#I WILL PUT MORE STUFF IN THE LIVEBLOG LATER BUT man that really will make me lose my mind THE SCENE AT THE END I GRRRRRRRR GRRR
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Dragon Ball Super Movie 2: Super Hero (1/5)
Finally, finally, it's time to talk about Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. I've been waiting a long time to do this. First I had to wait for the movie to come out, then I had to wait a while for the rest of the fandom to go see it so I wouldn't spoil anything, then I had to wait for the DVD release so I could take screenshots, and by the time I was ready to do that, I was waist-deep in the 2023 Dragon Ball Apocrypha Liveblog. So the DVD has been sitting on my table for months waiting for me to get to this point, and now I'm finally here.
It's probably just as well, since blogging about the other stuff has helped me figure out how to tackle this movie. Like a rhinocerous sandwich, this thing is pretty big and dense, and I'm not really sure where to begin, and now Tumblr only lets me put 30 images in each post, so I have to think ahead a little. So I'm going to split this up into five installments and hopefully that will give me the room I need.
Super Hero opens with a flashback/recap focusing on the Red Ribbon Army. Real quick: the Red Ribbon Army was a mercenary group that dominated much of the world, until their hunt for the Dragon Balls put them into conflict with Son Goku, who destroyed their headquarters in Age 750. Seventeen years later, the Red Ribbon scientist Dr. Gero launched a campaign of revenge, using several cyborgs and androids of his own design. Gero failed, but his final experiment, Cell, managed to travel back in time from the future, where he nearly destroyed the whole world before Goku's son Gohan defeated him.
If you're a Dragon Ball fan, you probably already knew all of that, but what this movie reveals is that the Red Ribbon Army still lives on through its parent organization, the Red Pharmaceutical Company. When Commander Red died, his son Magenta inherited control over RPC, and he's been building up funds ever since, hoping to restore the Red Ribbon Army to its former glory. From behind the scenes, it was RPC that financed Dr. Gero's cybernetics research, but with Gero's death, there was really nothing more Magenta could do.
And that's what I really love about this shot of Magenta looking at a scale model of the old RR HQ. His father ran the Army from the real thing, but Magenta can't build a new one because Goku would just wreck it like he did before, and he can't beat Goku because Dr. Gero was the only one smart enough to build android warriors to kill that guy, and Gero's dead now. Magenta ought to be satisfied running the RPC, but what he really wants to do is rule the world, and he can't. Without Gero, the closest he can come to that dream is hanging around in this private little war museum he seems to have, and he probably can't even show it to anyone since it would expose the RPC's secret.
But then Magenta learned of Dr. Gero's grandson, Hedo. The movie opens with Magenta's right-hand-man, Carmine, giving a briefing on Hedo, so I assume Carmine was the one who discovered him. Better throw up the Carmine screenshot...
Man, these look great. Unfortunately only the bad guys seem to get them. Would have been neat if they made one for Goku or whatever. Yeah, everyone knows who Goku is, but who cares? I want to see an obnoxious still with his name in big letters.
This movie is chocked full with little gags and Easter eggs and such, so there's a lot to cover. Part of the reason for this is that the first twenty minutes of the movie is really heavy on exposition. The plot isn't all that complicated. The bad guys want to make some evil robots to kill the good guys, but to get there we have to explain who the bad guys are and how they joined forces, which takes a while. So there's a lot of visual things happening while they talk. For example, in this scene where Carmine has an overproduced powerpoint presentation playing while he explains who Dr. Hedo is. While he talks, Magenta has some sort of difficulty with hot beverages.
And while Carmine's video plays, we see Dr. Gero's family tree, including his wife, Vomi, and his son, Gevo. This is the first direct appearance of either character, although we've known about Gevo for some time. Several years ago, Akira Toriyama did an interview where he explained that Dr. Gero had a son in the Red Ribbon Army, and that son was killed during the battle with Goku, and so Gero modeled Android 16 after him. In the video game Dragon Ball Fighterz, we meet Android 21, who looks a lot like the image of Vomi in Carmine's video. I forget how and when these details were established, but the idea seems to be that Gero modeled #21 after his wife.
So does this mean Hedo is the son of Gevo? No, Gero had a second son, and that was Hedo's father. Hedo's parents died during his childhood, and he then went on to become a great scholar, earning his doctorate by age 14.
Today, Dr. Hedo is 24, and he's in prison, because he's a little too smart for his own good. Recently, he dug up some corpses and turned them into primitive androids, then he got them jobs at a convenience store to earn money for Hedo's research. I'm not exactly sure which laws were broken here, but it was enough to put him in jail. In the dub, Magenta observes that Hedo would have made more money with less fuss if he had simply robbed the store.
But Magenta doesn't care if Hedo is a little goofy. His talent for cybernetics is even greater than Dr. Gero's, which is pretty scary considering how close Gero came to destroying the Earth. Magenta needs those talents if he's ever going to bring back the Red Ribbon Army, so he waits three months for Hedo to get released from prison, then swings by to offer him a lift. To Magent's surprise, Hedo already knows who he is and has a pretty good guess as to what he wants.
This is because Hedo's been tracking Carmine with a surveillance device. It looks similar to the ones Dr. Gero used to study the Z-Fighters and collect genetic samples for Cell's creation. The difference is that Hedo claims it's a cyborg he built from a live bee. Maybe I shouldn't take this too literally, but it sure sounds like Hedo vivisected a bee in his prison cell and installed cameras and robot parts into its body. And for all I know, Gero did the same thing to make all of his spy robots, but I always assumed they were purely mechanical. Anyway, Carmine's been monitoring Hedo for a while now, driving by the prison yard whenever Hedo's out there, and Carmine's limo has a dome in the roof for his pompadour, so it was conspicuous enough for Hedo to notice. He built the bee, then had it trail Carmine until he found out who he was working for.
And the bee also gives us a great shot from behind Magenta's desk, where he has two framed photos. One is his dad, Commander Red, while the other is Colonel Violet. So we pretty much have to assume Violet is his mom, right? Kind of wild that Red and Violet were a thing, considering that one of the last times we saw Violet was when she looted the Red Ribbon vault during Goku's attack on their HQ. And she even did it in full view of the security cameras, probably knowing that Red would be watching.
So I wonder what Magenta and Violet's relationship must have been like? Is she still alive? Does Magenta know about her betrayal? How could he not? And considering how devoted he is to his father's dreams, how could he let her treason slide? Or maybe he recognizes that Red was a bad leader, and he means to succeed where Red failed. It's interesting stuff, that's all I'm trying to say.
Anyway, Hedo isn't too impressed with Magenta, but he has snacks, so Hedo gets in the car. Magenta asks if he got picked on during his prison sentence, and Hedo says everyone who gave him a trouble would always meet with "mysterious deaths". That column of black smoke behind them is the prison, by the way. The other inmates (and probably some guards) were chewing out Hedo as he left, so Hedo tossed a bomb inside as a final parting shot.
Magenta tries to sweet-talk Hedo by explaining their family connections. Gero once worked for Red, then Magenta inherited the RPC and continued to fund Gero's research. But Hedo isn't moved, since he never met his grandfather, and Hedo's parents hated Gero for his association with the Red Ribbon.
More importantly (to Hedo), he finds the Red Ribbon Army unappealing, because they resemble villains, while Hedo is a connoisseur of superheroes. That's why he's wearing the purple bodysuit, by the way. From what I can tell, Hedo's a fan of a TV show or something that features a character in a similar outfit.
So if Hedo's all into heroes, why did he... you know... desecrate those graves? I'm pretty sure that contradiction is the point of the character. He likes certain genres of entertainment, and he likes and identifies with heroic characters and their exploits, but he seems pretty much devoid of morals himself. He's like a Star Wars fan who loves the Jedi but has no qualms about harassing people who liked Episode VIII. He's one of those... oh, what's the word?
Asshole. Yeah, Hedo's an asshole.
So now Magenta has to convince Hedo that he's not an asshole, which is pretty stupid since they're clearly both assholes. Hedo just wants Magenta to pretend his asshole-ery is the same flavor as his own. So Magneta weaves this whole tale of how he wants to use his power and wealth to improve the world and stamp out evil. While he says all of this, Carmine cuts off the car ahead of him for driving too slow. But it's not just any civilian he did this to...
It's Janet! We'll meet Janet later on, but she gets a cameo here at the start of the movie, which is awesome to spot when you rewatch it. Fuck you, Carmine, for passing on the right and scaring Janet. Carmine doesn't had a big impact on the movie's plot, but he does generate nuclear heel heat simply because the things he does are very obnoxious. One thing I have to respect is that he's the one bad guy who doesn't try to rationalize or disguise his villainy. Carmine's a prick and he doesn't care who knows it.
For example, even after Magenta explains how he's a "champion of justice", and raises his offer to one billion zeni per android, Hedo still isn't convinced, so Carmine brandishes a gun just to make it clear that they won't take 'no' for an answer. Magenta may haggle, but Carmine is too direct for that.
So Hedo accepts Magenta's offer, but not because of the gun, since he enhanced his body to make it bulletproof some time ago. Also, his cyber-bee is armed with a toxic venom so deadly that it can kill any biological life with a single sting. So Carmine's threats are useless. Hedo is only taking the job because he's fascinated by the challenge of creating the ultimate android with an unlimited budget.
So he asks for background on Magneta's enemy, and Magenta explains that it wasn't Mr. Satan who defeated Cell at the Cell Games. He's part of the "organization", but the real ringleader is Bulma of the Capsule Corporation. Magenta says that her confederates appear to be aliens, which explains how Capsule Corp. got the technology for miniaturization and spaceflight. I'm not sure how much of this Magenta actually believes, and how much is a spin he's putting on things to make Dragon Team look like a gang of villains.
Magenta says that Capsule Corp is collaborating with aliens to pacify the Earth, then subjugate it for colonization. Hedo finds this hard to believe, until Magenta shows him footage of Future Trunks killing Mecha-Frieza. I'm not sure how he could have gotten that footage, unless it was recorded by Gero's spy robots.
In this twisted scenario, Gero created Cell to take the fight to Bulma's "organization", but he just couldn't get the job done. 17 and 18 turned against Gero, and Dragon Team was just too powerful that day. Hedo asks if Bulma is an alien, and Magenta's like "sure, why not?"
Then Hedo eats his Oreo all weird. Like, who does this? He takes apart the cookie, which is pretty standard, then he uses the one side to scrape the cream off the other, and he eats this part. Why? You already had a cookie with cream filling on it! This is just a duplication of effort!
The absolute best way to eat an Oreo is to dunk it in milk until it gets so soggy that it almost falls apart. When I was a kid I designed a device that would allow you to immerse the entire cookie in milk for maximum sogification without having to get your fingers wet. In hindsight, this was a stupid idea, because you can just do that with a spoon.
All this talk of alien conspiracies and Cell's heroic last stand get Hedo fired up, and he pulls up the hood of his costume and declares that the world needs a hero to design the ultimate android. I mean, he just got done saying he didn't buy into Magenta's good guy bit, but he does buy into his own good guy bit, and Magenta's story seems to suit this. For Hedo, it's less about being a hero and more about playing a hero. Magenta has created the role, and Hedo is eager to fill it.
And they finally arrive at a Red Ribbon base out in the middle of nowhere. Then the movie flashes forward to six months later, so I guess this a good place to sign off. Next time, we'll get into Piccolo and Gohan, and see what they're up to.
#dragon ball#2023dbapocryphaliveblog#dragon ball super#dragon ball super super hero#magenta#carmine#dr hedo#janet#bulma#commander red#colonel violet#gevo#vomi#dr gero
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Asks Compilation 23/10
Done and done. I'm surprised I didn't already have a tag for them, to be honest!
Oh, fun! I always wonder if people are reading for the first time along with me. I'm sure you've overtaken me already by now!
I don't think I'd have as much fun with the blog if it was less blind. Even the knowledge that the trolls existed was enough to heavily influence my theories.
Aren't they thirteen?
Granted, we don't know if trolls mature at the same rate as humans, but they certainly seem to be in that age range to me.
Nepeta, resident matchmaker, seems unsure about the current status of the Sollux/Aradia relationship, but she'd definitely drawn a heart there before. Plus, Aradia immediately identified the '8oyfriend' as Sollux, so there is something going on with them.
If it does, and he did, then that's pretty clever - but unfortunately for him, it's probably futile. There are surely a million other ways she could manipulate his desires.
I know Homestuck is controversial, but I always had the vague idea that, like Undertale, its reputation had a lot more to do with the fandom than the property itself.
I'm surprised there's that many people who say the comic is bad. The comic is great. Even if, worst-case-scenario, it jumps the shark on the very next page, there's still so much to love.
I guess this is a good explanation for why his name is so close to Lord British - thus, their similar invincibility schticks really are coincidental.
The former works well - although, I've just noticed on reread that he hasn't actually referred to himself as a doctor. He's just 'Doc'.
That said, I have reason to believe that he is, in fact, a real doctor.
Maybe he really is a gambling man.
Well, Terezi is referencing his comic before Earth even exists...
So it's like the SBaHJifier gag, but for the whole comic?
That sounds ambitious, but interesting, especially if it's doing everything you say it is. Any fanwork that people think was written by Hussie must be something special.
It's fun, getting both of these messages in the same week. Glad you're enjoying it!
Yeah, I didn't consider Equius as an option, back when Aradia was talking about this. I don't think I'd have picked him at the time, though.
Both Equius and Vriska convinced themselves that they had an arrangement with Aradia.
In retrospect, her own statement - which came after the two above - was, indeed, deliberately vague. It's supposed to make you wonder which of the two options she was talking about. As far as I can tell, there was no reason to assume it couldn't be Vriska - she'd even told Karkat that she was going to be the 'real leader', so we knew she was planning a power grab.
Anyway, I defaulted to her, since she'd talked about her co-leader arrangement only a couple of pages beforehand. I don't think I even remembered Equius was an option until he spoke to her later. Can't catch 'em all!
Pop! Team! Nepic!
Thank you! Yeah, Vriska's attitude is completely understandable at this point. Would she really have survived if she wasn't cruel?
I was skeptical about that line initially - but Vriska honestly doesn't seem to be much of a liar, so I think part of her really did see Aradia as a friend.
I personally doubt Aradia ever felt anything positive towards Vriska - she's a blue-blood, after all, a hateful sn0b - but that doesn't stop them being friends. After all, the same could be said about Karkat, towards Gamzee. Trolls just seem to see friendships differently.
I try to avoid queueing stuff - gotta put the live in 'liveblog', after all!
There are occasional exceptions, though. For example, if I answer a lot of (non-compiled) asks at once, and don't want to fill up people's dashboards, I might queue them to space them out a little - but never more than an hour or so in advance.
Really, the answer to your question is 'neither', since I don't have a schedule. Lately, I've been posting about four days a week, and each liveblog session will last for two to four posts - but that's all subject to change, depending on my mood, my energy levels, random life stuff and, frankly, the phase of the moon. Properly scheduling this blog has proved impossible, so I'm just embracing it at this point.
If there's one thing that Aradia and Vriska can agree on, it's that an Equius-made arm is good for only one thing - rippin' out hearts!
Sorry - no breaks longer than a week? Since Act 1?
I suppose if your website pays your rent, you don't really need a day job - but still, I'm surprised that no life stuff got in the way in all that time. Hell, it's already happened to me - and this comic is surely way easier to analyze than it is to write!
Well, I'm only on 2300 now, so I haven't seen much!
I'm just curious as to why he's seeking out Karkat, specifically. Jack seems to work independently, not taking orders from his Queen - so what's motivating him, this early in the game?
No reason it can't be both, right? This is probably one of the most emotionally intense things to happen to her since her death, and it just so happens to coincide with her 'resurrection'. Frankly, I'd have been more surprised if she didn't lose her shit.
Also - damn, I didn't notice he was mirroring her '0k' catchphrase.
No, Equius. No one was 0k with that.
Welcome! You can thank a few of my readers for helping me optimize my tagging system, too. I think it was @krixwell who first suggested I add a tag which included asks!
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Ehhmmm HI EVERYONE !!!! so this is very inspired by @kafus's Pokémon liveblogging n their various playthroughs and its been so fun to follow, and it gave me the inspiration to pick up a new playthrough - or TWO PLAYTHROUGHS !!!
i realized its been forever since ive actually played FireRed LeafGreen and that ive never done it w. the help of save editing to add eg. Rare Candies for grinding. but i also realized that ive never actually played the Gen 1 Pokémon games....so i decided to do both !!!!
im doing a kinda-sorta Nuzlocke too, just to try out different Pokémon and get myself to rotate between them, but I am also moreso trying to use funny stuff more than minmaxxing for strategy. Here's my Pokémon Red team for instance!!
Yes that's Marcel the traded Mr. Mimel!! I got an Abra as my first encounter and realized that using Alakazam would just be steamrolling people with a big Special number, so I boxed it for later to use Gen 1 Mr. Mime for a while. I've rotated some of these members in and out with others in the box, mostly because the movepools are so fascinatingly terrible ^^; Like - I wanted to use Nidoking because his Gen 1 sprites are absolutely incredible, and you can get him before even the second gym from Mt. Moon's Moon Stones, but........he doesn't get Double Kick unless you get Nidorino to like Level 47?? and Nidoking misses out on Thrash unless you level him up early.
Clefable has been the absolute QUEEN of the run though, like !!! i love her silly sprite in this game so so so much, and the well-rounded stats paired with Sing make them a really good Pokémon to use in pretty much any situation. its funny how the lack of many good moves means that mediocre moves like Growl or Water Gun end up feeling useful just for being options at all...I've had some fun with the mediocre TMs given out too, like giving Bide to my Ivysaur to utilize the Leech Seed draining effect as best as possible in a sort of quirky strategy. Though on the flipside I had to give up on using Mankey entirely after realizing it just gets NOTHING in terms of moves - before Yellow it literally doesn't learn any Fighting type moves by leveling up other than Seismic Toss (which doesnt count), and the only one it gets by TM is Submission which is.....nooot good :T
Anyhow - Here's a terrible img of my FRLG team! I'm out of Rock Tunnel and in Celadon in this playthrough wheras the RBY playthrough is still not through the tunnel yet :( BUT that means that I've gotten a lot more silly goobers in this run. Even though my Mankey died here before I could use it for anything funny.....i really like Primape's design so im kinda sad I've never gotten to use it lol
ANYWAY ANYWAY look at my fucking boy. look at my Fungler. look at my little man. he has 20 diseases and he sucks ass. i love him.
i played a Gen 3 fangame a while ago that gave you access to Fury Cutter as a TM and a Paras really early on, and the gears got grinding in my head to force sleep with Spore and then chain a Fury Cutter combo, and the affection for that silly strat has stuck with me and made me kind of adore Parasect by extension. look at my fucking guy he sucks so much!!! but he puts people to sleep really well and has cool bug claws. i love his terrible movepool and having to give him Secret Power to do any damage. lol .
it is funny to play these older games where the movepools sucked ass, even as deep in as Gen 3 . so you have to really stretch for ideas on how to use mons but it feels really fun when you make something sorta click? like this Doduo Rage -> Rest -> Chesto set, it doesn't get Swords Dance nor the infinitely funnier Acupressure but this is kinda just a shittier funnier version of that? also Tri Attack being physical feels like it was made just for Dodrio. i love my bird.
im still kinda miffed at how many things just sorta suck in Kanto though. like so many routes early on are just Rattata/Pidgey/Spearow/Ekans while the Safari Zone alone has like 7 Pokémon you can only find there, the distribution feels so strange. and of course the whole Game Corner garbage, i want to use Hyper Beam in Gen 1 because of how cool its Gen 1 exclusive quirks are but its a Game Corner exclusive reward >:((( im gonna have to see if i can save edit gambling coins into the game or what.
BUT im having a lot of fun !! its so silly seeing all the Gen 1 sprites ingame for the first time. the Gen 1iness of it all. not even being able to fuckin check how strong moves are or how much accuracy they have. or even sort the order of moves outside of battles. your battle items menu just opens up your entire bag. such a silly fuckin mess of a game. i love it .
(also feel free to ask about any of the nicknames i have answers for like half of them)
#mel alphabet soup#mel goes to kanto#<- the tag for these playthrus#idk if ill post frequently i kinda just wanted to show off my sillies :3#i hope i can use Fungler to the very end i lov Parasect i love him#justice for Parasect i want him to be big and strong buff my little guy pls#pokemon#pokemon rby#pokemon frlg#pokemon gen 1#pokemon gen 3#pokemon games#nuzlocke#pokemon nuzlocke#game boy#gba#game boy advance#nintendo 3ds
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Liveblogging TMA - Season 2 - MAG 62-66
"The End, of course."
FIRST EDITION :
... Holy fuck, it's a Mary Keay's statement.
~~~~~~~~~~
I. I can't. Oh my god, I can't.
This was SO much.
Ok, so first of all, Leitner didn't make the Leitners. That is good to know, I was confused as to why they were called that if he didn't make them, but wondered how he could've if they existed before the guy was born. Turns out he was just a collector, which, fair enough.
Mary Keay was as disturbing as a child as she was as an adult, and I am guessing that her "death" was her trying "pretty good idea" to find the last secret of the book in her possession, considering she'd die at the end of her son later that year. And it, most apparently, worked.
That particular book wasn't ever a Leitner in a general sense, as she never gave it to Leitner to put it in his library, but considering the lack of terms for it, I guess we just have to call it that.
Now, onto the whole "The End" ordeal. Gertrude asked Mary who's book it was, which means that the book either belonged or reflected an oddity. But rather than an actual name or anything of the sort, the answer was a concept. "The End".
Is that the case for every oddities we met ? Are they all a ... Reflection of a bigger concept ?
I can't even start to imagine what they are, but there are several. Based on the description of Rosa Meyer on her brother's work on "outer cults" that :
"Seemed to focus on holy beings or concepts completely apart from what would be considered normal religious practice."
Which is. Interesting.
Mary Keay talked as if there were plenty of those, and as if most people aware of them restricted themselves to one only, while she preferred to keep herself open to everything. To "keep her portfolio open".
So that means that The Institute, or at least The Archive is under one such concept. The one "beholding" things. But only the one, compared to Mary who was interested in all of them.
I am assuming that the spiders and the stranger are part of the same thing too, due to the table, I am guessing ? Unless the stranger was bound to the table by the spiders but came from another concept. It would explain its resentment over the table and its web.
That the ones with liminal spaces where you're all alone to the point of madness are also part of the same whole.
The ones with cannibalism invloved probably are too, and maybe even the one from "Killing Floor", as it didn't really fit the lonely liminal spaces but rather people as food.
Of course, the ones with people burning, diseases, insects and all that fun stuff that makes me gag are too.
And as for "The End", which is the only concept who's official name we've got, the episodes where we have met it, in my opinion anyway, are :
"Anglerfish"
"The Piper"
"Vampire Killer"
"Dreamer"
"Piecemeal" (?)
"Skintight"
"Cheating Death"
"Boatswain's Call" (?)
"Section 31"
"Still Life"
"Children of the Night"
I could be wrong, obviously, but those are the episodes that makes me think of when talking about the concept of "The End". I am still on the fence on whether or not spiders are a part of that, or something else entirely, so i haven't really mentionned them here.
I'll probably do this each time we encounter such concepts, not gonna lie. This is absolutely enthralling. The implications of it all, that the oddities, the things with power in the world are man made concept made monstrous and taken form, this is absolutely amazing.
A little bit more on the Keays, I guess that I have been a little too harsh with Gerard. He's not really a good person, but his mother being how she is, I am surprised he still managed to grow up into someone willing to help others, and to take actions when he thinks his mother's obsession with something is probably harmful.
Though I have absolutely no doubt that he did the ritual on his mother as she probably wanted him to. That probably left some scars, good thing that he didn't give her more Leitners, god knows what would've happened otherwise. Considering the tattoos, I think he's more into the Institute's concept than the seemingly holistic views of his mother.
I wonder what concept "Ex Altiora" comes from. If Mike's lightning oddity that was pursuing him was from another one before being trapped into the book.
Maybe the book comes from the same concept Michael comes from ? It would explain why he'd have this name, if the concept possesses someone inside it, then surely he'd be able to use them, right ?
Mh.
Gertrude as always was heavily entertaining. I really love her sass, and the barely disguised contempt she has for Mary that she hides behind a facade of politeness. Old women. Those are viscious. Very entertaining dynamic right there, I'd almost ship them myself.
Supplemental, Gertrude had several hiding places and I am so intrigued about where else she hid informations. Love to see Jonathan walk into his predecessor's footsteps, but I'd rather they don't end up on the same finish line.
I wonder what the skin page had on it. And what the key opens.
THE END OF THE TUNNEL :
"And then I heard it: the third set of breathing."
More darkness, more Smirke, and more Jonathan doing my job. The concept of the darkness has got another episode to add to the list and I am getting more and more intrigued by whetever the fuck the churches in this story have got going on. Have we seen one church that doesn't end up with someone dead ? Genuine question.
Supplemental, Melanie is back and I am very happy about it, especially more so due to the fact that she sees that the stranger isn't Sasha and that she's going to stay there for a while, thank fucking god. I am getting really antsy about Not-Sasha and whatever she's doing, so I am freaking out the longer she stays there.
Also, I refuse to accept that Sasha is dead until we see her rotten body.
BURIAL RITES :
"I cannot imagine what they would have thought of a person who could not die.
I can imagine what they would have done to them."
Oh, this was awful.
Actually, I wonder if the Deaths actually have anything to do with "The End". Because it is quite obvious that there is no end for them, right ?
But just the idea of someone trapped in their mummified bodies for several centuries, waiting to die, is just heartbreaking.
Is it the end to expect for Nathaniel Thorp ? I am pretty sure he was the person to whom the blood used in "Blood Bag" belonged to, and the blood showed signs of several diseases and such. And considering how the person who was probably him in "Section 31" acted, I think he's already getting there.
Did Nathaniel gets stuck working for another concept, in the hopes of moving away from the grasp of the one that controls his life and his death ?
I guess when you are desperate, you'd be willing to work with anything in the hopes of ever getting what you want.
Supplemental, Jonathan couldn't keep patient and went to see Basira. I am glad to know that she's at least worried for him, though I do wonder if she even knows the things that are on the tape. I don't think Jon talked about all the crimes and horrors presented in them, otherwise she'd probably try harder herself.
At least, she's self aware enough to realize how bad they suck at being sneaky. I am almost sorry for them.
BINARY :
"Your mind is all you are, there’s no backup, or you know, reset, If it goes."
... Welp. Guess I got another fear to add to my list. Somehow, this one wasn't one that I ever thought about, the "mind being trapped into a computer" thing, but it sounds absolutely horrifying.
To be honnest, I have been very much interested on the effects of the supernatural on oddities and vice versa, and hearing Tessa certainly helped to put many things in perspective. But then, I have to wonder what the difference between a computer and the tapes are. Maybe how broad the utilisation is for one ?
A computer only has as much as it does because of how many things are crammed in very rigid, very solid lines of codes, something that a tape recorder doesn't have ? Is it because of the lack of rigidity that this happens ? I don't know.
I am glad he still manages to think, even in his paranoia, and found ways to get access to Gertude's computer.
Supplemental, Tim finally said his piece, directly to Jon's face, which is. Good. And Jon explained himself somewhat, in a way that Tim managed to understand, if not entirely, but that too is good. They can't trust each other and, at this point, Tim barely even like Jon, but they can trust that there's something behind the scene and that it makes them unable to rekinddle any kind of bond between them until they go to the bottom of it.
Still, I do feel sorry for Tim. He sounds like the type of guy to have always been surrounded and well liked by his peer, so being thrust into situations where he feels all alone must be very hard for him indeed. I wonder what Not-Sasha did though. Is it just because of how dodgy she is ?
Whatever force is behind the Archive, it doesn't want anyone to leave it. But it also didn't manage to protect Sasha, or communicate that something is wrong, either. I guess it is just a neutral being.
I do hope things will get better soon though. I really want to see Tim and Jon being friends.
HELD IN CUSTOMS :
... Oh great. Salesa is back.
~~~~~~~~~~
"He drugged me. Obviously he drugged me, that’s the only explanation that makes sense."
And he's as shady as usual. Actually, I'd even say twice as more so, because a Lukas was involved. You know, the one sacrificing crew mates to the spirit of the sea or whatever.
I wonder what concept this box belongs to. The one isolating people ?
Nothing much to say about this one, though I did feel sorry for the man. What a life. But still, wasn't really a favourite, but wasn't so bad, the claustrophobic elements were pretty well handdled I liked it !
Supplemental, Jon has finally reviewed the computer and it finally clicked for him that Gertrude was kind of ... Metal. Like, I absolutely love her, but I would understand why someone would want her dead considering the property damages, and deaths and stuff. What was she trying to do with a Leitner ?
Could it be that the concept behind the Archive has one too ? Or artefacts, maybe ? Well, I guess the artefact was the mirror that got broken in "The Observer Effect", but maybe there are more, you know ? I wonder what they could do.
I wonder what the concept does at all, actually.
In "First Aid", Gerard said to the nurse that the "beholding" was better for her than the "lightless flame". We have established that the beholding is whatever behind the Archives, but what does it do exactly, except observing ? And why did Gerard phrase it this way ? Are there concepts that are better suited for everyone, more so than others ? Can he see which ones are best for who ? And what does beholding do anyway.
Does everyone who give statements partake in it ? Kind of like Nathalie said to Kathy in "Growing Dark" ?
The quote of the post will be it, actually :
"You’re a natural for Them. You’re worshipping as we speak"
End Liveblogging.
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Az liveblogs: Anthony Zimmer (Jerome Salle, 2005) ✨
This movie feels somehow more deranged than the American remake from the get go. The zipper thing and the cut after “I’d love some tea” is the best kind of visual comedy. I remember listening to John August talk about how a writer will make you trust them with the story just a couple of pages in, and this is a perfect example of it.
And I love how European it is too? Like, they cut all the action stuff and go full cloak and dagger. It’s a lot less showy and these differences never fail to make me giggle a little?
“It’s not my only luxury”. deranged. Just— deliciously deranged. Who the fuck wrote this. Wait a second I gotta—
Jerome Salle did, whoever he is. Kudos for him, boy can write good banter. The recursive lines were <3
Chiara is a whole mood.
It’s sweeter than The Tourist, too, even if visually it’s not as striking, it work so so well.
THE HOLDING MUSIC WAS GOLDEN. UGH. such a great idea aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah im loving this so much. Tho I will say nothing will really beat Johnny Depp in pajamas walking barefoot over the roofs of Venice.
And it’s interesting when you think that this one starts with a very clinical description of Zimmer and Chiara’s world (the danger, the deceit, etc), while The Tourist shows you through the more action-packed scene with Jolie’s Chiara. While both work very well and fit their respectives styles of filmmaking I like how by not preparing the audience with action from the get go, Anthony Zimmer kind of puts you in the shows of the dude when the mob comes knocking. It feels very sudden, because you haven’t seen anything like this before, like him. It’s a nice effect, and it works in favor of the final reveal, too.
He falls down the stairs— OH NY GOD THE PILLS THING. This is so good, so so niCe. This is such a creative movie ughhhhhh. It puts you a lot more in his space than The Tourist, which assumes more distance in order to present the action. This is fascinating JEKDKKDDNANJD
THEres a pARTY— DUDE COMES IN WITH TWO BOTTLES OF CHAMPGNE IM LAUGHING SO HARD WHATS GOING ON
The lighting in the hospital scene is garish af. Yikes. This entire sequence is just…? What in the hell?
« Qu’est-ce que vous comptez faire? »
« Je mettre un pansement. Je me coupé avec un ouvre-bouteille. »
I wish the lines were delivered in just a little bit less if a naturalistic way? This is too good to be so deadpan. Still great tho, but the tone strikes me as a lot more serious than I expected, I'm not used to it, I'm used to cartoonist American storytelling dammit.
Ooooooh this is good. The ellipsis of violence!!!! The way he never really shows you stuff!!!!! It reminded me of Refn talking about how violence is like sex is My Life Directed by Nicholas Winding Refn NDKXNDKDNSKSNKXKKX
This is so nice. I love how he forces the audience to do half the work. It's a lot more suspenseful and serious than the American version. It's still light, overall, but it doesn't reach the point of farce like Tourist does at times. Both movies strike a very weird tone. It's really a razor edge balance there. No wonder people don't like either of them.
I will say, tho, this story does benefit from the visual beauty and flashyness of American storytelling. And it did benefit from being remade 5 years later. It does a lot to build the Zimmer character without ever having to actually show you who he is etc etc.
The characters are so much less...? Idk, there's this quieter nature of things, they feel less obviously characterized. But it also feel a lot more like a flat out romance than The Tourist. Like. Everything is just [SPOILER] Zimmer trying to figure out if she'll still love him after the change. Like. It's a romantic drama dressed in flashy clothes that barely hide the true intention and I love it JDOXJSJ [END]
A well cut suit really does change a man doesn't it.
The greatest sin here is that they make Nice look kinda meh. Like, cmon you went all the way there, make it look prettttyyyyyyy the family walking around w some boogie boads dnflsnxkdkd it looks like my hometown I swear
This movie is like five hundreds times more entertaining when you watch it knowing what's the catch. Everytime he says "my wife" I giggle.
The interpol plot in the remake is sexier, I gotta say.
OH SHIT SJODDBJ ok I didn't remember that it was a love triangle. With 4 (?) people.
I just realized that this is like a French Thomas Crown Affair of sorts. More akin to the original than the '90s one hmm I so have a type HDKCJDK
WOW OH OKAY THATS WHERE THE MONEY WENT. Whole budget thrown into this shot and I would've done the same lmao
« Je suis là »
I AM GOING TO HAVE A STROKE. A FUCKING STROKE. THIS IS SO SWEET IT'S UNBEARABLE I NEED TO WATCH THIS FIVE HUNDRED TIME.
Aw hell yeah. Good. This is good. Sweet. I swear the "je suis là" scene will haunt me for years.
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adventure time wizard city liveblog
well here we go
my last adventure time liveblog, i havent actually done one of these in MANY years... probably not since 2014
this takes place at the same time as obsidian?
DID-- DID CHOOSE GOOSE JUST DIE
DID BUFO JUST KILL CHOOSE GOOSE
yeah i know that’s bufo, they only made it enormously obvious, tsk tsk
@spaceacepearl joked about us seeing choose goose get sent to hell but i diDNT EXPECT IT TO HAPPEN
This music is i assume by one of the many musical artists Adam Muto listed on twitter, it rocks. It’s not as hardcore as Obsidian’s intro, but it’s suitably chill for the scene.
“get offa my bus kid”
Those wizards in the left and far right groups appear to be new!
OH MY GOD--
HELP?????? NEW PROFILE PIC TIME
HAHAHAHAH
THE MUSICAL CON DID ME GOOD, I DID REALLY LOUD AUDIBLE LAUGHTER
i bet hanna and co had fun making these signs
my favourite is the cat with “FAMILIARS HAVE RIGHTS”
cadorka..... wow
We’re not even four minutes into the ep and peppermint butler has already killed someone in front of a large group of witnesses
“this smells of DARK MAGIC”
“yall kids know thats illegal right”
peps watches the other kids nod before later joining in, LOL
i cant believe pep started the great gum wars and got killed by golb
SOMEONE has been playing Overwatch...
i-- i still cant believe choose goose is fucking dead
how long was he stuck in hell for, or was that recent to together again after new death showed up
i have to admit im not a big fan of spader, too perfect, and not in that funny way either. i hope they give him some characteristics that make him stand out.
im getting flashbacks to OK KO and Owl House here...
Cadebra using music is a reference to Abracadaniel’s love of interpretetive dance in Play Date.
“they only laugh because youre different”
“i know”
“SO STOP BEING DIFFERENT”
oh my god it’s like talking to my own parents
cadebra is actually... a LOT like me, less in her hyperactivity but more in her nonchalant enthusiasm and almost acceptance of the inevitable bullying because it means more time in people’s consciousness
ahhh - it’s quietly revealed here that she is responsible and a skilled magician, she is just bored of magic! i like that she parents abracadaniel instead of being downtrodden by his ramblings.
PEP NO--- oh i see the problem, he hasn’t got his Bug Milk... sorry Martin Olsen fans, no Hunson today. At least we get one more Phil Face for the road!
candy people in their natural habitat
Ahhh that’s Doctor Calidoneus! The voice actor was at the recent Distant Lands panel alongside Pep and Blaine’s actors.
“pretty sure hes just trashcandy” - i like you, sassy antler lady
the mystery of how he gets clothes
and once again spader is proving to be the most irritating distant lands character of the lot, there is no subversion here. where is the subversion?
NANI
what is going on here? are pep and peppermint the same person or not? im sure they must be, but there is something going on here with peppermint butler’s soul being trapped in the body of his child self who hasn’t got the same memories.
OH, HYNDEN WALCH DID A NEW LINE yes this is what im here for, special over
peppermint butler cursed himself... of course he did - Shado was correct!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WHAT THE FUCK
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK
ROCK STUDENT, BLESSED ROCK STUDENT, WAS THAT POOR GUY WHO LOOKS LIKE A JAWBREAKER
love the reference to astral plane, of course pep cant astrally project because cursed pep is still inside of him
wow, blaine, wow
they have a crush
LITTLE DUDE! COLE SANCHEZ!
i love the dynamic between cadebra and abracadaniel, imo so far it’s the heart of the special. im not really gripped by peppermint butler’s school troubles. i imagine someone else probably will be but i want to run past that shit as far as possible.
TRDGFYGHJH
WE
WE MADE A PREDICTION THAT WAS JUST LIKE THIS
PEPPERMINT BUTLER GETTING TURNED INTO THE FOUR COMPONENTS OF PEPPER MINT BUTT LURE WAS IN THE WIZARD CITY PREDICTIONS ART DRAW THAT HASNT BEEN POSTED YET
ILL SHOW YOU WHEN NICK POSTS THE VIDEO and then ill tell you who made the prediction because i... think it was nick himself, insanity
who plagiarized finn’s signature???
turns out pep really DID take over wizard city!!!!
i love this band
i understand your pain peps
you probably have a bit too much in common with your mother, and i imagine it isn’t easy being turned into a kid and not being able to do stuff that came so easy. you’re disappointing yourself! (he’s literally disappointing himself)
I’m less than halfway through the special, what the fuck. I wasn’t wrong when I said Wizard City had a lot on its plate. It’s noit that I’ve been particularly gripped up to this point, though to be fair I didn’t pause at all during the other specials barring Obsidian.
that... that poor kid is still a rock
and then the preview happened and bufo casually revealed to the audience that, yes, he killed choose goose
i dont know whats happening with pep but it seems he needs to be exorcised of... pep. which is a shame. i hope they learn to coexist.
i have to say the background work in this special is really good! like, really damn good.
WH
WHAT
DID SPADER JUST DIE
IS THIS WHY PEOPLE THINK PEPBUT KILLED HIM
oh thats right - abracadaniel is cadebra’s uncle! this must be abracadniels sister. sorry, folks, he doesn’t fuck.
Where are they? Is this anywhere near Wizard City? It’s an unpopulated prewar wasteland.
THESE ARE JUST HUMANS
OF COURSE SHE WANTS TO PERFORM TO MILQUETOAST HUMANS
my child
is this an art style choice or did they get the people from that one studio to make this
HANNA FINALLY GETS TO FULFIL HER DREAM OF INSERTING KANEDA INTO ADVENTURE TIME
the red jacket he wears and his head pill shape is a big kaneda reference actually, which i suppose makes sense considering he’s a rival to our protagonist, but it’s a bit on the nose
bufo killed one of his own students? but why????
“MY UNCLE’S A COP”
“no one likes a rat”
i actually really like blaine, though im confused. did their VA change halfway through the special?
HOW NATURAL, NO WASTE, IT IS AN ENDLESS CHAIN
did doctor caledonius steal the trophy,,,?
EVIL SNAIL EVIL SNAIL
MONMSTER HUNJTER DISCOVERY NOISE, this time it’s a tetsucabra
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
I HAVE QUESTIONS
god i wish this is what this special was about, i miss adventure time
these remind me of the comics with their art style :) i wonder who designed them? the one on the right with pb and pep, in particular, very comics-y.
fdgfhgf because he’s like 500
“pep can be kind of a jerk but he wouldn’t kill anyone”
sorry, cadebra, i have news for you
is doctor calednoius the true villain? if bufo’s out of the picture, she MUST be,
ANTS
oh no, he might gbe stuck in wizard city :(
HELP
the writing on the wall...
SPADER LITERALLY FUCKING DIED OH YM JESUS CHRIST
PEPPERMINT BUTLER’S OWN CULT????
THIS IS JUST OK KO NOW
okay im not surprised all the teachers at wizard city are cultists in worship of peps, maybe they killed spader and bufo because they bullied peps T_T
wait no, they thought spader had the potential, but sadly not
HE FUCKING KILLED HIMSELF
sorry, i was distracted by the pretty dope fight sequence and now the special is over????
fucking jesse, hes probably at least partly responsible for the cult nonsense
This credits art is by Maya Petersen!!!! Holy shit it’s adorable!
LRETGFDRGTFGMHGFHFG
LEAF MAN
DO YOU THINK THEY PUT HIM IN RETROSPECTIVELY
DO YOU THINK MAYA PETERSEN DREW THIS AND ADAM PUT IT IN THE EP RETROSPECTIVELY
HE LIVES
MAYBE THIS IS WHY CHOOSE GOOSE WENT TO HELL
okay, it’s over :)
first thoughts out of the way: not a big fan of this special. it’s like watching a completely different show. it’s not got the PZSHAHH of the normal wizard city stuff and there weren’t a lot of funny jokes or even hearty moments in the thing.
it suffers from a lack of invested character interactions, much like BMO did. there was not a single main cast member in the whole thing! and like i said before, much of peppermint butler’s character in the show is based on his very sweet relationship to his mother, princess bubblegum, so when they showed a single (hilarious) photo of them together it made me sad we didn’t get any scenes with them together. it would have STOLEN this episode. and they teased the hunson golf photo, and death!!! and jake appeared in a photo T_T last jake appearance.
it also suffers because Peppermint Butler is clearly not himself, imo he was way more entertaining in the Together Again special, where we seem him back to his “normal” self.
i dont think peps being a dark wizard was something to “kill off” exactly. i wonder what was going on there? was that actually peps, or was that a spirit he cursed himself with based on himself? we at least know in the future he does become a dark wizard again, and even princess :) this special didn’t answer those questions but lol.
THE GOOD STUFF, because yes, there was a lot of good stuff!
God, I’m with Aracle and Maya on this - I LOVE Cadebra and her relationship to Pep. I wish she was even in more of this - I would love to watch the adventures of Cadebra and Pepbut in their first year of school, like in the end credits.
That, imo, is where the heart of the special lay - Peppermint Butler’s attempts to impress himself, versus Cadebra’s self acceptance and desire to follow her dreams of being a goofy goober, no matter what other people thought of her.
It turned out that Cadebra is a responsible student and family member. I really liked that. Her scenes with Abracadaniel were, somehow, my favourite in the entire special!
I like that theres a lot of cool magic towards the end of this special, and a lot of HORRIFYING DEATH. It wouldn’t be adventure time if you didn’t randomly kill off child characters. Poor Spader, I hated you but damn, what a grim fate.
I like that Bufo and Caledonius had this crush/hatred thing going on, but they were part of the same cult in the end.
I didn’t like the giant peps scene at the end, the monster was extremely milquetoast compared to the madness we usually get in AT. Obsidian, for example, had the awesome Larvo design. Nemesis had some INSANE dark magic!!!! I wish they drew more from that episode.
Considering how much Steve Little appears in this special, I do feel bad for Mace (little Peps). He said he would have really benefitted from coaching, but recieved none. He had to re-record his lines 3 times! Judging from his description of events, Wizard City was a hard time for him.
The wizard school did remind me, heavily, of both The Owl House and OK KO. Personally I was hoping AT would offer me something more insane, but I do love both of those shows, and I know Wizard City was on a really tight schedule.
I think they should have spent less time on the school bullying plot, and skipped straight to MURDER.
We did have a cold opening, not on par with Together Again’s at all, but damn!
I am wondering where I would put this in the watch list? I do think it should sit after Obsidian as the third special. The intro scene makes it clear this takes place at the same time as Obsidian!!!
Well, that was it, the last ep of AT for the next few years at least T_T
i think together again was the better finale, definitely. but wizard city feels pretty detached from AT for me, despite the familiar characters it tonally isn’t like the show other than the awesome brutal death scenes. I thought the last 11 minutes was easily the best in the special! Which, honestly, is how it should be, though I do wish it gripped me more. Maybe I’m just not the target audience for Wizard City? It feels like something I would find very compelling if I was a bit younger!
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August 28: 3x05 Is There In Truth No Beauty?
Several days later, coming back to write up these Star Trek notes. I feel like I never got to talk this episode through properly, or even think through it properly by myself, because mom went right into watching AHS on Thursday, and I was too tired to even sort through my thoughts and when we talked yesterday, it was… entirely about other things.
So, here at least are my liveblog thoughts, and maybe I’ll remember some more as I write.
Right off the bat, this is such a cool concept: the friendly alien Ambassador who no one can look at because his form is not fit for human eyes.
Love Spock’s silly looking little visor. Not sure I get why he’s wearing it right now, when the Ambassador is in his box, but okay.
Dr. Jones is so beautiful. I love her dress.
I’m sure Spock is thinking “If only all Ambassadors could be put into little boxes like this.”
Okay, Ambassador’s coming! Everybody quarantine!
Right, I JUST remembered the significance of the dress.
Spock has experience with mind links with other creatures—a lot of experience that ho. Is he thinking about the pleasure of connecting to Kirk, that “dynamic individual”?
“My life is here.” With the Captain???
I feel like this episode is implying, all but stating outright, that Spock is very good at mindlinking. Like maybe even more so than the average Vulcan. Which makes sense because he does it so often. And yet he still messes up with AOS!Kirk.
I love the effects for the Ambassador. I’m not even being sarcastic; I think they get across the experience of looking at him quite effectively.
Hmmm, some non-touch telepathy. I know Spock has a little of that. I guess it’s mostly him reacting to Miranda, though.
Gotta get a dig in at Dr. McCoy before he leaves lol. Spock, so predictable.
Kirk’s flirting is off the charts today omg. Tone it down man.
SCOTTY IN A KILT aw yeah.
She learned from the Vulcans how not to read thoughts. Exactly!! Their telepathy is such an underrated part of the whole Vulcan thing, including why they remain ‘emotionless.’
She’s so jealous of Spock.
Honestly this whole scene… there’s a lot going on here! I’m trying to pay attention to the Vulcan telepath stuff but the men won’t stop flirting at 11. Especially McCoy, laying it on extra thick.
She does hold her own very well, though.
A preference for beauty—one of our last prejudices.
“Sleep well.” So cute. (I’ve already forgotten but I’m pretty sure this is Kirk.)
“We’re all vulnerable in one way or another.” KIRK SHUT UP I LOVE YOU.
Girls don’t like guys, girls like Medusan ambassadors.
This guy is so jealous. I barely know who he is lol; this comes out of nowhere.
Interesting angle on the hallway shot. I feel like there are a lot of those in this ep, like these weirdly long shots of the hallways… Maybe I’m just not used to seeing them with one or no people in them.
Kirk and the squad. Work work fashion baby.
“Larry? Marvick? Why?” Okay that is some real Shatnerian inflection there.
SCOTTY FIGHT SCENE.
*Ship veers obviously*
And look at this weird-ass view of the bridge. Like what the hell, where is the camera? On the lift? It’s so disorienting!
Spock needs to fix some stuff, calls for his protégé Chekov, of course.
And this funky music. So bizarre.
WE’LL BE SAFE AT THE BOUNADIRES OF THE UNIVERSE. Drama queen
This is a nutty view, this “unknown void.” Like one would think beyond space there’s… just more space, not a Windows 98 screensaver.
Space time continuum?? They didn’t time travel (again), did they?
“He just simply died.” How convenient.
“An entertaining suggestion, Mr. Chekov, but not very helpful.” Honestly, I do think he’s entertained. Spock has grown so much over the course of the show.. like I know there was controversy with his IC-ness this season but in this case, I really do think it is growth. Compare this to the Corbomite Maneuver, where he had a sense of humor but it was… a little mean, a little arch. There’s a certain warmth to him now.
Her mind must be so engaged that she doesn’t notice the plan for Spock to meld with the Ambassador = Kirk will seduce her. Lol. Of course. Everyone’s favorite honeypot.
He has absolutely NO shame.
The man sure does love his flowers, though.
She’s never been to Earth. So she’s a human born on a colony, I guess? That’s such a throwaway line, but so interesting. Could that be part of how she’s telepathic?
Oh no! A thorn!
“Violent emotion is a kind of insanity.” Can I steal this?
Too ugly to bear or too beautiful to bear?
Let me spell it out for you: this is romantic. (Again, I’ve forgotten what this refers to, but I’m going to assume it’s something Kirk said.)
Lol Bones just dropping truth bombs. How did he know she was blind? Did he recognize the dress or does he have access to her files as the ship’s doctor?
And Kirk accepts it immediately. “Of course! It’s the only reasonable explanation as to why you weren’t attracted to me.”
The Ambassador is brought to the bridge and placed behind a covid wall, I mean, protective barrier.
And now, we meet the Ambassador for real.
“THAT’s Spock!” Bones is so happy. He’s really not comfortable with Spock being all… smiley and flirty. Or rather, someone in Spock’s body, I should say.
Kollos is VERY flirty. And he and Miranda have chemistry for sure. It’s weird, because I don’t get any sense of that between her and Spock (rightly so) but Spock as the Ambassador and it comes right out.
I love the characterization of him. The idea that the Medusans’ thoughts are supposed to be particularly nice to engage with…. I really see how that would be. He’s so soothing.
Kollos is enjoying his time in a human body, I think. Mostly. Not all of it. (I got a little teary at the part about loneliness, ngl.)
Time to go back? So soon?
Noooo the shield! It’s like forgetting your mask when you enter a building.
[Spock wails]
Honestly, even seeing the steps to the upper level of the bridge is really weir. Like, I’ve always known there are steps there… but I’ve never thought about what they look like.
Kirk is so skeptical about all of this. Spock is in danger and his brain immediately goes to the pessimistic scenarios—very unlike him!
He’s freaking out nervous.
“Are we supposed to wake him with a kiss?” Idk, it’s worth a try. Why doesn’t Kirk give it a go?
Does Kirk have a game plan with Miranda here, or is he just honestly freaking out?
…The answer is honestly freaking out, which is rather a disappointment.
Trippy.
Spock has a necklace version of the IDIC symbol this time.
Everyone’s exchanging all these highly formulaic, formal goodbyes and Kirk’s like “Peace.” Wow, really trying hard with that one. Still rattled, I guess.
Also speaking of these formulaic exchanges—this fits very well with the HAICG-verse. Just saying.
This episode was really good! I loved Miranda, I am a huge fan of the underlying sci fi concept, and I though the Spock characterization and the hints of Vulcan culture were very interesting (and very in keeping with my own characterization and world building, imo).
The only thing I didn’t like was Kirk’s characterization. He felt like a stereotype, like who AOS thought TOS Kirk was, rather than himself—the over the top flirting, the dramatic rage, how he didn’t really seem in control of anything or on his game at all.
But, even though he’s my fave, the interesting Spock characterization made up for that, and I really appreciated these insights into him, interacting with someone who, while not Vulcan herself, had a Vulcan cultural background, someone he approached similarly to how he would one of his own people. It was very polite but with a lot of unsaid beneath the surface, which is how I imagine Vulcans are.
The introduction of IDIC truly was pretty random! I did like the idea of Spock trying to compliment her and not really landing it, because that’s just the awkward nerd sort of thing he would do. But it’s weird that the phrase has never been introduced before, and also that even within this episode, it’s only obliquely explained.
I’m not actually sure if I’ve seen the next ep or not. I don’t think so, but it’s possible I did and just don’t remember it very well…
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FINAL part of chapter 5!!!
WElcome to my liveblog it is time to SCREAM
Spoilers for episodes 68-75! Warning: Some caps and swearing. Also, it’s very long since I’m not dividing it up into different posts this time.
Alright, just started episode 68, why is it playing the sad music. Oh Vil’s hurt.
Epel wants to be the center!!! :D
Okay but Vil’s saying he’s gonna be okay and htere’s no need to worry. BRO just let Epel do stuff. OH WAIT This is his chance to stand on the stage until the very end! VILLLLLLLLLLLL
Why are the other people seriously acting like everything’s normal. I know they didn’t know about the whole overblot fight but still, did NO ONE realize that they physically could not get into the stadium???
ALRIGHT IT’S SHOWTIME
LOOK AT THEM GO!!! WIAT THE SONG’S STIll ehiaTELTy
JAMIL JMAIL JAMIL JAMIL JAMIL JAMIL AJMILA JAMIL JAMIL JAMIL AJMILA JAJF KAKM<AIFLHGiteT(hy HE’S DACNIGN HEOSI DANCING I LOVE HIM OMG THE CHIBI DANCING IS SO CUTE
FULL SONG REVEAL BOYS YEAAAAAAAAA OH THIS SHIT’S FIRE
THE AUDIENCE MEMBERS ARE A MOOD
OH shit Vil just collapsed. But we did it!!
Onto episod 70! Oh the rest of the Heartslabyul boys are here
and THEM.
OMG what would chapter 5 turn out like if Floyd was in the mood for dancing when the auditions were happening and he got on the team? hglksglksd HE’S GOING TO TRY OUT NEXT YEAR?!?!
GSHSSGhsGHSK FLoyd this is why you were my favorite character at first sight
Alright, Savanaclaw boys are here now. Does it mean something that they appeared after Octavinelle rather than going in chapter order?
Ohhhh, it’s cause he knows what’s up
Sebek sounds a bit too quiet? Anyway, time for YA HOOOOOOOOOOOO
Something about this grin really disturbs me.
Oh no yahoo. Right to the voting on who wins.
Voting done. WHy is this forboding music playing. alright who wins??
1st and 2nd place 1 vote apart????? THE WINNER IS... EPISODE CHANGE AND DRUM ROLL.... ROYAL SWORD ACADEMY
EXCUSE ME WHAT THE FUKC BRO RHFHHRT Excuse me???? STOP SHOWING THESE SWAVRES I DON’T CARE THEIS DON’T JSUT PLAY YAHOO OVE HTE BOYS CRYING I HATE THIS NEIGE YOU MADE KALIM AND EPEL CYR
VIL’S CRYING
WAIT WOOK. ROOKL. WAHT THE FUKC ROOK HE VOTED FOR ROYAL SWROD ACADMEY? BRO? EXCUSE ME
GEEZ ACE THAT IS SOME YELLING BUT I FEEL EXACTLY THE SAME WAY
ALRIGHT FRENCH BOY SQUARE UP IT’S TIME TO BEAT YOU UP IN A WALMART PARKING LOT LET’S GO
OKAy yeah maybe Vil doesn’t believe inh imself
did you have to make the team lose like this though to make vil beautiful
ah shit vil’s crying aGIN FUCK OFF NEIGE
OKAY I TAKE THAT BACK NEIGE YOU CAN STAY YOU ARE A SWEET BOY PLEASE BECOME FRIEND WITH VIL
FELLAS,
huh? EH?
EVEN ROOK’S SURPRISED HE FOUND OUT. HOLY SHIT WHAT ROOK’S A NEIGE STAN??? NEIGE IS SURPRISED R-SAN IS A BOY SDHFLKDGKLSDGK
THE PHOTO ALBUM??!?!?!!?!? HOLY SHIT WE ALL ASUSMED IT WAS HIS STALKING VICTIMS BUT IT WAS ALL PICTURES OF NEIGE??!?! WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING I THOUGHT AZUL WAS THE MOST RELATABLE TO STANS FOR SIMPING OVER JAMIL BUT ROOK IS STRAIGHT UP DOING THE EQUIVALENT OF LOADING THOUSANDS OF PHOTOS OF A CHARACTER INTO YOUR PHONE TO TRY AND PULL THEM IN A GACHA
HDSFGDLHKG KALIM’S JUST CONGRATULATING ROOK
god this poor man’s privacy and life are crumbling to pieces around him
“finally, I have the upper hand over this creepy hat man”
Is he boutta do his own take on Azul’s outburst after Leona dusted his contracts?
He’s crying...
NEIGE FANCLUB “Eternal Snow’ NUMBER 0000002 ROOK HUNT?!?!??!??! HOLY FUCKING SHIT HE IS A STAN
the disappointment on his face glkglshgls
F E L L A S ,
Oh Neige wants to sing together! AWwww friendship!!! :D
Oh. Welp. Seems the audience might be thinking of another kind of ‘ship. HAFDLHKFDHALK THE AUDIENCE IS CHEERING
OH MY GOD THEY’RE ACTUALLY SINGING YA HOO
ACE’S FACE SHGLHKSGLKSDGLK DEUCE IS SO HAPPY THOUGH HSDGKSGHKDG THEY’RE SO CUTE
JAMIL SOUDNS SO DEFEATED HE’S SINGING SO SOFTLY BUT KALIM IS SO ENTHUSIATIC OH MY GOD I LOVE HTEM SO MUCH
LOOK AT THEM I LOVE THEM!!!!!
ROOK HAHAHAHAAHA
VIL’S SMILING NOW! YES! BE HAPPY! BE FRIENDS! Wait hold what what if the Pomefiore involvement/character developement in chapter 6 involves Neige too?? Please I really want to see Neige and Vil become friends
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA THERE IT IS!
OH shit Vil yelling lmao
Oh crowley’s here.
IS THIS THE HEADMASTER OF ROYAL SWORD ACADEMY???? HWY DOES HIS HAT LOOK LIKE A SLEEPING CAP HDGKHLKSDghldlgdKLGKHL WHY IS THAT THE FIRST THING I THINK OF NOOOO I CAN’T TAKE HIM SERIOUSLY NOW
Ambrose the 63rd? Welp, that’s a name to research for later.
oh this guy’s a bit of an asshole isn’t he
Oh, this guy sensed the magic of the overblot fight/Malleus. Crowley is pretty good at deflecting suspicion.
*detective thinking pose*
OMG YEAH GRIM Honestly I keep getting Ya Hoo stuck in my head too and I hate it so much.
Oh? Time for another meeting with Mickey! Wassup you weird little mouse.
We’re taking a picture of him!
Awwww he did a little pose for us! :D
It seems like the barrier/distance between us and Mickey weakens with each meeting. The time they can meet is increasing too.
This is something like “maybe sometime we will be able to watch a movie together”. Can’t wait to see people’s takes and theories on all this new information and concerning lines of dialogue.
Are we running somewhere? Oh, Grim’s missing?!?! OH SHIT WHAT JSUT HAPPENED
A VISION OF A CARRIAGE AND OVERBLOT GRIM!!!!
WE’RE BACK TO TALKING WITH MICKEY???? HWat Okay we know Grim isn’t here but do we still know he not anywhere in the house? Is something funky going on with time? YEAH MICKEY JUST ADVISED US TO GO SEARCH FOR GRIM HE WOULDN’T HAVE SAID THAT IF WE JUST RETURNED FROM SERACHING
IS THE TIME LOOP THEORY CORRECT? WHAT IS GOING ON? WE JUST RAN BACK TO THE STAGE.
GRIM OH WHAT THE FUCK THAT VOICE THOSE SOUDN
WHAT HTE FUCK WHAT THE FUKC I FEEL LIKE THIS JSUT RUTNED INTO A HOORROR GAME WHAT THE FUCVK THWAT THE FUCFK THAT CRUNCKING SOUND HWAT HTE DEEP SVOice HGelihtgliehteiothi hIHTW WAHT THE FUCK I AM SCARREdD
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaAAAAA HE”S ATTAKCING US?!?! DID WE JUST BALCK OUT?
IT JUST TRANSITIONED TO IDIA’S ROOM
His presentation went well BUT WHAT ABOUT GRIM?? DON”T JUST LEAVE US ON A CLIFFHANGER
Idia got an internship invite? Multiple invites? From “that Olympus company”? Idia wants Ortho to put them all in the trash...
IT JUST ENDS THERE!!!!
Welp. So, no more Scarabia stuff. :( I was really hoping for that. Nah, we get Rook stuff then we die and then Idia is depressed. Alright whatever it’s time to wait a bit and organize my thoughts before writing a whole reflection on this part, see ya. Hope you had fun reading this!
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Fundy 28 APR 21
Delayed Liveblog Vault Hunters Part 1/1
Our favorite fox is damp. And apparently can’t get his hair to sit right.
He’s already having to raise the redemption price. It’s been 5 seconds.
I don’t even quite get Vault Hunters I know Hbomb did it last season and that it.
Charm. Lovely.
Is the bottom right a confetti cannon?
Oh no we have to fight? We can’t be trusted.
We are the sort of people to purposefully lose the fight.
Don’t get me wrong. We love Fundy and will cry on command. But also we are rather mean to him.
Mystic Tomato. I don’t know what it is but I love it.
I was saving up Chanel points for water and ads. But now I gotta save for those and the little fun reward pack things.
Oh no. Did we hit 100 subs already? That’s what it says over his name?
Confetti canon?
5up! Hooray!
HBomb humoring Fundy with the emotes.
Fight fight fight!
So close. We tried out best to fight the giant.
Alright chat. We need another arena. Everyone get him.
Everyone in chat yelling about Phil doing stuff in OSMP. Wrong server y’all. We can deal with that later.
Ooo are we doing VC?
Everything is so chaotic already.
Tubbo and Fundy trying to figure everything out.
You know things are confusing when the original people are like “the what?”
There was a how to play meeting? And somehow these boys are still confused.
Tubbo at least has an excuse to be confused.
I love skill trees in games. They just look so pretty.
“I see a melon!” -Fundy
5up our beloved.
My streamer is being beat up with a boomerang.
Fundy doesn’t know what’s happening, but he’s rich so it works.
Tubbo is just saying every name in hopes he says the right one.
Pizza!
We attack!
WE WIN!
We did it! We’re a good chat!
Is 5ups skin still cog champ themed? Maybe not. Maybe my brain is being goofy.
Is Fundy complaining about his hair? I’m not actually paying attention. What is chat on about.
That’s one thing that can be said about all the chats. They like it when their streamers have fluffy hair.
Chat really is just crying aren’t they. Fundy’s chat has a skill of crying at everything.
Hooray 5up is active! Fundy go say hi for us!
Hooray friends!
Super good item! I don’t get it, but super good item!
ITS THE BEING!
Arena arena. We’re almost to the arena!
Aww. I missed the bets.
ARENA TIME!
Beat em up chat!
Oh no. He’s hitting hard.
WE DIDS IT!
ARENA TIME!
Oh were getting hit hard.
But we did it!
Good Job Wolf! Awesome Millionaire!
No arena box for winning. Rude.
Chat can’t even remember how many fights we’ve won.
Stupid full inventory.
Temporary base on the hill.
Pretty chest!
All the gifted subs. Such a popular streamer.
That looks so cool! I missed what it did but it looks cool!
Ooo all sorts of cool things.
Look at chat go
SHULKER SHELLS!
Look at everyone giving Fundy things.
It’s neato that they use peoples skins. That you can see the people who donated.
Shulker crates! Nice! That’ll be good for transporting things.
We’re so fancy.
Ooo sorting. The most complicated thing.
Chats over here spoiling our streamer.
Wool?
ARENA TIME!
We got this!
Beat em up subs!
WE WON!
Looting 2 noice.
Mods bribing chat to stop barking with Scooby snacks. I love them so much.
Wolf my dear you have done nothing wrong.
Oh cloud9 has a fox skin!
Ooo create mod. We know about that.
A lovely little base.
Cake is being stolen all over the place.
Stab stab the dragon.
Hooray follow goal! Music time!
Oh... that was it. Alrighty we’ll take what we can get.
Time to win an arena subs. We want music.
Our boy is confused.
Fundy just read the chat. They are telling you.
I got to get this time! The subs will destroy everyone!
Happy Halloween?
Gasp! Mega gift!
Pretty skin!
We love the Fundy mods dearly. They are so chill and nice.
The water well has run dry.
The streamer has escaped. It’s just us, the mods, and the chair.
Oh a Schlatt plush! Neato!
Schlushy I agree with that name.
“Not the hat the other one.” LOL.
Chat go Glatt
Went to get water the. Forgot to drink it.
Subs can modify emotes left and right.
Viper good job! Good book!
Fundy doing his game at middle of the night o’clock.
Streamer... please sleep. Please eat meals.
We’re almost at the Arena!
Sleep 8 hours... just at the wrong time.
Chat fully admitting to thinking our streamer is dumb enough to fall in lava.
We have learned to balance our expectations Fundy.
Oh this is going to be a long stream. A really long stream. I’ll probably need to take a break and do some work.
Arena Time! Beat em up subs!
Good job subs!! You did it!
Let’s see what we get for the arena.
So many Wolf!
Diamond!!!
Putting the winners on their boxes. Nice.
I have so much work to do, but I just want to watch the funky Fox.
Villagers? We love villagers.
PIANO!
Oh we’re switching screens it’s serious piano.
So lovely. I love listening to music people do their things.
I love the fact the subs keep shouting FundyJam!
I swear improv music should not sound this lovely
Spooky sounding tune. Sounds like a boss fight in a haunted castle.
Awesome piano!
Poor boy so annoyed by his hair. Bless his heart.
For anyone who doesn’t touch Twitter. The Fundy Updates Twitter is fabulous and amazing. They are just always so upbeat over everything.
Trying to nether portal. You go fox friend.
Wow Just portal to the center do a lava lake. Under soul sand.
You go 5up! You get that bastion.
Rip 5up.
Poor Fundy doing his best.
How’s the VC crew doing?
MENDING GOLD PANTS!!!
The drip is back!
Also I voted no in the will he burn pole. I have faith in my streamers.
We’re calling Fundy emo now. And he’s trying to deny having an emo phase, and failing.
I don’t know what’s happening half the time in this chat.
Fire Fox!
We’re still calling Fundy emo. Chat spoils the streamer and chat bullies the streamer.
Oh are we trending emo Fundy? Nice. I’m conveniently scrolling on Twitter.
Look at us bully our streamer.
The two people in chat. Those saying emo Fundy. Those going “his hair is nice stfu”. The duality of chat.
Sounds of suffering coming from the nether.
Fundy has taken responsibility for enderpearls.
We cursed Fundy? I look away for 10 seconds.
Pixel has turned on Fundy.
Fight that ghast.
Fundy’s going to get all the endermen.
Piglin goes smack.
We’re wearing the drip. Nice.
Everyone gets rich so fast here.
Well. We’ll just leave the corpse there.
Sizzle.
The people who bet on him dying are so rich in channel points now.
*sad fox noises*
Surely not. Fundy we have lost all hope in you.
Pixel doing everything they can to do anti emo Fundy.
Aww. I missed the prediction. I bet he won’t die. I believe in him.
Fundy being scared by his own body. Cant wait to see that clip everywhere on YouTube.
Back to attacking the endermen.
Tubbo is such a villain. He’s so willing to kill HBomb.
Fundy just getting back to work.
I’m sorry corpses become skeletons. That’s horrid.
Off to get the dragon. The dragon the dragon.
Tubbo was smote.
HBomb and Fundy fully ready to be that person that steals the temple.
Hbomb shaped chest. That is great.
Everyone bullying HBomb.
Almost Arena time.
Betting yes on the arena. The subs are strong and they’ve got this.
My twitch app is being stupid. This might be my signal to take a break and do my school work.
8k boosters and the chat goes nuts.
Chat from where I am is just a bunch of booster packs. I think I need to close and reopen the app.
There we go. There is the lovely chat.
Arena time!
Aww. My bet disappeared when I moved the app.
No! He’s cheating! The subs are doing their best!
Good job subs!
I mean it’s a diamond sword. It’s not diamonds but it’ll do.
I heard a du du du du?
I’ve got to go. Time to be productive with my life and time.
Let me know if I miss anything especially stupid or funny.
Alright it’s been 2 and a half hours but I’m back.
Looks like I missed a lot, and the boy has been going 5 hours.
Still on Vault Hunters? How is he not tired of this yet good gracious.
We’re enchantin’
I don’t know what’s happening but I’m watching.
Who stole all the luck from the boy?
Good that he’s drinking plenty of water
Good that he’s taking a break for foods.
What is with the lightening sounds? I don’t like it.
Spare the soup pet.
Sadness. No 3rd cow.
Yes! One more arena!
Lure da cows.
No that’s the Fundy Cow!
Nooooo. That’s worse than killing it!
Did we win our other arenas? I only say the first 5 or so.
Lightening Cow. Lovely.
Noooo the cowwww!
For once Fundy isn’t the one thriving.
He tunneled the cow out. Wow.
Bye 5up! Good luck!
Hi Crumb. The cow was snatched.
Noooo. Quit stealing our cows!
What he jumps like Superman and steals our cows.
Cow bunker.
These cows will get snatched. I just know it.
No. No taking da cows.
Our cows must be protected.
Enchanting is not on our fox’s side
Oh so they did beat the enderdragon. Good for them.
All sorts of neato elytra.
I must go again. I am called to dinner.
Good job getting you diamond sir.
30 minutes later I am back and we are chatting with HBomb.
Sharp boomerang.
Saw a bit of cat maid peaking out there.
5up judging Fundy for just sitting and mining.
Oh the facecam is off. I’m just noticing.
I guess it probably goofed up and froze.
Everyone in chat talking about how much to make the magic packs. I like the people saying 6.9k just for the funnies.
I’m voting 6.9k in the pole just for the funny.
I know it won’t win but I’m doing my part.
Goblins? What the squeak did I miss?
What. We stab the goblins. And they give us emeralds?
This mans has been going for 6 hours and a while. I hope he doesn’t forget to look after himself. He was talking about eating an hour ago.
I love all the product minions. All the donators just chilling on their chests.
Why are all the minions black and white? I missed that one?
Oh they run out. They ran out of stuff and out of color.
Wealth in the chest, since we don’t have a mouth.
Angel or Fairy? Is that even a question? (Chat chose fairy)
Fairy Fox. I want to draw that but have negative amounts of art skills.
We’re killing time until we hit 7 hours.
We’re meeting up with 5up! Nice!
Oh HBomb left and thought Fundy hadn’t done anything in 20 minutes but jump around his castle. LOL.
We hit 7 hours and dipped.
7 hours and almost a thousand subs. Look at us go.
Hello Puffy Raiders! You’re a bit late but hello!
Oh no. He’s panicking and not ending.
Please someone who feels like being annoying remind the mans to eat.
Raffle? Oh donators! They go through a raffle thingy! Nice!
Hooray OSMP but also Fundy please sleep and such.
Not even raffling. Just opening and closing.
Nice spin noises.
WOLF! Wolf earned to win the raffle.
Wait wait wait? Fundy go get some food and go to bed!
Hey look there is our streamer!
This is the max post size lol. 5up raid let’s go! Hello 5up! We are here! But now I’m going to bed. Oh nevermind. I hear the fox. Ah that’s smart 5up. Anyway. I’m gone now.
#vault hunters#Fundy#fundylive#our poor streamer was so confused the entire time#the chat loved spoiling him during this#delayed liveblogging
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Nothing goes wrong. [Dream SMP] liveblog
ok im not gonna say anythin abt before 20 mins in bc its p standard but i will say that as SOON as phil messages techno chat spams blood for the blood god and it barely stops the entire time, its incredible
kills: 00:37:25, 00:37:40, 00:55:20
i LOVE his ‘if theres no other way, I CHOOSE BLOOD’ line at 00:37:00. its just,,,,,it shows his new justice system where he treats others how they treat him even before he makes that speech i love it so much. also he spams potions like how he does in skywars and it makes me happy. honestly a lot of this stream reminds me of skywars like how he went through quackitys stuff and ran nd stuff. maybe ive been watchin too much techno skywars
also durin that first fight, techno only looses half a heart. against FOUR PEOPLE hes too powerful
does techno saying “bs” count as swearing (00:39:40)
techno insultin his kidnappers is the funniest thing to me like hes outnumbered outgeared and he still makes fun of them and theyre still scared of him asdjkfsdalkfj
00:55:00 I HAVE A PICKAXE, AND I’LL PUT IT THROUGH YOUR TEETH i need some fanart of that right now wljdflkasjf also durin that fight techno looses 2.5 hearts at the end. in iron armor. against a diamond axe. using a netherite pickaxe. with a bad fov. why is he like this.
techno on his horse by the ocean gives me big ‘beating minecraft with tnt falling on me every 10 seconds’ or w/ever vibes. if u havent watched that stream, u should, its great, he has a horse named rocket w diamond horse armor and i love him.
just realized my head hurt bc i was clenchin my jaws so much. whoops
techno literally has a boat in his inventory when hes like “theres a boat!!!! :D” skdfjlksajf (01:02:20)
the whole raccoon innit thing starts at 01:08:20 btw :)
techno gettin distracted w the skeletons killin each other is so funny to me hfdgksal (a min or so after raccoon innit happens)
01:09:45 tommys scream is so funny to me can someone find how many hearts he looses from that bc i am crying ghfdjksla
i think techno has the alphabet memorized. not like, the alphabet song, but like he knows what letter are around each letter without going through the alphabet and idk why but it makes me laugh. i think this bc at 01:16:11 tommys like ‘what, f?’ and techno says, not a second later, ‘no. close to that, though.’ and that is NOT enough time to go through nd find f in the alphabet nd then find where e is compared to it. therefore, he is a nerd. also i love him
01:20:00 this is everything to technoblade: Phil, Carl, and then his items.
im so gay for technos yelling voice. like. hhgnng he
“if we’re being serious, for a millisecond, dickhead,” :LDSFJLKSDJ I LOVE TOMMY 01:22:25
technos ‘join me.’ at 01:23:25 is SO GOOD AHHHHHHHH
vault/welcome home theseus is at 01:27:10 :D i might start calling it theseus’ vault bc that sounds cool to me
ALRIGHT so in the vault techno has 167 skulls on display. thats 56. withers. they r gonna cause SO much chaos i love it. AND thats probably not all of them ahhHHH I LOVE TECHNOBLADE SO MUCH. LMANBURG IS SO SCREWED A;LDKJFALK
also thats only if i did my math right a;lksdfjaslk
i have decided that the best trio is techno, tommy, and ranboo. they all just jump all over the place with topics and i thin the convo at 01:56:25 shows it p well
Tommy: Technoblade, why havent you face revealed yet?
techno: I-I have
Tommy: well, answered that quick
ranboo: *laughs* that answers that question
techno: that was resolved really easily!
tommy: why don’t you do it again?
techno:....what would be the point?
ranboo: yeah, what would be the point??
tommy: because then it would be like -stutters- it would be, you know, easy, good video because there’s so many people who dont know what you look like
techno: ehhhh ill find a good moment at some point
tommy: you could face reveal with me, bro!! we could face reveal together!
techno: ahhh finally, we’ll know what tommyinnit looks like
ranboo: -laughing- thank god! that was one of the unsolved mysteries of the world
techno: unsolved mysteries of minecraft, what does tommyinnit look like
ranboo: what does tommy actually look like?
tommy: hey! speakin of unsolved mysteries, lets talk- lets talk psychology. what- what would be- you know, not the worst one you know, but just the worst word?
ranboo: I’m going to- I- if i hear this question one more time i’m going- i dont know what im going to do. i can’t do anything at this point
techno: ....cactus.
tommy: ????cactus???
ranboo: that is a bad word, i cant believe you said that,
tommy: -unintelligible- it is cacti, my friend, not cactusus
techno: I’m sorry
ranboo: how could you say that on stream?
techno: I’m sorry
tommy: it’s not cactusus, technoblade, its cacti
techno: i- i am aware
ranboo: you- you gotta stop sayin it.
tommy: cacti almost sounds like a terrible, terrible slur right now
techno: please, please stop saying that- please stop sayin that word
tommy: what, cacti?
ranboo: AHHHH cmon, cmon tommy
techno: you cant use that word!
tommy: AYYY IF I SAY IT OFF STREAM I CAN SAY IT ON STREAM
techno: WOAHHHHH WOAH WOAH -laughs-
ranboo: NO THATS NOT HOW ANY OF THIS WORKS
techno: thats just not how this works, tommy!!!
tommy: eyyy man im just me, im just me- OOOH i have a novel to write!
ranboo:....where did that come from???
tommy: HOW TO SEX 3 BABEYYYYY
techno: i thought you were already...done with that?
god theyre so chaotic i love them so much
also yall are WRONG abt eret soundin like techno. ranboo sounds like techno. not in like, a really big way, but when theyre both monotone they sound similar and i love it. this is great
this is actually the most ive laughed at the smp in so long PLEASE go watch the entire techno ranboo tommy interaction its so funny technos just *long, long sigh* ranboos just ???????? and tommys just !!!!!!!! its amazing im crying
technos such a dad to these kids oh my god his voice at 02:12:40 was so disappointed just ‘do not do that.’ he sounded like a parent on a trip to disneyland and his kids r like, hanging out the window of the car or smthing adjfaslkfkadsl techno :handshake: phil [being tommys dad] and also ranboo is bullying him its so funny i love it
AHHHHH HIS VOICE AT 02:20:35 I AM IN LOVE YALL HEAR THAT???? YALL HEAR HIM??????? AHHHHHH
“in the small event that your internet goes off or you get hit by a car,” TOMMY THAT IS NOT A SMALL EVENT WHA T 2:21:30
A;LSKDJFASL RANBOO AND TECHNO HAVE SUCH SIMILAR HUMOR I STG TECHNO LOOKED AT RANBOO WAITING FOR HIM TO SAY ‘enchant?? just a wild guess’ AT 02:23:00 A;DLKJFASLD;JF I LOVE THEM PLEASEEEE KEEP INTERACTING IK I WAS A RANBOO HATER LIKE A WEEK AGO BUT ALSO I WOULD DIE FOR HIM ITS FINE
this is so fuckin funny this end of stream stuff is gonna be a comfort stream
“what does the moon make you think about?” “it makes me think about the moon” ALSFJDSKJFDSL 2:32:10
techno makin fun of ranboos defense of bein peer pressured,,,,,,,m’dude that was the reason u killed tubbo how is that ANY different (2:33:50) (yes i know he mentions it but FHGJKSDL)
TECHNOSWEAR TECHNOSWEAR TECHNOSWEAR TECHNOSWEAR 2:35:25 HE SAY THE CRAP WORD
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Battle Tendency Liveblog: JJBA Ch. 71-76
Let the joy of love give you an answer
And I will hold you when you're lost
Just walk on to the light
1938 Bizarre Summer
Every road will lead us to a memory of
Great Days
When I started reading the Battle Tendency Manga, one of my goals was to find connections between Part 2 and the others, because I feel like Part 2 is sort of isolated from the rest. You never hear anyone talk about the Pillar Men in Part 3 or 4, and Joseph Joestar never appears again, save for an entry on a genealogy seen in JoJolion.
But thematically, there’s a lot of connective tissue here. I already pointed out the scene where Smokey steals Joseph’s wallet in his first appearance, echoing Joseph’s final appearance, where Josuke steals his wallet in Part 4. And I already mentioned the Italian connection. Hirohiko Araki’s love for Italy is pretty well-known in the fandom, but only two JoJo parts have the distinction of taking place on Italian soil: 2 and 5.
But there’s other, subtler connections. Joseph’s Clacker Volley relies on angular momentum, much like the “Spin” techniques used in Part 7. But then you also have this moment in Battle Tendency where Caesar explains Hamon to Joseph, and compares it to the way a discus thrower spins around to gain distance on his throw. In the same vein, the fictional Ripple techniques used by all the good guys is just an extension of something natural. Everyone gains energy from respiration and blood circulation, but Hamon users can amplify that many times over to do amazing things with that energy. It’s very similar to the lessons Johnny Joestar learns about “Spin” in Part 7. I never really thought “Spin” had much to do with Hamon, and conceptually they may not be related, but the way they’re presented to the audience is very similar.
More Part 5 connections, you ask? Well how about a trip from Rome to Venice? No assassins on the train this time, so Joseph doesn’t have to steal 100 cars to finish the journey.
And how about a meeting with a mysterious person wearing a strange disguise...
Who turns out to be a lady? What’s weird about this is that when I went through JoJo in order back in 2017, I never noticed the Lisa Lisa/Trish connection. There was just so much crazy stuff happening in Parts 3 and 4 that I forgot all about how Lisa Lisa debuted.
So yeah, let’s get back to the main plot. I mean, I was going to talk about some connections with Part 6, but I seem to be drawing a blank. Joseph’s parents died when he was very little, so there’s no way for him to have a contentious reunion with an absent parent. There’s no way for his mom or dad to reveal that they were looking out for him this whole time, but they couldn’t tell him how or why. I mean, Lisa Lisa kind of reminds me of Jotaro. They’re both stoic badasses who smoke cigarettes. But that’s kind of a stretch.
Anyway, Joseph convinced the Pillar Men to let him live for another month so that he could give them a better fight later on. To hold him to that promise, they implanted poison rings in his body, which will kill him in exactly 33 days, unless he defeats the Pillar Men and receives the antidote. Caesar realizes that they both need more training to face the Pillar Men again, so he takes Joseph to Venice to meet his Hamon Master, for more training. That’s Lisa Lisa.
I’m confused as to why Lisa Lisa wasn’t brought in a long time ago. The plot progression of Part 2 implies that she only heard about this crisis when Caesar contacted her for more training, but we’ll soon see that the Ripple Clan has known about the Pillar Men for thousands of years, just as the Pillar Men knew about them.
Actually, now that I think about it, why didn’t Straizo recognize the Pillar Man in Mexico then? You’d think he would have taken one look at the guy and said “Oh shit, these dudes are back,” and forgotten all about his dreams of becoming a vampire like Dio. Maybe Straizo had just lost all perspective by then. Well, we’ll see if that gets explained later.
Anyway, Lisa Lisa starts the training immediately, by putting a mask on Joseph to control his breathing, which is a vital component of Ripple/Hamon stuff. One thing Caesar explained to Joseph before they left for Venice is that their Hamon powers were about equal. The only reason Caesar’s seems stronger is because he’s learned to concentrate it into smaller points, like his fingertips. Joseph, on the other hand, has to express his Hamon power through his entire hand, which reduces its effectiveness. Caesar compares this to the spray of water from a water pistol. The smaller the nozzle, the more powerful the stream.
As for Speedwagon, well he just flew back to New York. Joseph forbade him from telling Erina about the bind he’s in, so Speedwagon simply tells her that he’s bumming around Italy for a month. Meanwhile, Lisa wants the boys to climb the Hell Climb Pillar.
So the Ripple Clan has this island castle off the coast of Venice, which they built in 39AD to train their students. This was after the Pillar Men wiped out most of their guys, so I guess they wanted to really ramp up their training for the future. Lisa opens the front gate and the first step inside takes you into this big pit full of oil, and she just kicks them inside without a word. Ha ha, Lisa Lisa is awesome!
So the object of the Hell Climb Pillar is just to climb out of the pit. Except the only way to do that is by clinging to a sheer pillar in the center and ascending 24 meters (about 79 feet). Oh, and there’s some sort of fountain built into the pillar that keeps it covered with oil at all times. The only way to make this work is by using Hamon power to cling to the oil and work your way up.
Caesar is familiar with this test, and he at least has a general idea of how to do it, but he’s never attempted it before, and he knows a lot of students have died in the attempt. The first thing he figures out is that it’s such an exhausting process that if you fall off part way, you won’t have enough stamina to start over, so you really only get one try at this.
He spends most of his climb, however, worrying about Joseph, because Joseph’s Hamon skills are so rudimentary that he doesn’t even know how to cling to the pillar in the first place. Fortunately...
Hermit Purple? In my Battle Tendency? It’s more likely than you think. Joseph tries ripping his shirt and fashioning a makeshift rope for himself, but Lisa cuts it with a dagger before he can even try to use it. I’m somewhat skeptical that this would have worked anyway. She may have only foiled his attempt for his own benefit. Joseph might have wasted a lot of precious energy trying to use this trick before giving up and doing it correctly.
So, after all other options are exhausted, Joseph finally follows directions. He watches Caesar for a while, then realizes that Caesar has been clinging to the oil with his fingertips, and not his palms. It looks precarious, but Joseph remembers what Caesar told him about the water pistol and figures out that this is an application of that concept. So he quickly catches up to Caesar, only to discover that the pillar gets harder to climb around the 18 meter mark.
Around that elevation, the Pillar “protrudes”. I think that means that it gently widens as you go up, something you can’t really see until you’re already climbing up there. So now you’re not climbing straight up any more at a 90-degree angle to the ground, you’re more like 95 or 100 degrees, making it that much more of a struggle to hold on.
But things get even worse when Joseph discovers a small crack in the pillar. It’s the only handhold on the entire pillar, so he figures he can get a firmer grip on that and rest a bit. Big mistake, because it’s booby-trapped, and when he touches the crack, it turns on this high-pressure stream of oil at the 20-meter level. Oil just spews out from all sides of the pillar, and the pressure is so intense that when Caesar sticks a pen into it the oil stream cuts it in half.
Joseph thinks Caesar is angry at him for his blunder, but Caesar’s actually worried for Joseph’s safety. He only knows one way to get past the oil stream, and he isn’t sure Joseph has the skill necessary to pull it off. See, you can use Hamon to cling to the oil, but you can also use it to repel the oil, and protect yourself from the high-pressure stream. But Caesar now has to use use both of those principles simultaneously. He has to cling to the pillar while moving through the stream. He ends up doing this mid-air jump thing, and it works, but now he has to haul ass to get to the top of the pillar. It’s not just for his own sake, but Caesar feels that he has to convince Lisa Lisa to call off the test to save Joseph’s life. He doesn’t know how to do the trick Caesar pulled off, and Joseph’s the kind of guy who might get desperate or frustrated enough to do something drastic and get himself killed. But when he reaches the top, there’s no one around.
But he needn’t have worried, because Joseph’s drastic idea actually works. He apparently can’t repel and cling at the same time like Caesar, so instead he just clings. Instead of passing through the oil stream, he clings to it, sliding across the flow of oil to the edge of the current, then flipping over it, where the pressure is low enough that it won’t hurt him. Then he bounces off the top side of the oil stream and clings to the outer wall of the pit.
Everyone is impressed, except the walls of the pit are even harder to climb than the pillar, and Joseph can’t quite make it to the top. Caesar saves him with just 10 cm to go.
Joseph is still sore at Lisa Lisa for putting him through all of that, but she tosses him an upside-down glass of water and Joseph is surprised to find that he can hold the water inside the glass with his Hamon, something he couldn’t do back in Rome, when Caesar told him they needed to train. So now Joseph’s finally on board with all of this, and Lisa introduces the boys to he assistants, Messina and Loggins. They put Caesar and Joseph through a grueling three weeks of training montage, until finally...
...They go shopping! Some guy with a pompodour tries to steal a necklace from Lisa, but she catches him and lets Joseph deal with the guy. Joseph covers the dude in mustard and then he complains about her carrying around a bright red stone like that for pickpockets to see. Wait... red stone? Yeah, it’s the Red Stone of Aja.
On their way back home, Lisa explains the backstory of the Pillar Men. They created the Stone Masks to improve themselves, and tested the technology on humans. No one knows how the Stone Masks work, but the “bones” that jut out of them somehow bring out “latent power” in the human brain and it turns them into vampires.
I never really considered that before, but I suppose the bony spikes in the masks are kind of analogous to the effect of being pierced by the arrows in Parts 4, 5, and 6. Part 5 offers a partial explanation for the Stand Arrows by saying the heads of the arrows were carved from a meteorite found in Greenland, and there was an alien virus in the meteorite. You get cut by this metal, and get sick from the virus, and you either recover with a Stand power or you die. There was a text piece in Part 7 that tried to connect the Stand concept with Hamon, the Stone Masks, and “Spin”, suggesting that the latter three were attempts to achieve what Stands can do, and I guess that makes sense. Maybe the Stone Masks were the Pillar Men attempting to invent whatever the alien meteor was supposed to do. Except it’s not as advanced, so it can only do vampires instead of Stands.
Eventually, Kars’ experiments led him to the discovery of a particular stone that amplifies and focuses light. He believed that if he could work that into his Stone Mask technology, then he could create a more powerful mask that would bring about greater improvements into his own body. The problem was that he needed a bigger, more flawless stone than the ones that were available to him. And that’s why they went to Rome to find one. The 1st Century B.C. Ripple Clan couldn’t stop the Pillar Men, but they did manage to secure the stone they were looking for, and it’s been in their possession ever since. Lisa Lisa holds it up to the sun and blows up part of her boat just to show off what it can do.
Joseph suggests that they just destroy the thing. After all, it does them no good, and it means everything to their enemies, so why keep it around? But there’s some legend that says it will be impossible to defeat the Pillar Men if the Red Stone of Aja is destroyed.
This seemed kind of hokey to me at first. Lisa Lisa even admits that she doesn’t understand what that legend means, but she’s convinced that she has to protect the stone anyway. But then I remembered Tonpetty, the leader of the Ripple Clan in Part 1. He taught Will A. Zeppeli how to use Hamon, but warned him that it would lead to Will’s gruesome death. Presumably, Tonpetty had some sort of gift of prophecy, and maybe it’s not far-fetched to think that others in the Ripple Clan had the same ability. So maybe someone, a long time ago, foretold the ultimate fate of the Red Stone of Aja, and the Ripple Clan has been following that vague counsel ever since.
This might explain how the Ripple Clan knows so much about the Pillar Men in the first place. It never made much sense to me how the Pillar Men would travel to Rome and this secret band of warriors would be there ready to oppose them. It’s also kind of convenient that the Ripple Clan knows so much about the Pillar Men’s Stone Mask research. I mean, the Pillar Men barely acknowledge humans as it is, so why would Kars deign to explain anything to them?
Now that I think about it, this might be why the Ripple Clan turned to divination in the first place. Their enemies were so mysterious and their motives so baffling that they may have had no choice but to consult fortune-tellers and psychics for insight. And, one way or another, they managed to get some solid intel this way. Kars really was doing R&D on Stone Masks. He really did go to Rome in search of a “Super Aja”. Will Zeppeli did die, as Tonpetti warned him. Kars really did return in 1938, as the Aztec’s predicted. And it really will be impossible to defeat the Pillar Men without the Red Stone of Aja. Lisa doesn’t know how that works yet, but she knows it’s true.
But that’s not important right now. For now, it’s time for Joseph and Caesar to complete their training by heading back to base for a final showdown with their instructors. Joseph’s final test will be a battle with Loggins, so I assume Caesar has to take on Messina. But when Joseph shows up for his test...
He finds two people on the battlefield. One is Loggins, and the other guy is killing him.
And yeah, it’s Esidisi. Who invited him? Well, Joseph was going to fight him in a week or so anyway, so why put off tomorrow what you can do today?
#jojo's bizarre adventure#battle tendency#joseph joestar#lisa lisa#caesar zeppeli#esidisi#robert e o speedwagon#erina joestar#loggins#messina
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animorphssss.....2!
ok one L abt reading the series on my ereader is that the flipbook illustrations arent there ;_; those were my favvvvv
anyways I love animorphs still
I feel like I'll end up repeating myself a lot during these little liveblogs lmao but mannnn it’s so good. its so hardcore. like I know that that’s the whole Thing but I still get shocked by some of the stuff that happens
like a big theme in the series centers around the morality of killing your enemies - and it’s so all over the place bc in book 6 you have jake boiling a bunch of yeerks alive, which is kinda gnarly if you think abt it, but the alternative would be to leave them there and let them infest people soo...? and that’s basically the point, that there are never any easy choices in war
also I went on the animorphs wiki to look at trivia bc I love doing that and I cant BELIEVE (some of) the books were reissued in 2011 and they changed/removed some of the references to be more ‘modern’ omfg....talk about erasing 90s culture smh
likeeee I was born in 97 so I didn't exactly grow up in the 90s and therefore some of the references go over my head but its so charming and fun to have them there! and it makes sense given that the books are SET in the 90s
I don't remember ever being confused by any of the references as a kid (tho for sure a lot of them went over my head), but then again I read the books in like 2008 sooo
also some of the stuff that they change - like changing ‘recorded w/a vcr’ to ‘recorded w/the TV’ or ‘floppy disc’ to ‘flash drive’ may make more sense to modern audiences, but doesn't make sense in the context of the story still being set in the 90s
tho it is funny that the books use the phrase ‘hook up’ to mean ‘meet up’ a lot bc that is a phrase that definitely has a different meaning nowadays
alsooooo as it turns out I'm p sure I only read a couple of the spinoffs - the hork-bajir chronicles and the ellimist chronicles (which was confusing lmao), bc my library didn’t have the others :( 2007/2008 woes....
but now I get to read the spinoffs woooooooo so I read the first megamorphs and the andalite chronicles
I'm reading them in the chronological order (I think?) which is good bc part of the problem was that I read the ellimist book at a completely weird time and it confused me more lmao
megamorphs 1 basically felt like a regular animorphs book except longer, but the plot didn't feel like it needed all that extra page space tbh? even so it was an entertaining adventure
and rachel having amnesia was great, amnesia is one of my fav tropes lmao. and it was a lot of fun here, though a bit underutilized
another favorite trope of mine is time travel, so I'm gonna have a really fun time here w/that
as for the andalite chronicles, I really enjoyed that one. I thought it was a well done story about the horrors of war (which is a theme animorphs does excellently), kind of similar to the overarching story of the whole series, but fit into one book without feeling rushed
the way the story starts out with elfangor wanting to be a hero, not understanding what that entails, to the end where he IS going to be a hero, and he knows now that this is a burden rather than a reward
the horror elements are also really strong, with the taxxon morph being horrifying of course
and mannnn I loved that we got to see more of the taxxons as a species, and see that not all taxxons submitted to the yeerks - which breaks the previous theme of ‘all the taxxons are evil just because’
this book also establishes that the taxxons gave themselves over to the yeerks due to their constant hunger being unbearable, so it isn’t just that they’re evil for fun
animorphs does such an excellent job showing that each ‘side’ of a war will have good and bad (or at least sympathetic and unsympathetic) people
also loren was awesome, what a cool character. though I didn't realize she was literally like 13 until the very end of the book, holy shit. that's crazy. i thought she was 16 at the youngest....geez. her throwing a rock at visser 3 is even more iconic knowing she's a middle schooler at the time
and chapman was here! I'm assuming this must be the same chapman as the assistant principal controller... I thought it was a little strange to put chapman in that role, bc in this book he was a huge asshole basically the entire time, but in the previous (’future’) book it was revealed that he became a controller willingly only to spare his daughter, which is pretty far from this book where he’s actively trying to sell humanity out to the yeerks...people change I guess? (also he got his memory erased so I guess there's that)
alloran was a really interesting character. horrors of war again - we hear from his old buddy that he used to be a fun, witty guy, but war changed him into somebody who would do horrible things
and him becoming a controller was horrifying, obviously, but I like that alloran wasn't portrayed as some perfect, holy guy in order to make it all the more tragic when he got infested. its already fucked up enough as it is, and making him flawed was a lot more meaningful
and him wanting to flush all the yeerks out into space....oooooof the (later) parallels hurt
plus the fact that elfangor refusing to commit genocide against the helpless yeerks (even though they’re the enemy) directly contributing to alloran becoming a controller.....oof. I love that it shows that even making the morally correct decisions during war can lead to awful things happening, but not in a way that endorses evil actions - the story isn’t saying that elfangor should have killed the yeerks, it’s saying that there are no good choices in war
arbron being trapped as a taxxon was fucked up. but also really intriguing, especially how he found purpose and led a free taxxon uprising. I don't remember if we hear from him/the free taxxons again but I hope so
also the plot twist of tobias being elfangors SON...bruh. I do remember that despite not having read this book so it must come up in the main story later but my memory of that is vauge so I’m excited to see how that plays out. it’s always gonna be hilarious to me that ax is technically tobias’s uncle
and then the ellimist drops in and wacks up the time stream even more. classic. I love the crazy time travel stuff in animorphs
omfg and the bits where elfangor is a human tech guy and talked about his friends bill and steve LMAOOOOO
also the scene where elfangor drives the yellow mustang while blasting '(I cant get no) satisfaction’ by the rolling stones was one of the most iconic things I've ever read
basically I loved all the angles of war fucking people up. from loren’s dad, to alloran, to elfangor himself learning about the true horrors of war...v well done imo
ok back to the main series - so my pick for the most fucked up scene SO FAR (in my own personal opinion) - the scene where they're in the jungle and rachel passes out in bear morph and a bunch of rainforest ants start EATING HER ALIVE and like crawling into her ears and mouth and HGGGGGG that was genuinely so fucking disturbing
its a good thing that the time travel made it so rachel couldn't remember that bc that was fuuuuucked
another contender is a scene we don't actually see - erek having his capacity for violence instated and then slaughtering a ton of human and hork-bajir controllers
like damn, you know its fucked up when its too fucked up for ANIMORPHS to even ‘show.’ this is a series that doesn't pull punches but evidentially that would've been Too Much to actually portray (understandably). also i feel like seeing the aftermath/everyone’s reactions had more of an impact than describing erek killing a bunch of people would have
also I forgot that marco Literally Fucking Dies during that scene and that's why he doesn't get to see the slaughter. wow
and then in the very next book JAKE dies too. jesus
oh it was also so sad and fucked up when marco’s dad told him that he and his wife used to fight sometimes, but then all of a sudden they stopped fighting, and their relationship was basically entirely peaceful and perfect - and this is how marco knows exactly when his mom was made into a controller, bc of course a yeerk wouldn't care enough to get into petty arguments like that....ooooof
Okay and book 15 really got me...that was fucking heavy man. Geeeez. Everything w/Marco and his mom is so fucked uppppp
Like he literally has to deal with so much awful traumatizing shit. The scene where he pretends to be a controller and is face to face w/visser one and THAT HIS MOM but he can’t even do anything, and he just sees the evil in her eyes and thinks about how there’s no way she had been controlled by a yeerk that long before bc he’s never seen her look like that...that was so fucking sad.
Plus Marcos mom now thinking that Marco is a controller...aughh...and then later Marco knows he can’t even think-speak to her bc he’ll just talk about everything he’s wanted to talk about to his mom this whole time... ;_;
And the parts where Marcos humor slips and the utter rage he feels towards the situation comes through...man
Plus everything about him being understandably afraid of sharks after being nearly torn in half by one back during their first dolphin adventure
Augh oh and jake telling Marco that everyone can tell something is up bc Marco isn’t joking around and talking about how insane their plan is like usual, so Marco fakes it sand does all that even tho he’s terrified and conflicted...aughhhh
Ok and the last scene where Marco is thinking about a future where he and his parents can talk plainly about how awful and traumatizing everything is, and then eventually they’ll feel okay enough to joke about it, bc Marcos mom is the one who taught him to look at the funny side of life...Oh The Pain
There were a lot of great fucked up individual lines in this book too. I’m just so sad about these poor middle schoolers jfc
Also I do distinctly remember the scene where they collapse the shark tank at Ocean World or w/e, it was weird af reading it bc I remembered none of the rest of the book but got weird deja vu reading that scene and remembering having read it like 13+ years ago
if it’s not clear by now I have a pretty terrible memory for media which is honestly good bc then I can reread things and it’s like new
Also jake...man...I said it previously but I was kinda eh about jake when I first read these bc he’s kinda the ‘basic’ character, but now I find his story much more interesting
His conflict over being leader is really good. KAA does a fantastic job capturing the pressure he’s under bc he was chosen by his friends to be the leader, so he REALLY can’t back out, and he doesn’t necessarily feel up to it, but feels he has no choice in the matter...
And constantly having to make really difficult decisions that could get his friends killed...geez. It’s so much pressure. And he talks about wanting to go back to being a normal kid when this is all over, and it kinda strikes me as him being in denial - like, there’s no way things can ever be ‘normal’ again, but that’s his way of coping.
Especially with Tom and all that. That conflict is so compelling...jake having to play all these different roles - as leader, as a son/student, as a regular brother to Tom - he’s constantly having to act a certain way and rarely gets to be Himself
It’s actually kinda relatable in a way - that feeling of being In Charge, but in a somewhat abstract and informal way, so you feel like regular old you, but you have to carefully regulate how you act bc the people around you expect a certain standard of behavior from you...
And all the morally grey situations they’re put in are fucked up, but especially for jake who has the final say on what they do, even when knowing it could lead to his friends being killed or made into controllers
Like in the book with the cannibal yeerk guy - there’s basically no good choices there. Jake lets the cannibal live, and (at first) implies that it’s for the best that he’s cannibalizing other yeerks and therefore helping get rid of some yeerks - except that he kills their hosts too
but the alternative would be to directly kill another human being who isn't actively fighting/resisting you, which is a fucked up thing for a middle schooler to have to do
And the conflict between jake and Cassie is really excellent bc jake has to make these awful decisions, and Cassie is the type of person who can’t stand that sort of thing, so it gets left up to jake a lot, but then she’s upset with jake for doing something awful, even while knowing that there were no better options
like, her asking jake to kill the cannibal guy for her was really fucked up, but also entirely understandable for cassie as a character to ask. it was an emotionally charged situation, and cassie is an emotional person. she’s also somebody who like to Act, to do concrete good, and getting rid of an Evil Bad Guy in front of her would be a definite action
But Cassie is a great source of morality to the group - most of them are pretty jaded, but Cassie is able to hope in a way none of the rest are. It creates a really compelling dynamic between jake and Cassie that I kinda dismissed when I was like 10 or w/e
Also the scene where jake as a fly gets crushed and starts dying? Seriously fucked. And then after when he’s nearly breaking down in the airport and Cassie comforts him...that was a really good scene. Cassie is so good
And the continuity is so excellent - I love how in book 17, Cassie (and jake to an extent) doesn’t really weigh in on the moral debate abt the oatmeal bc she’s still shaken up by asking jake to murder a guy for her, and then (presumably) going ahead and lighting his house on fire when jake doesn’t kill him
And augh jake and Marco have such a good and interesting dynamic - the entire group kinda pushes each other into their respective ‘roles’ in the group, but for a few books that’s really true for jake and marco
I don't remember what book it was but at some point marco (I think) mentions that jake understands what marco is dealing with w/his mom being a controller bc of tom, but that they don’t talk about it bc they ‘don't talk about stuff like that’ or something and I'm just like noooo talk to each other :(
but at this point jake feels like he can’t really express doubt and fear and stuff like that bc he’s the Leader and they look to him to be strong (which is ironically very similar to how rachel feels), and marco feels like he can’t be serious bc he’s the funny guy.
Basically I love all the different dynamics in the group. How Cassie and Rachel are such opposites but are best friends and get along well, while Marco and Cassie are more directly opposed - as jake says, Marco is ruthless, and Cassie definitely isn’t. Rachel and Marco are also pretty different which is interesting, bc they have a lot in common, and actually agree on a lot (even if they disagree out loud) but their commonalities combined with their circumstances make them react very differently to the same situations
I also love seeing the differences between characters from each other’s POV - like, p much all the characters think that Rachel is completely fearless, but when the book is from her POV, we get to see that that isn’t true at all - she feels plenty of fear, but she recognizes that her role in the group is to be the fearless one, so she pushes aside her fear to fit into that role (which inadvertently pushes her more and more into that ‘fearless warrior’ box - something that happens to all the characters more and more as the story goes on, like jake as ‘the leader’ and Marco as ‘the jokester’).
Also I loooove the grey morality of literally everything. Like the book where ax discovers an andalite traitor - not a controller, just an andalite who betrayed them to the yeerks. This leads to the deaths of like a hundred other andalites, and that whole scene you really just feel for ax, bc he feels so awful about everyone else dying while he escapes, yet he’s also so grateful to be alive, which he in turn feels bad about...
And ax’s conflict about being torn between his home w/his fellow andalites and his new home on earth w/his friends is great
And oh man I fucking love book 19. Any of the books where it goes more into the yeerks and their side of things are so good, just like the book where jake was made into a controller.
And book 19, where we meet a sympathetic yeerk, comes right after 18, where we meet an andalite traitor - again, I love how we clearly see that no one side is completely good or completely bad
So yeah book 19 fucking slapped. That shit was so compelling. I love how Cassie made a bunch of foolish decisions based on naïve hope, but it worked out!! Things aren’t always bleak and awful!
Except there were plenty bleak and awful parts of this book. It had a great balance of moods tbh, even though a lot of the situations were extremely contrived lmao. I love the stuff that aftran says, which is basically what I was thinking when I started my reread - being a yeerk fucking sucks, you’re literally a blind slug but also completely and fully sentient, on the same level as humans and andalites - and as afran pointed out this book, the yeerks are born as parasites, just as humans are born as predators - why is it okay for the humans to kill countless animals to eat, but not for the yeerks to enslave races to act as hosts? Well, the situation isn’t totally comparable, which Cassie and Marco both point out when aftran makes that comparison - the yeerks are enslaving sentient species, and cows and chickens are not the same as the humans and hork-bajir (though the story understandably doesn’t fall too deeply into the ‘who deserves what right/animal sentience’ rabbit hole).
And I like that aftran points out that the yeerks basically have 2 options currently - stay helpless and blind in a yeerk pool, or enslave a host. It’s interesting to hear that a lot of yeerks don’t like doing this but see it as the only options, as opposed to complete sensory deprivation. It makes me wonder if there are yeerks who are so staunchly against it that they elect to stay as pool-bound slugs forever
Also maybe it’s the shounen anime fan in me but I don’t even care that much that Cassie’s entire plan was completely off the rails and hinged on only the slightest chance of success - with failure being much more likely and completely catastrophic, with the animorphs and their loved ones all being wiped out, vs success being unlikely and also achieving...a moral victory? Peace between two enemy combatants in a huge war? nothing all that concrete...anyways it was a bunch of good-faith horrible decisions on Cassie’s part, but I don’t even care? I love stories where hope and love save the day against all odds, especially when they’re wielded like weapons by a character and make everything end nicely
This is especially true here bc animorphs is generally a series that leans very far away from that type of thing, so when it does happen, it feels like a victory. Plus the David trilogy is next so we kinda need a happy ending while we can
also bc I compared animorphs to hxh last time, I now have to compare it to the other series I've (partially) liveblogged, transformers mtmte.
this is gonna be more abstract and brief but basically. mtmte is all about after the war, and everyone has so much trauma and everything just sucks, so they all go on a space cruise and work on themselves. basically.
but the series does a lot of exploration of how war fucks people up - same as animorphs, tho animorphs spans the beginning of the war (for the main characters at least) until the end, whereas mtmte starts when the war ends.
but the point is. both series do an excellent job showcasing the wide range of reactions people have to being put in unthinkable situations during wartime. all the major characters in mtmte go through arcs where they heal/change from the war, some more subtle than others
basically the animorphs needs to go on a wacky space cruise adventure with a bunch of other fucked up people and figure their shit out, mtmte style
ok this is wicked long already so I’m gonna end it here. also I feel like I should start the next liveblog w/the david triology bc I’m for sure gonna have a lot to say abt that
#i wrote like half of this in my phone notes while on vacation in the wilderness lmao#animorphs#lj reads animorphs
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Thoughts on The Carnival Job
This gets long, so more under the randomly-placed cut.
“He’s translating his grief into controlling his world”--I really appreciate all Sophie’s observations about the marks-slash-Nate across this whole series.
“Spires! Greatness!” This is awesome.
“Did he just take my dirt?” Yes, he just took your dirt, and you’re offended that he stole your dirt. (Well played, Nate.)
We are six minutes into this episode and I don’t see any hint of a carnival. I expected Parker to be cleaning up on one of those twisty-rope-ladder scam things by now. Hmm.
All the “smart house” stuff that Hardison is talking about was pretty conceptual at the time, but a lot closer to reality now, ten years later! Heh. Ooh, and Eliot is here. We have the whole team in the field in the same place!
“Guy can’t watch his own daughter?” --Correction, Eliot is here and Grumpy Big Brother Mode has been activated. *puts chin in hands with a big anticipatory smile*
Oh! Oh!! He’s all “these are my lines, kid, I’m supposed to pretend I don’t like fun--are you--do you actually not like fun? You are way too cynical for a kid and I’m not sure if I’m annoyed or concerned. Grr.”
“Talking to her is like talking to...well, an Eastern European housekeeper” is a GREAT line.
Aww, Hardison looking at Parker through the spy-video-glasses. <3 Have I mentioned they’re a cute couple? Or they’re cute about each other, I guess; we haven’t seen them acting super couple-y.
Ohhh dear, the cute little green frog-bot-thing offended Parker....
I think this is the first time someone has ever accused Eliot of being motivational (in the optimistic sense, not the “do it or I’ll break your arms” sense, anyway), and watching him deal with that is fantastic.
Eliot likes teaching people, doesn’t he? He taught Sophie how to punch, he’s done lots of other little things I don’t remember right now... he was even kind of coaching the guy trying to kill him in The Rashoman Job whose phone he answered (”Why are you sending second-rate thugs after me? *aside, to the guy with a knife sticking out of his shoulder*-- If I’m not honest with you, you can’t get better”).
“Go. Have fun.” Eliot’s also not quite sure what to make of that!
OK, I have to stop pausing to write reactions every 30 seconds, this is getting ridiculous.
--OK but I have to say this!! (1) The giraffe? Amazing. Thought she was going to make Eliot carry it too, but clearly they needed that to show her disappearing. (2) Team goes into full protective mode!! RAR! I love you, Leverage Consulting and Associates! (3) With a special side of vindictive/proud squee for “Nate, if I’m engaged...” “Do your worst.” YEAH, you don’t involve KIDS in your messed-up schemes. Eliot will kill you if you make him and Nate will back him up. (4) She’s going to remember and use the earpiece at a convenient time, of course.
AW YEAH. Allow me to repeat: ALL OF TEAM LEVERAGE IS IN THE FIELD.
Really cool shot, really cool music.
Oh no!!! Eliot!!!
I suspected she was involved. Didn’t think she was the boss, though.
Aw yeah, Parker!!
Oh man....this jerk wouldn’t stand a chance if Eliot hadn’t been punched by a carnival ride ten minutes ago. .....He’s closing his eyes. He’s getting rid of the confusing mirror crap and-- Damn. Eliot Spencer is a scary sonofabitch. And he’s gonna save this kid. Whoo.
(Also? Bucky feels intensify.)
YEAH I knew Hardison was going to do that. :D
“I made her for you.” “....I love it!” *hugs the bot* And she’s naming it after you, Hardison. Awww. :)
OK, this is now one of my top favorites. And I have GOT to liveblog in less detail because it shouldn’t take me 90 minutes to watch a 42-minute show.
#Leverage#Leverage liveblog#Leverage Episode review#The Carnival Job#Eliot Spencer#Parker#Parker 2000#Hardison
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Ayesha Liveblogs Death Note
I’m watching this show specifically because of that text post that said, “Watch how quickly this one guy decides to be the worst person ever” and he has killed two people in the first ten minutes
Though 2 be fair he’s killing people to save people so it’s a trolley problem kind of thing for now
“In fact I’ve been waiting for you... Ryuk” ok weird flex Light but u do u
“You’re the first one to use to this extent in five days” WAIT DID HE MURDER ALL THOSE PEOPLE IN FIVE DAYS I THOUGHT HE WAS JUST LOOKING AT A LIST OH MY GOD??
“So there isn’t a price to using Death Note?” said Light, as if killing people is just a normal thing that we all do
Fhkjfhfkjb Ryuk really went ‘u used the book so we’re friends now’
I was wondering why the book was in English, and I guess that makes sense British and American imperialism really Did That
“I can write down the names of criminals, and slowly reduce the number of evil people” uhhhh doesn’t u being a Book Murderer also make you a criminal Light
“Human lives shouldn’t be taken so lightly” bah dum tss
Also I guess that revelation lasted about thirty seconds for you huh
Update from 15 seconds later: Even less than that
“I would create a world of earnest, kind humans” really because I don’t think places that allow the death penalty are generally nicer societies
It’s interesting that they use English in the classes and the notebook but the conversation at Interpol takes place in Japanese (despite the implied internationality and Ryuk’s aforementioned claim about English being most common)
Huh I won’t lie I do think it’s confusing that the main characters are L and Light, which also starts with L
“I am justice” I mean if anything this show just proves that no one should be allowed to use the death penalty on apprehended suspects in criminal justice cases ever
OH SHIT PLOT TWIST HIS DAD’S A COP (IT WAS IN THE TEXT POST I THINK BUT I FORGOT)
Wow this show is full of mind games already I guess I can see why like, crime show fans would dig it
“But I’m going to say this as your roommate” OH MY GOD THEY WERE ROOMMATES KJHRGKJHKJHG
Interesting that someone is following Light specifically already
I mean not to poke too many holes in your plan Light but wouldn’t it clash with your plan to become God if you die at like 35 or smth
“You’re already much more of a shinigami than they are” Ryuk said my friends are BORING I want to hang out with this MURDER TEEN
“I may not look it, but I’m pretty popular” Light is exactly the kind of guy who ends up in a true crime special where a bunch of people say he seemed like a nice, charismatic young man
Man this poor girl that Light brought on this date is going to be straight traumatized after this
I mean isn’t it MORE suspicious if someone dies around someone with direct ties to the police even if it’s not a heart attack
“You were indeed a brilliant FBI agent once, but now you’re my fiancée” kjhfkjhg WHAT FBI AGENTS CAN’T BE MARRIED
“Once we have a family, you’ll be so busy that you’ll forget that you were an agent” I’m not a fan of Raye Penber
What’s the point in killing Raye at all???? He told you he was part of a special investigation so clearly he’s not that suspicious of you
Light sure is bold to announce his Killing People Experiments in the middle of a busy sidewalk
Incredible that consistently no one notices Light’s increasingly threatening declarations????
Fjkfkfhk these five cops finding out their Hail Mary is this strange little goblin man,,,, wow
This woman has really pushed Light to the brink just by giving a fake name, I admire her tenacity
Cops wearing fake IDs really did not age well oh boy
SERIOUSLY HOW DOES NO ONE EVER HEAR LIGHT SAYING SUSPICIOUS THINGS IN PUBLIC THOROUGHFARES HE LITERALLY JUST SAID “I AM KIRA” AS A DETECTIVE WALKED BY, WHILE HE WAS TALKING TO SOMEONE HE KILLED IMMEDIATELY AFTER
Wow it really took only eight episodes for L to track Light as close as one of two families
“You have a wife and daughter, right?” “I know!” I mean..... not 2 be that guy but... cops
“To me, apples are like... Well, like cigarettes and liquor to humans” Vcvhcjhj every once in a while Ryuk says something that really tickles me
I know the word sociopath is kind of outdated but man does Light have actual interests outside of school or does he just do stuff to fill the void of his lack of interests (outside of murder)
JKHGKJHGKJHKJHG I cannot believe that this has turned into a fake classmate situation first of all 1) are you going to become friends and 2) How old are you Ryuzaki/L?
“Where is that rich kid from? And he’s even at the top of his class? What a jerk” honestly a mood
I DESPERATELY want Light’s mother or sister to overhear his evil cackling will someone finally eavesdrop on this god complex
“If I sit normally, my reasoning skills drop by 40%” weird flex but same
Sidenote: I can’t believe how many episodes of this show I already have watched
Ngl I was VERY shook that Mr. Yagami had a heart attack. Also does Light care if his family lives or dies or is he kind of neutral on the subject?
“If Kira is an ordinary person who gained this power, then he is a very unlucky person” Dad and L said ‘if u ARE Kira could you please stop murdering thank you <3′
Light really underestimated how much cops hate anyone who has killed a cop oops
OH SO IT’S NOT LIGHT I WAS WONDERING WHY HE HAD NOT MADE AN APPEARANCE THIS WHOLE EPISODE U MEAN THERE ARE TWO GUYS WITH THIS EXACT SAME IDEOLOGY AND PLAN? INCREDIBLE
Update from ten seconds later: Two people, I guess
Well this explains the girl in the short dress which serves as the Netflix thumbnail of this show I was wondering when she would show up
Also she sounds like she’s very young? Clearly Shinigami don’t have a minimum age of informed consent when it comes to their Murder Eyes Contract
Hahah I bet Light didn’t imagine that his petty and fucked up apple joke would bite him so quickly in the ass
Dhkjdhdkjhd Misa is so bold dropping her Death God deets in a video for anyone to see
“The way to kill a Shinigami, is to make them fall in love with a human” does this mean that Ryuk is going to fall in love with Light or Misa? Both would make me uncomfortable
Oh wild guess Misa became a Death Note Wielder through the Power of Unreciprocated Voyeuristic Love
“Yeah, I have a girlfriend now,” said Light, after a girl contacted him through a series of anonymous video tapes implicitly vowing to be his disciple
“No one could tell who he’s attached to if I’m with this many people” [20 seconds pass] “Found him!” HAHAHA the funniest part of this show is consistently watch Light going “got ‘em” before it immediately is revealed that he doesn’t got ‘em
Why is Light so incredibly searchable??? I think the only way people people could find my height online is if I happened to answer it for one of those Facebook note memes in 2007 lmaoooo
“There are many places that will go and sell your personal records” ah, data breaches; a problem that has not gotten any better in the last 15 years since this anime came out
HKJHFHKJFHF Light immediately jumping into fake-dating his weird disciple in front of his mom... what is this show
“Please make me your girlfriend” OH MY GOOOOOD
This is one of the weirdest romantic dynamics I’ve seen in recent memory but you know what? Whatever, at least it’s not Anxiety and Murder
“Does that mean I’ll have to deal with her until she dies?” Light is truly exuding some Ladybird Book of Dating Energy rn:
The fact that to kill L all Light had to do was get an obsessive girlfriend... astounding
Beautiful that it took Misa less than a week of knowing Light to ruin his whole 15 episode game plan and also life
“I think I may be Kira” Well this show keeps taking one escalation after another this is exhausting why can’t Light just be a normal person who found it, tried it out of interest in the occult, discovered he’d committed a horrible atrocity and then went to therapy for the rest of his life only to confess to Magical Murder on his deathbed while his family goes, ‘Wow, Grandpa’s crazy’
Does L not think that keeping three different people imprisoned for days on end will lead to some psychological repercussions for him
FOR WEEKS ON END????? OH MY GOD???? The fuck L, I know two of these people are murderers but there are some minimum conditions of correctional facilities and this seems a little Stanford PE
THE DRAMA OF THIS EPISODE I KNEW IT WAS GONNA BE A BLANK BUT HOW FUCKED UP TO PUT EVERYONE THROUGH THIS L I THINK YOU NEED THERAPY!!!!!!! I MEAN LIGHT AND MISA ARE MURDERERS BUT FORCING A MAN TO HOLD HIS SON AT GUNPOINT AFTER IMPRISONING THEM FOR OVER A MONTH IS REALLY A REFLECTION OF A COMPLETE LACK OF EMPATHY (especially when you think that this version of Misa and Light don’t know anything!!! Oh my god!! The fuck)
“I will make arrangements so you and I are together 24 hours a day” call me crazy but I would not want to spend 24/7 with the man who imprisoned me for over a month while playing cruel psychological games all the while
“I’m one of those people who’ll accept Kira, I’d think of ways I could help him” Misa said Bimbo Rights
“I could never toy with a woman’s emotions like that” Light’s dating life and personality has gotten a LOT funnier since he forgot he was a murderer I kind of wish THIS could be the whole show
Also: Nice to know Light USED to have standards of how to treat women
Honestly fair play to both L and Light they both deserved to be punched and it’s funny to see eighteen episodes of mind games culminate in punching and kicking each other in the face
“Matsuda’s being an idiot again” “Well, Matsuda is a natural at that” wghkjhgkj what has Matsuda done to any of you
"He’s punishing criminals as a front, and killing people for the benefit of this company” is Light unknowingly going to solve the murder chain he himself started... inspiring
“I was testing you” this is why Light is your only friend, L, Aizawa has kids and it’s a dick move to ask him to put his convictions before them
Poor Matsuda realizing he’s got the least to offer to their team... me in high school science labs
I understand Aizawa’s moral crisis but why do NONE of these cops care about their wives or daughters they’re just kind of like, ‘I will provide for you but I have no interest in or fulfillment from being part of your life’ (ACAB)
Matsuda is truly about to die for being dumb and eager to help 😔 Rest in Pieces
“We must not allow Yotsuba to figure out that we are investigating them,” said L, just after it cut from Matsuda being obvious about investigating them. Oh Matsuda 😔 you’re so bad at your job 😔
MATSUDAAAAAAAA oh thank goodness; Bimbo Rights save the day
“I can’t go along with your idea, it’s wrong!” said Light, despite the fact it took him 15 seconds to get over murder the first couple of times he did it
Staaaaaaaaay Good Light, I don’t want ur Deathnotesona I want this young man with moral convictions!!
The level of hubris it takes to answer a phone call during your secret Murder Meeting while people continue to talk about their Murder Plans is just out of this world
“If I die, you could probably become the successor to the ‘L‘ name,” said L, to the person he has been trying to catch for twenty episodes
“I won’t say anything under any kind of torture” “Yes that��s true” Which he knows because he tortured her for six weeks!! You see that that’s fucked up, L, right? RIGHT??? RIIIIIIIIGHT? (LIIIIIIIGHT???)
Seriously not to beat a dead Shinigami but Light is so much better like this. He doesn’t want to throw people’s lives away for the investigation! He wants to protect Misa! He thinks Kira is wrong! Why does he have to be a murderer!!! Why can’t this show be about a nice young man!!!!
“Hey Ryuzaki, that’s messed up!” THANK YOU LIGHT AGAIN I KNOW YOU BOTH HAVE KILLED PEOPLE BUT YOU DON’T KNOW THAT RIGHT NOW SO FOR ALL MISA KNOWS HE’S JUST A GUY WHO TORTURES HER AND TELLS HER CRUSH WILL DIE IF SHE DOESN’T HELP
Wow Rem is so ride or die for Misa protecting Misa from creepy Higuchi, giving her info and telling her to trust Light, that’s love bitch
Props to Misa for getting a confession out of Higuchi after one (1) car ride
Why do I feel like L is going to be responsible for reawakening Bad Light is it because he psychologically tortured him for six weeks? Had his dad hold him at gunpoint? Forced Misa to investigate on his behalf? Constantly and unerringly presses him on what Kira would be thinking as he’s handcuffed to him 24 hours a day? Maybe!! This is like Build-a-Bear but he’s customizing his Teen Murder Friend
“Only Mr. Matsuda can do [the mission to lure out Higuchi!Kira]” Death Note really said the Himbos, Herbos and Thembos shall inherit the Earth
They keep saying they don’t know how he kills but it seems pretty obvious that he writes down their names to kill, they literally saw him do it
I really don’t want any of the investigation team to die but things are not looking hot :(
“Ryuzaki, I never knew you could fly a helicopter” “It’s just intuition” what does that MEAN
“Those aren’t allowed in Japan,” said Light, about a gun, as if he had not killed probably thousands of people without one
In spite of this fact I really do want Good Light to stay 😔 Why! Can’t! This! Show! Be! About! A! Nice! Young! Man!
Also they really are playing into this father-and-son duo I will be very sad when the dad inevitably dies as I’m sure he will
Family side note: I’ve been wondering this since the prison ep but where do Light’s mom and sister think he IS now that he’s dropped out of first year uni to be a teen criminal investigator handcuffed to a maladjusted homebody private eye
AIZAWAAA and also the other two guys I guess there was a plot relevant reason for him to rejoin the police huh
Well what a clean ending to this Kira arc. No one died and the killer was caught! Yikes that the next ep is called ‘Revival’ tho 😔 Rest in pieces Good Light
Also a new and very threatening intro???? What happened to the Twilight Apple Hands
BOOOO I knew Light would get his memory back but I was hoping it would at least fuck him up for a while he sorted out his two personas but I guess all roads eventually lead to Bad Light
Full disclosure I stopped watching for a few days just after Light got his memory back and let me tell u coming back later hasn’t made it any more tolerable I am truly not built for this EUGH
“Do you really want to halve your life a second time” “Well, that can’t be helped” REALLY???? CAN’T IT BE HELPED MISA??? WHY ARE YOU AND LIGHT SO CRAZY
Oh I guess we’re back to Light saying incredibly suspicious things right near the investigators lmao what if those cameras secretly had audio or you know, L simply knew how to read lips
“Misa, let’s make a new world together” Remember a bunch of episodes ago when Good Light was all ‘I could never toy with a woman’s emotions’?? What was the reason!!!
“Have you ever told the truth at any point in your entire life” L cutting straight to the core lmao (also the answer is obviously ‘no’)
This show has taken a jarring tonal shift why are they having a post-rain-confrontation massage and towelling each other off this is a level of intimacy I was not prepared for I NEED PEOPLE TOOK LOOK AT THIS:
OKAY OKAY OKAY I KNOW THAT IT WAS PROBABLY NOT THEIR INTENTION BUT THE ONLY WAY I CAN READ THIS SCENE IS AS “Don’t kill me Light~ 🥰 I’ll fuck you~ 🥰”
I guess L knew he was forcing Rem’s hand to kill him if he disproved the rules written in the book?? But to what end omg how does this help anyone
“In April 2012, Light Yagami, age 23, joins the National Police Agency” should’ve known we’d land here eventually (ACAB)
Ah, I see another person who doesn’t know how to sit, clearly they will inherit the L title next lmao
Update from the first few mins of the next ep: “Near should succeed L” told you
“There’s no way I’m letting Sayu marry a detective” ahjfkhkjf he’s a little old for her I think but it wouldn’t be the worst thing this show has done romantically lmao; maybe Sayu would get to investigate her brother
“I might’ve considered going out with you, if you were a little younger” HA GOOD FOR HER
“[...] the Japanese police are unreliable. In order to solve this case, we want you to hand over the notebook to our country.” Of all the Japanese-speaking Americans in this show, this is the most accurate jkhfkhf the US government really is Like That
Ah, so that’s where Mello’s gone, oh how the turn tables
Also way to sell your subordinates out immediately, NPA Director, will you give them the Kira task force’s home addresses too
The real question is if Light actually cares about his sister enough to prioritize her over the notebook
“Call me... N” Oh my good L... M(ello)... N(ear)... Oooooooooooooooo
It’s my saving grace that I only need to get through 9 more eps but as always I must wonder where this is going will Light just die and end up in Shinigami purgatory while the people who knew him after the fact go, ‘hey, that guy was fucked up’
“If things get bad, I’ll have to kill Sayu” well I guess that answers that question, my expectations of Light are so low and yet he continues to find new ways to be awful
Good for Mr. Yagami and Sayu for getting out of that alive I guess but hoo boy I think this is going to have some psychological repercussions for both of them
Uh oh this episode is called ‘Father’ I’ve been dreading this one bc I think that means Mr. Yagami is about to die 😭😭😭
“It was an institution for brilliant children, to raise them to become L‘s successor” okay calm down Professor Xatari that’s not what children are for lmao
Well I guess it’s a lot easier to track down info about these two guys than it was to figure out L lmao
HAHAHA Sidoh haunting Ryuk to ask for his stuff is a fun addition to this madness
“He’s scary for a human” jkhhfjh how unhinged does Mello have to be to threaten a literal Shinigami
I truly don’t understand the logistics of how they revealed Ryuk to the police force isn’t the second Kira notebook supposed to belong to Actual Kira, in the police force’s eyes????? I do not understand how Light can just turn up with another notebook and everyone’s like ‘sure cool’ did I miss something
Mr. Yagami killed for being unable to take human life ugh this is the worst
“You’re not Kira. I’m really glad.” WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THIS IS SO SAD MR. YAGAMI NOOOOOOOOOO THAT’S WHY HE RENOUNCED OWNERSHIP OF THE NOTEBOOK
Neither Mello nor Near seem overly concerned with the lives of people around them does being a Super Genius Investigator also mean you have to be a dick (is this Benadryl Coddleswab Sherlock syndrome)
Lmaooo genuinely love how it’s constantly apparent that Light is the least smart of all of the smart people Light spent five years working on his reputation and it took Near one (1) phone call to destroy it
Ghjkhgkhgkgjh Light outsmarted by Near yet again never think people will prioritize principles over money
Lol yeah Aizawa needn’t have given a name after he said the “Deputy Director Yagami would kill Kira and then himself” thing, you don’t do that just for anyone who was he fooling
How does Light keep track of all the renunciations and notebooks bc I certainly can’t
Ffhkfjhfj Mikami truly looks like the son of L and Light it’s like Light missed him and was like, “Miss u boo :( (even tho I kinda killed u) I’ll adopt An Evil 27-year-old in ur honour :)”
Is Mikami’s story really, ‘I got bullied in high school and have mommy issues so now I think people I don’t like should die’ ok Shonen Snape
“I just want you to meet with me and hear me out” Light really proving to Aizawa that he can lie AND manipulate people’s feelings
“The truth is, she’s not smart enough to be my partner” first of all Light I think this show has proven you’re not that smart, and Misa’s Herbo Energy is effervescent and will outlast you, and third of all go to jail
“He’ll look suspicious if he doesn’t say something soon” “Ide, have you ever been in love” Matsuda continues to be the only good part of this show
“You’re the only man I’ve ever respected and admired in my life” GET SOME THERAPY KIYOMI
“You’re going to be the goddess of the new world” so it’s not enough for Light to be a murderer he must also be a cheater
Lmao Near’s powers of perception do seem a little B/BC S/herlock because L tried for literally months to work out the possibilities and Near is just like ‘I KNOW IT NOW’
“The only thing I can deduce from this is that Light Yagami is popular with the ladies” HEAVEN KNOWS WHY (PUN NOT INTENDED)
Every moment Aizawa gets closer to proving Light is Kira is another step closer to death 😔
“This is definitely Mikami’s handwriting” Not to be a know-it-all, Near, but handwriting analysis has been proven faulty many times in multiple courts of law
This truly is a game of Cat and Cat. All these hidden plans give me a headache fkjhkfjh call me Misa-Misa and spin me sideways I don’t have the braincells to spare
Well this is definitely some kind of s*xual assault absolutely fucking hate it wow this show truly just drains the life out of you
“Matt, I never thought you would be killed” why wouldn’t you think that at this point anyone who comes close to this investigation eventually dies (also wjkhkjhgk why is Matt special didn’t you kill all those thugs you had before -- Mello said ‘the lives of my allies are only important if they are drawn in handsome protag style’)
As of yet I haven’t really talked about Near’s wild toymaking but hoo boy is that L finger puppet something to observe
“Everyone who knows about the existence of the notebook will die” I’m still pulling for their survival, particularly Matsuda (himbo rights!!!)
Imagine if they just shot Light Yagami on sight how ironic would that conclusion to all these mind games be
“I’m waiting, for the one who will solve everything, to arrive” Lmao if it turns out L is alive I’ll pee laughing this show is so fucking stupid
Take a shot every time there is a Humpty-Dumpty-in-Puss-in-Boots style explanation about how everything actually happened
“I’ve won, Near” I bet/hope what gets Light caught is his inability to hold in his hubris for one (1) minute
Although the last episode is called New World, in which case maybe he wins in a very weird ending to a very weird show
Sjkfhkjhfkhfkjhf well I guess what gets Light caught is that the person he invited to be his murderous disciple keeps calling him God
“A second ago, you said ‘I win.’ That’s as good a confession as any” HA hubris strikes again also bold of Aizawa to clap Light on the shoulder knowing he is a mass murderer
Ohhh Matsuda he’s so nice and believed the best of Light :((((((((((((
Watching Light become increasingly desperate and crazed is very uncomfortable give it up dude u’ve been beat (though I suppose there is time for everyone here to be murdered still lmao)
LMAO LIGHT SAID “IF YOU CAN’T BEAT ‘EM, CONVERT ‘EM”
Yeah I figured if one of them was gonna shoot it would be Matsuda :( :( Good for him for not killing Light tho!!
Huh I guess that’s the end of the show I thought Light would die but I did think we’d at least get to see him in Shinigami Purgatory or smth... what a wild ride. This certainly was a show.
#ayesha talks anime#ayesha liveblogs dn#liveblogging#long post#sorry for any dn fans who stumble across this lmao i don't have the constitution for it
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MAG 018 - The Man Upstairs
Summary: Jonathan reads the statement of Christof Rudenko, regarding “his interactions with a first-floor resident of Welbeck House, Wandsworth.”
Obligatory confession of American confusion: This episode is about 23 minutes long, and it took me until somewhere around the 20-minute mark before I had my light-bulb moment about Toby Carlisle being a “first-floor resident”. By “first floor” he means “SECOND floor” in American speak. Yes, that’s right - I spent almost the entire episode confused about which floor this guy really lived on. (For anyone not in the know, in the U.S. the “first floor” is the floor that you walk into a building on, that you don’t use any steps or stairs to access. It is also called the ground floor - they are the same thing. If you go up one flight of stairs, you are now on the second floor, not the first.)
The first-floor-second-floor thing was pretty much the only mystery I solved this episode though. I definitely enjoyed the episode (despite feeling like throwing up myself at some of the descriptions), but as with most of the episodes, I’m left with far more questions and tantalizing clues than actual answers.
Christof describes the odd, unpleasant odor around Toby Carlisle as “halfway between the smell of the pavement after a rain on a hot day and chicken that’s starting to turn”. The second part of that makes sense, given the state of Toby’s apartment when Christof enters it at the end, but I’m having trouble placing what exactly that first part is supposed to smell like. More interesting to me though is the fact that the smell was already there when Christof moved in, even though the banging from Toby’s apartment didn’t start until almost two years later. It seems reasonable to assume the banging was Toby nailing the various meats to the walls, floor, ceiling, etc., but if that’s the case, then where was that smell coming from for the years prior to that? Did it originate with Toby himself, or did his excess meat problem cause the smell long before he actually started nailing them to the walls?
When Christof returned the incorrectly delivered package to Toby’s apartment, we get possibly the most detailed description of any part of Toby in the entire episode: “The hand was thin and pale, with long, filthy yellow fingernails. On the back, I saw a single dark red mark that might have been a cut or a lesion, but it was gone before I had a chance to see it in more detail.” The “single dark red mark” is likely the beginning of the “puckered, septic lesions and holes” Christof sees in Toby’s dead face at the end of the episode (some part of me wants to say it reminds me of Jared Key’s eye tattoos from episode 12...but I’m trying to ignore that possibility), but the fingernails are what really piqued my interest. Christof tells himself for most of the episode that Toby just has a severe hygiene issue, but if it was straight-up uncleanliness, his fingernails would be primarily brown or black, caked with dirt or grime, that sort of thing. Instead, they are yellow more than anything else. This is the first of five mentions of the color yellow in this episode - the second is the color of the growing stain on Christof’s dining room ceiling, the third is the color of the liquid that oozes out of the hole in the ceiling after it collapses, the fourth is the color of the rotting meat covering Toby’s apartment, and the fifth is the color of the “fluid” that “oozed” from the creepy af pile of meat in Toby’s kitchen. The similarity in the colors indicates a direct connection between Toby himself (that is, his body) and the rotten meat. But the pieces of meat that lined his apartment were, in Christof’s estimation, pieces of various non-human animals - so if we take him at his word, the rotten meat wasn’t literally from Toby, so something external caused both Toby and the meat to excrete that sickly yellow rot.
So what made it target or infect Toby? No clue, since we don’t have any background on him, but I sure hope it wasn’t done by touch alone: Christof got some of that yellow slime on his jacket sleeve when Toby snatched the package from him. He said he couldn’t get rid of the smell and eventually threw the jacket out - but then he accidentally touched the stuff while fumbling for the light switch in Toby’s apartment at the end. When they followed up with him, he said “he had had no further experiences he believed to be linked to these events” and I don’t have any specific reason to disbelieve that - except that that means Toby wasn’t infected by just touching the wrong thing (or person). This isn’t a Jane Prentiss-type infection. So what’s Toby’s story?
And just what was in that package? “The envelope was thick and soft - it must have been mainly full of bubble wrap or other packing material.” So...it wasn’t meat? Because that would have been two puzzle pieces fitting together quite nicely, canceling each other out, and I’m more than a little irked that that wasn’t the case. It’s like Jonathan said at the end: “Where was he getting the meat?” At first, the sheer quantity of meat reminded me, vaguely, of the bag of teeth from episode 5. Both were a multitude of body parts. But those teeth were human and the meat is (apparently) from animals, and all the teeth were identical, whereas these meats are all different cuts from different animals. Notably, they’re all animals that are typically eaten by humans - Christof mentions steaks, chicken, and lamb among them. This seems to be more of that theme of rotten food, although in this case I think the “rotten” is more important than the “food”.
Despite all these questions I have, none of these things are directly harmful. Sure, Christof’s ceiling caves in, but no one besides Toby dies or gets hurt (that we know of). But that pile at the end...I got some Seriously Bad Vibes from that. To recap, Christof found in Toby’s kitchen “a pile of discarded meat and bone stacked almost as high as a person. It seemed almost less decayed than the rest of it, though that foul yellow fluid oozed from it, and…when I looked at that heaped pile of meat…it moved. I don’t know how - I don’t know quite how to explain it, other than it opened its eyes. It opened all its eyes. The next thing I remember is the police’s arrival” - and then suddenly the pile of meat was gone. There are two things here - inherently connected, I’m sure - that I’d like to point out.
First is the eyes. Creepy or out-of-place eyes have been mentioned every few episodes so far in the series: in the painting on Mary Key’s wall in episode 4, in Wilfred Owen’s death in episode 7, in the eye pendants in episode 9, in Jared Key’s eye tattoos in episode 12 (as well as the eye in the security camera in that same episode). And with each new appearance (particularly the one in this episode) I’m starting to get more and more worried about whatever being or creature or presence the eyes belong to.
Which brings me to the second thing. One of the recurring themes in these stories has been what I’ve taken to calling “altered reality” - when things appear one way but, we find out later, were actually quite different. When Graham is confused by Amy mentioning his nonexistent window box in episode 3. When Laura tries to reverse out of the squeeze in the cave in episode 15 and her foot hits solid rock. When the pile of meat straight-up disappears in this very episode. I want to be clear - those examples of “altered reality” are not what I’m talking about when I discuss a new (to me) theme: the incomprehensible. This pile of...whatever...in Toby’s kitchen is literally incomprehensible to Christof. He can’t even put into words what he saw. It’s like either the words don’t exist to describe what he saw or his brain can’t comprehend it - or possibly both. He says, “when I looked at that heaped pile of meat…it moved. I don’t know how - I don’t know quite how to explain it, other than it opened its eyes. It opened all its eyes.” Being unable to trust your senses due to some “altered reality” is terrifying, but to experience something that is literally incomprehensible and indescribable is just another level of terrifying. And the one thing most clearly intertwined with this incomprehensibility Christof experiences? The eyes. Specifically, the eyes opening.
We’ve seen this incomprehensibility before, albeit in slightly less terrifying (IMO) situations. In episode 3, Amy describes the creature entering Graham’s window: “When I say it moved, that’s not quite right - it shifted. Like when you stare at one of those old magic eye paintings and you change from seeing one picture into seeing another.” But much more blatantly and recently, in episode 17 Sebastian describes reading an excerpt from The Boneturner’s Tale: the Boneturner “crept up to the Miller while he slept. It described him silently reaching inside him and…it’s a bit hazy. All I remember clearly is the line ‘and from his rib a flute to play that merry tune of marrow took’. And as for the rest, I don’t recall in detail.” The second example concerns me much more than the first. I feel bad for Graham, of course, and I really want to know what that creature was...but The Boneturner’s Tale was a Leitner and seemed to have the power to deform anyone who touched it.
By themselves, it doesn’t appear that the eyes are doing anything. They’re just eyes, after all. No limbs, no body. But I don’t know if they really are just watching, or if their form and actions are so incomprehensible to humans that the people in these stories essentially can’t perceive it. And if they are just watching...what are they watching for, and what’s going to happen when they see it?
This post is part of a series where I write my thoughts about each episode and obsessively connect dots in an effort to figure out The Big Mysteries of the series. All posts in this series are tagged “is this liveblogging?” Comments and messages are welcome but I have only listened to season 1, so I ask that you not spoil me for anything beyond episode 40. In the words of Jonny Sims…thanks for listening!
#personal#liveblogging#is this liveblogging?#The Magnus Archives#this is some serious Eldritch horror crap starting guys and I Do Not Like#(I mean I actually do but it freaks me right the fuck out for sure)
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Could you please liveblog the making of Sonne?
I got a few of the same request yes hello
Fun fact everyone already knows Sonne was my first Rammstein experience (that I remember). The video was played at least once a day on kerrang and my dad would play it to help me sleep when I was a bairn.
Okay was it a fan added thing or was Oli stoned when he had the idea? It seems like a stoned thing to do
Maybe it's because I grew up around mining towns but... Hot.
They all look so cute schneider looks like a Rat
"did touring in the US have any influence on the album?"
"Nope" the most adorable twisty smile I've ever seen
"I hope not"
*very strange noises from Richard that I have never heard before or since* "it wasn't an influence"
Does till drink super strangely out of that cup or am I overanalysing?
This hair is what immediately comes to mind when I think Till Lindemann
Rat. Rodent man.
It's interesting that they're all saying such soft lovely things about making the album as if nothing happened and everything was fine the whole time. I guess it's nice they didn't just sit and complain about each other though. Love and solidarity.
Richard. Looks very nice :) good shoulders. Next person who meets him say good job growing those shoulders. More people should wear tank tops I feel.
God they're all so adorable I have to keep replaying bits.
He does say Glück auf right? Why did they have to completely soot him up is it because the truth looks a little silly?
The grin at Richard will end me one day.
@struwwelzeter I think? Once pointed out that he says irgendwie a lot and ever since I've been unable to not hear it when he says it in the last minute he's said it at least twice. I mean I get it I too have things I say a lot but god it's worse than "you know?"
It's just such a long sound to make as filler? It has three syllables
I love the way he's talking and would like a full documentary of him just discussing things like this just ask a vague question and let him run with it
It's so nice hearing from Oli always I think he does it on purpose. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that. A treat
Schneider is a dumbass yes but his intelligence also. He's right, you don't actually have to do what you're supposed to as long as you're doing good work
"we tried to make songs we'd still like in two years" smart move, they're playing several of those songs still not far off two decades later
I can really feel Paul's accent when he talks right after someone else it's so round and I love it but I do worry that if I ever decide to properly learn German I will accidentally develop his accent
Schneider doing the pounding will be the death of me actually that's what'll do it
Why does Richard just kind of lick the spoon I can almost hear the found of his jaw clicking shut
I like Jörn a lot. Im tempted to hit him over the autistic thing but in his defence that was fifteen years ago
It's really cool actually that they use the same few directors for the most part, I love seeing how their ideas and techniques have evolved even though I don't know very much about that kind of stuff. Sonne vs Ausländer.
It doesn't help that they made Paul look MINISCULE next to till in this shot. Why does he seem to like the short jokes? I suppose he gets them a lot he has known flake since he was 18
Till is so ! giggly ! In this video ! He is enjoying this so so much! Like a proper big laugh teeth fully out
The boys slow motion headbanging together gets me in my feelings for some reason it's just very sweet and fun
They too look high
The entire "we wanted to name it Herzeleid" bit almost always has me cry-laughing for some reason it's just so Him and so Funny and Cute and you can see his own amusement building inside of him as he prepares to deliver the line
There is already a Herzeleid album and unfortunately it is also by us
He's a pretty man I love when you can see that glint in his eyes
Did Paul mispronounce synthesiser?
Till eats like he's the youngest of six children have you ever noticed that?
The Cain Instinct rising within Paul and nobody moving to stop him. Flake and Schneider just stare and wait to see what he'll do looking just a little concerned. He looks like he's trying to explain and demonstrate something to Schneider but I don't know what he's saying just before he does it
It's funny that their objectively best song was written for and seemingly rejected by a boxer. It's obvious if you know but if you don't you'd have no idea
That sounds very silly im sorry I still have ok stick in my head
Till is flirting. I think Till is flirting. Too many little genuine smiles.
Have any if you played Skyrim? Schneider is sitting in that chair like a Jarl in a bonnet
I think Paul just picks random numbers any time he needs numbers. What was it, 37 extra new songs after the untitled album was finalised? 27? I don't trust him.
Oli is refusing it seems to take credit and also talking like a sub just saying don't @ me
Ways the dwarves. Were right.
A little bit indignant? Yeah rather shocked
Poor Robert hhh
I'm not saying Paul seems excited about being spanked but what I am saying is
He can't explain it but I think we all can
God till is pretty in this tree bit
"eins, zwei, drei, oh!" Typical Schneider behaviour and I truly do adore.
Putting Paul on Olis side was a choice that was made
I really do appreciate just how much work they put into all the details of this, I don't know what professionals think but I for one think they did an amazing job. No wonder they kept hold of Jörn
The boys doing their cuddles! I wonder why there isn't more fic based on Sonne, I think I've only read one or two? Is it because you guys don't know enough about mining because I don't think anyone would mind
I would do many things for a documentary with Paul as the David Attenborough type figure
There's something so charming about Till arguing about the logic of finding out snow white is dead(?) and whether or not Schneider needs to inform them of that fact
Of course they'd put Schneider first look at his little suspicious face
Okay this but they go into way more detail about their favourite parts.
Flake likes to grumble but he is also the most genuinely content man I have ever layed eyes on. If he's with the band he's happy.
Olis little gesture is the cutest actually?
Okay yeah you can totally tell they made up and it's all water under the bridge they worked it out and are happy
Nevermind, Flake just had to do it. "Perhaps in time we'll learn that not everyone has to concern themselves with everything" honey you can say Richard, Paul and Schneider it's okay
They learned to trust each other, basically. They accept the support and help and recognise the expertise of the others. A lot of bands never find that. A lot of people in general never find that, actually.
I still cannot tell whose laugh is the fucking ridiculous one, it's either Richard or Schneider and I think it's Schneider despite Richard looking like a yawning dog
Oh that's Paul's partner next to him right? With the red hair?
Who is the dude till is cuddling with? He looks familiar is he in the ITDW making of?
I do love to see a gaggle of giggling boys
Okay no it's schneider, the fool. His laugh is completely unrestrained and cascading and barking and odd and its glorious to behold.
I would love to see them watch and reach to their older making ofs because so much of it is mirrored. What Paul says about it needing to be fun, the Keine Lust thing that. Actually that's also about it needing to just be for fun. Hm. Still, do it.
Tills joke about getting to that point in the next twenty years how did he knowwwwwww
Fortunately I can knock on wo—thats not wood
Alleth gut, he says.
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