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yackers · 1 year

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I have mixed feelings about the cheating situation. In one sense they’re teenagers and I think everyone in the situation had their reasons for doing things and reacting to the situation, but I really struggle with Jerome’s reaction to the reaction. He’s a kid and I don’t think he should be held accountable for shit he did at 17 for the rest of his life when it’s this minuscule of a problem, but there were multiple scenes where people made digs at him for playing two girls and he truly believed that it was alright. Yes he apologized I get that, but even towards the end of the season he makes a comment about how he didn’t mean to hurt them…I truly believe Jerome didn’t think he deserved repercussions for hurting Willow and Mara. I don’t like that. Do I think they went too far with the revenge plot? Yes. Cause I wish they would’ve sat down and talked. Mara and Jerome, imo, needed to have a long conversation about it. Not with Willow. Not with Joy. But just the two of them. Their relationship arc had been from s1. Jerome had that little crush on her that blossomed and it eventually led us to s3 and the cheating situation. Maybe it’s me not understanding how he cheated on her with Willow, who I adore, I’m just not understanding how those two had any sort of chemistry or connection, but I wanted him to explain his sudden drawback. Joy defending Jerome those times were valid but her in that damn bedroom saying she thought it was all about revenge. It’s like the entire house lacked brain cells that season. The miscommunication trope was wild. What i’m saying is I think the cheating trope was interesting to the development of the characters. I just really don’t think Jerome realized what he did was wrong. I love Jeroy. They’re my favorite ship of all time. I just can’t stand how Jara essentially ended and there was no sit down conversation being like “Hey, I hurt you. This isn’t about me liking Joy it’s about me breaking the heart of the girl who fell in love with me and who i pined after for two years” I just needed something. Those teenagers couldn’t talk.

I have a lot of thoughts so please click below

see I do completely get what you're saying I do, and it's not that I disagree with you so much as that's just not really how things work. throughout the whole show, characters hurt each other and do shitty things because it's full of overwhelmingly human characters, but they can't just sit and talk it all out for hours in therapy speak until everyone is 100% okay. that's not how television works, that's not even really how life works. I don't honestly see how jerome and mara sitting and talking out every one of their issues would make either of them feel better and not more mad each other and it wouldn't be good television. hell, who in life ever sits down with their ex who cheated on them and discusses why and how and all of their personal feelings about it, especially two seventeen year olds who dated less than a year. I do understand that it feels like he should apologise further but the damage was already done, mara was too angry to hear it and jerome didn't know himself well enough to articulate why. I also just can't really name many shows where any (unmarried, childless, outside of a therapy environment) couples sit down and discuss in detail the end of their relationship.

I do disagree with you saying that he didn't think he deserved repercussions. he quite literally finds out that the three of them wrote a play specifically to embarrass him in front of the entire year group and accepts it and directs it anyway and says that he just hopes it helps mara move on and feel better. he does even repeatedly try to apologise to mara. he lets her say horrible things about his dad without fighting back and he backs off of joy around her as to not upset her further, all things he never would've done pre being caught cheating. he tells the house that they all need to get over it only when they're all being silent and glaring at him at the breakfast table because he still has to live there and he can't have every single person in house mad at him forever.

in terms of how he could have gotten with willow and his 'sudden drawback from mara', I really do not mean this to sound rude but like did you watch it? when he and willow first kiss in detention, mara had broken up with him like at least a week ago. he tried to win her back over and over (with admittedly hollow gestures I'm not like validating his behaviour just stating the facts of what happened) and she ignored him. by the time he kisses willow in detention, he thinks he fucked up too bad and he's never getting mara back, and so he's rebounding. he doesn't really have tons of chemistry with willow, that's kinda the point, she's just there and she's sweet and she's into him and it's a lot less complicated. it's only after all this that mara approaches him in the kitchen and is like 'congrats we're back together' and by that point he's already moved on from her enough that he's not willing to give up willow because he doesn't like either of them that much by that point. and this is not me defending him but like if he'd told mara then and there that he'd kissed willow even though she barely gave him a chance to, it still would've crushed her, because unlike him she didn't think they were done, she was just holding off because of the sisterhood. the whole situation isn't black and white, he didn't wake up and say "I'm gonna have two girlfriends" and it's a mess and that's the whole point of it. I've gone over the other jara stuff before so I'm not gonna repeat myself but idk, it didn't happen the way you're making it sound like.

and lastly, about joy saying "I thought it was all about revenge", the whole point of that scene is that both girls are lashing out each other because they're both broken hearted. it was the wrong thing to say, but it was an impossibly difficult and insane situation. and up until that point, mara didn't do a whole lot of crying and being sad because she got angry and stayed that way. the part about the revenge plotline that makes it so interesting to watch and why I liked it is because it was always going to hurt everyone involved and it was always going to be everyone's fault. jerome was getting hurt either way, joy was always going to fall for him, which was a betrayal to mara, but it was also an insane thing for mara to ask her to do in the first place. it blows up in everyone's faces badly, but both girls both eventually realise that it's okay that they're both upset and that it all only happened because of some incredibly poor decision making and that's that. the ending with mara deciding to put her friend's happiness above her anger is the most important lesson of all of it. also:

he does try to sincerely apologise for all of it one last time and she shakes her head with a smile and tells him that it's okay. the whole point of mara's arc is that she doesn't need that from him anymore, she's learning to deal with her feelings herself and know her own worth even when others don't, which is what she's been needing to learn to do the whole show.

tldr: I understand that cheating is a difficult topic that people have a lot of thoughts about and I respect that, but real life isn't therapy and what a lot of your takes tell me is that either you didn't really pay attention during their storyline or that it's been a long time since you watched it

#hope this makes sense and wasn't too rude but #house of anubis #txt #ask #anon

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dalt20 · 2 months

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Tooning In 12. Greg Bailey part 3 of 10

DL:So it says on your IMDb that you directed 52 episodes of a cartoon from CiNAR called We Are the Dogs in 1985. What was that?

GB:I have no idea! I started working at Cinar in Feb. 1992. I never heard of that dog show.

DL:Oh ok. Somebody musta vandalized your account. Moving on, Starcom the U.S. Space Force for DiC and Coca Cola

GB:I remember Space Force at DIC but never heard of Coca Cola

DL:They were the syndicator of the show.

GB:I didn't know that!

DL:They had a television department called Coca Cola Telecommunications. They had a relationship with DiC during The Real Ghostbusters until the film Ishmel flopped at the box office. Causing DiC to leave the partnership.

GB:Was DIC working on Ishmel? I don't know anything about that. I am not really aware of the property. Why did they leave the work relationship over the film or did Coca Cola close up their department? Sorry I guess I have more questions than useful answers.

DL:No, DiC wasn’t working on Ishmel but yes they left their work relationship over the film.And also I'm glad you ask for answers on my knowledge.

GB:Do you know why they left over the film? It was a live action film wasn't it. I was in Japan in those years so there are a lot of things that I seem to have a lack of knowledge about what was happening on this side of the world in those years. Especially in entertainment. It took me years to see films like Robocop after hearing everyone in the US talk about them all the time.

DL:It was because their deal was soured because Coca Cola was losing money from the film, a big loss. And they sold the film distributor Columbia Pictures to current owner Sony. Plus it was thought that DiC was eying a merger with Coca Cola.

GB:OK, I sort of understand now. I will have to ask around about it to see if anyone knows about it other than the executives. I believe this flop happened around 1987 if I see it correctly on Google in my quick look. DIC really went through a big upheaval at that time so it may be related. Jean Charlopin split up with Andy Heyward about that time. DIC Tokyo went with Charlopin and part of the split said that some work would be sent to DIC Tokyo for a season or 2 before DIC LA went off and did their work elsewhere. There was a lot of activity at the executive level and that ended my gig in Tokyo as well. The whole art department in LA also broke up and people went their own ways.

DL:Yep, that is correct.The ALF cartoons for Alien productions and NBC?

GB:I don't think I saw any Alf shows after they left DIC or did they end at DIC. Also Saban was part of the 3 way ownership at DIC. He bought out the music rights that DIC had and moved his company back to France. DIC really had no library to fall back on and soon had no more shows. Heyward had a lot of debt. 80 million seems to stick in my head right now and it doesn't sound like much now but with no library did it really have any value. Heyward promoted his golfing buddy Mike Moliani from director to an executive position. Mike over the years that I was there directed some pretty bad shows that were also very disorganized and had a lazy kind of pre production work done in LA. That's what I was saying last time that I would jump to do shows by Raynis because his shows were so great even if they were more challenging. The Mike Moliani directed shows were not interesting to work on as an artist and animator. It was ironic, jumping ahead 20 years later, the company I worked at Cookie Jar Toronto also bought out DIC and spent a lot of money for a company that still had no library. But I get ahead of myself.

DL:yeah. Saban bought the foreign rights to the shows only to sell them to C&D, the company of Jean Chalopin. Some jackass move.

GB:I don't know that it is a bad thing to have the rights. That's how animation companies make money. It was just questionable what Andy Heyward had after buying DiC without any rights to the music or any of the shows they made. Anyway, I am not the expert on all the executive dealings at DIC and I'm sure a lot of people have more insight than I do about that. So if Saban bought and sold the film distribution rights just to hold onto the music rights it sounds like he might have made a good financial deal pretty quickly. Sort of like flipping some real estate in a hot market.That must be how Charlopin had the rights to Gadget when they made the live action movie a decade ago.

DL:Yeah. And DiC brought Saban to court fighting with them about selling them to their former shareholder where they duke it out until it was settled in 1991 with Saban owning the rights to the pre 1990 DiC library.Revoking it from Jean Chalopin.

GB:That's funny. I believe Charlopin and Saban were old business partners at DIC France pre-LA days. I never heard that there was any bad blood between them. So I guess Saban just licensed the rights to Charlopin to make the live-action Gadget. I think they made a new animated series as well about that time. I didn't see the movie. One day I was listening to a culture critic talking about movie sequels. He said the worst movies are live-action movies based on animated tv shows. He said the Gadget movie was the worst one of those. So I guess he didn't like the movie much. I remember Bruno Bianchi's and Charlopin's names on the poster. Maybe Saban's name was there too but I didn't pay attention. I never met Saban but I had met Charlopin a few times in Tokyo just to be introduced basically.

DL:Actually they were as Saban would compose the soundtrack to Ulysses 31 and Mysterious Cities of Gold.Saban was not a producer on the film, but Chalopin and Heyward were.So how was the founder of DiC?

GB:What do you mean? "How was the founder"?

DL:Jean Chalopin,like how he was.

GB:Like I say I was only introduced to him briefly. He was kind of a nice-looking and amiable person from my brief meeting. He looked like someone very comfortable in his skin and well-suited to the jet-set lifestyle he was living. He was still quite young then. I would guess in his late 30's/ maybe 40 so he was an early boomer. I saw him last around the time the company was breaking up and he had come to Tokyo I guess to meet with Katayama and Bruno and discuss what the plan was.

DL:C.O.P.S. for Hasbro?How was working on that show?

GB:I think everyone in DIC must have worked on that series. It was another syndicated series of 65 shows so as usual they went through the studio at breakneck speed and the quality of syndicated shows was much lower than network Saturday morning shows. I didn't love the show much because it was kind of macho adolescent stuff with not much story value and no humor. I guess if you like that kind of thing it was fine but I never really liked the natural human-looking animated characters. It just looks like bad life drawing or something and makes me remember my early days animating at Hanna Barbera. I just read a byline when I searched on Google to refresh my memory. "Cops in 2020". So I guess it was a future cop show inspired by Robocop. Part of the pre-production work was done in Canada. In Ottawa I believe, because DIC had started doing some pre-prod work in Canada by that point.

DL:Yes, it was inspired by Robocop.As Andy would try to copy trends at the time.

GB:There was some kind of immoral feeling working on shows that were glorified commercials for toys. It did weigh on you and destroyed your belief that animation should be a good thing for kids, not just something to exploit them or make them bug their parents for more terrible cheap toys.A salesman always proposes a show that was a success last year by someone else. It is counter to shows created in a more creative environment where copying something already done would be at the bottom of your list of what to do. Does that make sense? In later years working in development I would see a lot of ideas or suggestions from the sales team about making a show just like Spongebob, or just like whatever was a success last year. It is really anti-creative. But syndication was just selling toys that Hasbro was making. I guess I helped to sell a lot of toys at DIC.

DL:So how did you feel when you left DiC Entertainment in 1988?

GB:I thought my career would end because it would be hard to replace the job with something as high-paced and rewarding. It was also a matter of leaving a very financially rewarding position because we got paid well. I was going to have to leave Tokyo, which I liked a lot. Although in another way it was time for me to leave because I had put my family through 4 years of living out of a suitcase. It was time for things like school for my daughter and living somewhere that my wife could work and get on with her career. Living in Tokyo was definitely making that impossible. I didn't think I would find another job as interesting as DIC but I had learned a lot of useful skills and information about how to control a production and get more input into the show in a professional manner. A lot of skills that were not known in Canada at the time.

DL:So you worked on The Raccoons,your first Canadian production you worked on.

GB:Yes, the first after coming back from Tokyo. I was living in Ottawa for the first time and Hinton Studios was doing Raccoons. I never became much of an expert on it because my time there was short-lived before I went to Cinegroupe in Montreal. I did some Raccoons and I just started on Ren and Stimpy for a week or 2. I also did part of a storyboard on Where's Waldo in that period I believe. I don't remember how I found that job though.

DL:So at Hinton Studios, were they drawing dirty pictures of the Raccoons characters according to rumors?

GB:What?! Animators never do that.

DL:Well TV tropes said so and i just want to know to clear up rumors,that's all.

GB:I always thought those noses on the bad guys Cedric and Cyril looked kind of obscene all the time. It would be difficult to make them do anything too dirty with those flaccid noses. Come to think of it they all had droopy noses even the Raccoon characters except the females. Must have been from all those dirty scenes they were involved in that never made it onto TV that left their noses limp.

DL:Ah. so you work on the Ren and Stimpy pilot, Big House Blues. Were you working with Bob Jacques?

GB:I think I was supposed to but I only did about 2 weeks and then had to leave.

DL:How was the experience and did you like the program?

GB:Too brief to get much out of it. I was pretty excited about the design and method they were using to work. I loved the show of course and often wished I had had more time on it. The model sheets were really great and the show felt really fresh at the time.

DL:So when did you get to go to Cinegroupe in Montreal?

GB:I left to go there right after I did Ren and Stimpy for a few weeks. I was probably working the next week in Montreal and commuting back and forth to Ottawa on weekends. I had worked at Cinergroupe before going to Tokyo for a few months on Ovid and the Gang as an animator. Anyway, when I left Hinton Studios for Cinegroupe it must have been 1988 or 1989.

DL:So what was Ovide and the Gang?

GB:Ovid was a co-production with Belgium. It was an original series based on a comic book style of characters. I can't even remember what the point of the series was or the relationships between the characters. They were very cute-looking characters though and the studio was animating the whole series with about 5 animators and 5 assistants. When I went there after Hinton they were doing a few series. L'Aventure de L'ecriture a show about French grammar and a series Little Flying Bears which is just exactly as the name implies. Everything was little something or other in those years. The bears had dragonfly wings. These flying bears were saving the environment. But I guess they didn't succeed because it's still a mess. But saving the environment was big in animation in those days.

DL:So by the way, did you have cable in the late 90s early 90s? Because these shows were broadcast on The Family Channel.

GB:I do remember them on TV but don't know if it was Family Channel or CBC. I probably only had basic cable at home. I'm not sure when the series finished. Oddly it was a co-production with Yugoslavia. Unfortunately, a few years into production the Yugoslavian war began and that turned into a bloodbath. I remember before the war everyone was talking about what a fantastic place it was over there with all those people living in harmony. The breakup of the country and the massacres just went on for what seemed like more than a decade. Anyway, the show kept getting held up because the co-producing company was telling us about the tanks sitting out in front of the company and it just got impossible eventually. It's weird how all this bad stuff is going on behind the scenes in these innocent cartoons on TV.

DL:Oh yeah. Well can’t believe that the Yugoslavian war was tied to the production trouble of Little Flying Bears.Also before I go, one more question. How was it when you went to work for CiNAR and Young Robin Hood for Hanna Barbera and France Animation.

GB:I heard once that the producer over there wanted to have Cinegroupe's production money payment sent to him in a location in a neighboring country. But that didn't sit well with Cinegroupe. I don't know if they suspected he would run for it with the money and get the heck out of the way of that approaching war. It seemed like the country was unfolding in slo mo at that point. This was before the war in Kosovo and Serbia. The co-producer was in Zagreb. It was a pretty city that held the international animation festival every second year alternating with Ottawa.

DL:Interesting.

GB:Robin Hood was fine. The first job there was on White Fang. I was an animation posing supervisor. Then I did timing direction on Robin Hood. Robin Hood went by pretty smoothly and it was nice working in a familiar US production method. I was able to bring in some of those timing skills from Tokyo into the job.And then I directed a few specials on Munch. Murmel Murmel and Boy in the drawer.I think that is the correct order of work at Cinar. It was called Crayon Animation in those days but it was owned by Cinar.

DL:Wait CiNAR was called Crayon animation?Also before then CiNAR was a dubbing studio before it started to produce its own productions in 1988.

GB:Yes, the animation part of the company was called Crayon Animation. Cinar existed at a different location downtown. They did the post-prod mixing and sound work and recording at Cinar. And the executive offices of Ron and Micheline were downtown at Cinar. The animation studio Crayon was in an old industrial warehouse space in St Henri in the mid-19th century industrial part of Montreal. If you've seen the movie or read the book The Tin Flute that is where it was. Lots of rail yards and on the old Lachine canal.Yes they did the dubbing and all sound work at Cinar headquarters downtown. They owned the building there, which was originally an old convent. Later on we moved out of the Crayon building and moved to a new office tower around the corner from the Cinar headquarters and sound studio.Ron Weinberg would often talk about how he started Cinar by driving around the US with a trunk full of videotapes of the movie Wicker Man and he would sell this tape everywhere. I don't know how he did that but that was the story. I don't know if I ever saw Wicker Man but at Burning they used to burn wicker furniture in memory of that movie.

#animation #animation interview #tooning in.#dic #dic entertainment #starcom #C.O.P.S.#haim saban #saban entertainment #80s cartoons #greg bailey #the raccoons #ren and stimpy #cinegroupe #Cinar #young Robin Hood #yugoslav wars #hanna barbera

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mdhwrites · 9 months

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I Am Getting Tired Talking About the Designs

It is the main thing outside of Clois that I see talked about with My Adventures With Superman. I’ve even seen someone call the show’s style so far as ‘hyper realism’ because of how they’re doing the villain designs which... *stares at the person until holes bore into their skull* And here’s the thing: I don’t mind people complaining about the villains technically. The fact that both Livewire and Slade feel kind of samey next to each other doesn’t help the fact that the show is struggling to give its villains time to shine. They risk slipping into a territory where they feel there as a part of the mandate of this being a superhero show rather than interesting entities unto themselves and I’d be okay with people talking about that.

Or how about the fact that so far none have had a REALLY good or interesting fight with Superman so far? Ivo is the best on both fronts so far but otherwise we’ve see Clark grab someone’s fist before responding with an attack three times now and one of those was against a robot. The only one he hasn’t done it to is Livewire and she doesn’t exactly punch, does she?

I had my brother bitch at me yesterday, if you don’t want to talk about the villains, about Jimmy’s stuff needing a little more fleshing out if he’s suddenly going to be mopey about the two getting together, especially after pushing Clark and Lois towards each other at first. That isn’t an unfair complaint and even in my last review, for as much as I liked the episode, I still admitted there were issues and lacking payoffs, especially with Jimmy. There are issues. This isn’t a perfect show, though nothing should be perfect because perfect is boring. It probably does need to take a breath though because while it is shockingly well paced, it is juggling a lot at once and it is concerning for when one of the balls may drop.

But like... Unless they’re just fundamentally getting the character wrong with no chance for growing into their design, can we just stop bitching about them? Parasite from my knowledge was originally a dude who was fucked up by an experiment and went “Well, they can’t cure me so I guess I’m evil” which is way less interesting than actually having his personality and his personal goals be parasitic to some extent so that they match his powers thematically. I’ve heard Livewire is a cocky, annoying bitch. We all remember the “Smartest person here” banter, right? That bitch with real powers, and irreversible powers as was foreshadowed by her veins, is going to be INSUFFERABLE. And Slade? The fucker is twenty years younger, minimum, than his comic counterpart and has both eyes and his battle suit in the title sequence fits his aesthetics so maybe cut him some slack because his cocky attitude now is clearly setting up for a GLORIOUS fall.

Of course, this is all assuming the show does well by these characters but at least right now they definitely have potential to become like their comic counterparts, especially with the question of how Silver Banshee is getting her screams back after Clark broke her mask.

So unless you complaint is more than “I want them to look exactly like my comic books!” maybe let an adaptation be, you know, an adaptation. I mean, so far the show fits exactly how DC has marketed itself since... I dunno, from what I hear the New 52? Especially in television because *gestures at all the DC movies* so I might not be a comics guy but I absolutely see why DC was okay with this as the rights holder because this is EASILY the most interested I’ve been in literally ANY of Superman’s rogue’s gallery. And no, I’m not a comic book guy but I see people comparing the two and you know my response when people bring up the differences in design? Most of the time I’m curious. Like what is Siobhan like when she looks like some genetically altered mutant or just a straight up alien of some sort? What’s the backstory there? But I also enjoy the cocky, wanna be supervillain of Siobhan in the show with her glam rock hair and raspy voice.

But I will admit that I don’t know the pain of adaptation too well. The closest I’ve come is stuff like Guardians of Ga’Hoole (which frankly is a shockingly good movie for how much of a mess adapting that series to anything would be) and Percy Jackson, where I only bitched about Clarisse because making Annabethe Clarisse was both more boring and narratively pointless because Clarisse is KIND OF IMPORTANT to the second book of that series, bare minimum.

Nothing here strikes me like that and if you disagree... Let me know. I see adaptations like this as a chance to both enjoy something and learn but frankly, EVERYONE bitching about the designs and nothing else is just making me tired and that’s making me not want to learn which means afterwards, I won’t dig deeper which isn’t that what you want as a fellow fan of the character?

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

#my adventures with superman

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molly0611 · 5 months

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Film Journal #6 - The 1970’s

Mazinger Z - Go Nagai (1972-1974)

(this will focus on episode 13, as I could not find a working english translation of episode 1)

Technique

Mazinger Z is an animated tv show created in the 1970’s. There is sadly little I could find on the specifics of how “Mazinger Z” was created, but given the information we have we can assume it was animated by hand. The art style most commonly related with anime is also present here. I am unsure exactly when it started - especially given the existence of manga - but given that post wwii Japanese animation was much closer to emulating the styles of American animation, it can be assumed that by this point the styles were already set in place. “Mazinger Z” also began life as a manga, originally running from 1972-1974 as well, with the tv show beginning just 2 months after the manga’s release. The dub of the original show I was able to access is interesting to say the very, very least. The dub, directly commissioned from Toei (the studio behind the tv show) was very clearly created by a team with little experience, likely due to either the single studio not having much reference, or the general idea of animations being newer to the idea of translating shows like this. I am unsure on the specifics of this and would love to look into it more but, unfortunately there is not the time to do so here so I will leave it at the overall facts that television series as well as the mecha genre in general were very new, and so those may have been contributing factors.

Representation

As with any good tv show or Shakespearean play, Mazinger Z episode 13 features both a main and sub plot. Within the main plot, Baron Ashura (a half-man, half-woman in the very literal sense that they have a face split in half by traditionally masculine and feminine traits, and have two separate voice actors in the same regards) activates a mechanical beast with the ability to shoot flames hot enough to melt rocks, camouflage itself as a snowball, and throw swords (an ability we do not see until much later). The ball then rampages through the town until it is spotted by some morally ambiguous side characters as well as Sakaya Yumi, the pilot of the robot “Aphrodite A” - another mech similar to Mazinger Z but with more feminine features. During this discovery, the main character Koji Kabuto finds himself trapped inside his house by a large group of Baron Ashura’s “Iron masked men” (as they are referred to by Koji). He dispatches them quickly and flies his “Pilder” (a small, helicopter-like vehicle) into the operating seat of his robot, Mazinger Z. from there he begins helping Sakaya in her fight with the evil robot, as she has already used both of her (for lack of any sort of better terminology I could possibly use in a blog post I am being graded on for school) boob rockets. Once Mazinger Z enters the fight, Aphrodite A functionally disappears and the day is saved after a quick physical exchange. The side plot is nothing much past a snow sculpture contest where an exact simulacrum of the judge in snow is awarded first place.

Reception

Mazinger Z was wildly influential at the time and its effects continue even to this day. Much to the dismay of its creator, who would have much preferred his work on “Devilman” to get more recognition than what was effectively a long running joke. If Mazinger Z did not create the mecha genre, it did at the very least make changes to it (namely the concept of a person being inside the robot instead of controlling it from the outside, among others). Although it is very fair to say that works such as “Astroboy” and “Tetusjin 28-go” are for all intents and purposes more important than Mazinger Z, especially given the former two also inspired the latter, on the account that the entire genre focusing around people in giant robots fighting each other is visibly connected to this show definitely gives it notoriety. In addition to its influence, Mazinger Z is also interesting to talk about in regards to gender. Directly from the start of the show, the second character we are ever introduced to (and the first who is ever given a name) is Baron Ashura, the conjoined body of two mummified, forbidden lovers who was resurrected by Dr. Hell, the main antagonist of the series. Ashura, from what I can tell over a very short view of around one and a half episodes, is generally treated fairly well by the show. While they certainly fall into the trope of having evil characters be generally non-conforming in some way, they seem to be treated more or less the same as everyone else. Sakaya Yumi however, is a much different read. There is enough information to suggest that her inclusion as a pilot of a mech was more or less a step forwards however, save that point there is not much in favour of her as a character. Her opening scene includes a joke is made about her body, and while again she is given command over a mech, it is still heavily weighted down by both its naming convention being of the Greek Goddess of love, and the fact that seemingly it's only weapons are large missiles that make up the boob part of the mech’s feminine design. This it should be noted is not in any way meant to insinuate that the inclusion of Aphrodite A is in itself the problem, but instead that in addition to only impounding the way which the character of Sakaya Yumi is portrayed, it is also an otherwise very non-sexual show which only makes it more clear the intent and biases behind her character.

Sources

I was not able to read all of this one for this given time restraints but it looks interesting and is related enough that I’m adding in here

#animation history #mazinger z

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paperstorm · 1 year

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I am curious to know if you would "want" to see TK and Carlos dealing with homophobia on the show? Cause I love that the show didn't make a huge deal about them being gay as in them dancing in a bar together without problems (and generally never facing any problems in that regard - as far as i am aware?) and TK (on screen) never having to come out to the 126 or had to explain that he had a boyfriend - it was just normal (as it should be ) but unfortunately that's not how it always goes IRL and even tho it may be slightly different/better in Austin especially people in Texas are not as open minded that it's not an issue for some. And I feel like TK and Carlos would have very different reactions to it and the way Ronen/Rafa could play in their own experiences may be helpful for some people who have to deal with similar stuff?

This is a really fascinating question and I'm kind of on the fence about it tbh. I also like the way the show sort of tells their story without homophobia, it really is refreshing in a way because so, so often any kind of marginalized community only really gets their stories told through the lens of their collective trauma (gay people only get stories about fighting homophobia, black people only get stories about slaves, etc). So it's almost a bit revolutionary to have a canon queer couple that gets to exist and love each other in a fictional world where bigotry doesn't affect them. The only times it really does are like that one scene in a season one episode where that woman was bigoted against basically everyone and she was made the butt of the joke, and in the fact that Carlos thinks his parents have an issue with him being gay but then it turns out that they don't and the real villain in that story is a lack of communication and complicated family dynamics. I do like that a lot, that they get to just ... be. They both casually say "my boyfriend" to someone who they presumably haven't previously come out to (TK to the woman his dad is dating, Carlos to a detective he's working with), and neither of those people have any more reaction than they would if they'd said "my girlfriend". It's an idealized view of reality but its one that we all deserve and it's soothing to see it portrayed on network television.

But then on the other hand it isn't entirely realistic, especially where they live, and they're both such gifted dramatic actors and it would be good to show that side of things too because it is the world we actually live in. The actors coming out stories are sort of opposite to TK and Carlos interestingly, Rafa has said that his family was very loving and supportive basically right away and Ronen has talked about how he stayed in the closet for a long time because he was in physical danger from people in his family, but they could definitely use their own experiences to bring a lot of realism to those scenes if there was a storyline where they had to deal with some kind of bigotry. They're both so passionate about LGBTQ issues and they're both such committed advocates in that fight. It might be really powerful, to show that this incredibly strong couple do still face discrimination and that they fight it together and they lean on each other and they have the support of all the other people who love them.

Idk!! I rambled and I don't really have a good answer for you. I'd be so interested to hear what other people think.

#anon asks #911 lone star

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okthatsgreat · 10 months

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ok the new chapter has been released and i can contain myself no longer. ive been going crazy over miu. i hope you know that. something i have been evercurious about is ur exact thoughts on miu's patterns of self destruction & idolization and devaluation of herself and those around her. what are ur thoughts on that. how do u think she's coping with her situation getting worse, and her isolation from probably some of the first connections she's had (we see this in her & makoto's chapters already but it's always interesting to get psychoanalysis from within a work and from it's creator i think!!)

YEA!! YEEEAAAAA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <33333333

talking about THIS FIC!

OKAY alright so opddmh miu....... godd. when i was originally planning on what i wanted to do with miu the first thing i thought of was what happened immediately after she woke up. dying because of a failed murder plot would definitely affect a person quite a bit LMFAO. like not only would that make her even more paranoid of the classmates she has been confined alongside with but it would also reasonably knock down her confidence by an absolute ton. suddenly the lack of connections she's made with her classmates is made EXTREMELY clear as she's woken up, and it's difficult to suddenly start trying to be friends with them considering what she attempted to do in the simulator and also the fact that she is scared of the majority of them. there is a reason she ran off on her own, after all. this is a miu who is processing trauma and GUILT of an unimaginable caliber, and who is doing it on her own. i thought it was really important that was highlighted-- at the beginning of this fic, she is alone. so there are very few people to look towards in terms of self adjustment.

but at the same time, she DOES want to change, whether thats out of genuine guilt, or shame that her behaviour was televised nationwide. its why she has unconsciously started to look for some sort of moral compass. ive made a few references to her having conversations with kaede (all of these conversations seem to involve kaede telling miu off/telling miu she needs to be better) that have already shaped a lot of mius mindset-- i wanted there to be some sort of showcase of miu attempting to look for some sort of role model even if she doesn't know it/admit it. kaede is somebody she sees as a "good person", so her opinion inherently matters a lot more to her than the opinion of somebody she thinks isn't "good". after she runs off, this mentality shifts to the first person who is able to prove themselves as an upstanding citizen: makoto. miu doesnt fully TRUST him just yet, but she knows that he is a good person based on his actions and also what other people (byakuya) have told her. its not only paranoia about her safety that leads her to ask byakuya all of those questions about makoto, its also a way to gauge just the type of person makoto is.

its also another reason why she compares herself to makoto during her conversations with byakuya. mius confidence has taken a huge beating after the killing game, and i wanted her insecurities about that to be shown throughout her stay at makotos. she doesnt think she DESERVES to be there. miu is still a selfish and self-preserving person, so she is going to grab for any opportunity she can to keep herself safe (she only went with makoto because he had convinced her it would be safer than the smile motel, not because she could trust him). but this doesn't mean she doesn't second guess makotos intentions or her own self worth. miu has this crippling inability to form bonds because she just can not trust that people arent going to leave her lol. she tries to pay makoto back any way she can so that he sees value in her that she can not see in herself, ESPECIALLY now that she is no longer the "genius inventor" that danganronpa made her out to be. miu as a character has always had insecurities about the validities of her own talent and self worth, but now that its been proven fake, she finds it incredibly hard to believe that she brings any sort of value into the naegi household. which, in her mind, makes it so much easier for makoto to want to kick her out. it's this paranoid mess of needing to be safe and wanting to prove herself. she can't believe somebody would want to help her out if shes done nothing for them, because she herself would hardly think to do that if it meant endangering her own life, so it becomes this desperate need to keep herself in line. she wants to be a good person but she can't stand the thought of being hurt again, and a lot of her internal conflict is about the guilt that comes along with that.

anyways tldr miu iruma in opddmh is alone, frightened, and paranoid, and her actions in the simulator have caused her to unconsciously reach for a moral compass to idolise. she wants to be a good person but she also desperately wants to stay safe, because in her eyes it is difficult to imagine a future where these people dont choose to leave her 😃👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

IM SORRY IF THIS DOESNT MAKE SENSE I JUST SORTA VOMITED WORDS LOL!!! <3

#opddmh #ask lee #kozuelovemail #KOZUELOVEMAIL ILY!! <33 #im sorry if none of this makes sense lmfao

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yukidragon · 2 years

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Sunny Day Jack - Sunshine in Hell Chapter 5

Sunshine in Hell, my Something’s Wrong with Sunny Day Jack fanfic has been updated on my AO3 with it’s fifth chapter! Whoo! I hope you all enjoy it and let me know what you think. Here’s a little teaser of the full chapter.

Oh, and obligatory tag for @channydraws. Enjoy the clown lore!

...

After dinner, Alice decided to reexamine the videotape that started this crazy carnival ride she found herself on. She vaguely remembered looking it over yesterday evening, and it hadn’t changed since then - a bog standard black VHS tape with a crack in the plastic casing. She originally stumbled across the tape by accidentally knocking it over in the thrift store, so she worried that she was the cause of the crack until she noticed that someone had slapped a strip of scotch tape over it. Judging by the thick layer of dust on the peeling edges of the tape, the crack had been there for quite a while. Despite the professional looking cardboard case the tape came in, the tape itself lacked any of the usual informative printed text that came with officially released media. The only sort of writing on it came from the handwritten scrawl of ‘84 - Incident’ in smudged red marker on a plain white sticker that someone would typically stick onto a home recording.

Overall, Alice thought that the tape would make a good horror movie prop.

Despite suspecting that someone sold their home movies inside an old TV show case, Alice decided to see what was on the tape anyway. She remembered thinking if it was interesting or weird enough, she would upload a copy of the video and pictures of the tape and case online, maybe write a creepypasta about it. That alone would make watching whatever was really on this tape worth it.

Her memories of yesterday evening stopped after Alice sat down on the couch. With how tired she was, it wasn’t a surprise that she nodded off while trying to watch a kids’ TV show. That at least suggested that whatever was on the tape wasn’t something too disturbing if she didn’t even remember watching it.

“What’re you thinking about, sunspot?” Jack asked. He stood not that far away from Alice as she lingered in front of the television. The video tape represented a complicated mix of emotions for him, especially when seeing it in his sunshine’s hands.

Alice snapped out of her thoughts with a small start. She still wasn’t quite used to her new supernatural or hallucinated guest in her apartment. She turned to Jack as she lightly ran her finger along the tape covered crack. “I was just trying to remember what happened last night when I played the tape.”

Jack perked up with interest. “Did you remember anything?”

Alice shook her head. “No… it’s all a blank.” She turned her gaze back to the VHS. “Maybe I’ll remember if I play the tape again.”

The thought made Jack feel uneasy for reasons he couldn’t put his finger on, but he nodded all the same. It wasn’t as though playing the tape would do anything bad, right?

#Sunny Day Jack #Something's Wrong With Sunny Day Jack #swwsdj #sdj #My Writing

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suitsusboth · 2 years

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Season 2 simultaneously makes happy and sad. Happy because I think I over all enjoy it for what it is, but it could have been so much better.

Highlights of my favourite scenes:

— Anthony’s interviews in episode one (hysterical)

— their first meeting in the park (cute and fun)

— Kate overhearing Anthony with his ‘friends’ on the terrace and handing him his ass (amazing — perfectly set up their conflict) (side note I loved that she went looking for him 🥺)

— shutting the door on Anthony’s face and smirking (peak comedy)

— fencing (I love sibling scenes!)

— the whole races scene

— Pall Mall and the Bee Scene

— the flashbacks (heart wrenching and so well acted!)

— Pretty much all of Daphne at Aubrey Hall

— the harmony ball (pure Bridgerton family fun!)

— the gazebo (though, I think it was weirdly edited and I will never get over it being outside where they could have been easily caught)

— the Featherington ball dance (literally makes me wanna cry)

— Anthony’s speech (literal perfection, the best thing I’ve heard, no notes)

The bad:

I think the writing was very clunky and not cohesive throughout the entire season. I think episode six really highlights this, but it’s all over for a lot of characters. The Bridgertons themselves also felt very off to me as well. I didn’t feel the family love and playfulness as much as I did season one. At points they were literally downright mean to Anthony for no reason. I think they were going for teasing but really missed the mark. I hope that is improved for the next season. (They we’re also downright oblivious? Violet and Benedict especially?)

I know they’ve started to market this as an ensemble show, which sure okay I can see the thought process, however — you have to promote the main leads and storyline better!!! Also…maybe have better subplots? I can’t really say I found any of the other characters stories this season particularly interesting. Lady Featherington’s one especially, Colin’s and Eloise’s. I mean I sort of understand what they were doing - they were setting up season 3 just as they did season 1 for Anthony. But it didn’t interest me as much (note I went into season 1 knowing nothing and not particularly loving Anthony at first but he grew on me!)

Kate felt very sidelined to me at points throughout the season I would have loved to have seen her more fleshed out and I think this ultimately comes down to the lack of the Sharma family set up. The dynamic was odd. To me, I didn’t see a loving and caring family.

I think they tried to get Kate to mirror Anthony a little too much by her taking on the at the time traditional masculine role. Realistically for the time, Kate marrying would have been the best way to secure her family’s safety. I understand they wanted to close the age gap (totally fine with that, the age gap between E + A creeps me out, same with any other big age gaps in the show/books). The backstory just didn’t make sense. I would have loved to have seen Mary be more of an active character, she was completely sidelined and basically made out to be a absent parent? Like she didn’t care that much about Kate at all and arguably Edwina too. She just sort of let everyone else do everything. I think if Mary knew about the Sheffield plan along with Kate would have been interesting. I understand keeping it from Edwina so she could find a match without this overhead pressure.

Finally…the Edwina of it all. I think they focused so much on Edwina not being a plot device she kind of was anyways? They really dumbed her down and while she had some lovely moments (the Penelope at the party, when she spoke to Anthony about her love of literature etc). I really thought for a while she would cotton on to what was happening (Aubrey Hall, the lake scene etc) but nope. The wedding was painful to watch for a variety of reasons (I think it’s my least favourite episode and should never have happened but hey that’s television) but this really started the decline of the character and that’s just down to poor writing. It honestly felt like they wrote that episode first and then tried to work around it and it just didn’t work. (I also want to say I think the actress did an amazing job with what she was given, my complaints are in no way directed towards her). The immediate shift of blame to Kate as odd to me too. I’ve seen it been said that Edwina is more upset with Kate because she loves her more but to me at least it was obvious Kate had feeling for Anthony during the bangle bit but for sure that Anthony had a thing for Kate. I don’t know that’s just my interpretation. And I’m not saying the justification for Edwina’s anger wasn’t there, I understand the reaction. There’s just somethings you can’t forgive coughcoughHALFSISTERcoughcough. Her also taking forever to decide to go through with it was weird to me too (personally would have called it off immediately but hey that’s me) and really dragged the episode out. Finally I remember watching Edwina’s big speech in chapel with K + A and the whole “you have lost your power” but I got so confused I had to replay the scene I couple of times because none of it made any sense??? tldr: episode six was a mess.

What I would have found more interesting for Edwina would have been her not enjoying the Diamond title and the Ton as much as she thought she would and realising maybe this life wasn’t actually what she wanted (also befriending Eloise and having intellectual conversations would have been cool!). Also…meeting a cute scholar would have been nice (justice for mr bagwell)

#bridgerton brainrot #olivia speaks #i just have to rant to the universe because no one i know irl loves this show like i do #i love kathony but S2 really makes me want to scream at my TV at some parts #i remember my first watch through just being uncomfortable whenever anthony and edwina spoke to each other #she's so young #and he's so dumb #bridgerton #justice for kate sharma #s2

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gleefullypolin · 3 days

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I agree, there's no fun in worrying for me and it's not really the step by step I enjoy it's the journey and if I get to know the path a little bit I'll feel more confident in my enjoyment. I know it's not for everyone but I've never enjoyed something less by knowing, it just makes me feel prepared.

Man, I've seen enough people who have alleged info that they're fighting going into an Eloise hater era which makes me a little nervous for that whole plot. I was immediately smitten with Eloise in s1 and s2 sort of made me side eye some of the things she said/did and ugh, the heartbreak at the end was too much. Too Much!

What a poor lonely boy, trying to figure himself out. I do think the inclusion of him running from responsibility being something he's called out on in the books would be a good idea in the show. Swearing off women, touring the world are both all fine and good but the motivations behind both are sort of just more versions of escaping dealing with things. Writing Pen but leaving the others out feels like A Choice if confirmed. I saw somewhere that Pen's face changed to horrified or something like that when the last LW voiceover started so I wonder if she wrote what she wrote about him while angry and regretted it later? The impulsivity of it all!

They're going to have to go at each other if they ever want to move forward. He's always been a bit delicate with her and she's always been a bit shy with him so them having these different personas they're wearing that the other detests is just basically a slingshot to character development, ha. Thin line between love and hate and all that. Plus a carriage ride, etc etc.

They're so messy! I don't think LW will keep picking at him, especially after he apologizes but I won't be surprised if he, like in the books, doesn't love being called an empty headed charmer. Or if Penelope puts herself down continually in it. It's not going to endear LW to him if he's falling in love with Pen and LW is calling her out for her awkwardness.

Oh yes, I thought that was the wildest part of the spoilers? She was approached by the two men on their own before she embarrassed herself and Obi Wan as well before her dress was torn. And he seemed very kind about it all but I'm guessing the Cressida and Eloise element after embarrassing herself with an added bonus of watching Colin flirt with every woman in there was probably too much for her, poor thing.

It's such an intriguing set up! She's awkward socially but very sharp privately, I wonder if that's going to confuse him at all knowing how witty she is when she's with him. Though it doesn't seem like she needs too much of his help but you have to wonder since he seems to move so quickly from his slut era to being almost entirely focused on Pen if he has any other motivations. Especially adding in a man who is titled, wealthier, and genuinely interested in her. The guy seems like he is going to be going Through It.

So many TV shows lost promo during covid, they are not special in that regard. It's not some nefarious plot. I find most things can almost always be reduced to a ship war if you peel off the layers of whatever someone is yelling about in a fandom. I've been harassed and no matter what someone came at me with, in the end it was always about a ship I wasn't interested in. This is Polin's season and anything else about other ships or lack thereof is not an insult during it. It's not that deep, ha.

Oh no, not adult chores, I hate those. I have felt off the last couple of days so the Polin of it all has been keeping me comfortable and cozy. I will have a hell of a time when I have to go back to adult life tomorrow. My husband saw me with headphones on and simply let me be, it was fantastic.😄

I once watched an entire show just by reading the reviews of each episode and didn’t actually watch the show until it had finished airing on television. But it was glorious because it was a truly angsty type show and I got to watch it without feeling any of it.

I am seeing it go both ways with Eloise, some are mad at her for being angry and others are angry at Pen and honestly, I don’t have time for either. They are both young and making rash decisions. Pen needs to talk to her honestly and Eloise needs to shut up long enough to listen. But if she continues as she is in the first episode and shows she still has a heart, then I will be ok with Eloise, eventually. All in time.

I just ran into that spoiler article this afternoon and saw where Pen had the reaction after the apology, so that means she once again wrote something in anger and now will have regret. HOWEVER! That also means that she still feels it, and she still needs to be honest with her feelings with Colin because lets be honest, while she said those things about him in anger, she still feels them. And he IS still hiding behind this “new” Colin. I’m already dying because while I’m excited to get to the first 4 episodes it is the back half I am most excited for. The anger and honesty of their feelings.

It is in those feelings that the truth is told and that damn carriage ride. Impulsivity is exactly right. I cannot wait for that scene. They will both be angry. Colin at the fact that she has been having a go at him AND as you said, at herself. And she at finally getting to let her honesty go, to be her true self in front of the only person she has truly wanted to see her that way.

They have constantly sought the other out all these years because no one else understands them as much as they do for each other. I don’t even think he realizes it at this point. He knows she’s important to him. He knows she’s special, but he doesn’t know why. They are truly messy.

I also saw something that I found intriguing that perhaps the dream sequence could be hers and not his. That his dream happened earlier in the episode before the dreaded second visit to the brother. Then the whispy foggy one is Pen’s later that evening. Maybe confusion on her part and possibly her trying to let him go after the kiss because she does have suitors now and she needs to stop relying on her ole friend Colin and her feelings for him because she can’t more forward with him there in her mind. It was an interesting theory.

Now that men are seeking out her attention, Colin continuing to be there at her side would be a confusing thing for her, especially considering she loves him and he’s staring at her every 2 seconds like she’s a delectable pastry he would like to devour. Maybe in episode 4 she’s determined to let go of her feelings for him in order to move on with Lord Obi Wan. Say it ain’t so girlfriend. Lol. But I could see how that would lead to even more pining if suddenly her eyes turn a little colder from his direction and she truly does turn her attention elsewhere.

I find that people can turn a nefarious plot on anything these days. It doesn’t take much. I tend to like to focus on the pretty stuff instead. All it takes is a pretty picture and I suddenly want to play with that for a few hours and make something out of it. I don’t have time for the hate anymore. Why be angry when you can stare at something that makes you happy. I had 2 seasons where I found pretty things in the background to stare at, I’m going to enjoy my 1 season of them in the front. No one can take that away because it only lasts a season and then its gone.

I had my 20 year anniversary at work to celebrate this weekend and I think that had me feeling off all weekend. Too much adulting for my taste and that leads to sadness. I retreated into my thoughts myself and I think sometimes I just need to do that. Thank goodness for the Polin of it all!

#my asks #wonderful people

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mariacallous · 6 months

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Roughly one in ten Russians — more than 15 million people — live below the poverty line, surviving on a monthly income of less than 14,200 rubles ($146). Many endure abhorrent conditions in crumbling homes without heating, functioning sewage facilities, or running water. In a new documentary, “Pentagon,” journalist Andrey Loshak captures the lives of residents in one of these buildings in Russia’s Saratov region. The RFE/RL news outlet Current Time is releasing part one of Loshak’s miniseries on October 14 on YouTube. Meduza summarizes the project.

Loshak’s crew filmed “Pentagon” outside Saratov in a small town called Novouzensk. The documentary follows the lives of people living in a former dormitory converted to public housing, in a ramshackle building that lacks heating and indoor plumbing, where the sewage empties directly into the basement. Residents refer to their dilapidated home as “the Pentagon.”

The film’s events unfold between October 2022 and February 2023 during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In four parts, Loshak’s miniseries captures the lives of “Pentagon” residents as they go to work, argue about politics, fight with neighbors, watch Putin’s speeches on television, leave to fight in Ukraine, and return home from the front.

In one scene, residents are informed that their roof is scheduled for renovation, albeit not until 2043. Later, a group of small children marvel at a photograph of a soldier — “lil’ Dima with a weapon.” In another scene, a man tells another, “You’re fighting for Putin, not for your country.” The film cuts away just as his shirtless companion angrily answers, “Seriously?”

Throughout the film, Loshak’s crew asks people if they’ve complained to the authorities about their housing conditions and if they hope to move elsewhere. Some in “the Pentagon” refuse any outside help and try on their own to make their homes more comfortable, while others say they’ve spent years begging and waiting for help from the state. However, the building has only continued to decay in all that time.

Not everyone living at “the Pentagon” was willing to speak to Loshak’s crew. Some worried that interacting with journalists could only worsen their situation, possibly risking eviction. When one resident asks why the film is being made, and the cameraman says it could improve life at “the Pentagon,” the resident’s response is cryptic:

Try living here for a year or maybe five, and then let’s see what you’ll say. If I didn’t know, I wouldn’t speak.

Andrey Loshak told Meduza that he and his crew hope to pressure Novouzensk officials into investing some money into maintaining the building, and they wanted to mobilize the residents themselves to stand up for their rights:

We tried to rouse them [“Pentagon” residents] somehow so people would start to fight. Sure, fighting is scary… But at least they’d begin asserting their fundamental rights. That’s what the state owes them.

It’s a miserable, impoverished existence that they cannot escape. I also thought: What do people actually want when they ask why Russians don’t protest? [They don’t protest] because Russians are in survival mode. And they’re terrified that even this life could become worse. Everything hinges on this fear.

Speaking to Ksenia Sokolyanskaya at Current Time, Loshak said he grew especially interested in making a film about the poorest Russians after seeing Moscow use these people as “cannon fodder” in the invasion of Ukraine. Every town in Russia has homes like these, he explained, admitting that his documentary resulted in a horror film of sorts.

The Ukraine invasion doesn’t become a major plot point until the second episode of the miniseries. Loshak says he was surprised to find no consensus about the war among “Pentagon” residents. Despite their poverty, the people in the documentary demonstrate a capacity for critical thinking and political reflection Loshak says he didn’t expect. “And they come to conclusions that would hardly please [Russia’s] leadership,” he told Sokolyanskaya. “The people seem like they should be brainwashed by propaganda because they’ve all got working TVs, because there’s no other entertainment that’s really available to them, but I didn’t see any particular loyalty to the authorities there.”

Out of personal safety concerns amid Russia’s crackdown on free speech, Loshak says he wasn’t able to be present for the filming itself, so he hired a team on the ground and directed them remotely. That crew recorded 150 hours of footage on multiple trips to Novouzensk.

At the same time, Loshak admitted to Sokolyanskaya that he worries his work might harm the very people at the center of his film: “Of course, I’m concerned. This is my main fear now.” If the authorities try to punish the “Pentagon” residents, Loshak said he hopes for a public outcry and a crowdfunding campaign to resettle them. On the other hand, he added, his miniseries’ attention to their situation might even help them. Maybe.

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popblank · 1 year

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Year-end personal goals and culture roundup for 2022:

I deliberately set no personal goals out of laziness and also to see what would happen. What happened was a mixed bag:

Did not exercise basically all year

Was less politically engaged than in previous election years

Read fewer books than expected

Did maintain a 300+ day streak in Duolingo, with the help of many streak freezes

Worked a lot of extra hours

Saw a lot of theater

This year I think I will set some sort of health goal because the lack of exercise (and poor sleep habits) made themselves pretty apparent toward the end of the year.

Culture stuff

Theater:

Went back to my pre-pandemic habits and saw 23 unique shows (plus a few repeats). Individual posts are linked; for ones where I didn’t write a post it was probably because I didn’t have the time or energy.

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie

Slave Play

Assassins

The Lehman Trilogy

Hadestown

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Tootsie

Aida

King James

Pretty Woman

Come From Away

Lempicka

Moulin Rouge

Dear Evan Hansen

The Prom

+ More thoughts on The Prom

Oklahoma!

Jagged Little Pill

To Kill A Mockingbird

Omar

2:22: A Ghost Story

Invincible

Clyde's

Bat Out Of Hell

Music:

It is the first time in a while that my most-listened to song has not been from Eurovision or Melodifestivalen. I am finding that if I don’t make an effort to listen to music, I don’t listen to music, which is disappointing. In any case, my most listened to track appears to have been Tove Styrke’s 2020 cover of “Bara du och jag” from Så mycket bättre season 11. (My most-played Eurovision song was “Með hækkandi sól” by Systur, which ended up around #3 overall.)

Television:

Supergirl S1 (yes I am still trying to finish Season 2)

The Great American Barbecue Showdown (unexpectedly engaging)

The Great British Baking Show/GBBO S13 (liked the contestants, still puzzled by the taco technical)

The Midnight Club (not especially scary or horrifying, which is fine since I am not typically into horror; even so this has got me interested in Mike Flanagan’s other work)

Street Food: USA (apparently food holds my attention well)

Andor S1 (as good as everyone says)

Kalifat (compelling, also a bit depressing and cynical)

Movies:

Not much of a year for movie-watching since I spent so much time on live theater. Of the things I saw that were released this year, I think there was only Avatar 2 and Glass Onion. Might rewatch Glass Onion if there’s a commentary available.

Books:

Sprinting Through No Man’s Land: Endurance, Tragedy, and Rebirth in the 1919 Tour de France by Adin Dobkin: First book I managed to finish this year and it wasn’t until late August. Knew basically nothing about the Tour de France but this felt like part history and part travelogue, which kept me interested.

The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia by Masha Gessen: Listened to on audio, does provide some context for the current war in Ukraine, though history of Russia prior to 1980s or so remains a large gap in my knowledge

Less by Andrew Sean Greer: Essentially a bit of a slow-burn romantic comedy, fun airplane read

Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson: dystopia + magic, good combo; very specific location (post-apocalyptic Toronto) is also good

#lists #year-end roundup

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just-another-blog-of-fluff · 3 years

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Can't Keep a Secret

Word count: 4300

Warnings: tickling, fluff, reader with an inability to keep secrets, reader with a crush on a certain god of mischief

I'm so excited for 100 followers!! I didn't expect so many people to actually be interested in my writing when I started posting 🥰

This one is based on @atlas-of-the-universe's request here for a fic where Loki tickles the reader to get information of some kind 😉 I hope this is what you were looking for!

This one also has a little more crushing/romantic fluff than some of my other fics at the end, so if you're not into that just skip that part. As always, completely SFW!

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No one ever seemed to do anything nice for Loki. So, when Thor approached you to ask if you’d help him and the others plan a surprise birthday party for his brother, you wholeheartedly agreed to assist. As the Avengers’ best party planner, you jumped at the chance to start brainstorming ideas to make this party the best Loki had ever experienced – including on Asgard. And, if it meant he’d pay a little extra attention to you, well… that was an added bonus.

The only problem was – you were terrible at keeping secrets.

It wasn’t as if you went around spilling the details when someone asked you not to tell the others about something. You knew enough not to just blurt out the fact that you were planning a party. Unfortunately, though, you had a tendency to let your feelings show in your facial expressions. Trying to keep secrets made you anxious, knowing you’d been the one to accidentally say just a little bit too much in the past and ruined other surprises.

The fact that you were the worst secret keeper was no… secret, for lack of a better word. Your teammates frequently exploited this fact when they wanted to know what you were hiding from them. Tony, especially, loved to talk circles around you until he could get you to trip up and give some detail away. On the other hand, they also tried not to let you in on too many details when they were planning a surprise for one of the other team members.

This time, you were determined not to give anything away. You were thrilled that the team was finally going to do something special for Loki, and you were NOT going to ruin it by spilling the beans to the trickster. Thor was probably one of the more trusting members of the Avengers, and he assured you when he asked you to help with the party that he had faith you wouldn’t screw up (quite literally in those words).

You started researching online to get some ideas. This party had to live up to the standards of an Asgardian prince, so you couldn’t just order a few pizzas and beer and call it a party. Plus, Tony had offered to pay for the whole thing (you suspected he felt guilty for having accidentally blasted Loki through a wall in the training room with his new Ironman suit the week prior) so your funds were basically limitless.

Inevitably, though, you were bound to run into situations where you had to spend time with the raven-haired god without allowing yourself to let any details slip.

The moment Loki first started to suspect you were hiding something was when he walked in on a conversation you were having with Thor in the kitchen. You had been asking him about the Asgardian mead his brother loved so much and wanted to know if he could manage to get some here on Midgard for the party.

“What is it about the Asgardian mead that you like so much better than standard alcohol?” you inquired curiously.

“Ha! That is a very funny question, Lady Y/N,” Thor laughed heartily. “As if any Midgardian liquor could so much as hold a candle to the spirits we drink on Asgard.”

“Hey! I enjoy my tequila! Margaritas are arguably a delicious alcoholic beverage,” you bantered.

“You truly believe this ‘margarita’ as you call it could compare to the smooth, sophisticated taste of an Asgardian mead?” Thor countered.

“I must agree with my brother on this one – I have seen this ‘margarita’ drink you speak of, and it is highly unlikely to be superior to Asgardian spirits.”

You gasped involuntarily when you heard Loki’s voice in the doorway, spinning around to face him with a look of bewilderment on your face. He cocked his head to the side, raising an eyebrow as he scrutinized your expression.

“Oh, hey Loki! Didn’t see you there,” you greeted, trying to lean casually against the counter you were standing beside.

“Yes… it appears you didn’t. You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.” Loki folded his arms across his chest, eyeing you intently. “What was it that brought you to the subject of Asgardian liquor?”

“Oh, that? Well…”

“I was just informing Lady Y/N that I have been feeling a bit nostalgic thinking about the celebrations we had on Asgard, when we would drink heartily with Lady Sif and the Warriors Three,” Thor cut in, quickly interrupting you mid-sentence. “Brother, you must recall the time you had a bit too much while drinking with us and…”

“I believe that’s quite enough nostalgia for one evening, dear brother,” Loki cut in, appearing almost frantic as he glanced quickly at you before turning back to glare at the elder Asgardian. “Stark asked me to inform you he requires your assistance in the laboratory. You’ll need to continue this conversation another time.”

“Ah, yes, alright then. Another time,” Thor agreed, winking at you before he exited the kitchen. Loki followed close behind, but not before giving you one last calculating glance before he crossed through the doorway and out of sight. You let out a breath of relief, hoping he hadn’t thought much of the conversation.

You noticed, though, that Loki started conveniently popping up around you more often after that incident. Maybe he didn’t want Thor to have the opportunity to tell you about whatever embarrassing story had occurred when they were younger, you thought. Regardless, it meant that you had to be extremely cautious about doing any planning for the party in any of the common areas.

The second time you nearly let something slip was during a hushed conversation in the training room with Peter after one of your sparring matches. He had pulled you aside after training to ask your opinion about whether he should ask his friend MJ to attend the party with him. He’d had a crush on the girl for quite some time, and now that she knew his secret identity he thought it might be time to introduce her to his Avengers family.

“I’m nervous she might not want to come, but I think it would be a great chance for her to meet everyone when the focus would be on someone else,” he explained. You hiked your backpack up onto your shoulder with your training gear and made your way toward the door to the training room with Peter by your side.

“Why wouldn’t she want to come? From what you’ve told me, she seems to be more of a social butterfly than you are, even,” you asked.

“Yeah… you’re right, I’m probably overthinking this, aren’t I?” he chuckled. “I just don’t want to screw things up!”

“What are you screwing up this time, spiderling?”

You stopped short as you heard Loki’s voice from behind you, making your heart leap into your throat. You turned around, trying not to look startled.

“Oh, Peter wants his friend MJ to attend… a training session with us!” you fibbed, trying to think quickly. “You know, so he can show her his Spider-Man moves!”

“Yeah! That’s right,” Peter agreed, nodding vigorously. “I’m going to go call her right now, thanks Y/N!” Peter scurried off down the hallway, leaving you standing with a somewhat skeptical looking god of mischief.

“Why was Peter asking you about inviting a friend to his training? Would he not have asked Stark?” Loki inquired. You shrugged in a non-committal way.

“Who knows? Anyway, uh, it was nice talking to you, but I’ve got to get going… big assignment to finish up tonight, can’t really stop and chat. See you later!” you blurted, not waiting for a response as you hurried toward your room. Phew, that was close, you thought to yourself, hoping he hadn’t been standing behind you for too long.

Later that week, you found yourself alone in the common room while watching television. You pulled out your laptop during one of the commercials and started searching the internet for caterers, hoping to find something fancy enough to appeal to an Asgardian god. You had thought that everyone else was out for the day, so you weren’t overly concerned about anyone seeing what you were doing.

“What mindless reality television show are you watching today?” The smooth, baritone voice caused you to jerk your head up from your laptop screen and instinctively slam it shut. He hadn’t even been standing behind you to see what you were searching – it was purely on reflex that you closed the computer. Loki raised his eyebrows at you. “I see you aren’t really watching anything, are you? What is it you were viewing on your computer?”

“Nothing! I mean, nothing exciting, really. Just some old photos that I was trying to sort through,” you stammered, standing up with the laptop clutched to your chest. “You can have the TV if you want, though. I have to go… work on that assignment some more. I was just taking a break. It’s almost done!” Loki opened his mouth as if to say something, but you didn’t wait around to let him ask any more questions that might make you give away something you shouldn’t. You spent the rest of the evening in your room, avoiding the trickster at all costs.

The next morning, after getting ready for the day, you grabbed some breakfast before heading back to your room to continue to do some additional party planning research where Loki wouldn’t walk in on you unexpectedly. You shoved the last bite of one of Thor’s pop-tarts that you’d stolen into your mouth as you approached your door, opening it and walking toward your desk where your laptop sat. You always left the door slightly ajar when you were in your room, and so you were quite surprised when you heard the door thump shut behind you, the lock clicking into place.

“You’ve been hiding something from me.”

You stopped dead in your tracks, your heart pounding in your chest. You turned around slowly, staring wide-eyed at the god of mischief now standing in your bedroom between you and your only exit. His hands were clasped behind his back, his blue-green eyes gleaming ominously as he stared you down.

“Oh, hey Loki! What brings you to my room?” you asked, trying to sound casual.

“Let’s end this little charade, hmm?” He took a few slow paces forward into the room, closing the distance between the two of you. “It’s become clear to me over the last week that you have knowledge of some information that you do not want me to become aware of. I’d like you to tell me what it is.” His tone was calm; low, but dangerous. You swallowed hard.

“Loki, I-I’m not sure what you mean. I don’t have any secrets.” You took a step back from the advancing Asgardian, your back meeting the cold, hard wood of your desk behind you.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way. The choice is up to you,” he threatened, stepping even closer so he was only a foot away from where you stood trapped against your desk. “Tell me what it is you’re hiding, or I will… coerce you into talking.”

“Coerce me? Heh, what’s that supposed to mean?” you asked nervously, your hands gripping the desk behind you.

“I have my ways. I am the god of mischief, after all.” Loki stood in front of you unmoving, a barrier holding you hostage against your desk.

“Even if I did have something to hide, you wouldn’t hurt me. Your brother would kill you,” you warned.

“I never suggested I would hurt you, darling. I would never do such a thing.” He took the slightest step closer. “You seem tense. Am I making you nervous?”

“Very.”

“Good.” A smirk tugged at the corners of his lips. “Have you decided, then? Will we be doing this the easy way or the hard way?”

“I told you, I have nothing to hide,” you insisted.

“Very well then. We’ll do this the hard way.” Quickly, you darted around Loki toward the door, trying to make your escape. He was faster, though, catching you with an arm around your waist and dragging you back so your back was against his chest. “Tell me, darling…” he growled in your ear, making you shiver, “… are you… ticklish?”

“Wha-“ you opened your mouth to protest but stopped speaking as you felt gentle scratching on your side. You shook your head quickly, suppressing the giggles that were threatening to rise out of your throat. If you stood still long enough, maybe he would give up.

“Do you think you’re fooling me by not allowing yourself to laugh? I felt you tense up immediately the moment I touched you.” He tightened his grip, wrapping both arms around your waist and digging his fingers into your sides. You snorted at the sudden sensation, doubling over to try to fight your way out of his grasp. “As I suspected. You are extraordinarily ticklish.”

“S-shut up, Loki!” you demanded, your muscles relaxing as his fingers stilled against your sides. He released you, allowing you to turn and face him but still standing in between you and the door.

“Now then – are you going to tell me what it is you’re hiding? Or do I need to tickle you until you are begging for mercy?”

You felt your face flush with heat. You’d been tickled before, certainly, but only for a few seconds at a time, and never as a means to pry information from you. Truthfully, though, you were enjoying this playful side of Loki. You were also determined not to tell him about the party – it would be so much more fun if it were a surprise, and he deserved to have fun. You braced yourself, folding your arms defiantly across your chest.

“There’s nothing to tell.”

Before you could react, Loki had tackled you, and you found yourself flat on the floor with your wrists pinned over your head. Your heart hammered against your ribcage as the dark-haired Asgardian loomed over you, his smirk growing wider.

“I see you’ve made your choice, then. But I should warn you – I don’t do mercy.” The fingertips of his free hand connected with your belly, lightly tracing the soft skin through your shirt. You turned your head so you wouldn’t have to look at him, his knowing stare making it more difficult to prevent yourself from laughing. Slowly, he applied more pressure until he was clawing at your belly with all five fingers, varying between the center and sides and analyzing your expression to evaluate your response.

“I-I’m telling y-you, t-there’s nothing to t-tell,” you insisted, jolting a little each time his fingers found a particularly sensitive spot.

“Unfortunately, I don’t believe you.” He shifted his attack to your side, his fingers spidering gradually up your ribcage. Your nerves were alight with ticklish shocks, helpless giggles now bubbling out of your chest.

“W-whyhyhy don’t you believe mehehe?” you asked, your tone starting to sound more desperate.

“You’re not exactly subtle. It’s rather obvious when you’re trying to keep a secret.” Loki was now scratching in between your upper ribs, and your giggles were evolving into desperate laughter. “I see this is becoming more challenging for you. I wonder – should I try to identify all of your weak spots? Surely one of them will get you talking.”

“NOHOHO LOKI!” you pleaded, thrashing to try to free your wrists from his grasp.

“You’ll need to provide me some information, then. What was it you were really discussing with my brother the other night?”

“HE TOHOHOLD YOU!!” You shrieked as Loki’s fingers found purchase under one of your arms, your feet pounding against the floor in desperation.

“Honestly, Y/N, I didn’t believe a word either of you said.” His fingertips grazed the underside of your upper arm, tracing from your elbow down to your underarm and back up again. You hadn’t realized how ticklish the soft skin of your arm could be, but his maddeningly light touch had you writhing to try to evade his fingers.

“STAHAHAP THAT!” you begged, yanking at your restrained wrists to try to lower your arms. Even before you were in this weakened state, the god of mischief was stronger than you.

“Then talk.”

“NEVER!”

“Aha!” he exclaimed suddenly, lifting his fingers away from your arm. You sucked in air desperately, letting out the residual giggles as he allowed you a moment to recover. “You ARE hiding something! You’ve given yourself away.”

“I… but… no I didn’t!” you pouted. He chuckled, a genuine grin spreading across his face at your adorable, disappointed frown.

“It’s too late now. You may as well tell me your secret.”

“I won’t tell! I’ll never tell!” you barked, a sudden surge of bravery rushing through you.

“I’m afraid I must continue, then,” he stated, feigning pity. “Why don’t you tell me where else you are ticklish instead?”

“What? No! I won’t tell you that either!”

“Fine. It’s much more amusing for me to locate your weak spots myself anyway.” Loki released your wrists and in the same motion reached behind him to squeeze above your knees with both hands. You yelped at the unexpected touch, trying with difficulty to sit up now that your arms were free. You reached toward Loki’s sides to try to retaliate but he was too perceptive, grabbing a wrist in each hand using his cat-like reflexes. “You don’t want to do that, darling,” he warned.

“Oh, but I think I do,” you argued, trying your hardest to break free of his grip. He wrestled with you for a moment, successfully forcing you onto your stomach so you could no longer sit up and try to counterattack.

“Now then – where were we?” he huffed as he sat himself down on the back of your legs, pinning you in place. You lifted your upper body up onto your elbows and turned to look at him, keeping a close eye on his hands. “Ah, that’s right. You were about to tell me what you were discussing with the spiderling the other day.”

“No I was-“ your retort died in your mouth as Loki’s fingertips touched down on the backs of your knees. “L-Loki, hold on, don’t you even think about it.”

“Why? Too sensitive?” he teased, tracing one finger along the tendon in the back of your knee. You let out a squeal, only egging him on as he began to flutter his fingers against the thin skin there.

“LOKI I WILL KIHIHILL YOHOHOU!”

“You hardly sound threatening when you’re giggling like a child,” he taunted, tracing along the skin on the inner sides of your knees. You reached back desperately with one hand while holding yourself up with the other elbow, trying to grab hold of his tickling fingers. He snickered at your feeble attempts, reaching up quickly to slide his fingers under your arm so your elbow would buckle beneath your torso before returning his attention to your knees. “This could all stop if you’d just tell me what your secret is.”

At this point, you’d come to the embarrassing realization that you were actually having fun, despite your abdominal muscles aching from laughing so hard. You were also still determined to keep the party a secret, if not for you then for Loki’s own good. You picked yourself back up onto your elbows so you could turn and look back at him defiantly.

“No!” you declared.

“No? I see I must not be trying hard enough, then. Let’s try somewhere else, shall we?” Loki shifted his weight so he could pin your legs down with his shin, his gaze turning down toward your socked feet.

“Don’t… you… dare!” you warned, noticing where his line of sight was directed. He placed his fingertips teasingly against the soles of your feet, maintaining eye contact with you, eyes glowing with mischief.

“I’ll give you one final chance. Spill,” he ordered. You merely smirked back at him.

“Make me.”

Without another word, Loki sprang back into action, his torturous fingertips skimming along the soles of your feet. Frantic giggles spilled from your lips as you tried jerking your feet away from his touch without success.

“I’d wager you’re regretting what you said now, aren’t you?” he goaded, scratching under your toes with one finger on each foot. Your giggles pitched up as you curled your toes to prevent him from reaching the sensitive skin. “Are you prepared to talk now?”

“NEHEHEVER!!” you screeched, still determined to win. Eventually he’d get tired of this and give up, right?

“Then I’m afraid you leave me no choice.” You practically screamed in ticklish agony as his fingers once again connected with your ribs, darting rapidly up and down your sides and under your arms, scribbling into the small of your back, fluttering against the sides of your neck and behind your ears, never staying in one place long enough to grow accustomed to the sensation. Your laughter fell silent as you tapped your hand hard on the floor, signaling you were giving up. Seeing your signal, Loki’s fingers stilled against you, still pressed gently into your sides as a warning that he could start right back up again at any moment. “Talk.”

“I will… alright… just… just give me a sec,” you huffed, your chest heaving with exertion. Your mind was racing, trying to come up with a plausible lie that would satisfy the god of lies. Your heart sank as you realized you couldn’t possibly come up with something in the next ten seconds that would fool him. It had to be the truth. “I’ll tell you, but you have to swear to me you won’t tell your brother that I told you.”

“That depends on what it is you’re about to tell me,” Loki bantered.

“No, I’m serious!” Loki shifted so his weight was no longer pressed on your legs, and you turned over into a seated position on the floor. “Promise me you won’t tell.”

“Fine. I promise. Now tell me.” You took a deep breath.

“We’re planning a party. For you. It was supposed to be a surprise.”

Loki was silent for a moment, his expression unreadable. His blue-green eyes searched yours as if trying to find any hint of a lie in your face. His face softened a bit as he began to realize you were actually telling the truth.

“What for?” he asked, his tone flat.

“For your birthday.”

“We don’t celebrate birthdays on Asgard, we have far too many of them to be excited for them.”

“Ugh, Loki, don’t you get it? Thor wanted to do something nice for you! I wanted to do something nice for you!” You held his gaze, trying to prove to him you still weren’t lying.

“You wanted to do something for me?” His voice was low, but there was something different about his tone; something you hadn’t heard before. Hope? Excitement? You averted your gaze down to the floor, poking at the fibers in the carpet with your finger.

“Yeah, I did. You deserve something nice. You’ve come a long way since New York. And you’re… a good friend.” You felt heat rush to your face. You’d nearly revealed another secret, one you had no intention of telling him today. Or ever. Unfortunately, Loki was perceptive.

“That sounded like another lie, Y/N,” he stated ominously. You risked a glance up at him, seeing a smirk slowly spreading across his face.

“What?! No, it’s not!” you argued, the warmth in your face spreading to your ears.

“Haven’t you learned not to lie to me by now?” Loki suddenly grabbed hold of your waist, dragging you closer to him. “Or do I need to repeat the lesson?” His fingers latched onto your ribcage, squeezing and kneading with maddening precision. Still exhausted from the previous attack, you immediately caved.

“ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT! I like you, ok??” Loki stopped tickling you, not yet releasing you from his grasp. You covered your flushed face with your hands. “Happy now?”

Loki pried your hands gently away from your face, tilting your chin up with his finger. His eyes were softer than you’d ever seen them before as he gazed at you, a small smile on his face. With a surge of confidence, you closed the gap between your faces, pressing your lips to his. He kissed you back, gently but passionately all at once. When he finally pulled away, he grinned at you.

“Yes, I am happy,” he said simply. You smiled shyly back at him.

“Good.” You hardened your expression a bit, although admittedly it was hard to wipe the smile off your face. “You still have to act surprised. I can’t have people thinking I can’t keep a secret.” Loki laughed at that, his voice rumbling in his chest.

“But you can’t, darling.” He gave you one last poke in the side, eliciting a whine from you. “I’ll do my best to act surprised. I am the god of lies, after all. I should be able to put on a convincing display.”

“Good.” You allowed him to help you to your feet before shooing him out the door. “Now, get out of my room. I still have planning to do.”

“Alright, alright,” he chuckled, stopping in the doorway to look at you. “I’ll go, but only if you’ll have dinner with me tonight.”

“Only if you don’t tickle me,” you countered.

“Sorry, love, but I can’t make any promises,” he replied, winking. You sighed, smiling at him.

“I guess I’ll take my chances then.”

#loki tickle #ticklish!reader #tickle fluff #tickle fic #marvel tickle

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