#it's something. that's kind of why i love the widower arc so much. somehow his real emotions come through because he's too exhausted to hid

[mermaidsirennikita]

ARC Review: His Study in Scandal by Megan Frampton

4/5. Releases 5/23/2023.

For when you're vibing with... Milf excellence, nice boys who fucking do, and lighthearted romance.

Widowed duchess Alexandra is tired of pretending to mourn her husband. Hitting the Garden of Hedon for a night of pleasure, she finds it with businessman Theo Osborne. Despite their intense evening together, she expects she'll never see Theo again... but she does. And it turns out he's meant to get engaged to her own daughter.

I usually love angst on angst, and I wouldn't say Megan Frampton's books are that. But somehow, they work for me anyway. Maybe because she writes really likable characters. Maybe because she writes super bomb sex scenes (especially in this one). Either way, I had a good time, and I loved writing about a heroine who's lived a legitimate life and a hero who's not only younger than her, but a good bit younger than her.

Quick Takes:

--I've seen some concerns about the age gap between Alexandra and Theo, and concerns about how the text addresses this (or rather, doesn't--it's not as much of an issue for the couple as is Theo's obligations towards her daughter, or for that matter Alexandra's desire for freedom). She's 40, and he's 28. I just don't think it's a big deal. She's 12 years older, and he's grown the fuck up. Theo is a man who has everything he needs on his own; he doesn't need Alexandra, and honestly, she doesn't really need him either. For the subject matter, the conflict here is relatively low. As a reader, I kind of loved that there wasn't a lot of handwringing over Alexandra's age. It's kind of criminal that so many people who read historical romance are women 40 and over, and they get so little representation in the subgenre.

Also, we read so many books with this age gap or much larger with an older hero and younger heroine (and I have no issue with that). Why is it a problem when she's older?

--There are some quibbles I have with the pacing, which is kind of... not slow, but calm, and then suddenly rushes at the end. It didn't take away from my enjoyment of the book, but I do feel like one particular trigger could've been pulled earlier in the story.

--Alexandra has a lot of concerns about being free in her future life after literal decades of a constraining marriage. This extends to her being uncertain of Theo really ensuring her freedom in the future. I found this to be a realistic concern for a woman in her era, with the experiences she'd had. It's not about her not loving Theo, or even really not trusting him as an individual. It's about him being a man and Alexandra having learned some pretty tough things about how men conduct themselves in marriage, especially within her class. I'm sure romance readers will be super normal about this. Personally, all of her hesitancy made me like Alexandra more and relate to her more for that matter.

--And because Alexandra is an interesting, complex character, I don't think it's surprising that Theo's development is a little quieter. A little her-centric. It's something we don't always see with historical heroes. He's not tortured, though he's not perfect, either. He's the kind of "good guy who puts it down" Megan Frampton is so good at writing.

The Sex Stuff:

This is the hottest Frampton book I've read so far. Like.... damn? Theo and Alexandra's relationship begins with sex. She never really had good sex in her marriage, and fortunately, he in fact a giver (though I wouldn't call him a sub). The sex they have is both super hot and passionate and like... genuinely fond? You can feel the relationship developing through it, and her confidence growing in turn. It's very sweet, while also being scorching. But this dude really would just dive under her dress headfirst at any given opportunity, huh? His enthusiasm and how much he loves giving her pleasure just leaps off the page.

I had a good time with this one. It's not perfect, but it's sexy and entertaining and a different take I'm happy to see in historical romance.

Thanks to Avon and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

#romance novel blogging #arc reviews #netgalley #book recs #books #book reviews

[hauntedpearl]

fic that never got written has a scene where dean crawls up to cas after lucifer stabs him in all along the watchtower and he pulls him onto his lap and just holds him. he's not crying because he's in shock and his mind is just static and his ears are ringing and mary is here (because she didn't really need to get pulled into apocalypse world like that that was stupid) and she's just staring at her son and she always knew cas and dean were more than just friends but she gets it now so she sinks into the ground next to him and puts a hand on his elbow, but he doesn't move and he doesn't really acknowledge anything.

he's just staring up at the stars and back at cas' body with one hand pressed to his bloody wound on his chest and the other carefully cradling his head somehow hoping that this isn't real and it isn't happening. but it is. and there's nothing to do.

#like he would think the world is ending for a moment. he would think it's a bad dream or maybe if he waited for long enough cas would wake #because cas always wakes up!!! even as Emmanuel he walked out of that lake! in Dean's mind he probably walked away from that lake too soon. #so this time he's just glassy eyed and empty and staring and waiting and waiting and waiting until the chill sets in and when his mother #tries to get him to move he shrugs her off and carries cas into the house himself. as has been said. a cruel parody of the bridal carry etc #anyway i think dean's grief can be so powerful and not to sound sadistic but beautiful to write. because even there he is....So Much. #his feelings are so heavy and real and all encompassing and to be able to think about it them and secondhandedly experience them is just. #it's something. that's kind of why i love the widower arc so much. somehow his real emotions come through because he's too exhausted to hid #also. what is grief if not love persevering etc. which means grief is just love. and writing about love and watching it bloom in someone ca #be. so. intense and crazy. i do like that too. #as usual i am sorry for the mad tags #doe is talking again #fanfic #headcanon #dean #spn #widower arc #all along the watchtower #destiel

[norahastuff]

the unrequited love thing just bothers me so much. No-one had any issues seeing Cas/Hannah as a valid ship in the show when Cas wasn't even really interested in her. We've had a decade worth of romantic signals from Dean, but somehow destiel is unrequited. such a goddamn tragedy that they couldn't find their way back to each other one last time when that is their whole ~dynamic~

Yes, all of this. Exactly. Honestly, it’s been so frustrating to keep hearing the word unrequited thrown around so much lately. What about this dynamic has ever seemed unrequited? I’ve done this before but I’ve been really annoyed about it lately so should we make a list?

What about Dean feeling so personally betrayed by Cas in The Man Who Would Be King? Or Sam and Bobby walking on eggshells around Dean and taking care to very delicately approach bringing up the possibility of Cas doing something shady because they knew how hard Dean was going to take it? They knew it would be different for him than it would be for both of them.

Or how about Dean keeping Cas’ trenchcoat, and not only keeping it - he could have stashed it at Bobby’s or left it in the trunk of the Impala - but no he kept it with him, moved it from car to car. And this isn’t a last-minute development that they decided to throw into 7x17 when Cas returned, we see glimpses of the coat in other episodes before this, a consistent reminder that Dean’s carrying it around with him. That losing Cas is weighing on him.

How about Dean wondering why he could usually get over things but for some reason with Cas he couldn’t and he just didn’t know why. 

For that matter...do you think there is anybody else that Dean would forgive for hurting Sam? For betraying him? Sure Dean is mad at Cas but more than anything he wanted to fix things. Despite everything, he needed Cas to be a part of his life. 

How about that time Dean spent a year in purgatory looking for Cas, praying to him every night? In Dean’s mind, Sam is out there alone doing God knows what trying to get him back. I mean Sam didn’t, he’d let Dean go, but Dean assumed he was still looking. And yet Dean didn’t go back to Sam even though he could. He stayed for a year looking for Cas. Because he needed to. He needed him. Purgatory was pure remember? Dean had clarity there. He understood his wants, needs, and emotions.

Or you know just that one little thing about how Dean changed his own memories of what happened when he got separated from Cas because the thought of failing Cas was less painful than the idea that Cas would choose to stay in purgatory instead of leaving with him.

“We need you. I need you.” You know all about this one, I don’t need to say more.

The angels knowing exactly what would hurt Dean, knowing how much he cared about Cas and using that against him: 

“The very touch of you corrupts. When Castiel first laid a hand on you in hell he was lost!” 

“I know you’re hoping Castiel will return to you. I only wish that he felt the same way.”

Miriam: Bieber in there he can do almost anything. Dean: Anything? (and for the first time since Cas died we see Dean experience a moment of hope...and then...) Miriam: Oh sweetie, almost anything. Castiel he’s dead, all the way dead, because of you.

Dean staring wistfully at Cas through a Gas n Sip window for god knows how long. Actually you know what, that whole episode. 

Cas being Dean’s Colette. That’s not subtext. You can argue with the execution, but the parallel was spelled out. And actually for that matter in Chuck’s drafts or alternate futures/ timelines or whatever that he was showing Sam, Dean was the one who was broken after losing Cas to the Mark of Cain, Dean was the one who had to bury him in Ma’lak box. Dean was the one who had to stop him. So I mean not only was Cas Dean’s Colette, but Dean was Cas’ Colette too.

Dean reacting very differently than Sam to Cas’ decision to say yes to Lucifer. Dean’s worry. Dean desperately calling out to Cas over and over again to try reach him and get him to eject Lucifer. Dean resisting Amara for Cas. Lucifer and Amara being very surprised by this. Amara using Cas to try to get to Dean. 

Dean’s very different reactions to all things Cas in s12. This one would need it’s own post, but let’s just say there was a lot of focus on Dean and Cas in s12 and most of it was on how intensely Dean felt for Cas. 

Dean made him a Led Zeppelin mixtape. And then proceeded to get mad at himself for letting Cas use it to come into his room and play him. Which isn’t exactly what happened (though it sort of is) but that’s exactly what went down from Dean’s perspective, and that kind of move would only work if Dean truly cared about Cas. Going into someone’s room and playing on their feelings for you by using a romantic gift they gave you, only works if that person has feelings for you that can be played with.

12x23. Sam having to pull Dean away from Cas at the rift because Dean was intent on chasing after Cas. Dean falling to his knees by Cas’ body unable and unwilling to think about anything else and leaving Sam to face the nephilim. Sam knowing better than to even try to move Dean.

Widower arc. I would elaborate but do I need to?

And finally all of their arc in s15. No part of that was one sided. 

I actually can’t believe we have to keep having this conversation. Before it seemed like we kept having to somehow “prove” there was a romantic element to Dean and Cas’ relationship. Now that they have explicitly stated in canon that there is, the conversation seems to have shifted to how it’s one sided. Look I’m as frustrated as anyone that Dean didn’t get to say anything, but we never considered their relationship one sided before. That’s certainly not what I saw in the show.  Dude pines after his totes str8 bro friend who’s not into him is not a story I would have had any interest in. Looking at that long list above does it seem like it was one sided?

Whatever Cas felt for Dean, Dean felt it too. This has never seemed like a one sided narrative. Like you said just because the last page of the story was ripped out/wasn’t written (ie whatever you think went down) it doesn’t invalidate years upon years of consistent relationship building and emotional growth. Their story is incomplete not erased.

(And in relation to the Cas and Hannah of it all, a while back I did get curious and look that up, and you’re right. People had no problem with thinking of Cas and Hannah as romantic - when she was played by Erica Carroll. When Hannah returned in a male vessel, both Misha and the new actor Lee Majdoub played their relationship exactly the same way, the same heart eyes, the same gentle touches and soft spoken appreciation, but no one seemed to want to discuss Cas and Hannah’s romantic connection anymore. For reasons. Whatever could they be? I’m putting this in brackets though because I don’t have the sources on that and I have no intention of trawling through reddit/entertainment review sites/wherever I checked last time to find them. I do not have that in me. So there’s a chance I could be mistaken and people did discuss it, in which case I’d love to be proven wrong. Anyway that’s why this point is just at the end in brackets)

#asks #destiel #anon trust me I'm in complete agreement #we're on the same wavelength #my spn thoughts #i got a little carried away #this has just been bothering me lately #love and...love #long post

[veronicamarsconfessions]

Editor’s Note: TV moves on, but we haven’t. In our feature series It Still Stings, we relive emotional TV moments that we just can’t get over. You know the ones, where months, years, or even decades later, it still provokes a reaction? We’re here for you. We rant because we love. Or, once loved. And obviously, when discussing finales in particular, there will be spoilers:

There was a time when Veronica Mars’ legacy was that of a beloved cult show that was canceled too soon by network executives who didn’t understand it. With the arrival of a crowd-funded feature film in 2014, its legacy evolved as one of the first shows to see the benefits of a revival. Now, it simply brings thoughts of sadness, rage, and betrayal.

When Hulu first announced it was reviving the series for an eight-episode fourth season, the news was met with resounding joy from a vocal and passionate fanbase that had never given up hope it would return after the crowd-funded feature film reunited Kristen Bell’s Veronica, a pint-sized private eye with a sharp mind and even sharper wit, with her one true love, the reformed bad boy Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring). But the fire that had burned for more than a decade and twice-revived the show was suddenly extinguished in a single, heartbreaking, and wholly unnecessary moment when Logan was killed by a bomb left in Veronica’s car shortly after the couple exchanged wedding vows.

I can still remember the shock I felt when I reached the end of the screeners Hulu sent. The whole thing felt kind of surreal, like if I didn’t acknowledge what had happened out loud maybe it didn’t actually happen. But it did happen. And I’m still filled with a fiery rage and a deep sadness when I think about it now, nearly two years removed from the episode in question, because needlessly killing Logan was a betrayal of the worst kind. The character’s untimely demise felt engineered for nothing more than shock value, like it existed only to leave Veronica even more isolated and cynical. But the interviews that series creator Rob Thomas gave in the aftermath, in which he tried to defend the decision, revealed something much worse while only driving the knife he’d stuck in fans’ backs deeper.

“In order for us to keep doing these, I think it needs to become a detective show—a noir, mystery, detective show—and those elements of teenage soap need to be behind us,” Thomas told TV Guide of the decision to kill Logan, noting that he also hoped to take Veronica out of Neptune and on the road in potential future seasons. “I sort of viewed these eight episodes as a bridge to what Veronica Mars might be moving forward.”

Instead of being a bridge to the future, it was a bridge to a grave of Thomas’ own making. Not since How I Met Your Mother ignored literal years of character development to deliver a half-cooked series finale the creators had come up with several years prior has a show felt so out of touch with its characters, the story it was telling, and its fans. Thomas’ decision to kill Logan is the perfect example of a creator being unable to recognize their own biases to the detriment of their creation.

He wrongly believed that Veronica needed to be hardened by years of nonstop torment and trauma in order to prove she was a great detective whose story was worth continuing. In putting her through the emotional wringer (again) after spending the entire season attempting to dig into her flaws and determine the root of her problems, Thomas swiftly undermined his heroine and her trauma with one misguided act of devastating violence. The fact that Thomas then chose to also skip over Veronica’s grieving process entirely reveals how little he ultimately thought of Logan or Veronica’s relationship with him, which had pushed her to be better and work through her longtime trust issues.

It is common knowledge by now that Logan was not intended to be Veronica’s love interest when the show debuted, but the fans took to the character more than they took to Teddy Dunn’s Duncan “He Used to Be My Boyfriend” Kane, so the latter was jettisoned from the show after Season 2. And in the end, Logan turned out to be a much better partner and match for Veronica’s personality. So what’s truly unfortunate about Thomas killing Logan, and killing him so violently, is that his thought process during Season 4 has the potential to color everything that happened in the show up until the moment the bomb went off. There is also the issue that Thomas apparently believed that Veronica achieving some level of romantic happiness was a one-way ticket to the grave, as if shows like Friday Night Lights hadn’t already soundly debunked the myth that happy couples did not make great TV.

Obviously an emotional family drama does not play by the same rules as noir, but Veronica Mars had already proven that you don’t need to play firmly within the sandbox of the genre to excel creatively. So why should the more adult version of the show attempt to put itself back in the box to be confined to something more traditional or stereotypical? Furthermore, love and contentment are not character flaws or weaknesses. They are not an element of “teenage soap,” as Thomas put it. In fact, one could argue that by allowing herself to believe that she and Logan could have a happy future together regardless of everything she’d witnessed in her line of work, Veronica had shown more personal and emotional growth in the show’s fourth season than she had in the entire run of the series.

At the heart of the matter, though, is one simple, glaring truth: Logan’s death was a fundamental misreading of the entire Veronica Mars fandom and what they liked about the show. Storytelling should never be dictated by the fans and their desires—one of the loudest and most common complaints critics had about the movie was that it felt too much like Thomas was just giving the fans what they wanted rather than attempting to tell a good story—but when your fandom has dug their hands into the cold soil of the TV graveyard to raise your show from the dead, you should probably have a grasp on what exactly the fans like about it in the first place. After all, they’re the reason you still exist and will be one of the final arbiters of whether or not you get to continue to exist in the future. And the idea that fans would somehow be interested in watching a version of Veronica Mars in which Veronica was on the road, completely alone, and Logan was blown to bits is just a wild miscalculation.

This isn’t to suggest Veronica Mars could not ever survive without Logan. That would be to undercut the rest of the show and the woman Veronica has become since we first saw her cutting Wallace (Percy Daggs III) off the flagpole in the series’ pilot. But there is a difference in writing Logan out of the show’s ongoing story arc—his secretive Naval career offered the perfect out—and violently killing him in an attempt to shock viewers and show just how resilient your heroine is in the face of trauma. A survivor of rape who had to solve the murder of her best friend (Amanda Seyfried) while still in high school because the sheriff’s department was too inept to do it (or simply did not care to do it), Veronica had already been through more in her young life than anyone should ever have to live through.

Although Logan’s death led to her finally seeing a therapist, it seemed to be a one-time thing, so nothing has really changed. Veronica is still the same person she was before the show returned, except now she’s also a widow and Thomas has alienated an entire fanbase to the point that many fans, though likely not all, have no interest in revisiting her story. And they’re not likely to either, since Hulu chose not to move forward with another season.

So much for that bridge to the future.

#Veronica Mars #Rob Thomas #Jason Dohring #Logan Echolls #VMars #season four #news #roast that bitch motherfuckers

[mst3kproject]

The Flame Barrier

I’ve got an awful lot of movies from 1958 on my resume, don’t I?  Why is that? Honestly, I couldn’t tell you. Apparently it was just a bumper year for cheap, crappy black-and-white films.  This one stars Kathleen Crowley from The Rebel Set and Rodd Redwing from The Mole People, in a movie written by George Worthing Yates, who also penned Earth vs the Spider.  Also featuring a blob from outer space, with motives even less clear than the one in The Space Children.

Over yet another stock-footage rocket launch, one of those deep-voiced 50’s narrators informs us that there’s a layer of Earth’s atmosphere called the Flame Barrier which destroys everything it touches. This particular rocket was no exception, and its crash-landing in the Mexican jungle may be related to the disappearance of explorer Howard Dalman, whose wife Carol has now come looking for him. She seeks out a pair of prospectors, Dave and Matt Hollister, to guide her to his last known location.  As they go deeper into the bush, they find they’re wandering into something unknown… something that can make men burst into flames!

This movie isn’t terrible.  It’s not great, but it’s not irredeemably awful.  It reminds me a lot of The Giant Gila Monster, in that there’s a story going on and it’s not a bad story per se, but it’s one that’s got nothing whatsoever to do with the title and premise that drew us to the film in the first place.  When the supposed main plot pops up again at the end, it makes for a sudden and jarring shift.

The Flame Barrier starts off all right.  We have the inevitable narrator to give us the backstory, and then it gets right on with meeting the characters.  They’re introduced one by one, telling us their personalities and goals: Carol is naïve and spoiled but she’s trying her best, Matt is a drunk fool but he’s got a good heart, and Dave is a gruff, cynical realist who loves his brother but is tired of his bullshit.  None of them are exactly nice people but you can see where they’re coming from, and they each get an arc.  Carol struggles with whether she really loved Howard, whom she barely knew, and the movie allows her to toughen up and learn how to survive in the wilderness. Dave spends much of the movie being a jerk to Carol but eventually realizes he judged her too harshly and apologizes.  Matt gets a chance to be a hero and takes it, believing that he owes it to Dave for never giving up on him.  The writing is frequently unsubtle but the actors are competent, and these little stories work just fine.

The movie that surrounds them, however, is often very sloppy.  The narrator tells us that the space probe from the opening crashed because ‘it unexpectedly lost its gravitational force’.  What?  What is that supposed to even mean?  The narrator also tells us it’s been six months since Howard disappeared, then mere minutes later Carol says it’s been four. There’s a bit where Carol is menaced by an iguana… the creature is never actually in the shot with her, so they couldn’t find anything scarier?  The stock wildlife footage on their trek through the soundstage sets of Central America includes hyenas.  I can hear Crow saying, “boy, are we in Afri… wait a minute…”  And, pet peeve, they describe a snake as poisonous instead of venomous.

This being a jungle movie, obviously there are ‘natives’.  I think most of these are actual Mexicans, although Wikipedia says Rodd Redwing may have been from India (if so, I like to think his entire career in Westerns was based on just walking into casting directors’ offices and announcing he was ‘an Indian’, and letting them draw their own conclusions).  Being as this is a movie from the fifties, the natives are there largely to provide a body count – white people aren’t allowed to die until the climax.  To its credit, The Flame Barrier mostly (though not entirely) avoids the trope where the natives have interpreted the mysterious happenings as supernatural, leading the white characters to scoff at the whole thing.  There is some of this, but Dave clearly knows these people well and respects their culture and their warnings.

Then there’s the love story.  Obviously this is a movie, so Carol’s gotta fall for one or other of these idiots, but neither of the Hollister brothers is a good choice. Matt is sweet to her but he’s also a useless drunk who only has a job because his brother puts up with him.  Dave spends eighty percent of the movie being an asshole and I have no idea what Carol sees in him.  At least the two men never fight over her.  I guess the love affair is important to the plot, because it spurs the party on to finish their search for the missing Howard Dalman despite the odds being stacked against them… but that basically boils down to Carol and Dave needing to be sure she’s a widow before they can bone.

After all this messing around in the jungle, with the run time half over we get to the plot, and the movie changes gears with an almost audible ka-chunk.  Now we’ve got this space blob sitting in a cave (how did it get in there when it’s still attached to the rocket?) doubling in size every two hours, which must be destroyed before it can consume the entire earth!  Suddenly we have a laboratory, because all the scientific equipment Howard brought with him is still in perfect condition despite having been sitting in the jungle for either four or six months.  Suddenly Dave the rugged survivalist is a scientist and mathematician.  It’s like they took the same actors and sets and started trying to make a totally different movie.

Honestly, I think this is more or less what happened. I think the multiplying space blob was the movie somebody originally wanted to make – it starts out as a tiny thing in a test tube, growing bigger and bigger until it consumes the whole building and will destroy the entire city if it isn’t stopped!  That sounds like a pretty fun 50’s sci-fi movie in itself. It also, however, sounds like an expensive 50’s sci-fi movie, needing miniatures destroyed and screaming extras and other stuff The Flame Barrier just didn’t have the money for. Hence the need to spend so much time wandering around in the jungle swapping tragic backstories before the characters are allowed to get to that point.

The unfortunate thing about this is that the movie doesn’t really have time to get into the nature of its alien.  In Spacemaster X-7, the Blood Rust was offscreen much of the time but we still had a good idea of what it was and of its capabilities, and the explanations we were given made a reasonable amount of sense.  In The Flame Barrier, we’ve got this blob that apparently lives in the rarified and super-hot outer atmosphere (the writers seem to have confused Earth’s atmosphere with the Sun’s corona), but can also survive on the ground… and its effects are all over the place. Sometimes when things get too close to it, they’re just electrocuted and disintegrated, as happens to the rocket’s original passenger, a very young chimpanzee.  Sometimes people get horribly burned and then burst into flames and are reduced to skeletons hours or days later, as keeps happening to the natives. And then there’s Howard, who somehow managed to get close enough to be swallowed up by the thing and his corpse is still completely intact inside it.

None of this makes any sense.  If the blob has that protective electrocution barrier that the humans must be so careful to avoid, how did Howard get close enough to be trapped in it?  How did the chimp get out to end up wandering around in the jungle?  What the heck is happening to the natives who get burned and then skeletonized and why doesn’t that ever happen to the chimp or any of the main characters?  And how do they manage to kill by electrocution a creature that uses lethal amounts of electricity without any harm to itself?  ‘It’s an alien – we don’t understand it’ can cover a multitude of sins in movie writing, but the blob’s random effects don’t even feel like they could potentially make sense.

The Flame Barrier reminds me of other MST3K movies, too. Prominent among them are It Conquered the World and The Crawling Hand, both of which ended on the same unintentionally depressing note: they suggest that the dangers of going into space are so great that humans will never be able to overcome them.  It Conquered the World tells us that there are eight more Venusians just waiting for their own turn to invade.  The Crawling Hand says that exposure to outer space causes mutations that will turn astronauts into mindless murderers.  The Flame Barrier posits that not only is space itself deadly, but is also full of deadly creatures, and the only way to avoid them is to stay on the ground.

This has always interested me because movies like this stand alongside things like the tales of Rocky Jones, Space Ranger!, in which humans have an exciting future among the stars. Stories set in space can be about either the exhilaration of discovery or the terror of the unknown, and this dichotomy seems to be as old as science fiction – Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is considered the first work of proper sci-fi, and it encompasses both.  Frankenstein tells us that if we let our fear over-rule our curiosity, we’ll miss out on something potentially wonderful.  Movies like The Flame Barrier, and even modern space monster flicks like Alien, seem to say the opposite, that we shouldn’t meddle with the unknown at all.

This movie was kind of a compromise on my part.  I’ve had a lot on my plate lately and I picked The Flame Barrier as a movie that was kinda stupid but wouldn’t be either a test of my endurance or particularly challenging to write about.  I’m hoping to have something a little juicier for you next time.

#mst3k #reviews #episodes that never were #the flame barrier #boy are we in africa! #50s #we're running out of plots

[pointlesstrashyexistence]

Every few days I think about how if Supernatural’s writers were just planning on killing of Cas and then never mentioning him again with the original ending involving the possibility of just a brief cameo of him in Heaven weirdly partying with (dead?) Kansas, I probably would’ve preferred it if Cas didn’t have a confession scene.

Ok here me out. Yes I ship DeanCas/Destiel. Yes I loved that there was at least acknowledgment of Cas’ romantic feelings towards Dean. Misha has outright said the confession was romantic and there have already been two official dubs in two different languages where the “I love you” specifically uses phrases that show romantic love. It’s not up for debate anymore if those feelings were romantic.

But if they were just going to throw that in there and get rid of Cas and never mention him again except for two scenes where he doesn’t appear and one that is just Lucifer pretending to be him to gain access to the bunker, I would’ve preferred it if Cas’ true happiness was something that I think would’ve been the ultimate acknowledgement of Cas’ transformation, which I feel would’ve been Jack calling Cas his dad and telling his dad how much he loves him. Of all three members of Team Free Will 1.0, Cas has been the most like a dad to Jack. Cas was the one who eventually helped Kelly hide, prepared a home for Jack and Kelly to live in, for Jack to be raised in safe and loved and cared for. Cas was the one prepared to go down fighting to protect Jack before Jack was even born. Cas is the one who always runs to Jack, to protect Jack, to save Jack, even if it means creating a rift between him, Sam, and Dean.

I love my Sam Winchester is Jack Kline’s Father fics, and my Dean Winchester is Jack Kline’s Father fics, and my Team Free Will 1.0 are Jack Kline’s Fathers fic on ao3 . I do. But if we’re talking about in the show, Cas is the one who is the most like a father to Jack.

Love Dean and wish that man had been given therapy and anger management and AA meetings and working to become a better, less violent person who takes accountability for what he’s done as his finale ending rather than just dying by a fucking nail through the chest, something Cordelia on Buffy The Vampire Slayer survives after like a twenty foot drop from a staircase. But Dean outright hates Jack during his widower arc and makes it known how much of a monster he thinks Jack is to the point where Jack repeatedly tries to commit suicide and then it’s just never really brought up again after Cas comes back and Dean then just goes back and forth on whether he thinks Jack is part of his family or not for the last three seasons. As much as I like the few scenes where Dean is actually bonding with Jack and calls him “their kid” and Jack referring to himself as a Winchester, Dean isn’t really Jack’s dad in the show. Do I think this probably would’ve been a different story if we got baby Jack? Yes, but that’s not what I’m talking about right now

Sam? Sam definitely tries at first. Sam gets what it’s like to feel like a monster and be viewed as one even when your not, and calls out Dean for how he acts and behaves towards Jack. But Dean just as easily calls out Sam for using Jack to try and get their mother back and trying to appear invested in Jack to get what he wants. Sam’s affection for Jack is conditional at first. He gradually grows to be more paternal to Jack but by season 14, it kind of just dwindles away. We got all this buildup of Sam and Jack’s relationship, which yes there should’ve been because here you have someone who was supposed to be the True Vessel of Lucifer, the Boy King of Hell and the Antichrist, the Son of Lucifer, and there’s not really any care given to it afterwards. That season was probably the last time the writers actually did anything interesting with Sam and tried to give him an arc in my opinion.

Cas though? Cas, who was a warrior of God that led garrisons and killed the offspring nephilim of lesser angels? Cas who grows a respect and admiration for humanity, seeing them as complex miraculous beings rather than hairless apes like the majority of the angels? Cas who defends humanity’s existence against other angels even at the cost of his life? Cas who originally thought of the Antichrist as a monster that needed to be killed to protect humanity but heard Kelly talk about how good she believed her child could be despite being the son of the devil and saw a paradise on earth when he actually communicated with Jack in the womb? Cas who separated from the only other two people he has consistently turned to for help and has provided help for in order to try and ensure Jack would be a child safe and loved even if it meant being away from the people he considered family and could die protecting Jack and Kelly? Cas who unconditionally loves and treats Jack as his child throughout the last three season? He is definitely Jack’s father.

I just think there’s something very fitting about the angel who unconditionally loved humanity despite never being able to entirely follow god’s orders raising the supposed antichrist who becomes a god that respects humanity’s free will. And I think that scene would’ve been fantastic in that Cas loves Jack as his child so much that he makes that deal with the Empty in the first place to protect Jack , but Cas loves Jack so much that Jack is the reason the deal is broken. Jack doesn’t realize Cas thinks of him as his child the same way Cas doesn’t think Jack sees him as his dad, and that recognition that they feel the same way is the most bittersweet moment in the world because their first moment where they mutually knowingly recognize each other as parent and child seems like it might be the last one they have together as they hug. Jack sobs while furiously apologizing as he sees black goo come to reach Cas who only has a few more second left to kiss the top of his child’s head and hug him close and say something like “I love you so much my son” before pushing him away while Jack watches, crying as he calls out “Dad don’t leave me” as his father get covered in black goo while smiling with tears streaming down his face before disappearing.

I’m not sure how that situation could’ve occurred. Maybe Jack and Cas are together when people start disappearing, and Jack worries about how if Chuck doesn’t consider him important enough to torment he could also be proofed away, and he wants to tell his dad how much he loves him in that way kids do when they think they might see their parents for the last time and despite being in basically an adult body Jack is still three and not really thinking about what could happen or doesn’t even think this could be Cas’ happiest moment because he always thought Cas knew Jack thought of him as his dad. I don’t know.

But that scene happens and the Empty collects Cas and then when Jack becomes god and brings everyone back, he somehow also brings Cas back from the empty. Look the writers gave absolutely no good reason for why Lucifer somehow came back from the empty in 15x19 when the Empty specifically states that Chuck has no power in her domain so why should I? But I guess if I was going to it would’ve involved Jack finding out how it got loud in the empty and bargaining with the Empty in trading demons, angels, and other nephilim in exchange for making the empty quiet again and managing to deal with what to do with all of these now revived supernatural creatures. Still frustrated that the show made God the enemy and turned Billie into a last minute villain when the Empty was right the, the Enpty was hyped up, and then it just took Cas and Billie and disappeared, and was never heard from again.

Anyways, Jack and Amara separate but they’re still functioning as a unit and are working together to fix the other universes as well as heaven and the systems of who gets sent to heaven, hell, and purgatory in a sort of season 4 of the Good Place style, and Cas takes on a major role as the celestial being with the most interaction with and understanding of humanity, especially with that time he was a homeless human under his belt to provide his own reflection on why certain people may do things that are wrong like stealing in order to provide just a basic need for themselves like stealing food to eat. It’s implied that Rowena’s involved in this too. Cas and Jack say their goodbyes to Sam and Dean. If I had it my way, the finale would end up being like the one I made up in an earlier post where Sam and Dean get their beach day but realize that their relationship isn’t healthy for either of them and separate and the viewer no longer has access to what they do with their lives afterwards because Sam and Dean now have control of their own stories and decide who gets to see it. But I guess what I made up fixes some general overarching complaints about the last three episodes. I still hate that last episode and what I feel is the assassination of 15 years of character development of Sam and Dean in order to go back to S1 with Sam as the main character and Dean as the side character interrupting his life but I just barely acknowledge it as the show’s finale.

I do love the confession scene. I really do. But if it was just going to end with Cas dying a minute after confessing his love and never being seen or acknowledged again, I would’ve much rather preferred it being that his happiest moment was being with his child in the endless feedback loop of familial love.

#Supernatural #SPN #spn #supernatural #Jack Kline #jack kline #Castiel #castiel #cas thee el #Cas Thee El #spn 15x18 #spn 15x19 #Castiel is Jack Kline’s Father #castiel is jack kline’s father #Castiel is Jack’s Father #castiel is jack’s father #cas is jack’s father #Cas is Jack’s Father

[jebentnietalleen]

okay so i wanted to take my time and go over the episodes so that i could actually give a proper answer. just know that i started to watch because of destiel, i am that basic bitch, so most of the episodes on this list are destiel heavy. i am pretty sure that this will change over time, but right now my top 5 eps (in chronological order) are: 

6x20 the man who would be king (please give misha an oscar. damn that episode is just… it’s a lot. i love it so much. i could easily watch it as a stand alone ep whenever i feel like witnessing the greatness that is the secretly good supernatural that only exists in our heads)

8x17 goodbye stranger (they were all dean!! he couldn’t hurt dean!! ‘i need you’ when i tell you i wanna yell.) 

13x01 lost and found (widower arc!!!! this is maybe my favorite late-season spn story arch. yeah. no i am sure actually, it’s one of my favorite things spn ever did, period. dean’s grief made me bawl my eyes out)

13x05 advanced thanatology (again, because of the last 5 minutes. the way dean’s face is lit in the car when he realises it was cas that is on the phone. the song that plays in the background, culminating in ‘it’s never too late to start all over again’ just as he sees cas. the way the camera ONLY pans between dean and cas. the fucking illuminated cross that is a parallel to romeo + julliet. when i say this story arch is one of the best things spn has ever done, this is why) 

15x09 the trap (i just love everything about this episode. it is such a well done episode from start to finish. i love the symbolism of them reconciling in purgatory, the place where their relationship really started to change. a place that has been described as ‘pure’. i absolutely loved dean’s prayer to cas and i CRIED so hard fucking hell. give jensen his oscar!!! and also just… ‘you don’t have to say anything. i heard your prayer’ the implications of this are too much for me to handle. love love love it.

the rest of the episodes that i loved the most, because they made me Feel Things and/or were just that epic, are under the cut.  

4x01 lazarus rising (what an introduction to both a new story arch and a new and important character)

4x16 on the head of a pin (please give jensen an oscar - not the last time i’ll say this during this list)

4x22 lucifer rising (the whole sequence in the angel waiting room was so well done, and the moment cas choses to help dean out? chefs kiss) 

5x04 the end (just all around epic, lbr)

5x18 point of no return (‘i rebelled for this?!’ ooffff go off, cas)

7x17 the born-again identity (listen i just… missed cas a lot during s7, so of course the episode he returns is one of my faves. also amnesia!cas was a pretty interesting concept, especially when you look at how dean dealt with it)

8x7 a little slice of kevin (purgatory, man…. purgatory. SIGH)

9x06 heaven can’t wait (oh boy. human cas… i do have a weakness for you. i felt so sad for him when he thought he had a date and turned into the babysitter. plus, dean looking at him from the parking lot??? hello???)

11x04 baby (i will be very honest here and say that when i heard there was an episode from the car’s pov, i thought it was gonna be a comedic episode with a voice over or something, and didn’t have any expectations at all. but i really really fucking loved this episode? it was so well done. i was kind of in awe tbh)

12x19 the future (the mixtape!!! AARHHHFGGGHH!!!!)

12x23 all along the watchtower (just for the last 5 minutes. dean’s reaction to cas’ death…. god i wanna cry just thinking about it istg im not even exaggerating) 

14x08 byzantium (the beginning of the ep where dean, cas and sam are celebrating jack’s life while they get drunk and laugh with each other, something we rarely get to see, really stuck with me. plus, of course, cas’ deal with the empty, and jack being reunited with kelly in heaven)

honorable mentions to these episodes that mostly just made me laugh and feel good:

7x01 meet the new boss (castiel as god is literally the best and funniest thing ever)

8x08 hunteri heroici (cas trying to become a hunter is somehow both funny and endearing, and honestly looking back on it i love it even more because this was the start of him becoming involved in hunting because he wanted to help the winchesters and i just!!! wanna scream!)

13x06 tombstone (the cowboys! dean is happy! cas wants to please dean! cas knows dean is an angry sleeper, like a bear! i’m your huckleberry!) 

i am SO sorry this is so long holy shit sjfhdsjh but you did ask! 

#anon answered #spn

[notfromanotherworld]

Avengers: Endgame would like you to think of it as a woke movie. Feminist, even. Not feminist in any way that might be annoying or challenging or alienating to its audience, but in a fun, empowering way...

Yet Marvel has consistently wasted Black Widow. It has sidelined her, saddled her with weak storylines, and failed to give her the kind of star billing it has bestowed on the men of the original Avengers.

And her fate in Endgame feels like the biggest waste yet.

Black Widow’s Endgame arc plays into one of the oldest and grossest tropes in comics

Endgame kind of quasi-fridges Black Widow.

When I say “fridging,” I’m referring to the infamous comic book trope of the woman in the refrigerator. The term was coined by comic book writer Gail Simone in 1999, after Green Lantern’s girlfriend Alexandra DeWitt was murdered and stuffed into a literal refrigerator, but it describes more than just that specific comic book death. Its broader meaning refers to the frequency with which women in comic books are killed in order to motivate the men in their life to achieve some grand act of heroism: think Gwen Stacy dying so that Spider-Man feels real bad, or Elektra dying so that Daredevil has something new to brood about.

Aja Romano and Alex Abad-Santos explained why the woman in the refrigerator is such a troubling trope for Vox last year:

The viewpoint of the Women in Refrigerators trope is that women are essentially ... not fully human. That is, they don’t actually do anything; they don’t make choices of their own, or do their own things or have their own lives. Everything we see them do onscreen is in relation to the men around them; their actions are most often about influencing or impacting a man’s actions or behavior.

Essentially, when we say that a female character has been “fridged,” we’re saying that she has been treated like an object who has less human worth than the men around her. She is valuable to the extent that her pain can motivate them...

Black Widow’s death isn’t exactly a classic fridging, which is why I’m qualifying it with “quasi.” For one thing, she is not the only person who dies in Endgame. She’s also a fully fledged character, not just a wife or a girlfriend who was only written into the story in the first place so that she could die and make everyone else sad. And she dies of her own free will, sacrificing herself in pursuit of the Soul Stone in one last blazing display of competence, not because she’s killed by a bad guy who wants to use her as a tool to hurt the men around her.

But Black Widow dies before any of Endgame’s other main characters. While Iron Man’s death overshadows the entire end of the film, and he gets a long, lingering funeral sequence, Black Widow’s death comes halfway through, and it’s primarily used to give the remainder of the now all-male team of original Avengers something to be sad about as they gear up for the movie’s final battle. Basically, she dies in order to motivate a group of men. And after her death, she’s mentioned only briefly, as though she’s been all but forgotten. Those are the same storytelling dynamics that make a classic fridging so damaging...

Black Widow’s quasi-fridging is borderline enough that it might not feel as gross as it does if it weren’t for what had already happened to Black Widow. But her death in Endgame is weirdly linked to her controversial arc from 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, which was so despised that it almost single-handedly destroyed Joss Whedon’s reputation as feminist...

In Age of Ultron, Natasha is pursuing a romantic relationship with Bruce Banner, a.k.a. the Hulk, a love story that received little foreshadowing and which later MCU entries would almost entirely abandon. Bruce is reluctant to go along with the idea, though, on account of how he periodically turns into a giant green rage monster, and he doesn’t think he should inflict his monstrousness on someone else.

But, Natasha says, she’s a monster too. She was made a monster by the people who turned her into a superspy:

They sterilize you. It’s efficient. One less thing to worry about, the one thing that might matter more than a mission. It makes everything easier — even killing. You still think you’re the only monster on the team?

As Vox’s Todd VanDerWerff pointed out in 2015, in the context of Black Widow’s larger arc, Natasha is probably saying that the mysterious awful things she did in the past as a superspy are what made her a monster. But in the context of the scene, it sure does sound like she’s saying she’s a monster because she can’t have children...

To be fair, Mark Ruffalo’s version of the Hulk never did get a standalone movie either after the flop of 2008’s The Incredible Hulk. But the idea that Natasha’s infertility somehow makes her monstrous — not a real woman, potentially less than human — was weirdly embedded into Ultron.

And in Endgame, it rears its head subtextually when Black Widow sacrifices herself for the Soul Stone.

In that sequence, either Black Widow or Hawkeye can die to bring the stone back, and both of them are fighting to be the one who gets to make the ultimate sacrifice and keep the other alive. But Natasha is especially determined to be the one who dies because Clint has a family — a wife and three children, all of whom died at the end of Infinity War — and Natasha doesn’t.

And sure, it’s reasonable for Natasha to make the calculation that Clint’s kids deserve to have a dad when they come back to life after the Avengers complete their “time heist.” But because of that Ultron plot, there’s also an insidious implication that Natasha’s infertility renders Black Widow just a little bit more disposable than the rest of her teammates.

As Alex Leadbeater wrote at ScreenRant, “To have Hawkeye survive explicitly because of his family, it makes the Avengers: Age of Ultron reveal that Black Widow is infertile (and, in Whedon’s parlance, a ‘monster’) feel even dirtier.”

That’s a little bit gross. Combined with the way Endgame uses Black Widow’s death to motivate the male Avengers, it kind of feels like the franchise is saying that Natasha isn’t quite worthy of living because she can’t fulfill her primary purpose as a woman and have kids, but luckily, she’s valuable in death because she can motivate everyone else to avenge her death. And while I don’t mean to suggest that Marvel is putting that message together intentionally, for it to come through so clearly suggests a consistent carelessness in creating Black Widow’s storyline, a laziness that falls back on stereotype-ridden clichés for women characters...

So what happens to Black Widow in Avengers: Endgame isn’t the worst feminist travesty in cinema. But that doesn’t make the circumstances surrounding her death any easier to take. Black Widow was the MCU’s first first-string superheroine — and no matter how much girl power Marvel decides to invest in (and market) going forward, its poor treatment of her is telling.

- “How Avengers: Endgame failed Black Widow” by Constance Grady

[moviemunchies]

The Patriot is a weird movie that has somehow grown on me? I think it’s a good movie, but I don’t know if it’s a great movie, and it’s about as subtle as a brick to the face. I wouldn’t say it handles the subject matter very well, cutting a few corners to make the story work. 

So The Patriot tells the story of Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson), a South Carolina...farmer? Plantation owner? Whatevs. He’s a widower with several kids and a veteran of the French and Indian War, so despite the beginning of the American Revolution going on, and his oldest son Gabriel (Heath Ledger) joining the Continental Army, he advocates a peaceful solution to the conflict with Britain because he doesn’t want to be drawn into another war. But when a British dragoon leader Colonel Tavington (Jason Isaacs) shows up and shoots his son, Martin joins the war effort, and attacks the British in a brutal guerilla campaign leading a group of local militia.

If you’re from South Carolina, you’ve probably heard about this movie quite a lot, in part because it takes place and was filmed there, but especially because the protagonist is heavily based on American Revolutionary hero and militia leader Francis Marion (and some other South Carolinians from the time but they didn’t have a cool nickname so that’s the one we usually go with). It’s not precisely an accurate depiction of Francis Marion’s life by any means, other than he was a guerilla militia leader in the Revolution that hung out in the swamps. For starters, Benjamin Martin’s anti-slavery, which is not quite the attitude Francis Marion held towards the practice (but fellow SC native and Revolutionary hero John Laurens certainly did!); his plantation is staffed entirely by freedmen--a facet of the character that even Mel Gibson felt was a bit of a cop out, avoiding a chance to do a warts-and-all look at American history. Admittedly, this is a bit much to ask of the movie, I think. And Roland Emmerich, probably. 

Still, it’s a bit jarring to have a subplot about one of the militiaman, a black man, finding out that the Continental Army will free any slave that fights for the Revolution for a year when that’s not really a thing that happened at all. And Francis Marion wasn’t nearly as great of a guy as Benjamin Martin; although that may be exactly why there’s a fictional stand-in instead of the actual historical figure in the lead role.

There is often a conversation about the atrocities that the British (mostly Tavington, if we’re being real here) commit during the course of the film. Yes, he’s based off of the real British officer Tarleton, who is infamous in American history for being vicious and giving no quarter. And yes, atrocities happened. And to be clear, in-film, Cornwallis and other Redcoats call out Tavington on his brutality throughout the film, to the point that none of the Brits seem particularly torn up when he dies at the end. But burning a church full of people is a _Nazi war crime._ There’s no record of the British doing anything like that during the Revolution, and so people accuse this movie of demonizing the British. But while the British didn’t do this to American colonists, similar atrocities were committed against the Irish a hundred years before. So no, the British didn’t do this to _US_, but they did do it at some point. That probably doesn’t justify its use here in this movie, but I feel like it’s all important to keep in mind.

This all leads me to the idea of _The Patriot_ not as a history--it’s Hollywood, of course it’s not--but as a sort of mythologized version of the American Revolution. Maybe that’s a weird take, and that might make some people turn off from this movie, but for me it works. I guess that I haven’t been one of those “This movie’s inaccurate, so it SUX!” people for a long time.

The hero of our movie isn’t a man who wants to go to war--he does everything he can to try to avoid going to war, to convince his neighbors that war is not in their best interests, even though he believes in independence for the American colonies. It’s not until the war refuses to leave him alone, and begins to harm his family, that he fully commits to fighting the injustices he sees being perpetrated. Yeah, it’s kind of American _Braveheart_ but is that really a bad thing? As long as we know that’s what it is, I don’t think it is. If there were people out there who took this movie seriously, I don’t know that I’d be as lenient, but I have yet to meet someone whose opinion of history was seriously influenced by this film. Which is probably for the best.

I do understand though that the Plot kind of feels like it’s making the main character way too important to the war effort. It makes it seem as if Benjamin Martin is the only officer in the Continental Army who actually knows what he’s doing against the British. And while I like the character and his arc, I do think it’s a bit silly the way it frames the story in a way that would lead one to think that he’s fighting this war by himself. It’s not fantastic when a story dumbs down the rest of the Good Guys in order to make the Hero stand out--there are ways of accomplishing that without making everyone else incompetent.

And I’ll admit that the story’s structure is a bit… weird, I think. Sometimes Tavington just does terrible things, and I don’t know what this contributes other than adding angst. Towards the end of the movie, he gets information from some colonials before locking them in a church and burning it, but it’s not as if we see him do much with that information. It’s not really Plot Relevant. It just provides motivation for Gabriel to go after Tavington and shoot him with what should have been a fatal shot, and get killed, and give Ben MOAR ANGST. Of course it’s better to show the war as something that has casualties and consequences, but I felt that there were better ways to do it than this.

But this movie is telling an almost mythical epic story set in the American Revolution. Benjamin Martin isn’t a real person; he’s a legendary hero vaguely based off of a real hero. And in epics, seemingly pointless terrible things happen to the hero all the time to make his life suck. And like I said, this is a war movie (albeit, in an 18th century war), made before a lot of the discourse about Fridging came into public forums. Yeah, bad stuff happens, and it doesn’t always seem to make sense--that’s war. And the audience getting invested in the story, and being bothered by character deaths; well that’s kind of the point of character deaths in the first place, isn’t it?

Also it’s kind of an awesome historical action movie--I really like this period in history, because it’s a point where firearms have become commonplace, but haven’t yet become practical enough to completely replace melee weapons in battle. So we’ve got Benjamin Martin taking out Lobsterbacks with muskets, knives, and a tomahawk. It’s great, I love it. This is a huge part of why I love Assassin’s Creed III so much.

Maybe this movie isn’t that great, and I’m just projecting on it because of the lack of good American Revolution movies in the last twenty years…

I dunno. Decide for yourself. It’s a worthwhile watch. It’s got problems for sure, but I think it’s probably one of Roland Emmerich’s greatest films (maybe not a high bar), and a great film on its own merits. 

[Also you know Logan Lerman is in this movie? Yeah, Percy Jackson. He’s the youngest son in the family. And Adam Baldwin is a loyalist officer, which is so off from how he’s usually portrayed it’s weird.]

#The Patriot #Mel Gibson #American Revolution #movies #Movie Munchies

[blurhawaii]

yuletide 2020

dear yuletide writer,

hello and happy yuletide! i’m pretty sure my letters get longer and longer every year and yet i’m still terrible at putting what i like into words. just know that the prompts are just suggestions--if you’ve got something else in mind, go for it. and sorry this is so disjointed.

likes:

dysfunctional relationships eg. codependency, messed up father/son dynamics, enemies to lovers, power imbalances.

vulnerability in men, uncertain intimacy.

UST, slow burn, first times.

magical realism/cosmic horror. weird hints of it in an otherwise normal universe.

redemption arcs.

found family.

big loyalty kink. love it when trust is earned and kept.

praise kink.

open and honest communication between partners.

polyamory. it’s the journey of them getting together and making it work that interests me the most. or how a couple goes about bringing in a third person.

stories set in canon. or a divergence of canon. fix-it fics.

dark/bleak fics. don’t be afraid to drag characters through the mud. happy endings are welcome but i like the struggle.

i’m fine with anything from gen to porn but would be happiest with something in the middle.

canon typical violence is fine and to be expected from some of my choices.

characters and their relationships are more important than plot for me.

dislikes:

AUs that are completely disconnected from canon e.g. high school, coffee shop AUs.

established relationships

crossovers

genderbending

feminisation of male characters

fics that are entirely fluff

A/B/O fics

PWP

mpreg 

first person fics (i have no problem with second person fics tho if you think that could work.)

The Departed (2006) *Billy Costigan                    *Sean Dignam

one of my favourite films ever. i request it every year so you can't really go wrong with this as i'm just thirsty for anything.

most of my love is for dignam and his tough love attitude towards his job and the undercovers he's responsible for. i am endlessly endeared by his wild card quality, expletive fueled speech and hair trigger temperament. the father/son relationship with queenan that’s contrasted against billy’s father/son relationship with queenan. his complete disregard for everyone else in that office, especially sullivan. and how despite all of that, it's obvious that he cares. i don't think you could do a job like that and not care, and it’s those few and rare moments where we see him soften around billy --we need you, pal-- that's what i would like to see more of. that juxtaposition of good cop/bad cop coming from the same guy. shipping fic is preferred but whatever you are comfortable with is fine. due to the nature of the film i am perfectly comfortable with violence and the screwed up relationship they are bound to have. the friction born of the situation vs the fact that they need each other to get through this is what i am all about.

things that really get me with these two: codependency, power imbalances, the enemies to lovers trope, vulnerability, the whole constructing intricate rituals which allow you to touch the skin of other men thing they have going on, as seen in the gif above.

fics where billy survives are my usual go-to. i'd love something that explores the angst of billy's ‘where the hell were you when i needed you’ reaction towards dignam following queenan’s death all the way up to the ending, and beyond that assuming billy lives.

i’ve spent far too much time thinking about the line --why don’t we just meet up, sweetheart, let me buy you an ice cream. the jokey seriousness of it just kills me. if you can somehow write that happening in a believable, in character fic you would earn my eternal respect. whether that’s a clandestine meeting during billy’s undercover period or some kind of post-film scenario where dignam makes good on his promises, i have no idea.

daemon au - very curious how this would impact going undercover. daemons expressing feelings that the characters otherwise can’t. the intimacy of touching/comforting each other’s daemons.

soulmate au - either having their names on each other or their first words. this is admittedly a longshot but interests me for the same reason the daemon au does, because i’d love to see how this would work in a universe where you’re undercover.

time loop/groundhog day fic where things go better. or worse, i guess.

Godless (TV 2017)

*Roy Goode              *Bill McNue               *Alice Fletcher

i’m a massive fan of westerns. the harsh way of life, the violence, the isolation, drawn out revenge plots, the murkiness of good vs evil or sheriff vs anti-hero, the importance of honour and heroism and how that differs for men and women, especially in this universe and its town full of widows. having said all that, i’m still very much a sucker for cool cowboys in a shallow female way.

my favourite thing to do is turn every love triangle into an ot3. so i’d love a fic post canon where roy comes back once he realises his found family is just as important as his real family. i imagine bill would try to do the gentlemanly thing of bowing out and letting roy and alice be together but i’d love for alice to have the agency of choice, getting to have her cake and eating it too by choosing both roy and bill. however you jigsaw them together my main thing here is that i don’t want bill to get left out.

i feel the roy/bill aspect in particular could be explored a lot more. i love the earned mutual respect and how easily they move around each other during the gunfight at the end. (bill’s deteriorating eyesight side plot fascinates me, how it goes with his loss of purpose and comes back when teaming up with roy to defend the town.) the usual ideas of western masculinity get all twisted around when roy and bill are in the presence of alice and they both seem kind of subby towards her, which yes please. the way alice kisses the scar she gave roy and the fact that he simply lets her is *chef kiss*

i’m actually very okay with letting them be soft with each other after all of their tragedy.

honest communication between partners could work wonders here.

Locke (2013)

*Ivan Locke                            *Donal

i honestly think this film is an underappreciated masterpiece. a hour and a half long car ride that's totally compelling, and it's all down to tom hardy and his welsh accent that's not even welsh. of all the relationships broken down, strengthened, or tentatively started, it's the one between ivan and donal that interests me the most. you're given just enough background to know there is a history between these two. whether donal is his right hand man on the project or is just an assistant that effectively gets promoted because he's the only one still there willing to take ivan's call. either way, there's trust there, on top of the shared knowledge of donal's capacity to get drunk on the job --this has clearly been a problem before-- but ivan still trusts him enough to get his baby of a building built when he can't be there personally, and that fascinates me.

the film ends very much in a lurch and i can't bring myself to see the ending in a positive light. a baby with a woman he doesn't particular like is not a recipe for a fresh start and i honestly can't see ivan not following up on the progress of his building.

i have this image of ivan sleeping on donal's couch because his wife won't take him back, bethan realises she just wants the baby and not him, he's lost his job and he has nowhere else to go and so he's just backseat driving this buildings construction through donal’s position. you've got this man who's lost everything and an alcoholic just wallowing together, maybe clinging to the idea that with this buildings success, they can fix themselves.

i also ship it and if you manage to take it in that direction i would be totally into that too. i guess i'm just looking for something post film with these two.

i don't know anything about concrete farming tho so feel free to fudge that as much as you need to.

The Boys (TV 2019)

*Billy Butcher                          *Homelander

what i like about this show is that it’s dark, it’s violent and the relationships between the characters are about as fucked up and convoluted as you can get. i am specifically interested in the relationship between billy and homelander and how the power is constantly shifting. i’d love something that just takes into account every horrible reason why they want to kill each but also all the reasons why they haven’t. ship fic is more than welcome.

details that interest me the most:

all the bizarre family dynamics - their shared bad relationships with their fathers. loved the scene where billy learns about homelander’s childhood and how that tiny humanising moment might affect his view of the man. especially in season 2 where we see them both interacting with ryan. love the inverse of homelander trying to be a good dad and billy wanting absolutely nothing to do with the kid. i wish we could have seen more of the dynamic immediately following the cliffhanger at the end of season 1. what happened between that moment and billy waking up somewhere else. maybe some kind of bizarre hostage situation family in this small suburban home.

i am fascinated by the idea of having the buffer of both becca and ryan between them. not being able to kill each other at the end of season 1 because of the deal becca made, and then again at the end of season 2 with homelander not wanting to be seen as a villain in front of ryan. maybe billy doesn’t ship ryan off at the end of season 2. maybe he thinks he can keep him safest by raising him himself and you get this weird co-dadding situation where the kid is the only thing keeping them from killing each other.

the public cleaning of the slate post-season 2 with billy not being a wanted man any more and homelander having to appear as a united front with the seven. would love something with billy pushing things in public because homelander can’t do anything about it.

homelander’s desperation to be loved. the potential of obsessive one sided relationships.

thank you writer and best of luck.

#yuletide #yuletide 2020

[mtvswatches]

Wynonna Earp 2x09 Forever Mine Nevermind

Click here for previous recaps!

Stray thoughts

1) The writers are actively trying to use Waverly to awaken the lesbian/bisexual in all their confused female viewers, right?

2) Wynonna just fucking did a backflip WHILE PREGNANT and then proceeded to high-five her unborn child, and here I am, eating pancakes and struggling to reach the remote that fell under my chair.

She’s quickly climbing up my favorite characters list, though.

3) Wynonna is not the only one interested in Doc’s ring, apparently.

And this old demon dude reminded me of the old demon dude from Buffy? You know, the one that sliced Dawn up in the tower? Same creepy old evil guy vibes.

4) Dolls just gave Rosita a gift card so that she can take Doc on a couple’s retreat or something? Weird way to get rid of the competition, but okay.

5) WYNONNA ASKED THE NIGHT OFF AND THE HOUSE TO HERSELF BECAUSE SHE INVITED DOC OVER FOR DINNER AND I MIGHT JUST DIE OF ALL THE FEELS.

6) They found The Creepster’s body, and I’ve never been so happy to see a carbonized corpse, hallelujah!

7) The Creepster’s sister is trying to make up excuses for his creepy, criminal behavior and Nicole is not having any of it but Waverly told her to stop... telling the truth? And I get that they’re not seeing eye to eye at the moment and I do not condone what Nicole did and I get that Waverly is trying to be respectful of the Creepster’s sister’s feelings, but… being dead does not erase all his wrongdoings and awful behavior, people do not automatically become saints once they die. If you were an awful person while you were alive, then you should be remembered as such. And the fact that his sister is trying to justify his behavior by saying that he loved Waverly “in his own way” is vile.

8) Doc bought the picture for Wynonna and the baby and I knew the old demon guy must have put some kind of glamour on him (or it?) because the painting did not look as creepy when he decided to buy it…

9) Wynonna made dinner for Doc and she’s feeding him and he’s pretending it’s tasty and this is everything I have ever wanted.

10) And the painting keeps changing…? Is it alive?

The freaking doll is straight-up staring at them. 

11) The cupboard just opened by itself when Wynonna said the third seal was Doc’s ring and I’m here wondering if it is just a coincidence or if some Paranormal Activity shit is about to go down. I’m hoping it is the latter, tbh.

12) Well, the reason Wynonna was trying to sweeten Doc up is that she wants his ring so that she can break it and release Clootie and release the demon that is WORSE than Clootie so that she can kill them both, while pregnant, I presume. Doc is less than excited, of course. And now the creepy doll is out of the painting and I’m 99% sure she’ll show up soon…

13) Rosita invited Waverly to the spa and this is definitely one of the scenes I’d seen a million times on my dash when I hadn’t watched the show. I’m trying to figure out why? Is it only because it’s two girls wearing bikinis in a hot tub? Or does something relevant to the plot or to the characters development happen here?

14) And yes, something creepy is watching both Waverly and Wynonna.

15) I’VE DIED AND GONE TO HEAVEN. THIS IS HEAVEN.

Wynonna is trying to convince Doc to willingly give up his ring so that she can destroy it and release both Clootie and the very, very scary unnamed demon, and he’s not having it. He believes destroying the ring would be his death sentence, and Wynonna argues that he’ll just be as mortal as any of them. Doc is truly terrified of dying, isn’t he? I guess the question is, does he love his agelessness more than he loves Wynonna…?

16) And now she called him selfish – which is kind of accurate, to be fair – but that’s not going to get you what you want, you impulsive doofus! He wants to leave but they can’t find the keys, and I’m 99% certain the little girl from the painting stole them. Yep.

17) Wynonna just stopped Doc from leaving by baby-bumping him????

18) Doc told Wynonna how he hid and listened to his dying mother cry and beg and pray every night until she died, and you kind of understand why he wants to hold on to life so much, right?

19) Waverly just texted Nicole…

WAVERLY: “Dear Control Freak. I will talk to you when I want to talk to you. Until then, have a nice life hurting the people that you love.”

And now I’m afraid something terrible will happen to Nicole which will make Waverly regret sending this text.

20) Oh. I get it now.

WTF Waverly! This is a million times worse than the text! Also, kind of love how Waverly got all hot and bothered with Rosita’s SCIENCE TALK. 

21) I TAKE IT BACK, THIS IS WORSE!!!

22) And now he says that he came back to save her from his sisters? WTF, Frosty Creepster!

23) By the way, IS ROSITA REALLY DEAD?!

24) Wynonna and Doc are arguing about the ring and they’re about to physically fight and this creepy doll is responsible, right?

25) Oh, shit, they weren’t dead, the creeper’s sisters were NOT DEAD!

The widows stole their faces?! I guess they probably wish they were dead. 

26) Ugh, Wynonna and Doc’s argument really escalated and she’s saying some awful stuff and now…

…which she said she would never do? I gotta believe it was the creepy doll’s influence.

27) ROSITA SAVES THE DAY!

WTF!!!!!!

She’s been a revenant all along?!!!! Is that why Doc offered her protection when they first started working together? 

28) Dolls hung up on Jeremy because he was being annoying and Jeremy just threw himself in front of Dolls to save him from the Widow!

29) Oh, no, Doc just said he’s always known Wynonna would be the death of him and threw the ring at her and…

Phew, Wynonna shot the doll, but the things they said… they’re out there. And while they may have used the cop-out of saying it was the influence of the creepy doll, they basically admit that the doll might have brought those feelings to the surface but they were there, to begin with. Awkward, am I right? 

30) This is as close to an “I love you” as he’ll ever get, right?

WYNONNA: Doc, this is it's about something bigger than us.

DOC: The demon Clootie.

WYNONNA: Our baby. I mean, I need to do that on my own terms, but I promise I won't break the seal. Not until after. We we need a plan. But when that plan is in place, I will break it with you by my side.

DOC: Do you swear?

WYNONNA: I do.

Fuck, it’s almost as if he was proposing, isn’t it?

This show fucking plays with my emotions because I feel these two are not getting back together (I may or may not have seen gifs of Wynonna and Dolls as a couple... oops!) and yet they keep putting them in situations like this, and I feel like it’s baiting, you know? 

31) So…

She paralyzed him, told him she’d be his girl, and proceeded to… eat him? I’m not sure I understand what’s going on.

32) And the other sister seems to have figured out where the third seal is. Coolio.

33) I KNEW IT! Waverly thinks she’s half-revenant!

34) OH FUCK!

I knew that text meant Nicole would be in danger and Waverly would regret sending it! But why is the widow there??? That’s not where the third seal is, is it?

35) Fun episode, I really liked how the characters were paired up and sort of on adventures of their own but which are all connected to the main arc somehow. But it lacked the epicness of the previous episode, which is definitely one of my favorites so far. Of course, this one served to pave the way for the season finale as we quickly approach it. Can’t wait to watch the next one!

36) Hope you enjoyed my recap, and, as usual, if you’ve got this far, thank you for reading! If you enjoy my recaps and my blog, please consider supporting it on ko-fi.Thanks!

#Wynonna Earp #Waverly Earp #Melanie Scrofano #Doc Holliday #Xavier Dolls #Nicole Haught #mine #WE recap #WE 2x09 #recap

[crypticbeliever123]

MFU (The Marvel Fanfic Universe)

I have an idea to create a multi-fic multiverse based off of Marvel characters that will honestly be quite the undertaking but I personally believe would be well worth it if I can actually finish it and below are some ideas I had for it with character names (and a couple major things) bolded so as to make it easier to find info on more preferred characters

This Marvel Fanfic Universe or MFU as I call it, starts not with Iron Man like the MCU, but instead with Spider-Man

in this Peter Parker is Tony Stark’s biological son but they aren’t all that close and Tony is not a mentor to Spider-Man at all and may or may not find out Peter is Spider-Man until his college years

Hawkeye is deaf in his first appearance and all subsequent ones except for a prequel giving his origin story that involves the loss of his hearing that I have already titled Hawkeye and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week (that title is based off Clint’s brother Barney going behind his back to work with Hydra and SHIELD chasing after him and the general craziness that ensues NOT because he goes deaf in this story) (also that title is just perfect for Clint’s character. Let’s be honest if there’s any character with worse luck than Peter Parker, it’s Clint Barton)

Loki and Thor have a better relationship in this wherein Loki was given the assignment of Agent of Asgard by Frigga when they were younger so that Loki could have an important role and help bring about more stability between the 9 realms especially on the Frost Giant front and Loki’s first appearance as a “villain” is really just him trying to accelerate the lesson his brother’s supposed to be learning on Midgard and every instance of villainy later on is just the two of them trolling the Avengers in a (totally not at all a real threat) prank where Loki plays up the part of malicious trickster god rather than the not malicious but just mischievous trickster god that he is in this (Odin rolls his eye every time Heimdall tells him of their shenanigans)

Wolverine and Professor X meet in the Korean War (Charles Xavier canonically was drafted to the war and Canada fought in the war and I thought it would be fun if they met there when Charles was young and for him to be kind of a spoiled rich kid until Logan figures out he’s a mutant and takes it upon himself to turn the kid from a kind of stuck up 19 year old to more the kind of person we know Professor X to be) and Charles later refers to Logan as the greatest man he’s ever known and credits him for inspiring the creation of the Xavier Institute as Logan was the first mutant he ever met and made some good points about how important it is for young mutants to be properly taught and nurtured so they don’t turn out evil

Because Charles Xavier is 19 in roughly 1951 and the X-Men stories will (unless I get sidetracked and can’t start the MFU this year) start in 2020 that means Charles will be 88 years old at the start and might die of old age at some point along the way assuming the X-Men story arcs don’t kill him first. Might kill him off in the Apocalypse arc and have it done by either Nightcrawler (the Horseman of Death) or Archangel (the Horseman of War)

Spider-Gwen and Miles Morales will probably get stories of their own after Spider-Verse

In Miles’ universe Doc Ock will be based off the Spider-Verse movie as that version is just freaking awesome and I might go with the punchclock villain trope that one other post talked about (if anyone has a link to that post I’d love to edit it in here with a link)

Might also do a Spider-Man 2099 story but would have to read his comics first to get a feel of what that character and his enemies are like

Agent Venom will get a storyline as well as some alterations to his family history involving his mother and his birth in general

Captain America will be cloned by Red Skull in order to create Captain Hydra who will convince Bucky, Falcon, and Black Widow that he’s actually Steve and that he’s always secretly been working for Hydra until he torments Bucky so much that he isn’t sure what’s true or not anymore and checks himself into a mental institute (yes, Cap’s clone really is an evil dick)

Fallout from a Superior Spider-Man story arc will actually show Peter dealing with grief from Ock ruining his relationship with MJ and upending his life as well as quite possibly coming to terms with the fact that none of his friends or family noticed that he wasn’t himself for over a year

Might do a Defenders story if I read more comics with those characters in them so I know how to write them

Wiccan and Speed from the Young Avengers will be clones of Wanda and Pietro respectively (with Billy being a trans boy since a gender-swap generated clone only really works with female clone of a man where you can say you just copy-pasted the X chromosome rather than built an entire Y chromosome from scratch or stole one from her brother thereby technically making the clone kinda sorta their genetic lovechild which... ya know... ew) rather than Wanda’s magically created twin sons whose souls were pieces of Mephisto that were taken back by Mephisto and yet SOMEHOW managed to reincarnate despite the fact a lack of existing souls should have made that impossible because clones of Wanda and Pietro makes a hell of a lot more sense to me as to why one of Wanda’s sons would have the appearance and powers of her brother even though they’re supposed to be Vision’s kids too than the comics canon version of events that just. Do. Not. Understand. How. Reincarnation. Works. If the souls were taken back and reabsorbed by a demon then there is nothing left to reincarnate! (as you can see I have some strong feelings regarding this topic)

Because I’m setting the first stories in roughly the present day (2020, hopefully) and the Infinity Saga closer to 2035 and the Guardians of the Galaxy play such a big role in making the rest of the characters aware of the threat of Thanos, Peter Quill may have been born in the early 2000s and thus his taste in music is a result of his mom playing a bunch of music she liked as a kid and that music reminding him of her, rather than music from his own generation

Adam Warlock, in a very convoluted plot line that I may change or keep as is to match the weirdness and insanity that is the comic book industry, will exist as some sort of mutant alien teen clone of Peter Quill with the Soul Gem embedded in his forehead (multiple jokes will ensue about how he’s physically as old as Peter is maturity-wise and yet is somehow less childish than him)

Deadpool is a recurring character in most if not all of these stories

The Fantastic Four don’t show up until near the end of the MFU arc during the Infinity Saga because they’d spent the entirety of all this travelling the multiverse and other dimensions as a family

Might have “With great power there must also come great responsibility” being a recurring theme in the MFU with Logan learning the line from Steve during WWII and then passing the line onto Charles Xavier and perhaps to Richard Parker (Peter’s stepfather in this) who makes it his signature line that Ben Parker keeps alive as he and May raise Peter (Tony is terrified to death of becoming his father and abusing Peter and refused custody because of this but still pays ample child support) and have Peter start the very first line of the first MFU story with the line and end the last story with a repeat of that line while saying something about how every hero lives by it either knowingly or unknowingly

#marvel #marvel comics #spider-man #X-men #avengers

[rainbowravioli]

Please share your thoughts on Avengers Endgame, especially regarding Captain America, Iron Man and Black Widow (being very vague to avoid spoilers)

(Sorry for the wait, this wasn’t easy to write)

Oh boy…

So my thoughts on the overall movie are that it was an enjoyable movie for about 80% of its run time, though the other 20% were mostly awful. It’s not anywhere near perfect or a masterpiece as I’ve seen some people call it. The character arcs aside, the movie itself has problems. The pacing, for example, is all over the place. Also, somehow, I left the movie feeling they both did too much and too little, though I would have to delve into specific scenes and characters to explain what I mean. It’s kind of a amazing that they managed to build so many great callbacks to the past MCU movies and still have the movie that’s supposed to close of this chapter end without a sense of finality when it comes to a bunch of plot threads and characters. But you asked specifically for Steve, Tony, and Natasha thoughts.

Before I get into them I would just like to say one thing that may be an unpopular media opinion in general: I don’t believe that tragedy is meaningful by default, and I don’t believe happy endings take away from sacrifice or emotional impact or that a battle without stakes (AKA deaths) is unsatisfying. Especially when we already saw our heroes in this particular case lose everything once. Infinity War was about loss and tragedy. Endgame should have been about rising up from it and taking it back. Why is it more meaningful to end this chapter with tragedy than with joy and togetherness? 

Anyway.

I’ll start with Natasha.

BEWARE SPOILERS

Honestly my biggest problem with Natasha is that they didn’t bring her back. I had this problem with not bringing back everyone who wasn’t dusted, honestly. I thought that the scene between Natasha and Clint in pursue of the Soul Stone was one of the best scenes in the movie and it made perfect sense that both of them would try to sacrifice themselves. Natasha repaying what she saw as her life debt to Clint was very poignant. My problem is with the idea and framing of Natasha’s death as some sort of redemption for her character. I saw a reviewer say something of the effect that Natasha’s death was beautiful because finally the “red was wiped out of her ledger”.

Natasha was taken as a child, groomed to be an assassin, endured a lifetime of trauma, but she still wanted to make herself a better person and, with Clint’s help, she did! She changed her circumstances, she rose up against those who wronged her, she found friends she could trust who were like a family to her, and she spent FIVE YEARS at the Avengers base keeping the Avengers going, throwing herself into work to keep what was left of Earth as safe as possible. She had already done more than enough to wipe the red of her ledger. She was a hero. And it’s vile that she had to die for the greater good as redemption.

It’s even worst though, that she was not mourned properly. Her death was brushed aside so quickly and there was barely any reaction from the team. Clint and Bruce were clearly affected, but I was not impressed by Steve’s Single Tear™ over one of his closest friends or how everyone else just pretty much shrugged it off because you know, gotta move on with the plan. 

Someone had to die for the Soul Stone. I expected it. My friends and I all agreed pre-movie it would fall to Clint or Natasha. But having Natasha be brought back after the final snap would not erase the depth of emotion of the scene where she fights Clint for it, where she begs him to let her go, where she tries to comfort him before making the ultimate sacrifice for the world. Let her come back, let her be welcomed back as the hero she is, let her live out a happy life with her new family who loves her.

Natasha deserved better but then again, she deserved better throughout most of the MCU.

Tony is actually one of the parts of the movie where I felt they did too little in a way. And no I am not asking for more Tony screentime, but that I feel that the 5 year gap screwed over some characters and Tony was one of them. It was beautiful to see him having the family he always wanted, but it felt strange and distant that we didn’t get to see that happiness before it was fully realized. We missed out on the wedding, we missed out on Tony learning he would be a father. It was honestly a bit jarring to be pulled right into the middle of Tony being a husband and parent and living a quiet life without seeing how he got there, even though we can of course guess from his reaction after being rescued from space. It’s just that this was Tony’s endgame. We’ve known since IW. His literal dream was to have a child with Pepper. Personally, it would have been more satisfying to me to see him achieve it. But that’s a minor detail.

And the thing is, the fact that Tony was fully immersed in that life, that he was fully retired, already showed that you didn’t have to kill Tony to get him out of the game: he walked out of it willingly, and he fully intended to get back to his family life once they brought everyone back.

Him getting the stones and doing a call back to the very first Iron Man was spectacular. Honestly an amazing moment. His slow, painful death scene? Not so much. I don’t think he had to die. It felt more like they were killing a symbol than a character, to put a definite period on this chapter of the MCU. So by basically objectifying Tony as mattering more as a symbol, I believe his character integrity suffered. Tony was the one character always focused on preventing IW from happening. His methods have not always been the best, but he was driven by panic and PTSD and ultimately good intentions (even if, once  again, his actions haven’t always been The Best™). He wanted to protect the people that mattered to him, he wanted to go back to Pepper and to watch Morgan grow and be a better parent than what he got.

Killing Tony was unnecessary. Make Tony lose the arm. That’s how I would have handled it. The suit technology protects him long enough to be saved from dying, but he permanently loses his entire arm. He built it in a way that he would be able to make a gauntlet of it and use the stones, he could have also built it in a way that protected him from the after effects. It’s still a sacrifice, but it’s not his life. He can go back and live the rest of it. He can keep contributing to saving the world through his inventions without having to be in the center of the battle itself. It wouldn’t have taken away from the fact that he was willing to put down his life for the world (it’s not even the first time he did so), and it wouldn’t have taken away from how awesome his “I am Iron Man! *snap*” moment was!

Tony didn’t deserve this.

I’m not even sure what to say when it comes to Steve, I’m so angry and heartbroken.

I’ll say that, and maybe I’m extremely biased because he is my favourite MCU character, but I could live with all the other faults of the movie until they had Steve make the most possible out of character decision he could have and trash 8 years worth of movies and character development. That final decision made no sense, broke the movie’s own previously established rules, and was as far from a happy ending as possible.

You’re telling me Steve Rogers, whose character arc has been about moving forward, who has never been one to abandon his friends, who had built a life for himself in the future with a new family with the Avengers, who had just gotten his best friend and main motivator throughout 3 movies and arguably his most important relationship back, who knew Peggy had lived a full happy life, decided to be a gigantically selfish, cruel man and give up on everything he built to go back to the past and rob Peggy of her own life?! Over a relationship that we were shown him making peace with? When Peggy herself tells him the best thing he can do is move on and live his own life?

Steve’s arc has always been about moving forward and protecting what he had with all his might. Steve going back, abandoning everyone he knows and everything he achieved, isn’t him living his own life, it’s him robbing someone else’s, it’s him giving up and regressing completely. Not my Steve Rogers.

Not to mention, the fact that Steve shows up as an old man breaks so many canon established rules it’s not even worth getting into, it simply makes absolutely no sense. And no, don’t give me any of that “he closed his loop and was Peggy’s husband all along” because lol no, all past movies contradict that, and also that means Marvel supports Sharon getting with who she knows damn well is her uncle because it’s ok if he’s young and hot I guess.

There’s too much to say about Steve, it would be a whole essay on its own. I’ll just conclude with something that breaks my heart to say, but it’s where the movie brought me to:

Marvel might as well have killed Steve because what they did was character assassination. 

#avengers endgame #endgame spoilers #endgame critical #natasha romanoff #tony stark #steve rogers #replies #Anonymous

[addictedforbooksquad]

P I C K (S)  O F  T H E  M O N T H: F E B R U A R Y

The Risk by Elle Kennedy 

Dream by Natalia Jaster

Devil’s Daughter by Lisa Kleypas

Enchantèe by Gita Trelease

Huge Deal by Lauren Layne

Scandalous Desires by Elizabeth Hoyt

The Risk by Elle Kennedy

Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance, Sports Romance

Synopsis:

A sexy standalone novel from New York Times and international bestselling author Elle Kennedy. THE RISK takes you back to the world of hot hockey players, feisty heroines, bro banter, and steamy scenes... Everyone says I’m a bad girl. They’re only partly right—I don’t let fear rule me, and I certainly don’t care what people think. But I draw the line at sleeping with the enemy. As the daughter of Briar’s head hockey coach, I’d be vilified if I hooked up with a player from a rival team. And that’s who Jake Connelly is. Harvard’s star forward is arrogant, annoying, and too attractive for his own good. But fate is cruel—I require his help to secure a much-coveted internship, and the sexy jerk isn’t making it easy for me. I need Connelly to be my fake boyfriend. For every fake date…he wants a real one. Which means this bad girl is in big trouble. Nothing good can come from sneaking around with Jake Connelly. My father would kill me, my friends will revolt, and my post-college career is on the line. But while it’s getting harder and harder to resist Jake’s oozing sex appeal and cocky grin, I refuse to fall for him. That’s the one risk I’m not willing to take.

Why we love it:

a great mix of romance, banter and funny moments

individual arcs on par with the romance development

Brenna is just THE BEST and so is Jake, to be honest

100% lived-up to the hype

kept us intrigued about secondary characters and their stories, especially Hunter and Bubble Butt xD

Trigger warnings: n/a

Dream by Natalia Jaster

Genres: Romance, Fantasy, New Adult

Synopsis:

Lyrik is a rogue with skills. In the Kingdom of Winter, he’s a swaggering potioneer who hunts for wisdom—a brew that will shake the world. It’s the only secret he craves. Except for the one boy he can’t have. Nicu is a dreamer with hopes. He’s an impish Royal who hunts for wishes—a legendary star that grants yearnings. It’s the only mystery he desires. Except for the one boy he can’t stand. It’s been three years since they clashed, never wanting to see each other again. But in a land of glittering frost, they might discover something more than wisdom or wishes. Something far more exquisite—and painful.

Why we love it:

as always, Natalia's writing is beautiful, poetic and full on imaginery

story told in alternating 1st person and 3rd person limited POVs which should be a bit tiring but somehow works perfectly

Nicu's POV is delightful to read and it's an amazing journey to see the world through his eyes

all the characters are back together and it's AMAZING

Nicu and Lyrik's story is full of angst but in the end, they just fit together

a beautiful, touching, heart-warming conclusion of the series

Trigger warnings: ableism

Devil’s Daughter by Lisa Kleypas

Genres: Romance, Historical Romance

Synopsis:

Although beautiful young widow Phoebe, Lady Clare, has never met West Ravenel, she knows one thing for certain: he's a mean, rotten bully. Back in boarding school, he made her late husband's life a misery, and she'll never forgive him for it. But when Phoebe attends a family wedding, she encounters a dashing and impossibly charming stranger who sends a fire-and-ice jolt of attraction through her. And then he introduces himself...as none other than West Ravenel. West is a man with a tarnished past. No apologies, no excuses. However, from the moment he meets Phoebe, West is consumed by irresistible desire...not to mention the bitter awareness that a woman like her is far out of his reach. What West doesn't bargain on is that Phoebe is no straitlaced aristocratic lady. She's the daughter of a strong-willed wallflower who long ago eloped with Sebastian, Lord St. Vincent—the most devilishly wicked rake in England. Before long, Phoebe sets out to seduce the man who has awakened her fiery nature and shown her unimaginable pleasure. Will their overwhelming passion be enough to overcome the obstacles of the past? Only the devil's daughter knows...

Why we love it:

Sebastian Challon, Duke of Kingston, former Lord St. Vincent, aged like a fine delicious wine and any appearance he makes in this book is a delight

all the side characters and family/friends dynamics between Ravenels, Challons and Westcliffs are so much fun!

West and Phoebe's connection is electrifying and West's scenes with Phoebe's children are THE SOFTEST

Lisa Kleypas at her best

Trigger warnings: n/a

Enchantée by Gita Trelease

Genres:  Romance, Historical Fiction

Synopsis:

Paris in 1789 is a labyrinth of twisted streets, filled with beggars, thieves, revolutionaries—and magicians... When smallpox kills her parents, Camille Durbonne must find a way to provide for her frail, naive sister while managing her volatile brother. Relying on petty magic—la magie ordinaire—Camille painstakingly transforms scraps of metal into money to buy the food and medicine they need. But when the coins won’t hold their shape and her brother disappears with the family’s savings, Camille must pursue a richer, more dangerous mark: the glittering court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. With dark magic forbidden by her mother, Camille transforms herself into the ‘Baroness de la Fontaine’ and is swept up into life at the Palace of Versailles, where aristocrats both fear and hunger for la magie. There, she gambles at cards, desperate to have enough to keep herself and her sister safe. Yet the longer she stays at court, the more difficult it becomes to reconcile her resentment of the nobles with the enchantments of Versailles. And when she returns to Paris, Camille meets a handsome young balloonist—who dares her to hope that love and liberty may both be possible. But la magie has its costs. And when Camille loses control of her secrets, the game she's playing turns deadly. Then revolution erupts, and she must choose—love or loyalty, democracy or aristocracy, freedom or magic—before Paris burns…

Why we love it:

historical fantasy set in 1700s Paris

a game of high stakes played out in the French court of Marie Antoinette

bond between two sisters fighting their way out of poverty with the use of magic

beautiful story

telling and detailed descriptions of Paris life

a great debut novel from Gita Trelease that makes us look forward to her future books

Trigger warnings: n/a

Huge Deal by Lauren Layne

Genres: Contemporary, Romance

Synopsis:

Even for a top-gun banker, temptation this hot is quite a gamble, in a sexy Wall Street romp from New York Times bestselling author Lauren Layne. An alpha among the wolves of Wall Street, Kennedy Dawson rose to the top of the pack by striking the right contracts at the right times. But there’s one deal that’s been giving him a run for his money—a pact to never again let his assistant, Kate, get under his skin. She may be smart, gorgeous, and sharp as a whip, but she’s definitely off-limits. Kate Henley isn’t a banker, but she knows a thing or two about risk management—specifically, about managing her attraction to her smolderingly sexy boss. She already fell once, and Kennedy showed no sign of paying a return on her investment. So when Kennedy’s brother starts pursuing her, Kate figures she has the best of both worlds. Jack is charming, rich, very attentive, and the spitting image of his older brother. It’s also making Kennedy think twice. But to win Kate’s heart, he’ll have to broker the deal of a lifetime…and prove he’s worth the risk.

Why we love it:

office romance

slow burn

A++ family dynamic

interesting platonic relationships

a good ending of the series

Trigger warnings: n/a

Scandalous Desires by Elizabeth Hoyt

Genres: Romance, Historical Romance

Synopsis:

Can a pirate learn that the only true treasure lies in a woman's heart? Widowed Silence Hollingbrook is impoverished, lovely, and kind--and nine months ago she made a horrible mistake. She went to a river pirate for help in saving her husband and in the process made a bargain that cost her her marriage. That night wounded her so terribly that she hides in the foundling home she helps run with her brother. Except now that same river pirate is back...and he's asking for her help. "Charming" Mickey O'Connor is the most ruthless river pirate in London. Devastatingly handsome and fearsomely intelligent, he clawed his way up through London's criminal underworld. Mickey has no use for tender emotions like compassion and love, and he sees people as pawns to be manipulated. And yet he's never been able to forget the naive captain's wife who came to him for help and spent one memorable night in his bed...talking. When his bastard baby girl was dumped in his lap--her mother having died--Mickey couldn't resist the Machiavellian urge to leave the baby on Silence's doorstep. The baby would be hidden from his enemies and he'd also bind Silence to him by her love for his daughter.

Why we love it:

good historical romance

pirates!!!

enemies to lovers trope

good girl/bad guy trope

A++ character development

Trigger warnings: n/a

#book recs #dailylit #bookworm #bibliophile #nadaily #historical romance #contemporary romance #pick of the month #briar u series #the risk #foolish kingdoms #dream #devil's daughter #the ravenels #Enchantée #huge deal #21 wall street #scandalous desires

[statusquoergo]

Part I

I wonder if Faye feeds on everyone’s hatred for her or what, because she heads on into Donna’s office to ask for help with the massive amount of work she now has to do as the firm’s new managing partner, Donna greets her with predictable snark and sarcasm, and I swear I thought Faye was going to ask her for help finding a secretary but no! She asks Donna to help her get a handle on things.

Now, true, “You were the best secretary this firm ever had” is probably not the best way to convince Donna-the-COO to give her a hand, but everyone keeps insisting that this firm is woefully understaffed (despite apparently having plenty of associates and also enough clients to use some of them as bargaining chips), and as Chief Operating Officer, it’s Donna’s job to make sure the firm’s operations are running smoothly, so…if the managing partner needs a little help getting her work in order…it kind of is her job to get that done? I still think it would’ve been more reasonable for Donna to hire Faye her own secretary, but it’s not like she’s qualified to be COO, or doing…anything, at all, to deserve the position, so I mean. It’s just a couple of days and it’ll probably go a ways towards getting Faye off their backs, why not take one for the team?

On the other side of the floor, Alex and Samantha have some more weirdly endearing bonding time, and I admit I thought it was pretty funny when Alex told Samantha how important family is and she asked if he was trying to adopt her. Then he invites her over to dinner, pointing out how highly his wife and daughter think of her, she accepts, and this is definitely the first time I’ve actually kind of liked her as a character.

Harvey gets an impromptu call from Dan, that random CEO from before, who tears into him for taking out a full page ad (what is this, 2003?) bashing Faye’s old firm for endangering the future of Dan’s company, and seriously, who’s going to see that ad who’s going to, one, give a shit, and two, have any idea what it’s talking about if they don’t already know? Anyway Dan informs Harvey that his board fired him, Harvey exclaims that they can’t do that in the middle of litigation, and actually, he’s probably right, but who cares about logic, this is Suits, for crying out loud. He promises to fix everything, Dan threatens to sue him if he doesn’t (which I’m sure wouldn’t be long and drawn-out and expensive and totally not worth it), and Harvey immediately goes to Donna to bitch and moan about this situation that is of course in no way his fault. She tells him that Faye has her doing secretarial work, Harvey tries to storm off to tear into her, and Donna proposes that they go out to dinner instead to give him a chance to clear his head because they decided earlier that they don’t want Faye or their work troubles to come between them as a couple. Which I get, I mean, that’s sensible, but how is this Faye coming between them? Is Harvey being mad at her for asking Donna to do this work hurting his and Donna’s relationship somehow? Would Harvey not be pissed off and storm her office if he and Donna were still just friends? I can’t decide if this is him being chivalrous or patronizing, but I’m leaning toward the latter if for no other reason than that this show has a bad history of some pretty sexist sub-plots and throwaway jokes.

Katrina summons Susan to her office to reprimand her for disobeying her direct order by contacting that family friend of hers, and yeah, Susan should’ve obeyed her because she’s an associate and Katrina is a senior partner, but I still think it would’ve been a good idea for Katrina to tell her tell her up front why she didn’t want her to do it. Too late now, because Susan tries to blackmail her into keeping her on by threatening to tell Faye why Brian really left (he and Katrina had romantic tension, that’s why). I’m getting shades of “You put your interests above mine. I mean, I’m just putting mine back up next to yours” (s01e01); I wonder if this show knows how to do partner/associate relationships that don’t mirror Harvey and Mike.

Fast forward a little: Gretchen offers to do Faye’s work for Donna so that she and Harvey can “get [their] smush face on,” which, what does that even mean; Louis goes to bitch at Faye for stealing his secretary and we learn that she immediately saw through Gretchen and Donna’s ruse; Louis goes to complain to Gretchen and vow to get Donna back; she tells him not to do that because it was her choice to take the work on, he asks her where Donna and Harvey are so he can make sure they’re keeping Donna’s promise not to let their relationship interfere with his need for support, and she says he shouldn’t bother them and then immediately tells him where they are. Because logic.

On said date, Harvey and Donna are having a hell of a time talking about anything other than work, even though the entire point of this date is to not talk about work; they resort to “Water is wet” (Donna) and “Have you read any good books lately” (Harvey) before Harvey realizes that Donna reminds him of Ricky Garfield’s mom, a beautiful redhead he had a crush on when he was a kid. This is obviously an implication that Harvey has a “type” (that neither Zoe nor Scottie nor Paula matched, go figure), but it feels weird to me in a way I can’t quite put my finger on just yet. Something about infatuation or obsession or idealism or…something. I don’t like it.

Minor interlude to Alex’s house, where he and Rosalie reprimand Joy for backing Alex’s car into a lamppost and then lying about it and Samantha tries to blend into the refrigerator for a minute until they all sit down at the table for takeout Chinese. No, this is actually a good scene; it’s realistic without being too cheesy and incorporates the awkwardness without letting it ruin the evening. I still don’t much care for Joy, but the effort is pretty nice overall.

Harvey and Donna seem to have settled into some pretty easy banter as Donna confesses that she once thought she’d been poisoned by a Szechuan peppercorn; Harvey asks her what she did to deserve being poisoned, she says that’s neither here nor there, and he accuses her of being a black widow, at which point she corrects him that if she were the black widow, she’d be the one doing the poisoning. (Hold onto this for just a minute.) They keep up their irritatingly scripted repartee until Harvey has a brainstorm about how to save Dan, but he won’t deal with it until tomorrow because “tonight is for [them].” Then Louis calls Donna for that support he mentioned to Gretchen, she contemplates picking up, and Harvey talks her out of it, at which point we see that Louis is in fact at the restaurant and saw them ignore his call, and I get another flashback to him standing outside of Harvey’s office holding a poorly-timed cake meant to celebrate his and Mike’s success at working together just as Mike and Harvey decide to team up again. Poor guy. (I’m not sure if this show loves to self-reference or they’re just low on new ideas. Maybe both.) Oh, then Harvey says they should go to his place where he can pretend to be young Harvey and Donna can pretend to be Ricky Garfield’s mom and I think I’m starting to figure out what my problem with this is. (It has to do with idealization and romanticism and Harvey needs to go to therapy.)

Katrina asks Samantha how she knew when to give in when Katrina stood up to her, Samantha tells her she gave in when Katrina was right, and I’m so confused, does Samantha suddenly have a sense of modesty? Her character is so arbitrary, it’s giving me a headache.

The next day, probably, Harvey storms into Faye’s office and accuses her of having Johnson and Powell, which I guess is the name of her old firm, fire Dan during litigation thanks to a clause in Dan’s contract that allowed him to be fired during litigation. (Who the fuck would put that kind of a clause in their contract?) Faye denies it, asserting that a fifteen-minute phone call Harvey found record of in her LUDs (which he got…where?) was from Johnson and Powell rather than the other way around (which he should have been able to tell from the phone records) because, get this, they wanted to complain about what an asshole Harvey is. You know, in previous seasons, I might’ve taken offense at that, but at the moment, I think they’re really onto something. Anyway she invites him to subpoena her and points out that all he’s managed to accomplish thus far is getting Dan fired, so that’s gotta feel good.

Following up on the Katrina plotline, she escorts Susan to Faye’s office and boxes her into either disclosing the story about Katrina and Brian or dropping the matter completely; Susan ends up not ratting her out (for…not having an affair?) and Katrina admits that she was ambitious when she started out, too, but that can’t be all Susan has. I’m liking this dynamic, I hope Susan gets a redemption arc and sticks around awhile longer. (Not just for the overtones of Marvey, I also think it’ll be good for Katrina to have someone to mentor.)

Louis and Harvey have their final confrontation of the day as Louis declares that he’s taking that judgeship (that is not how that works), and Harvey clarifies that he and Donna ignored Louis’s call because they assumed it was about work, and also they weren’t laughing at him, they were laughing at some joke Harvey told right after they hung up on him. That’s all very well and good, but you know how earlier Harvey didn’t know what a black widow is? This time around, he’s unfamiliar with the phrase “tilting at windmills.” (It means to attack imaginary enemies.) I’m not saying that everyone has to know every idiom in the English language in order to be a functioning adult, but neither “black widow” nor “tilting at windmills” is especially uncommon, and the fact that Harvey doesn’t know them is…very jarring. Are they trying to make him seem dense? Out of touch? Socially inept? Did he entirely lose that part of his personality when Mike abandoned them? Is he faking it for some indiscernible reason? It feels to me like they’re trying to use these blind spots to make him seem more relatable somehow, or more likable, but for my money, it’s having the opposite effect as I’m finding it very irritating and out of character for him.

Samantha thanks Alex for bringing her over for dinner, declaring it precisely what she needed, kerfuffle and all, and confides that she’s been inspired by the fact that Joy is a perfect cross between Alex and Rosalie to find her birth parents. That’s nice, I guess? But…is she familiar with the concept of nature versus nurture? I don’t think this is going to turn out the way she wants it to. Also, I knew Samantha was a foster kid, but I didn’t know that she cared about her birth parents, and now she suddenly does with no buildup whatsoever, and I must say, I do not give a shit.

Donna shows up at Sheila and Louis’s place for a little bonding session, treating Louis to a “girl’s night” and promising him that tonight he’s “the most important woman in the room,” which is all very well and good but I can’t imagine it would’ve been any harder for them to say “tonight is all about you” and avoid making this into a whole gendered thing.

Finally, Harvey meets up with Faye yet again to cockily inform her that, as Louis reminded him, he’s the guy things always work out for; this time around, he convinced Kevin Miller (who’s apparently become the show’s official deus ex machina) to buy SensaTech, which I guess is the name of Dan’s company? And then rehire Dan because he built it from scratch. He seems to have also advised Kevin to allow SensaTech to keep Johnson and Powell as their legal counsel, thereby allowing Faye to save face (which I was unaware she had lost) if she’s willing to give Gretchen back to Louis. (Faye didn’t want Gretchen, she wanted Donna; it’s Donna’s fault Gretchen is working for Faye, because she wanted to skip out on work early to go on a date with Harvey.) Faye refuses, countering that he can resign if he wants to try extorting her; they each claim that they’re not going anywhere, and she closes out the episode with the line: “And for the record, you said you’d do anything to win this, but you haven’t crossed a single line. So as far as I’m concerned, I’m doing my job.” I guess she means that despite being resisted at every turn, she’s beginning to succeed at bringing them into line? But honestly, as a parting farewell, it really doesn’t have as much punch as she thinks it does.

I told you Louis wasn’t going to resign. Next time around, it looks like they’ll be going all in on the Darvey angle, so that’ll be…fun…

#suits usa #season 9 #s09e03 #analysis

[sailor-cresselia]

Zi-O 35: *chuckles* I’m in danger

(Using the RiderTimeFansubs version today) 

Now... it’s show Rider Zi-O Inoue time. 

(I’m out of opening jokes guys.)

-

Now that is a Black Widow if I ever saw one. Seriously, lady, you’re creeping me out. I am literally 33 seconds in.

Lady, er, sorry, Yuko, I don’t know what you were convicted of, but. Um. You’re not really giving off the impression of someone who is exactly going to be… okay if you go outside.

I will give Hora kudos for not shoving the watch into her chest, though. Good call. And apparently Another Kiva gets to summon the Real Kiva’s… support? I don’t actually know what those three Fangire are to Kiva, but. Yeah. I’mma go with either ‘support’ or ‘retainers�� for now.

Flip-cut to 2008, with… Woz… creeping on 2008 Yuko. This Is Fine.

Woz. I know you somehow make it into the Gaia Library in FOREVER. I know you don’t get much to do in FOREVER. I have not seen FOREVER yet, that’s next on the agenda.

BUT YOU DON’T GET TO SAY KEYWORD. YOU JUST DON’T.

(But still, kudos for the possible nod to the film having just gotten it’s home release, that’s clever.)

A quick note on the opening. Nothings changed in a few episodes, not since we got Trinity. But I can’t help but be uncomfortable with the fact that they still have the last scene with characters be the section with Zi-O and Geiz back to back, and then turning around and clashing.

It’s right up there with Cross-Z Charge staying in the OP for Build through the entire season, but Cross-Z Magma never making it in.

Keeping something that was relevant, but became quickly outdated. I’d say they should have swapped this segment somehow by at least the end of the Another Zi-O Arc, if not before. … Nah, end of Another Zi-O would be the best place. I was thinking that after Geiz gave Sougo his belt, and that whole shindig, but there was still an amount of animosity after that for a while.

OH NOOO MY HEART! THEY’RE ALL GETTING ALONG AND FAWNING OVER JUNICHIRO’S APPLE PIE! It’s too cute, help!

But really, all four are immediately smiling, and it’s adorable. Woz kind of seems like he’s lost all of his stoic traits from even two arcs ago, though.

…oh no, Sougo’s Space Case tendencies transferred to Woz when they started using Trinity.

That’s the only answer. Sougo’s been increasingly competent, and both him and Geiz are getting better at talking to people… and Woz has become comic relief. Oh no personality blending nooooo…

But that is exactly the right set of reactions to Sougo saying he’s been in love. A+ to Tsukuyomi pointing out that he’s ‘like a kid.’

Sougo: Of course I’ve been in love! :)

Geiz: Oh god you’re telling us about it. End me now…

...HUH. Just realized. Junichiro wouldn’t know about this, would he? Kiva – and thus our past segments – were in 2008, but Sougo came to live with his uncle in 2009. So Sougo’s parents were still alive at this point.

2008 Sougo didn’t have friends, either.

Tsukuyomi and Geiz looking on in confusion, Junichiro messing with his nephew (while also confused) and Woz… continues eating pie. I’m worried about you, dude. Character Decay’s not a good thing.

And we have a customer, interrupting story time!

OH WOW! He’s here to get a watch fixed! That’s a first from a non-Time Traveler! The only people bringing in actual time pieces have been Woz and Mondo – you know, Quiz, remember him?

(Customer thinks the shop may have become a cafe – fair, given the scene he’s just walked in on – and Uncle’s stuck in cat-pun mode. Whoops.)

(I’ve started Decade, and the apparently recurring ‘I thought this was a cafe’ joke from there with regards to the Photo Studio just popped into my head. Nice.)

Yuko is. Scary. She wants to take over the world to change the laws.

:casts a nervous glance over at the Kiva and Ryuki arcs of Decade:

Hora’s got a point – the only female Another Rider was Amane, as Another Blade, and she was selected by Hat!Woz. But… looks like Hora’s still in the ‘looking for a new King’ state. Even Heure seems to have moved past that. Last arc, he was trying to find Hibiki, not a candidate. Interesting.

Customer is a lawyer, and knows that he can’t always be the ‘gallant hero’ that Sougo seems to think lawyers are. After all, he couldn’t help ‘that pretty lady.’ But he’s forgotten something at the counter, and Sougo – good boy that he is – rushes off to follow and return it.

YUKO. STOPPED A CAR. WITH HER FOOT. IN HEELS. AND A TINY SKIRT.

:siiiiiigh: Did we really need that pan shot along her leg? Did we?

No. No we didn’t.

And we didn’t need Yuko being a CREEPER to her former lawyer – aka Customer. She’s got a… really sensitive nose. That’s really creepy, especially since she’s using it to unnerve literally everyone around her. It’s not even an Another Kiva thing – she was doing this to identify the exact wine her former boyfriend had in the cold open.

Yuko Kitajima, okay, so that’s her last name. And her doing this ‘ah, yes, it’s that aroma’ trick is what lets her lawyer know it’s her. So she’s done this for a long time.

Another Kiva has some nice touches – roses at the lapels of her cape, where the chain attaches, the stained glass aesthetic.

HOWEVER. I’m NOT here for the eyes. That bright piercing blue is both unnerving AND doesn’t go with the rest of the look! Not to mention the eyes on her shoulders! NO NO NOPE NOT HERE FOR THAT.

...When did Zi-O drop the ‘dial’ eyes, anyway? Definitely by Another Zi-O, I know that… but the Future Another Riders had them, too. Then again, the years have all been ‘2019’ for the last few arcs. Blade, Hibiki, and now Kiva definitely have said 2019. Huh. Wonder if it’s something to do with that.

Another Kiva: I’m going to be queen, and this world will be ~mine~.

Sougo: Queen? :o

SOUGO! THIS IS NOT THE TIME! DO NOT APPRECIATE THE COLORS! YOU ARE UNDER ATTACK!

Ooh, hey, she’s even got a version of Kivat-Bat on there! Nice!

Sougo, please at least put on one of your armors. Like. Any of them would do, right now. Build would be good! You can tank hits really well in that one! Decade’d be better! But just something to give you defense! This is four on one you fool you are outnumbered

AND NOW you are also outgunned, because she can turn her Summoned Fangire Replicas into their weapon forms. Delightful.

And after getting hit by the hammer, sword, and gun, Sougo’s knocked right the hell out of his transformation. Whoops.

Yuko. Yuko don’t – don’t stand over him like that, what are you doing? No, no, don’t do the chin thing, Sougo’s already a wreck, we don’t need him losing sensibility already! Don’t leave the braincell to Geiz! Nooooo-

Hora: So, a queen, huh?

Yuko: How dare a servant talk to me.

OH MY GOODNESS WOW

Hora’s not having this. Just. Teleports out of the way of Yuko trying to slap her. Good call.

YUKO. FRICKING. Kicks up a manhole cover. THROWS IT LIKE A FRISBEE at Hora.

Hora just TURNS HER HEAD to dodge. All she gets is a cut on the cheek – HORA YOU’RE LUCKY TO BE ALIVE OH MY GOD.

Hora’s gonna do a violence.

(Hey, Heure, back when we met Swartz, you told him not to treat you like a child. So… what’s with you two getting ice cream? That’s. Weird. And creepy.)

HEURE. HORA.  GET OUT OF THERE. BOTH OF YOU. YOU CAN DO SO MUCH BETTER THAN THIS.

Cut to evening in the shop.

I can believe this lady did a murder. She certain plans to do some murders now.

The day of the crime she’s ‘falsely’ accused of was April 10, 2015. Just felt like noting that.

(And noting that that fits right in with when a Roidmude could have taken someone’s identity. And noting that we haven’t seen Drive yet.)

(I know there’s like, zero chance it’s connected. Why would they link two different arcs like that? That is, aside from Fourze and Faiz, but that was different.)

(But, you know. Just saying.)

She’s almost definitely going after people who got her imprisoned, there’s no maybe about it. And, er, I can actually understand why Sougo would relate to that, what with. You know. The whole ‘demon king’ thing.

Except that he thinks she couldn’t have done it, because she was his First Love. Woz is all “suggestive raised eyebrows” while Geiz and Tsukuyomi just. They just want the inanity to end.

I fucking LOVE how everyone keeps making cat puns / noises with regards to this story. I mean. Really. She scratched you under the chin, dude. That’s weird.

(Nya.)

Weirdo guy in a coffee bar, insulting the coffee but still coming here, because the waitress is pretty. “Yay.”

Also, he’s got this fancy ring on. That’s probably significant, since P-Bandai’s releasing a ring for one of the Kiva characters. They had Amane wearing the Chalice themed necklace, too, so-

OH LOOK Weirdo’s eyes lit up gold when he was talking about ‘seeing a vision of the end of the world’! And his reflection is a blue wolf! You know! The one from Kiva! That the ring is modeled on! Okay!

Right! Legacy Characters! I somehow forgot that they’d try to bring someone from Kiva back!

Cut to Yuko being creepy at a pier, going after the Chief Prosecutor in her case, right up until Sougo and Geiz arrive.

Sougo’s got one question for you. (Just one? Sounds fake, but okay.)

Sougo: “Why do you want to be a queen?”

Yuko: “To correct the laws of this world, to enforce those correct laws.” (all said with an angry face)

Sougo: “So… it is to help people, then?” (confused)

Geiz: “Oh, for f- That’s not how you should go about it! This is just revenge!”

Geiz has the Trinity brain cell today, and he’s making good use of it!

Oh-ho-hohoho- Hora’s PISSED. She chose poorly. She’s gonna get some revenge of her own.

And now Yuko’s gonna do a violence, because all of them are ‘guilty.’

Geiz transforms, but Sougo doesn’t get that far.

No, he’s just gotten into some weird flashback to 2008.

So, a woman – possibly Yuko, I’m not sure, and ‘Tetsuya’ in one of those swan boats. And then it jumps to 2015. With a (presumably) dead female body… and Tetsuya standing over her.

Right. Sougo’s got time powers independent of the belt. He’s only ever looked into the future before now.

SOUGO! I don’t really care what sort of crisis of faith you’re having, you need to go help Geiz! He’s in a four on one, in an even less ideal location than you were! GO HELP HIM!

What’s this? Something’s going weird up in the sky. First to notice is Swartz, who looks up at the ripples of light. Then Tsukuyomi. (“The two of us aren’t so different after all.”)

And then Garulu. The one on the dock. Who I’d thought was a copy. But, um, maybe not. Maybe that’s the actual one? The real one was talking about a ‘vision of the future’ earlier, after all. But what about the other two Fangire? Are they the real ones? How is Another Kiva summoning them, anyway?

Geiz is knocked out of his transformation – and Sougo didn’t even get to activate his own. He never finished turning the belt before noticing a meteor streaking down the sky. The same one that Garulu was seeing in the coffee bar.

I don’t know WHAT that is that just hit that cliff face, but I don’t like the looks of it.

It – it’s alive? Is it an egg?

No no no NOPE it’s a space egg. It’s got a dude inside. It’s got a kitbash Rider inside. And he’s just blasted everyone down.

Everyone except the very noticeably absent Swartz.

Another Kiva tells him to stop – she is the law here.

But Ginga is from deep space. He doesn’t care about your Earth Laws. He’s going to blast you off of your cliff, too.

(I’m sorry, but I’m having a little trouble taking Ginga seriously with that UFO on his helmet.)

“Alright, let’s go!”

“WAIT NO! WAGA MAOU, STOP!”

“ASK US BEFORE YOU USE TRINITY, DAMNIT!”

Turning into a watch is not fun times.

“There is only one law. Everything dies.”

Yoooo I can take Ginga a little more seriously with those barriers. Yoooooo this guy is WAY overpowered.

Seiji Takaiwa is a god of suit acting~! Making just the little adjustments to show which loser is in control of Trinity moment to moment takes timing.

Also, the only person who can talk is the one in control? That’s. Unfortunate. For them. It’s HILARIOUS for us.

(Tsukyomi, I’m sorry, you don’t deserve to have to deal with these three.)

Nothing they throw at Ginga is working. He’s kicking everyone’s ass. Ass, singular, because bodysharing.

HOO BOY. We have our second female Another Rider… and she doesn’t get to be the main threat in her arc, either. Come on, Toei. … Let’s blame Inoue for this one. He’s here, after all.

Looks like Woz gets a Super mode in Ginga.

Well. At least he didn’t get completely shafted in the power-up regard, once his Character Decay set in.

Justice for Alain. (He! Deserved! Better! Yuujo Burst should have been IN SHOW damnit! Not relegated to the STUPID GOD AWFUL SPECTER V-CINEMA!)

(IT’S NOT EVEN HIS OWN SPECIAL! IT’S MAKOTO’S! IT COULD AT LEAST HAVE BEEN IN THE ‘LEGEND OF HERO ALAIN’ SPECIALS!)

(Yes I will always be salty about how Alain got treated.)

Well! Until next time!

#kamen rider zi o #sailorcressy says