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#I’m only like. 20 or so episodes behind. so haha
gold-rhine · 4 months
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Inazuma Rewrite Act 3
Please start reading from part one before reading this. It will make no sense otherwise.
Act 3 pays off for Acts 1 and 2, and I made some major changes in them, such as change to reasons of vision hunt\Raiden motivations, Ayaka arc, entire resistance storyline, Transience setup, Yoimiya arc setup, so without reading them first, this part will not make sense.
In this installment:
Transcience pay off
Yoimiya arc
Kazuha conflict
Raiden confrontation
Kujou Sara arc
and more
All disclaimers from part one also apply, I’m not gonna copy paste them.
Yae Miko \ Raiden Preparation Training
ok, let’s start with the fact that current “raiden fight training” sucks. Like I get what they’re going for, and training episode idea is very anime, but like. Running in circles around a trashcan that hits you with boss moves is not fun. it is, in fact, super annoying. 
i want to keep the training angle, but make it more... spiritual. and thematic.
so, yae miko is like blah blah, you need to prepare to face Raiden, and I will train you, as the person who knows her the best.
Paimon is like wow, you’re gonna teach us to fight??
Yae Miko is like haha you’re so stupid, no, of course not. Your goal is to change raiden’s mind. For that, you need to know and understand her and where she’s coming from.
We will know you’re ready, when you can pass the Sacred Sakura trial
she leads traveler to the sacred sakura. there are like stone plates with symbols at the base, you know, the puzzle ones.
Yae goes like, do you know what Transience means? Transience is the dream of the nation of thunder. We find the greatest joys in mortal life in fleeting dreams, for is life itself not like the shadow of the thunder? Pursue your dreams into the clouds if you wish, and enjoy the unexpected silence of the dim lamp-lit nights.
traveler and paimon is like yeah wait, we saw smth like that in inazuma shrines and ruins
yae is like great, then show me the symbol of Transience. traveler looks at the puzzle stones, but there weren’t really anything like this in the prev locations which mentioned transience
player can fiddle with puzzle stones, but whatever combination they try, it doesn’t work
after a couple of tries, yae is like okay, it seems you still have much to learn! lets go, i’ll teach you
you go through the inazuma city with her, but seemingly only do bullshit. like, eating ramen, shopping, doing some light novels bs, and like traveler is paying for everything. not too long, like just few minutes, with a couple phrases per activity and fading to black, kinda montage of more and more exasperated and confused traveler and paimon until they’re like wait what the fuck is this. how is supposed to teach us anything??
yae does her signature bullshit smirks like hehe you’re too close-minded, you clearly haven’t understood ~Transience~, so buy me more stuff
paimon does her Angry Stomp, you know the one, like ugh! you’re just fucking with us to get us to pay for stuff, we’re done!
yae narrows her eyes menacingly with a smile like haha is this how u wanna talk to me you little flying shit, paimon hides behind traveler like oops sorry i didn’t say that, but then like, resistance messenger runs up to the traveler and traveler and paimon use this us an excuse to fuck off
Kazuha conflict\ Reveal of the true reasons for Raiden Gokaden fall
turns out messenger is from Kazuha. we meet up with him. he’s in the city despite being fugitive bc he’s heard some maniac is killing ppl, searching for the last scion of the Isshin school bloodline
listen, i love kazuha and i overall like his story quest, but it ends up being more character development for the cursed sword, not kazuha. and like i get it, it’s hard to write conflict for Kazuha bc he’s already escaped samsara, he’s the sole receiver of all therapy in genshin, he rolls 20 on every Wisdom roll, etc etc. 
but that doesn’t mean we can’t explore his character more in depth and give him a conflict, even if his beliefs do not change as the result, but just better articulated.
We’re keeping the quest mostly same, as I said, I like it fine, it’s still about kazuha going on a therapy tour with the cursed sword, but with like. actual stakes
because in canon, when the sword says like oh, together we will have power to defeat raiden, its obviously not really a temptation for kazuha. bc like. the war is already over! kazuha has already won! AND he personally blocked legendary ublockable move that his friend dreamed of doing. why would he go back and fight raiden again?? it makes no sense
so it ends up being just like. kazuha psychoanalyzing cursed sword the entire time. which cool and all, but i want to play quest about kazuha and not the sword??
but, if it happens DURING the war, it’s much more impactful. this is not just revenge, there are lives on the line and no way to fight raiden. so when the sword is like I will give you power to stand up to raiden, then its not only in memory of his friend, but to protect the resistance. It is now a believable choice that can give Kazuha a pause, because situation is dire and they need every advantage they can get
this is also to rhyme with the Delusions motif, the “my own strength is not enough, so I must turn to the corrupted source of power for which i know i will pay”
of course, in the end kazuha decides to not give in to the cursed sword, bc he sees through its facade that the sword is actually weakening and falling apart, but also because he is narrative foil to both scara (scara believes in doing anything to gain power to pursue his obsession, even at great pain to himself, this is why he’s tied with delusions, and then in sumeru quest gets into dotorre’s torture mecha) AND raiden, which i think fandom largely misses. 
both Kazuha and Ei had friends and loving, supporting family, but were kinda sheltered and isolated from people. Ei because she was Makoto’s shadow and didn’t really interact with public, and Kazuha because he was an heir of a falling noble house and he was feeling trapped and focused on trying to live up to his own expectations and anxieties (this btw was beautifully dramatized in his domain in prev summer’s golden archipelago) 
both of them were quiet and kinda introverted, Ei allowing her sister take a central stage and Kazuha admitting that ppl with grand aspirations always captivated him, which obv references his friend. then, they lost everything in one fell swoop. 
Ei lost her friends in the cataclysm and then, her sister. Kazuha’s family died, and later he had to flee his estate, becoming fugitive and then his friend was killed in a duel with Raiden. they both had their small-ish isolated worlds and lost them violently 
and Raiden tried to catch the shards of her falling world and keep them in place, cover them in stasis, as if it could restore what was broken. She saw eternity as the lack of change and decided to never change herself. She closed off from the world, literally destroyed her physical body and isolated her mind in a little locked world, focused solely on “preserving” herself.
in contrast, Kazuha opened up to the world. He didn’t try to stop the winds of change, he followed them. One of this themes is being a part of the world, “One with wind and clouds”, “One with the nature”, “Life has just begun and maybe, the whole world can be my home,” this is why his kit heavily features element absorption and his character stories emphasize how he’s sharp, notices little details in surroundings, even has sharp sense of smell. 
He reached out to people instead of isolating himself, and so he found new friends, he saw the endless beauty in the bigger world even after his own cozy snowglobe was shattered. 
His theme is not only about being open to the world, but also bringing different elements together, and he’s the one who brings people in inazuma arc together. He brings traveler to Thoma, then through him Gorou reaches Beidou and the mercs, etc. this is why he is the one who blocks raiden. 
he is her foil precisely because he can let go and doesn’t let his grief blind him, he will fight her because she needs to be stopped, but not because he wants to take revenge or fore her to suffer. He is the breaker of cycles of pain, not perpetuator
so kazuha refuses, like in original, sword deteriorates more and more, and in the end, becomes weak, but regains memories about his creator in exile in snezhnaya. 
but, with the added twist to the scene where kazuha sees memories of the sword. In our version, Shogun instituted vision hunt decree because vision holding blade smith collaborated with fatui and led to the fall of Raiden Gokaden, 5 sword art schools. 
But now we learn that Kazuha’s ancestor who made this cursed sword, was this very vision-holding blade smith, and he never betrayed Inazuma, instead, he was slandered by Fatui and it was all Scara’s plan on his misguided revenge against Raiden Gokaden.
as in canon, Kazuha reforges the sword with the last shreds of its power. It does not hold its previous cursed strength anymore, but it is a last sword made in lost technique of Kazuha’s family tradition and he swears to restore it, just as he does in canon
Vision Loss exploration\ Yoimiya was always relevant
after this, paimon and traveler are like ugh, we don’t want to go back to yae, we don’t know the answer to symbol of transience puzzle and she will just mock us more. Lets go see how Yoimiya is doing instead!
ok so, I want to address what I see as a problem in how genshin handled vision loss. like obviously, vision loss stands for trauma. and “wow after their vision was taken, they turned into a completely different person” works as initial impression, bc often when someone you know changes drastically, it can feel this way
where this narrative fails is that it never explores further, bc all characters we meet with vision loss are random NPCs we see for 15 minutes, so it ends up being shallow “this guy was very kind and selfless before, but after losing vision he completely ignores ppl he helped with “new number who dis” response”, which like???
framing ppl who are already going through inner turmoil and struggle as like, complete strangers who are not themselves anymore and also completely lose positive qualities tied to their visions, is so tactless and wrong. It’s still the same person, no matter how drastically changed, and they need support, not demonization like “inherently incapable of caring about people after losing vision”.
this is why i think its better to focus on one character players know and care about instead of several NPCs no one gives a fuck about
so we go visit Yoi and meet her with her dad during discussion. it’s festival time and their family always made fireworks for it, they have several orders now too. But, due to Yoi being caught as part of resistance, her family was blacklisted and they can’t get necessary supplies to create fireworks, specifically like special chemical powder. 
so now, Yoi needs to go to all the clients and tell them there will be no fireworks for them for this festival.
Yoi’s dad is very supportive and doesn’t blame Yoi, but she still feels its her fault. She’s not a firecracker she was before, now quieter and harsher, and it does feel like she’s someone new, who traveler and paimon do not know.
we go to the clients to inform them with Yoi, and while doing so learn what fireworks meant for each of them. for some, it was friendship, how now matter how different their lives were, they would get together and celebrate with fireworks. for old couple, its ritual to celebrate their marriage and so on.
they are all sad, but understanding, and supportive and concerned about Yoi. she puts on brave face, but its obvious for the traveler that its hard for her to pretend to be fine.
on the way back, they have a convo about how its tacking a toll on Yoi, and how she feels bad, but also hopeless, and it also feels like something as joyous and frivolous as fireworks is meaningless in the middle of the war and vision hunt
we get back and find Yoi’s dad talking to customers. Its a refugee family, they explain that they live on another island, but once in a few years would visit Narukami for the festival and buy fireworks. They were forced to go to Narukami right now bc of the war, but since they are here already, they want at least something good to come out of it. And they have a cute little girl who is too young and never before saw fireworks and she’s sooooo excited, and the whole time they were running from their home they were consoling her by saying they go to Narukami to see the festival and the fireworks 
Yoi’s dad starts defeatedly explaining that unfortunately they cannot make fireworks right now, but Yoi interrupts him, and for a moment she’s her old self, bright and joyful, she reassures the little girl that its okay, they will have fireworks for sure, and these will be the prettiest fireworks ever!
family leaves, excited, and Yoi drops the facade. she wasn’t “cured” in a moment, but she is determined 
traveler and paimon are like - oh but how will we get fireworks??
Yoi is like “tenryo commission has this confiscated powder in their warehouse and we are raiding it, bc this little girl is getting her family fireworks if its the last fucking thing i do”
bc she realized, viscerally, that actually, fireworks will be more meaningful now BECAUSE of the dark and uncertain times, not despite of them, and whether its someone childhood OR last years of life, time is fleeting and impossible to get back, so giving people joy and hope is more important than ever
she’s not “healed”, she’s not back to her old self yet, but we see that there’s still spark in her and hope for recovery, even if she struggles, and deep down she is still same kind and caring Yoi we’ve met at the start
we do the warehouse domain, fight, do puzzles, get powder, Yoi and her dad make fireworks, we watch basically same cutscene as of the end of Yoi’s first quest now, with ppl looking up at the sky and seeing fireworks and Yoi and traveler watching from the hill.
at which point i want to mention that like, despite some part of fandom calling canon Yoi irrelevant, she always supported inazuma themes, which i will illustrate by using the dialogue from the quest verbatim and showing how i don’t even need to rewrite it to make it fit
Yoimiya: It was by chance that I happened to be born into the Naganohara family, so it was by chance that I ended up learning this craft from my pops.
Yoimiya: It's also by chance that I've met so many people, learned so many things, and discovered that people associate watching fireworks with the things that are most precious to them. 
Yoimiya: Fireworks that disappear in a flash of light are probably the furthest thing away from the eternity that our Shogun desires. 
Yoimiya: But people's feelings don't just disappear, and it's those feelings that give fireworks their purpose. If nobody wanted to watch fireworks, then they wouldn't exist.
Traveler: That's another kind of eternity.
boom! Yoimiya was always a representation of transience philosophy, hoyo just didn’t dramatize it properly and without transience explored during main quest, she felt like she doesn’t belong, while she was an actual Inazuma spiritual end game goal all along.
Makoto Reveal
anyway. traveler, pauses, repeats themselves. “Another kind of eternity... Eternity in fleeting things, because people’s dreams give them meaning...”
they get up and run to yae, looking determined, confused paimon following behind
“i know the answer,“ traveler tells to yae and she smirks, leads them to the puzzle stones near Sakura
“So, show me the symbol of transience“
but instead of fiddling with the stones, traveler gestures at the sakura petals, gliding on the wind and people watching theim
“This is the eternity in transience“
yae chuckles in delight “oh, finally, i thought you’ll never get it. How could be fleeting dreams be captured in stone puzzles?”
paimon is like ooooh is this why you led us around eating ramen and shopping? you were not just fucking around on our money, you wanted to make us think about enjoying momentary fleeting things?
yae gives her signature facetious response like oh of course how could you think i was scamming, how ungrateful of you etc etc, but its clear that she both actually was trying to give a hint AND enjoyed scamming them for free stuff
then she gets quieter, says pensively “but it seems the company of your friends was better help with figuring it out... She always did say that we immortals cannot understand beauty of transience the way humans do...”
paimon and traveler are like “She???”
thats when the cutscene revealing that there were two shoguns and that raiden’s sister died at the cataclysm plays. nothing much to add here, i think the existing cutscene works well, but because in canon it’s played AFTER raiden’s defeated, it feels a bit weird, like post-factum excuse.
like raiden goes oh well ok, i’ll get rid of vision hunt decree, by the way i had a twin sister who died, like?? i think pacing-wise its better to learn why raiden is Like That before “punch her until she changes her mind” fight than after she had already changed her mind
so, paimon is like ooooh, so this is why it seemed that raiden changed so much! she didn’t change, we just saw the ideas of the first shogun
yae is like yes, ei’s grief for her sister and differences in their views is important for you to understand for when you will try to change her mind in her hikikomori mind palace
Storming the palace\ Signora interlude
then yae does the ok lets get Kojou Sara quests, which I don’t really feel like changing, bc like. it does its job fine enough. we need to establish that tenryou commission was corrupted and working with fatui AND that kujou sara will go against her only family for justice
the ayato infiltrating like 5 rebellion guys with gorou and kazuha to take the palace is kinda dumb logistically, but tbh this is not game of thrones. genshin works mostly on anime logic where things happen bc its cool and fitting for the character\narrative beats. making actually realistic attack plan i feel like would be too long, complex and derail from the storyline, so i’d say lets keep it roughly same
What I’m gonna change is Signora cameo. And by change I mean remove it completely. I spent a lot of time trying to make her death work, but it just doesn’t. She has nothing to do with Inazuma story or themes, shows up for 2 seconds and dies immediately. This is a shitshow, like, we’d need to derail whole archon quest to insert her and it still wouldn’t be good. 
if Signora has to be dead for like, the strategic plot reasons, here is my version of how it should go down
ok but we need an opportunity for raiden to do her one hit boob kill move, and how are we gonna do this if we remove Signora?
easy, sara confronts her tenryuo adoptive dad in front of raiden. like, rn she runs to him, he has a speech about how he basically doesn’t care about raiden herself, but really only worships the Boob Nuke. he gets defeated and then sara runs off to raiden and gets knocked out off-screen, like??? this is so awkward. what the fuck is the point
instead, sara is like right now is the time when Tenryuo chief is reporting to raiden, we need to tell her he’s lying to her!
we follow sara to the palace and confront tenryuo dude in front of raiden. he’s like you have no proof u insolent girl and this is after everything i’ve done for u! 
sara challenges him to a duel before the throne and raiden agrees. 
we fight the dude and defeat him. he launches into basically same unhinged speech, but now raiden is here to hear it. 
She realizes that even those who she considered the most loyal of her servants worship not her, but her power, because she removed herself from inazuma and all people know of her is to fear the Boob Nuke. this is a important step in her development that we will explore a bit later
then she annihilates him which i think is much more thematically relevant bc he died from the same blade he worshipped
then, raiden is like well, i’ve dealt with a traitor, but don’t think that it gets YOU off the hook, a criminal is a criminal and I’ll destroy you
then we duel, bc like. her using boob sword at the start of battle is thematically wrong. its a finisher, a kill move. in the first duel she used it at the end. she needs to charge her burst first, you know
so, we go to the plane of euthemiya and fight. it basically goes the same, first traveler has elements disabled, then wishes of inazuma people awaken and empower them.
raiden is shaken, but not convinced. bc this is the Gives a Fuck raiden, it’s not that she didn’t know her people had ambitions, tho she could underestimate them, its that she thought these ambitions can only lead them to ruin and she, as an arbiter of eternity who sacrificed her body to lock her mind in a sword and evade “corruption“, is the one who knows best.
she rallies up and counter-attacks. similar scene as in the first duel happens, she throws traveler to the real world and follows, readying the kill move
and thats when kazuha blocks her 
i think in canon this isn’t given appropriate weight for raiden. bc like. that was her legendary UNBLOCKABLE strike. she one-shot gods and monsters with it. this was her personal proof of perfection, she knows she might not be a philosopher and leader like her sister, but she is The best warrior. like if you want to change her mind, you have to fight her in a duel, her mastery of sword is how she justifies that she’s right to herself
and now a mortal blocked her most perfect move
and not just any mortal! She recognizes the style of the blade he wields. Isshin blade, even though Isshin art died as Raiden Gokaden schools fell
she asks him how did he get this blade and he tells her the truth he learned from the cursed sword
her people never betrayed her. instead, she was mislead by the fatui and pushed her own subjects into running away to the enemies because they didn’t believe she would listen and be merciful to them
the worst thing is that she knows they were right. she would not have been merciful.
and now she watches the bitter irony of how her eternity crumbles.
tenryuo commission, who she thought of her most loyal and closest servants, upholding laws and traditions, in truth were corrupted from the inside, tradition nothing but a hollow form, a fake shape kept just to appease her, with no true soul or meaning, lusting only after power
but the last scion of the clan she though betrayed her, an exile and criminal, a vagabond and pirate, is the one who embodied isshin art she thought lost wholeheartedly, the one who preserved the last true blade of his school. the one who blocked her strike that she thought of as the truest.
and with the vision of a man she had once already defeated in a duel
with all of that, with countless visions rallying up to support an outlander against their own god, with the proof that even killing rebels would be useless because ambitions of the dead will be picked up and reignited again by the living, with proof of the corruption rotting in her government, she cannot see herself in the right anymore
this is why she lifts the vision hunt decree
Raiden’s First Story Quest 
I think there’s general agreement in fandom, even among raiden fans, that her first story quest is one of the worst in game. its so boring and pointless. you go on a date with raiden and then she fights some nerd in a duel. who gives a fuck.
it also takes for granted that all players even WANT to hang out with raiden, which like, at this point she was only a giant dick to everyone around and not everyone is a boob worshipper. for people who already disliked her, being forced to babysit her around and take her photos only feels more annoying and antagonizing
Again, our main change in characterization for raiden is that she actually gives a fuck. like, in canon her country is on the brink of complete collapse after civil war and fatui schemes, 2 out of 3 commissions are barely functional, her robot-sona is malfunctioning the storm, and she not only does not give a fuck, but traveler has to jump through hoops to get to her. and she just goes on a date, trying sweets and light novels. like. guuuuurl. come on, get a grip for 5 fucking minutes and do your damn job. we had to randomly stumble into tenryuo nerd being bullied for her to take ANY part in inazuma’s politics
so, logical thing to do for Raiden Who Gives a Fuck is to go out and try to sort out mess she’s now learnt her country was turned into. 
like, she summons traveler and goes hey, i know we’re not exactly on bestest terms, but I need to root out corruption and fatui’s shit specifically, and i don’t trust my government officials right now, so i need your help in being a guide bc i haven’t left the room in 500 years. 
kujou sara is also there since raiden deemed her trustworthy bc sara was the one who exposed tenryuo corruption to her
i got an ask about how canonically Kanjou commission was in a vulnerable state due to commerce falling with sakoku decree,  and so they could be an easy first foothold for fatui to get themselves into the country, and i think raiden quest would be a good place to explore it, while she’s investigation corruption.
i’m not gonna write the whole plot, it doesn’t really matter, the main points is that raiden sees isolation actually doesn’t protect her ppl, but harms them, that when ppl are not allowed to do smth that they want, they will turn to illegal and much more harmful ways instead, for which delusions are an allegory.
raiden can still do fluffy stuff like trying mango milkshakes or whatever, but while going from one commission to another instead of just wandering around on a date
tenruyo nerd can also be there if hoyo wants to include him for some reason. they can even have same useless duel with raiden at the end that makes her appoint him head of commission
Kujou Sara
as I said, Sara is also there, going with raiden on investigation, showing her competence, until its clear that she’s the sole hinge on which entire tenryuo commission depends.
raiden praises her for her loyalty, and Sara, incredibly earnest and grateful, explains her backstory, how she was a kid falling to her death from a mountain while enemies were storming it, and how she received vision during the fall and thus survived, so she now not only owes her life to raiden, but can’t imagine better cause to serve, as clearly, raiden is omnipotent and all knowing and caring enough to save an insignificant tengu child like her
raiden frowns. she does not grant visions herself, in fact, she is not even aware when electro visions are granted - this is canon btw, it’s from raiden’s own voicelines.
tenryuo nerd sees that raiden is about to speak up, and even though he obv doesn’t know vision secrets, he realizes from her expression alone that she’s about to contradict sara’s story
he interrupts her, apologizes profusely, but takes her aside and begs her to not say to sara anything that can shake her loyalty, because again, this commission is going to crumble without her. These are temoulteous times and they need sara the most, raiden can tell her whatever she wants after inazuma is stabilized
but the thing is that being truly honorable is supposed to be raiden’s redeeming grace. she might be stubborn and inflexible, ruthless and inept, but she is straightforward and honorable, she cannot accept loyalty given on false premises, and we need to show that in action
raiden tells sara bluntly that she did not give her a vision, that she was not aware that sara was in risk of death at all
sara is shaken. her world crumbles before her. this is not just bc of her own vision and life that she thought she owed, but in fact, did not. no, much more it’s about vision hunt decree. its about all the people she was sent after, talked to them and their crying families for hours, telling them that this is for their own good, that shogun knows better, sara herself is an example, is a proof. it’s about all the people she didn’t convince and had to take their visions by force, comforting herself in the knowledge that she personally might not understand shogun’s plan, but what she knows is that is infallible.
and now it turns out it’s not true at all.
this, she cannot take. she asks raiden to free her from service. and bc again, raiden is honorable, even knowing the damage it will do, she lets sara go.
after that, she shows up in events and side quests, showing her on a journey to find herself.
we see her in yae miko’s story quest, protecting ppl from the guy who was possessed by the oni spirit, and later, watching yokai spirits dance in the skies and yearning
we see her in an event with a ghost umbrella, being strict and cross with yokai kids for causing so much ruckus, but secretly fond and protective of them, and playing off her funny rivalry with itto
we see her in itto’s quest, in a part where traveler asks ppl about itto’s character, and she’s being fair, says that he might be an idiot and hooligan, but he would never harm or kidnap innocent ppl
we see her in irodori festival, organizing the community, bc she knows how to do it and she’s good at it and *someone* has to (and bc she cares about ppl without any order telling her to)
then, she’s in kokomi quest, bc kokomi asks her to be present at negotiations, bc she’s the only one from tenryuo in whose honor kokomi can really trust. sara tells her that she has no official standing anymore, but kokomi asks her to be there anyway. later, when dishonesty from tenryuo side is revealed and sara helps to stop the ppl who are trying to sabotage negotiations, kokomi asks sara to vouch for what happened in report to raiden, so that this is not blamed on watatsumi and fair deal can be cut
sara says again that raiden has no reason to listen to her and take the worse deal just on her word. and yet, after a couple of days, report comes back. raiden listens to sara’s word and does not force watatsumi to accept the bad conditions. we can see this affecting sara, her being conflicted
sara\kokomi shippers, ur welcome btw
then, raiden’s second story quest. it starts as of now. we accept commission to deal with abyss wolves spawning, go to the mountain of sacred sakura. but instead of just meeting raiden, we first see kujou sara.
she’s there to protect people because this is who she is, this is the ambition that summoned her vision to begin with, and no lies and manipulations can change that.
like at the beginning of her story, she’s on the mountain, protecting her home from the enemies
like at the beginning, she falls and survives the fall, but she’s too injured and about to be killed by the wolves
but this time, inazuma’s archon has not locked herself in a room.
raiden appears, destroying the wolves and saving sara. this time, she is not just an idea based on false belief of a child. she is there in flesh to finally take action that sara believed she was doing so many years ago.
as in canon, raiden says that she will fight the monsters alone, bc its her duty to protect inazuma.
and this is when sara pledges her allegiance to raiden again.
raiden tells her that her saving sara’s life does not mean that sara now owes that life to her, as raiden’s duty is to protect all of her people
but this is not why sara wants to follow her now. finally, she sees real raiden and not childish illusion of an omnipotent goddess who always knows better. but real raiden is honest, honorable, and despite being strongheaded and often misguided, someone who cares deeply for her ppl and is driven by the same goal to protect as sara
sara tells this to her, asserting that she will not serve her out of obligation or with blind loyalty like before, that she will now think critically and question and tell raiden if she believes she;s wrong, but she will believe in her nonetheless as long as raiden cares about inazuma over herself
raiden says that then they will share an eternity in service of inazuma people, as they should
as sara is injured, raiden sends her to organize evacuation instead of fighting, and quest goes on as in canon
sara\raiden shippers, ur welcome btw
Ancient Sakura Blooms Again
I don’t want to change much else about raiden’s second quest, bc its already pretty fucking good and manages to speedrun raiden’s character development in 45 minutes.
instead, all of my rewrite is meant to be a setup to establish both raiden’s conflict and makoto’s personality and philosophy beforehand, instead of getting infodump from old man ghost in 1.5 scenes
this way, raiden coming to accept the eternity as transience is natural progression instead of speedrun and makoto’s appearance has bigger impact, since she was haunting the narrative from the start and we came to know about her gradually
also, irodori festival can go pretty much the same. scara being behind raiden gokaden fall is now more significant, bc for our version it was inazuma’s inciting incident, and now just like. random lore bit.
also, both raiden and yae miko show up in comedic cameos during festival, but after they learn it was scara, there is a brief serious scene as raiden realizes that while she was blaming fatui for corrupting inazuma, it was only possible bc she neglected her own creation, which is a metaphor for inazuma’s isolation as a whole. she doesn’t explain that ofc, just looks striken
“i thought i’m giving him peace...“
“i’ve told you we should’ve destroyed that puppet“, yae miko spits out (she did canonically wanted to off scara after raiden decided he’s not fit for gnosis bc he cried)
ofc, we won’t give proper backstory before sumeru, but it would be a nice tease that will get deeper meaning once we do know, and also illustrate that both raiden’s solipsistic abandonment and yae miko burning bridges instead of dealing with ppl is not great governing strategies
also, irodori has additional ayaka storyline about how she got involved in all this investigation stuff as a distraction to get away from the house bc ayato asked her to wear family jewels for the festival finale and she sold them in act 2, but she’s too afraid to tell it to ayato
finally, after learning of kazuha’s family keeping secrets from each other that hurt them in the long run, she finally gets brave enough to tell ayato what she did
he stops her mid-sentence and tells her to go check the chests
she’s confused, but obeys. she runs back holding the jewelry, being like oh my god what?? how is that back?? did u buy it back??? did u know the entire time???
of course he knew the entire time. he’s proud of her. he only wished she trusted him enough to ask for his help directly.
you didn’t use the commission funds for this, right? ayaka hesitates for a second and ayato laugh.
of course not. why would he need to steal from commission when there are so many fatui assassins to loot
oh, i always knew you wouldn’t. wait what....
ayato’s quest i’d rewrite completely. he’s still manipulate mansplain manslut, but in better political machinations then sabotaging a wedding of npcs and giving hannibal lector speeches to random goons
we’ve scorched out inazuma’s corruption in raiden first quest, now is the time to restructure and modernize commissions which were gutted by said corruption, for which raiden assembles yae, sara, traveler and ayato, who is the head of only commission that did not sell out to fatui
ayato and yae miko are incredibly petty cunts to each other in a very smiley passive aggressive manner, but they team up to come up with devious machinations for the greater good
sara is there not only for military expert role, but also to speak up for the common ppl which she is finally closer to, and to ground the schemers
raiden sometimes thoughtfully says “why don’t we duel them to death?“ as solution to many problems, and when everyone yells no, shrugs
overall, its kinda rough going and obvious that there are a lot of problems ahead, but also clear that inazuma did change and grew, raiden is no longer a solipsistic tyrant and she has a diverse council she listens to and actively engages with her country’s problems
btw, in ayato vs yae miko schemes off he gets to win and be smug bc its his birthday story quest
Yoimiya’s second story quest
Yoi’s second quest is already v good and obv has a lot of soul in it, i wouldn’t change too much, except for the premise
bc this quest is the reason i decided to make vision loss plotline at all. bc this quest is already perfectly written to be culmination of that plot line, and frankly, gets a lot of ??? without it
like, it starts bc yoi just randomly decides to go on vacation to wish on falling stars. like ok i guess. and she’s like i didnt really care but the whole village really got into it and want me to see it, so i’m doing it for them. like?? why would they be invested in random vacation like that?? mb ok they just love yoi
but then traveler goes to nahida and she’s like sorry, meteor showers happen like once in 200 years. but traveler and paimon are very insistent that they have have to do it for you, they can’t disappoint her. when like. its a random vacation! and yoi is not a type of person to be like ugh i didn’t get to see falling stars, my trip is RUINED
but no, they beg nahida to help like its big deal, and nahida agrees to involve aranara, despite no adult being able to see aranara is a big deal in lore. and then they have a whole conversation about is it ethical to trick yoi into believing this meteor shower is real if it’s just a dream, even if she’ll learn truth later, when like.... it’s a vacation????? she’s just there to have fun???? why are you all so serious
basically, beginning of this quest makes little sense, bc it has no actual stakes until girl in a wheelchair shows up, but narrative treats it very seriously when like “yoi has fun on vacation“ is the only stated goal for the start
BUT, if taken as part of vision loss story, everything snaps into place.
after vision hunt ended, visions were returned to their owners. but not all of them reignited on the spot, and Yoimiya is one of the people whose vision did not activate
and is it any surprise? after all she’s seen in a war, all she’s been through, how could she go back to believing that the world is a good and happy place, in the inherent wonder and joy of it?
her vision stayed grey and silent in her hands. she feels bad and guilty that she can’t be happy go lucky as before, when her father and all of the villagers care so much about her
they nudge her to go on a trip to see the falling stars, inspiration for fireworks, in hopes it will remind her of why she loved them so much before
this is the stakes, this is why inazuma ppl care, why traveler cares enough to ask nahida and why nahida would be moved to break tradition and let yoi interact with aranara, why they have this long convo about if it’s right to trick yoi. bc f it’s about reigniting her belief in world’s miracles, then yeah, it makes a lot more sense to worry about truth of it
not only this, but the disabled girl turns from just random npc to a mirror parallel to yoi. both of them were harshly and suddenly hurt by the world, both lost will to live. and the kicker is that yoi is going along bc she feels bad and bc her family and friends are worrying about her, but she only *really* get into this when she meets this girl
because this is what she was always about, not just happy go lucky girl, but a gold koi, a light of happiness and luck talisman for other people, especially for kids. for this girl, she will believe is the wishing stars
of course, her vision reignites when in aranara dreamland she takes girl’s hand and jumps onto the falling stars to fly across the sky. because it’s not about how the world is cruel. its about how good we can be to each other. what if it’s just a shared dream? We find the greatest joys in mortal life in fleeting dreams, for is life itself not like the shadow of the thunder? Pursue your dreams into the clouds if you wish
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galactic-pirates · 11 months
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Ok Picard finale.
Spoilers below.
My expectations were very low. I had made a list of cynical predictions. I was scared as deep down I was worried it would be even worse. I really thought they might kill off Raffi and I just did not want to see that.
So actually in a lot of ways going into the finale expecting it to be terrible, I wound up almost pleasantly surprised. It was still not good but it was much better than my worst fears, so I ended the episode as a bit of a puddle of relief. It could have been so much worse.
I loved that Raffi just pulled together a new invention of being able to shoot transport beams at people. She’s so smart I love her! I love that she got actual screentime shooting at people (I was expecting her to be sidelined the whole finale tbh), and she even appeared in shot with Seven a few times!
I am amazed that they managed to not shoehorn more Shaw in. I had pretty much convinced myself that Seven’s plot this episode would be all about him, so actually getting to see Seven doing her job, retaking the bridge etc. inspiring the other unassimilated who had been left behind, fighting the impossible fight for StarFleet… yeah that sure was something. I loved that the crew still called her Commander as it was new but Raffi - Raffi!! - was the first to call her Captain as Seven had that role. That’s what Seven was and I think it was important to acknowledge that. It was also so nice that they showed a very brief glimpse of the horror of assimilation and the “what did I do???” from Sydney and Seven hugged her because if anyone was going to understand.
Having Shaw appear at the end via hologram complimenting Seven as apparently something he said weeks ago… I side eye that so hard. So what he was a constant AH to her in person but in private he is redeemed because he actually said something nice? I could have done without that. Why Tuvok couldn’t have said something poignant like “the very qualities that you think disqualify you are the exact ones that give you strength, the ones that saved your crew.“ and convinced Seven that way but alas /sigh I guess Shaw had to have his moment.
I am surprised that Shaw is still dead. I was sure given Matalas’ comments and how rabid the fans are that they’d revive him somehow. I really didn’t want them to because if any spin-off happens with Seven and Raffi and they put Shaw in it, then it will become the Shaw show. I am not at all happy about Jack looking like he might be part of it for the same reason :(
I do love that it is finally, FINALLY, Captain Seven because everytime I heard Hansen I flinched. I have such an aversion to it I won’t reblog gifsets that have it written on. Just no. So finally.
Anyway in fact nobody died. When Deanna was looking at Riker as he left, it felt like she knew he wasn’t coming back. So I got worried for a minute there about Riker. I was pretty convinced Picard was going to die (I predicted his sacrifice) but nope he lived as well.
I think my only real cynical prediction that came true was the approximate “we are on our own” when Data said “we are the cavalry” and that Picard reached Jack through the dad bond. But it was blowing up the beacon that saved the day, so that was more about saving Jack.
I am amazed at how big the Enterprise is and that it just flew through the Borg Cube like that. Real Falcon and Death Star vibes. I laughed so hard when Deanna was like “I am sensing enjoyment” and Data was just smiling like pew pew I fly the ship haha.
I also laughed really hard when Geordi said he hadn’t done the weapons systems and Beverley was like “no problem” and just blew shit up and then the three of them all turned to look at her, like WTF? And she’s like “a lot happened in 20 years”.
I’m sorry my thoughts are all out of order and I am just writing them down as they come to me. Kestra! Oh for all the love of… I can’t believe they still never mentioned her!! Like seriously have Riker and Deanna forgotten they have a daughter??? All this love for biological families and no mention of that. Or you know Soji for Data? There was barely a hint of Geordi to his daughters either, I was expecting more there.
I also didn’t really appreciate or find funny that Deanna was only pretending to listen to Data and searching for vacations. She is seeing him professionally. Now she either needs to be strict about ending the session on time, and/or not booking them so often if it’s too much for her, or if she is going to let it happen she needs to be present. As someone who has had therapy I find it very uncomfortable and feel really sorry for Data. Yes he should be more aware of the time and not keep talking, but Deanna could wind the session to a close earlier. Honestly you’d think this wasn’t her job. It is making her look bad. Deanna deserves better.
I’m glad that Deanna got to do semi-something in that she sensed Riker and that’s what saved them. I still wish that Deanna had more agency beyond being a love interest. But I can be soppy on occasion and the thought of their love being powerful enough to be felt so she could find them, that is kinda sweet. Like a love conquers thing. Not very realistic but sweet.
Jack as special ships counsel is a big WTF? I am guessing that’s a bit like ‘officer without portfolio’ so they can plug him in wherever needed as a Jack of all trades - ha pun not intended. But ugh I did actually predict his joining StarFleet and getting fast tracked. I’m glad it wasn’t quite as bad as I was cynical but I am still not thrilled. I don’t like him as a character and if they were kinda setting up a potential spin-off then he is part of the crew and just ugh, would rather not.
As for Q’s appearance at the end… dear Trek writers I am begging you please create something new. What is the point in ever concluding a story arc if you are just going to bring them back and do it all over again? Allow for new characters, new stories. Let it rest.
Worf leaking Raffi’s service record to her family was nice. The Worf and Raffi friendship this season has been one of the few bright spots. However I am… I had always thought that the narrative was they knew Raffi had saved the day, that she was right about Mars etc. and her family didn’t dispute that she was a hero, just that she was never around for them. The old “you put the world first and us second, and that’s great for the world. Someone has to sacrifice but why you? Why us?” and that kind of pain knows no logic. Feelings can be complicated. Being told “oh she’s a hero so you have to accept being second all the time” is not easy. There’s guilt for feeling selfish but wanting it to be different. Anger, resentment and that’s just for the job. Remember Raffi also had addiction problems, probably triggered as a coping mechanism because of the job but that addiction will also have hurt her family. And to wipe that away with “oh they never actually knew it was worth anything and now they love you” like it’s nice that Raffi can have her family back. Raffi is a good person. She made mistakes and she cares a lot. But it’s too easy and too trite and it feels hollow. Like they decided to slap a happy ending on it which just doesn’t fit.
Also not going to lie as much as I do love the Worf and Raffi friendship. They knew each other for a matter of weeks. Seven and Raffi have known each other much longer, been romantically involved for an unknown length of time within those years. If it was so easy to fix Raffi’s family. I can’t believe Seven wouldn’t have leaked the file years ago. It feels like if that was going to be a moment, then it should have gone to Seven and not Worf.
Speaking of Seven and Raffi’s relationship. Not a hint, not a nod, not any kind of anything? Like the epilogue skipped a year and they are Captain and Number One on the Enterprise-G (side note what happened to the Enterprise-F that was seen last episode with all the fireworks?). So yeah they are working together. The shots were practically beat for beat how the season 2 finale went down. They are ending up as Captain and Commander how they were headed then but it’s now 2-3 years later and they are broken up? Or not? Like what is up with that?
As predicted the changelings barely got a sentence wrapping up their involvement. Just a “Beverley worked out how to find them with the transporters as they were de-borgified”. Side note does that mean the changelings were also assimilated? How would that even work?
Still no mention of the Jurati borg? Or Elnor? Or LARIS?? I mean poor Laris. What a waste. Continuity I don’t know you.
Ok I am sure I am forgetting things. But one last comment on the lighting. It was extra bad this episode. Like really couldn’t see a damn thing on occasion. No exaggeration, literal nope. If they do a spin-off please for the love of Trek make them light the damn thing. I can not take anymore of this no lighting. It’s ridiculous.
Oh! The end scene with the poker. That’s the kind of fan service I don’t really mind. There was some warm fuzzies there.
This was probably the best episode of the season, which given how terrible the season was doesn’t really say much. I have overwhelming relief that Raffi didn’t die and I am also very thankful that the season is over. Each episode I was like “so how bad is is going to get?” And yes there is always fanfic but something being canon can be miserable even if it’s firmly ignored.
For all that I would like a Seven spin-off I don’t trust them in the slightest to do it any justice. I would rather they didn’t make it. Than make it and absolutely butcher their characters, queer-bait the relationship, stress me all out and just generally make me super unhappy about something that should have been joy.
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thesmithsbackyard · 1 year
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TOP TEN: i m p o s s i b l e
Really though I’ve been sitting here marveling at the fact that, this show has been on since 2005, it has either 17 or 20 full seasons with two more on the way, (the episode counts are weird) I can pop in Season 2 or Season 16 still have a grand old time. They just do...whatever the hell they want, and it works!
I wracked my brain for several months, I made some painful cuts, here’s my top ten lol. In no particular order. Just barely managed to figure out what my fave ep of all time is
Spoilers!! Kind of. I don’t want to spoil these in case people wanna watch them. But who am I kidding; I’m screaming into a void over here. ANYWHO:
The Life and Times of Stan Smith 12-15
Okay. So one set up in this show is, Stan is against something. Turns out he can’t avoid that thing or it’s a Good Thing Actually. He gets waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too far into it. Shenanigans!! It’s great, I love it. My favorite example is this episode. He gets addicted to dying. Like...like actually dying.
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Meanwhile, Steve goes to Arizona State University and does not have a good time
Daddy Queerest 4-19
This episode just warms my heart. Greg and Terry are a gay couple that live across the street. Terry’s dad is visiting for the weekend and doesn’t know Terry’s gay. Dramaaaa!! Oh my god, the ending of this one is so cute and good.
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Meanwhile, Roger buys beer for Steve and his friends at a party. For $12 profit.
I feel like i should acknowledge something. *sigh* So yeah. Greg and Terry *are* that stereotypical gay couple where almost every joke with them is that They're Gay. But i dunno, I never got the sense of any malice behind it. They're never put down by other characters for it and there's never any theme or joke that it's bad to be gay and over the top like them?
I understand why it is annoying to only see that portrayal and that the joke being HAHA GAY is bad though so...Your Mileage May Vary
Hayley Smith, Seal Team 6 11-3
Eps like this one make me so happy this show got a second chance on another channel. Hayley ends up mentally regressing to age six. Jeff and Klaus try to get her back to normal. I love all the little bits they do that show how her relationship with her parents was like.
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Meanwhile, a weird stranger convinces Steve and his friends to use a slow cooker while making pork. He’s not even a real pervert!
There’s this adorable part when she does patty-cake with Roger which shows they used to like each other too.
EXCEEEEEEPT!! [extra nerdy glasses on] In season 2, Roger sings a song about how he used to be close friends to Steve. And in that, when they first met, Roger is shown to be given to Steve as a birthday present.
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While Hayley and Francine freak out, and the design they use for Hayley is her mid-puberty design in a later ep
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THEREFORE they did not meet when she was six. Episode recalled
[i’m kidding it’s delightful and I’m just a freak about this show go watch it lol. it might not even be exactly how they were, just showing how they would be if they met back then]
Lost in Space 8-18
Jeff is trapped on the ship of Roger’s people. Pretty much every episode about Jeff going to, being in, or result of space is really good. I could shove them all into this...part of this non-numbered list
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It's adorable! Like almost painfully so. Whenever I hear people say this show is too mean or gross I can think of several episodes where they're not lol
Haylias 3-5
This one was my top fave for the longest time. Hell it still might be. Turns out Hayley was trained to be a CIA sleeper agent. Stan re-activates her so she’ll be independent in the way he prefers...kind of. He actually feels a little guilty about it.
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Meanwhile, this is also the ep when, the myths, the LEGENDS, Wheels and the Legman are born!! Fantastic [Steve and Roger pretend to be detectives and half the joke is they're making it up as they go along. it's one of my favorite plot threads ever in this show]
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Flirting With Disaster 6-18
Soooo...Stan and Francine. I love them so much. They're insane. Ohhhh my god. In this one, it’s revealed that Stan flirts with other people at work. Nothing that leads to an affair or anything. Francine ends up working there and everything’s fine until something happens that renders her horrifically scarred. Now they gotta learn how to flirt with each other again.
It starts with an...homage? Parody? Of “The Office”, but with who Stan works with at the CIA. They keep with that parody in how the scenes are shot and the general humor, until the first commercial break. They also explain that in-universe in a funny way that isn’t too meta. (Oh man, I could go ON about how this show does meta humor) The humor they do isn’t too far off from how the show generally is, so when it goes back to how the show is normally shot it’s not too jarring.
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Meanwhile, Steve builds birdhouses as a hobby and Roger starts a business with that. There’s this one part with birds that leaves me in shock and awe every time like jesus christ it’s just soo...the efforts they go to just for A Bit in this show. I need to make a separate post about that I just sfhdjsjfhsdklghdslkgds
Yule. Tide. Repeat. 15-22
The Christmas eps of this show. SHIT GETS WILD. Almost every one that’s come out has been in my top fave episodes. Stan wants to have a normal, “Norman Rockwell Christmas,” because every one they’ve ever had has been very bad and very weird. His words, not mine. Something goes terribly wrong, and Stan ends up caught in a time loop where he has to pick the right path to find his family.
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There’s a part with gore, and honestly gore jokes are one of my least favorite parts of this show. BUT. It’s used effectively in this story. (and I will acknowledge that even though I don’t like gore jokes. at least when they happen on this show it’s actually a joke or part of the plot sooo whatever)
The Two Hundred 11-10
It’s the apocalypse for some reason. Stan wanders the earth with tattoos feeling real bad about how he treated his family. Greg is there too. He’s fun, I like Greg
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West to Mexico 12-22
So every once in a while there will be an “au” episode, where the characters aren’t related to each other but still do a Thing. (I mean every once in a while; there’s only been like two or three over 300 eps and I’m not sure if one is even ‘canon’)
In this one, Stan’s an outlaw in the United States after the civil war. Wild west stuff happens. I think it's based on a movie. But when this show does movies they don’t just do a movie scene but it’s the characters and they’re meta about it, they’ll just do a scene or something similar to it. Like no one turns to the camera and says “heeey this is just like Djanjo Unchained!” or whatever it was. It’s based on something but it’s still done in the style and humor of the show, which is neat.
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One Little Word 4-3
Oh god. THIS ONE. You know what, I’ve finally decided. This one is my favorite. This ep is like a culmination of everything I love about this show. The cringe AND the good shit. This was an ep that when it came on I’d feel like YEESSS IT’S THIS ONE. You know that feeling?? Like you know you’re gonna have an excellent time for the next half hour. I just...there’s so many little details and bits that are expanded upon later and little cute character moments and everything just builds to this hilarious payoff and AAAAAAH
There’s a couple jokes that are kinda...well not the worst thing ever but I can see why today people might be like...mmmm No. But mostly I just. Oh god. I just love I was able to fall in love with this one all over again. Christ I haven’t even said what it’s about yet.
So Stan wants to be Bullock’s number one at work. (there’s already Layers here) He goes so far to bring back his wife from being captured overseas. Meanwhile Francine wants to celebrate with Stan up alone at a lake. Unfortunately Bullock’s family ends up staying at Stan’s house…
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(Lake Fraiser. I havent seen much of that show but recently I’ve been wondering if this episode is a parody of either an episode of it or just its style of writing in general?? I’ve wanted to watch Fraiser but never got around to it. The syndicated channel I watched reran this show, Two and a Half Men, and Friends instead. Baaarrff lmao)
Oh dear god I've done it. Kind of. See I’m looking at this list and there’s STILL sooooooo many I love where I’m like “what about this ep. And this one. And this one. Technically there’s infinite numbers between one and ten” There’s at least on ep per season in that top five list I did where I KNEW I’d be like “why isn’t This one on the list goddammit”
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returntosaturn271995 · 3 months
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Thursday, January 4th, 2024: New, clean, and with a sheen
10 things that happened today:
Put out contracting fires at work, and got a positive call-out in the Teams Kellogg's chat for Karen Cheng's filter getting 5 M organic impressions + 350,000 engagements. Hollah, bitches.
Beach walked and encountered adorable Yorkie puppies owned by an elderly couple on the way there. On the way back I walked past my neighbor's house just as a toddler popped up in a Cinderella dress to look out at the street. I smiled and waved at her, and she waved back. So cute.
Wore a ruched olive green midi-dress and my white vejas, hair down all day.
Despite having "Murder on the Dancefloor" stuck in my head, I continue to blast it.
Bought a new dining room table with matching suede chairs and unpacked the new kitchen utensils (about half of which I understood the actual use for).
Finished "Quietly Hostile" by Same Irby. Only three more books left for January.
Trump reportedly received at least $7.8 million in foreign payments from 20 (!) countries during his four years in the White House according to a new report from Democrats on the House Oversight Committee. Most of the money came from China. It’s exactly the kind of foreign interference and corruption that House Republicans are desperately trying to pin on President Biden via their bogus impeachment inquiry. FUCKING HOW IS HE NOT IN JAIL I COULD SCREAM????
Got asked out again by Tyler, said yes, but pretty sure my choker necklace is lost somewhere in his house. His response? "Choker? I don't even know her." Respect.
Watched old episodes of Sex in the City with Makenna (the one where Carrie is fashion road kill and Heidi Klum steps over her carcass), scheduled coffee with Monika, and plan to meet Natalie after work tomorrow.
Went through the drive-thru car wash in my leopard print robe because I'm forever a silly goose.
Text out of Context:
Connor B: lol you’d be an exceptional thief and I’d happily be a part of your crew. Always need a crew!
Erin Burks: Run my ship like a gentleman pirate
Connor B: Pirating used to sound thrilling but now it sounds miserable under those dirty ass living conditions. Couple pirates did it right though
Erin Burks: Any place without indoor plumbing? Couldn’t be me I LOVE bougie bathrooms Dream home: classic kitchen with modern appliances, bathroom with a shower out of the future, and an office behind a turn-around book case so I can avoid my children The lever to turn it? A copy of “The Doors of Perception” directly next to a red book titled “Herring”
Connor B: lol already have the detail of the lever
Erin Burks: I’ve wanted a turn around bookcase since I was five and saw it in Scooby Do, the height of luxury I’m an adult and I still think it’s cool as hell
Connor B: I want secret hallways all throughout the house and my secret room would be in the basement behind a fireplace that spins Going to be a BIG house
Erin Burks: ….so a dungeon Very Targaryen of you
Connor B: Someone has to have a bunker and it will be super nice!! Not a dungeon 😏
Erin Burks: Fire and no natural light? Dungeon
Connor B: The rest of the house has natural light I think I’ll be ok
Erin Burks: True, plus you can keep your secret family there “Flowers in the Attic” style
Connor B: Haha no no two families sounds like a nightmare. No chance I could deal with two.
Erin Burks: So true, the trips to Disneyland alone Or whatever it is people with children give up their freedom for.
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whiteboyfactory · 3 years
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Sigh. Well folks it’s finally hit me. I’m watching cr again 😔
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shijiujun · 3 years
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山河令 | Word of Honor - Mega Masterpost
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Hey guys, here’s a FULL masterpost of the following for all Shan He Ling | Word of Honor items, basically a where-to-find-what:
General - Where to Find What
Episodes - Where to Watch What
Merchandise - Stores to Look Out For
GJ & ZZH - Variety Shows, Magazines & Endorsements
♣ Updates as of 19 May 2021, updates for the GJ/ZZH sections will stop hahaha this is THE END ;-; of SHL-related promotions for em. Will only add on if more SHL merch or BTS footage comes up! ♣
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(1) Novel ➩ JJWXC | Translations (Full) | No New Edition Print (For Now) - Because the first edition was printed a few years ago, the novel is 11 years old haha
(2) Drama Rec ➩ Here (I did this on the first day it aired so it’s based on the first four eps so yeah some info like where to watch is not updated but ignore that) (3) Audio Drama ➩ Here (Seasons 1 & 2, with 2 recently released)
(4) 山河令 Manhua ➩ Here (Up for two weeks and then taken down for some reason)
(5) Official Accounts to Follow ➩ 山河令 Weibo | Youku Official Twitter
(6) Wrap-Up for SHL Filming ➩ Here 
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(1) Official Episodes (36 + 1 Special Ep)
➩ 山河令 on Youku (Original Simplified Chinese) - *How to Pay on Youku
➩ Word of Honor on Youku (Subtitles) - *How to Pay on Youku
➩ Word of Honor on Youku YouTube (Subtitles)
➩ 山河令 on Line TV TW (Traditional Chinese)
➩ Word of Honor on Viki (Subtitles)
➩ Word of Honor on Amazon Prime 
➩ Word of Honor on Netflix 
(2) Behind the Scenes ➩ 山河令江湖番外篇 on Youku - Partially (70%~) behind a paywall, each episode costs about 1 yuan (or if you’re in Singapore $1.50 SGD which is fucking expensive, in Indonesia it’s apparently $0.30 and in Malaysia $0.20 LMAO) - But you get about 4-8 minute long BTS cuts with original scenes released with original voices + green screens
➩ Word of Honor on Youku YouTube (Subtitles) - Definitely not full release of BTS and even if they did release everything, it’d take a while, but there are already some subbed ones on the channel, just have to do a search
(3) Noteworthy Extras
➩ Special Ep (Youku): 7 minutes long with the first 4 minutes an FMV and the actual alternate or extended ending (depending on how you see it) in the last 3 minutes - You have to pay for it on Youku (both on the CN and EN/multi-language versions), we’ll have to check this week if YouTube will have it available for free. 
In any case it’s a happy ending I suppose, do all of you know it’s a happy ending? I’m seeing people reblogging my posts with so much angst in the tags about how the ending is devastating (which I suppose it is by my interpretation anyway for Ep 36 but Ep 37′s healing properties have been spread far and wide)
➩ Ep 6 (YouTube)
➩ Ep 7 (Youku, BTS)
➩ Ep 12 (YouTube - BTS in Youku, Original Voices in Youku)
➩ Ep 17 (LINE TV TW & YouTube)
➩ Ep 20-21 (YouTube)
➩ Ep 27 (Youku) - Part 1 | Part 2
➩ Ep 35 (Youku)
➩ Official Interview with Cast
(4) 山河令 Concert - May 3 & 4 2021
➩ Livestream on Youku - *How to Pay on Youku
➩ Livestream on Youku YouTube - For international fans, think this is a cheaper option overall hahahaha
➩ Concert Trailer - Highlight 1 | Highlight 2 (I AM LOSING MY MIND)
➩➩➩ Footage now available subbed on Youku YouTube and unsubbed on Youku
➩ SHL Concert Merch - RWB Hair Accessories
(5) 山河令 Official OST
➩ Spotify
➩ YouTube Playlist
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Official Stores for SHL Merch
➩ 歪瓜出品 - First store to come up with SHL merch, has shikishi boards, standees, keychains, cushions, fan, badges, puzzles and ZZS’ hairtie most recently. Also officially bought the rights to two popular WenZhou fanarts for merch, the other stores don’t have the same design. Ran by Boss Hu, a young dude who’s hilarious af on Weibo and has been trying to get permission to produce more merch and also struggling real hard to get us WKX outfit-inspired sweaters!
➩ Rua哇吧 - First to come up with WenZhou dolls. Currently they have a 10cm version and also a 20cm version. 
➩ Omodoki [Via Rua哇吧] - Hairpin, cushions, glazed armour keychain, enamel pins and other cute things like bookmarks too
➩ 阿里鱼 [Via 咕噜文化] - SHL OST. Enough said. PO is over so there is no link but once they produce it the listing might go up again.
➩ 娱影文创 - SHL-themed jewellery based on ZZS’ alcohol gourd and sword Bai Yi, or WKX’s fan, also has tote bags and the glazed armour
➩ 一直娱 - Another app, items cannot be bought directly from Taobao. They’ve got mugs, hair ties, scrunchies, mouse pads, coasters and a lot of cute other things that the other stores don’t have, including customizable phone covers etc. and best part is they sell WenZhou posters from scenes from the book. They’ve also got an official photobook, but IMO the one from 吾流文化 is more worth it.
➩ 啦啦酱JK - Wen Kexing outfit-inspired kimono outerwear, and also WenZhou inspired ties and ribbons
➩ 吾流文化 - SHL Photobook (the full version with costume, set and character designs etc.) and also matches another box set of items that include a fan and standee and some other things 
➩ 月心引力 MOONLY - Perfumes in liquid and solid form. They’ve also bought the rights to a set of WenZhou fanarts, and they’re making white-haired WKX for standees and freebies etc.
➩ 优酷模玩 x TOFU - CUTEST WENZHOU FIGURINES
➩ 地澈天清 - HANFU AND DRESSES!!!! Inspired by WenZhou I WEEEEEP they look real good and are also in the affordable range - A summary of what you’ll see
➩ CanCan x Youku - Cutest WenZhou fam items!!!! With WKX white-hair
➩ Prismland - New accessories!
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(1) About ZZH/GJ
➩ ZZH Weibo | ZZH Studio Weibo | ZZH Instagram
➩ GJ Weibo | GJ Studio Weibo | GJ Instagram | Wuhu-Famous
➩ Ship Name: Lang Lang Ding (LLD) or JunZhe - Although there’s no really strong RPS to be honest, most people I know use JunZhe and LLD as a mix of platonic friends + the WenZhou drama ship, or use JunZhe just to shorten their names because they appear at a lot of shows/shoots/interviews together, faster to type as well. The word Lang Lang Ding comes from 浪 (lang) which means to wander, and then 钉 (ding) as in nails, the nails that ZZS inflicted on himself.
(2) Noteworthy Interviews
➩ Goodbyes to SHL - ZZH | GJ
➩ About their Characters (Youku)
➩ Interview with ELLE TW
(3) Fansites (Check out their Photobooks - Mostly for WenZhou and also individual events and they will add on the upcoming concert footage and shots as well)
➩ 越界 (Both)
➩ 起意 (Both)
➩ 怦然心动 (ZZH) *Special mention they’ve been around for the longest so far, about 3 years, way before SHL and they’re REALLY generous
➩ 春秋荒梦 (Both)
➩ 同谋 (Both)
➩ Percent511 (ZZH)
➩ 105度 (ZZH)
➩ Plenilune (GJ)
➩ From May (ZZH)
➩ 月下思凡 (ZZH)
➩ 初霁 (ZZH)
➩ 未央 (Both)
(4) Variety Shows (Since SHL aired - Mar 21 to Apr 21)
➩ Happy Camp (Youku or YouTube) - 3 April 2020 | 24 April 2020 (GJ only)
➩ Ace vs. Ace (Youku or YouTube)
➩ Ace Actress (Youku or YouTube) - Ep 1 | Ep 2
➩ CHUANG 2021 (WeTV) - Part 1 | Part 2
(5) Magazine Shoots (Since SHL aired - Mar 21 to Apr 21)
➩ 精彩!OK (Both)
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➩ Madame Figaro 
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➩ ELLE/ELLEMEN - ZZH/GJ
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➩ SE 南都娱乐 - GJ
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➩ CHIC - ZZH
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➩ Wonderland - For ZZH’s Birthday
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➩ Glitz - GJ
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➩ VOGUE/VOGUEME - GJ (Not cover)/ZZH (cover)
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(6) Endorsements (Since SHL aired - Feb 21 to Apr 21)
➩ Both
Tom Ford - 03 Lark and other shades
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Armani Giorgio - Foundation
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Wahaha Yogurt
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➩ ZZH
Pandora - Jewellery
NIVEA - Sunscreen
Oneleaf - Skincare
Elizabeth Arden - Skincare
Sensodyne - Toothpaste
OPPO - Phone
Joyoung - Blender
Maybelline - Superstay Foundation, Loose Powder
Ariel - Laundry detergent XD
Baidu Maps - Don’t ask this is damn weird
Clinique - SKincare
Costa Coffee - Coffee mugs
Longines - Luxury watch 
水星家纺 - Bedsheets (He’s clearing the entire household)
Ahava - Hand cream
JBL - Earphones + Speakers
Killian - Perfume
Glico - Pretz
梦幻新诛仙 - Game
➩ GJ
KFC
Bearkoko - Dietary sweets
Wolong Nuts !!!
Sisley - Skincare
Vita - Drinks brand
Centrum - Supplements
Fresh - Skincare
Tangle Teezer China - Haircare
Loreal - Sunscreen
TT语音 - Some gaming social network thing
Revelation - E-gaming
Beast - Candles, aromatherapy
Ya-Man - Men’s skincare
ROEWE - Car brand
Braun - Shavers
Plant Selected - Oat Milk
YSL - Rose perfume
Tiffany & Co.
Louis Vuitton
Nescafe
3K notes · View notes
discotreque · 2 years
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Disco Season 4 wrap-up post
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TL;DR: I enjoyed Season 4 a lot. I don’t know if I necessarily have interesting or original things to say about all of it, but it was a hell of a ride and I’m glad I BitTorrented the ticket. (Also, full disclosure, it’s hard to write funny bullet-point blog posts when you’re glued to the screen crying your eyes out.)
Sure, I could nitpick the scripts—I’ve been a professional writer for 20+ years; boy, could I…—but since nobody’s paying me to, I’m more than happy to turn off the red pen in my brain that wants to fill the margins with things like “Show, don’t tell” and “Try something less cliché” and “Didn’t we do this 2 episodes ago?” and “I know David Ajala is really good at reacting to things but pls give Book some goddamn agency already.”
I heard somewhere a long time ago that unhappiness isn’t always a choice, but happiness always is. The conditions for happiness can be all around you, but you have to opt in. And enjoying something like a TV show is a choice, too. I’ve brought my own shitty baggage to perfectly good art in the past, determined not to enjoy it, and by god I succeeded at having the miserable time I set out to have. Yeah, some things are so deeply flawed that those flaws spoil the experience… but give me a break, Disco’s not that bad.
And it’s not like I had to look hard for things about Season 4 to enjoy. Credit where it’s due: despite the ever-shaky execution, and the miriam myriad things that have changed about this show since Season 1, it’s always had a consistent message at the centre of the mess: “You might win in the short term by sacrificing your principles, but your so-called victory will be hollow, and ultimately not worth the cost.”
This season banged that drum as hard as ever, but added some complementary themes to the mix, like: “becoming vulnerable to connect with other people is difficult, but necessary and deeply rewarding,” and “communication is at the heart of all successful conflict resolution”, and “go the fuck to therapy already.”
And by “complementary themes,” I mean “almost literally actual dialogue spoken by the characters,” because this show left subtlety behind in the 23rd century, and as I said earlier in the season, I’m more than okay with that. I don’t think we’re living in an era for subtlety—our enemies and oppressors sure aren’t subtle—and having grown up in the 90’s, I’m still recovering from near-terminal irony poisoning. At this point in my life and also human history, I fucking crave sincerity, and transparency, and whole-hearted connection. I didn’t realize how much I wanted that in Star Trek specifically (and in Disco specifically!) until I got it, and I got metric fucktonnes of it this season, and I am more than satisfied.
More stuff I liked (and a few tiny nitpicks I just couldn’t resist, haha), including spoilers, after the cut:
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President Mommy—sorry, Mommy—sorry, Mommy—sorry—Rillak was a pleasant surprise in every appearance. Star Trek doesn’t exactly have a history of thoughtful, flexible politicians with broad minds and good intentions, you know? But at every turn she was more, and more interesting, than a corrupt figurehead or an obstructionist straw-asshole for Captain Burnham to speechify at. Laira ended up feeling like an actual three-dimensional person, like a whole entire woman and not just her job, and while it would be a little contrived for her to be as involved in Season 5 as she was in Season 4, I hope they find a good-enough contrivance to keep her in play.
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Obviously I miss Sylvia Tilly every second she’s not on screen, but the biggest of kudos to the writers for realizing she didn’t really have a place in the story anymore, and writing her out in a way that not only made sense for her character, reflecting and respecting her growth, but kept her close for recurring appearances—like being an unspeakably amazing badass in the finale, holy shit???? Tilly toasting to the end of the world with Admiral Cool Dad was a highlight of the whole season for me; and then at last we see her back where she belongs—in Michael’s arms. (You will pry Mylvia from my cold. dead. hands.) If Tilly and her little crew of cadets are the core of the upcoming Starfleet Academy series, I’m on board already.
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The queer found-family stuff with Culber and Stamets and Adira was cute and wholesome and heartwarming as shit (I told you not all my opinions were fascinating and unique). I also appreciated that they wrote Gray off once he didn’t have anything to do on the show anymore, but like with Tilly, in a way that means he can still come back from time to time.
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Tarka was a terrific antagonist. He did terribly destructive things for completely selfish reasons, and tried to do even worse, but as a rational adult consumer of fiction, the main thing I care about is that his reasons were more complicated and interesting than “I am a moustache-twirling villain and I must twirl my evil moustache.” They made him sympathetic—and that’s putting it mildly—but never presented his very real and valid suffering as an excuse for his inexcusable behaviour. Nor, though, did they let his increasingly terrible choices erase the nuances of his character and motives. And leaving his fate ambiguous in the end was perfect. I don’t actually want to know if he made it to Kayalise… but I hope he did. I want to hope, despite everything, that he did.
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SARU AND T’RINA!!!! Speaking of wholesome and heartwarming, omg. I can’t believe they actually did that—and I called it from her first appearance, but I thought I was joking! (From my notes on “Unification III” last season: “Is a Starfleet captain allowed to smooch the president of a whole planet? Asking for a Kelpian friend…”)
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Everything about Species 10-C was incredible. Disco didn’t get enough credit for its visual overhaul last season: they had to take an already distant-future aesthetic and imagine the future of that, and the 32nd century ended up with such a cool and distinct look. And for this season, they had to imagine something that made plug-and-play programmable-matter spore drives look like steampunk—and I think they nailed it again! The DMA controller and the more complex and equally inscrutable Mk II design, the hyperfield and the orbs, the solar system with Dyson rings and three identical, presumably also artificial, gas giants… it’s still technology, not magic—and not omnipotent or invulnerable—but also incomprehensibly advanced compared to what we’re used to, and that’s a hard balance to get right.
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Killing and then un-killing Book was, objectively, a cheap shot at our feelings, but “cheap” isn’t always “ineffective.” For one thing, I don’t think I’d trade that Sonequa Martin-Green performance for a less manipulative plot. I also think that for Michael’s arc to feel complete, we had to see that she could lose Book and still finish the mission—but if Book hadn’t been able to confront the 10-C over Kweijian himself, his entire arc would have been an unbearably tragic shaggy dog cat story. And imho, the rules about dei ex machina go out the wormhole once you invoke the Kardashev scale, so fuck it: Michael Burnham can have a little resurrected boyfriend, as a treat.
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Other things about the season + finale:
I appreciated that Specialist Zora (!) smoothly integrated into the crew without any more repetitive “rogue AI” stories, but I do hope we spend more time on her next season.
Owosekun silently shaking her head in horror when she thinks Detmer is going on a suicide mission absolutely ended me. Oyin and Emily are carrying this entire ship on their backs and we owe them so much.
Hiro Kanagawa as Dr. Hirai was great. He’s often the only one in the room eating, which is a fun touch, and I really liked the way Rillak explained to him—and idk, maybe some of the audience?—that there’s a time and a place for sarcasm, sass, and snark, and it’s not “everywhere, all the time.”
I don’t think I’ve mentioned how much I love Dr. Pollard’s makeup this season—but that lipstick, omg.
Does anyone else want to ruffle Adira’s buzz cut every time they’re on screen? Just me? Okay then.
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Finally: I don’t live in the U.S. and I limit my intake of international political news for the sake of my mental health, so while I’ve heard of Stacey Abrams—and literally heard her on the official Star Trek podcast last year—I had no idea what she actually looks like, and I was pretty hilariously confused the first time through that ending, lol.
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But Ms. Abrams has serious and legitimate Trekkie cred, so I’m equal parts delighted for her as a fellow fan, and somewhat spitefully enjoying how much it’s enraged the alt-right scumbags who for some reason have a perpetual hate-boner for this show. Star Trek has never been for fascists and it never will be, and I approve of anything that rubs that permanent and incontrovertible fact in their faces. :) :) :)
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Onward to Season 5!
[Screenshots from the fabulous cygnus-x1.net]
59 notes · View notes
angryschnauzer · 3 years
Text
Waited So Long
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Summary: As an actress in her mid 20′s you had been lucky enough to get the roles you pushed yourself for, but one role in particular needs a scene you have no experience with; a sex scene, and you co-star is surprised to discover you are still a virgin even though you are in your mid 20′s. But he’s willing to help with whatever you need.
Trope: Friends to Lovers, Co-stars to Lovers Pairing: Henry Cavill x Female Reader
Warnings: NSFW, 18+, loss of virginity, oral sex, fingering, vaginal sex, protection/condoms. 
I no longer operate a tag list, but instead pop over and follow @angryschnauzerwrites​ and put that blog onto notifications. You’ll then get an alert each time i post a new story.
Masterlist got so long all the links broke, so you can now find all my previous stories on my AO3 LINK HERE
Waited So Long 
Henry sat at the large table, grinning and laughing as the rest of the cast had finished reading through the latest episode’s script. Everyone was in a good mood and that was down to the fact that tomorrow’s shooting schedule required just you and Henry, meaning that everyone else got a three day weekend. But… but you were just staring at the script. You knew it had been coming, but to see the words in front of you, the stage descriptions, it was overwhelming. 
 The Netflix special was ten episodes of a sci-fi series, and you played an alien warrior. Henry was the plucky human astronaut  that had been aboard the International Space Station when it had been sucked into a black hole and had ended up on the far side of the universe. Eight episodes into the filming schedule and the pivotal sex scene was about to be included, and that’s what was clouding every thought in your mind. 
 You were far from naive, you had no issue with your costume or even the nudity - you were after all painted purple with patches of ‘scales’ in strategic parts - but it was the fact you had a small secret that was making you so nervous; you hadn’t ever actually had sex. 
 You were already mid 20’s, you’d been through university and stage school, worked on broadway and the London west end, you’d modelled for artists and had always put your career first. Relationships had just fizzled away after the first couple of dates because of your acting schedule… and that is how you found yourself not only a virgin in her mid 20’s, but one that had never even laid in bed with a partner, been close, felt the weight of a lover on top of them… anything at all.
 The producers called it a wrap for the read through, and the sounds of chairs scraping on the floor filled the room. As people shot their empty plastic bottles into the trash you felt your stomach lurch, quickly leaving the room, finding the disabled bathroom and running to the toilet, the contents of your stomach very quickly coming back up. 
 Finally empty, you sat on the floor and rested your head against the wall, your mind spinning. A quiet knock at the door made you open one eye, watching as the unlocked door swung open and a familiar face peered round;
 “Are you ok?” Henry asked, his bulk almost filling the entire doorway; “You’re not coming down with something?”
 You shook your head;
 “No, just umm… nerves… haha…” you laughed rather awkwardly.
 Stepping into the room, he sat against the opposite wall, leaning forwards to hand you his half finished bottle of water;
 “... about tomorrow?”
 Taking a sip of water you nodded;
 “Bit pathetic really, isn’t it?”
 “Not at all. Is this your first onscreen love scene?”
 “Yeah”
 He sat forwards, resting his hands on his knees as he thought pensively for a moment;
 “Are you going out with the crew tonight?”
 “No. Can’t really face it”
 “How about I drive us back to the house and order some chinese and talk things through? This isn’t my first love scene but I remember the nerves. We’ll get everything out in the open so the air is clear ready for tomorrow, yeah?”
 Nodding, you watched as he stood, holding out his hand for you and helping you to your feet.
 -
 The drive back to the shared house that most of the main cast members were staying at was fun, Henry having linked his Spotify to the stereo, firing up a playlist of old school pop with an eclectic mix of metal. By the time he rolled into the large driveway that the rental house had, you were both yelling out the words, laughing and grinning. 
 Once inside you excused yourselves to go shower, twenty minutes later finding Henry in the kitchen. His hair was wet and he wore a t-shirt and pair of sweatpants as he looked over the chinese menu;
 “What do you fancy?” he asked and you tried not to blurt out what you were thinking, because even though you may be a virgin, your thoughts were far from pure. 
 Looking over the list he had already scribbled down, you pointed to a couple of dishes, watching as he added them to the list before dialling for delivery. 
 -
 Pushing your plate away you stretched out and groaned. Still shovelling egg fried rice into his mouth, Henry pointed his fork at your plate;
 “Roo dun?” he asked, his cheeks full like a hamster.
 “Help yourself!”
 He eagerly dumped the rest of your lemon chicken on top of his rice, jabbing at the pieces;
 “Hey, about tomorrow… you really don’t need to worry. It’s just going to be you and me, and three other people��
 Taking a sip of your beer you quietly snorted;
 “That’s still three more people that would ‘usually’ be there… and four more than i’ve ever experienced”
 He paused, setting his fork down and you could see his mind working through what you said;
 “So uhh, it's been a while…?”
 “To be honest, it's been never”
 It was like something short circuited in his brain;
 “Never never? Like, never?”
 Putting your beer down, you fiddled with the label;
 “I’m a virgin. I’ve never had sex. I’ve never even slept with anyone”
 There was an awkward silence, the air tense before Henry finally spoke;
 “Is it a religious thing?”
 You shook your head;
 “No. I just have been so wrapped up in studying or working or being on stage… I would get two dates into a relationship and some big opportunity would come up. I would get blinkered and end up ghosting guys without even realising. Ambition got in the way of a love life…”
 Henry took a deep breath;
 “Ok. So you know i’ll be covered up… down there i mean… and so will you… so there won’t be any slips or anything. I won’t be inside you or anything…”
 Cocking an eyebrow you scoffed;
 “Henry… I know you won’t be inside me. We studied sex scenes at stage school. They gave us the practical run down of what happens. It's lots of rubbing and grunting. I just need to go watch some porn again to figure out what to grunt…” you took a sip of your beer; “... and you probably wouldn’t fit inside me anyway… it’s not like anything has ever breached that hole”
 Henry sat with a wide eyed look on his face, his jaw hanging slack;
 “So you… you’ve never even pleasured yourself?”
 “Of course i have!” you threw a prawn cracker at him; “I’ve just never…. You know… had internal stimulation…”
 “Wow” he muttered quietly, shifting in his seat; “So…” he started again but then stopped, his brain seemingly unable to string a coherent sentence together. 
 Finally he cleared his throat;
 “So there’s never been any on set stuff?”
 “Nope. Usually I run through my lines for the next day, check the schedule, the set and makeup call times. I guess the one bonus about all of this is that there aren’t any lines for tomorrow”
 You both knew that the scene had been set up without dialogue, mostly from Netflix’s instruction because any erotic scenes can cause havoc with sensors in some countries when it comes to subtitles. 
 “What did you want to do now? Do you want an early night? Watch a movie? Talk? You want me to lay on top of you?” he asked, picking his now cold plate of food up and dumping the leftovers in the waste disposal.
 “Yes” you replied far too quickly.
 “Which part?”
 “All of it”
 -
 With the TV in the main living area out of action thanks to a rather rambunctious game of ping pong a few weeks ago, the pair of you had moved to Henry’s room. An hour into the movie and it was far from your thoughts, instead you were in the bizarre situation where Henry was literally laying on top of you as you had a conversation. The feeling of his weight pressing against you was at first a surprise, he was thick with muscles for the role, and with probably 200lbs of human pressing you against the mattress you had found you would have to shift now and again. Finally you found a position that was comfortable, and as you chatted about life you found your legs had naturally parted to allow him to lay between them, his stomach pressing to yours, his face inches from your own;
 “This is literally how we’ll be spending our day tomorrow you realise” he quietly pointed out
 “But there will be grunting too… plus some thrusting… it’ll probably get your ass in the gossip magazines as best ass in hollywood again” you teased him, knowing that the nudity he’d done in previous shows and movies had earned him a lot of attention thanks to his rather peachy behind.
 Henry pushed up a little, poking a finger to your breasts;
 “Oh yeah? Well these will earn you a whole legion of fans, you have an awesome pair of tits”
 “Pfft, they’re just average”
 “They’re good enough to give me a semi” he countered with a crooked grin on his face, using his finger to just tug at your neckline, exposing a tiny bit more skin.
 You shifted beneath him without even realising you were doing so and that’s when you felt it, a growing hardness pressing against your abdomen. Your eyes went wide as you stared up at him, the mix of emotions showing on his face;
 “I’ll get off…”
“No!” you instinctively wrapped your legs around his, leaning your head up and pressed a kiss to his lips. He let out a grunt of surprise and you felt him tense, before he softened, his lips following yours as you pulled rested your head back on the duvet beneath you.
 His lips were soft and plump, and as he rocked his hips against you again this time you felt he was getting harder. Instinctively you gasped, and he took the opportunity to slip his tongue into your mouth. You may not have had sex before but you had kissed, and your tongue danced with his as hands started to explore each others bodies, fingers seeking out skin as t-shirts were tugged up to expose heated skin. 
 Pulling your shirt over your head he admired your naked chest, the pattern on your top having hidden the fact you were without a bra;
 “Oh yeah, even purple these’ll be popular”
 With a smirk on his lips and a wicked grin on his face he lowered his mouth to your naked torso, taking one peaked nipple between his lips to suck on it, his hand cupping your other breast. As he worked his magic your body responded, the wetness between your thighs soaking through your clothing, the subtle movements of your bodies rubbing together making your arousal almost uncontrollable. Winding your hands into his dark locks, the soft hair curled around your fingers as he looked at you, pressing a trail of kisses down your sternum until he reached your leggings;
 “Can i continue?” he asked quietly, watching as you nodded your head;
 “Yes… please…”
 As he pulled your leggings off he pressed kisses to the heated skin that he revealed, never breaking eye contact;
 “So here’s what i’m going to do… first i’m going to get you to cum with my tongue, i’ll slip it just a little inside you so you can get used to the feeling, then i’ll gently tease you with my fingers; find that g-spot of yours as i’ve been assured a g-spot orgasm is completely different from a clitoral orgasm…
 “Fuck…”
 “Yes, that’s the third thing…” he grinned at you; “Once you’re nice and ready, and really really wet i’m going to make love to you… so you can practice your moans for tomorrow…”
 He shed you of the rest of your clothing before softly grasping your legs and pulling them apart, revealing your virgin core. Tender fingers parted your petals before his tongue swiped a wide stripe through them, and the sound that emerged from your throat startled even you.
 “You like that?”
 “Yes… oh my god, please do that again!”
 “With pleasure!”
 “The pleasure is all mine…”
 “Henry?”
 “Yes?”
 “Please shut up and get on with it” you grinned at him, before he dipped his face back between your legs and went to town. His tongue was seemingly everywhere, grunts and moans as he worked you open, and when he slipped his tongue into the ring of muscle at your entrance your eyes shot open and you giggle-moaned at the unfamiliar but not unpleasant experience. When a finger found your clit you relaxed again, laying back and enjoying the pleasure he was selflessly giving you. 
 Gripping at the bedcovers you found your hips started to move on their own, only for Henry to press a strong arm across your stomach to hold you in place, pushing you closer and closer to your orgasm. When it finally did hit your body reacted instinctively; your legs wrapping themselves around his head, your back arching and your fingers almost tearing through the fabric of the sheets, before you finally went limp. As your mind was nothing but stars a muffled voice came through the haze of your post orgasmic bliss;
 “If i could get some oxygen…”
 Not realising your legs were still firmly wrapped around Henry’s head, you quickly released him, his head popping up from beneath your thighs. His cheeks were flushed red and his chin was wet, and it took you a moment to realise you were the cause for the wetness. He wiped his chin with the back of his hand before standing and grabbing a bottle of water to pass to you;
 “You’re gonna need to rehydrate after that…”
 You went to take the bottle from him but the bulging tent in his sweatpants distracted you, your hand pausing mid air before Henry laughed;
 “Drink first, then you can play with it”
 “Oh… I… “
 “Drink”
 Taking the bottle you sipped at the tepid liquid as he lay on the bed beside you. When you’d finished he wrapped his arms around you, pulling you to his firm chest before kissing you softly;
 “Are you ready for round two?”
 “Can i touch you too?”
 A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth before he nodded, watching as you eased the elastic of his sweats down and his heavy cock sprang free. Your jaw fell as you took in his size, but before you could overthink it he pressed a kiss to your lips as his hands wandered between your thighs. 
 Reaching out you wrapped your fingers around him as his own slid between your folds, dancing over your clit before he pressed a single digit inside you, your eyes going wide and your hand squeezing him involuntarily. 
 “Does that feel good?”
 You nodded;
 “Yes, a little strange that i’m not in control, but i think that’s what makes it even more exciting”
 “That’s good… now, how about another finger?”
 Nodding again you bit your lip as he slid a second finger in alongside the first, your eager hole stretching around his digits. Instinctively you had started to move your hand up and down his shaft, doing little more than gentle movements, but soon the pair of you got into a rhythm, working together to leave your breaths in time with the others.
 “Doing so well for me… so wet. Shall we try a third?”
 Nodding you let out a quiet ‘uh-huh’ as he repositioned his hand, carefully sliding three fingers into your soaked velvet channel, and the noise that came from your throat was base and full of sin. When his thumb started to rub against your clit while he continued to work three fingers inside you the spring in your belly snapped and you were coming hard, shaking around his hand.
 As you came down from your high Henry carefully withdrew his fingers, salaciously licking them clean before he got off the bed and went to the drawer in the little cabinet, pulling out a condom.
 “Oh… i’m on the pill…” you blurted out; “You don’t have to… In fact i’d really like to feel you, you know… bare…”
 Tearing the packet open he grinned at you;
 “I get that… but you’re gonna be in makeup in less than 12 hours” he knelt on the bed as he started to roll the latex down his angry dick.
 “Umm yeah?”
 “Well its something you’d only know from experience, but it can take up to 24 hours for a guys cum to fully leak out of you”
 “Oh…”
 “And your costume and makeup gets pretty intimate, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah…”
 “So you want Iris in makeup to be able to smell my cum dripping out of you when she’s painting your snatch purple tomorrow?” he said with a grin on his face, rolling the condom down fully before positioning himself between your legs
 “I gotta be honest, the idea that someone realises i’ve had sex is kinda kinky” you craned your neck up to kiss him as you felt his dick notch at the entrance to your cunt; “But you’re the expert here”
 “That i am… Let me show you just how much of an expert…”
 With a smooth roll of his hips he pushed into you and the feeling was indescribable, in fact it was so overwhelming you screwed your eyes shut, willing the tears not to fall, but Henry simply held still, kissing each one of your tears as they fell down your cheeks until you were ready.
 “Breathe babe… just breathe… it’s overwhelming i know… i understand…”
 Opening your eyes you gazed up at him, smiling as he leaned down and kissed you softly.
 “Are you ok?”
 “Y-yeah…”
 “You want me to keep going?”
 “Please… oh god please”
 “Gonna make you feel so good”
 He carefully pulled his hips back before pushing into you again, seemingly getting deeper before pulling out again. Soon you were lost in the moment, feelings both physical and emotionally almost overwhelming you again as your body was taken to new heights of pleasure, Henry seemingly knowing exactly how to make the moment special for you.
 Your body reacted in the best way, the tight spring inside you curling ever tighter, until with just the right roll of his hips he tipped you over the edge and you were coming hard, your body squeezing him so tight he knew he’d found heaven whilst you saw stars. 
 Whilst you were in the haze of your orgasm you heard the most beautiful moans, and felt as Henry came deep within you. As soon as he stopped shaking he wrapped his arms around you tightly, pressing his face to your neck as he cradled the back of your head with his massive hand, pressing soft kisses to your heated skin as you both basked in the aftershocks of your intense orgasms.
 Finally Henry pushed himself up to bear his weight on one arm, sliding his other hand between your bodies to hold the condom in place as he carefully pulled out of you;
 “I’m just gonna get rid of this… stay here”
 You watched his peachy ass as he quickly mad his way to the bathroom, hearing water running before he reappeared moments later with a damp washcloth. Sitting delicately beside you he carefully cleaned you up, and when he was finished he pulled the duvet over your naked body as he quickly got rid of the cloth and joined you, wrapping his arm around your shoulder and pulling you to his chest;
 “Are you ok?”
 “I think so… Did i make a mess of your bed?”
 “No. No blood”
 “Really? I thought…”
 “If you’re relaxed enough you may not bleed… or you may have simply ruptured your hymen just through every day life. A fall, tampons, strenuous exercise… didn’t you do a horseriding movie a couple of years back?”
 “Y-yeah…” you cast your mind back; “Now you mention it, there was one really long day when i’d spent all day shooting a galloping scene with jumps… i just thought my period was coming early, and i had this really dull ache in my lower back… i guess that makes sense now…”
 “So… you’re good? Feel ok about filming tomorrow?”
 You nodded;
 “Yeah, i’m good. Thank you” You looked up at him and saw he was chewing his lip nervously; “What?”
 “I was wondering… you know… after we’ve finished filming tomorrow… did you want to go to dinner with me?”
 “Like a date?”
 “Yeah… hey i understand if you say no… that you want to concentrate on your role and acting…”
 “No! I mean yes!” you took a deep breath; “I’d love to go to dinner with you”
 He pressed a kiss to your cheek before you settled on his chest, his strong heartbeat beating beneath your ear as you let your eyelids drop and you fell asleep in his arms.
 -
 Iris tutted as you fidgeted;
 “Will you stand still? I need to get these scales on!”
 “Sorry Iris… just a little sore…”
 The older woman looked up at you as she held the patch of purple scales prosthetic and grinned;
 “Well its about time” she nodded to the various bottles and jars that were on the counter; “Make sure you take the coconut oil when you leave tonight, it’ll help get the adhesive off without pulling on any bruises”
 You looked down at Iris and smiled;
 “Thanks Iris”
 “Was it worth it?”
 “So worth it”
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kiirokero · 3 years
Text
Outro: Love Is Not Over (1)
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Pairing: Daycare Teacher! Hoseok x Single Mom! Reader.
Genre: Single Parent! AU, Teacher! AU, Hybrid! AU, Fluff, Angst, Adorable Kids, 
Warnings: Don’t know if this counts but mentions of accidental pregnancies and shitty men. 
Word Count: 1.7k
Summary: Years after a relationship goes south. You are the single mother of a beautiful 6-year-old golden retriever hybrid who you named Yunho. He is the light of your life. Yunho is everything to you, and you’d do anything for him. But you’re a human. Yunho doesn’t care, he will tell you he doesn’t. “You’re still my Eomma. No matter what.” He says. But you can’t help but feel like you will never be enough for him. You can’t be the mother he deserves. You can’t show him the ropes of being a hybrid, and you can’t teach him things the other moms can. But you try. You try your damn hardest. So, when a handsome German Shepard hybrid comes into your life, helping you and guiding Yunho in a way you can’t, you can’t help the cozy home he sets up in your heart.
Chapter Guide:
Previous / Next
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“Congratulations! It’s a boy.” 
“I-Is he okay?”
“Yes, he’s very healthy. Do you have a name in mind?”
“Yunho.”
“A very nice name.”
“Oh, he’s beautiful.”
“That he is. I apologize for asking, but you haven’t listed the father on his birth certificate yet.”
“I’m aware.”
“Are you going to?”
“No.”
“You’re aware what that means, yes?”
“Yes.”
“Well then, Ms. L/n, I’ll leave you be now. Press the button if you need assistance. A midwife will be coming to see you shortly.”
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      “Eomma, wake up!” A giggly voice called. The bed was bouncing up and down, pulling me out of my slumber. I couldn’t help but laugh along. “All right, Yunnie, I’m up.” Yunho chuckled and lent down to give me my morning hug. “Good morning, Eomma.” He sighed, his fluffy blonde tail wagging in content. “Good morning, lovely. Did you sleep well?” I wrapped my arms around him, bringing him in for a snuggle. “Yes! I had a dream about giant squirrels!” He exclaimed. I let out an exaggerated gasp, “You did?! That’s awesome.” 
      Yunho wiggled out of my grasp and bounded towards my bedroom door. “Come on, Eomma! I’m hungry.” I chuckled and got out of bed. “Alright, waffles or toast?” I asked while I grabbed my sweatshirt, pulling it on. “Waffles!” Yunho answered, racing downstairs to the living room. I smiled to myself, I couldn’t help the warmth in my heart every time I saw my son. 
     Yunho had short hair that matched mine in color. He also had my eyes. I could see little pieces of myself in his face and it always made me smile. I didn’t pay attention to the features he and his father shared, even if they weren’t many. The most prominent feature they shared being his ears and tail, but somehow, Yunho made them uniquely his. 
      He never like getting his fur cut, would always sulk about it afterwards, he likes to keep the fur on his tail long so either him or I could braid it. He thought braids were so pretty, so he would ask me to braid all of his hair, and eventually, he learned himself. His fur on his ears was less long because of my insistence that having heavy ears would impair his ability to lift them. He could lift his left ear, but not the right one. He’s been working on that. 
      So, even if he was his father's child, he was still just Yunho to me. That man didn’t matter. It didn’t matter that Yunho has his button nose or freckles. It didn’t matter because Yunho was Yunho, and Yunho was the light of my life. He would run around the house non stop, bring me little rocks he found in the yard, draw pictures that had a special place on the fridge. Yunho was sunshine incarnate, and I couldn’t ask for a better son. 
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      Downstairs, Yunho was sitting in front of the T.V, watching his favorite cartoon. It was about this hybrid boy and his best friend, who was human. Yunho said it was like him and I, that we were like the characters on screen, going on adventures every day. The sight made me smile yet again, and I went to the kitchen to get started on breakfast.  
     I could see Yunho from the kitchen since it was an open plan. Which wasn’t surprising because we lived in a small house. 2 bedrooms, 1 and 1/2 baths. It had a very large backyard that merged into woods. The area is pleasant, a little secluded, but that just gave Yunho more room to explore. The house got a lot of natural light with the large windows, and the air was always refreshing. 
      When I first saw the house, it was like a blessing. It was a little run down, but nothing I couldn’t handle, and it was cheap. A house being cheap should be a red flag, and it was, but it was worth it. The worst problem the house had was the hot water that ran out pretty quickly. In no way was it a luxurious mansion, but it was home, and that was all that mattered. 
     “Yunho! Come get your breakfast!” I called, placing his bright blue plate on the small dining room table we had. I heard his feet patter on the hardwood as he ran to the dining room. “Woah! Slow down, bub.” I chuckled. Yunho gave me a shy smile and sat down, immediately digging into his breakfast. “Is it good?” I teased, wiping away some stray syrup that threatened to end up in his hair. Yunho nodded enthusiastically, giving me a thumbs up. 
      We ate together with comfortable banter. Yunho was telling me about the latest episode of his cartoon, and I was more than happy to listen. The way his eyes lit up whenever he talked about something he loved was enough to make the toughest of men smile. “Eomma, can Hajun come over today?” Yunho asked in a hopeful tone. I thought about it for a bit, “I’ll call Aunt Hyejin and see if he can, okay?” Yunho brightened up and gave a little “okay!” In response.
     After we were done eating, Yunho put his plate in the sink and went back to watching T.V. I washed up the dishes and dialed Hyejin’s number. “Hey babe!” She answered in her usual cheery voice. I chuckled, “Hey sis.” 
      In reality, Hyejin wasn’t my sis or babe, but we were close like that. Hyejin was a Siamese cat hybrid that I met back in college. We were roommates, and we just clicked immediately. We were there with each other through everything. Shitty professors, family issues, breakups, shit men that make your life a living hell. She had her son, Hajun, a bit before I had Yunho, and helped me whenever I needed. 
      She and her husband, Yoongi, a Persian cat hybrid, were there with me through it all. They were the family I never had. Yoongi was like an overprotective older brother, and Hyejin was no different. They even helped me find Yunho and I’s home. We normally went on family trips to amusement parks or aquariums which the boys never seemed to get bored with. We were all one big happy family. 
     Yoongi and Hyejin were like polar opposites. Yoongi was chill while Hyejin was a bundle of never ending energy. Yoongi was quiet Hyejin loved to talk. Yoongi was an introvert, and Hyejin constantly dragged him out to parties that Namjoon, one of our mutual friends, had mentioned to her. It was funny to witness. Especially when Yoongi begged me to go in his stead, which worked 50% of the time.
      “So, what d’ya need? I’m all ears.” She snickered, and I could practically see her gray ears twitch. “Haha, hilarious. Yunnie wants to know if you guys can come over.” I answered. “Yeah, sure! We’re not doing anything today and I’ve been dying to talk to you about something.” She gushed. “Ooo, exciting.” I chuckled. “I’ll see you soon, babes. Love you!” I said I loved her back and hung up the phone. 
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     Soon, Hyejin and Hajun arrived and the boys immediately began playing together. “Hey! So nice to see you!” Hyejin smiled, giving me a hug. “You too!” I was equally just as happy to see Hyejin since she and Yoongi had been a bit busy lately. We walked over to the living room where the boys were playing on the floor with their toys. Hyejin and I sat on the sofa and she immediately began talking. 
      “Okay! So, I’ve been dying to talk to you about this,” She started, already bouncing in her seat. “I can see that.” I teased, poking at her shoulder. “You know the job I was looking into? The daycare one?” She asked, and I nodded. “Well~ I got the job!” She exclaimed. My jaw dropped, a smile made its way onto my face. “No way! Congratulations!” I got up and squeezed her in a bone breaking hug, which she reciprocated. 
     “I know! I’m so excited!” Her tail was flicking behind her. “So, when do you start?” I asked, moving back into my seat. “Next week! I’m going to be the second teacher, helping someone named Mr. Jung.” She explained, and she went on to tell me how she got the job and how Hajun had asked if he could go, only to pout when Hyejin told him that he was too old. “I’m happy for you, Hyejin.” I smiled, excited that she was pursuing her dream of working with kids. 
      Hyejin, like me, got pregnant young and unexpectedly. But she was super thrilled. She didn’t care if she was only 20, she always wanted a child. She wasn’t married at that time, but Yoongi stepped up pretty quickly to raise Hajun with Hyejin. Yoongi was a cool dad, pretty laid back. Usually snuck the kids out to go get ice cream or pizza. Not that Hyejin or I minded, he treated both boys with the utmost care. He treated Yunho like his own son. 
      “So, have you met this Mr. Jung?” I wondered. “Not yet, but I had a phone call with him. Guess what? He’s our age.” She whispered, like what she was saying was some big secret. “Hyejin, we’re both 26, it’s not like a young teacher is unheard of.” I pointed out. “I know! But... What if he’s cute~?” She raised her eyebrows in a teasing manner, leaning closer to me. “I could be cupid.” She winked and I rolled my eyes. 
      “No thanks, Hyejin. I appreciate it, but love for me ended a long time ago.” I sighed and Hyejin huffed, dramatically slouching in her seat. “Y/n, just because... he... broke your heart doesn’t mean you should give up entirely.” She pointed out, looking at me with eyes full of undecipherable emotions. “Any man I date would have to be okay with being a father-like figure to Yunho. I’m 26 Hyejin, no guy my age wants kids yet.” I monotoned. 
      I had come to terms with the fact that most men didn’t want to date someone who already had a child. Not saying that it didn’t dishearten me a bit, but it was a revelation I made early on. If someone wanted me, they were going to want Yunho too. It either both of us, or neither of us. 
Yunho was my light, and he deserved a father that could be the things I couldn’t.
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franniebanana · 2 years
Text
CQL Rewatch - Ep 37
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Most fake dead cat ever. Also, if it was dead, why did it meow on the way down?
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Debating whether I should spend time actually looking this up, but even if that is how they make that particular dish, that rice must be super crunchy. Five minutes of cooking (without even starting with hot water) is not enough to soften rice.
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Okay, now we get into the horror part of the story. I like how spooky they made this part.
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I can’t help but get Scooby Doo vibes out of this part. All the kids trying to solve the mystery. And poor Wei Wuxian having to babysit them.
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It’s so cute to see them all offer their own blood for Wei Wuxian to use in a summoning charm. It shows how quickly they’ve all come to depend on and trust him. It’s less surprising for the Lan juniors, but for the others, as well as Jin Ling, to offer their blood really shows that they have come to trust Wei Wuxian with their lives. Maybe it’s because he’s the only adult around, maybe it’s because he saved them from poisoning—either way, it’s obvious that he has earned their trust in a very short amount of time.
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I think this is the first time we actually see someone take out an object that has been magicked into a pouch or sleeve, so thank you, Lan Sizhui. I think the only other person who does this is Lan Wangji, and his guqin just seems to appear out of thin air when he waves his arm a certain way. So, it’s a little detail to show Lan Sizhui opening the pouch, but it helps understand that they aren’t, in fact, magicians.
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Jin Ling telling Lan Sizhui that he must be wrong is funny, because for one, what does Jin Ling even know about spirit association, and two, this kid grew up under Lan Wangji’s guidance. Look, all he needs to say is, “I learned from Hanguang-Jun, and he is never wrong, therefore I am never wrong.”
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Agreed. Enough of your villain monologuing, and let’s just get on with it.
Commentary in this episode will be sparse. But I do want to talk about Xue Yang a bit. I like how overtly evil he is and how committed to being a villain he is. “If I say I’m going to kill the entire clan, I will. I won’t even leave a dog behind.” Yes, it’s all well and good that he’s just that bad, folks. I just get bored with him. And this whole side story that’s largely irrelevant to the plot that’s coming up. I just find that I don’t really care much about any of the characters, except for A-Qing.
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I like this little conversation. Wei Wuxian first says Wen Ning is going to win the zombie fight—he has absolute confidence in this fact that he even scoffs to Xue Yang. And then he defends Wen Ning, saying that Wen Ning is not a thing. He isn’t just that dagger, a tool for other people. To Wei Wuxian, he’s a person, an ally, a friend. We saw this in the last episode, and we see it again here, reiterating that Wen Ning is an equal.
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This is super cute: the place Wei Wuxian is needed is here, with the juniors. Despite what he’s done—or maybe because of what he’s done, he’s actually in a very good position to teach them. He’s learned so much, and a lot of times, it was the hard way, that it makes him the perfect teacher and guide for them.
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“So you think Hanguang-Jun is not good?”
Haha, I love this little exchange. And Wei Wuxian, who has this weird little giggly moment where he affirms that Hanguang-Jun is very good, the best, even. I think it’s clear that “good” doesn’t really cover what Wei Wuxian thinks of Lan Wangji.
Wow, that was short! Um, I think I’m going to skip the Empathy section, because I don’t really see the point of watching it. I vowed to watch it at some point, and I already did, because I watched it with my friend. Oath fulfilled.
Other episodes: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 |
Or just check out the #CQL Rewatch hashtag
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kadethecat · 3 years
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what about... 20? :D
Thanks for doing the ask game! 20 is breaking the rules. I haven’t written in a while, so sorry if it’s not the best, but here it is. Also the formatting might be messed up since I’m on mobile.
Summary: Susie and Noelle wanted to have a cool night where they could watch a bunch of episodes of their favorite show, but the streaming service they have access to through noelles parents doesn’t have it on there, so Susie suggests Piracy.
“You mean like a date? Really?” Noelle wanted to make sure she was interpreting what Susie had said right.
Susie turned to the side and put a hand behind her head, her hair hiding her eyes even more. “Well, only if you want it to be…” Noelle was touched. Noelle couldn’t believe a cool girl like Susie wanted to go out with her! She was barely keeping herself from jumping around. “So what do you… what do you wanna do?” Susie was looking her in the eyes now.
“Um… maybe we could watch a movie, or a show or something?” Noelle suggested.
“Oh, I know! You could show me that cartoon you were talking about! If you uh… if you want to, anyway.”
Oh geez, Noelle hadn’t thought that Susie would actually be interested when she brought it up. She’d still follow through and watch it with her, but she was a bit embarrassed about her own taste. “Um, sure. What time?”
“Can we do 11? Like in the morning?” Susie asked.
“I’m pretty sure that works for me. So… see you then I guess?”
“Uh, sure. I’ll see you later.”
Noelle and Susie had parted ways from in front of the school, and Noelle was in her room, gushing. She was just so happy that she finally had a real official date with the girl she liked! Of course Noelle was still in fear of it going horribly horribly wrong, but she was able to put that fear aside for the most part. As well as how she always felt guilty thinking about Susie, and even guiltier now that something was actually happening. Ah, she should probably start preparing for the date to make sure it goes well.
She booted up the computer and made sure she remembered her family’s Sora login correctly. She successfully got into the streaming service, and looked in her watch list for Caught in Rola. Huh, it didn’t show up. Sora does glitch a lot... She decided to put the site’s search function into use, and Noelle put the name of the series in, and still no results showed.
Noelle’s heart was pretty crushed. Her date with Susie was probably ruined, and she hadn’t even finished the last season of the show. Ugh, she couldn’t believe that they would just take it down with no warning. She fell into bed and put on the white noise she liked to sleep to, and turned off her lamp. She still couldn’t stop thinking about the situation she was in. What was she going to say to Susie? Would she think it was Noelle’s fault? Maybe the blame did fall on Noelle. After all, it was her who told Susie that she would definitely be able to do it.
- -
The doorbell rang. It was 11:17, and Noelle was still anxious. Maybe she just shouldn’t open the door. Maybe then she can forget about this and it will somehow be fixed… the doorbell rapidly rang a few more times, and Noelle walked to the door to unlock and open it.
“Hi, Noelle, I almost thought you weren’t gonna get the door, haha. Sorry for being late. I like, forgot for a second that 10:57 was right before 11, so when I checked the clock then, I wasn’t prepared at all to leave, but hopefully it’s okay?” Susie was a bit embarrassed, and it showed on her face.
“It’s totally okay! Um, Susie? Do you think you would be okay if we uh, did something else other than watching the show…?” Noelle asked, avoiding eye contact with her date.
“Wha? I’m not mad or something, but why?”
“Well I checked and… Sora doesn’t have Caught in Rola on it any more. Sorry to let you down.”
“Oh, well. that’s not good. Uh I do think I know… something else we can do. Can I use your computer for a moment?”
Noelle was unsure what Susie was thinking of. “Alright, sure, as long as it’s within reason. And you can come inside now! Sorry for making you wait outside for so long.”
The two headed inside the roomy house, and made their way into Noelle’s room. Noelle had temporarily taken down the most embarrassing posters she had, but a few were still up. Noelle sat on her bed next to Susie, set the laptop between them and logged into her account to direct Susie onto the browser.
“Okay uhh, do you have an adblocker?” Susie asked Noelle, looking up from the monitor.
“No? Probably not I think, what’s that for?”
“No? Uh, okay. It like, removes annoying ads and popups from websites while you’re on them.” Susie tried explaining. “I’ll just get one for you if you want. It’s free to have.”
Noelle just gave a simple “Okay,” and Susie continued her work on the device.
“Okay so, I know a website that we can probably watch it on, so I’m gonna pull that up now.” She put in a weird sounding url and hit enter. A bunch of ads and spam showed up for a split second, but were quickly done away with thanks to what Susie had gotten for Noelle. “Here it is! It seems sketchy but it’s completely alright to do and doesn’t make you a bad person on its own.” Susie proclaimed.
“Wow, you’re sure that this is okay? It’s pretty cool!” Noelle was pretty excited to see the show, she would even be able to finish it on her own if she couldn’t with Susie.
“Well, yeah, as long as you didn’t invite any cops, haha ha…” the room went a bit cold.
“This- Are you saying that this is a crime!?” Noelle nearly shouted. Was she dating a criminal? Was her mom actually right about Susie being a delinquent bad influence?
“Hey, hey, I said it was moral, not legal.” Susie tried to reassure.
“Wh-what if we get caught? Undyne’s really scary, and-and people might think it’s my your fault O-or-“
“Hey, Noelle.” Susie said pretty calmly. “We’re not hurting anyone. We’re just a couple of teens who wanna watch a cartoon. And, you’re mom’s paying for that other service anyway, so the creators of the show already got stuff for what they made. It’s basically already been completely paid for, if that uh, makes sense.”
Noelle was actually almost crying, but she thought that Susie was probably right. She tended to draw her own moral line at things that the people around her would approve of, but, well, now that she thought about it, there was probably more that they wouldn’t approve of or understand, like the dark world, or how Kris can time travel, apparently.
“Wow, that’s uh… a lot.” Susie was staring at Noelle.
“Did uh.. I… I didn’t mean to say that out loud.”
“Hey, it’s okay! Let’s… let’s go watch our illegal cartoons now.”
“Okay!” The two girls pulled up the show, and watched the show until into the night.
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itsclydebitches · 3 years
Note
Hey Clyde, did you check out Wonder Egg Priority at all? The first ep is super promising, but the series as a whole is one of those real fascinating disasters from a story and a production standpoint that might be up your alley as a thing to pick apart haha.
I’d warn that it’s also reeeeal offensive and this generally gets worse as it goes though.
Hi, Phoenix! How are you and Cube doing?
Okay, I hadn't watched Wonder Egg Priority when I received your ask this morning. Now I have. In a fit of intense curiosity I settled down for a rare binge session and tore through all twelve episodes + OVA in a single sitting. It is now nearly 3:00am as I write this because I, oh so clearly, make fantastic life choices.
A question for you: what did I just watch?
The rest is going under a read more partly for spoilers, but more-so because WEP—and the summary I'm about to give, because I feel like I need to try and explain this to tumblr's faceless void for my own, dwindling sanity—comes with about every trigger warning under the sun. Seriously, if you are triggered by anything that we might think of as a "standard" trigger (meaning, not unique to you and your own experiences), best to proceed with caution.
Right! What the ever loving fuck happened in this show? Well, let's work through this chronologically. Two genius, frat boy brothers (I get their names mixed up so I'm not even gonna bother) are locked in their apartment and closely monitored because of Super Secret Science Research. Even though, I think, they're the ones who created this company. Not important! What is important is that they're bored enough to create an AI for funsies, thinking of her as their daughter and letting her name herself Frill. Frill is the perfect, cutesy, also genius child who has a habit of popping her lips — which the camera focuses on in an incredibly creepy fashion. One day Brother #1 (the hot one) falls in love with a random woman we know nothing about and Frill gets jealous.
"Jealous in a general sense?" you ask, thinking this show is in any way normal. "Like, just of her Dad giving attention to someone else?"
"No," I respond, patting your hand. "Jealous because she's in love with him." Which, beyond the subject matter itself, comes completely out of nowhere. Frill has a line about what you'd do if some woman stole your husband away. I, fool that I was, briefly considered that these two guys were lovers, not brothers. Oh no. They're brothers. Frill just considers Dad #1 to be her "husband."
So, in true evil AI fashion, she murders the wife, leaving only her newly born child behind. Who is a daughter.
Uh oh.
Dad #1 locks Frill in a coffin-esque hole in the basement and goes on with his life. Things are great! Until years later when the daughter reveals that she has fallen in love with her uncle (Dad #2 to Frill). She knows (somehow??) that both her dad and her uncle loved her mom, so if the loser uncle will just wait a few years he can marry her instead! He brushes her off, but the next day she’s found dead of an apparent suicide.
Realizing that this was somehow Frill’s doing, he marches down to the basement and confronts the murderous child they’ve had locked up for years. She’s now surrounded by screens in, again, true creep AI fashion. How did she get all this while she was locked up? Oh, just the three bug girls she created as friends prior to killing the wife. They’re devoted slaves, I guess. So the uncle says enough of this insanity and seemingly sets Frill on fire.
OH and Frill’s subtitled dialogue also puts “uncle” in quotation marks, implying that the daughter was always Dad #2’s??
Anyway, both brothers are now super obsessed with death and claim that they think Frill has had a hand in lots of girls’ suicides, even now after her own death. This is brought into question later when it’s revealed that they might have just concocted this scheme to try and bring back their daughter. I’m really not sure. Regardless, they use hand-wavey science to create eggs that I guess contain the souls of young girls who have committed suicide, then they sucker in other young girls who have lost people to suicide to try and rescue their loved ones in a dream world, saving others along the way. A tomboyish girl, Momoe, lost a classmate who admitted to loving her, but who Momoe rejected. Rika, a former junior idol, used and rejected an overweight fan only to learn later that she’d starved herself to death. Neiru, the 14yo president of some science company (yup) was attacked by her sister before she jumped off a bridge. Finally Ai, our protagonist, is a victim of bullying who managed to make friends with a single girl, Koito, who then jumped from their school building for unknown reasons. They’re all given the chance to bring these individuals back to life, provided they protect other victims of suicide by defeating the monstrous traumas that drove them to that act in the first place.
And you know what? That concept was great. However, the execution ranges from “Okay, that was pretty good for an anime. Kudos there” to “That’s the most offensive thing I’ve seen in my life.” Needless to say, unpacking all the battles they fight would take a lot more than this already absurd summary. Basically, if you can think of something horrible to happen to young girls (and one trans guy whose existence in that egg undermines the whole message of the episode), there’s an attempt to tackle it here.
During all this the four girls become friends and Ai works through her suspicions about Mr. Sawaki, a teacher at her school. What’s going on with Mr. Sawaki? Uh… everything! He’s somehow connected to Koito’s death, he’s dating Ai’s mom, and Ai apparently loves him too because her friends say so, even though this is never actually addressed and she barely interacts with him. It’s all quite the complication.
In time though the girls complete their “mission” of bringing their loved ones back to life. Rika and Momoe manage it first, only to find that Frill’s bug-girl lackeys have arrived to kill them. Why? Because that’s what Frill does, I guess. Momoe’s crocodile familiar (cute animals the girls were gifted to help them fight) takes a killing blow for her and the bug-lady then proceeds to carve up his corpse and force feed it to Momoe. Fantastic!! Building off of that, the next bug-lady who Rika encounters kills her turtle too, following in the footsteps of her bug-sister by, presumably, forcing her to eat parts of its head. Ai refuses to sacrifice her familiar to stay alive, but luckily the suicide she was protecting turns out to be herself from a parallel universe (that's a thing now!) and she takes the killing blow herself, which is done by pulling out the eye she’s sensitive about (she has heterochromia.) So parallel Ai passes on (again?) and the three girls don’t work through this trauma at all, instead becoming more traumatized through the realization that the loved ones they brought back no longer remember them. They’re alive, but the relationship they all had with them is dead.
It’s about this point that the main storyline wraps up and I’m relieved that there’s an OVA to finish things off. Surely they can somehow bring this all together in 45 minutes.
…25 minutes of that OVA is recap.
So with only about 20 minutes left, we learn that Neiru, the only one to not complete her mission yet, has mysteriously gone missing. It turns out she was an AI/clone/something all along, made to replace her sister and, presumably, that’s what caused the whole stabbing-suicide incident. She successfully brings her sister back, but stays behind in the dream world because Frill promises her she can become human. How is Frill here when she’s dead? How will Neiru become human? Isn’t Frill the “temptation of death” or whatever? There are no answers. A flashback finally reveals that Koito was having a relationship with a teacher at another school, he committed suicide, she transferred, she tried the same thing with Mr. Sawaki, he kept refusing her advances, and finally while threatening suicide to get his attention, she accidentally fell.
(So why was she in the suicide egg if it was an accident??)
Except, all this information comes through Mr. Sawaki himself, there’s a whole subplot about whether he’s really a villain, or if Ai is just making him into one, and this show might as well be titled How Much Pedophilia Can We Put into One Anime? So make of that what you will.
A dead character randomly shows up, but it's fine because she's actually just a version from a parallel world. How did she get here? Why is she here? Lol, it's cute that you think these are answered.
Rika, the character who cuts and almost committed suicide halfway through the show, breaks down saying how much she misses her dead loved ones, right after her friends refused to let her go on another mission that would surely end in her death and… that’s it. That’s all we get about her.
Momoe too, though she’s hopefully just vibing somewhere with that longed-for boyfriend.
Ai transfers schools and then one day randomly remembers that she loves Neiru and rushes back to start cracking eggs again because that will? Somehow?? Let her see Neiru???
When I say there are too many unanswered questions to possibly list here I really, really mean it.
Finally, in a personal attack on me, the protagonist with a name that is literally AI is not in any way an artificial intelligence.
And that’s it! Congratulations, you now “understand” WEP. And see, the funny thing is that the off-the-rails, bat-shit crazy aspects kind of catch you off guard? Yeah, the first episode is fantastic. In fact, I think I got through about six episodes thinking that this was a solid, if at times really messed up anime, but I was willing to shrug off a lot of stuff due solely to the amount of sensitive material they were attempting to cover (which is always quite difficult to do). Probably the only reason I was able to binge so fast was because the first half of the series was so engaging. The characters are charming. The animation is GORGEOUS. There's actually a ton of good here that is also worth yelling about. But then the plot comes in like a freight train and I was left staring dumbfounded at my screen as more and more insanity kept happening. Having watched the "explanations" I am now more confused about the show I just saw.
Phoenix, if you’ve bothered to read this rambling, 3:00am rant: thank you. I think? Idk if I should actually be thanking you or cursing you for tuning me into this, but it was definitely an experience, that’s for sure lol.
I'm off to bed now RIP the chance of having normal dreams ✌️
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steve0discusses · 3 years
Text
Yugioh S5 Ep 17:  Joey Falling Down for 20 Minutes
It is HOT in my house and so I’m going to do my best but no promises!
It’s a holiday weekend, which usually means I should catch up on work that’s falling behind, but today means that it is too hot to do anything but talk about this weird arc of Yugioh. One where, in case you forgot, we are in an isekai that takes place in an Egyptian pyramid that is in the Northern part of India. Oh, and this isekai was made by Alexander the Freakin Great. Don’t worry about it.
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What’s weird about this, is that we are definitely in that anime video game isekai genre, but we are actually in less of an isekai realm than normal Yugioh. There’s no game stats. There’s no game rules. Just these pokemon tubes we shoot at other monsters and we just let them do whatever. Kinda like a reverse isekai if you will.
This arc definitely has more of a Rated G quality to it, it’s trying really hard to capture that Wile E. Coyote feel. And does it hit it? No, not really, which is a shame because we would all like to see an Emperor’s New Groove style of wackiness applied to any show, honestly. But, instead, we get so many dry one liners out of Joey Wheeler who is like side-eyeing the camera like “nyeh, remember when this show was grimdark?”
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(read more under the cut)
At some point last episode Joey Wheeler got abducted by this bird, who is a mother of this many children.
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I don’t know why anyone in their right mind would be like “yes, Joey is delicious” but these birds will try to eat Joey for the rest of this episode. Some sort of crazy pheromone is going on with his shampoo, and they want all of it.
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Faced with the end of this gimmick we are introduced to that convenient tree branch that is in basically every animated show with a freefall in it, but something about Yugioh feels just real enough to make this particular splat....REALLY painful looking.
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And after this series of random events, we get yet another convenient plot device.
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Usually you have to go out and find your MacGuffin, but in the case of Joey Wheeler the MacGuffin got tired of waiting and just went out to greet him.
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Alexander the Great’s free time sure is something else if he just made a magical D&D campaign with monsters and stuff and then just...never used it. He just decided to leave this here for hundreds of years later. Just cuz he was too busy taking over the middle East and romancing just so many people, I guess?
Haunted D&D game for sale, never used.
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We are finally introduced with a rule to this game, and the rule is: You will die. Does that mean now their Pokemon run is Nuzlocke?
Man...I think I have used a Nuzlocke joke on this blog here before but like it just really changes the dynamics of Pokemon if they can freakin die and then Ash Ketchum also freakin dies.
Like take this orange “baby” dragon with pecks that are the size of hubcaps. If it freakin dies, so does Joey Wheeler.
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Joey of course, can’t truly walk anymore, so it’s a good thing he’s letting baby dragon do all the work.
Meanwhile, in the woods, Yugi is getting attacked by a bunch of trees and that just makes sense.
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These Deku trees look so much like something out of a Adult Swim show but I cannot put my finger on what it is. I think it’s that hair. It has strong vibes to something I watched in my youth...but I don’t know what it was at all.
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Anyway, trapped in a small corner, Yami gets his second monster to bond with his entire soul, and it’s exactly the sort of thing he’d get really excited about.
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This animation of Yami smiling as he stares into the horrific fire he started in the woods to burn so many sentient trees is very on point for Yugioh.
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Never let Yami back into California.
Straight up fire season is a few months going now, and I’m already so tired of the endless anxiety that is fire season.
Meanwhile, Joey has gone to a waterfall, most likely in order to ice his crotch from falling directly onto a tree branch.
Coincidentally, he finds yet another MacGuffin. And like, I guess this is because of Joey being lucky, but it’s extremely kid’s show because stuff just keeps happening.
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Baby Dragon sets Joey Wheeler on fire again (FREAKIN FIRE) and honestly...how many times are we going to set Joey Wheeler on fire in this show? We’ve had a literal fireball, fire golem, that god card that was just a fire bird, and like...an actual volcano last season?
Is Joey made out of asbestos?
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Good thing Kaiba isn’t here to completely disregard this map, but although they’re certainly better about finding out where to go than a Kaiba...they ain’t good at it.
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Tea and Tristan spend this whole episode fighting a giant merman. It felt a lot like card stuff so I skipped most of it, just know the big thing was that Tea remembered that her pokemon can heal Tristan. And that was a little weird because Tristan was like “That’s the GOOD STUFF give me MORE OF THAT” and it’s like...would it actually feel a little bit like drugs?
I mean it would, right?
And then, as it looked like they were about to die, the episode ended with a mysterious man using his monster to save them, that’s right, it’s the only other person it could possibly be.
Not Kaiba, I know. We all wish it were, but it appears that Seto got grounded this arc, and when he was like “Roland! We are going to India!” Mokuba and everyone else in that office promptly hid the keys to the wifejet by flushing them directly down Seto’s dragon-shaped toilet.
Instead it’s just Grandpa.
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Pretty sure Kaiba’s voice actor went on vacation during this arc, from what I’ve heard.
PS, as you can see--I numbered the episodes wrong. We are on 17 now. I have no idea how that happened. I don’t know where I went wrong. I will probably not fix it.
Like seriously how do I keep misnumbering these episodes, haha.
Anyway, hope y’all have a safe holiday weekend for those that celebrate, and if you want to see fireworks, go to a show done by a licensed professional (not your weird cousin), or get a good score in Super Mario, or watch it on TV. Overall, don’t be the dumbass that burns down half of California! And have a good time!
And if you aren’t doing anything this weekend, or you’re just new to the blog--hello! You can read all of these episodes from S1 Ep1 using this link.
https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono
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akatsuki-shin · 3 years
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Just stumbled on Word of Honor stuff and it looks so pretty, where do I watch it? Thx!!
Hi, Anon-san!
As far as I know, there are 3 possible ways you can watch it:
From YOUKU apps
From YOUKU Official YouTube Channel
From Netflix
I'm personally not quite familiar with YOUKU apps, especially because I don't really know how to pay for the episodes through a Chinese app. Also, a few details are cut or censored due to their regulations, afaik.
I don't know about the Netflix version because I haven't checked, but from what I know the subtitles sometimes seem a bit off (although it's gradually being fixed).
Therefore, I will cover the version from YouTube because that's where I get all the episodes and behind-the scenes + bonus clips. Pardon me if it gets a bit long. ><
First of all, this is the link to YOUKU's all "Word of Honor"-related playlists: Here
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Top Row (left to right):
Members-only videos (I'll explain this later)
Some miscellaneous videos, e.g. Scene Compilations, Fan-reactions, etc (a couple of these videos are members-only, but most are free)
The main episodes of Word of Honor, this is what you want to watch first
MVs for the drama's OST
Highlights/Important cut-scenes from the drama (I personally didn't check this much because it's more like a recap, I suppose)
Behind-the-scenes and interviews
Bottom Row (left to right):
Word of Honor Concerts (will get back to this later), some cuts from the concerts, some cuts from their past livestream events, a few interviews and behind-the scenes
Compilations of fan-reactions to the drama
Just a bunch of trailers for each episode
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About Word of Honor Main Episodes
The drama has a total of 36 episodes + 1 extra/extended ending (around 7-8 minutes long).
The extra ending can only be viewed by joining the paid membership (will explain below). Otherwise, you can only watch until Episode 36.
The Netflix version does not have this extra ending. Which is pretty weird considering that it's already a paid service. :'))
In the above "Main Episode Playlist", they also include a Special Edition of Episode 6, Episode 12, and Episode 17. These are some fan-benefits they uploaded for reaching a certain number of views.
The Special Editions has a little extended scene that is not present in the final cut of the regular episodes. Since you're going to start watching this now after the show ended, I suggest watching the Special Edition because other than the extended scene, everything else is exactly the same as the regular ones.
Will they add more in the future? Maybe, if they reach a new milestone in the numbers of viewers. Let's just hope. ^^
About Members-only Videos
In the original YOUKU apps there are several videos that you can only watch if you pay, for example:
The extra/extended ending
Exclusive behind-the-scenes
Word of Honor Theme Concert + All of it's interviews and behind-the-scenes
YOUKU recently brought these contents for international fans through YouTube membership features.
There are 2 types of YOUKU YouTube membership and the perks apply to all of YOUKU's dramas and varieties in YouTube, but I will only explain about Word of Honor-related perks.
You can check this in the "Membership" tab on their channel. Also, this should be obvious but of course, you can unsubscribe anytime you want. ^^
1. VIP Gold (around $2 a month)
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If you only want to watch the extra/extended ending of Word of Honor, you just need this type of membership.
2. Ultimate Fans Pass (around $20 a month)
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You get all the perks of VIP Gold + the ones listed in the above picture. In regards to Word of Honor, these are what you'll get:
The extra/extended ending
Word of Honor Theme Concert from 3-4 May 2021
All of the concert behind-the-scene and interviews
Exclusive behind-the-scenes and some bonus clips (afaik, these are also paid contents in the YOUKU apps)
The full concert has 3 videos for each day, so a total of 6, which are:
Main Stage view
Artist Seat view (basically Zhang Zhehan and Gong Jun focus for the entire event, haha)
Backstage (mainly consists of interviews but this one isn't subbed)
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I suppose that is all I can explain about this show? Sorry that it gets too long or if you feel overwhelmed. ^^a
If you have more questions, feel free to ask me!
By the way, you might have heard of this, but Word of Honor is based on a novel "Faraway Wanderers" by Priest. It is a sequel to her previous novel "Lord Seventh". The two main leads from Lord Seventh made an appearance in both "Faraway Wanderers" and "Word of Honor".
The novels have been fully translated. In case you are interested to read, you can find them here:
七爷 Qī Yé (Lord Seventh)
天涯客 Tiān Yá Kè (Faraway Wanderers)
P.S. Fun Fact: The ending theme of Word of Honor is also titled "Tian Ya Ke", hehe...
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leamy-world · 3 years
Text
Some afterthoughts on The Devil Judge (spoilers for all the drama!)
Hello everyone! I hope you’re doing well!!
I wanted to write my thoughts after the finale aired because ep. 13-14 made me a mess and were too nerve-wracking! After these two episodes, i only wanted the week to go by fast to see how the finale unfolded (but at the same time, this drama entertained me sm i didn’t want it to end haha).
Watching this drama each week and reading your reactions and thoughts made me enjoy it even more, i’m glad i came back on tumblr! It was a really nice ride (more like an emotional rollercoaster haha)! It motivated me to write my thoughts and analyses on fictions i watched in the future, especially My Mister and Beyond Evil!! I forgot how much fun it was to do that and putting my thoughts into words gave me a little closure to my watch haha
These are just some afterthoughts & personal interpretations i had and were maybe probably already discussed, but i couldn’t get them out of my head haha
See you around and take care!!!
THE CAST. It left a strong impression on me and i can’t see other actors playing their respective roles!
—   Yohan portrayed by Ji Sung … i have no words, this devil judge left me speechless! His character, to his Devilish Smile (and hollow laugh in front of CKH and his son, or Gaon), his variating voice intonations (like damn, he’s a living ASMR like Lee Sung Kyung), his held back emotions and touch-starved and even desperate touches when it came to Elijah and Gaon, to his rage and unhinged moments! 
I winced seeing him contort in pain when Sunah revealed Elijah accidentally lit the church fire, and the two times he hugged Elijah totally destroyed me. His last scene with Gaon showed how gazes & micro-expressions alone could convey unspoken words as strongly. I’m weak for these kinds of scenes, My Mister for example did it and killed me haha
For this post, i rewatched some scenes and damn, Elijah and Yohan’s support of Gaon after Soohyun’s death was really emotional …
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(They had no business in making Gaon have this kind of dream, those german scissors left a ... strong impression on him haha)
—   Kim Min Jung’s depiction of Sunah’s was hauntingly beautiful, a femme fatale who kept a broken child deep inside (and at the same time surfacing on her manners and personality) and a strong businesswoman. It’s a fascinating character i loved hating as a villain but still sympathized with. The scene where she murdered the former foundation’s president sent me chills down my spine (i still have her shot of her, sitting at his bureau and manipulating his speech video)! 
The melancholy slipping through her facade when she visited the mansion the first time in a while, as well as her devastation in front of the President’s scheme, by the young girl’s bed at the hospital were memorable. The tension between her and Yohan was incredible: they both managed to keep a very disturbing but enthralling aura, tangled with nostalgia at the same time each time they met.
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(Looking at her reflection is a recurring pattern for Sunah’s character, i found this shot above interesting, divided in the two ends of the mirror, as if her self can’t be found on the other side anymore)  
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—   This was the first time i saw a drama with Jin Young and i really loved his playing! Never thought I’d say one day i enjoyed someone’s tears and rage on screen, but his crying scenes stuck with me, especially in the prison yard and the last episode (he deserves therapy after all he went through, really) … And his letter to Elijah … (i’m glad nobody harshly revealed the truth to her, i’m really glad!)
I loved to see how his gaze evolved through this journey with Yohan. His endearment to Soohyun, Elijah and Yohan was very precious ;; Even though Yohan was the one who was first seen feeling lonely, Gaon’s loneliness since his parents’ death slipped through his seemingly fine world, i found that interesting! (And on a lighter note, i’ll always remember the truth behind Mrs. Ji’s cooking, Gaon’s epic reaction, and the pure comedy she gets to own a healthy food shop thanks to Yohan!!) 
I also enjoyed his supportive friendship with Jinjoo!!
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—   Park Gyu Young’s acting was also on point! It’s really too bad she didn’t get more screen time because i wanted to know more about Soohyun!! I felt robbed haha, because when TDJ began airing, they introduced her as one of the ‘main’ characters of this story ;; The scene when she was on CKH’s suicide scene really left a mark on me + when she was confronting Yohan, especially after she took Elijah out!
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—   Elijah. Just Elijah, our best girl!!! Apparently it’s one of Jeon Chae Eun’s first roles, she did so well!! Along with Ji Sung and Jin Young, she gave a whole new definition to the Domestic Scenes, i swear. These scenes will keep a special place in my heart for a long time! Her adorable smile and cheekiness were a refresher in this show!
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(They could change TDJ’s concept in a second season and make us a domestic slice of life series, i wouldn’t mind AT ALL! Take my money!!)
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Seeing her complicated relationship with her uncle unfold before us deeply moved me. The complete loneliness she silently depicted moving to her bed in the wheelchair, after Gaon left the mansion was heart-wrenching. And also the scenes after Soohyun’s death, hurting with Yohan seeing Gaon’s pain (the way she spoke her worry for the two of them, Yohan couldn’t let the words out properly to Gaon).
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—   CKH’s character, played by Jang Young Nam, was amazing. Her acting already shattered me when i watched Nobody Knows! Her cold gaze, her harsh tone, she was badass i have to admit! 
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The narcissistic rage was well depicted in her character, and even though i get where many’s opinions on her death come from (i share it too sometimes, but i feel it more for Sunah), i found this final decision fitting to the character, especially if you look how she treated her own son (each hold felt like a grip from rage eg. in ep. 3, as she maybe felt her son was the cause of her demise).
(HUGE SPOILERS FOR BEYOND EVIL BELOW!!!!) 
She reminded me of HKH’s ending: seeing his path to success was crushed with no way out of it except death on his own accord (in his eyes, because it was his absolute life aim, every single being, to his own wife and son, and means, even bending the justice independence, were his expendable ways to pave his path), HJW’s father was set on suicide before his son barged in. 
(Funnily enough, the filming spot for CKH’s house is the same for HKH’s house haha)
—   And also … Lawyer don’t-worry-i’ll-get-you-out-on-probation Ko deserves a round of applause for the best lawyer he is hahaha
THE STORY’S DEVELOPMENTS (AND SCRIPT). I feel like this story could very well have been developed on 20+ episodes! Even if i know some scenes in a script are sometimes (bound to be) cut in the drama, TDJ’s script leaks make me feel there was SO much more to be told, and so much more to explain some plot events in the airing drama!
Because the story was ambitious, both character and plot(twists which give you whiplash)-driven (and also the filming context with the pandemic), i feel like some choices were made.
The lines of thought about justice and the drama’s attempts at its ‘true’ definition are not lost on me. It was really interesting!
On a side note (there will be many, bear with me haha), the symbolic behind the app’s name, DIKE, which i’m pretty sure (correct me if i’m wrong, i only have some very rough basics in korean haha) is the korean romanization of Nikè, or in ancient greek Νίκη, the greek divinity of Victory ( ‘ㄴ’ in korean sounds like an ’n’ but its pronounciation is more abrupt/brisker, to the point of what could be sounding to ears like a ‘d’).
Nikè is most of the time represented as an attribute to other greek divinities who also embody the victory eg. Zeus or Athena, thus seen as a bestower of victory (in any domain, be it war, games = interestingly enough, the live court is set in a colosseum-like room, arts, …)  to the humanity on behalf of these gods (Nikè sometimes stands in her palm as an attribute of Athena, like the owl or the helmet). But sometimes Nikè was also revered an independent protective divinity.
Nikè is represented as a winged divinity in a long robe, flying above the victorious, assisting the humans in their works/challenges eg. handing them a laurel crown as a sign of victory, or a helmet, etc. Its mostly known representation is the Winged Victory of Samothrace (or The Nike of Samothrace) sculpture in the Louvre. The brand Nike also used it in its logo.
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It calls back to Yohan’s line: « I make sure i win before the game starts », and in fact, since the beginning, unbeknownst to everybody witnessing the trials and participating to them, the app was his way to win. It foreshadows the ending of the story, Yohan finally taking down the foundation. It also adds to his god/devil image: he assumes the role of the intermediary/abyss of the « gods » (the Justice), taking in all the hubris of the society in order to bring the justice (well, guess we could say it put some hold to the cycle of the powerful culminating to chaos?) back, in some sort of catharsis through DIKE.
It might be a stretch, but Nikè’s winged representation could be found on Gaon’s tattoo (at first to me, it looked like a phoenix/winged angel, which symbolizes a ‘reincarnation’/new beginning for Yohan finding peace, a second chance to his past and Elijah thanks to Gaon & Gaon finding a new world even if his first crumbled ie. his parents and Soohyun’s death and professor Min’s betrayal).
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(The whole virus plot by the end of the story made me feel a little uncomfortable given the actual context and the conspiracy theories that are spreading, but it wasn’t used carelessly and served the commentary of the powerful and how far they would go, i think? That said, a fiction, especially a dystopia like this, stays a fiction but when they used it, it gave me a forced laugh haha)
Now, if someone gets to translate some script bits, i’m really looking forward to:
K’s backstory!!!!!
Isaac and Yohan’s past!!!!
More about Elijah!!
Where’s the cat???
What was the script saying for Gaon and Yohan’s confrontation in ep. 12? When Yohan faced the window, waking up from a nightmare after Gaon left?
ABOUT SOOHYUN’S BACKSTORY. (Now, this will get long, i’m sorry but i needed to let my thoughts out haha) The drama introduced her as one of the four main characters with Gaon, Yohan and Sunah. I had so many expectations for her character! Especially from the three scenes we got of her:
➔ In the first episode, we see her save a young girl in the street from two men, looking up at the poster « A safe Korea will be realized from now on. »: it was a great introduction to the blatant lie of the ‘safe’ dystopian world that was being created in the story. It also showed how Soohyun felt in front of this insecure world. A side note, but seeing her hug the young girl like that reminded me the hugs she gave Gaon: she wanted to protect him from this unjust world with all her might (especially the scene in the restaurant where she hugs him). ➔ Her two confrontations with Juk Chang! ➔ Her dilemma and emotional turmoil when she erases Gaon’s presence in CKH’s office.
She was portrayed in the story as Gaon’s pillar since his parents’ tragic death and his moral compass. She’s the lawful citizen, despite feeling helpless to the world’s changes, who hopes it could be saved as long as the rule of law is preserved by everyone, and this begins by respecting it themselves. 
But she was not standing around and i kind of regret this was not shown more in the story: she kept doing her best in the « system », fighting from the inside the injustice hoping the little changes could make a difference someday. Because she couldn’t take Yohan’s path, in no way: the system/the law must be respected for it to be sustained. And i’m glad they addressed this point in the drama: Yohan chose to take on the role nobody wanted or even dared to assume, knowing fully well he became a criminal the second he began his plans (just as lawyer Ko said he was no longer a lawyer once he sided with him). 
This must not be glorified, nor vilified. As he said, it was a choice he decided to make. She mirrors his choices to some extent and i would have loved to see more of their interactions or her thoughts about that! And how she worked through the system to change things, her vision of the justice. They showed us the flashback of her career choice in high school, and it could have been interesting to learn more about her! 
A backstory about her saving the youth and meeting Sunah by accident would have been very interesting (given Sunah knew all about her since the beginning and ordered to kill her). Their meeting wouldn’t have foreshadowed Sunah’s plans, quite the opposite, and it would have given more ‘substance’ to her plans. We were robbed of this relationship haha! 
And of course, seeing her side with Yohan & Gaon for a short while (because seeing her team up with them all along the way could’ve been a little ooc) would have been dope. Her arresting Juk Chang while the two of them stop the gang was the closest thing we had to their teamwork ;;
Among the drama’s main focuses (the self-pity of the powerful and the never-ending cycle of their greed, the power displays it ensues which come in many forms in the system’s game), the conception of justice was developed all along the drama. It would have been really interesting to see whether Soohyun’s conception of justice could have changed in her own way!
And professor Min’s potential manipulation of Soohyun!!! Some scenes on their interactions could have been nice to see and explain why she focused solely on Yohan, the only side of the whole story she knew! Her reporting to the professor about her investigation (and him feeling she got too close to the truth) would have made sense because, as she saw Gaon growing apart from her as he was getting closer to the Kangs (especially since she saw him interact with Elijah when they invited her to the café, like Sunah saw how Gaon fit in their family at the dinner scene), she would’ve wanted to protect him without him knowing because she knew it’d have hurt him. It could have paralleled Gaon’s reports on Yohan to the professor at the beginning of the drama. And that could have explained (aside from the whole love triangle dynamics they had) her reluctance to tell Gaon Yohan was the one who told her his whereabouts when he was in danger in ep. 13 ; this scene also was one of the only moments addressing the lack of communication in their relationship. Seeing her feeling confused over Yohan could have been interesting!
(This also got me wondering whether in the script, Yohan’s injury was ever addressed.)
Also, i’m curious about her family, if the script mentions something about them: did they know Gaon?
About the loveline between Gaon and Soohyun: while the friendship could have stayed as is (it already felt pretty genuine in my opinion and strong friendships also deserve to be portrayed in stories), i’m convinced this drama wanted to set Gaon as the center of a subtext love & morality triangle between Soohyun and Yohan (and K and Sunah on Yohan’s part). I think i would’ve appreciated Gaon and Soohyun’s loveline so much more if they developed it more! And it had to develop in the very same episode she died: apart from the confession and kiss scene (i’m curious about the scene’s description in the script), the flashback of their moments, seen from Gaon’s pov, came just right in to ‘explain’ it! 
Of course it wasn’t the main focus of the story and there was already so much happening, but their new relationship development and her death almost had no impact on me even if it was set as a turning point for Gaon (and K for Yohan, as a cement to their respective decision to fight the system and how they would do it), and it made me really really sad! Of course it was a plot device (and i now wonder what would’ve happened if she or K wasn’t dead), but if it was bound to happen, the emotional impact was lessened!
Jinjoo’s character development and her relationship with Sunah happened really really fast, and i wonder how the script describes it!
Sunah’s involvement with the juvenile care center!!!  Her scene at the hospital left me really sad.
(Also, on the love plot, Gaon and Yohan jealousy bits weren’t used later as an expression of their envy towards the other’s status/life/etc. and were actually directed to people outside ie. Sunah/K/Soohyun in the plot, which makes me think they really wanted to set it as a love triangle!)
ABOUT SUNAH’S DEATH. I feel really really conflicted on this point. Her story was a parallel to CKH (and of course Yohan, i’ll talk about it below): two women — coming from totally opposite backgrounds — climbing their way up by their own means in this power circle. And despite all their accomplishments unnoticed (because they were the ones seeing through their plans while the others were mainly seen tearing each other into pieces), they could still be ruthlessly ejected from this world any day, part of it because they were belittled as women all the same, and chose to end her life on her own accord, still having agency over it. 
As someone else pointed it out, it also acts as a « poetic » retribution for her murder of Soohyun and K. BUT her exiting the scene in some other way staying alive could have contrasted with CKH’s suicide (especially since she overthrew the president who was the only one on her side getting in her way and even killed him in the end). Especially in a show that deals about how the justice can be carried out!
Of course, Yohan and Sunah were a foil to each other in their respective fights and traumatic past: the drama showed us how having someone to reach out to and protect (Elijah, Isaac and Gaon to Yohan ; Soohyun, Yohan and Elijah to Gaon) can become a driving force. Sunah, despite thinking this could be a weakness, also longed for companionship (from Yohan mainly, but also from Jaehee), and had no one to stop her crossing the line and preserve her from herself and the world. At least someone hearing her story, staying by her side and trying to understand her. 
Each time she said ‘can you be a little nicer to me?’ to Yohan made me feel for her (and also that one call with Jaehee), it was the only cries of loneliness she silently let out!
On a totally random note, i would have loved to see her interact more with Gaon (especially by the end of ep. 15, when Yohan was arrested)!
The story gladly didn’t end Yohan’s traumatic past and growth in death, but what about Sunah? In any case, Sunah was a really good and complex character, i enjoyed her character!
What about Jaehee? How did she react to Sunah’s death???
What about CKH’s family after her death???
I would have loved to hear more about Sunah’s plans as well! Scenes where she would play with Gaon for example (in Yohan’s presence or not, like at the photoshoot)! 
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(This comment above foreshadowed, along with the dinner scene in ep. 11, she used him all along!)
Her involvement behind the scenes was only exposed in ep. 15 but i wanted to know more about her (motivations aside from her focus on Yohan, what did she plan to do before finding out a look-alike to Isaac, ...)! Given the elements in the plot, i get the idea she planned this whole business with the foundation first to reach the top and wanted to bring Yohan up with her (eg. leading the foundation or becoming the president) or down without her along the way, because she wanted his companionship. Maybe the script expands on it more? Did she really believe in the Dream Home project? Because as we saw her speech in the juvenile care center and her strong reaction to the youth being harmed in these schemes, i believe she kinda wanted to protect them as the best revenge on her past, because nobody could do it for her?  
THE ENDING SCENE. The ending was pretty good and didn’t give us an all-out tragedy, so i’m really glad! I still can’t believe Gaon was ready to blow his life away once he learnt Yohan’s death AND wanted to die with him (falsely) realizing Yohan wouldn’t change his mind, dead set on his decision (no pun intended!). And Yohan’s reaction to this ............... Now, their last scene is left to the viewers’ interpretation, but it felt to me like a new beginning to Yohan and Gaon’s relationship! As it was already said by many people on tumblr, Yohan wasn’t sure if Gaon would still be by his side despite it all, and he didn’t expect Gaon to feel this way. They’ll definitely meet again, it’s a promise of more in the future (especially Yohan’s nod, on the verge of tears and Gaon’s two relieved/endeared smiles, full of forgiveness). Gaon will join his new world once he’s done or they’ll come back to him once Elijah’s recovered.
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And this game of hide and seek/hunt reflected their relationship development: Yohan felt unattainable at first, but he chased after him in the maze that was his devilish game, symbolized by the crowd, chasing him motivated by his suspicion, curiosity, anger and hate, disbelief and disappointment, empathy, worry, affection, desperation and love, until he finally reached him and they understood each other among all the crowd, living metaphorically in the same time, facing each other on the same (ground) level.
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(A scene in the first episode, Gaon seeing a maze of Yohan’s reflections, maybe symbolizing he could not see through his facade in the beginning, being an enigma to him at first sight ; the choice of the reflections in the mirrors through the drama is interesting and reflects the story: depending on the angles, a story can hold as many meanings as there are points of view, the complete image surfacing once everybody’s story is told)
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(Just like how, in ep. 4, Yohan shows Gaon the wicked system right under their noses, Gaon’s enraged and confused gaze directed right at Yohan after they all block his view by clinking glasses ; Yohan hoped he would understand what lies beneath but Gaon understands it fully through his own past in ep. 7-8)
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(The crowd is cleared from their/our view in the final scene, leaving the two of them facing each other without any obstacle/reflection on their path)
Gaon kept Yohan’s watch all the time even in moments of doubt, sorrow and rage (the best PPL in drama history so far haha), Yohan finally got to Gaon and entered his world as Soohyun did, reaching out when he needed it the most, to stop him doing something he would regret deeply. It was symbolized by the scar he got on his left hand from preventing Gaon from stabbing him (that’s also why he caresses his scar in a bittersweet way, lost in thoughts, reminding him of their last meeting).
As @i-guess-it-rains said + according to the BTS’ editing (it passed off as a joke but i can’t erase it from my brain now haha),  the way the scene where Yohan defused Gaon’s bomb was framed looked at the same time like Yohan was also carefully handling Gaon’s heart (the bomb countdown clock radiating a red glow on his chest), on the verge of exploding. Now i have The Nights lyrics in my head haha (« My heart is going back to you, i just don’t know »)
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On another note, i realized that in ep. 12, after Gaon left, he’s seen trying to call Soohyun in order to reach for her since their last confrontation, but right before, his finger glides over his contact, hesitating on Yohan’s contact before choosing to call Soohyun.
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While in ep. 8, he only reaches out to Soohyun after his breakdown in the prison yard (without thinking to call Yohan because he was in the core of his doubts and pain at that time and needed space to reflect on all the events):
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And it parallels to Sunah attempting to reach out to Jaehee in her loneliness at the top, hesitating before deciding to call her.
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Now i hope TDJ will be on Netflix! It’d be very nice to get to watch the drama in high quality and have more people to see it!
I heard it got a webtoon adaptation so i also look forward to it once it will be translated!
A SECOND SEASON? When i first saw the ending, i thought it got wrapped up nicely and didn’t « need » another season, but it also left some parts open and laid out a new background for further developments (the system repeats itself but in another form, Yohan leaves the scene with his signature smile, maybe up to something else again, saying metaphorically or irl to Gaon he’ll come back if he doesn’t do well), kinda like Stranger/Forest of Secrets s1 or The Guest ending (the corruption doesn’t end there). I also heard it got high viewing rates in SK, so maybe it will be taken into account? And well, i’ll miss the cast so i would welcome the idea haha
THE SOUNDTRACK. The whole OST was stellar (and their titles are on point really!)! Getting to hear it without voices or noise over and with my headphones on made me realize it was even more beautiful! Because I Have You, Warmth That Melts Loneliness and If Only… are the end of me (especially If Only aaaaaaa)! Don’t get me started on Enemy of Truth’s title to the OST playing for the church fire because it’s devastating ;;;
If Only’s title … It leaves us filling in the blank space, the dots to Gaon’s thoughts when he learns about Yohan’s past and how it impacts him to this day.
The 4 songs were amazing (there’s also Different from the Outside but i still didn’t get its lyrics). Tempest was definitely etched in my mind as TDJ’s main theme haha And The Nights was my favorite!  
➔ Tempest was Yohan’s iconic theme and depicted his lonely path to revenge after the tragic events in his life, and his (fated) encounter with Gaon, how deeply it will change him in this journey in ways he didn’t expect. It perfectly introduces (with Chet Faker and Flume’s Drop the game) and concludes the drama!
➔ What you gonna do was THE revenge epic song making everyone revel in the ‘bad guys’ despair and Yohan’s badass moves! 
➔ The Nights felt like it was both Yohan and Gaon’s theme and Gaon’s sorrow after Soohyun’s death: at first i thought it was only Yohan’s, but his revenge and the last episodes proved me wrong! The song’s lyrics mirrored themselves (‘my/your night shines on you/me’), as if a complete understanding between Yohan and Gaon was found on their dark road. Yohan’s night shines on Gaon: Yohan’s broken past and all his misunderstood or hidden sides, his dedication to Elijah. Yohan’s rage (almost wrath since the biblical and god symbolism are there haha) and desire to take the inique system down waked Gaon’s own rage, buried deep inside, and made him move forward too. Gaon’s night shines on Yohan: all the time he spent with the Kangs, Gaon’s deep empathy and understanding, helping him reconnect with his niece, their dinners at night, his rage exploding when the truth about his parents was revealed, his desperation on the last two episodes (in ep. 15, seeing Gaon’s realization everything was a lie and Yohan was innocent, and in ep. 16, Gaon wanting to die by his side). Gaon’s night also shined on Soohyun, who wanted to protect him with all she got each time she saw him crumbling down.
There was still light on their dark road (which looks like a callback to Nightmare’s lyrics, « Save me from myself / Save me from this darkness that has lost its light »).
➔ Nightmare felt like it was Yohan and Sunah’s theme. When it last played when Sunah’s death happened on screen, it left me speechless (and if i remember correctly, the ‘save me from myself’ bit was played right when she shot herself … o u c h)!
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factual-fantasy · 3 years
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20 old asks that I should’ve gotten around to answering ages ago.. 😬
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Daww shucks, I’m glad I could make this year a little brighter for you. :}
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Aww! Thank you! I’m so glad! I’ll be sure to keep making it! :D
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Oh yeah, this show has got some good angst factors floating around in it behind the scenes.
And really? Huh, I always imagined that he was just holding it with his hand draped over his abdomen. :/
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Why thank you!  ღゝ◡╹)ノ♡
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Hmm.. headcannons? Well... let me see...
I think that chances are? Captain Barnacles would teach some other crew members how to pilot the Octopod in case of an emergency. Like Peso, Tweak and Kwazii for example, maybe even Dashi too. Kwazii already knows, but I feel like he’d get some proper lessons in case of a serious emergency.
Also, I feel like Peso would be effected by this experience quite a bit. I always imagined that growing up with a huge family? He’s used to being surrounded by loved ones and safety at all times. Now that he’s an Octonaut.. he doesn't have much of that anymore. I imagine he’s always a little on edge because of that and doesn’t like to be alone. Imagine how alone and scared he must’ve felt when every single crew member was down and out and he had to pilot the Octopod through the roaring 40s! I still don’t know how he did it. 
Peso would probably become really jumpy and nervous for about a week after the incident. Not wanting to be left alone, especially not alone in the HQ. Because if he’s alone in there and something goes wrong? He might have to pilot the Octopod again.
I also feel like.. you know.. after seeing the Captain nearly pass out right in front of him? He’d be on edge and kind of following him around for a while to keep and eye on him. 
There’s a lot that can be said about the aftermath and how everybody copes with what they experienced. 90% of the crew was poisoned and then their medic had to pilot their ship out of water so rough, that even the Captain himself would call a challenging task. 
Just imagine if you were in the crew’s shoes, how would you feel if that happened?
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I don’t blame you for not realizing I was gone, I forgot I was taking a break too XD.
As for the comfort habits? Hmm... I hope its okay that its going to be text and not a drawing. So, things that certain characters do to other characters to show affection? I cant be too sure..
For Captain Barnacles though? Its always a paw on the shoulder, its like his default. You did something very well/correctly? You in need of some comfort? He wants to show you that he cares about you? Captain Barnacles will manifest beside you and pat you on the shoulder. I think for this reason specifically, none of the crew members get startled when some one touches their shoulder suddenly. They instantly think its something positive coming from the Captain.
Maybe Kwazii would reassure them everything is going to be okay, and then go out on a mission to do everything he can to fix the situation? That sounds like something he’d do. Maybe he’s not too great at comforting people so he just seeks out to fix the problem that’s making them upset in the first place instead.
I feel like Peso would... uhm.. well.. hmm.. comfort habits, something he does do to comfort others... Uhm.. I mean, I know how he likes to be comforted, but not really how he’d comfort others..
Well.. uh.. I’m having trouble with this one. I think most of the other crew members would just stick close by to who ever needs comfort. No one really likes to be alone when they’re upset..? Sorry, my brain is mashed potato's right now, I cant think of anything coherent. <:/
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If I remember correctly, I grew up with the UK version. I always would watch Octonauts on the family computer on YouTube. And YouTube only had the UK version it seemed so that’s what I’m familiar with.
It still feels so weird to hear Peso and Dashi’s new voices in the Netflix adaption I tell you what.
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Daww thank you! I’m glad you like my silly little headcannons! Here, have another!
The Captain sleeps with a weighted blanket because it mimics the feeling of having a thick fur coat, which he grew up with and no longer has.
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ᵇᵇʸ
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Thank you!! UHG all these compliments! Its too much! XD
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THANK YOU!!! :DDDD 
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I mean, hey, yo do you man! I personally don’t ship anyone so its none of my business.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Haha I will do my best, and hey! I’m flattered that you were drawn to my Transformers art! I feel like it was the least liked of my workings..
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Thank you! That’s all so sweet!.. Although I wish I could say I don’t feel pressured to post more stuff.. dang near have and elephant sitting on my chest.
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I feel like a case where they’d all have a sleepover is either just for funsies.. or if they all went through something really scary. Something that effected them all and they’re all still shaken up.
Perhaps then they’d all gather in one room for a night to sleep soundly, being reassured that every crew member is safe and accounted for.
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If Ratchet ever did, he sure wouldn’t like him. XD
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Thank you! I often use Peso’s, (and Dashi’s) British voice when thinking about his dialogue.
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Hmm.. I’m not sure, I don’t know many shows. But I can probably guess what kind they’d like.
I can see the Captain liking light hearted shows/movies about family, what ever those medias may be.
Kwazii likes anything action packed and/or scary pretty much. Doesn’t even really matter what the shows about, he just likes scary and actiony things.
Peso probably likes lighthearted and comedy themed shows/movies.
Dashi probably likes romance movies, but the lighter ones, not the like.. rated R ones.
Shellington probably just watches documentary's and educational shows because he’s always looking to learn new things.
For some reason I feel like Tweak would like movies/shows that have a superhero type element to them. Like My Hero Academia for example.
I feel like Professor Inkling would probably like old timey comedy shows, like The Three Stooges! I bet he’d love that, and I’d totally watch it with him XD
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They all seem like nice characters. Pinto is a pretty cool little brother, he’s always rooting for Peso you know? Aside from that one episode. Everyone’s siblings seem pretty nice.
Koshi is a little baby bean, best little sister ever. 
The Captains sister its awesome, 10/10, 100%, she’s fantastic. Giving Captain Barnacles silly nicknames and being supportive of him. Telling her cubs all about how strong and brave her brother is and junk, the best sappy supportive sister ever.
Pearl seems pretty nice too, she gives off motherly/big sister vibes. Over all I think the sibling characters are pretty neat and fun, I wish we got to see them more often. <:{
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