#but then during Those Moments it’s narrated by only will and mal

[pulaasul]

Virtuous Blood - Chapter 4

Beings and creatures all over the world are suddenly attacking one another. Is this a work of the recently released villains or someone else is behind the scenes? Set after Descendants 3 and The Last Battle

PLG I 1 I 2 I 3

FFN I AO3

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It was supposed to be a normal day for High King Ben. A normal day of meeting with the different delegates of the different states of the kingdom.

A normal day for meeting with the council.

A normal day with meeting the King Father and Queen Mother.

A normal day for meeting the Council of Sidekicks.

A normal day for High King Ben who still attended Auradon Prep.

It started that way at least.

Until Lumiere rushed into the council room and forced the door open.

“Big trouble your majesty!” Lumiere managed to say in between breaths. “Big trouble.”

“What do you mean Lumiere?” Ben questioned.

Ben frowned at the butler’s statement. He could not think of anything that would cause any trouble. Uma and the pirates were busy mitigating the potential troubles the recently freed VKs would cause.

Mal and Evie were busy making laws, or bills, that would be beneficial for both the VKs and Auradonians, and were succeeding.

While Hades was currently missing, Hercules had assured him that Zeus had called his brother, alongside Poseidon, to Olympus and therefore would not cause any trouble.

He was also confident that the freed villains won’t be causing trouble for the populace as Fairy Godmother’s magic would alert him if they did something villainous, and so far, the alarms haven’t gone off.

“Timon and Pumba attacked Chip sire.” Lumierre answered with urgency. “Missus Potts is currently attending to her grandchild.”

“Timon and Pumba?” Ben frowned. “The Hakuna Matata pair?”

“Yes sire.” Lumiere nodded. “Cogsworth and the other guards have successfully detained both of them sire.”

Ben looked at the council who sat before him, they were indeed waiting for Timon and Pumba to arrive to the meeting.

“You can go your majesty.” The Genie nodded. “We can postpone the meeting for later, Timon, Pumba and Chip’s safety comes first.” He continued. “Right guys.”

The rest of the council nodded in approval before Ben followed Lumiere to the courtyard where the Simba’s sidekicks were contained.

“What happened Lumiere?”

“Chip just went on his daily routine of greeting the castle’s newly arrived guests when the pair arrived.” Lumiere narrated. “They just attacked poor Chip out of nowhere sire.”

“Has Simba been made aware?”

“Yes sire.”  Lumierre nodded. “Madame Garderobe made the call to the Pride Lands.” He relayed. “Fairy Godmother and Lady Mal are also on the way to see if magic was involved in the duo’s strange behavior.”

Ben nodded at the information as the two of them went out to the courtyard to see for themselves.

Surrounded by a tall fence, Timon and Pumba acted like they were cornered mice, feral and growling at anyone near them, in this case at the guards and Cogsworth.

“Cogsworth! Report!” Ben commanded.

“From witness accounts sire, Timon and Pumba had attacked Chip as he did his daily routine.” Cogsworth narrated. “They arrived at the castle calmly and were even joking with each other.” He continued. “However their demeanor changed when they entered the castle grounds.”

“How so?” Lumierre inquired.

“According to them, they looked scared.” Cogsworth answered. “They were acting as if Scar himself was after them.”

“Magic?”

“I don’t think that’s the case Ben.” Mal answered the King’s question as she entered the courtyard with Fairygodmother. “Fairy Godmother has been scanning for magical residues but found none.”

“Mal is right Ben” Fairy Godmother nodded. “I haven’t found anything magic-based that could change Timon and Pumba’s demeanor so suddenly.”

“Isn’t magic the only thing that could make this radical change in attitude possible?”

“There are prohibited substances that can cause such a radical change of behavior.” Fairy Godmother answered. “It is entirely possible that it was something that they both ingested.” She added. “Besides, the alarm I set up didn’t ring. Did they?”

Ben shook his head. “Thankfully no.”

“So it’s not the work of the villains out of the isle.” Mal concluded.

“Why don’t we look for a veterinarian?” Cogsworth suggested. “We aren’t licensed to take blood from them.”

“Instead of a veterinarian, why don’t we call for Rafiki’s attention?” Fairy Godmother offered. “He and Simba could arrive together.”

--------

Ben, Mal, Simba and Fairy Godmother listened to Rafiki’s diagnosis after he checked on the sedated pair.

Cogsworth and a few other soldiers stood ground and guarded the perimeter while Lumiere went back to his duties.

“It’s a hallucination-induced paranoia your majesty.” Rafiki relayed his diagnosis. “A few of the mushrooms in the Pride Lands have a hallucination side effect.” He continued.

“Even in old age, these two would eat whatever they find on the ground.” Simba groaned. “They probably ate the hallucinating mushrooms during one of their wanderlust moments.”

“Is this curable?” Ben questioned.

“Yes your majesty.” Rafiki nodded. “However, I fear that they have eaten the one mysterious mushroom that even non-herbivores are enticed to eat.” He shared.

“Non-herbivores?” Fairy Godmother questioned. “Enticed?”

“Yes.” Simba nodded. “The animals that have eaten that particular kind of mushroom were simply separated from the populace.” The Lion King shook his head. “So far no one has created a cure, not even the human scientists in Auradon and beyond.”

Ben held unto Mal’s hand tightly at the seemingly hopeless situation.

“Can something be done?” Mal asked Ben’s unasked question.

“Sadly no.”

Before Fairy Godmother could even offer some words of consolation, Lumiere once again rushed to the King’s side.

“It looks like it’s not only Timon and Pumba that has been affected by this affliction.” Lumiere reported. “Hercules just reported that his trainer, Phil, has begun attacking anyone in his line of sight.”

“No that couldn’t be possible.” Rafiki’s eyes widened. “Those hallucinating shrooms are only native in the Pride Lands.” He shared. “Olympus doesn’t grow those shrooms.”

“Is magic still connected in this crisis after all?” Ben questioned. “Magic could have been used to migrate and let those mushrooms survive Olympus’s climate.” He reasoned.

“It’s hard to say.” Mal answered. “We could travel to Olympus to make sure.”

“Hercules has already confirmed that magic wasn’t involved in Phil’s affliction.” Lumierre reported. “Although he has yet to confirm whether Phil has ingested the mushrooms Timon and Pumba supposedly ate.”

“What do we do Ben?” Mal asked. “If this continues, this could spell disaster.”

“I don’t know.” Ben sighed. “I wish someone could provide the answers.”

“For now, all we can do is separate them to the populace.” Simba answered. “Hope that an antidote would be made in time before anyone else will be afflicted.”

“That’s the only thing we can do for now.” Fairy Godmother sighed.

“I’ll arrange for the safe transport of Timon and Pumba to the Pride Lands.” Ben offered towards the Pride Lands’ monarch.

“Please do.” Simba nodded. “I really hope an antidote would be made fast.”

“We hope so too.” Ben sighed. “Fairy Godmother could you please see Simba and Rafiki off? I still have a meeting to get to.”

“Of course Ben.” Fairy Godmother nodded.

“Would you like me to accompany you?” Mal asked.

Ben’s only response was to hold unto Mal’s hand tightly.

#disneys descendants #descendants 3 #carlos de vil #fairy godmother #mal #king ben #simba #rafiki #story #vb

[theonceoverthinker]

OUAT Rewatch: 1X02 - The Thing You Love Most

How in Merlin’s tree trunk did this post end up being longer than the one for the freakin’ Pilot?!

I better watch it, or this is gonna be one wordy rewatch!

If you want to join in on my rewatch train and hear my thoughts, head below the cut because this is another long one! (Here’s what to expect if you do: Fawning over dynamics, getting lost in sexy ladies both on their own and together, fanfiction bunnies a plenty, and a squigin of analysis! Bring a shaker, because there’s hardly a pinch of salt here!)

Chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, TWO TWO!

Press Release Regina does everything in her power to force Emma out of Storybrooke and out of her and Henry’s lives forever. Meanwhile, the chilling circumstances of how the Evil Queen released the curse upon the fairytale world is revealed. General Thoughts Following up the pilot, a remarkable - practically flawless - episode was a hard task and this episode delivered! It kicks off right from where we ended last time in the present, and we get a cool change of perspective in the past. Speaking of which, let us start off in the past. I love the transition between Regina in the wedding hall to her castle and immediately, we give her some people to talk to and set up her power dynamics. Not only do we get to see two servants, but people closer to Regina’s level, and that’s so important as an audience member to get a feel for her strengths and weaknesses going forward and to paint a picture of someone who has truly exhausted every resource to get what she wants. That makes the twisted tragedy at the end of the episode so much more complicated, though no less evil. Of course, Regina comes out of this episode with so much development. The moonlit scenes (both by the fire pit and in the castle) with Henry Sr (Whose identity was one of OUAT’s greatest twists) spoke to how Regin’s lust for revenge has eclipsed not only her sensibilities of right and wrong, but the love that others in her life (most notably Henry Sr. himself). Finally, I want to point out the scene between Rumple and Regina, because it was so close to being my favorite dynamic of the episode. There’s a level of comfortable tension between the two of them. You can see it in the way that Regina’s not surprised when Rumple asks for more in his deal, and despite Rumple’s silly and insane antics and requests, she’s able to hold steady. Their relationship also contrasts the scene with Regina and Mal. In that scene, Regina was able to take what she wanted. In this scene, she must relent and gagree to Rumple’s terms, and that speaks to the matter of sizing up Regina that I mentioned before and in a way that doesn’t skimp on character development for either Mal or Rumple. In addition, the scene just made me laugh. Fuck! Robert Carlyle is too fucking good! Now let’s blast to the present! The opening is really delightful and gives off a feeling of something being both familiar and new, and it’s a great metaphor for the waves that Emma is already bringing to Storybrooke. In fact, the whole episode - characters and stories - show a shift. Everyone acts just a little closer to either the direction of their character arcs (Ex. Emma and Archie) or to their fairytale selves (Ex. Regina, Rumple, and Archie), and it’s played very subtly. Just like the tick of a clock. Not gonna lie, I laughed hard during the famous apple tree scene. Between Emma’s satisfied smile, the way Regina freakin’ wooshed from her window to go investigate, and how Regina was screaming had me cackling like a hyena. However, in addition to being funny, we also got some more characterization out of Emma, namely impulsivity and external fearlessness. What I mean by external fearlessness is how while Emma is afraid of intangible things like forming connections and trusting, a threat like an intimidating person is a lot less scary to her, and she has no trouble taking Regina up on her threats. I feel that these traits are expanded on, but given a suitable level of retention throughout the rest of the series. Insights I immediately realized how weird it was that we had an actual voice-over intro to the show in Season 1. I totally understand why it disappeared after the curse broke, but just remembering it again was like a cup of cold water to the face. Also, I really wish that we could have somehow had the narrator who did the intro as well as the famous “previously, on Once Upon a Time” be an actual character a-la “Into the Woods,” or hell, make him Isaac or an older Henry! Of course, keep Andrew West, but maybe a Henry who is the Apprentice’s age! XD Between this episode and the pilot, I notice so much pop music in the show’s soundtrack! In later seasons, apart from the rare instance of “Only You” and a couple of 80’s songs at Roni’s or the arcade, we really don’t get instances of contemporary tracks. I’m stuck between that being important or not. On one hand, the change to classical could reflect on the reformation of Storybrooke to its fairy tale origins with the end of the curse and the return of magic, but the contemporary music, at least here, also goes along with the theme of things changing in Storybrooke, and for the better. ALSO, along the lines of music, I couldn’t help but notice how the lyrics of the song specifically resonate with the specific character on screen as they’re sung (Ex. “Don’t be shy” to Mary Margaret, “Don’t wear your fear” to Emma, and “Let your feelings out instead” to Graham’s car and Archie). Neat! Aesthetic stuff that pleases me: Regina’s outfits in this episode are all among my favorite (And her hair in the flashback - high ponytails are the way to go if you’re a fairytale character!), Emma’s bug (So, I won a model of her bug in an auction at NJ con last year and I was sad to see a gray dent in the middle, and just now, I saw that same dent in her bug in the show! I’m so happy), Emma in that tank (How the hell did I not realize I was bi until nearly a year after I started this show?!), The smoke when characters poof around (It looks so good in the beginning of the show - no offense to later seasons - I like the smoke there too, but this smoke is so puffy and like a mix of cotton and its accompanying seeds as they flutter in the breeze), and Lana’s makeup (I normally don’t pay attention to makeup, but with the lighting of this episode, I couldn’t help but notice it) I also really wish we had an episode about Regina’s apple tree! Along those same lines, we see Regina with a horde of baddies, and a lot of them have really cool designs. I’m not saying we needed their stories per se - sometimes a minion can just be a minion - but I wish we could’ve seen a bit more of them. These are some of the “darkest souls,” after all. This episode really made me think about how I felt about Maleficent and the consistency between the character we see here as well as in bits and pieces throughout Seasons 1 and 2 and the one who reappears in Season 4. Now, obviously, we see her story out of order, as Lily not only was already gone but in a meta-sense, not created yet (Some would call it a retcon, but I agree with the perspective suggested once that retconning isn’t really a thing on OUaT due to the non-linear timeline method of storytelling and Mal’s motivations - while somewhat set up - aren’t loosely defined at this point in the series). Some things not evaluated on - the horse, most notably - give me pause, though as to its importance. Arcs I’ll be honest: I’m not exactly sure how to expand upon this section. Here’s my best attempt. Emma journey of belief - I’ll elaborate on this a bit, but Emma’s journey with belief is tied to her relationship with Henry, and as their relationship developed here, as did Emma’s journey. However, as I will also mention, she has a long way to go. The power struggle against Regina - This episode painted a much more elaborate picture of Regina and her power dynamics with others in her life. We see her acting as mayor and the levels of influence she holds over the whole town. The corruption of Storybrooke is clear to all but the most naive. At the same time though, she is not infallible, and those who choose to stand up to her are indeed victorious, but give rise to a Regina who is not only more vicious, but also more sinister and calculating. Favorite Dynamic Emma and Henry! I feel like this episode shows their dynamic even better than the pilot did. Here, they get a bit more banner, and while there’s an intense push-and-pull still there, we get to see more of Henry’s likable and precocious traits and how they mix with a jaded, but less-so Emma. They also get a lot of funny moments! Between and Henry owning up to sending the hot cocoa, more or less demanding Emma walk him to school, and throwing the apple in the hammiest fashion, I could hardly keep a straight face. But more than that, I feel like there’s a good mix of Henry explaining himself, but also not letting a moment of character building drop in his grasp, and not only does he ensure that, but every character that brings him up does the same (Specifically, Archie). Also, Henry’s much more self aware here. Now that the threat of Emma going is averted for the time being, he’s able to express his own understanding of her doubts and build on that logically without letting his belief falter. I love when Regina’s trying to convince him that Emma’s a conwoman and he’s just having none of it. All of this just makes the scene where Regina sets Emma up to hurt Henry by dismissing his beliefs so tragic, especially because it comes from this honest and caring place on Emma’s part. She wants to look out for Henry’s well being, and yet her words are twisted, undoing any good that could come of her well-meaning intentions. When the scene is resolved, it’s not a step in Emma’s journey of belief, per se (She’s very clearly lying about the fairy tale world being real), but in her relationship with Henry, and that’s revealed to be one and the same. I also want to point out the specialness that is their relationship based on the conversation that Emma and Mary Margaret share. Mary Margaret brings up a good point: most everyone who knows and cares enough for Henry are under Regina’s thumb. She controls their livelihoods and make it near impossible to do too much to act in Henry’s best interests. However, Emma, an outsider who is not dependent on Regina (At least at this moment), exists outside this paradigm and is the only one both in a position to and fearless enough to create the change in Henry’s life that will actually improve his situation. It creates a meaningful reason for Emma to remain in Storybrooke and adds a unique challenge to Emma’s usual instinct to not - as Sidney says - “sit still.” Writer A&E are once again at the helm of this episode! Right now, as I work with two episodes, I consider their main strengths to be their depictions of character relationships of all kinds (With one weird exception that honestly surprised me). As for weaknesses, as I know I’ll be expanding on this in due time, overambition. There’s so much set up in this episode as well as the one before it, and while most (within the scope of only these two episodes) gets meaningful resolution, there are some elements that don’t. Rating 10/10...I was conflicted about what to give this episode. It’s great. It’s very fucking great, and a Golden Apple - however repetitious from my last episode. However, this is a rewatch, and with a rewatch comes the acknowledgment and recognition of unused potential of story elements in hindsight, and this episode does show a lot that was never truly acted upon. In addition to background events and characters, some story elements like Emma and Henry pretending to be non believers don’t come back. That having been said, that unused story potential only holds in regard to smaller character and story elements, things that I want to be built on, and that’s a weak criticism at best. The important story elements - the main story points and the integral characters - are treated well by this episode. There’s nuance and charm galore added to our central cast and the story propels us from the powerful pilot into a well-written continuation. So, I took away its * and left it as a 10/10. Flip My Ship Swan Queen - I love the bickering so much! Regina calling Emma “dear” had me giggling like sparkly Rumple after eight cups of coffee! Oh damn, and those intense looks at the hotel! AND the freakin’ apple tree scene! That tension was so thick, you could only hope to cut it with a chainsaw! Dragon Queen - Regina and Mal’s scene is a long and strong, and while I don’t start really feeling it with them until Season 4, I do still love the connection between them. That only friend line implies so much history, and knowing at least the start of their connection really gives extra meaning to that line.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

...So much for keeping these rewatch pieces short, am I right? Hope you liked them and thanks once more to the fine folks at @watchingfairytales for putting this rewatch together! Season Tally (20/220) Writer Tally for Season 1: A&E (20/70)

#watching fairytales #ouat 1x02 #ouat #ouat rewatch #jenna watches ouat #ships mentioned #swan queen #dragon queen

[wanderingandfound]

The Posterchildren: Origins - Issue #1

In which we meet our four protagonists and I rejoice that I am no longer in high school.

Context: This week is the first week of The Posterchildren Book Club. The Posterchildren is a YA series (universe?) about an alternate world where some people have superpowers. It was created by Kitty Burroughs, who is the author of The Posterchildren: Origins, an ebook copy of which can be found here for $5.

Full disclosure: I’ve read this multiple times before so this will probably be a minorly spoilery post. Any actual for-real spoilers will be down at the bottom with a warning.

The introduction to this universe of superheroes occurs at a rainy cemetery. Corbin Underwood, father of point of view character Malek “Mal” Underwood has died. Mal appears to have nothing but contempt for the entire thing. According to Mal nobody liked his dad, and those that did either didn’t really know Corbin, or they are mistaken in their affections.

I’ll admit right now that when I first read this I knew conceptually of the unreliable narrator, but I didn’t actually apply it to what I was reading. Kitty Burroughs does an absolutely amazing job of imbuing all her writing with rich character voices and perspectives and just plain old word choices conveying dialect and origins and personality. And then, by using a third person POV, tricks naive first-time readers like I was into thinking that this is the Absolute Objective Truth. 

I really do love Mal, but throughout this issue he reminds me of so many “enlightened” guys from high school who think they have absolutely everything under control and are already adults. But now that I’m a few years out of that I can laugh (somewhat kindly) at quotes like this, from a convo between Mal and his kinda-adopted-older-sister but also kinda-his-crush:

“If you’re attempting to cheer me up, you’re doing a shit job of it.”

“Language, young man. And are you admitting that you need cheered up?”

“I said no such thing,” Mal said, inwardly proud of the imperious ring he managed to plaster over his shaky voice. She probably couldn’t even tell how hard it was getting for him to swallow past the tears in his throat.

-Location 109 on my Kindle

And okay, Mal is definitely an amazingly smart kid. But he also only just turned 14 so I am choosing to believe that Ellie Lark can totally tell he’s on the verge of tears. It is their father’s funeral for goodness’ sake.

Also:

All signs of a bleeding heart had to be cut out and left in the field like the entrails of a kill.

-Location 198

I still don’t know how much wilderness experience (not theory) Mal has had. And while he’s probably right about the cut-throat nature of his school and his world (his dad did just die before he even got to 50), I think he’s also being overdramatic in his language choices. And I know for sure from past experience with teenage guys, that if you told him such he would just look down on you for not being able to see how the world “really works”.

Anyways I love Mal, but getting to June was like a breath of fresh air.

Not that June doesn’t also think that She Knows Everything.

When the airport car service finally pulled into the gravel drive and parked in the field in front of the Academy, June’s first impression of the high-and-mighty Best School in America for Posterchildren was that it had more trees than was strictly necessary. Everywhere she looked, there were trees. Pine trees. Leafy ones. Trees, trees, trees. Clearly, the deforestation myth was yet another lie that the government perpetuated to rile up the conservationists and give the hippies something to do with their time.

Okay, besides the fact that I am from the PNW and love trees with all my soul and so disagree with her opinion on mere principle, it’s been four years since I first read this and I still don’t know if she’s serious or not about the “deforestation myth”. Usually I think she’s joking but sometimes??? I think mostly it’s her personality where her knee-jerk reaction is “everything I don’t like is wrong”. Or maybe that’s me projecting.

So June has no idea what being a superhero entails, but she is going to ace it she’s sure. She’ll even threaten the “built like a linebacker” tour-guide over her apparently contraband candybar. Said tour-guide turns out to be the son of basically Superman and isn’t used to people not recognizing him, but thankfully he takes this well.

So well in fact we see him, Ernest West Wright, asking his father, who just came back from the funeral of his maybe-best-friend and cried so hard Mal was ashamed of him, if John can “pull some strings” and maybe get June as superhero-in-training partner for the next three years. Just a little though. Ernest wouldn’t want to be too much of a bother. He’s a very considerate kid who made his dad spaghetti but neither of them were hungry so he made sure the left-overs were properly stored. 

I love Ernest guys. So much.

Dad Wright tells Ernest that he’s the top of the class (?!?!?!) and he’s already been paired with another successful dude. Ernie’s response?

“Dad, listen. June tried to fight me. Me! Maybe she won’t win the fifty yard dash or nothing, but she’s got guts. You can’t grade those.”

-Location 484

Both of the Wright men really do talk like this. It’s unreal. And somehow not cheesy.

Anyways his dad smiles and says maybe and then heads up to bed with a bottle of whiskey. Earlier in this section Ernest notes that both he and his dad are “impervious to extreme temperatures”. During these reviews I’m going to try and figure out what, exactly, are the limits of these Superman/Captain America hybrid “white bread” (June’s words) superheroes. My first question/observation: it looks like the Commander can get drunk. Probably. How long does this last?

Then we get back to Mal. The very first paragraph ends:

He didn’t have to preen or posture to get their attention. His parentage and test scores said all that needed to be said about him.

-Location 498

Oh Mal.

Apparently in the equivalent of Posterkid-elementary school Mal got a perfect 50/50, which had never happened before in the history of this school. He’s just that good (and worked that hard). So now he’s waiting for his Posterkid-middle school grade. He’s nervous, because this will determine who he’s partnered with and also the rest of his life. Because American schools do this to 14 year olds. But still, he is Mal. He’s much better than the average student. He’s got this. 

He got a 67/100. 17 points for all of middle school. If you ever fall below 50% you’re kicked out of school. The only reason he hasn’t been is because he was an exceptional kid. He’s in disbelief. He talks back to Mr. John Commander Wright Sir and uh, it turns out it isn’t a mistake. Cue embarrassment. 

He hated his father so much in that moment, with forty-seven obnoxious children laughing at him, the heat of his rage made it hard for him to breathe.

-Location 529 

Okay, Mal, I don’t think every single other student is laughing at you. Also some are older than you. Also

God, she despised teenagers.

-Location 290, when June is in the tour group.

June and Mal have too much in common their interactions are not gonna go well.

Anyways Mal stays around long enough to hear who is partner is, doesn’t recognize the name and storms out while the assembly is still going on. 

He didn’t know who Chance was. He didn’t care. All he knew was that Chance had a combined score of sixty-seven, and for that, Mal hated him more than anyone he’d ever known.

-Location 560

Harsh dude.

So Mal goes to the gym to beat something up and after the assembly ends properly John Wright follows him and is like, this is neither your fault nor your dad’s fault. See, Mal was basically homeschooled for middle school and Dead Dad Underwood gave him a 48/50, saying he was a going to need to learn how to be a team player but was overall a good kid. Mal refrains from lashing out and seems to remember that maybe these adults actually do care about him.

And then we meet Zip Chance. The love of my life. Who does not use he/him pronouns and does not deserve Mal’s deepest hate. However, Mal takes some of his anger out on her and makes her cry. He tells himself to not feel bad about that. She calls him a “jerkwad” and runs away and I love her 5ever. 

Then we get darling Zip’s point of view and see that she isn’t going to let a mean partner get her down. She is determinedly optimistic and perfect. She is excited for high school and we find out that when she was little sometimes Zip would run through the screen doors in pursuit of breakfast. Because that’s what Zip does, she runs. And she has run away with my heart (okay I’ll stop now (never)).

Instead of doing what I would do, and avoid Mal until absolutely necessary, Zip decides not only to eat breakfast with her partner, but engage in positive conversation. Mal does not make it easy for her, and there are a few times when she genuinely missteps, but overall they actually part ways with the promise of trying to be good partners for each other and my heart starts to melt at how much I love them. 

So ends Issue #1, and wow oh wow did that get long. I’m new to reviewing things so I’ll work on that. Spoilers below ranked in how far away the spoiler is.

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.

.

Barely a Spoiler:

June to Ernest: “Go for it, champ.” - Location 271. June. June. How did you? Of course Ernest would think you knew who he was if you literally called him Champ.

A Bit of a Spoiler:

The way she saw it, it just wasn’t possible for her to continue in the life track her mother had laid out for her. She wanted her to finish up high school, go to college, get a degree, and then live a nice and/or normal adult life. Now, that plan had been a good one— though June had privately vowed to have at least two or three questionable college experiences, just to keep Marcy on her toes— but it’d belonged to the Old June. Old June was on the slow track to a nice, normal career. New June was a clean slate.

-Location 220

Your mother is a well-to-do sculpture artist who hangs out with the has-beens and up-and-comings. Is this really what she wants for you?

Post Bad Things Happen:

Training had always been an outlet. Whenever he was frustrated by life at large, he fell back on training to wear him out and drain the poison out of him. Sometimes, hitting things was the easiest, simplest way to calm himself down. Logically, he knew that fact didn’t say good things about his psyche, but he didn’t care. He just hit things harder.

-Location 564

Oh Mal. You are so much like your brother you don’t even know.

He didn’t hear the Commander’s approach, but that wasn’t surprising. Mal was good, but not quite that good. Not yet. - Location 566

Well, in some ways at least.

After getting to know Corbin:

That punishment was preferable to being coddled by the man that had cried openly at Rook’s funeral.

-Location 575

He didn’t need a shoulder to cry on. He didn’t need anyone’s help.

-Location 586

Where did this toxic masculinity come from? Because it is surprisingly absent in both Corbin and the very violent Marshal. And I’m pretty sure Amira wouldn’t raise her son to be like this? And even if John maybe has these tendencies (that’s an actual maybe, I don’t know) Ernest definitely doesn’t. Who was your bad role model Mal? Have you even ever watched a TV show? Also calling Ellie’s wings “physical deformities” back at Loc. 71? I mean they might be something but they sure aren’t deformed.

#The Posterchildren #posterchildrenbookclub #mine #thoughts #Look the only reviews I know are Mark Oshiro's older stuff where he read Twilight so we wouldn't have to. #I skipped over so much and this is still so long. Sorry about that.

[shadowdianne]

SQ Week- Celebrity AU: Golden Lights

A03 My contribution to the first day of the SQ Week! (Beware, the post is almost 2k words long so I’ve put the link here instead that at the end in case it’s more comfortable to read it on ao3 rather than through here.)

                                     Celebrity AU: Golden lights

Emma bit down her bottom lip as the soft “click” of the camera’s shutter filled her ears. Her emerald eyes glinted under the sunrays of the first hours of morning and she tilted her head to her left, looking at the view that stood in front of her.

The sun played with the sea and sand of the beach that stood at the other side of the fence that headed towards the first meters of the private place. The blonde photographer had definetely seen views that others could have described as more breathtaking but as she clicking sound of the shutter continued she took a step backwards, admiring the view through the view finder, teeth now trapping her bottom lip while she tried to adjust the lens as perfect as possible under the quickly varying light.

“Everything is packed.” A voice came at her back, making her jump slightly before she lowered her hands. She blinked her concentration away and turned, a smile appearing on her mouth as she took on a very different kind of view; A beautiful brunette looking at her with her hands up her waist and an amused glow on the back of a pair of beautiful brown chocolate eyes that had been described in far too many magazines as “full of secrets”. “I knew you were going to be here.” Finished Regina, stepping closer and taking her camera away after sharing a quick look with her, asking for a permission Emma had already granted multiple times, ever after the first night they had spent together. The brunette, however, asked every time she came closer to the camera and Emma -grateful- always replied. “Saying goodbye?”

Emma nodded and pointed at the sea, the sound and smell of it-something she hadn’t taken into consideration mere minutes before, hitting her senses once again.

“I’m going to miss it.” She finally spoke, her voice slightly rough after having been silent for so many minutes.

Neither of them said anything but the truth, the realization that now that her relationship had been discovered the amount of time they were going to be alone, truly alone, was going to dwindle dramatically, hovered over them like the cries from the seagulls that seemed to fill the little silence left by the waves.

Fiddling with the shutter Regina raised the camera to her eye level and looked at Emma towards the lens.

The blonde photographer had her face turned towards the sea, the sunrays hitting her nose and lips and the brunette actress realized that even if they hadn’t really been outside for long periods of time the pale skin of the other woman seemed to have taken a slightly darker tone that made her smile. For all the time the blonde spent behind those same lenses she looked beautiful in front of them. A statement she hadn’t needed a lot of time to make the very first time they had seen each other.

Regina could still picture it vividly; the day her PR had told her the need to do a new photoshoot in order to keep her fans interested.

“It’s so early...” She had half muttered as the car with both Mal and herself had approached the place where the photoshoot was going to take place. She had been in need of a coffee and she had winced at the needy tone that had come from her mouth. Mother would have never approved such tone and for a second she had chastised herself before she had managed to get a grip on her old custom. Cora Mills had been, still was in some circles, considered one of the most elegant actress of her time. Poised and beautiful she had accompanied dozens of amazing directors during her career and during her first years as an actress Regina herself had had found herself following the whims and desires of the old star. During that cold day of September, however, Regina tried to not react as her mother would have wanted her to act but, rather, as she herself would have. The result, however, wasn’t as perfect as it could have been and she had felt Mal’s piercing stare before the woman had blinked what had seemed to have been her surprise away.

And truth be told it was very early in the morning, early enough for her tiredness being justified.

Mal had crossed her long legs before looking at her up and down in a look that Regina never knew if it was appraising or downright worrying.

“It has been almost a month of the premiere of your last film.” She had explained. “We need new photos and the new photographer couldn’t make it later today. Plus, you had already booked yesterday’s afternoon with that other premiere of Mida’s daughter.”

Regina had felt that whatever strength she could have had starting to fade under Mal’s tone and she nodded, defeated. She knew it wasn’t her position to be complaining. In truth she enjoyed her job and almost all her aspects a lot, minus the pressure that came accompanied to the fact of being a woman in the industry, but sometimes, most of the time really, she would have preferred not to be judged by her mother’s merits and only by her own.

So, defeated and tired, the first time she had entered into Emma Swan’s reigns she hadn’t felt very chirpy when the blonde had introduced herself to her with a wave of hand and what seemed to have been a blush covering her cheeks. The second action wasn’t all that new to Regina but she had kept staring to the long gracious fingers of the blonde as they worked with the camera that soon enough would be directed at Regina, once make up finished with her of course.

Those fingers, as well as the blonde herself, were precise and mesmerizing in a way Regina had been unable to pinpoint how until she had been in front of the her, channeling into the kind of persona she pretended to be whenever she needed to be Regina Mills, the actress, and not Regina Mills, the woman. Later, she would learn that the first time Emma had seen her she had had the impression that Regina had been, to put in the blonde’s words, a bitch but those days had still been a month away and in that moment Regina had done her part acting like the actress she was as the shutter of the camera had clicked away.

Neither the blonde and herself had met until a week after that, for another event and this time Regina, dressed with one of the less overelaborate dresses she owned -a slight fuck you to her mother’s own tastes-, the kind of ones she truly liked, had approached the photographer that with the sobriety lines of a suit seemed to be even more mesmerizing for Regina than the week before. They had talked for a little bit over flutes of Champaign while the allowed press fluttered between the guests, asking questions and looking for everything that could be a story. That night Emma had told Regina that she loved people to take pictures of but, truly, nature was all much more mesmerizing to her, much more beautiful. They hadn’t saw each other for two weeks after that until, due to a meet up she had had with Mal she had crossed with Emma down the hall that directed to the office of the older blonde. Emma hadn’t look happy, her eyes stormy and hard in only the way jewels can be, but when her eyes had met Regina had seen how the blonde had tried to mellow the thunders that echoed on those pupils, even for a little bit.

That had been the day she had asked to grab a coffee, together and in one of the most secluded coffee shops she knew, one of the ones that they wouldn’t be bothered, nor by the press or by the fans. Emma had accepted.

The rest, as one of the directors Regina had worked with, could have been narrated in a set of several dates that could have gone terribly wrong but didn’t. Until they had looked at each other in the bedroom of the very same house they both were standing in front now and had known that whatever they were they couldn’t be labeled as fuck-buddies.

They both had run after that, for at least a week where Regina’s new year’s calendar was being set up and Emma’s own work had swallowed her whole. They had eluded each other, tried to hide the fact and search for clues of the why and where, the how and what. It had finally been Mal of all people who had approached Regina with a sigh on her red lips and a look that, as always, could be very things, before placing one warm hand slightly closer to her thigh that necessary before saying that either she needed to have sex or sort whatever mess she had with that “pretty blonde photographer” before the story hit the tabloids.

Of course, the very same day Regina had asked for Emma to come over the tabloids had indeed showed up a blurry image of Emma parking in front of Regina’s loft. Their chat had needed to talk the backseat as Regina called to Mal and asked what had happened. After that… everything had been a blur of screams and words and Emma’s warm hands taking her phone away with only one question on her lips; “Do you want this?”

And Regina had looked at those green eyes and muttered a yes that had put them both into Emma’s car and into the road that ended in that very same house with the world muted for a day and everything else as far away as possible.

The sound of the shutter broke Regina’s concentration and, as she looked at her hands, she realized that she had taken a picture of the blonde without realizing, blonde that was now looking at her through her long eyelashes and a smile on her lips. It was going to be tough. Regina knew that. She was permanently on the public eye, her mother was probably going to ask for her head on a plate when she heard that the rumors were true and Emma’s run impulse was probably going to be a tough enemy to fight against but, as she looked on the warm lights of the sun, those that made the blonde’s tresses glow, she realized that even as difficult as it was going to be she wanted to jump.

And so she took another photo, noticing the way Emma’s cheeks reddened and her eyes glowed, jaded and beautiful.

“I love you” Was far too quick, far too soon but she found herself rehearsing the words on her tongue, for the moment, the time, where those were going to be right. She could wait, she would, for Emma, for herself.

And so the day kept on.

#sqw 8 au #SQW 8 #swanqueenweek #fanfic #swan queen

[mastcomm]

Skylar Brandt: A Ballerina Invests in Herself

On Mondays, the day most ballet dancers spend soaking their aching feet, Skylar Brandt, a soloist at American Ballet Theater, takes a different route. First, she has ballet class, then Pilates; next, a two-hour private coaching session at a City Center studio and, finally, a visit to the chiropractor.

“Sometimes my days off are harder than my days at A.B.T. just because I make it that way,” she said. “It’s a total investment in myself.”

She likes to work. Soloists, generally, have down time — too much for Ms. Brandt’s taste. “I just turned 27, and I feel like at this point I should be starting to experience more growth,” she said. Or some growth. It’s not just about being promoted; she really just wants to dance.

At Ballet Theater, Ms. Brandt has found that her best opportunities have arisen from filling in for injured dancers in prominent parts like Medora in “Le Corsaire,” Princess Praline in “Whipped Cream” and Columbine in “Harlequinade.”

She has been placed on standby — waiting backstage in costume and makeup, just in case — for Kitri in “Don Quixote” and Lise in “La Fille Mal Gardée.” She has never performed those parts, but she knows them because of those Mondays spent working on roles she might, at some point, get the chance to dance. As Kevin McKenzie, Ballet Theater’s artistic director, put it, she “has her focus so in place that nothing seems to rattle her.”

But while she is happy that Mr. McKenzie trusts her enough to give her “three days’ notice to learn a three-act ballet like ‘Le Corsaire,’” she said, she doesn’t want to build a career that’s dependent on her friends’ getting injured or sick.

Now she has a part to call her own. And it’s not a hand-me-down. It’s Giselle — though for just one show.

Securing the coveted debut — opposite Joo Won Ahn on Feb. 16 at the Kennedy Center in Washington — wasn’t easy. Each year, after Ballet Theater’s spring season at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, Ms. Brandt meets with Mr. McKenzie to discuss what she might want to work on over the summer. This year she took a bold approach and flat-out asked him what she would be dancing the next year.

“He mentioned ‘Giselle’ and said something like, ‘keep a strong eye on it,’” she said. “So he alluded to it, but it didn’t seem definitive.”

Still, that was enough for Ms. Brandt to delve into the role under the guidance of the husband-and-wife team Maxim Beloserkovsky and Irina Dvorovenko, former American Ballet Theater principals who have been coaching her privately for four years.

The three worked on “Giselle” the summer. But when Ms. Brandt checked in with Mr. McKenzie in the fall, it seemed as though the part was no longer an option. She noticed, though, that there was a performance at the Kennedy Center with a cast to be announced. “I had to basically push for that show myself,” she said. “It would have been nice if I didn’t have to go in and keep pushing, but I also understand that sometimes that’s what you have to do to move forward.”

Or at least that’s what she has recently started to understand. Ms. Brandt, who has been part of the Ballet Theater world longer than most — she began studying at its Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School in 2005 before joining the company in 2011 — doesn’t like to ask for parts. She prefers to operate on the assumption that good work is rewarded.

Ms. Brandt will debut as Aurora in Alexei Ratmansky’s “The Sleeping Beauty” in New York this spring, but she sees “Giselle” as presenting a different kind of artistic stretch. During the course of its two acts, the heroine — a peasant girl with a weak heart — falls in love with Albrecht, a nobleman disguising his true identity. When she realizes that he is betrothed to another, she goes mad and dies, ending up in the land of the Wilis, or spirits of women who died before they could marry. Ms. Brandt, tiny and radiant, is a technical virtuoso; Giselle calls for that and more.

“I have never been really great at adagio and moving slowly,” she said. “But I don’t know if I’ve ever tried or been coached in that kind of thing. In the second act especially, you have to be graphically precise because it’s so bare and so raw. That’s why I’m grateful to Irina and Max for sculpting and shaping me.”

Mr. Beloserkovsky, in a joint interview with his wife, called Ms. Brandt “the pioneer of the Irina and Max training program.”

In coaching a specific part, they like to give options. “We highlight what looks better, what looks more exciting,” Ms. Dvorovenko said. “But it’s her choice. You need to be in your skin. If you feel good, but it doesn’t project we’ll say that we need to try to do something else.”

Because of Ms. Brandt’s improved artistry and posts of her rehearsals on Instagram, many other dancers — including Isabella Boylston and Calvin Royal III of Ballet Theater — have also worked privately with the couple. The coaches know that their 360-degree approach isn’t for everyone. “Me screaming in one ear and Max in another,” Ms. Dvorovenko said, with a laugh. “It’s 3-D. Or 4-D.”

Because there are so many dancers at Ballet Theater, finding enough one-on-one time with coaches be difficult. Ms. Brandt said that even if she has one hour of variations coaching with the highly respected ballet mistress Irina Kolpakova — and that’s a lot of time to devote to one dancer — it’s still not enough.

But two consecutive hours is transformative. “It’s going to sink in a lot better because I don’t have the pressure of it ending,” she said.

At a recent rehearsal, Mr. Beloserkovsky hummed around Ms. Brandt like a bee while Ms. Dvorovenko sat in front, tapping a foot to emphasize certain counts as she narrated the action of the mad scene. At that moment, Giselle relives a memory from earlier in the ballet when she and Albrecht counted the petals of a flower in a game of “he loves me, he loves me not.” Albrecht had discarded a petal so that the answer would land on the affirmative. As Giselle realizes Albrecht’s duplicity, the memory comes flooding back.

“It’s like, the flower told me the truth,” Ms. Dvorovenko said.

Ms. Brandt nodded, but added, “I’m wary of making faces.”

Ms. Dvorovenko said: “You don’t need to make faces. It’s strong enough. You’re in the zone. You relive it. And also, you’re delaying everything because you’re still recalling everything.”

Mr. Beloserkovsky explained that’s why she needed to be slightly behind the beat: “I need somewhere that look of a crazy person.”

Ms. Brandt tried the moment again. Ms. Dvorovenko gasped. “That’s it,” she said. “Oh my God, it looks so fragile.”

Ms. Brandt wants her Giselle to stand out: not to look like just another village girl. After all, Albrecht chooses her. “I think it might be something about the eyes,” she said. “It’s like there’s got to be a little bit of mystery to her.”

She sighed. “I think my face moves a lot, so that’s something I’ve been working on,” she said. “Sometimes you need to have a half smile. It’s so hard, because you could be feeling something, but you almost have to pull it back. And the use of the eyes. It’s so minute.”

Mr. Beloserkovsky is big on projection; the eyes are everything. At one point, Ms. Brandt made her eyes ancient and luminous, like an icon. “I explained to her, ‘I’ve seen the ballet maybe 3,000 times, but what you just did I felt my skin,” he said. “We need to keep this.’”

The couple, who will also coach her on Aurora, see her shot at “Giselle” as huge. “It’s a ballerina role,” Mr. Beloserkovsky said. “It’s a lottery ticket.”

Growing up in Westchester and New York City, where she shared an apartment with her parents when her training intensified — her two sisters, one, a former Knick City Dancer, were by then enrolled in college — Ballet Theater was the only company she was interested in. Her mother, Barbara Brandt was a well-known fitness trainer in the 1990s; she trained John McEnroe, Joan Lunden and the football player Butch Woolfolk.

“I’m really close with my family,” she said. “Everyone knows my parents. They’re super open and because they’re in New York, they always welcome everyone with open arms into their house, so any friends that I have that have parents in China or wherever they are, my parents are practically surrogate parents to a lot of people.”

For Ms. Brandt, “Giselle” is more than a role, however important. It shows that she’s standing up for herself. And of course she would like to be promoted. “I definitely hope to achieve whatever I can at A.B.T., but if for whatever reason A.B.T. is not able to give me those things, then I’m open to going elsewhere,” she said. “I think I’ve been extremely narrow-minded my whole life.”

Now she is trying to be smart about her future and to put herself out there no matter what happens. “If I decide A.B.T. is the place for me, at least I will be staying from an empowered place versus feeling like I’m waiting for life to happen to me.”

And if she stays no matter what? “Maybe I still would prefer it over being elsewhere,” she said. “Because I chose to be there.”

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/entertainment/skylar-brandt-a-ballerina-invests-in-herself-2/

#Entertainment

[mononohke-archive]

Anime Roundup - Winter 2017 [Spoilers]

As always, this season flew by despite how disappointing it was (for anime that started airing during it, not leftovers from Fall 2016). Well, maybe it was also because near the end I started playing video games and fell behind on my normal watching schedule. Either way, it didn’t feel like a whole 3 months. I’m a little late, as usual, and I didn’t write as much this time around. (Chalk it up to laziness and distraction by the aforementioned video games.)

Overall: I think this season qualifies as the worst I’ve seen yet. So many disappointments but only one or two highs.

Featured Anime: Ao no Exorcist S2, Gintama., Rakugo Shinjuu S2, 3-gatsu no Lion, ACCA, All Out!!, ClassicaLoid, Nanbaka + S2, Onihei, Trickster

Total: 10 | Average Score: 6.8 | Word Count: 4,581

~ (DIRECT) SEQUELS ~

Ao No Exorcist: Kyoto Impure King Arc [5/10]

Let me be blunt, the only thing I actually give a crap about in Ao no Exorcist is Yukio. Specifically, Yukio as a character and his brother complex for Rin. That is really what carried me through the first season of AnE and made me feel like it deserved more than a 5. In season one, the whole dynamic between them, Yukio’s complicated feelings for Rin, and their rivalry was the main theme of a significant part of the show. But in this season and arc, Yukio is barely there at all. The shift focuses more to Suguro, his family, and the Impure King. While I don’t dislike Suguro (Nakai Kazuya being his voice helps), I really don’t care enough to watch a whole cour about him and his family. There’s a lot of Rin too, of course, but he’s the main character and that’s obviously unavoidable. 

Well, at least there a little bit of Yukio, however. He’s there for a few episodes and there’s like half an episode dedicated to his and Rin’s relationship, but that’s a pittance compared to the last season. For those reasons, AnE has dropped one point and just went into boring/average territory. If Yukio is a major part of next season or some future season, the score will go up to 6 again, but this one will stay at 5.

To give some credit though, I’m really grateful that they brought back all the original cast for this long awaited sequel. Unlike D.Gray-man last year, I never felt like something was wrong because all the voice actors and art style were different. It is unfortunate that they couldn’t get Keiji Fujiwara to reprise his role as Rin and Yukio’s father, but still 99% of the cast is the same.

Gintama. [8/10]

It is with a heavy heart that I have to give a title in the Gintama series less than a 10 (only applies to the main show and not movies/specials/OVAs). Unfortunately, the recent change in Gintama’s pace is tiring and got boring rather quickly. This problem was beginning to show in the previous season, but at least that had enough episodes and arcs to have more change. 

This season honestly didn’t have a bad start... it was really great seeing the Joui4 together again especially Sakamoto (since he appearances are normally so limited) but then it went into Kamui and Umibozu’s backstory arc. To be clear, I like Umibozu, don’t care about Kamui, and love Kagura, but this whole arc was mostly about Kamui, Umibozu, and Kouka (Kagura and Kamui’s dead mother). Kagura herself felt like an afterthought in this arc. This was more about explaining Kamui’s issues with his dad and how Umibozu met Kouka. 

Now, aside from my general disinterest in Kamui, the problem is not really with the backstory itself. It’s the fact that Gintama had turned into a battle shounen. I really dislike the pacing in battle shounens, especially if they are done badly *coughsNanbakacoughs*, and the worst part is that Gintama normally does these bits right in previous drama arcs. In this one though, it was boring... maybe not unbearable, but I found myself tuning out a lot more than I would watching Gintama - y’know, one of my all time favorite anime. 

Personally, I think the comedy in Gintama has always been stronger than the drama. The drama, when done in arcs between a lot of comedy, is really when it’s at its best because that is when the show brings a necessary change of pace and adds more depth to the characters. When it’s just one drama arc after the other, the battle shounen portions tend to take over. Plus, I just really miss the humor. It always gelled with me and that’s why I loved the show so much from the beginning. I miss laughing my ass off every episode, but in season I only chuckled a few times.

There is one silver lining though and that is Utsuro, who is becoming more and more interesting. While it is kind of cliche that he came back from the dead and turned out to be immortal, I think the way it’s presented is really good, and I can’t wait to see more of him. The last episode giving his backstory definitely pulled me in for the next season. I just hope it lightens up a little more because the comedy is where Gintama always shined the best.

Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu: Descending Stories [9/10]

This show... how am I supposed to talk about it? I want to do a proper review that does it justice, but obviously that review would be spoiler free. In this post though, I think I’ll just quickly summarize my overall feelings.

First, let me say that Rakugo has totally met my expectations in S2. It expanded on the story pretty much just as perfectly as it needed to. There was one little thing that ruined it just a teeny bit near the end, but honestly it was otherwise masterful. For me to articulate exactly how I feel, I really need to rewatch both seasons. Sorry, I’m gonna skip actually putting effort into this lol, but I will try my best to get out a proper review on MAL later. Maybe one day I’ll even attempt an analysis, but that’s far off.

~ INDIRECT SEQUELS  & NON-SEQUELS~

3-gatsu no Lion [9/10]

3-gatsu no Lion is easily one of the best and most emotional anime that I’ve seen recently. I’m actually surprised that it is a Shaft production (most famous for the Monogatari series and Madoka Magica), but it has Shaft all over it with Akiyuki Shinbo at the helm. I know some people have mixed or negative feelings on his style of direction, but I like it in all the other Shaft shows I watched and I especially like it here. It’s the first time I’ve seen Shaft do an anime like 3-gatsu, which has no fanservice, no harem (elements), no strong humor, nor any fantasy or supernatural elements.

In my opinion, they did an excellent job. If 3-gatsu was not presented in the way it is, it might not have been as interesting as it is. It would’ve been so easy to make this a dry and boring adaptation, but Shaft brings it to life with such incredible bold, imagery. And it pulls off mood whiplash (sudden mood changes) a lot better than most anime I’ve seen. Normally, I think they clash with the overall tone, but when 3-gatsu does it, it feels like an exaggerated version of what happens in real life, where tone does not stay consistent between moments.

Then there’s Rei, the main character. He really skirts the line between being relatable or not. On the one hand, he is a Shogi genius and makes his own living at age 17. On the other hand, he has a complicated past, depression, and is a very down to earth and nice person. The whole series really rests on Rei’s shoulders, as he is the narrator and everything revolves around him. But I think he’s excellent written and relatable despite being essentially a child prodigy. 

Speaking of the shogi, I was also worried that it would be hard to understand the series because I don’t know shogi very well. Thankfully, that’s not the case. While there is a significant amount of focus on the shogi, the real focus on the characters. I’m sure for people who are familiar with shogi, it gives an extra layer to the narrative, but even for those who aren’t, it’s not so focused on the games that there’s nothing left. At least shogi has similarities to chess, which most westerners have a passing knowledge of. Still, even if you know fuck all about shogi and chess, I think the great depth of characters and the wonderful visuals carry the show and make it incredibly watchable.

ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu-ka [7/10]

I... liked ACCA. Don’t love it, but liked it well enough. It has a uniqueness to it that you don’t see often in anime. For example the cast are all adults and most of them are government bureaucrats, the plot revolves around a conspiracy, and the anime is fairly slow paced and is very light on action. More than half the series is spent on world-building, with very little romance or other cliches. I could probably go on.

The color palette and art style is also a highlight with lots of bright, pastel colors. ACCA is just a neat little package of an anime that I appreciated watching for being something a little different. Have to say though, I’m not sure how much this will stick to me in the long run. Some of the world, maybe, and definitely the art style/colors, but not really the characters or plot.

All Out!! [6/10]

What initially drew me to All Out!! is a) rugby, never seen that sport before in an anime and b) incredible diversity in body types with a very wide variation in height, muscularity (although most are muscular guys), and weight (never seen so many chubby guys in an anime). So, while All Out!! does have some things that set it apart, unfortunately in literally every other way, it’s pretty much exactly the same as other sports anime. The protagonist is, OF COURSE, a newbie who joins the sport for the first time as a high school freshman. He’s overly energetic and most of the rest of the team thinks he’s annoying, but he’s super motivated and improves at an incredible rate. And he has another freshman friend who is a lot more experienced and naturally talented at the sport who serves a foil (especially since they have opposite personalities). The captain is an extremely motivated guy who’s tough on his team, but he’s also incredibly protective of them ie. team dad, and so on. The cliches just don’t stop...

That doesn’t mean AO is unenjoyable, just that the unique elements in the beginning wore off rather quickly and I was left with another run-of-the-mill sports anime (especially since this show is 25 episodes and not 12). My ratings for sports anime thus far have worked on a different scale than most other anime simply because sports is such an unusual genre with its own strict conventions that I have no choice but to rate them compared only to others in the genre. That means if sports anime were judged relative to the rest of anime I’ve seen, they would be rated lower (by between .5-1 points) because 95% of them have the exact same plot and many of the exact same characters. 

I mention this because as I’ve watched more and more sports anime, my standards have steadily been getting higher and are finally starting to match the rest of my rating scale. If this was one of the first sports anime I ever watched, it would easily be an 8/10. Now, as the dozenth sports anime I’ve seen, it’s only a 6/10. I am finally getting really tired of the old sports anime cliches and want more unique experiences. That’s why I praised Baby Steps so much for being different when I recently saw it. Looking back, I may have to re-rate some of the other sports anime I’ve seen, especially more recently like Days of the Summer/Fall seasons last year.

So, do I regret watching All Out!!? No, it has some good and fun stuff in there. Will I watch if there’s another season of it? Probably (even though I don’t necessarily want to) because I only avoid sequels if I give the first series a 5/10 or less... even then sometimes I’ll keep watching for the sake of keeping up (fcking K). Would I recommend AO in the end? Nah, unless you’re really interested in rugby.

ClassicaLoid [8/10]

I... feel almost ashamed to give this show such a high rating. Looking at MAL, my score is a whole 1.53 points higher than the standard deviation, and one of the most incongruous scores I’ve ever given - in the positive direction. In the negative direction, I happen to have some highly unpopular opinions on anime like Erased, Sword Art Online, and Mirai Nikki. 

For a long while, I just couldn’t decide on a score. Normally, I know pretty early on what score I’m going to give an anime, give or take a point in either direction (or two if the anime pulls something towards the end). By the end of a show’s airing, I usually pretty much know exactly what I want to give it. (This doesn’t apply so much to my precise ratings, but rather the broad score I give on MAL.)

For ClassicaLoid, I didn’t know whether I wanted to give this show a “guilty pleasure, I know this show is bad but I enjoyed it a lot” 6/10 rating, a “fuck it, because I loved this show that much 8/10 rating”, or a 7/10 as the balanced alternative. As you can see, I ultimately decided on an 8 (more specifically a low 8, but an 8 nonetheless) in the end. Yes, I really do love this show, and I did find it just that enjoyable and hilarious. It’s one of the funniest comedies I’ve seen recently and definitely my favorite comedy of 2016 (over the likes of Sakamoto Desu Ga? and Handa-kun).

The thing about ClassicaLoid is that if I didn’t love the characters so much and find it funny, it would be a pretty bad show. It seems pretty polarizing because a lot of people think this show is stupid and hate it for that reason. In my opinion, it is stupid, but it has some self-awareness and never takes itself seriously. The other thing is the humor. If the humor does not gel with you, you will hate this show, and that’s also highly subjective and polarizing. I think the humor is spot on most of the time, with great comedic timing and gags. There’s also, I guess, the “gimmick” of the show which is arguably the whole point - the remixes of classical music in the vocaloid style. 

Tbh, I’m not at all familiar with vocaloids and even so, I found the remixes to be mostly average or even a bit cringeworthy. They were the weakest part for me, but that only applies to the songs themselves. The actual visuals that accompanied the almost once-an-episode sequences? They were not bad. Sometimes they were even funny or resulted in hilarious things (Schubert’s fish adventure comes to mind), but most of the time they were a pretty mindless distraction. 

One of the real strengths is the characters. I seriously either love the characters* or I like them. They bring life to the show with their varied personalities. It’s kind of amazing because many of them skirt the line between being one-note quirky archetypes and actually being kind of deep. My favorites include (in no particular order):

- Kanae, who is mostly the straight man character, but plays beautifully off the rest of the cast because she has to put up with so much shit, but has her own silly and selfish sides. (Also, she’s one terrible idol.)

- Schubert, definitely my favorite classicaloid of the bunch. I was kind of surprised because he was introduced a little later than the rest, but Schu is so genuine... so weird, yet so underappreciated in-universe that I think is the opposite irl. His unpopularity is what makes him popular in the first place because aside from being a catty bitch to Mozart (who deserves it, btw), he tries really hard to be a good person.

- Liszt, who is amazing, I love that she’s badass and reliable (the only one who pays rent) but also a sucker for love. And she’s basically a trans women, isn’t she? She’s not the only originally-male-irl classicaloid to be given a female body, but she’s the only one who completely embraces it. 

- Chopin, who in my opinion is a little underused, although that’s partially justified because he’s always hiding. He’s definitely the most relateable, being a shut-in who just on the computer all day playing games or watching stuff (sounds familiar), but he’s also blunt af and has such witty lines. 

- Beethoven, I initially had mixed feelings on him, but came to love him over time. See, he may be voiced by my favorite voice actor (Tomokazu Sugita), but at first all his jokes revolved around GYOZA!!! and being a gigantic fucking ham. It got old kind of fast, but thankfully he gets more jokes and depth over time. I especially love his dynamic with Kanae and Schubert.

*The sole exception is Mozart. Here is where I rant about Mozart because thaT FUCKING PUNK BITCH IS THE WORST, AND IT SUCKS THAT HE’S A MAIN CHARACTER WHO GETS SO MUCH SCREEN TIME AND EPISODES DEDICATED TO HIM. ... Okay, I’m gonna calm down. I’ll stop shouting now and explain why I hate this pos. Here we go: He. Is. Not. Funny. Or. Likable. In fact, the only one who is not funny or likable. He’s always annoying, unhelpful, sexually harassing Kanae, and genuinely a terrible person except when it benefits him. Actually, the problem is not even that he’s terrible, but rather that he’s terrible and gets away with it. 

Compare him to someone like Sousuke, who’s a little similar in some ways, except... hey, get this, there are consequences (funny consequences) when he’s being a douche. Sousuke, along with Schubert, are the butt monkeys of the ensemble. Sousuke is even referred to as “tool” by Liszt and mostly everyone else. If Mozart was also a butt monkey, he would be a lot more tolerable, except he’s not. Mozart behaves like an annoying dick 98% of the time and the anime has the fucking audacity to try and make him sympathetic. 

I also have to bring up his voice actor, Yuki Kaji, who is easily my least favorite voice actor, so maybe I do have some inherent bias against him. See, if Mozart were played by someone who’s not annoying as shit, then maybe he would’ve been more likable, but Yuki Kaji has the range of a triangle (he’s one-note). Compare him to Beethoven, who could easily be so fucking obnoxious, except he’s played by the exceptionally talented and charismatic Tomokazu Sugita. /sighs. Well, I think I’m done ranting now.

Finally, I want to cover the jokes. It’s true, at first they appear to be of the very “lol random xD” type humor, but I think they are deceptively well constructed. There were many episodes where I was laughing out loud and some episodes where I spent the entire time laughing my ass off (again, I bring up the Schubert fish incident). With a few exceptions, I don’t think the humor or gags ever got old because the anime keeps doing more and more with the characters, throwing them into crazy situations. The absurdity of it all is hilarious and the likableness of most of the characters supports it. 

I’m probably one of 10 people in the west who is very excited and happy that there’s a season 2. Only two more seasons left until it’s back :D.

Nanbaka [6/10] / Season 2 [4/10]

I’m put in kind of an awkward position by this show... At first, it was going to be published with the Fall 2016 Roundup until I realized that there was going to be a second season. So then I delayed it for Winter 2017 except the quality of the show has gone down significantly between the first and second season. I wrote most of my thoughts for the first season already, so I’m just gonna talk about season one first by itself and then compare it to season two. Here are my thoughts on S1:

At first glance, yes, the character designs are incredibly silly… an anime podcast I listen to described them as “deviantart ocs”, (which is not too inaccurate), and everything sparkles like a shoujo manga for some mysterious reason. But aside from the strange design choices, the humor was pretty solid and characters are pretty likable. Not just the main 4 characters, but Hajime (my favorite) and the other prison wardens, and their fellow prisoners all have a charm to them.

The first half of the show is pretty damn funny, definitely a solid 7/10, but then the New Years competition arc starts and the pacing screeches to a halt. There are four whole episodes dedicated to this arc and they actually introduce a plot, drama, and some intense action near the end. It comes out of nowhere. The problems don’t stop there, unfortunately. I can forgive the terrible pacing somewhat if they kept up the laughs, but that’s not what happened. Instead, the genre switches and suddenly becomes a drama with a whole conspiracy plot about some of the main characters. Insofar, the only comedy anime I’ve seen pull off dramatic arcs is Gintama (but as I’ve said even that gets tiring after a while). Nanbaka is simply not as well-written as Gintama in either way, and the actual “plot” was a total let down compared to the humor which I genuinely liked.

This plot continues for another few episodes and it takes a little while to get back to the laughs. Humor and characters are the only thing this anime kind of nails. When the author attempts drama, it turns into another generic shounen anime. What a shame. If this anime stuck to being a pure comedy, I definitely would’ve rated it higher.

Ohhhhh boy, now onto season two. My worst fears for the anime basically happened. Imagine the New Years Competition arc I just complained about. Now, slow down the pacing another 500%, take out all the humor from the first season, and chuck in some boring ass cliche shounen crap. That is what S2 is in its entirety. It’s like they sucked out all the fun and hilarity of the first season just to “advance” the plot. I put advance in quotes because the pacing is seriously glacial. It rotates between plot exposition/backstory and “action” comparable to a Naruto filler arc for the entire run time. 

For example, my favorite character Hajime gets locked in a jail cell early on. Then some of the jail mates (including Jyugo, the main character) decide to break him out a little while later in the show. Guess when they reach Hajime? If you guessed the very last episode, you’d be correct! Inbetween is just pointless, boring fight after pointless, boring fight and fucking endless exposition! Either the character talks for minutes on end about their powers or the strategy of their enemies or about some thing in the past or there’s a flashback/backstory explaining the characters (by the way, a whole bunch of new characters are introduced except without the humor, they’re all shit) or the plot, it’s just UGH. 

Halfway through, I came to dread Nanbaka. Most of the time, I would put on the show and zone out as much as possible, although in reality, I spent a lot of time bitterly remembering how funny the first season is and how it actually had characters I liked in them doing funny shit and being likable. If the first season was a lot of fun but was bogged down by the action/drama, then the second season is the bog. Watching it is liking wading through a swamp about waist high. It won’t kill you and it’s doable, but it’s unpleasant, tedious, and you rather wished you just walked around it. 

If you really want to enjoy the show, just watch season one. Even then I only recommend the first half and the last couple of episodes. AVOID SEASON TWO AT ALL COSTS. I am certain there’s going to be a season three later this year or next year, but hopefully I’ll resist the temptation to watch it just because I watched the first two seasons.

God, it makes so angry how this show could’ve been a fairly pleasant humorous affair but ruins it completely and chucks it in the fucking garbage disposal. Way to waste your potential, Nanbaka.

Onihei [6/10]

Onihei is... unremarkable, but not a hard watch either. It’s just... alright? Very very middle of the road, but I can kind of appreciate that because it didn’t require much effort on me to watch, and I could just enjoy it without thinking too much about it. It helps that I’m already into samurai, but I admit I was hoping for more initially. Once I accepted that it was just going to be a simple collection of samurai/pre-modern japanese stories, then I began to enjoy it more. 

My biggest complaint is that there were too many episodes not focused on Heizo (aka Onihei, the main character). Heizo really was the best part of the show, and I liked it most when they focused on him and his backstory, but about a quarter of the show is about other characters that I just didn’t really care for aside from two or three of them. It’s fine that this show is mostly episodic, but because it frequently shifts focus, it is quite inconsistent because some episodes are better than others.

There’s also the fact the show looks very cheaply made, especially in those creepy ass CGI people in background shots. It has almost a B-movie feel, but not as much of the B-movie charm as I’d like. Still, it’s not really bad at all. It’s a good thing I like historical anime and that the main character is great because that is what pushes it up from a 5 to a solid 6. 

Trickster [5/10]

First, let me just say that Trickster baited me - and baited me successfully with the promise of attractive boys and homoerotic subtext. At least it delivered and pretty much met my expectations 100%, but unfortunately, it did not surprise me by being better than I thought it would be. It’s kind of a pity because Trickster actually has pretty good production values, but it falters in more important places: the characters and plot. Both of those elements are pretty clumsily handled. If not that, then they feel cliche, like I’ve already seen [x type] character and [y] trope countless times.

The characters in particular I feel like could’ve made up for the plot, but the anime chooses to focus on the least interesting ones (yes, I know this is a book adaptation). The main character, Kobayashi, is unlikable from the start and even when you unlock his tragic backstory late in the anime, it feels too little too late and it’s another overused trope. Hanasaki, the character who probably gets the most screen time is... actually alright. He’s annoying at first too, but his character development is not handled that badly either. The best characters are probably Inoue and Akechi; the former barely gets any attention at all, and the latter’s subplot is so fragmented by the rest of the characters and their own plots that it gets lost.

In fact, what I just said may just sum up the biggest problem I have with this anime. The whole thing feels fractured, like the writer wanted to give all the main characters (except poor Inoue) their dues, but didn’t know how to tie their separate plots together elegantly or didn’t know how to give all of them development/depth in one flowing plot. With tighter focus, I’m sure it would’ve turned out better, but the cliches and their rather bland execution still drag it all down.

The production values do deserve some praise though. The voice acting is great as always and the animation is overall good, but the music and direction had some standout moments that really elevated certain parts of the show. Unfortunately, the overall mediocreness of Trickster put it at a 5/10.

#* #anime roundup #anime roundup: winter 2017 #winter 2017 #writing*

[mastcomm]

Skylar Brandt: A Ballerina Invests in Herself

On Mondays, the day most ballet dancers spend soaking their aching feet, Skylar Brandt, a soloist at American Ballet Theater, takes a different route. First, she has ballet class, then Pilates; next, a two-hour private coaching session at a City Center studio and, finally, a visit to the chiropractor.

“Sometimes my days off are harder than my days at A.B.T. just because I make it that way,” she said. “It’s a total investment in myself.”

She likes to work. Soloists, generally, have down time — too much for Ms. Brandt’s taste. “I just turned 27, and I feel like at this point I should be starting to experience more growth,” she said. Or some growth. It’s not just about being promoted; she really just wants to dance.

At Ballet Theater, Ms. Brandt has found that her best opportunities have arisen from filling in for injured dancers in prominent parts like Medora in “Le Corsaire,” Princess Praline in “Whipped Cream” and Columbine in “Harlequinade.”

She has been placed on standby — waiting backstage in costume and makeup, just in case — for Kitri in “Don Quixote” and Lise in “La Fille Mal Gardée.” She has never performed those parts, but she knows them because of those Mondays spent working on roles she might, at some point, get the chance to dance. As Kevin McKenzie, Ballet Theater’s artistic director, put it, she “has her focus so in place that nothing seems to rattle her.”

But while she is happy that Mr. McKenzie trusts her enough to give her “three days’ notice to learn a three-act ballet like ‘Le Corsaire,’” she said, she doesn’t want to build a career that’s dependent on her friends’ getting injured or sick.

Now she has a part to call her own. And it’s not a hand-me-down. It’s Giselle — though for just one show.

Securing the coveted debut — opposite Joo Won Ahn on Feb. 16 at the Kennedy Center in Washington — wasn’t easy. Each year, after Ballet Theater’s spring season at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, Ms. Brandt meets with Mr. McKenzie to discuss what she might want to work on over the summer. This year she took a bold approach and flat-out asked him what she would be dancing the next year.

“He mentioned ‘Giselle’ and said something like, ‘keep a strong eye on it,’” she said. “So he alluded to it, but it didn’t seem definitive.”

Still, that was enough for Ms. Brandt to delve into the role under the guidance of the husband-and-wife team Maxim Beloserkovsky and Irina Dvorovenko, former American Ballet Theater principals who have been coaching her privately for four years.

The three worked on “Giselle” the summer. But when Ms. Brandt checked in with Mr. McKenzie in the fall, it seemed as though the part was no longer an option. She noticed, though, that there was a performance at the Kennedy Center with a cast to be announced. “I had to basically push for that show myself,” she said. “It would have been nice if I didn’t have to go in and keep pushing, but I also understand that sometimes that’s what you have to do to move forward.”

Or at least that’s what she has recently started to understand. Ms. Brandt, who has been part of the Ballet Theater world longer than most — she began studying at its Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School in 2005 before joining the company in 2011 — doesn’t like to ask for parts. She prefers to operate on the assumption that good work is rewarded.

Ms. Brandt will debut as Aurora in Alexei Ratmansky’s “The Sleeping Beauty” in New York this spring, but she sees “Giselle” as presenting a different kind of artistic stretch. During the course of its two acts, the heroine — a peasant girl with a weak heart — falls in love with Albrecht, a nobleman disguising his true identity. When she realizes that he is betrothed to another, she goes mad and dies, ending up in the land of the Wilis, or spirits of women who died before they could marry. Ms. Brandt, tiny and radiant, is a technical virtuoso; Giselle calls for that and more.

“I have never been really great at adagio and moving slowly,” she said. “But I don’t know if I’ve ever tried or been coached in that kind of thing. In the second act especially, you have to be graphically precise because it’s so bare and so raw. That’s why I’m grateful to Irina and Max for sculpting and shaping me.”

Mr. Beloserkovsky, in a joint interview with his wife, called Ms. Brandt “the pioneer of the Irina and Max training program.”

In coaching a specific part, they like to give options. “We highlight what looks better, what looks more exciting,” Ms. Dvorovenko said. “But it’s her choice. You need to be in your skin. If you feel good, but it doesn’t project we’ll say that we need to try to do something else.”

Because of Ms. Brandt’s improved artistry and posts of her rehearsals on Instagram, many other dancers — including Isabella Boylston and Calvin Royal III of Ballet Theater — have also worked privately with the couple. The coaches know that their 360-degree approach isn’t for everyone. “Me screaming in one ear and Max in another,” Ms. Dvorovenko said, with a laugh. “It’s 3-D. Or 4-D.”

Because there are so many dancers at Ballet Theater, finding enough one-on-one time with coaches be difficult. Ms. Brandt said that even if she has one hour of variations coaching with the highly respected ballet mistress Irina Kolpakova — and that’s a lot of time to devote to one dancer — it’s still not enough.

But two consecutive hours is transformative. “It’s going to sink in a lot better because I don’t have the pressure of it ending,” she said.

At a recent rehearsal, Mr. Beloserkovsky hummed around Ms. Brandt like a bee while Ms. Dvorovenko sat in front, tapping a foot to emphasize certain counts as she narrated the action of the mad scene. At that moment, Giselle relives a memory from earlier in the ballet when she and Albrecht counted the petals of a flower in a game of “he loves me, he loves me not.” Albrecht had discarded a petal so that the answer would land on the affirmative. As Giselle realizes Albrecht’s duplicity, the memory comes flooding back.

“It’s like, the flower told me the truth,” Ms. Dvorovenko said.

Ms. Brandt nodded, but added, “I’m wary of making faces.”

Ms. Dvorovenko said: “You don’t need to make faces. It’s strong enough. You’re in the zone. You relive it. And also, you’re delaying everything because you’re still recalling everything.”

Mr. Beloserkovsky explained that’s why she needed to be slightly behind the beat: “I need somewhere that look of a crazy person.”

Ms. Brandt tried the moment again. Ms. Dvorovenko gasped. “That’s it,” she said. “Oh my God, it looks so fragile.”

Ms. Brandt wants her Giselle to stand out: not to look like just another village girl. After all, Albrecht chooses her. “I think it might be something about the eyes,” she said. “It’s like there’s got to be a little bit of mystery to her.”

She sighed. “I think my face moves a lot, so that’s something I’ve been working on,” she said. “Sometimes you need to have a half smile. It’s so hard, because you could be feeling something, but you almost have to pull it back. And the use of the eyes. It’s so minute.”

Mr. Beloserkovsky is big on projection; the eyes are everything. At one point, Ms. Brandt made her eyes ancient and luminous, like an icon. “I explained to her, ‘I’ve seen the ballet maybe 3,000 times, but what you just did I felt my skin,” he said. “We need to keep this.’”

The couple, who will also coach her on Aurora, see her shot at “Giselle” as huge. “It’s a ballerina role,” Mr. Beloserkovsky said. “It’s a lottery ticket.”

Growing up in Westchester and New York City, where she shared an apartment with her parents when her training intensified — her two sisters, one, a former Knick City Dancer, were by then enrolled in college — Ballet Theater was the only company she was interested in. Her mother, Barbara Brandt was a well-known fitness trainer in the 1990s; she trained John McEnroe, Joan Lunden and the football player Butch Woolfolk.

“I’m really close with my family,” she said. “Everyone knows my parents. They’re super open and because they’re in New York, they always welcome everyone with open arms into their house, so any friends that I have that have parents in China or wherever they are, my parents are practically surrogate parents to a lot of people.”

For Ms. Brandt, “Giselle” is more than a role, however important. It shows that she’s standing up for herself. And of course she would like to be promoted. “I definitely hope to achieve whatever I can at A.B.T., but if for whatever reason A.B.T. is not able to give me those things, then I’m open to going elsewhere,” she said. “I think I’ve been extremely narrow-minded my whole life.”

Now she is trying to be smart about her future and to put herself out there no matter what happens. “If I decide A.B.T. is the place for me, at least I will be staying from an empowered place versus feeling like I’m waiting for life to happen to me.”

And if she stays no matter what? “Maybe I still would prefer it over being elsewhere,” she said. “Because I chose to be there.”

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