#(i mean you can also point to vision in what if's zombies episode but like

[aparticularbandit]

i know we talk about the lengths wanda went through to bring billy and tommy back and debate whether or not they were real (they were) and the insanity that may/may not have caused in her.

but.

maybe we should also talk about the vision and how vision literally created two children for himself (viv and vin! debatable whether they were twins; they're supposed to be the same age, so i'd say they are), how when his son died he 1) intended to kill his son's murderer (for JUSTICE) and that was meant to prompt 2) vision killing everyone in the world (re: snapping and fighting the avengers over their part in the death of his son), how when his wife died (after killing their son's murderer so that vision wouldn't snap and could keep being a hero; it's complicated) he literally started rebuilding her, how when his daughter died he literally made another version of her because he could not handle his grief--

like look.

it's literally not just a wanda thing.

they're both like that.

#musings #marvel #wanda maximoff #scarlet witch #marvel vision #vision marvel #i mean he has done none of these things in the mcu #/yet/ #but those are ALL comics canon #(which is why i'm bringing up billy and tommy and not the hex or wanda's bringing back vision there) #(also obviously billy and tommy in the comics WERE real #magneto said it best (twice i think in two different places to two different people - but i'm specifically focusing on his comment in #children's crusade) #wanda can make bodies! #WANDA CAN'T MAKE SOULS #but anyway) #they're just both like that y'all #(i mean you can also point to vision in what if's zombies episode but like #comics vision)

[animehouse-moe]

Zom 100 - Bucket List of The Dead Episode 1: Akira of The Dead

I'll lay my cards on the table right from the start: I haven't read Zom 100, and at this current moment I have no real intention or interest in doing so. Why might I be watching the anime then? Well because it's BUGS FILMS first anime, that's why. They've done production assistance on series like Komi (due to staff overlap at the time), and have parted themselves out for key animation here and there, but this is their very first lead and solo production. Of course I'm going to see how it is. And how is it? Well, it's a grab bag of insanity handpicked from the minds of the creative team behind this adaptation, crafted with surprising expertise, and delivered in a very polished package to the eyes of viewers. So yeah, very good, and very much plenty to talk about!

I think one of the most interesting things off the bat is how strong the direction is through this first episode. Kawagoe Kazuki (who's first direction credits were for Komi) brings the heat through this first episode as the lead and episode director, as well as storyboarder. Back to why the direction is interesting though, initially you might think "oh, widescreen because it's a movie, and it just has a more muted color palette", but that's not the case. It's a bit of a two in one, where the widescreen indicates that we're looking through Akira's eyes, and the lack of color is a reflection of their outlook. It's well done, but I also think they could do a bit more to really explore the idea, but in its current state it's still really solid.

While not as important as the widescreen effect and use of color, the transitions boarded by Kazuki themself are very creative and blend incredibly well with the episode. Just one of those things that adds some real nice flair and style that can help tie the bleaker/more plain moments together with the more showy ones through the latter half of the episode.

What you can (sort of) see through these gifs though is another important piece that I think is well done through the episode: the "zombification" of Akira himself. More sluggish and unresponsive, coupled with heavy and off balance movements. The entire concept of the gradient and Akira's descent into depression and exhaustion is very well depicted. Towards the end of his backstory though is arguably the best pieces for his despair, just really well done animation and direction that sells that zombie side of his character.

Also, just a little side piece. Following this scene we return with Akira to his room where we see on the news the beginnings of the zombie outbreak. But actually, the episode spoils the fun a few seconds in advance with the ambulance that passes by Akira's apartment. Just a really neat little detail to show that the outbreak isn't just a single point that's currently starting, but rather it's already expanded to a network that continues to grow.

Anyways, the next topic of the post: depth!. I mean, you can see it in the above still as well, a lot of scenes are well layered with their content. Not all of them will have detailed parts that are all moving, but they will provide the context that there is a greater world that exists outside of Akira's vision (though this does fade as his exhaustion and depression grow).

Also, people aren't explicitly required to provide depth or layers to a scene, it's just that they're the easiest examples to provide. These solo shots manage the same effect, for example.

Coincidentally, this is also where the episode picks up! Flashes of color appear, Akira regains his energy, and a horde of zombies claw at his heels. I was very surprised with this latter half, and I mean very. They use some really sneaky tactics to make the best of the moment. Have a zombie that's going to make a lunge for Akira? They're in 2D. Have a zombie in the background that's going to just zombie about? Make em 3D. The heavy visuals effects coupled with the more "rough" art style allow them to blend in really well unless you're looking right at them.

For example (though it may be hard to tell because of compression and size, so best to open the image in a new tab), take a look at this still and see if you notice anything. That's correct! The first two zombies in the row are 2D (because they lunge at Akira), while the rest in the line are 3D. Really smart workflow that's further bolstered by direction that does its best to mask the 3D zombies.

For a purely 2D affair though, this incredible short cut from Akira fleeing up the stairs. I'm endlessly impressed with how solid BUGS' work is through this first episode.

As you can tell, this second half/latter third brings an insane amount of energy to make up for how devoid of it Akira was through his backstory. It's really great work, and the flow of the action through Akira's chase sequence is really impressive. They do a great job with interacting with the environment while providing a cramped feel through the apartment complex alongside some "right behind you" tension. All of which leads to this moment, essentially the perfect personification of this half of the episode.

Just completely out there and ridiculous work that's strung together by loose threads to create a bigger picture that completely captivates viewers. Does it have to make sense? Definitely not. Does it have to look cool? Absolutely.

I could share a lot more about the episode past this point, but I'll limit myself to this last piece: the tone changes. It's not longer Akira's life or death situation that feels very tight and narrow, it's his escape towards freedom that gives him plenty of space (which is shown in these shots). It's a somewhat subtle difference, but provides a massive gap in feel for viewers.

Well, when you extract it from the chase sequence at large, it's pretty obvious: there's hardly any zombies in frame with Akira.

And so we cruise into the end of the episode with a fight sequence here, and a chase sequence there, leaving off with Akira on his own and making his bucket list of things to do. There's lots more to chat about in regards to direction with things like the first person views and the really impressive blending of 2D and static/3D environments, but I think the point has gotten across that Kazuki's direction, and BUGS FILMS work as a studio, is incredibly expressive, dynamic, and punchy, leaving viewers with quite the promise for this season at large.

My only real concern is if the source material for Zom 100 can continue to deliver ridiculous ideas in spades for BUGS to convert on. I'm rather confident in their ability as a studio since they've worked as a third part/assistant on a number of series, so I'm just really hoping that the creative vision can hold the momentum given to it through this first episode.

#zom 100: zombie ni naru made ni shitai 100 no koto #zom 100: bucket list of the dead #bugs films #zombie anime #anime recommendation #anime review #anime and manga #ゾン100～ゾンビになるまでにしたい100のこと～ #anime #horror anime #comedy anime

[jq37]

Twice Upon a Time - Neverafter Ep 3

No Place for a Prince or Princess

Welcome to another entirely unhinged episode of D20 Neverafter and the first battle ep of the season. A battle episode with no dedicated healer with the whole party at level one? What could possibly go wrong? Well, let me tell you exactly what.

When I first started doing this commentary recap/posts, I did them in stream of consciousness bullet points and I'm going to do something similar for this recap since a battle ep means more nitty gritty that can be skipped over and also because I'm pressed for time due to being home for the holidays. Worry not though! I still have compiled all the most important juicy story bits for y'all. So let's get started. 

When we last left off, the group lost the element of surprise as they readied to attack the Fairy Godmother and her army of half human/half furniture goons.  Their goal in the fight is to steal the glass shard stuck into the Fairy Godmother that Cinderella stabbed her with and is greatly weakening her.

Puss right away Taun-Taun style dives into a dea cow while Roz distracts the Fairy Godmother by loudly declaring her princess status. As the mice told her, she can't resist a princess. 

Meanwhile, Red draws a ton of enemies into a corridor which they nickname "Ylfa's Bottleneck" as if it's a hit nightclub and it comes up so many times you just KNOW it's gonna be a shirt or a poster at some point.

Pinocchio offhandedly mentions that he's been a puppet for about a year which helps us with the timeline a bit. Also, he's apparently using his broken off nose as a weapon which is...not amazing.

Roz gets hit by a spell and she sees a vision of zombie looking versions of the fairies from her christening looking at her in her crib and the blue fairy asking what she thinks her gift would have been if she hadn't had to soften the evil fairy's curse. [Note: Hmm, wonder if that Blue Fairy is Pinocchio's Blue Fairy]

Oh, also the Fairy Godmother says to Roz that curses are also gifts in their own way and idk if that's annoying fae-speak or an actual valid thing to say.

Roz and Red both have to make Cha saves and when Roz fails, Brennan gives her a red token which he tells her to hold onto without explaining at all. Siobhan is trepid, as am I, despite Brenna's claims that it's nothing to worry about. 

Tim doesn't end up doing this because he wants to save his spell slots for healing (smart man) but his Vicious Mockery is a paternal "I'm very disappointed in you."

Puss tries to hide in another animal carcass, this time a mule (which Emily hilariously thinks might be Donkey from Shrek) but finds out that it's the mule of the 2nd brother in his fairy tale and also that he's just faking dead and is alive. 

Brennan introduces a new game mechanic: If someone deals more than half of your remaining HP in damage in one blow, you have to make a Con save or take a level of exhaustion. This counts for enemies and PCs. Yikes! This doesn't appear to have anything to do w/ the red token.

The Fairy Godmother says to Roz, "Don't you want the kind of life I can provide? [...] They're taken your true love from you." When Roz insists that he's coming, the Fairy says, "Then why did his face change?" Siobhan is like, "How did she know that?" and I'm like, "Girl, same."

Pinocchio casts Hex on the Fairy which takes the form of spectral strings appearing on his body and his Stepmom's voice pouring out of him to berate the Fairy. The Fairy, of course, recognizes the voice as they're from the same story. Pinocchio gets the sense that more is happening than his mom told him.

Ger realizes that this Fairy is the fairy who cursed him to be a frog for being rude to her as a kid! [Note: I knew we'd end up doubling up on fairies at some point!] He is, if you'd pardon the pun, hopping mad at the realization. 

Puss successfully lies to the Fairy that Cinderella sent him to help her get the shard out of her chest but that success will be fleeting. 

The fairy says, "Magic was never yours. Magic is ours!" to Pinocchio (and really, I assume to his mom) and drops him. [Note: Hmm, magic hoarding? Is this like a Fae and Flowers deal? This feels like a line that we might be coming back to.]

Ger drops to an attack soon after.

Puss on an investigation check realizes that they've royally botched this and all that's left are bad and risky options. He tries to get the Fairy to give him her wand but that's a DC 20 check with disadvantage that he fails. Roz does 12 damage on her and it does enough damage that the group realizes that she's a total glass cannon that they should be attacking.

[Note: Y'all, I'm not the type to backseat D&D--and I wasn't yelling at my screen or anything while I was watching this--but you always take out the monster that is creating the other monsters! That's battle strats 101! Of course--spoiler--they didn't despawn when she died at the end but still! Taking her out and grabbing the shard would have been my plan for sure.]

Oh, also, Brennan introduced yet another mechanic. Because battles in the NEverafter are super risky, on a crit there is a save and if your fail the save, you're insta-dead. Great if you're giving the crit, bad if you're getting it. 

At this point, it feels like I'm just reciting obits. Roz drops. Tim brings Ger back up. Puss goes down. Everyone is failing death saves--often with a fairy tale appropriate 3 on the die. 

Ger yells at the Fairy, "Are you happy? I'm supposed to be a handsome prince!" The Fairy, surprisingly, agrees. She says, "We're trying to set the Neverafter to rights!"

Lou points out they're flaming out in the EXACT same way they did in the first fight of the first season--Fantasy High. He is hilariously correct. 

Tim goes down. Ylfa goes down. The energy at the table is palpable as the inevitability of a TPK sets in.

Pinocchio fails his last save and black smoke sweeps through the dome. With his dying thoughts, he thinks about him and his father riding home to his village having escaped the belly of the terrible dogfish. He hears a voice--I think his father's--saying, "My little Pinocchio. She has lied to you." Then he fades. As his last action, he has to make a Cha save which he can choose to fail on purpose. He tries but fails and gets a red token.

Ger thinks about how the last time he needed to be brave--when his castle was being attacked--he hid with the children then ran. He sees Red and Pinocchio down and steels himself. There's no running or hiding today. He tries to get the glass shard and Brennan allows him to do it without a penalty IF he agrees to potentially get hurt in the process. He agrees and just meets the Fairy Godmother's roll, pulling it out. HOWEVER, as he pulls it out, the momentum sends it squelching into his own body, and he drops. The Fairy Godmother, as she dies, says, "Gerrard, we're here to help you! It's not what you--!" But of course, she's cut off. 

As I said before, when she dies, the soldiers don't de-animate. And they WILL kill anyone who stabilizes. So everyone has to roll a Nat 20 or die. It's a weird situation where sometimes you have to roll a failure to keep doing with saves. 

I'm going to tell you right now, no one saves. It's a true TPK. I'll run you through everyone's last thoughts. 

Puss: Puss dies with a Nat 1 on the die (a cat butt that they briefly think is the image for a Nat 20) and he sees himself in Tomas' castle, resting in a shaft of light. Brennan says he sees the king and queen. Then the castle on fire. Then he's gone. He fails his Cha save and gets a red token.

Roz: Roz also dies with a Nat 1. She sees herself on her wedding day, going to meet her true love. Brennan says she sees two beautiful princesses turn to look at her. Then she's gone. She fails her Cha save so she's now up to 2 red tokens. [Note: Princesses. Her sisters?]

 Red: Red gets the most intense vision. She sees herself with her grandma who then turns into a wolf and starts dragging her into hell. When she turns to face the wolf at his request he says, "Will you remember?" Then he says, "There are things trying to stop the turning of the pages," and asks her the 4 most important words. "Once Upon a Time?" she says. "I knew it was you," the wolf replies before she realizes he's falling into not hell or a boiling sea but a cauldron. She's blown out of a brick chimney and hears a voice from below say, "Got you now," with a suspiciously piggish snort. She seems to make her save and does not get a token. 

Ger: Ger actually stabilizes but that just means she's going to die via furniture. He cries and says that he and Elody should never have gotten mixed up in this. He sees his wife in front of him who says that it's not too late and throws a golden ball in the air. As he watches it, he experiences drowning for the first time and then is gone. He is the only one who elects to fail his save on purpose. He gets a red token.

Tim: Tim thinks about the last fight he had with his husband who wanted him to just get rid of the book and stay home while Tim really thought what he was doing could help save everyone. And he still thinks that despite everything. He sees the Gander who mocks him. He sticks up his middle finger and says, "I got your third with right here." "Granted," says the gander, biting his finger off as he vanishes. He fails his Char save. That's a token.

Brennan asks Red again what her last thought was. She says she thinks she realizes what's going on. They've been thinking about things wrong. A book is about new memories, not just nostalgia. They have to be creating new stories and all they have to say is "Once upon a time." And that's where we end: with a TPK and those immortal words. 

This new ep drops in less than 3 hours so I'm not gonna do a ton of speculation. I'm just gonna say that I haven't been this hyped for a new ep in AGES. Are we doing a time loop? Further fractured tales? How meta are we going? I can't wait to find out. Also, I'm glad we got such a mixed data set with regard to these tokens. Roz has two. Ger failed on purpose. And Red didn't get one. So we're gonna get a lot of data when this new ep airs tonight! Can't wait to see what Brennan has in store!

#dimension 20 #dimension 20 spoilers #never after #never after spoilers #d20 #twice upon a time #sorry this is so late #but that will prob be the case while I'm home #a part of the reason I do this is posterity and late season reffing though #so I'm playing the long game here

[surpriserose]

okay heres the ramble and its about the last of us the game and show and also tlou2 and video game violence because its fucking...gamer time and im just putting a cut because this will probably get long and also like...spoilers

okay so i just finished the latest episode of the last of us and jesus fucking christ just in general but also like...tlou game mutuals was joel always this...like...brutal/slash does he like...feel this brutal? because holy shit?

like obviously im still sympathetic to the guy like thats kind of the point is that yeah ellie sees the best of him despite him having a very checkered past and in a way so does the player because like....you are him you know? like i wouldnt be surprised if they like? upped the violence joel has on screen considering how the last of us 2 like....goes? like joel faces consequences for killing a guy the player and him didn't even really acknowledge as a person? because he was just a nameless enemy right? like i think that was the case but um...ive never played the games i just kinda watched on the sidelines until the show came out. sorry for being the exact demographic hbo is going for btw abvlnajkds

but anyways i think that idea that like the protagonist facing consequences for killing what the player ultimately just considers waves of enemies is interesting even if you're like okay well joel shouldnt have died and i think its something more games should acknowledge because like? depending on the game you can kill upwards of thousands (if you want a scale from like...harvest moon to plague inc i guess you can even kill billions you know?) and they just become not even people just obstacles because thats mechanically what they are.

like part of my criticism with stuff like...dc and marvel movies is how video gamey they are? and i say that every time because there are just waves and waves of faceless aliens/robots/whatever with just one big bad guy who actually gets a name and some kind of like...consideration of what it means to be killing them. and i mean like literally faceless a lot of the time. Like its an easy way to depersonalize someone you know? like look at this shit

aquaman ^^^ like bro can you even see....they took away your humanity and also your field of vision

age of ultron ^^^ like bro you are surrounded by fucking corpses...i know theyre robots and also all cgi but you know what i mean?

dragon age 2 ^^^

breath of the wild ^^^ which i guess i would say is kind of notable because you actually see the yiga without masks but not when youre fighting them

and this shit is specifically for more human kinds of enemies like specifically so you feel less bad killing them you know? non human enemies dont really get the same treatment because just by being non human you feel less bad about it you know? like orcs, goblins, supermutants, zombies whatever you can think of theyre already fine to kill because theyre non human and assumed to be evil (like think the dnd alignments kind of shit, where humans and elves can be good or evil or whatever but ALL orcs are always evil)

and like yeah...they arent human but theyre still sentient? like supermutants and ghouls in fallout form their own societies and you can have them as companions but that doesnt stop you from mowing them down in droves.

and zombies are kind of like? the ideal of this, especially tlou's zombies sorry i mean theyre clickers but theyre zombies you know what i mean

like they were people they were alive but now theyre okay to kill and are barely even human (including the lace of faces)

like thats why zombies kind of became so ubiquitous in video games i think like theyre perfect for enemies (literally mindless, not human, inherently evil) but also since they were human its easy enough to pluck out one to care about out of the thousands you can kill to feel bad about like i dont know if anyone cares about telltales the walking dead anymore but thats got a prime example they give you a starving kid zombie and of course youre gonna feel bad about killing them but not the rest of the horde.

^^^this is world war z im not trying to be misleading but you understand right? the zombies here arent even formerly human at this point theyre just a mass.

and yeah obviously none of this shit is real its all cgi and pixels and shit but that doesnt mean it cant affect you? that you shouldnt think about it? but its so frustrating to me like thats why one of the examples i gave was dragon age 2 and not just because ive been playing it like so so many of the enemies in that game are faceless smugglers/mercenaries/gang members but you as the player character are ALSO a former smuggler/mercenary who just joined to support your family but you cant give the same consideration to any of the enemies EXCEPT a kid roped into it to feed his family and you can only do that in one optional quest like...how can we be sure none of these enemies dont have stories like that?

well i mean obviously we can because they arent programmed to unlike plot relevant characters but thats kind of my point, the violence becomes so abstracted until they want to judge the important characters for being murderers or being murdered and only a few get to be important.

idk i mean what kind of brought this up for me was a scene in the episode i just finished. like i ask if joel was that brutal because he literally tortured a guy and as a viewer that was really effective for me? like these guys werent innocent but neither is joel what gives either of them to do this to each other you know? and i feel if that scene was in the game i would have heard about that?

i say that because like does anyone remember the controversy over gta5 having a very violent (and i believe interactive?) torture scene that was very similar to this scene. and people were pissed a scene like that was in a game because it wasnt the abstract violence people are used to in games with those faceless enemies you dont care about stopping you on the way to your next quest it was some guy who was up close and personal and suffering because of you as the player doing this to him this wasnt a funny corpse ragdolling when you hit them with your car this was a person the game wanted you to think of as a person for once and that was what made people uncomfortable

#hi hello is this thing on #anyways pretty good episode it really got to me

[bandgeek4life8]

Guardians - chapter two the lost city of atlantis

Chapter 1

WC: 3, 453

Season 1, Episode 2: The Lost City of Atlantis

Previously on Guardian in Jim's POV "The Nightmares have emerged once more." Pabbie told everyone.

"GREAT GRONKA MORKA!!" Blinky exclaimed.

"And they attend to assimilate an army. They already have the witch Gothel, the bogeyman Pitch Black, the dragon tamer Drago Bludvist with his mother of dragons Red Death, the prince Hans of Southern Isles and Duke of Weselton, the cursed bear Mor'du, the Pirate "Captain Hook" Killian James, and the Boggan Mandrake. And I have a list of who they want. From my visions. But only two people I wish to say it to: Vendel and... James Lake Jr. Because she wishes it."

"Who wishes for me to know?" I asked him.

"Starling."

Some people are chosen for this life and have no choice but to accept its transgressions. Others spend their life completely in the dark about this life we lead. Some, like me, choose to live this life. It is a lot of work for anybody. Not just anybody can get into this life and survive its trials and tribulations. But we were born for this. To become guardians. But I'm not a guardian yet. I'm just an apprentice.

|{[INSERT_OPENING_SEQUENCE]}|

"Welcome to the first meeting of the Druidia Order." I announced.

"Did you have to name us after a planet in your favorite Star Wars movie?" asked the raven-haired time-traveller Wilbur Robinson.

"Spaceballs is not a Star Wars movie, Wilbur." Currently undercover spy, Walter Beckett told him.

Wilbur rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

"Did your dad teach you anything about Star Wars?" asked blonde enpath/ hockey-player from Wisconsin, Riley Anderson.

"Only that he hated the sequels, he loves the originals, and respects what the prequels tried to do." Wilbur said.

"Can we please get to the topic at hand please?" I asked everyone.

Everyone in the room grumbled out a yes and we continued with the precedings. Wow. That sounds way too formal for me.

"Well what can we do? We already made allies with the Arendelle trolls via Elsa and Anna. We had Grand Pabbie alert the Trollhunter of the Nightmares." said Ted Wiggins.

"Which means a group of you have to go find the essence stones." Megamind appeared with a plate of, "who wants cookies?"

"Are you growing soft on us, Meg?" Megamind basically growled at Wilbur for the nickname he used.

"I am trying to babysit Gru's oldest daughter and her friends." Megamind told him looking the kid dead in the eye.

"What do you know of the essence stones?" I asked him, ignoring the intense staredown happening between the two makes.

Megamind turned his attention away from Wilbur only for the time-traveller to blow a raspberry at him and Megamind to turn back and glare at him I rolled my eyes. The same old stupid antics. "I know where you can find the essence stone of the ocean."

"If you tell me we have to befriend Poseidon or-."

"It's in Atlantis." Megamind said.

"Or that." I facepalmed. "And how would you know that?"

"Because I have an evil underwater lair in the city of Atlantis." Cue another facepalm from me.

"And why...? You know what? I don't want to know. So how are we getting there?" I asked.

"It's not a matter of how we, but rather how who is getting there." Megamind said.

"That makes no sense whatsoever, dude." Hiro said as he walked into the room followed by Lucy Tuchi.

"Some of us will go on the mission while the rest research the rest of the essence stones." Megamind suggested.

"You know... your ideas are normally terrible. But this one is actually a good idea." Wilbur told him.

The alien growled. "Easy now, Megamind. When we heading out? And who is coming along for the ride?"

"You, Rayla, Ezran, Callum, Sisu, Hiccup, Jack, Light Furry, Walter, and Toothless." Megamind told us. "And you will leave tomorrow. After school."

"Alright. Before we do anymore planning, I need pizza." I walked over to where Hiro plopped the pizza on.

|{[INSERT_COMMERCIAL HERE]}| "

I cannot believe he has the audacity for this! He knows we're not on the best of terms, and yet he does this." I sighed.

"I'm sure he has a reason." said Hiro.

"It's Megamind. It's a stupid-ass reason." I told him.

Hiro sighed. "But you miss hanging out with Toby and Jim. And you-."

"Don't even finish that sentence. I know what you were going to say." Hiro gapped at me. "I know what you were going to say. Only three people know it. And one betrayed me."

My phone vibrated in my hoodie's pocket and I opened it up to see a text from my grandmother, Margaret. "Is that Marge? What she said?"

"She's wondering about the you-know-what with the you-know-who." I told him. She wants to know about James Lake Jr being the Trollhunter. Grandpa would not be pleased with this anyway. But he's dead. And he doesn't matter.

"You have gym next block right?" I groaned. Of course I forgot. And why of all days did we have to do the Pacer test today!

"And we're doing the pacer test today too!" I would have banged my head on a locker if we weren't coming from History. "Kill me now! Woe is me!"

"Stop being overdramatic. And I'm off my way to Robotics." Hiro said once we got to the hall where we would part ways.

"Don't take over the world of robotics without your team first." I called out to gim.

"Yeah, yeah. Just focus on making chemistry after gym, but preferably during." the smart-ass called back.

I'm gonna kill him one of these days. Just you wait, Hiro Hamada. I grumbled and continued on my way to the ends of the earth. Also known as gym. Because I lack the athletic ability of a worm. My arms are basically noodles before submerged in H20. I got dressed in my PE clothes and walked outside to the bleachers where I plopped myself down on. Gym. The one class I don't have my safety net to catch me. The one block where I feel alone. Completely and helplessly alone.

"Hey, [Y/N]. Mind if we sit here?" asked Toby.

It was just him and Jim. What on Earth are they up to? I scooted some ways away from my spot and patted the spot beside me. Jim took the spot beside me while Toby took the bench in front of us.

"We haven't hung out just the three of us in awhile, huh?" Toby remarked.

"You both seem busy since the semester started. I can't blame you for that one."  I told them. The pair shrugged at me, but it was a lying shrug. I would know. I do the same ones. "Anyway, what are we doing for our History Project, Jamie?" I looked over at him.

"I don't know. Wanna brainstorm some ideas after school?" Jim asked me.

"Can't. I have a family thing." Lying to them has gotten harder since I found out. Hopefully they don't catch. But they're idiots. They won't catch on... I hope. "I can come over tomorrow after school if you want."

"That... Th-th-th-that'll be gr-gr-gr-great." What's with the stammer? It's weird. "Oh, don't forget about Pig Zombies on Saturday."

"Don't worry. I have it all set in my calendar. So, what time is the movie?" I asked them.

Toby and Jim shared a look. Oh that is never good. "We don't actually know."

"Then, what are we going to do about Saturday?" I asked them.

"We're more of idea men." Like they're any close to being men. "Creating a plan is someone else's problem." Of course.

"You two haven't changed at all, have you? I'll get to work on that sometime this evening. You guys still have email, righr?" I asked them.

"Who still uses e-mail anymore?" Toby inquired.

"Good point. I'll just have Lucy drive us to the theater anyway." I replied. "So, how are you and Claire going, Jamie?"

"O-o-o-oh, m-m-me and Claire?" stammered Jim. That's strange.

"Yes, you and Claire. You two are dating, aren't you?" I asked him.

"Oh, y-y-yeah. We're g-g-g-good." Hmm. Peculiar. But Jim's always been like this when pertaining to Claire. Nothing suspicious about that.

I hope.

|{[INSERT_COMMERCIAL_HERE]}|

Jim

"So, you have a study date with [Y/N] tomorrow huh?" Claire teased me while we walked to Blinky's library.

"What-. Wait! You told her!" I exclaimed to Toby who was on my left side.

"Of course, I did. Dude, you've been hopelessly obliviously in love with this girl since she stole your first kiss on the monkey bars when we were nine. And she-."

"She clearly has feelings for you, but she's not gonna act upon them since you know we're fake dating and all that jazz." Claire said.

I sighed. "You're the smart one. Couldn't you have come up with something... um... better?"

"What? Because a wuss like you was going to ask her out if I didn't say we were dating?" Claire asked him, raising an eyebrow at her friend.

I sighed once more. She clearly had a point. And Tobes seemed to catch it too. "He tried to ask her if she wanted to go see Pig Zombie 6 for her sixteenth birthday, but dragged me along with them because he wussed out of calling it a date."

Claire tapped her chin in thought. I do not understand girls. Then, she did the thing where you smack your fist against your hand in an aha! idea moment. Which is what transpired next. "I have a perfect idea for your movie date on Saturday."

"Am I going to regret this?" I asked her.

"I hope not. I'm helping you whether you want me to or not." Yea me! Internal frown.

We made it Blinky's library in which the four arm troll was talking animatedly to Vendell. About Essence Stones? What the fuzz buckets are those?

"Um, what are the Essence Stones?" I piped up.

"The Essence Stones are the only thing that can combat the Oncoming Storm." Vendel explained.

"Which is why we should be looking for them! We already know where one is! The Sea Stone!" Blinky told him.

"I already told you the Starling has this under control. This is her fight. Not ours. We shouldn't-."

"But then why have Pabbie tell us about the resurgence anyways?!" Blinky cut him off. I don't think Blinky has ever interrupted Vendel before. This is a first.

"Because to warn us of an even greater danger, Blinkous!! One that we have to face on our own! As Trolls!" the elder roared.

I never saw a look of fear as intense as the look that crossed Blinky's face when Vendel told him that. A greater danger? Even Aaarrrggghh! and Draal had the same look as Blinky. What did it all mean? Vendel left the library.

"I don't care what the goat says. We're getting the Sea Stone." Blinky told us.

"And how do we acquire it?" asked Claire.

"Hate Gyre." Aaarrrgghh! cried. Oh.

"And where would we find the Sea Stone?" Toby asked. "It's underwater right? And we can't breathe in water? So is it in an aquarium? Washed up on a beach?"

"I'll tell you where when we get to the Gyre." Claire, Toby, and I shared a look before shrugging our shoulders and following Blinky to the Gyre.

When we got there, we reached the Gyre and hopped in. "So, where are we going?"

"Under the sea. In an underwater palace where there is no water inside located in what you humans refer to as The Bermuda Triangle. Get ready for Atlantis." And before the three of us could protest, Blinky put in the coordinates and we zipped off towards... did he really say Atlantis? And the Bermuda Triangle?

But I didn't have time to question it as we arrived in a palace? And our clothes were soaking wet. But we never submerged in water? You know what? I shouldn't question it. Me and my friends huddled for warmth. It'll be awhile before we're dry. But why isn't- you know what? Never mind. I don't care.

"Okay, so where do we go first?" asked Toby.

"We head for the treasure room. The Jewel of Atlantis is the Sea Stone." Blinky told us.

"Why are we wet, but you aren't?" asked Claire.

"No clue." Blinky shrugged his shoulders.

The three of us grumbled but followed after Blinky with Aaarrrgghh! and Draal taking the rear. This is going to be a long evening. Our little group trudged, our squeaky footprints giving our location to anyone who would be here. And I think someone was here. Because a familiar ball of silver and blue was charging at us. Not us. Me. Followed by a march larger greenish-blue dragon.

"Hi, Azymondias." I said to the baby dragon when he jumped into my arms.

"I see you humans have already met the Prince. Starling's Zym seems to like you Mr Lake." the green-ish blue dragon said. Um... do dragons normally...

"YOU TALK?!?!" Thanks for that, Tobes.

"Of course, I do. I'm Sisu. Starling sent me after Little Azymondias to make sure he stayed out of trouble." Why aren't Blinky, Aarrrgghh!, and Draal freaking out about there being another dragon? And the elf being here?

"You six, now-seven, looking for the Treasure Room?" asked Sisu.

I shivered as a breeze went by. Why was there a breeze? We're in a dry castle underwater! This is just too weird.

"We were headed that way right now!" Blinky told the dragon.

Azymondias coughed. Or sneezed? I don't know. But he zapped me and I yelped and I'm... dry? Well alot dryer than before. Uh, thank you. Living dryer thay could kill me at any given moment. But you're still cute. So you're forgiven if you do.

"Well I wouldn't go that way! That's where Meg put his evil lair at." Sisu told us.

"Lair?" "Meg?"

"Meg is what the time-traveler calls Megamind. And he placed a lair here when he was going through his 'evil' phase." I did not know Dragons did air quotes.

"Time Traveler? Like the Doctor? Or Loki?" askes Toby.

"Looks like a mix of Matt Smith and Loki as a tween with too much hair gel. Alright, kids follow me." Sisu told us.

Zym appeared on my shoulder, wrapping his small body around on my shoulder and we followed the hopping dragon towards the treasure room. We had reached the treasure room, avoiding all the traps (that was on the ceiling for some strange reason). We arrived there. And Sisu peered inside before letting us enter. Strange.

But I couldn't help peering over Sisu's sboulder "Are you really angry that the Trollhunter keeps unknowingly stealing your pet?" That sounded like... no it can't be.

"Azymondias is not my pet. My pet sounds like I chose to take care of him. The bundle of zappy madness chose me to take care of him. So if anything, I'm his pet." Please tell me that's not who I think it is. But the-I'm guessing- Startouch Elf looks nothing like her. Not one bit. Well maybe except for the nose. And the eyes.

"You make absolutely no sense. And yet you love him anyway." the other voice said. A male with slick-back hair. This must be the time-traveler Wow. Sisu was spot on.

"Kids, easy now. We wouldn't want this to get into the wrong hands. Not this close to the Cotillion." A brunette male that appeared to be the oldest of the group. Why does he look so familiar to me?

"I have a question for you, pig snout. Meg said you wouldn't be here. Why the hell are you here? And why are you even here?" the elf asked.

"I stowed away because none of you are smart." the time-traveller said.

"Says the royal dumbass." the female elf sighed. "I'm so young and yet I feel so old." she emphasized. I was half expecting her to do a dramatic fall like they always seem to do in soap operas notthatIwatchsoapoperasinthefirstplacethat'sabsurd.

"I already knew that, dumbass." time-traveler said.

"Go on, Trollhunter." Sisu used her tail to push me toward the elf's group to retrieve the essence stone. "Introduce yourself."

And suddenly I stumbled upon the room making the group's attention turn to me. "Um...hi." Cue the awkward wave. "I'm... James Lake Jr? I'm the... Trollhunter." I held out the Amulet of Merlin. I could practically sense Toby and Claire facepalming at this.

"Starling, I think this one is for you to handle." I now noticed the brunette boy that stood beside the other elf. Is that... Callum Schlott?? Um... I hope if that is him, he doesn't tell [Y/N] about this.

"I am the one they refer to as Starling as you must know. And we don't need you here. To help us." The girl's hand were running up and down a strand of her waist length periwinkle hair. [Y/N] did the same thing when she had long hair. Not the time Jim.

"I think we do. Because the Seastone is missing if you've forgotten." the other elf said. She sounds like Rayla. And sort of looks like her too.

"THE SEASTONE IS GONE!?!?!?" Blinky exclaimed.

"Unfortunately so. Now, one advantage turns out to be a setback." I didn't notice the other brunette who had a black dragon that was acting like a cat by his feet.

"Do you have any leads?" asked Claire as she stepped forward.

"Just a Roman Penny. No clue from where though." Starling told us. "Now, I think it's time you kids return to California. Don'tyouthink."

|{[INSERT_COMMERCIAL_HERE]}|

"So Atlantis was a flopp?" I had already told Draal about the whole atlantis situation.

Luckily mom had another night shift at the hospital, so Draal could walk around freely while I made dinner for myself. Elbow Pasta and Meat Sauce it appears to be.

"Yes, it was, Draal." I turned the TV on and started flipping through the channels to find the one I wanted. "At least, I met Starling. She was not what I was expecting."

"Most elves aren't. You humans expect them to be small and cute because of the Claus, but they aren't." Draal told me.

"Actually, I think," I found what I was looking for. The French food competition show the World's Greatest Chef Competiton. "she was the exact opposite of what all of you were saying. Sure she was a tad harsh to us, but I think she didn't want to involve us in the Essence Stones. Like she didn't want anymore added help. I don't know." A knock sounded on the door.

"Were you expecting anyone?" asked Draal.

"Not that I know. Toby and Claire wouldn't knock. They'll just barge on in." I told him.

And before I got to the door, the door opened to reveal a boy with white hair, incredibly pale skin wearing a blue sweatshirt and brown trousers. "Don't be such a pussy, Hiccup." That was Sisu.

"Yeah, we're only here since Zym wants the trollhunter to be his dragon rider and to train him how to combat magic." white hair said.

"Um... what are you doing at my house?" I asked them as I held my wooden spoon in my hand, ready to strike them if necessary.

"You and Punzie would be great friends, squirt." The platinum blonde ruffled my brown hair to make it messy. My hair now looks like the dragon boy's hair.

"We're here to train you. I'm Hiccup. And this is Jack. Jack Frost." Wait. What? I'm lost. "I live over in Berk Manor. And you have wandered in a den where you cannot get out of." the brunnette introduced.

"Which is why Starling didn't want you to get involved. By trying to help us with the Seastone, you and your friends have put a target on your back. Starling didn't want that. But now we have to help you. To train you. Hiccup here is a Dragon Rider. And even though Azymondias isn't big enough to be ridden. He will be. I suspect sooner than you think, so he's going to train you to ride him. And I and many others are going come here to help you train against magic. Since the people who will come after you to kill you will have magic." Jack Frost told me. Now I'm really lost.

"So let's begin."

@trollhuntersfanatic

#trollhunters #tales of arcadia #trollhunters x reader #onward trollspies #rise of the brave tangled dragons #the futuristic four #x-villains #miraculous ladybug x tales of arcadia #jim lake x reader #jim #jim lake #jim x reader #jim lake jr x reader #tales of arcadia x reader

[myundeadgayson]

just some HCs for SmallishBean’s character in Last Life based off his new skin

so i'm watching Joel's POV now for episode 3 of Last Life now. i've already gone and watched Scar and Scott's POVs, but i'm always hella curious about what goes on in other areas of the server.

anyways, i've just now started the episode and i have so many thoughts already bc Joel's Red Life Skin??? can we just. CAN WE PLEASE TALK MORE ABOUT THE SKIN-- i’m gonna talk about the skin. (warning: this is gonna be a long post of HCs about Joel’s character in Last Life currently based purely on his new skin and lore. SPOILERS AHEAD for the 3rd Episode. Also, TW: there’s gonna be some Discussion of Blood) listen. bestie, no. you don’t UNDERSTAND. YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW IMPORTANT THIS IS TO ME. YOU DON’T GET HOW MUCH I THRIVE ON THE IDEA HE HAS BLOOD MAGIC LEAKING THROUGH HIS FINGERS. (he says it’s “definitely not blood”. DEFINITELY NOT BLOOD, he says, but bestie i am... i am ALREADY having ALL THE THOUGHTS WHETHER IT’S SIMPLY BLOOD MAGIC OR NOT.) wanna here my thoughts? too late. i’m gonna tell you my thoughts.

my dearest reader, i am just saying that if it were to be the case that it were blood... magic. blood magic, of course. i’m simply pointing out how fucking cool it looks to consider that upon reaching his Red Life, that Joel’s begun leaking red, and the concept of him appearing with bloodshot eyes leaking with blood (i mean, blood magic, of course). the concept that Joel’s become just so corrupted by his magic... like, hear me out. most of the time that someone reached a Red Life in the 3rd Life Series, they took on a more zombified version of themselves. however, with Joel... i like to think perhaps that the magic has corrupted his entire being. that perhaps upon reaching his Final Life, he snapped and gave into the darkest parts that the magic possessed. or maybe, the magic is what’s keeping him alive. ya know... just maybe, in exchange for his sanity, the blood magic has taken hold in order to allow him to live on. in the previous season, most people appear to lose more and more of themselves each time they’d lose a life. upon reaching their Final Life, the constant desire for bloodlust and rage would course through their veins. overall, they were still themselves at the core, but their judgement and morality was clouded in a constant haze of red. along with that, their bodies took on a more grayish, decomposed look to them, much like a zombie. it really showed that they’re holding onto life by a thread, but they’re holding on nonetheless. and for Joel... to imagine that perhaps that his skin has taken a more dullish color. he appears more grayish and sickly, but his skin retained most of its color. however, it isn’t due to retaining some of the life left in him. no, no. it’s the blood. it’s the blood pooling in his cheeks and behind his eyes, leaking from his tear ducts... it leaks from his fingertips, and stains all he touches in a dark, violent crimson like his eyes. his vision is hazed with red, yet it could be from the blood itself or ever constant daze of the bloodlust. or perhaps, it’s the powerful blood magic that’s thrumming through his veins. his magic is more powerful than ever. he’s given himself wholly over to the magic that now controls him. his abilities are now incredibly impressive, but he lacks any sort of control that he once had. perhaps he feels like he’s more in control of his powers, but it surges out of him. the red aura that surrounds him pulses. the desire for more is endless. something within him craves for more power, for more control -- for blood. it cries for the bloodshed of those that could have his friends, his allies. in a past life, they would have been. yet now, there’s no going back. the deal has been struck and he’s now fallen to the greed of the darkest of magics. of course, there is a cure in a way. he could be given a life. that’s a certain kind of magic more powerful than any other, but that would come at the cost of someone else giving it to him... and such a sacrifice requires attaining trust, or other means. and still, even if he obtained it, it comes at the risk of knowing that he’ll inevitably return... he can fight it all he likes. but even if he goes back up to Two Lives, or Three, or even more lives, he’ll always battle with that knowledge of knowing he’ll fall prey to his own magic again. he did it once already. the deal was struck. the newly acquired lives will offer him control to fight back the urges and regain himself, but lives will always be temporary. in the end, he will always lose himself. ...anyways, loving the new skin, Joel. can’t wait to see what happens from here! uwu

#last life smp #last life spoilers #last life joel #joel smallishbeans #smallishbeans #3rd life smp s2 #3rd life s2 spoilers #ajdhkgdfg forgot to include to read this in Bailey Sarian's voice to get the OPTIMAL EXPERIENCE of how i wrote this #i think i've decided to keep all my DSMP related liveblogs on my 2nd blog and all my other MCYT stuff over here #simply bc i wanna keep it all close together #and i started this blog crying over Scott SMajor and his adventures with his flower husband #i can't stop now #this is my brand #crying over Scott SMajor and his characters and all the amazing friends he has in servers he's in #i enjoy tagging can't you tell? #let's me ramble a bit more #we have fun here in jake's little ramble corner #this was going to be an actual liveblog and then i got carried away #i haven't even finished the episode yet and here i am already #TW: blood #last life headcanon #spooky season is upon us and i'm dedicating it solely to Last Life

[moontheoretist]

What If...? started so many cool side stories and then closed them with "you were chosen" montage. Like... we didn't even SEE how Shuri and Pepper got to the point where they are shown storming the Wakandan Palace to attack Erick! THAT IS SO DISAPPOINTING!

Not to mention that Erik the liar and murderer was chosen, but Tony was not. I don't mind Gamora being chosen, but I RESENT the idea that Tony's first idea after defeating Thanos in that universe was to create a suit of armor around the Galaxy, because of the possible next big bad. I dunno what happened in that universe, but Tony only wanted to do that under extreme duress due to Wanda trigerring his PTSD in the original timeline. He once had a project like Ultron but scrapped it and only came back to it after he was triggered and was in no shape to make that decision. Not to mention that Ultron was always in the Sceptre, just saying, but MCU and What If...? both are too scared to pursue a sentient rock hypothesis, because Mind Stone HAVING A BRAIN is not important apparently!

I am just angry, because that one scene treats Tony as if his paranoia was a default, while in fact the person who has paranoia in the MCU is actually Happy fucking Hogan.

Tony is paranoid ONCE and FOR A GOOD REASON, but also because of being trigerred by an outside force. Wanda's illusions are INCREDIBLY real. To the point that Thor was sure it was a vision of the future. HELL, even Tony was sure it was a vision of the future, despite Nick Fury telling him to his face that it was just Wanda messing with him. He was SO SURE that this thing he saw is the future, his legacy if he doesn't do something to stop it, because he has a very large and crippling fear of not being enough. For some people, him failing to save the Avengers in that scene says "arrogant", but in truth it is a picture of his insecurities.

By the way, what even was that universe with Tony and Gamora?

1. Captain Carter 2. T'Challa 3. Wasn't this episode about SHIELD killing Tony, ah wait, HANK PYM, killing the Avengers (I still think, SHIELD accidentally killing Tony would be a cooler universe lol simply because we would then see all the batshit awful things they did “for the greater good”, but nooo, SHIELD good, SHIELD not bad bleh) 4. Dr Strange 5. Zombie Apocalypse 6. Killmonger 7. Thor 8. Ultron

WHICH universe is GAMORA from? WHY IT DIDN'T HAVE AN EPISODE?! Because WHAT? Because TONY doesn't die in that one? That's why you ripped Gamora off of her glorious moment of fucking up Thanos? REALLY, DISNEY? REALLY? HOW. DARE. YOU.

But you know what pisses me off the most? THIS WHOLE LAST EPISODE was some weird ODE to Peggy x Natasha and then at the end they hinted Steve somehow got to the future and Peggy can get together with him or smth! MY GAY LOVE RUINED, DISNEY!

AGAIN!

BONUS:

Guardian's of the Galaxy was already corny, but Guardians of the Multiverse is cornier... someone needs to work on naming shit, because Uatu is definitely not good at it.

BTW Does the Infinity Crusher destroy the stones or does what Thanos did with them in the Infinity War, meaning he "destroyed them" into tiny particles, so nobody can use them?

BTW BTW I don't believe that Dr Strange threw Zombie Rain at Ultron and one of the was Wanda. Fateful meeting of the lovers and all that.

#what if...? #what if...? spoilers #tony stark #gamora #natasha romanoff #peggy carter #peggynat #gamora the vanquisher of thanos

[thetimelordbatgirl]

Yeah, Phase 4 retroactively creates problems with the previous phases. The Eternals could have helped A LOT in the fight against Thanos. What If gave us a really cool scene where Ultron sliced Thanos in half...except wait...he was in Vision's body. So was it only because he was Ultron-enhanced, or could Vision have defeated Thanos THE WHOLE TIME? So Wanda was born in '89? That makes her 26 during AOU. I thought she was a teenager. Didn't Steve call her a kid in CW? Those are just a few examples.

Eternals from their trailer alone, caused that problem: Where the hell were they during the entire MCU??? And like, trailers implied MAYBE they cant intervene unless ordered to do so, which could have explained it....but no, the actual film basically showed they could have intervened ANY point, but didn't and therefore, behold the worst thought out MCU introduction of characters yet....besides a-lot of characters anyway.

What If...? really caused a-lot of problems like that: like you pointed out, could Vision have sliced Thanos in half the entire time, or was it cause of Ultron? We will never know. Shuri is said to be sixteen in Black Panther, but uh....that's a tall six year old then in What If...?, given Iron Man is ten years before Black Panther. Why didn't they just go back for Peter in Star Lord T'Challa??? Can't Ego just reform while T'Challa is gone in finale, therefore rendering T'Challa's effort to nothing? What happened to Wakanda after Erik was imprisoned by the Watcher in finale??? Do they know what happened to Erik and therefore, can call off the war??? What the actual fuck was the point of ZOMBIES, since none of the heroes show up in finale??? Why not remove ZOMBIES as a result and put Gamora's episode in? WHY WAS LOKI THAT EASILY DEFEATED IN FINALE? Why does Peggy have the winter soldier suit when she wouldn't be going through Winter Soldier, cause Bucky never fell off the train here??? The only episode that didn't leave me questioning shit was the Party Thor episode, and even then it got me annoyed at the lack of Jotun Loki in the actual MCU.

Wanda's age just like Shuri's is now, is a confusing mess. Born in '89....but like you said, called a kid in civil war and in Age of Ultron, Hawkeye comments about her going to high school and such, so like....did they only decide to make her an adult so she could be shipped off with Vision like the way she is??? Why not make her an adult from the start?? Especially given her actor is obviously older then a high schooler, like, would have saved so much fucking confusion. Black Widow is still an example to me really- her backstory was ongoing confusion throughout the MCU and when her film finally hit....she suddenly has a family out of the blue and suddenly that kill on her record??? New twist villain, SO SHE DIDN'T KILL HER AT ALL. Oh and don't worry, she got a grave via Yelena.....wait, what do you mean that doesn't fix how Endgame treated Black Widow??? Loki over here also changing shit, aka making Loki think he was responsible for his mothers death when....its a mixed bag: he told them where to go, but he didn't know they'd kill Frigga and even in guidebooks, its mentioned Frigga sacrificed herself to save Jane....still another MCU fridging, but still. You also got how they weakened Loki suddenly in favor of Sylvie, but that's a whole other story really with me and problems with Loki show....

And then you got Hawkeye only NOW deciding to make Clint deaf and alluding to maybe prior incidents in the MCU as the cause....when that's hard to tell as where was his hearing aids during Endgame and crap??? And why only NOW add the netflix characters like Daredevil and Kingpin??? Just wait until they find a way to add mutants though....that's when it'll be a true clusterfuck.

#anti mcu #mcu critical #i hate loki show if it aint obvious #and also dread mutants being introduced #cause it'll be bad either way #and also hate what if...? if it aint obvious #intended to rank the episodes at some point but forgot so like

[not-close-to-straight]

Random Wanda Vision Thoughts--

Episode 1: I am an emotional bitch crying at Wanda and Vision saying “i do” at the end of episode 1, like can these babies please catch a break? they just want to be happy. 

Also Agnes and the 70′s show mom are my favorite wtf. 

STARK TOASTERS I SEE YOU. 

WHO IS WATCHING THEM WTF 

Episode 2: 

Dottie should die, she seems like the type who needs gently run over by a bus

WHO IS IN THE RADIO

Elizabeth Olsen is so cute in this, absolutely adorable 

IS THAT DAVID SCHWIMMER PLAYING THE PIANO

Vision is drunk from getting gum in his gears, I’m actually cackling right now. 

Tiny bit culty with the “for the children” thing, huh? Yikes

BABY BUMP! 

Some creepo decides to get in on their world and Wanda literally went “i think the fuck not, let’s try this again and this time in technicolor” 

is that the cop who asked out Ant Man on the radio?

The difference in “sitcom” Wanda who is happy in her world and “real life” Wanda when she realizes something isn’t right is honestly astonishing and Grade A Face Acting. See what happens when they let women do more on screen then walk around in tight clothes with full lips parted in a sexy pout? 

Episode 3: 

Seventies Vision’s hair is ENDING ME, I can’t even deal with that. 

IT HAS TO BE DAVID SCHWIMMER except he looks like “russ” from friends instead of “ross” 

Poor Vision is not handling impending fatherhood well 

COMIC BOOK NAME DROP BILLY AND TOMMY I LOVE IT 

Poor pregnancy fritzing Wanda. DID WANDA JUST GLITCH A TIME ERASE AND NOT MEAN TO? Listen, I did not expect to love them as a couple this much. EW HER WATER BROKE OMG 

A STORK 

Oh Wanda, poor baby she’s so afraid, I write way too much fan fiction about how all these characters are secretly terrified to go through life alone to be okay with this. 

Why did I start crying immediately when the babies were born, I’m too emotional for this. She is so beautiful and Vision is so soft meeting his son as himself, oh my gosh. THE TWIN SCREAMS while the other twin comes omg this is Grade A Sitcom bullshit. 

The doctor knows something is Up and so do Herb and Agnes. *don’t be suspicious, don’t be suspicious*

...have we actually seen Ralph and I’m just blanking on it? WHY DON’T THEY LIKE GERALDINE? WHO IS SHE?

Oh no i’m crying again over pietro and the sokovian lullaby. Don’t let me watch this while I’m PMSing wtf this is torture. GERALDINE KNOWS ABOUT ULTRON

OH SHIT WANDA IS PISSED LOOK AT THAT DANGEROUS LADY. that head tilt is fucking lethal. 

I love agnes oh man. I know because of spoilers she’s something of a bad guy? but I love her

WHAT HAPPENED TO GERALDINE OMG DID WANDA KILL HER

Oh no, not dead. Just kicked tf out of the bubble. I just realized the symbol is for Sword. Is this some sort of experiment to keep Wanda contained post Endgame? I should have read more spoilers, I’m fucking confused. 

Episode 4: OH HOLY SHIT IT’S MONICA RAMBEAU AND IT’S POST EG SNAP OH MY GOSH SHE HAS NO IDEA SHES BEEN GONE FOR FIVE YEARS MY HEART IS BREAKING MY HEART IS BREAKING I CAN’T TAKE IT 

It IS the cop that hit on Ant Man! WHAT DO THEY MEAN WESTVIEW DOESN’T EXIST 

Oh it’s Darcy! Damn straight it’s Dr. Lewis. How very shocking, a woman was the one to show a room full of Ridiculous Men what’s going on?

ZOMBIE VISION OH MY GOD “no we can’t” oh man she is starting to CRACK and Vision knows something is wrong OH NO 

At this point I should point out that I am 1000% surprised at the quality of the show and 1000% pleasantly surprised by how much I’m enjoying it. The bar for Wanda’s character development was literally subterranean, but this is has been frankly sort of amazing?? 

Episode 5

Agnes asking about “taking it from the top” WHAT. I love so much the way the characters “break character” it’s so interesting and well done! WHY IS WANDA LYING TO VISION. 

WHERE IS RALPH

oh my god the babies are children now?? why isn’t agnes noticing?? THEY’RE SO CUTE I COULD CRY ALL OVER AGAIN 

I do not. trust. hayward. Why is he asking about Wandas nickname? Monica knows whats up-- she knows Wanda is grieving and hurting. 

THE VISIONS CORPSE WHAT? WHAT IS WANDA DOING OH MY GOD SHE STOLE VISION. Vision has a living will? Don’t you have to be human for that? Are you telling me the woman that loved Vision would straight up ignore his wish to not be turned into a weapon after his death? I have a hard time with this. 

Oh no Vision is starting to worry me. He’s onto Agnes, he’s noticing Wanda getting careless...the boys are adorable though. Good on Agnes for not even flinching. 

DAMN RIGHT WANDA COULD HAVE TAKEN OUT THANOS LETS HAVE SOME RESPECT PEOPLE. Also, why is Monica being sketchy about Captain Marvel? 

EMAIL ALERT EMAIL ALERT “none of it is real.” oh my god what is happening?!?!

“Is this yours?” OH MY GOD. “This will be your only warning” she is so unafraid and I love her for it. I love her accent coming back when she breaks characters LOOK AT HER TURNING ALL THOSE MEN AROUND I LOVE HER. 

“Fix the dead” oh my god the shock on her face. The absolute irony of her trying to tell her boys there’s rules when she’s writing the playbook as she goes. Oh my god. “Can’t I?” Jesus, then the credits start rolling because she wants the episode to be over but Vision won’t let her OH MY GOD. My heart is breaking

WHAT DOES IT MEAN SHE DOESN’T KNOW 

SHE RECAST PIETRO

Episode 6

OOOOH look at the classic costumes! Pietro is slaying me. I mean, it’s the wrong pietro but its still very funny. The way Vision calls her out and then plays it off is.... spooky. She is fully aware thats not her brother. “Be good.” holy shit. 

Look at me not liking Hayward again. “which one is the sassy best friend” i feel like that’s....racist. “don’t use the last five years as an excuse to be a coward” DRAG HIM SIS 

Listen Uncle Pietro being a little shit head is my favorite. I use the OG Pietro in my fics but this one is hilarious. 

Vision lied about being on duty? Yikes. The one house where people are stuck in a loop? YIKES. Its crazy how everyone is starting to be super aware of Wanda pulling the strings--MAGIC CHILD OMG. 

Whats past ellis avenue? Is that the limit of Wanda’s powers? I don’t super understand how Vision has his powers if he’s technically dead. HE DOESN’T KNOW WHAT THE AVENGERS ARE she really just gave him enough life to exist just barely. Agnes knows he’s dead so she wasn’t snapped??

Agnes’s witchy laugh while dressed like a witch is legit awesome. We call that FOREEEEEEEEESHADOWING! Oh and there’s Ellis Ave. Got it. 

Monica’s blood is changed?? Idk how to feel about Black Character willing to die for White Charaxter? I mean I know Wanda should be Jewish but still. Uncomfortably close to icky tropes but maybe I’m reading too far into it.

YIKES where was she hiding the kids till now? How’d she do all this? “I’m not a stranger or your husband” YIKES.

OH MY GOD DEAD PIETRO

OH MY GOD VISION STAY IN THE BUBBLE SOMEONE SAVE HIM SAVE HIM OMG BILLY CAN HEAR HIS DADDY DYING SAVE HIM

“The people need help” oh Vision you are truly Worthy

She literally expanded her world to save him omg

DARCY WHERED YOU GO geez look at power of this girls mind it’s about damn time we got a glimpse at just how intense her powers are

Season 7

Ok is this like a reality show? Oh man she is GLITCHING.

Oh no it’s just Wanda not Wanda vision cos she feels alone? So sad. She really is losing it isn’t she and not in a “lol how awkward” sortnof way but in that truthful hard to watch way that so many of us feel when we’re at the breaking point

“I actually did bite a kid once” I literally ugly laughed right there

I KNEW I COULDNT TRUST HAYWOOD

It’s so nice to see Darcy used in a real way. Her character was totally wasted in Thor

The way Wandas little interviews get more and more sad :(

Uhhh what does that mean Agnes is quiet on the inside? Again with the Ralph thing. I’m starting to think there’s no Ralph at all??

LOOK AT THIS GIRL WITH HER SPACE ROVER . She’s got that same look of determination her mama had. WHAT IS HAPPENING TO HER WHY ARE HER EYES BLUE

“....soooo Wanda killed me?” I’m ugly laughing again and I shouldn’t be but the comedic delivery is excellent. The whole “office” vibe with the cameras is making an otherwise devastating episode fairly funny

LOOK AT THIS GIRL STANDING UP TO WANDA we love a sharp cheekbones beauty

“Maybe I already am” I mean, I would have loved to hear that post Ultron when for some reason everyone blamed Tony for everything?? But hearing it now is just horrifying and I hate it

Oh vision deciding to go get to his wife is beautiful.

WHERE ARE THE BABIES WHERE ARE THE BOYS OH MY GOD IM FREAKING OUT WHAT BASEMENT THATS NEVER GOOD

Uh hey what the fuck is up with Agness creepy basement of horrors??

AGATHA HARKNESS OH MY GOD

This song is a BOP wtf she deserves an Emmy for this shit

Snoopers gonna snoop what?

Episode 8

Of course it’s Salem, where else would a witch story start

“They simply bent to my power” What a queen

lmaoooo THAT ACCENT COMES AND GOES Agatha really said what we’ve all been thinking

Wait so Wandas power drew Agatha in? I thought maybe Agatha trapped her here?? SHE DOESNT KNOW WHAT WANDA IS

THE BABIES

Oh ouch this trip down memory lane is gonna hurt me isn’t it?

Oh no her mama I’m dying inside send help. The TV sitcoms. Oh my god is this her last memory before her parents died. HELP ME I CANT WATCH THIS

Oh my god, she had powers when she was little?? SHES NOT AN EXPERIMENT???

Listen I generally think telling a story retroactively is lazy writing? Just give us a well developed story the first time?? But this is BRUTAL and brutally well done.

SHE SAW HERSELF IN THE MIND STONE???

Would it have been so difficult for them to give us even a PEEK at this version of wanda vision in CACW? Marvel has the worst habit of just popping up like “oh hey these two love each other all the sudden with no real reason for it” but this is wonderful. So much character development.

Oh listen to this woman begging to be able to bury her husband omg. WAIT SO SHE DIDNT BREAK IN AND TAKE HIM?? WHAT ARE THEY DOING TO VISION?? DID HE PUSH HER INTO THIS PSYCHOTIC BREAK?? HE TOTALLY PLAYED HER INTO RECREATING VISION SHE JUST WANTED CLOSURE. He literally showed her visions dismembered corpse and said “say goodbye” I will kill this dude wtf

“I can’t feel you” guys I have to pause this so I can cry for a minute

“I can’t feel you” and then she leaves. Totally alone in the world. My heart is an empty husk.

Why the house though? Why west view?

OH FUCK ME UP ARE YOU KIDDING ME VISION WAS GOING TO BUILD THEM A HOUSE I CANT TAKE THIS ANYMORE

It’s not even real vision? Just the projection of her broken heart? “Welcome home” I am broken. Physically broken.

CHAOS MAGIC

SCARLET WITCH

I CANNOT

OH MY GOD WHITE VISION??? NO NO NO

#WandaVision

[animehouse-moe]

Zom 100 Episode 2: Bucket List of The Dead

Is this second episode a good episode? Yes. Does it live up to the example of the first episode? Definitely not. Does this mean it'll be a letdown of a season? Most likely not. BUGS FILMS is still early on, and there's of course bumps in the road, but as I'll explain through this post, it points to smoother roads ahead if the right steps can be taken.

I think the most telling piece of the limitations of BUGS as a studio is their re-use of animation. It's not terrible, rather it's pretty efficient in most cases. I don't really think most will catch onto it in the episode, but I do think people will catch it in the opening which is more egregious. I get it, it's a great place to have that overlap in terms of quality, but doing it that way you greatly lessen the impact of both.

In better but disappointing news though, Shaft is going to be working with BUGS for the remainder of the series. I was hoping to see their solo effort, but I also don't mind them partnering with Shaft. The latter being a studio that has struggled on recent projects, I feel like a cooperative effort that supports a new studio is a good opportunity for Shaft to deliver on some quality work under the creative vision of Kawagoe. Also of note, they did not work on this episode, they only appeared in the credits.

Anyways! The episode itself. Today's episode director, under Kawagoe, has a very strong sense of direction, which starts off with a well done nightmare sequence for Tendo. Though I say well done, I also think that considering the first episode (and the fact that it's a dream), there's a world's worth of creativity left behind in it. Good ideas in its execution, but great ones left behind because of it.

Now that we're into the episode, let's talk about the strong sense of direction that consistently leaves stuff on the table in full. First person perspective is what we awake to from the dream, and remains a key aspect of the episode at large. I think there's a lot of cases of it being well used in the episode, but I also believe that it's borderline overused and suffers from a lack of purpose at times while underdelivering. Take the first first person scene, for example. Rather than using the established format of letterboxing to tie Tendo to his past, they use a less-than-stellar vignette in its place.

Another piece of direction that remains apparent through the episode is close-ups. While it's more facilitated by limitations than creativity, I actually found it better used on average for stronger direction than the first person perspective. Take a look at this example of Tendo stepping onto his balcony. With the close-up, the focus is on the movement of his feet between the boundary of inside and outside, of the space between his literally nightmarish past and his ever bright future.

Even though we're only a little bit into the episode with these clips, I think my explanations do a good job of generalizing both my praise and complaints at large. Ambitious ideas that end up more often than not underdeveloped and over-used, leading to less weighty and valuable execution overall. There's obviously great moments, but they're also clearly weighed down by limitations and experience across several fronts.

Speaking of limitations, I feel obligated to sing my praise for the work of BUGS in delivering such a "full" zombie experience. Their compositing work with 2D and 3D in the episode is so well done that you won't even notice the CGI zombies unless you're specifically looking for them. Great and seemless experience that's wonderfully full of the Undead. Also funny zombie face.

Speaking of comedy, the first proper critique of the episode. I think a lot of the humor ends up falling flat. It's a delayed and often deadpan execution that relies on setup and perfect timing to be well done, and I just feel like BUGS hasn't really gotten down that expression with this episode. It's not some cardinal sin by any means, but can very quickly dampen the enjoyment of the episode for some. Hopefully they'll figure it out, but translating static humor to a moving scene with sound isn't the easiest thing in the first place.

What does seem to be easy though is how BUGS works around their limits. I said this about the zombies already, but whether the direction is built around the limits or vice versa, they do a great job of using the former to mask the latter. Of course, it leads to what I said earlier, but it's far better than rushes work. And truthfully, it does look rather good.

So while I've talked about limitations this far, the episode isn't completely devoid of quality animation or effort. Though it's a few minutes ahead, it's still a very well done scene that shows there's quality animators involved in the project. I just wish we might see a little more of this, but I won't complain so long as the overall work remains solid.

Alright, last piece here we come. Close-ups remain throughout the episode and end Tendo's screen time here very well. Using the experiences of his day, he comes home to write his bucket list of things to do, and BUGS does some wonderful work through the tight focus on pen strokes in the sequence. While it can become excessive rather quickly due to how much we see up close and personal, it's hard to stay frustrated or disinterested in it thanks to how well done it is.

And even though there's time on the episode, this is where we end with it, as we pick up a different character's perspective to rehash much of the same of what I've talked about here.

I think the episode is still worthy of praise, I also think it's far more indicative of the quality and execution we'll get from this series, but at the end of the day it will ultimately remain a promise of what BUGS FILMS wants to do. How hard they want to push boundaries, what they want to give to viewers. It's the sort of disappointment you express in someone that you know can do better, not something inherently sad, but rather hopeful that they can find the tools and experience to succeed in the way that they should. I don't forsee BUGS making incredible leaps with this series alone, but I see it as a near surefire success for them that will help build the foundation of their studio for the coming years, and that really, really excites me.

#zom 100: bucket list of the dead #zom 100: zombie ni naru made ni shitai 100 no koto #Zom 100 #bugs films #zombie anime #anime recommendation #anime review #anime and manga #horror anime #anime #comedy anime #ゾン100～ゾンビになるまでにしたい100のこと～

[hambone-kablooey]

Okay so my Sabrina stream of consciousness was mildly popular, and season 5 of Van Helsing just came out. Let's have a go.

Preamble:

This show really went from apocalypse story with vampirism instead of zombies to full on Dracula magic times didn't it? Not sure how I feel about that.

Tricia Helfer as Dracula can step on me though. Hope we see more of her this season.

I have no memory of what happened last season. Vanessa has teenage daughters, who's still alive, where'd Christopher Heyerdahl go? All forgotten.

With that out of the way, let's get it.

Episode 1:

New intro kinda slaps.

Why is this girl coming through a portal? Wasn't she stuck in vampire hell?

That's Castle Dracula, right? Looks a lot like the one from the Netflix series.

Okay so time travel now?

Wow you can tell Kelly Overton couldn't be there to film. Bad voiceover and no face. I hope we see her soon.

Um, excuse you, weird mask lady?

Yeah, get her ass!

*disgusted* Peasants.

Listen, I've seen this girl in lots of stuff, and I like her, but "vampires, and I'm the cure" was not a good line.

Tricia!

This man! I know this man!

Midwife is sus.

Oh, isn't she one of Dracula's wives?

Toxic masculinity, who's she? Don't know her.

I sense a love interest? Or was this the lesbian. Truly all memory of this show is gone.

Wouldn't it not be called Transylvania? Wasn't it Wallachia at this point? World history is not my thing.

Also did she get magic language powers? There's no way medieval Wallachians would speak English.

Who's this? He looks like a Chad

THIS BITCH!

I see you creeping Chad!

Oh. I thought this guy would be decent. Maybe not.

Who's this MAN?

Tell him, girl!

Tricia no!

Oh sweet Florian. So pure.

Are we getting a tragic Dracula? Because I'm a little bitch for a tragic villain.

Jesus, Michaela.

So is Michaela in on the vampire thing? Or just a little obsessed?

Time travel is so dangerous. There are so many potential pitfalls.

I'm so torn about the Count. He acts like a smarmy asshole, and yet he loves his wife so damn much.

Damn she old.

Damn he sneaky.

Also Michaela is definitely in on the vampire thing, which makes her older than Dracula? Interesting.

Listen to the servants they know EVERYTHING!

CHAD!

This woman is so flaky I love her.

Listen to the fortune tellers they know EVERYTHING!!!

AHA! Tricia is just a vessel for the original Dracula. I see.

Jesus, Jack!

Also TRICIA NO!

I love this aspect of time travel. The hero just dunking on a villain who doesn't even know them yet.

Please tell me this isn't the last of Tricia. Damn I love her.

Episode 2:

Is Bathory evil here?

Oh jeez I don't think she is! Are we getting good Bathory?

Oh, Florian no.

This obviously isn't going to kill her. She's a Van Helsing!

But even so, being hanged when you can't die? That's rough.

I forgot how much big villain energy Michaela has. She's great.

Ooh that evil laugh.

I feel so bad for this man. By medieval standards he's not that awful.

Yes Jack!

Yes Bathory!

No Jack she's not evil yet!

Oof poor Bathory. She has no idea.

Fuck this guy.

Florian you chicken shit bastard!

This is so messed up. I HATED this woman last season. She's so great now.

Tell her Jack!

Chad!

Is Chad a Van Helsing?

IS BATHORY A VAN HELSING!?

Is that not what the amulet means? I forget.

Aw, servant girl no.

That's so much wasted blood. Come on, Michaela!

Okay is this nice Tricia or evil Tricia?

Don't make any sudden moves my guy

Will you love your corpse wife, my guy?

Not a witch, my guy. A vampire. Get with the program.

I love a lady villain who can snap every man like a twig.

Who's that meant to be?

Oh it's her. That's her coffin.

Not a good likeness.

Poor Jack just sleeping in the dirt.

Is this going to be one of those "time is a closed circle" type deals? Jack killed Olivia, which let her be turned and corrupted. Jack convinces Bathory to fight, and she's turned. We'll see.

Why isn't the sunlight hurting her?

Yes Alexandra! Florian, quit being a chicken shit!

I'm getting a bad feeling about all this.

Yes Jack!

IS TIME A CLOSED CIRCLE!?

Poor Tricia...

Oh no this is bad...

SHIT WHAT!?

OH NO!!!

A VISION!

Yikes Tricia, that's not okay.

Michaela is just fucking batshit. I love her.

This feels more like a final act than an episode 2, so I'm thinking we're going back to the present soon.

Ooooh she's here!

Episode 3:

She is going to wreck Michaela's shit so hard

Yes girl...er, evil shadow spirit!

Tricia plays unfathomable evil so well.

Oh god please don't cut off Jack's arm.

Oh god it's so much worse!!!

No don't leave the evil flesh strip just LYING THERE!!!!!

Yep. She just made it night. God I love evil Tricia.

Jump cut to carnage. My favorite kind of jump cut.

You chicken shit piece of old man peasant garbage!!!!

I forget the rules, do Jack's cured cure other people?

She is so damn scary.

What is this damn scroll?

Is this how Bathory becomes evil?

Please tell me he's lying...

Yay... feminism?

YES KILL THAT BITCH!!!

I'm so worried about Bathory...

Never thought I'd utter those words.

DON'T TRUST HER!!!

YES! But also he's so dead...

Don't eat the baby please...

It's a trap!

I still think time is a closed circle here. They'll stop the Dark One now, but everything will turn out the same in the end.

I'm still living for badass Bathory though.

Obligatory battle scene.

Yay Florian! Chicken shit no more!

Motherly live?

Drink from the vampire teat!

Is this going to be a vampire baby?

Oh no did he axe Bathory!!!

Yes bite him!

We love a self aware noble.

Yeah why isn't he healing?

SHE'S SO FREAKING CREEPY! I LOVE HER!

Oh there's the scary Bathory voice...

Oh shit!

FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!

Michaela's back. That blows.

This is such a downer and it's only episode 3.

THIS FEELS LIKE SUCH AN ENDING!!!

Back to the present!

Ooooooh!

Okay, that's it for now. Back tomorrow with more.

#van helsing #van helsing netflix #kelly overton #tricia helfer #dracula

[shirtlesssammy]

2x09: Croatoan

Then:

Sam Winchester, Supernatural’s resident Clyde Bruckman

Now:

Sam has a vision of Dean in a room with a bunch of strangers. One man is tied to a chair and Dean has his gun trained on him. The man pleads that it’s not in him. He begs the doctor to tell Dean that. She can’t tell. Dean has to do his job --and we see him shoot. 

In reality, Dean’s just getting back from a Slim Jim and beer run. 

The brothers head out to the town that Sam saw in his vision. Once there, Sam notices a man that was in his vision. They approach him and pose as Federal Marshals. They ask about the other man in Sam’s vision. Dean sees a tattoo on the man’s arm and appeals to the fact that he was in the Marines. He tells the brothers where Duane lives. 

On their walk to Duane’s, Sam notices the word CROATOAN carved into a telephone pole. 

Then the history nerd Sam decides it’s his right to lecture Dean on not knowing what this word is. Dean was too busy saving the world to pay attention in history class, Sam. Get off your high horse. Also, SAM, they weren’t wiped out “overnight”, and in fact probably just integrated into local native communities. Okay, I’ll get off my own high horse now, lol. 

They decide to contact Bobby or Ellen for help, but their phones don’t get a signal and the conveniently placed pay phone doesn’t work. 

They head to Duane’s house. His brother greets them at the door and tells them he’s on a fishing trip. His dad then shows up at the door and lets them know he doesn't know when Duane will be back. They ask about the mother, but she’s out getting groceries. It’s clear then that the family is lying. 

It turns out, the mom is tied up in the kitchen. 

Sam and Dean bust in just as the son is dripping blood onto the mother. The dad charges them and Dean takes him out. The son busts through the kitchen window and runs away before Sam gets a clear shot. 

They head back to town with the mom and take her to the local clinic. Dean brings in the father, lol. The doctor patches up the mother, Beverly, while she tells her story. “One minute they were my husband and son, and the next they had the devil in them.” 

Dean and Sam wonder if it’s a mass possession. The doctor comes in and wants to know what happened --they just killed her next door neighbor. Since the phones are down, Dean decides to head to the next town for help. 

On the road, he finds a stalled car with a bullet hole in the windshield. The car is abandoned --with an empty baby seat, blood everywhere, and a knife outside the driver’s door. 

At the clinic, the doctor determines that the dead guy was fighting off a viral infection. She also notes a weird red residue like sulfur. 

Dean keeps driving and comes across a roadblock of people with guns. Totally COOL. A man surprised Dean at his door and asks him to step outside. Dean hits the gas pedal in reverse. Guns start firing. Dean drags the dude and does a 180 --getting out of there in time. 

The doctor tells Beverly about the virus and asks if she had contact with their blood. (I mean, just that LITTLE blood ritual they were doing before Sam and Dean popped in.) The doctor asks to take a blood sample. Beverly seems to acquiesce, and then goes full roid rage. 

Sam knocks her out with a gas canister. 

As Dean pulls back into town, the man they talked to earlier jumps out with a gun. Dean and him have a small standoff --each wondering if the other one is “one of ‘em?” The town is going crazy though. Dean suggests heading over the the clinic since there’s no way out of town. The man doesn't believe Dean but then decides to get in the car. Dean drives to the clinic with them both pointing their gun at the other. 

At the clinic, Pam, the nurse, wants to leave to check on her boyfriend. Sam convinces her that it’s safer in the clinic. It’s then that Dean and the Sarge show up. Dean and Sam discuss the virus --demonic virus. Sam read in their dad’s journal that John thought that Croatoan was a name of a demon. They have to warn people. 

They learn that Beverly is infected and, to Doctor Lee’s and Pam’s horror, Dean and the Sarge immediately announce their intention to kill her. But before they go to that drastic step, Sam interrogates Doctor Lee and asks her if she has a cure yet. The doctor gives Sam a PLEASE SHUT UP look because no, she DOESN’T have a cure for a brand new virus that she’s just discovered with her - checks notes - standard wellness clinic equipment. Long story short, the mom dies bloody.

Later, shadowy figures lurk outside the clinic. Inside, the Winchesters merrily prepare for war as Pam gets twitchy and drops infected blood samples. They decide to fight their way out of town, past the blockades. Sam “Don’t Look at my Browser History” Winchester’s eyes light on some chemicals in the office. It’s time to make some bombs.

Suddenly, someone pounds on the clinic door begging for help. It’s Duane, otherwise known as the man from Sam’s vision! He tells them he just got back from the fishing trip from hell, and he’d sure like to know where his parents are. UH....one of them is dead in the closet next to you? The doctor examines him and finds a wound on him. They tie him up while Doctor Lee drops a virus update. It takes three hours for the virus to incubate before sulfur starts cropping up in the bloodstream. She can’t test for the virus until it’s too late...and he goes full rage zombie on everyone.

Sam pulls Dean aside and begs him to wait to kill Duane. Dean’s against this plan, and Sam accuses him of acting out of character. LORD SAM if I had a nickel for every time that happened on this show! Dean immediately takes umbrage with...everything...and flees the conversation.  He also locks Sam in a room so he can pull off his execution uninterrupted. Dean BBY no.

Duane tearfully begs for his life while Dean confronts the monster within himself - and aims the gun.

“I got no choice,” Dean says while Duane weeps, and I weep for different reasons. Dean’s hand shakes. His lip trembles. Dean drops the gun with a curse.

Later, he unwinds while making bombs with Sam. The doctor announces that over four hours have passed, and Duane’s blood is still unsulfured. They decide to untie him. Sam asks why Dean decided to spare his life. Dean deflects because...of course, and Sam heads off for more supplies.

Pam locks Sam in a room with her and almost immediately shrieks and attacks him. She cuts Sam and slices her own palm, pressing into Sam’s wound. Right after that, Dean breaks the door down and shoots her. They wrap their heads around the fact that Pam bled on Sam.

While the extremely harried Doctor examines Sam, the others hold an intense standoff in front of Sam. Dean will kill anyone and everyone to PROTECT his brother, but the others advocate for immediate action. Sam tells Dean to hand a gun over to him and he’ll take himself out! And he doesn’t mean take himself out to a nice dinner and movie! GUH. Winchesters. 

Dean throws his car keys - BABY’S CAR KEYS - to the others and tells them to get the hell out of town. He plans to stay behind and watch over his brother for it is his SOLEMN SWORN DUTY.

Sam begs Dean to hand him a gun and get to safety. And that’s sad, sure. That’s tragic. But when Sam urges Dean to “keep going” Dean looks away. “Who says I want to?” he gets out.  Excuse me, I’m just going to fling myself off a cliff. 

“I’m tired, Sam. I’m tired of this job. This life. This weight on my shoulders.” Dean confesses that it’s not all about their dad’s death either… He was feeling this before their dad died. But JUST BEFORE we get to the core of Dean Winchester, the doctor knocks and tells them to head outside.

The town is utterly silent, everyone gone. The camera super-zooms in on the carved “CROATOAN” on the light pole. Dun dun DUN, etcetera. Why yes, Robert Singer DID direct this episode!

More time passes, and the doctor examines Sam’s blood sample again. His blood is still clean hours later. Sam’s baffled because he for really real knows he got Pam’s blood in his wound. SAM, YER A WIZARD! The doctor looks at the other contaminated samples for comparison and discovers that they’re entirely clean. 

In the morning, the doctor bids everyone farewell. She gives Sam a clean bill of health. Sam is predictably still puppy-dog-eyed baffled over it, but he and Dean head out regardless. Duane and Sarge blow town together. 

For Pretty Car Science:

Later, Duane asks to pull over. “I gotta make a call,” he says before rapidly slicing Sarge’s throat and filling a chalice with blood. He tells the cup that the testing is over. The “Winchester boy is definitely immune, as expected.” His eyes turn demon-black.

Elsewhere, Sam and Dean take in a nature stroll as delicate music plays. 

For Winchesters Enjoying Nature Science:

They moodily swig beer. Sam asks Dean to explain his woeful feelings from earlier. “We oughtta...go to the Grand Canyon,” Dean proposes, COMPLETELY failing to be honest about his feelings. He’d like a break from hunting. When Sam digs further, Dean finally spills. Before their dad died, he told Dean something about Sam. John Winchester, father of the year, told Dean he might have to………..

And we cut to black. I’m sure it was something nice, though, like buy Sam an ice cream cake!

Quotatoan:

That's not school, that's Schoolhouse Rock

Well, you are a handsome devil, but I don't swing that way >.>

You've got a neighbor named Mr. Rogers?

Night of the Living Dead didn't exactly end pretty

We're supposed to struggle with this. That's the whole point

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive! 

#spn recap #dean winchester #sam winchester #spn 2x09 #croatoan #supernatural season 2

[mindmeltonabun-blog]

Tale of the Nine Tailed: More Analysis and Theories (Ep 9 & 10)

If you haven't done so already, I would suggest that you read all of my other TOTNT posts before continuing to read this post because otherwise you might find yourself lost or confused as to what I’m talking about. For the most part, the majority of the theories that I have proposed here have came true which is great! However, there were a few theories, most notably my zombie theory that didn’t quite come true. Although I wouldn’t be surprised that if in the end we found out that the Imoogi had a hand in creating those zombies. 

Now this post may leave you in a state of exhaustion upon reading it, but I can guarantee you that it will be well worth your time at the end of it ! Additionally, I would like to apologize in advance if I haven't posted my theories or analyses right away, but I’ve been preoccupied with school work as well as tirelessly watching the US election. Needless to say, it’s been a very long week for me! I do want to write well thought out posts for you all, but at the same time I hope you guys will understand that these theoretical and analytical posts do require a great deal of time and extensive research. Anyways with that being said, let’s get to theorizing and analyzing the clues of which we were given in Ep 9 and Ep 10!

What The Imoogi Wants 

Initially, I had strongly believed that the Imoogi was after Lee Yeon’s fox bead because it was a form of “Yeouiju” which could’ve helped it become a celestial dragon. There are of course other ways an Imoogi could be a celestial dragon: 

1) Fox Bead/Yeouiju

2) Sacrificial Virgin Bride

3) Living to be 1000 years old

It should be noted that I am still somewhat uncertain whether in the context of TOTNT, an Imoogi would need to fulfill all three requirements to become a celestial dragon. In Korean mythology, it is heavily implied that the Imoogi only needs one of the three. Furthermore, in most of the popular myths about the Imoogi, it mainly seeks to obtain the fox bead/yeouiju. Thus, this is why I had initially concluded that the Imoogi in TOTNT was solely after Lee Yeon’s fox bead/Yeouiju and not anything else. However since TOTNT is an adaption of many popular Korean folklore, I think the writer is trying to incorporate all three requirements in their own unique way. Meaning that they are trying to add their own dramatic flair or twist to it. Now I’ve already discussed in great detail about the first two ways so now I want to focus on how I think the writer is trying to incorporate the requirement of living to be 1000 years.

1000 Years + More on Bok Gil/Imoogi’s Background

First, it is implied that Mountain Spirits are “celestial” animals (i.e bears, foxes, snakes, and tigers). By “celestial” I mean that you have to be at least 1000 years old in order to even be considered for this prestigious position. Therefore, at the time when Ah Eum had met Lee Yeon, he had just been recently appointed to that position. In the meanwhile, we as the viewers aren’t given any additional information as to what Lee Yeon had been doing up to that point. One thing is for sure, Lee Yeon must have been a real arrogant and egotistical ass. There I said it ! I mean just look how he behaved when he first met Ah Eum and Lee Rang! However, I think that by meeting Ah Eum and Lee Rang, they brought out Lee Yeon’s more compassionate side.

So you’re probably wondering well what the hell does this have anything to do with the Bok Gil/Imoogi? Well I’m getting to that! If you had remembered, I had theorized that Lee Yeon may have been the reason why Bok Gil committed suicide. Given Lee Yeon’s arrogant pretentious nature, I could definitely see Lee Yeon being completely unaware that his words and actions could’ve deeply affected others. One of those people was Bok Gil/Imoogi. 

I believe that Bok Gil/Imoogi is around or exactly the same age as Lee Yeon.  Bok Gil had probably died some time during the Goryeo or Joseon dynasty. What makes me believe this? Well just look at the kind of shoes Taluipa was holding. Those shoes are “Kkotsin” which were typically worn by men during those dynasties. Coincidentally, around the same time Bok Gil had died, Lee Yeon was appointed to the Mountain Spirit position. It raises the question, did Bok Gil kill himself before he was able to reach the “celestial” age of 1000 years old? I think so. Thus, he was unable to meet one of the requirements to become a Mountain Spirit. 

Collectively, I think Bok Gil’s backstory will have a lot to do with our understanding of the Imoogi’s true motivations . For the Imoogi, it’s not purely about fulfilling the requirements of becoming celestial dragon, but it’s more about personally getting revenge on the person who took away his chance of ever becoming a Mountain Spirit in the first place. If you think about, you didn’t see him trying to go after Sato or any of the other Mountain Spirits or any other Gumiho for that matter. He specifically zeroed in on Lee Yeon.

Maybe the only wrongdoing that Lee Yeon may have committed towards the Imoogi was that he simply existed. Though, I wouldn’t be surprised that Bok Gil’s death and his hatred for Lee Yeon had all stemmed from a simple misunderstanding because let’s be real here, one of the central themes in TOTNT is misunderstandings. 

Imoogis are typically seen as auspicious creatures in Korean folklore. Meaning that they are typically viewed as a good omen. Therefore, I think the Imoogi/Bok Gil was a good person, but because of his jealousy of Lee Yeon, he was driven towards depression and suicide. Upon coming back to life, instead of sadness, he was filled with anger and the need for revenge. I mean it’s easier to be angry than sad right?

Additionally, other theories I have for Bok Gil is that maybe his mother had foreseen he would meet the love of his life (Ah Eum) once he became the Mountain Spirit. However, this all changed when whoever decided that position belonged to Lee Yeon instead. If you think about it, Taluipa’s visions of the future are purely subjective just like Alice’s visions from Twilight. Meaning that the future is subjective because it is based on a person’s decision which can readily change.

Imoogi Changes His Decision of What He Wants

In the past, the Imoogi had wanted Lee Yeon’s heart. You might ask well what did the Imoogi mean by Lee Yeon’s heart? Did he mean his literal or figurative heart? The Imoogi could have meant his literal heart, but I think he meant it in a figurative sense. I think the Imoogi probably meant Lee Yeon’s fox bead which in traditional Korean folklore is the main power source/life force of a Gumiho, but I cannot say this with 100% certainty because TOTNT is after an adaption of many Korean folklore. 

Now in the present, the Imoogi changed his mind of what he wanted from Lee Yeon. Why? Because he already knew that the fox bead has disappeared into the hands of the fortune teller. The Imoogi with his great powers could’ve easily gone after the fortune teller to retrieve it had this been his main objective. The Imoogi’s main objective isn’t to become a celestial dragon. Rather, it’s to get revenge on Lee Yeon whom he believed had stolen the life he was meant to have. The Imoogi had wanted Lee Yeon to suffer just as he had when he was alive as Bok Gil. He wanted Lee Yeon to feel the exact same pain of having to lose everything most precious to him. Man the Imoogi/Bok Gil is so immature! Taluipa, you need to discipline/talk with your son !

Is Taluipa a Snake/Dragon?

Other things I think would be interesting to know is what kind of species Bok Gil was. As mentioned earlier, Taluipa’s character is based off of Samsin Halmoni. In both Chinese and Korean folklore, Samsin Halmoni and Goddess Mago have been viewed as being the same. Mago was described as having long birdlike/clawlike finger nails. Furthermore, the Goddess Mago was associated with snakes, caves, and the “elixir of life”. See where I’m going yet?

Although it has not been revealed yet, I think that underneath Taluipa’s human skin, she is a snake/dragon. Therefore, this would also make Bok Gil a snake just like his mother. However, I am still unsure as to what kind of animal Taluipa’s husband is because as far as we know, he is just a regular human with immortality that was granted to him by Taluipa. If that is the case, would Bok Gil have been only half snake? 

Does Taluipa Realize The Imoogi is Her Son?

I don’t think Taluipa has realized that the Imoogi is her son yet. If you remembered, I had said Bok Gil’s soul was in limbo. Therefore, when his soul traveled back into the land of the living, it had probably randomly jumped into whoever’s dead body was in that cave, thus this would make him unrecognizable even to his own mother. 

Other things to note is that just as there is many foxes in the TOTNT, it should be assumed that there are also many snakes/Imoogis too. So Taluipa might not have realized that this one particular Imoogi was actually her son. 

I think also that the Imoogi has the ability to cloud Taluipa’s psychic powers of clairvoyance. The decisions we make determines the kind of future we will have. And where exactly are decisions made? In our minds. We obviously know that the Imoogi has the psychic power to read others’ minds, but I think he also has powers that can block others from reading his. Without being able to see the Imoogi’s decisions which are made mentally, Taluipa cannot foresee what he will do next, only what he is doing presently. It’s about to be mother and son psychic power showdown ! Ouch, my brain hurts just thinking about that !

Resolving the Entangled Mess

In some of my previous posts I had suggested that Lee Rang will be the one that tragically dies. At the same time, I did leave room for the possibility of him having a happy ending through means of reincarnation. In this week’s episode, we were given another possibility of how Lee Rang might achieve a happy ending for himself such as untangling the mess.

Well what is this mess? I’m so glad you asked! Below is a chart that I drew as a visual aid to help you all understand the mess that currently exists in the world of TOTNT. I must say the mess in TOTNT is almost as messy as the US elections right now! 

As you can see from my chart, the Imoogi has gotten Lee Yeon cornered in a sort of checkmate move. To win the Imoogi’s game, one must find a way to resolve the following two conflicts: 

1) Lee Rang’s deal with the CEO

2) Imoogi piece inside Ji Ah

In doing so, one will then be able to remove the Imoogi completely!

Lee Rang’s Deal w/ The CEO

I had mentioned in a previous post that another common theme in TOTNT is deals/contracts. In ep 10, Taluipa’s husband advised to Lee Rang that he should try to think of a way to get around his contract with the CEO aka find a loophole.

What does “Quid Pro Quo” mean? It means that an item or service has been traded in return for something of equal value. The CEO had saved Lee Rang’s life and in return Lee Rang must comply with returning the a favor of equal value when asked. The favor the CEO asked Lee Rang was to bring Lee Yeon which essentially is a favor of equal value (a life for a life). Remember that if you choose not to comply, the power of the contract will force you to complete the favor anyway. However like with any deal, there is always a loophole. This loophole exists in the definition of Quid Pro Quo...of equal value.

Let’s look back to that chart that I drew earlier. What is the most precious thing to the CEO and is basically considered his life? THE CHERRY TREE! Without this tree, the CEO cannot survive. The CEO knew Lee Rang was being swayed by his brother as well as Lee Rang having knowledge of what his greatest weakness was. So then the CEO took precautions to ensure his greatest weakness could never be used against him by having the cherry tree be wheeled away to a safer location.

In order to avoid bringing/killing Lee Yeon, Lee Rang must find something of equal value to give back to the CEO to repay his debt. And that something of equal value is that damn cherry tree! Go Go Lee Rang! Find that cherry tree, return it to the CEO, and afterwards when the contractual rings break....KILL THE CEO ! 

While this does ensure the death of the CEO and the end of the contract between the CEO and Lee Rang, it does not ensure Lee Rang will survive in the long term. Meaning, Lee Rang cannot survive without the cherry tree either unless there is another means of extending his life (maybe elixir of life?). I do wonder what the typical lifespan of a half fox is. Things are implied, but yet there is no definitive answer as exactly how long a half fox can live. It also raises another question, can a half fox live forever provided that it does not get fatally injured? 

Imoogi Piece Inside of Ji Ah

Now onto resolving the 2nd conflict which is how to remove the Imoogi piece inside of Ji Ah. Well I think it can go two ways:

1) Lee Yeon strikes up a deal with the Imoogi:

Lee Yeon will let the Imoogi take his body only if Imoogi would agree to removing the piece of himself that is inside Ji Ah. Now here’s the part where both Ji Ah and Lee Yeon could work together to stop the Imoogi once and for all. Remember that Lee Yeon is susceptible to the effects of evening primrose so when the Imoogi enters Lee Yeon’s body, it will also share the same vulnerability. Ji Ah could trap the Imoogi/Lee Yeon with evening primrose and then use her Shaman powers to remove the Imoogi. After all, one of the powers of a shaman is the ability to excise evil spirits!

2) Taluipa provides Lee Yeon with the elixir of life or turns him human

I will write out more of this theory later, but ngl guys I’m exhausted! Sorry!

Ji Ah = Supernatural Being=Shaman Goddess

In Ep 10, the writer is once again dropping clues like its freaking Christmas that Ji Ah is some sort of supernatural being. We got her female coworker asking if Ji Ah is even human. No she’s not human!! Then we saw how the Imoogi could read everyone else’s mind except for Ji Ah’s. Why? It’s the same reason why Lee Yeon couldn’t hypnotize Ji Ah. It’s because Ji Ah is a supernatural being (shaman goddess) that has hidden powers that makes her immune to powers of other supernatural creatures. 

If you don’t still get it by now, I’ll give you this example: Edward Cullen and Bella. If you remember from Twilight, Edward Cullen could read everyone else’s mind except for Bella’s. Why? Because Bella had that special shield power which was later revealed once she became a vampire. 

Therefore, just like Bella, I think Ji Ah has a bunch of special shaman powers that can be unlocked somehow. Don’t ask me how right now, my brain is struggling to write this sentence as we speak. 

Last Remarks

Okay peeps, I struggled hard to try and write this. I am literally exhausted after staying up super late and waking super early to watch the US election results all week as well as doing my school work. So now I want to relax and celebrate the win of my President Elected, Mr. Joe Biden! I may or not write a separate post on what I think will happen in Ep 11. So stay tune! 

P.S: If there are any other questions about TOTNT that I did not address, please feel free to leave a comment and I will do my best to try and provide you with an answer!

#totnt #tale of the nine tailed #taleoftheninetailed #leedongwook #lee dong wook #jo bo ah #joboah #jo bo a #joboa #kimbum #kim bum #kimbeom #kim beom #lee rang #leerang #lee yeon #leeyeon #aheum #ah eum #a eum #aeum #lee tae ri #leetaeri #imoogi #imugi #gumiho #ji ah #jiah #jia #ji a

[darkpoisonouslove]

What If...? 1x05 Thoughts

Fucking Americans with their fucking zombies. A virus came from the quantum realm and it turns people to zombies? They couldn’t come up with something else here?

I... am not impressed with this episode and I don’t have that much to say about it. I did not need zombie Thanos and why the fuck did he just not leave when he saw the zombie outbreak? This here needs more unraveling so I’ll come back to it a little later. What I can say about this episode in itself is that it really just... murdered almost everyone, huh? And I know that they had a cure but some of the major MCU players were dead dead, not zombie dead. Oh, yes, and Peter Parker was the saving grace of this episode even if I feel so bad for him. Also, Bruce kinda had me feeling for him even if he’s not my favorite character.

Now there is again the idea of what would happen if the superheroes weren’t protecting humanity but were the ones attacking it and that did have the potential to be interesting if they’d maybe used it a little more. I liked the direction in which they were going with Wanda but I feel like this might have been way better if it hadn’t been zombie outbreak. And the other Avengers didn’t really get to do much anyway. This could have been another Civil War (and a better one at that) but they had to do zombies.

That being said, I am starting to notice themes here and I mean in the entire series. We have again a scenario in which superheroes need to fight other superheroes who have gone bad (literally; they looked like rotting fruits). We also had the theme of hope that was again tied with Hope (what are you doing with Ant-Man 3, Marvel?) as well as the theme about how being obsessed with saving those you love can lead to the destruction of everything. I like that in this episode the last two themes were actually tied together and they were trying to imply that one can easily fall into the other BUT they should have spent more time on that. Instead, the episode ended right as we were getting there. I feel like they are aiming for something overarching with all of these episodes and themes and I sure hope they will drive it home by the end.

Now the thing with Thanos again. To nitpick some more, how did all of his army and Wakanda get infected? They said Wakanda was safe because of their shield and the aliens from space surely weren’t the ones to bring the virus into the walls. So how did that happen? But let’s forget that for a second. I appreciate that Marvel are finding the ways to really tie all of their previous movies together but this outbreak coinciding with Thanos’ attack just... I don’t know how to word this but damn, wasn’t it convenient that the cure was the mind stone and Vision ripped it out of his own head and now the Avengers are flying to Wakanda where Thanos is waiting. Like, the zombie outbreak was inserted in the middle of the Infinity War storyline just to make that worse. Because when they cure the zombies, Tony is dead and Scott isn’t stuck in the quantum realm so there would be no way to undo Thanos’ snap. When you think about it, it really feels like they wrote some story - any story - around the themes they wanted just to shove it in your face again how heroics can lead to destruction and why are we so obsessed with this? They are still not bothering to actually show the consequences so what is the point?

There was one point of the zombie disease that intrigued me but they glossed right past it. To defer from the other greenish-brownish-grayish zombies, Steve looked positively blue-green and I feel like that hinted at the fact that he has the super soldier serum in him. That could have been a really interesting route to explore but, again, nope.

#what if #thanos #peter parker #zombies #zombie outbreak #marvel #thoughts #review #what if review

[teamsarawatshusband]

Word Of Honor - 1st watch insta thoughts - Episode 5

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Episode 4

FYI (If you haven't read the previous summaries): Smirky Xing = Wen Ke Xing, Baby Xu = Zhou Xu/alcoholic tanned tragic hero lord guy, pleated skirt soldier boss guy = shen something, 5th brother from 5 Lakes

But let’s get started with Episode 5:

Okay, pleated skirt soldier boss guy chases the grandparents away and then wants to take the two mini wangjis with him. But the tree undies master guy isn't having any of it. So pleated skirt soldier boss guy isn't on anybody’s side. I see.

And there is another mention of 5 lakes abusing their power. Ominous.

The kids even wanna stay with tree guy. Must be bad.

Oooooh, pleated skirt soldier boss guy is indeed after the glazed armor.

Oh, uncle Zhao and his peeps and everybody come to the rescue.

And uncle Zhao respects tree guy's wish to keep the wangjis. Is he genuinely a nice guy or just worried about everybody around, including Baby Xu and Smirky Xing and the kid?

Ooooh, super pretty scenery. Why can't we all live in places like that?

Wheee, they get to feast with the family. And Smirky Xing is reciting poetry again. Everybody likes him it seems.

LOL, Smirky Xing is trying to feed Baby Xu. Who must get headaches from all the eye rolling.

Yo, what's up with tree undies master guy, why is he coughing?

Wait, are the little Wangjis also the kids of some 5 lakes brother? (Sorry, random thoughts about how things piece together, and lots of confusion)

Somebody's shouting for help. What's happening?

Young leader of something something, it was gone too fast. He'll be called magenta leader guy, if he ends up important. Ah, wait, he's from Broken Sword Manor. Have we been there before? I forgot.

Oh and he's chased by a ghost. And there's the smiley potato things flying in again. So the red masked ghost gang?

Oh, okay both magenta leader of broken sword manor guy and tree undies master guy vanish in the fog.

Pleated skirt soldier boss guy acts like an ass around the kid, encouraging him to drink along while drunk himself. What a jerk.

Uncle Zhao saves him and sends both to bed - individually i mean, obviously - , and seems genuinely nice, but I don't trust him still.

Whoa, pleated skirt soldier boss jerk guy is awake and just pretended! Even more of a jerk. What is he up to?

Oh, Baby Xu spots him and follows. Thank goodness, somebody needs to keep an eye on the mean guys.

There's some masked dark figure fighting with pleated skirt soldier boss jerk guy.

Something is going on at the main gate, and everybody runs there. Except maybe Smirky Xing, he's just cautious in general.

Oh no, somebody hung tree undies master guy outside the main gate. And it's raining smiley potatoes. Baby Xu is watching and they're all suspecting some happy ghost, because there's a batman-joker smile carved into the dead guys' faces. And happy ghost is apparently one of the masked ghost gang, which makes sense, because of the potato smiley paper crafts.

Oh, now they're worried about the kid. Was it a trap?

No, he's with Smirky Xing and Baby Xu. How did Baby Xu get back there so fast?

Okay, Smirky Xing says some masked ghost guys were going after the kid but were bad fighters and he instantly chased them away. But can that be trusted? If he himself is nuts guy, they wouldn't fight him, would they? But then again... if he were one of them, why would he spare the kid? None of this makes sense.

Okay, magenta leader guy isn't dead yet. He's in some bed, and somebody is lying in bed with him. Some woman. Who is she? Oh, she says she's a ghost. Wait, does he know her? So has she REALLY died, like a dead ghost, not one of those living ghosts?

Dude, stop begging, if she IS a ghost, she's not gonna let you go, you fool.

Oh, ghost girl channels her inner Arya Stark and drops her face for effect.

And magenta leader guy faints like a good damsel in distress.

Wait, she has a face again, but a different one (I think, not entirely sure) and she's one of the ten devils of ghost valley. A beauty ghost. Yeah, she's really pretty alright. And she's got a ton of friends with her.

Okay, what are they going to do with the unconscious guy? Kill him? They're just sharing make-up tips so far.

Baby Xu is trying to say goodbye to the kid. Aww, but the kid is gonna miss his dads. :(

There's a  flashback to some kid crying. There was also a name but I have no idea who he is. Was it Baby Xu?

Baby Xu sees a rooftop and flies up, I have no idea why. Was there something suspcious about the building? Huh?

Oh, somebody's pissed because their glazed armor got stolen. Ah it's pleated skirt soldier boss jerk guy and uncle Zhao who's not pissed just sad. Ohhh, so the ghost guys just wanted to steal the glazed armor and anything else was a decoy. I see.

Ahhhh, Baby Xu is on top of the roof, removing the tiles and listening in on their conversation, right when they say no outsider could know anything. Wow, they sure have a foolproof system.

Ok, 5 brothers of 5 lakes kept the 5 pieces of glazed armor? That does make sense.

Wait, why is nobody confused about pleated skirt soldier boss jerk guy being awake and sober all of a sudden????? Had uncle Zhao known that he was only pretending?

Man, that guy is made of pure anger and insults. If he dies at some point, he's probably gonna explode like a pinata hit by a dozen sticks at once, just because all the anger needs to get out first.

Ok, mad respect for uncle Zhao, because he is indeed a good guy it seems. He is capable of feeling guilt, and he doesn't want anything to do with the glazed armor anyway.

Okay, pleated skirt soldier boss jerk guy from now on will be called a-hole guy. Because, if the shoe fits...

BabyXu sees Smirky Xing flying away and is confused as to how he could also eavesdrop without being noticed by Baby Xu. I mean, that was Smirky Xing, wasn't it?

Oh, smirklord flying over the tree tops.

Yeah, Baby Xu, I wanna know too what Smirky Xing is up to.

Aww, "our little cheng ling". Smirky Xing is already feeling their dad status.

Oooooooh, Smirky Xing saved Baby Xu from the spiderweb wire stuff.

Okay, some ghost talk, I have no clue what's going on. lol

I'm focusing on the important details. Like Smirky Xing fishing for info on Baby Xu's virginity.

Wait, who's bleeding from above?

Ah, there's the sleeve cutting. Yes. Nice.

Oh the dead guy in the tree is the son of uncle Zhao? Wait, was he fighting with the dark masked guy? Not a-hole guy? Did I get them confused? I am so unable to understand anything, lol. I hate being faceblind. Somebody please let me know in the comments who did what while the manor was under attack.

Okay, dark masked guy's face is also shown and Bab Xu drops a name. I have no idea who that was, nor do I recognize the face. I'm so bad at this. Help?

WTH is "iron hook"??? Is that some special martial arts technique that only a few people can do?

Now they're speaking in riddles about animals. Owls, cicadas, yellow sparrows, praying mantisses. I have no idea what's happening. But it seems to be some sort of flirting.

Ok, now Smirky Xing says he's afraid of ghosts. I'm not sure if I believe that. He’s kinda looking a lot like nuts guy, after all, who is part of the ghost gang himself.

Oh, sure. When you're afraid of ghosts and more people dying... just go into the coffin house, because that makes so much sense.

Ooooh, Baby Xu saved Smirky Xing from the spider web stuff this time. Niiiiice.

Aww, they're asking each other who they are. So... does that mean Baby Xu is interested after all? Hehe

Smirky Xing answers that he's a good person. Yeah, like that's not the exact thing a bad guy would say. Not suspicious at all.

Why are there paper animals all over the place anyway? Can anybody tell me?

Also, who lit the incense sticks?

Why are they splitting up? That's how you end up dead in a horror movie, wth???

Wait, what? That's Smirky Xing's dad? His dad looks the same age as him? Is he hallucinating?

Whoa, why is it day time? Ohhh, blurred vision. Definitely something shady going on.

Baby Xu is hallucinating people too, I think. Leader of Four Season's Manor. Is that his dad? Zi Shu, wait, was that Baby Xu's real name?

Anyway, dad guy is doing an Anna impression and asking Elsa Xu to build a snowman.

Oh, Baby Xu saw through the hallucination. Got out of it by cutting himself. He really is into pain, isn't he?

Eww, zombie guys. What did I say about horror movies? But, nice make-up!

Oh no, Smirky Xing is still stuck in the visions.

And, more fabric is cut off. Baby Xu really doesn't like blood. Smirky Xing was not wrong.

HOLY SHIT! Smirky Xing called Baby Xu by his real name while hallucinating. So they DO know each other!!! :O

And THAT'S when they end the episode??? NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

Gah!!!!!

Okay, okay. I'm calm.

So, what have I learned: 5 lakes alliance can't be trusted. A-hole guy is a complete jerk. AND SMIRKY XING KNEW BABY XU WHEN HE WAS A KID!!! Also, side note, I miss my purple queen :(

Goals for the next episodes: Find out how they know each other!!! Also, why doesn't Baby Xu recognize Smirky Xing? Is he also disguised? I still need to work on the name chart thing, because there's new characters showing up in every episode and I'm so lost.

#word of honor #1st watch insta thoughts #word of honor ep 05 #smirklord

[joe-maristopher]

«WandaVision»: 4. WHAT THE...

Place to scream: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!

Not the episode, but a bomb! It's so good, on many levels. I'm very impressed, and I really laughed a lot. And then... and then... In short, as I meowed on Twitter, THAT SCENE traumatized me again, and if you look on reddit, you will find people went crazy with this one, too. Oh, we know what might figure in our nightmares from now on!

I've breathed quietly long enough to talk about the episode.

To begin with, we were given a break, brought out for a while from all the surreal stuff that surrounded us for three episodes... and immediately out noses were poked in the flashback. The dusted people return, and the panic rises, and returned clearly don't understand what happened with them. [I still like the theory: everyone dusted went to the Soul Stone's world, they just don't remember that.] Did you wanted to see the people's reaction to their loved ones and lost ones’ comeback, after so many years, in Endgame? I did.

The world of MCU has become clearer and nicer, because movies can't cover EVERYTHING, and then, tv shows comes to rescue. That is not a complain, this is a statement of fact. I was glad to see how well Marvel intertwined the emotionally tense moment,that takes place in the hospital (the hospital is a home for both, joy and suffering, beautiful choice for location), with Monica, additions to her personal story, and how, in the end, she met our wonderful unusual family.

Monica is shot beautifully, I loved every scene with her.

However, if I were her, I wouldn't touch the force field without gloves. Seriously, who does that? Who puts their hands in strange substances?

We were not left without a comic reference. In New Jersey, Wanda and Vision lived together (I don't remember mentioning it earlier).

Jimmy and Darcy (sh-sh-shipped! Just look at them!), perhaps, it's us, the audience. Our spirit animals, because their astonishment is astonishment of the community, and everything that we were questioning — they ask too, out loud, and also try to understand. Darcy's surprise at the baby boom is funny.

I wonder, what would Darcy and Jimmy would respond to Bettany's [relatively] recent remark about the Vision's private parts... Lol.

Laughter is laughter, but our agent and the doctor did a good job, and we check the boxes next to the confirmed facts:

— People are missing, and in Wanda's world they have a role to play. [You don't want to play the bitch? No one asking your wishes, dear!]

— Jimmy and Darcy started to identify the missing, but they don't know Agnes yet.

— You can call out to Wanda on the radio. [But she won't like it.]

— It was a drone!

— What goes into Wanda's world adapts to the Wanda's reality. Yes, we knew it. I wonder, is there a chance of recovery? The wire from agent/dude with the bees remained coloured, although it was outside of Wanda's world.

The moment of glitches (rewinding reality) our friends did not understand, at this point we know more than they do. It's a small thing, but it's nice. And they didn't see the ad? Otherwise, why did Darcy and Jimmy decide that the mention of Ultron was the first reference to reality? Well, guys, didn't the toaster, soap, and watch remind you of anything?

And what, what for God's sake, tell me, Marvel, is going on in Westview when the sitcom series ends? What the spies on Wanda and Vision don't know? There must be something there!

And... how do I say it? Did creepy time recorded for Darcy and Jimmy? Did they saw it? Or will?

Creepy time. Marvel presents: Marvel-Zombies!

This is, of course, the easy reference to the Gray Vision, but you know, when he stood in the shade, and then came out like this - I involuntarily shuddered. I love him very much, and his injuries and deaths in the Infinity War affected me greatly, I was very worried. I remember my emotions while watching Infinity War and forever will, and I can say that on my tattoo, where is my dear kitty (Visenya, she passed away) is painted, surrounded by Infinity Stones, she is holding Mind Stone in her paws for purpose. This is my personal reference.

And here it is.

There are two working versions. First, easy:

Wanda lost control of her emotions after deporting Monica, and "remembered" what Vision was like the last time she saw the real him.

The second one is hardcore.

— HE'S A ZOMBIE. WANDA PLAYS NECROMANCY AND "FORCES" HIM TO BE ALIVE. Wanda, put your beloved’s body back in its place.

Sorry for the caps lock, but it is terrific and horrible if it is true (but Marvel doesn't have balls fro that, clearly.). Marvel prove they don't have balls again, if someone else is responsible for the whole mess, not Wanda.

Vision, by the way, returned to his normal colour, and suspected something, it was visible on the face. But this time he decided not to ask. Let him carry the children more often, it's so sweet.

And again, I fear that Wanda will kill him again at the end of the season. By accident or on purpose, but I'm worried.

Now that Monica has returned with the proper set of limbs and other organs, i mean. she is alive and unharmed, I bet now — Wanda will be visited by one of our friends. Maybe Jimmy would watch out, but Darcy would have the guts to go and figure it out for herself, either by finding Vision and telling him some amazing news, or by meeting Agnes and finding out something scary. I have another one theory: Vision will contact with Darcy and Jimmy.

P. S. Somebody give Darcy a coffee.

P.S.S. Marvel, please, don't kill Vision again.

#wandavision #disney+ #marvel #marvel comics #scarlet vision #wanda maximoff #vision #darcy lewis #jimmy #scarlet witch #paul bettany #elizabeth olsen #kat dennings #theory #mcu