who is affected by the calling but not to the extent that he'll jump. In episode eight, he is the only ghost who can be heard by everyone and not just the person he's most connected to. I also think that the strange shot of him looking up the ceiling in episode seven as the ship creaks is a sign that perhaps he knew that it would kill him. So, what does he truly know, and does he even realize he knows it?

Speaking of not talking about one's past, we end with Clémence. It is very interesting that besides Clémence talking about her sister and how the things she wanted changed with Tove, we know very little about Clémence. Lucien implies her parents arranged the marriage between them, but we never see any of that on-screen. We do, however, get that interesting beat of her reacting to Lucien storming out in episode one with a rather odd look on her face. There's a pyramid paperweight that looks exactly like the pyramid outside Henry's office in her and Lucien's cabin. Her costume practically drips with symbolism - her earrings and hairpin are both the triangle symbol and she has a beetle detail on her collar.

Strangely enough, she and Jérôme are the only ones who we don't see escape from the memory wells in episode eight. Tove and Virginia run through a door, Ling Yi follows Olek, Ramiro pursues Ángel. But we just see Jérôme and Clémence facing down a monstrous wave of the crystals and then they run around a corner perfectly fine. There's a reason we did not see their escape. Bo and Jantje do not fuck around. This wasn't a cut scene.

I think that these characters are the ones with a deeper tie to the overarching mythology, even if they are not aware of it in the simulation at the time. The question then becomes who knows what, and who has loyalty to who? Is Virginia the secret main antagonist of the series, and is Olek potentially connected to her? Do Ramiro and Ángel have varying levels of knowledge and differing loyalties which is why there is a tension between them in the beginning of the series? Clémence, girl, what do you know and was that really your envelope at the end of the show?

I don't think all of these characters were secret bad guys. I don't even necessarily think this theory is 100% the direction they were going in. But there was a choice made to hold these backstories back until season two (RIP) and it feels like, based on what little we know and what we can draw from season one, there was a specific reason to do so. So now, let's just bully netflix into changing their damn mind because I too would like to know for sure.

#1899 #virginia wilson #olek 1899 #ramiro 1899 #ángel 1899 #clémence 1899 #sebastian 1899 #where are the last names?????

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