#just because its funnier that way and i think it works nicely. but mostly because its funny

[mistreil]

Verti Nuvola (AU)

#verti (mistreil) #theyre different from toli i promise. i just like monochrome ocs. but i did decide they'd know each other in canon #just because its funnier that way and i think it works nicely. but mostly because its funny #i dont think i ever posted the og concepts i had for verti from like 2022 here... oh well

[beevean]

We finally watched Nocturne.

... what? No, no endless post this time :P not only because it's just one season. It's just as I expected: it's not as infuriating as its big sibling. (unless you're familiar with the French Revolution coughcough@the-crow-binary)

We only watched the first four episodes so far, and I have already said a lot, so let's go.

The thing I complained the most about, I noticed, was the worldbuilding, mostly how vampires work. The original show "elfified" vampires, only keeping the basic traits "need blood, don't like sunlight or running water, can turn into things like bats and mist". They were portrayed as this ancient rage, one with its own culture (much superior than the dumb humans who forget everything because church bad): they sleep normally, they can eat food if they so wish, apparently they can have sex with zero issues lol, and infamously child vampires are treated as, well, innocent children and not as poor human kids suffering a terrible fate. Trevor even kindly tells us that the reason vampires hate crosses regardless of their faith is because their eyesight is so advanced that they freak out at the sight of geometrical shapes. The only monstruous trait they have is that apparently they have a tendency to go insane and crave power. Honestly, they kind of remind me of Twilight.

And somehow Nocturne manages to get it worse.

Now, yes, vampires in Nocturne bite far more often than in the OG show. I think in that other show we see them doing that... twice? And Carmilla and Lenore lick Hector's blood; then they just drink from their stock of blood à la Drac from SoTN. Anyway, Nocturne is more willing to show them as beasts, so good job. Hell, Sun Thundercat even turns a human!

But in this setting, vampires seem to not even have those few weaknesses they had in the OG show. For a story centered on how Sun Thundercat will bring eternal night to the world because sun is the number 1 obstacle to vampires, it's baffling how easily they can just walk around in plain daylight. Olrox looks out of the window with his face illuminated by the sun. Drolta can literally walk just fine, even without a parasol. @spinningbuster98 kept asking "why don't peasants or slaves just destroy the windows of the places where they know vampires live?" - well clearly they'd be fine!

And special shoutout to Drolta who openly mocks the concept of her being hurt by being in a church. At least in S1, Blue Fangs explained its presence in the Bishop's church by blaming his heinous actions for pushing God away.

Vampires are also shockingly well integrated into society. These extremely pale people, with visible pointy ears and long fangs, can chill around in a nice palace or stroll into a theatre, and no one bats an eye. How? In the OG show, vampires could be in a position of power (see the council of Styria), but they mostly worked from the shadows. Did humans just... accept the presence of these monsters?

(the cross weakness becomes way funnier now. Vampires are weak to the religion they used to believe in, so Annette can ask the help of the Christian God to harm previously Christian vampires. I actually like this. But then this makes that OG "vampires have super freaky eyesight" scene even stupider than it used to be)

Another point for the clumsy worldbuilding. Hey, remember how I complained that N!Hector wearing Hector's CoD outfit makes no sense? Because that's what he could cobble up from his old Devil Forgemaster uniform and it's basically the best he can wear for running through the country and fighting, while N!Hector 1) is still in Drac's service in S2 so you'd expect a more professional uniform from him, like the one worn by N!Isaac, and 2) he very much does not fight, making details like the arm guard and the single glove look redudant. We have a similar issue here: Maria, whose design was taken straight out of DXC, complains in the first episode that her mother is too poor to pay taxes. You can tell that she doesn't look that poor. To make things even worse, in the second episode, Tera is able to offer bread to Annette and Edouard: the French Revolution started, among other reasons, because even bread got ridiculously expensive for common people! So which is it? Is Maria one of the common people, or a well-off young woman who really has no business leading the revolution?

And this... is tied to other problems.

The French Revolution is nothing more than a shallow backdrop for the main plot being the Vampire Messiah being hyped up as the greatest evil to ever evil. You can tell the writers did not care when they cast Vaublanc, a real person who fought against slavery, as a vampire slaveowner. I think. I think you shouldn't do that.

The point is, it becomes increasingly jarring when you see that the main protagonists, the ones who spout the most generic "liberty, equality, fraternity"... are not even French. Maria has Russian origins, and as I've shown she seems to be doing well. Richter is a Romanian who grew up in the US. Annette, who gets to make a super epic speech about freedom, is a runaway from Saint-Domingue. Edouard is a rich opera singer, also from Saint-Domingue.

Oh, Annette.

You know, I want to say something. I'd have much more patience for her abrasive, ungrateful, condescending behavior, I'd justify it as a result of her trauma, if it weren't for how mean-spirited she is and for how no one seems to even react to her.

bruh.

You did that, huh. Richter has been nothing but kind and supportive to you, relating to the loss of your friend and of your mother - this isn't a Trevor situation where you can fall for what the story tells you and believe he's actually rude, no, Richter is on-screen a very nice guy! And you say that? To his face? After he revealed to you that the Belmonts used to do magic but he can't because he lost his mom? Something you should know how devastating it feels? And you THROW THAT TO HIS FACE??

Richter is the one who gasps, by the way. Maria and Tera over there? Nah they're just eating popcorn as this stranger is deliberately hitting Richter where it hurts the most. Thanks girls.

Oh but she's not done!

I know what this is. Look at her, the Stronk former slave who suffered Hardships which inherently makes her more Mature and World Wise, looking down on the two white French people who obviously had it so easy in their lives.

Hey, Ms. Adult. Who's the one who lost control of her powers, leading to Edouard becoming a Night Creature? Richter is too nice to throw that in your face. I'm not :)

Hey, Ms. I Suffered More Than You. Who's the one who only managed to save herself from the plantation only due to magical god-inherited powers? Which is also incredibly insensitive to the real-life slaves who managed to escape with nothing more but human skills and intellect?

Hey, Ms. I'm More Mature Than You Whiteys. Who's the one who needed the help of a rich half-white man to be protected? Not that you even know the concept of being grateful.

Uh, and Tera? You mind chiming in? You mind defending your daughter and your adopted son from this stranger who keeps being rude and disrespectful? No? Okay. She just suggests how to save Edouard, but lets Annette's words slide. You and Lisa can compete for the title of Mom of the Year.

Oh, but this is not a sexism or racism issue. This is literally the same thing as Alucard in S2 being the biggest hypercunt to Trevor, making fun of his traumatic childhood, cruelly mocking his family and his legacy, and treating him like he's nothing more than a failure of a drunkard when the dude has been nothing but a help in fights and gave them access to the vast Belmont Hold... and Sypha always rushed in Alucard's defense because boohoo his depression is an icy well of sadness, he Suffered More Than You!

This is just the writers shitting on the Belmonts, and I am sick of it. Trevor did not deserve this, and Richter doesn't deserve this.

Anyway, characters. I have little to say. Richter is the best one, being reasonably cocky as you would expect from him; not to an insufferable degree, just yeah he comes off as an immature young man who needs to grow up. I like him. Maria is a parody of teens on Twitter talking about seizing the means of production, and I kind of forget she's there. Annette, yeah :) Edouard got retroactively characterized after his death, but I still don't know how to describe his personality beyond "helpful" and "source of infodumps". Tera exists. The abbot is profoundly stupid for allying himself with vampires for the sake of crushing the "Godless" Revolution (there's an N!Hector joke to make here but it's not worth it). Drolta is basically Isaac who slapped a pair of tits on himself and just like that she's a beloved slay queen icon. Templar Agent Stone Mizrak is mere bara bait so far. Olrox... well, so far he's mildly intriguing for being outside of the hero/villain dichotomy. Kind of a tryhard, though, and I still don't know why he didn't just kill Richter.

My last complaint is that it's really boring how they hype up Sun Thundercat as this harbinger of DEATH AND SUFFERING AND PAIN AND TERROR way before we even see her. It reminds me of Alucard exposing how a world without humans would be: just this empty, edgy narration with nothing to show for it. But at least by then we had a taste of Dracula's anger and powers, so this is even worse. You need to try harder to build up an antagonist.

and finally, have the best moment in the whole franchise

BUT, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

#anti netflixvania #beev watches nocturne #Youtube

[kyouka-supremacy]

sigma for the ask game?

Sigma!!!!

Favorite thing about them: The same thing as the bsd author: I really like how “normal” Sigma is!!! It makes him very sympathetic. The way he fought with everything he had during the Sky Casino arc to protect what was most important to him made me emotional.

Least favorite thing about them: Nothing I can think of? I guess his outfit could use some improvement but I'm starting to think I'm very nitpicky with this kind of stuff lol.

Favorite line:

I feel like I'm always going for the most predictable lines but like. I really like this one. I wish nothing more for my life than to do what I can as an ordinary man.

brOTP: Everything I ship with him romantically I think would work really well platonically too!! Not much more I can't think of since he hasn't interacted with a lot of characters, but I have a hunch that him and Kunikida would get along well lol.

OTP: I really like sigzai, it's my personal “liked it before it got popular” pffttt. I do understand the criticism in saying that Dazai was mostly manipulating him, but I think that's the cool part? Like them starting out with Dazai manipulating him and Sigma being mostly aware of it but unable to impede it, yet Dazai gradually growing in love of Sigma's resilience and will to live. I think they're very nice even if they didn't start out healthy, but like, why would you be looking for healthy relationships in the toxic yaoi franchise? I also throughout enjoy siglai. It's like, the cooler funnier version of kuniki/dazai for me lmao. I find the “I have literally NO CLUE why I love you and will keep loving you despite wishing I didn't” and “if I don't spend 25/7 annoying you I will explode” vibes really compelling.

nOTP: Nothing. Look, unless it's something that actively bothers me, I hardly have any notps in general, I'm a multishipper at heart.

Random headcanon: I really like the concept of transfem Sigma within canon who's like. “I haven't gotten the chance to transition because I was born like two years ago and my life has been a mess, but AS SOON AS THINGS CALM DOWN— ”

Unpopular opinion: ... I don't like the idea of him joining the ada? I mean, I don't hate it, but I would have rather had it where he didn't, even though it's evident that the plot is going in that direction. I just wish he could keep working as casino manager because he looked so at home at the Sky Casino, it makes me wish he would go back. And the odd thing is that I acknowledge that it's been established in the manga itself that that was not the right place for him (Dostoyevsky in chapter 107: “[You realized that] a lonely ‘home’ isn't enough. What you need isn't a place, but trust.”) and that he should join the ada; I just feel like they made his love and attachment to the Sky Casino so strong and moving in its respective arc, the idea of him having a life outside of it just feels wrong. I think he's really good at manager jobs in general, I'd even be happier with him like. Opening a hat shop or something.

Song i associate with them: -ERROR by niki, also the Namine Ritsu cover by cillia. The illustration of Ritsu in the cover even seems to resemble Sigma a lot for me eheh. I feel like the lyrics fit Sigma's inner conflict between feeling like he isn't supposed to exist and still wanting so deeply to live a lot!!!

Favourite picture of them:

Favourite panel from the manga:

Favourite illustration:

Favourite illustration in the anime art style:

Send me a character?

#Thank you for the ask!! <33 #sigma #bsd #mine #people asks me stuff #Peoples no one has asked me (canon) ss/kk yet. Just sayin'

[rc--chan]

Dexholders Clothes Stealing Headcanons

Kanto: 

Green just doesn't own clothes anymore. Blue, Yellow and Red just steal all of them. Yellow actually brings them back, because she's nice unlike the other 2 heathens. His purple shirt? Nope that's Red's now. His black aviator jacket? Yellow was cold so she borrowed it for the winter. His lab coat? Blue need it for a scam and she ain't bringing it back. Sweatpants, black t-shirt? His purple cargo pants? Gone! Because he's the tallest and his clothes are just too damn comfy.

Johto:

All three of them just share clothes at this point. Gold will search for his favourite hoodie only to remember Crystal took it. Silver would meet with Blue and she would compliment his white jacket, except it's not his, it's Crystal's. Crystal would just do laundry and find like, Gold's shorts and Silver's jacket. They also have a schedule for who gets Gold's hoodie because the damn thing is just so soft.

Hoenn:

I don't think they share any clothes. They have widely different styles that wouldn't work on the others. Maybe Emerald would occasionally steal like, Ruby's ribbons that he uses in contests to tie his hair or something. But mostly no clothes thieves here.

Sinnoh:

Platina steals all of the sweaters and jackets, definitely. She would go meet with Cynthia or Prof. Rowan and she's wearing Dia's jacket. One time she went to one of Dia and Pearl's gigs, and after the show when she went to see them backstage, she's wearing Pearl's sweater and Pearl goes ”Wait that's mine!” They don't mind of course. Also Dia steals all of her fancy hats so they're even.

Unova:

White steals everyone's clothes, but she does it without even realizing which is way funnier. She just goes to visit Whi-two and N and when she's back home she realizes she's wearing Whi-two's shoes and N's hat. And she's like. How did that happen? She's meeting with Elesa in Virbank and she's wearing like, Black's jacket and pants, looking like she's in cosplay, and Elesa would point it out and White looks at herself and goes ”Huh. I guess I am wearing Black's clothes again...” Lack-two would just randomly text her ”I am putting you under arrest.” And White would freak out and ask why, what did she do? And Lack-two just texts her ”I couldn't find my favourite shorts again and you appeared in an interview wearing them yesterday.” Poor girl has no idea how this keeps happening.

Kalos:

X steals everything. Like legit no clothes are safe from this man. If someone were to look through his wardrobe they'd find like Y's sweaters, Tierno's t-shirts, Shauna's shirts and Trevor's pants. He has like, multiple clothes he stole from his friends. And he's not even trying to hide it. Y would somehow convince him to leave the house and he shows up in Tierno's black Vanillite t-shirt, one of Shauna's jackets, Trevor's sweatpants, Y's fluffy socks and Green's boots that he somehow got a hold of.

Alola:

They trade hats and shirts. Nothing else just hats and shirts. And it's a mutual agreement too. Moon goes to Sun like ”I'll trade you my red hat for your blue tank top.” and Sun goes ”I'll throw in my blue and white t-shirt too if you give me your yellow floral shirt.” ”Deal.” People point it out all the time but they just say ”I got it in a fair trade, therefore it is mine now.”

Galar:

Their system is like a combination between the Alola duo and the Johtrio. Because they share clothes, but sometimes Sou would refuse to give Schilly her sweater back so she has to bargain. ”I'll give you one of my sweatshirts if you give me my sweater back.” ”Not soft enough.” ”How about my fuzzy parka? That's soft.” ”Yeah but its too hot for that.” Schilly has to bet like half her wardrobe to get that 1 sweater back. Marvin also steals their socks.

#I finally read the sword and shield manga so now I can headcanon about it #i love schilly #she's Black on steroids #also poor Green his clothes aren't safe even from his juniors #Gold and Emerald def also stole something from him once just to annoy him #Pokespe #pokemon #pocket monsters #Pokemon Adventures #pokemon manga #Trainer Red #trainer blue #trainer green #trainer yellow #Trainer Gold #Trainer Silver #trainer crystal #trainer ruby #Trainer Sapphire #trainer emerald #trainer platinum #Trainer Diamond #Trainer Pearl #trainer white #Trainer Black #trainer lack-two #trainer whi-two #trainer y #trainer x #trainer sun

[theminecraftbee]

Yeah, I knew it was unlikely for anyone to partner with a spirit from the start like Grian does, in fact my first idea for this was "episode where xB gets possessed by the spirit of Hiding or something and plot twist the episode doesn't end with him defeated, the monster is invisible by definition and after its conflict is done it can't be caught, plot twist xB stays like that for the rest of the season peacefully somehow, I guess that could mean somehow being a full magical girl who's just undetectable instead of having a transformation sequence, this could also power up his ability so Scar eventually forgets he even has that guy to look out for..." and then I couldn't think of any situation where a character whose whole plot point is staying hidden would do anything to cause the heroes to notice it enough for an episode to happen anyway, and then I imagined that first burst of all of them escaping, off to do various chaotic things, and then the one that's based on some concept that's naturally peaceful and quiet all along just calmly floats along until it finds someone who's used to being quiet and would be happy to be rid of what little attention he does get, so I thought it would be funny if the two just met and instantly agreed fully or however partnership works, like before the monster attacks have happened enough that xB even knows about them, you know?

That plus the "mysterious helper who may or may not know all the secrets but either way ends up not being a threat" trope and the "unremarkable background character with an inexplicably dedicated fandom" trope, it would work just as well to have him start appearing at any time but it feels funnier/more fulfilling to be able to look at this imaginary anime and have at least one frame of every single episode where he's visible!

oh hmmm that's actually a fun one. and to be fair, i think xb would be... rather happy to slip into the background, honestly. sure, this is all... a lot more than he'd prefer to deal with. but watching scar's crew deal with it has given him SOME idea of how to handle the fact he still has a spirit around, and being able to be invisible sometimes... it's useful. it's useful!

i think maybe he shows up in the background of some support group episodes afterwards and if you aren't paying attention it's hard to realize what's happening.

however i'm honestly still not sure how early in the plot we can have a spirit partnership here? i think maybe. xb is an early possession victim (maybe one of the first ones blackbird interferes with?) but the spirit escapes. xb sort of just slips away without letting anyone help him quietly because he manages to get unpossessed but he just KNOWS people are gonna be weird about the fact the spirit escaped. plus, he has unlocked a little more of his magical potential now. he can just... make himself disappear. he doesn't know why. it's not a partnership, so much as a potential he already had that, like a few other members of the plot (bdubs being out big example), due to a combination "wishing star getting closer" and "spirit possession", he can do even more.

and it's... nice. sometimes it isn't nice - he basically can't go out to eat unless he's with someone else, the waitstaff will forget he's there, and actually for anything he needs to be remembered for it's kind of a pain, but in a lot of life he just... slides in the background now. and if he really, really wants to be noticed he can mostly turn it off? but eh, he's an introvert anyway, as long as his small circle of friends still talks to him, he's fine. keralis and hypno and beef haven't forgotten he exists yet.

(hypno nearly forgets once. it makes xb's hair stand on end. he puts more effort into his side of the friendship with him for months afterwards. hypno's bemused. "you never texted back so quick before. what's gotten into you - monsters making you remember your mortality?" and it's... easier than the actual answer to go with that. hypno says xb should go to the support group again. xb doesn't say: they won't remember i'm there too if i don't make an effort to talk the whole time.)

its later in the plot, after... i had a timeline somewhere, but i think at LEAST after bdubs joins the squad and DEFINITELY after the "the magical girl crew fights the military" incident. it's then that the spirit of hiding reappears, and, drawn once again to xb's magic, despite the fact he's arguably more resistant to possession now, turns up where xb is.

and like... look. xb really, really doesn't want to get possessed again. because as nice as fading into the background is, he just... he doesn't want...

and they find themselves at an impasse.

xb gets this guy, is the thing. compared to other spirits, this guy doesn't do that much. it just... makes it easy to forget itself. to forget other people. and there's a horror in that, too, but there's also... xb can relate. before all of this started, he would have thought he'd be content to be entirely forgotten as well. it's just, the brief moment when someone he was close to had no recognition in his eyes -

"hey," xb says to the spirit that does not want to leave but that he doesn't want to let possess him. "hey. change of plans. how about we make a deal? i think there's something we can both offer to each other."

two days later, he slips into keralis's door and, once he finds the man, quietly sobs. he never says why. afterwards, he goes back to almost-normal. almost. if you aren't one of his friends, at least. his friends are... concerned. he's up to something.

xb assures them: he won't interfere that much. not his style. also, if he WERE to get noticed, he's pretty sure he might get dissected or something? so. much better to just... adjust from the background when he can.

he's sure it'll turn out fine.

#answered #eloquentornot #magical girl scar #help you weren't supposed to give me an ENTIRE OTHER MAJOR BACKGROUND CHARACTER #anyway a magic that makes it easy to be forgotten. now isn't THAT a horrifying concept.

[ben-talks-art]

My 10 Favorite DreamWorks Movies

When I first joined Tumblr one of the first few posts I made was a "Best of DreamWorks" where I just pasted a bunch of images from the movies I liked the most.

After seeing the new Puss In Boots movie and seeing all the love it's been getting I thought it would be nice to revisit the list, but this time actually talking about why I like these movies so much.

Just wanna say real quick, If you're coming here wondering if "Shark Tale" will be on the top 5 and how I'm gonna defend my case about it, you lower these expectations right now. This is gonna be a super boring list. My favorites are everyone's favorites.

The only thing I can bring up is why I myself like them, and hopefully, I can bring up unique enough reasons for it. I've always been a fan of this company, mostly because I really respect how many risks they take with the premises of their stories.

I always like to believe that there is no such thing as a bad idea, only a bad execution, and DreamWorks proves that by never being afraid of giving a chance to the weirdest of ideas, and when the execution pays off, it pays off greatly!

So which ideas did I feel were executed the best?

10 . The Bad Guys

First things, first. "Good Tonight" is a freaking awesome song and everyone should give it a listen.

The idea of bad guys is "what if we tried to make the meanest-looking animals that people are familiar with into the heroes of our story?"

Animals like snakes, sharks, spiders, and so on, things that are known for being very dangerous and scary, but placed into the roles of bandits that go on heists while running away from the police.

I always call this the "Not Sly Cooper" movie, because that's exactly what I feel a Sly Cooper movie would be like. Tons of animal-acting-like-human jokes, fun cartoonish heists and car chases, and some nice morals about what it means to be a thief and what it means to be a hero.

Bad Guys is a very charming movie. The characters are all likable, many of the jokes are funny, and the way the movie looks with its blend of 2D and 3D is just amazing. The scene where they are escaping from prison with the help of a "mysterious ninja" being my favorite part.

The only problem I have is that I feel having both a shark and a piranha in the cast was kinda redundant. I would have replaced the piranha with a bat so they would have a scary flying animal instead of two scary water animals. Plus, imagining a bat singing "Good Tonight" just feels like a funnier visual to me.

9. Megamind

"Presentation!!"

The idea for Megamind is rather simple, show what happens when the villain does beat the hero.

I feel like this movie did a good job showing how the fun of working hard can sometimes feel more rewarding than the fun of actually winning, kinda sending a sweet message about the futility of cheating.

I also like how over-the-top Megamind himself is with how he treats all his evil actions as some grand spectacle. Doesn't matter if he's winning or losing, this dude always looks like he's having a lot of fun treating these hero vs villain battles as some sort of playtime with his best friend.

You're basically watching a kid's imagination of what these fights would look like from someone who grew up watching way too many cartoons. Tons of cheesy one-liners, tons of dramatic speeches, tons of last-second twists, and of course, tons of big explosive action.

And it's also fun seeing Megamind's fantasy of what a hero vs villain scenario looks like slowly dying once he meets Titan and how differently he treats this whole thing compared to MetroMan.

The one problem I had was the way the character of Roxane was treated. It felt like they were trying to make her more than just "the girlfriend" and give her more depth, but in the end, her biggest role in the climax was still needing to be saved and serving as emotional support for the main character. Also, the way she was basically catfished by Megamind always made me very uncomfortable, especially when thinking that kids might be watching this and learning from this.

It wasn't too awful, but I felt they could have done more with her.

8. Spirit

"What if we made a movie about the adventures of a horse?"

This one is kinda hard to describe why I like it. I think the reason is that it feels... How do I put it... Honest? Real? Genuine?

Whenever Spirit goes through an emotion it always feels earned. When he's sad, you're sad, when he's angry, you're angry, and when he's celebrating after succeeding in a daring escape, you want to celebrate too.

This movie to me just did a great job at making me feel what this horse was feeling, and most of it with the use of very minimal words.

I loved Spirit, loved his chemistry with the villain, loved the sense of speed whenever he is running through the fields or avoiding the cowboys... and most of all, loved the joy you get whenever you feel free.

It's not that this gives you a great sense of freedom, its that it gives you a desire to fight for freedom! It makes you feel you can be more, and do more and have the right to reject being tied down by others who want to limit your true potential and control you.

This movie makes you want to be free.

7. The Road to El Dorado

Do I even need to say anything besides the fact that this movie has Chel in it?

But for real, I think this movie was my introduction to the Maya, Inca, and Azteca culture, (I think my closest only other option at the time was "Mucha Lucha" of all things...), and they make this culture look fun and cool.

The architecture looked nice, the clothing looked nice, the people were so likable, and anytime they party you just want to party as well. I kept waiting for some big reveal to happen for the citizens to turn on the heroes, but they never do, and that was so refreshing, just showing people from different areas becoming friends AND staying friends.

I also love how funny Miguel and Tulio are, I was a kid when I first saw this so I was weirded out by the idea of two adults as the leads but I was sold on them very quickly. Even their horse was likable. everyone is just so likable in this movie. It makes you want to visit El Dorado and hang out with all these people.

Such a charming, funny, and friendly movie.

Also Chel. Chel was a big selling point.

6. Puss in Boots, the Last Wish

I already talked about this one over here, but, long story short, like many other movies on this list, I love how good this movie is at sucking you into the mood.

The way the visuals, the story, the dialogue, and the characters work together really succeed into making you feel what these people are feeling and making want to see more of them.

Didn't matter if it was the heroes, the villains, the antagonists, or what, I was 100% behind everyone's motivations and I couldn't wait to see all their goals clashing with each others'.

Also, the wolf is by far one of DreamWork's best antagonists, right up there with Shen and Ramses. He looks cool, talks cool, and even his motivation was cool.

This wasn't just a movie, this was an experience.

5. Shrek 2

I freaking dare anyone going into this movie blind to predict what the climax is going to be.

The weird idea of this one is that Shrek after marrying his wife needs to meet her parents... And that's it. It's just one long and uncomfortable reunion with people who really don't want to be on the same room together and all the things they try to pull of to make or break this relationship.

Hire assassins, request help from magic fairies, fake your appearance, steal a potion, it's all about seeing how far everyone is willing to go to do what they think it's the best for those they love.

It all turns into a glorious and creative mess and I can't help but love every second of it!

(Side note, anyone ever notices how often DreamWorks sequels focus on the idea of characters dealing with their parents?)

4. Kung Fu Panda 2

If it wasn't for Prince of Egyp, I would say that this was the hardest and darkest DreamWorks movie.

There is so much focus on feeling lost, feeling abandoned, feeling hopeless and betrayed, and just trying to understand what you're doing wrong and what you need to do right.

This movie was like a therapy session... Done with talking cartoon animals, yes, but a therapy session no less.

The themes of trying to understand yourself, where you came from, and where you want to go are all handled greatly as you watch the relationship between the hero and the villain.

Po and Shen have such an absurdly great chemistry. I love seeing them talking, fighting, and trying to one-up each other, and I really love how much their relationship changes the more they learn about each other, and it all happens so fast and so smoothly too.

It makes me angry whenever I see a movie and the hero and the villain barely talk with each other. That's one of the best things you can do with them! Why are you skipping it??

Luckily this one didn't, and in return, we got one of the best interactions ever. I love these two by themselves and love these to together. Just a pair of wonderful characters that work really well off each other!

3. The Prince of Egypt

Man... What do I even say about this one?

It's probably the riskiest idea DreamWorks has ever tried to do, tell the story of Exodus as an animated musical... And that was their second movie ever after freaking "Antz!" These guys have a lot of guts.

This was a movie that I didn't really get it when I saw it as a kid, but I just love trying to understand its themes and messages now that I'm older.

I love the main conflict between the brothers, again, bringing attention to how good a story can be when you focus on the connection of the hero and the villain. Showing both sides of people who grew up under an unhealthy ideology, one trying to grow out of it and the other trying to embrace it even more.

I love the imagery of Egypt, both as this grand epic kingdom built from the struggle and pain of the slaves and as this falling empire being attacked by God Himself. The visuals of the plagues being my favorites.

And I love the sense of calmness that appears whenever the chaos takes a break. Seeing Moses and his people getting out from the ocean and enjoying the dawn of a new era after all the struggle they went through just felt so rewarding. It's just such a satisfying ending for such a long journey... As long as you decide to stop there and don't look up what happens in the rest of the story.

I especially love the concept of Ramses, A person so deep into the teachings of his father that he can't even see why the things he's doing are so bad. I think my favorite part is when he's hugging his son while glaring at Moses and just asking "Why?" while he has this GIANT WALL SHOWING BABIES BEING FEED TO CROCODILES right behind him.

It's such an amazingly blind irony as the man cries for his kid's safety while the crying of all these dead kids looms over his shoulder. Just how do you have to be raised to turn into this kind of person?

It's so baffling but I just can't stop watching and wondering how far is this man willing to go. Such a sad showing of someone who doesn't see he's on the wrong side and trying to fight against the tides.

It's a beautifully sad, and yet hopeful movie.

2. Kung Fu Panda

Yeah, I put Kung Fu Panda above Prince of Egypt... I don't know what's wrong with me either. I don't know, for some reason, I just have a lot of respect for this movie? Prince of Egypt I liked a lot but I couldn't really fully understand it and enjoy it until I was much older. Meanwhile, even when young I could already enjoy Kung Fu Panda a lot.

It felt like it had a bigger challenge by being a good, deep movie while also being fun, funny, and cheerful.

It's easy to make dark stories have strong messages and depth, but it's hard to have no-so-dark stories also have strong messages and depth, and I have such an appreciation for that. They could have just made this a lame joke-fest about being an overweight character trying to learn martial arts, but they didn't!

They put a lot of effort into the lessons, the fighting, the motivations of the characters, the visuals, and even the jokes! I thought the jokes were going to be awful but they were all very charming!

I love the designs of the cast in how they each represent a level of kung-fu, AND, I love the Kung-fu itself.

I feel like this is the Kung Fu Panda movie that tries the most to be creative with combining martial arts in a cartoon setting. Like... I like Kung Fu Panda 2 and 3 but I don't really remember much of the action there aside from the stuff in climaxes with the "water dodgeball" section and the "giant energy dragon avatar in the spiritual realm" section.

But in here? I remember the bridge fight, the prison escape, the master vs student showdown, the hot-potato game with the scroll, and even the training sessions with Po and the five.

I feel like as the movies went on they focused more on the spiritual journey of self-discovery and toned down the cartoon action, while in here it's just perfect.

It's amazing how many elements this movie is trying to balance while still pulling it off each of them so well.

I just wished that Po and Tai-Lung had more scenes of interaction because they basically feel like strangers in the end even though the whole movie is building up to their fight... A fight that... Really doesn't feel as good as all the action that came before to be honest.

But still, that's just one small little problem in what's otherwise a perfect product. Besides... KFP2 covers the whole Hero vs Villain thing that was lacking in here by more than making up for it, so it's all good. 1. How To Train Your Dragon

Of course my favorite DeamWorks movie is the one with the dragon. I freaking love dragons! I have a comic based on people that become dragons for crying out loud!

Kidding aside, this is a movie with a message that I just respect a lot. I really appreciate the idea of teaching kids the importance of knowing how to stop, looking at what you're doing, trying to understand who you're hurting, and what you can do to change.

This isn't just something that holds value to kids, this holds value to everyone. We are always so focused on going after the things we want that we tend to forget the people we're sometimes stepping on to get there, and this movie shows that not only do we not lose anything for trying to be friends with these people, but we might even gain something even better.

I just adore the friendship of Hiccup and Toothless (God, I love these names).

One is a kid trying to make his father proud by following the family legacy, while also trying to do what he loves by studying and befriending dragons and the conflicts that come from trying to please both sides. This is such a great lesson for kids because they're always stuck into deciding on what's best for them and what's best for what their parents want from them.

And the other side is a pet slowly lowering his defenses and deciding if he wants to trust this weird stranger that tried to hurt him or give him a second chance to prove himself as a possible ally. What do you do? Put yourself at risk and give others a chance or remain safe and away from possible harm?

This movie reminds me a lot of Lake in that if you keep looking at it you can take away twenty different lessons and themes to talk about.

Again, it's the challenge of trying to be deep while avoiding being too dark and remaining all-ages-friendly.

Kids are gonna watch this, they're gonna love the dragons and the flying scenes, and they're gonna come back years later and pick up things they didn't see were there before and later realize that without noticing it, these lessons became a part of them and a part of what they do.

You can feel that there is a lot of love in this movie. I remember watching the commentary and looking at how the creators always would get excited when there was a silent scene or a world-building scene. It's clear they had a lot of fun working on this product, and this love really can be felt through the characters, their growth, and their emotions.

I freaking adore this movie, and I freaking adore DreamWorks!

#dreamworks #dreamworks animation #puss in boots the last wish #shrek 2 #how to train your dragon #kung fu panda #kung fu panda 2 #the prince of egypt #the road to el dorado #spirit #megamind #the bad guys

[bugbyte]

Today was good! I’m a little overwhelmed!

3:30 am posting because I’m feeling slightly wound thanks to today being a whole day, but it wasn’t a bad day?

Short version: bunch of appointments, thankfully all online, but after last week being stress central this was tolerable. I got my MMJ eval and it was quick and easy and if anything I over prepared because I’m so used to not being believed and having to back myself up with data. (Which I have to gather and keep for myself because medicine is apparently just a free for all where no one communicates with each other through the online app they have specifically so they can all access data about me from each other! Neat!)

Anyway that was a major relief and I was ready to cry because they said that this should work really well with the conditions and symptoms I have. I’ll probably write something up on the process later (because I would’ve liked a plain English walkthrough of what to expect but that’s ok) but I got my card from the state, which is all digital now, so welcome to the future, I guess.

We headed out to a pretty well reviewed and priced medical dispensary in the area and had a long info session on what would work best for me and landed on some low dose (for now) capsules and gummies. Then we got fried chicken because I’d had enough for one day and went home to see if it would work.

I took a capsule, ate my chicken, and waited. They did advise taking it with a fatty food (could’ve been peanut butter or avocado or anything really; we just got chicken for its uh, health…improving….properties….yeah that sounds right) It took like a solid hour and change to notice anything, and the effects were pretty minor.

I kept trying to explain what was happening to Delade but it was a very subtle thing and hard to get across. Basically the calmest I’ve felt in ages (bonus) and like a slight tiredness, like when you’re tired at the end of the day but not exhausted or like drugged tired if you take something to get to sleep and it hits hard. Just a nice soft calm feeling.

I got brave and tried adding in an extra half a gummy (watermelon flavor!) and that hit much more quickly and mostly just added to the soft feeling. Trying to put it in better words, it was like the different between laying directly on the hard floor, or laying on a puffy blanket on the floor. You can still feel the floor, but it’s much more comfortable than otherwise. I didn’t really feel particularly loopy other than finding a few things funnier than they probably actually were. I think I would compare it in drowsiness more to like…if you’ve been given an opioid after surgery or dental work or something, it’s kind of more like that than feeling just knocked right out. I always felt like these kinds of things gave me a sort of “cozy,” safe feeling while still being conscious enough to do some light things, and this was similar. Everybody’s different though so I might be a weirdo.

So yeah, it does work! I wasn’t expecting like a 100% change in pain levels, and this will definitely take some fine tuning to get right, but there was a difference for sure. I had the makings of a nasty headache after being stressed out all afternoon, which didn’t seem affected much by anything I took so that’s interesting. If I hadn’t had the headache I probably would have attempted some comic work but staring directly into a screen felt like a bad idea. In any case the sharp edges of the pain in the rest of my body got filed way down and I’m pretty amazed overall.

I know this can work now! So I can try again tomorrow! Hopefully with less stress headache so I can get a better gauge on how it actually feels! And hopefully try to draw.

So now I just have to figure out how not to feel weird about this talking to various doctors. Some recommended it, some I can imagine being less positive, but I think the anxiety about being judged is mostly in my head.

Anyway! It was a good experience overall, both the process for getting the card and actually trying the drug itself. If it’s something you’ve been looking into and have questions I can try and answer based on my (admittedly brief) experience so far. I only know how things work in NY, but being pretty anxious I get how it can feel more enormous to figure out when you don’t know the whole scope of a thing or what it’s like to actually do.

This entire thing makes me cackle btw because in fifth grade I won some DARE essay contest in school and I think got some kind of gift card I spent on art supplies, and a hat with the DARE lion mascot thing on it, which I think I still have and should probably start wearing for maximum dumbassery.

#blog #healthposting #chronic pain #medical marijuana #mmj #pain management #pain relief

[skullsfigurepage]

POPUP Parade Oracle!

The Info (taken from Goodsmile’s website)

Sculptor: Design COCO

Paintwork: Yotaro Taniguchi

~170mm tall

Manufacturer: Good Smile Company

Material: Plastic

Release Date: June 2022

Original Price: ¥3,900 / $38.99 USD

A far too long post about the newest Futaba Sakura figure from Goodsmile! (Under the cut)

I got her from a local comic store for 50$ and tax, which ended up being ~6$ cheaper than my other figure from this series since I wasn’t covering shipping. Which was fun. Usually in stores like this I look for P5 figures or other merch unfortunately, since it’s my favorite game.

The place I was at had a ton of Popup Parade figures which was really cool to see, but I honestly didn’t expect to find any of the P5 ones since (at least in my opinion) P5 merchandise is hard to get your hands on after the initial release. It was a nice find since this is one of the few figures of a girl from Persona I feel aren’t super creepy (there are some Bad persona figures out there. Ann’s figures usually get the worst of it 🙁). Although its hard to find any devoid of Creep since the phantom thief designs for the girls are... the way they are (see: Bad).

That being said I think this one has some aspects that are kind of... off. I guess it’s fine for her to look kind of lost in thought, I wish they’d given her a more mischievous face entirely because I plan on displaying her next to my Akechi figure from this line and think it’d be funnier if she looked like she was picking on him. Also I just think they should always make every figure of her have the vibe of :3c. For fun.

Alright so for some far less than stellar photos I took of her!

Overall I think she’s a cool figure! For the most part I like her pose and expression but just wish it was all rendered slightly differently (see my comments about how the p5 girl figures are all a little creepy from earlier). The paint work is nice with no noticeable issues or misprints. Her face is printed very crisply and looks neat, although I wish there was some more blushing since the face is where people look by default.

She works pretty well displayed from any angle, but naturally works best displayed front facing, and easily the worst angle (again, in part because it is Weird to me) is the back. It’s mostly hair, which while sculpted nicely, isn’t super interesting to look at.

I don’t tend to collect boxes, which is good in this case since hers had a price sticker from the store I got her from that seems hard to rip off. It’s a shame though since I think the p5 popup parade boxes do look really nice. (they’re too large for me to keep though lol.)

Final thoughts

I think she’s neat! Gonna be on the lookout for the Joker popup parade figure so she can have her brother with her! (and ig her brother’s miserable boyfriend). Glad I saw her in store and didn’t have to worry about shipping. Ideally the second wave of p5 popup parade figures (Futaba and Makoto) means they’ll make more in the future and I can continue my insane habit of buying Ryuji and Ann’s figures together (they are besties to me).

Do I recommend this figure?

Yeah! Love the Popup Parade figures a lot and think they’re worth the price, especially for the P5 sets, usually p5 figures go for a lot more :,)

Where to buy

As of December 30th 2022 the Goodsmile US shop has her available. When/if she goes out of stock there I might update this, but for now that’s the only place I’d recommend buying this from.

Thank you for reading!

#persona 5 #anime figure #figurine #figure review #futaba sakura #lol ig #first one of these! it was very fun :) #u will ALL know my opinions abt the merch they make of the p5 girls (hint: they need to do better its weird as hell)

[chororine]

takoyaki party thoughts (MAJOR SPOILERS)

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THE FIGHTING YOWAI...... THE FIGHTING YOWAI IS REAL

I... maybe be stupid because when I got to that scene my brain rapidly flicked between "BABY TOTOKO FLASHBACK...? TOTOKO BABY SIBLING...? TOTOKO'S FAMILY FRIEND NEW BABY...?" until Sof (my bf whom I was watching it with) piped up "TOTOKO'S BROTHER???" he says he's more of a casual Ososan fan and is mostly invested in Kara as a character and supporting his gf's special interest but still picks up on details like that before said gf. his brain is enormous (like his d

when I saw that this movie was directed by Hikaru Yamaguchi who started her career as an animator on Deen Higurashi I joked "this movie better have punishment games and time loops" but I was surprised when it DID kinda turn into a time loop story in the last 15 minutes or so, or at least Totoko tries to turn it into one but Reality Ensues? I think my only major problem with the movie was how that interesting idea wasn't fleshed out particularly well, and they don't explain how they broke out of their "time loop" at all - they do imply Totoko, Matsuyo and DekaDayon came out of the experience making small positive changes in their lives but they don't SHOW them coming to the conclusion that they SHOULD. it felt like the movie skipped the big emotional climax and cut right from a random exterior shot to the denouement

that said, even if the movie stumbled at the last hurdle I did really enjoy 90% of it - I'm a Hipipo apologist but I do think TakoPa is the FUNNIER movie, with super snappy comedic pacing and jokes coming thick and fast (...heh) as opposed to Hipipo's meandering pace and repetitive jokes, only really finding its comedic footing about halfway through when there's a timeskip indicated by the Matsus getting their tans (and stumbling a bit even then). just like my favourite parts of Hipipo were the boys bonding and vibing with the tribe, my favourite parts of TakoPa were the whole Akatsuka Ward gang just hanging out and having fun, each getting their little moments to shine but ultimately being one big, very weird found family

come to think of it Hipipo and TakoPa kinda feel like two sides of the same coin: people are inevitably gonna have preferences but ultimately, it's a good thing that last year gave us a movie for people who love the broad, cartoony, larger-than-life aspects of the show (hello) while this year gave us one for those love the down-to-Earth, slice-of-life aspects. I think that's a better way to celebrate Osomatsu-san's 6th anniversary even if this year is its 8th anniversary but the official Twitter still says TakoPa is for the 6th so just go with it (and, coincidentally, Osomatsu-kun's 60th anniversary) than giving us one big movie that tries to be too many things at once and fails at all of them (...like the time they already did that. this is a certified Eiga no Osomatsu-san (2019) hate blog.) I'm kinda surprised I haven't seen anything about a double feature screening of both in Japan because that would just feel so right

one of the few things Hipipo and TakoPa have in common is some nice moments of wordless storytelling: Hipipo had the three montages of the Matsus interacting with the tribe and TakoPa's opening 10 minutes are almost dialogue-less, save for some background character chatter and an "itadakimasu" from Oso. both could be seen as a budget-saving measure to get around the expensive seiyuu cast, but they also work as an artistic choice - if they commit to the bit and make s4 into a straight-up silent comedy as a way to resolve the issue of the title character's iconic voice actor being a scumbag, I'll be all for it tbh

as enjoyable as TakoPa is, it's still ultimately an hour long bottle episode, with only previously established locations and characters (Nyaa's daughter gets more screentime than ever before to the point where she FEELS like a new character, and an absolutely precious one at that, but her existence WAS pre-established in s3) and taking place mostly in the main characters' home - not inherently bad, but an odd choice for possibly the last piece of "mainline" media in a franchise. the only thing that kept it from being completely underwhelming in that regard was some smart meta commentary that the Japanese fandom also picked up on so it definitely wasn't just me projecting: Totoko (we, the fans) wanted to keep the party (show) going forever in order to escape her (our) cruel reality and feelings of inadequacy, even at the cost of making her friends (the staff) burnt out as fuck. I find it deeply meaningful that the party did, in fact, end (even if they glossed over HOW), and they didn't give the movie a surreal, nihilistic ending like so many episodes of the show - if Totoko can continue to work on her idol career, Dekapan can find new animal friends even after the death of old ones (nice oblique reference to his love for cats in -kun!!!) and Matsuyo can reach out to other women around her own age, maybe we too can find meaning in this world even if the sextuplets can't. I wonder how much of the script was written before vs. after the Sakurai scandal sealed the show's fate (maybe)...

come to think of it, a good succinct way to describe Totoko in this movie is as the character I WISH Takahashi had been: a vessel for us, the fans', feelings towards the Matsus who ACTIVELY tries to affect the characters' world in ways that challenge both them and the viewer, rather than a passive damsel waiting for them at the end. you go TakoPa Totoko four for you TakoPa Totoko

back in November when I'd watched all three Ososan movies that existed at the time - Eiga no Osomatsu-san (2019), Eiga Osomatsu-san (2022) (the live-action one, yeah it's confusing) and Hipipo - I thought Hipipo, despite its flaws, was my favourite of the franchise's movies. I felt the same way immediately after the credits of TakoPa finished rolling... but as I went around unblocking Japanese Matsutwitter accounts now I no longer have to worry about spoilers, I found a poll that kinda made me rethink everything??? for nearly a year I'd been operating under the theory that the Western Ososan fanbase just "didn't get" Hipipo and that the show's true target audience of Japanese adults who'd grown up with Osokun would validate my positive feelings towards the movie - but that poll made me question if said positive feelings were just a result of the context in which I saw Hipipo for the first time (unspoiled, reacting to it along with the man I love, and by my own power instead of Crunchyroll's). regardless of whether or not I SHOULD, I now feel kind of apologetic to the Japanese fandom for insisting that the Western fandom "just didn't get it" while forgetting that oh wait, I'M a Western fandom. at this precise moment I'm not sure how I feel about the 6th anniversary movies overall; maybe it's still a case where one is "objectively better" than the other but I still prefer the "worse" one for personal reasons? is that allowed??? or maybe I don't passionately love OR hate either of them the way I passionately love the TV show and passionately hate Eiga (2019). maybe it's too soon to properly assess my feelings and I should rewatch the two back to back in a few months/a year, idk

but I will say this: of the four movies, three of them made me cry on first viewing (Eiga with sadness, live-action with laughter at one particular scene, and Hipipo with joy, also at one particular scene). TakoPa was the only Ososan movie to NOT make me cry - I guess by that metric it's the most "meh" of the four, at least for my taste, but still a worthwhile entry in the franchise and a satisfying note to (possibly) end it on

Ichi NEEDS to catsit for DekaDayon

#osoKatsusan #osomatsu san spoilers #takoyaki party spoilers #spoilers #spoiler

[lucithornz]

I am so hype for dual POV. It's always way funnier seeing both of them being dumb at the same time XD

I cant wait for your first 'little' plot twist. (Is anything actually little for you? or are you saying its small because it starts out that way and then becomes more of a problem later? XD)

As an aside tho, How crazy are you going from having to edit through everything you'd already written now that we know Lewis is joining Ferrari? XD

I need Max pov because he is way more similar to me so it's way easier to get in his head lmao

I actually have no idea what the size is, but I'd rather underpromise and overdeliver. It could be earthshattering for all I know

About Lewis, I was mostly salty because I didn't think of it first. The actual audacity of F1 to come up with better drama than me. Because I discovery write it didn't change that much of what I have already written, but it does tweak some ideas and directions I might wanna take things. Because I just cannot ignore it, and it ended up working out pretty nicely in terms of the plot, so in the end it's a plus.

#f1 is not a real sport I swear to god #actual fanfiction being written in front of us live #red horse asks #luci answers

[phoenixyfriend]

SW Suddenly-Omegaverse AU: Surrogacy, Worldbuilding, Obi-Mom

Truly the main irony of all this is that everyone considers Obi-Wan the Better Omega but Anakin is the one who's actually 👀👀👀 about pregnancy

Obi-Wan: I have the deepest respect for those who do it, but the idea of growing another person inside of me is weird and gross, no, thank you.

Meanwhile Anakin is like. Immediate baby fever. Someone actually approaches him like "hey... there are forms you can fill out to request an exception for pregnancy, and like... regulations" because he's that obvious about it.

I assume that if they've got safety nets for accidental pregnancies, then they're probably aware that there are people who want to do it on purpose? I feel like in an omegaverse where 'biological imperative to procreate' can be so much more intense, then maybe there's old precedent that stuck around even after suppressants got most of those hormones under better control.

Bit torn. Just know I want Anakin to Make Baby.

"Anakin, what are you--" "Do you think offering to be someone's surrogate would be acceptable to the council as a way to be pregnant without getting attached." "...what." "They'd probably accept that as a way to practice not getting attached, right?" "N...no, that's not... what?"

Anakin approaching Bail and Breha and being like “Do you... still want a kid? I would provide a kid. Do you want one here*?”

* in this dimension

Great way to give up the baby as a parent because he'd still be able to see them once in a while but also like... it's not HIS kid, technically. He can be a cool uncle who happened to give birth, which is distant enough to not be 'attached,' but close enough that his Tatooine-raised 'must ensure family is safe whenever possible' background doesn't flip out. It helps that 'Core World Royalty' is like... a top-tier family to be raised in.

(It would have to be post-war because he probably shouldn’t be risking his life while very pregnant. He needs to be reminded of that sometimes.)

Bail/Breha is an alpha/alpha relationship and while a pregnancy is still possible,* it’s a whole lot more difficult, and that's on top of Breha's canon medical issues that resulted in her heart and lungs getting replaced.

* AFAB alphas can get pregnant, and AMAB omegas can inseminate, but the success rate on that angle is much lower than the 'traditional' alpha/omega roles, as is any attempt at reproduction outside rut/heat. They're low-fertility overall for the non-dominant aspect of their reproductive system, which... ha, Anakin and Obi-Wan try to get explanations for why the senary system works the way it does, but it's a very longform history lesson that comes down to 'idk this got cemented so long ago that nobody really knows why anymore.'

AKA "why do you title these roles male omega and female alpha instead of intersex omega and intersex alpha since both parties have both genitals."

ANYWAY

Anakin: I want to make babies. But I don't want to get kicked out of the order. But I don't want to give up my own babies for adoption. But I can't keep my own babies if I want to stay a Jedi. So basically I want to have someone else's babies? Anakin: ...wait shit that's just surrogacy.

Anakin, calling up Obi-Wan: Hey are the Organas still struggling to have a kid? Obi-Wan: ...not really your business. Anakin: You're friends with Bail again though, right? Obi-Wan: I am, but-- Anakin: Do you think they'd want me to be a surrogate? Obi-Wan: What.

I can't decide if it's funnier for the Order to be like "I mean... technically there's no rules against this?" or if this is a precedent set by at least three omegas every generation because that's just how a/b/o manifested for omegas in a biological and cultural sense.

Bail: Wait, your former apprentice is... volunteering... to be our surrogate. Obi-Wan, exhausted: Yes. Bail: He barely knows us. Obi-Wan: He respects you and you're the closest people he knows that want a child and would be good parents. Bail: And he's just... volunteering? Obi-Wan: Yes. Also, you did say your primary worry was that a surrogate might be targeted for assassination and you couldn't ask someone to risk that, right? Anakin is very much able to avoid assassins, and would be staying primarily in the Temple anyway. Very safe, and not particularly scared of assassins in the first place. Bail: Your words say you approve, but your tone says otherwise. Obi-Wan: Anakin considers me his father. I'm not old enough to be a grandparent. Bail: Ah.

Anakin is a surrogate and enjoys it and everything is fine and then like a year later he's accidentally pregnant with his own and Rex's kid, and nobody knows how to ask if it's actually an accident.

A suggestion from @gelpenss:

OH MAN i.... have to drive home. But I just had a thought about like. I always want to poke at Betas in A/B/O like are they “normal” or different from our standard or.... but ANYWAY assuming they have a pheromonal thing I just think it would be neat if betas had the ability to be the Bucket of Cold Water. Like if caught early enough, and with the caveat it’s not permanent, a beta could arrest a rut or heat in its tracks until a more ideal time. Like. They aren’t birth control. But they are the remind me later button.

Okay done driving I am Returned to bring up why I brought up betas and it’s this: well okay 1. It plays nice with a popular but inaccurate dog breeding urban legend that female dogs will like, delay heat cycles? so that the bitches above them in pack hierarchy have first choice of mate selection. And I think in omegaverse it would be cool if that was a Bio Fact, and also historically enforced by the third designation. 2. It gives me an excuse to have betas have the Most Sensitive sense of smell because it’s their “job” to pick up on things before they go too far to be put on pause. 3. I’m just thinkin ‘bout a beta clone [...] just hovering around Obi-Wan because they found out how much stress his heat cycle causes and they’re like “okay cool I will help make sure it does Not”

I want to like a/b/o verses but betas niggle at me. I want to give them a hat and a Function that woulda helped before modern medicine.

I'm not sure how I feel about betas being able to delay heats, but I do like the idea of them having a more sensitive sense of pheromone smell than most. Most aliens assume it's omegas with the best sense of smell, and betas with the worst, but it's more complicated than that because they all specialize: Alphas are actually less attuned to pheromone smells, but more attuned to things that were useful back when humans were still a hunter-gatherer species. Omegas tend to be heightened towards danger smells like fire or aggression, and pheromones relating to children/care. Betas, as suggested above, are very sensitive to pheromone changes relating to mood and behavior of the community around them.

I like the idea that betas were historically the ones that ended up taking care children, unmated omegas, and so on during people's heats and ruts, because they kept their heads about themselves long enough to do things like cook and clean while someone was reeking of hormones. The checks and balances work out that betas may have lower fertility, but it makes them better able to support the network around them.

It works in with humanity's general collective history of thriving the most when working as a community.

Given that I decided that this is Jangobi, the clones might all subconsciously view Obi-Wan as Mom. Not intentionally, but, you know... Obi-Wan the not-evil stepmother. He doesn't know how he got into this situation, but he sure is here, and he sure as hell doesn't know how to get out.

Obi-Wan "I don't need to get pregnant, I have three million stepchildren" Kenobi

I definitely love "clones all want to make Obi-Wan's heats less stressful" but like in a different way from Whatever The Fuck Anakin's Got Going On.

Obi-Wan using the force to dull the pain in a Shiny's broken leg while the medic works on it and the Shiny just mumbles "Thanks mom" and everyone gets very embarrassed and pretends it didn't happen.

But then it happens again. And again.

Obi-Wan asks for an explanation from Cody and gets a halting response that, since Jango is technically their father, and his scent has been all over Obi-Wan recently... and Obi-Wan puts in a lot of effort to take care of them all.......

Anakin overhears the clones calling Obi-Wan "mom" and just. The most judgmental eyebrow raise.... Mostly in the sense of "You never let me call you dad" "Thought you said you weren't anyone's parent." "Hey, hey, Obi-Wan. What the fuck."

BOBA. BOBA ABSOLUTELY CALLS OBI-WAN MOM WHENEVER POSSIBLE. IT'S DEEPLY FRUSTRATING.

Obi-Wan eventually manages to admit that he's uncomfortable with it at minimum because of the gendering the word has for him, can they at least use the neutral 'buir' instead?

Word spreads like fire, takes like two days max for everyone to switch.

(Anakin demands cuddles as compensation for not getting to call Obi-Wan any true parental term for years.)

#Anakin Skywalker #Obi Wan Kenobi #Bail Organa #Rexwalker #Jangobi #Captain Rex #Commander Cody #Boba Fett #star wars #the clone wars #omegaverse #SW Suddenly Omegaverse #mpreg tw #phoenix posts

[jiilys]

would u help me out for a second. im in the mood to write for the first time, and i think your style is beautiful. sitting down n actually trying though, im stuck as fuck! i’m realizing that in your dialogue/scenes you’ve got a lot of Little Things. little tiny elements that are subtle & just enough. how are you deciding that lily is building a house of cards at the moment or sirius is sitting in a tree or whatever during a given scene? how do you come up with those ideas for dialogue that are so silly & real & sneakily tender? do you know where it’s going when you begin? any advice for just… starting something?

ps: i appreciate you. you make it look easy & that’s very very cool

This is a lovely question!! Sorry it took me so long to get to it, I didn’t want to get it wrong. Also I’ve included some examples to try and explain what I mean in practise, but it also comes off rather like plugging. tragically this is unavoidable. Anyway, all that being said I have no idea how to advise you about dialogue and coming up with it, I think just listening to people talk helps. Don’t forget contractions, and when in doubt always trust the reader to keep up, real people don’t say perfect or even grammatically correct sentences a lot of the time. We also cut each other off all the time, especially when we’re trying to be funny. Like, here’s an example from warm front:

“He’s not even two. He probably would have thought it was, like, having a lie down or something.”

Harry was laughing now, “A lie down?”

“Yeah, a spontaneous, truck-induced–“

“–Permanent–“ “

–Permanent, lie-down. I’m almost jealous now actually.”

Another thing, but people say um and like or can't speak or cut themselves off, especially when they’re nervous. James when Lily says she loves him for the first time: ‘“Wow,” He breathed, “I’m– wow.” He put both hands on her cheeks and kissed her crazy, abruptly, dumbly. Her head spun.’ He can’t even speak! Dumb boy.

I think natural dialogue sometimes just requires you to read it aloud, which is very embarrassing but ultimately quite useful in trying to figure out whether something sounds normal or not. Use casual words, and try not to go dictionary hunting: if you cant think of the word chances are your character can’t either

In terms of concepts I have no idea, but I do have a few tips. I write all my short one-shots in one document (its called ‘just bad’ lmao) so its easy to start something, write a few lines, and then if it doesnt work just start a new concept, but still have all the old stuff handy. if you feel like you’ve written yourself into a corner its probably because you took a wrong turn earlier, so its just a matter of going back up and figuring out where you turned onto the dead end, or where a line could be funnier and/or sadder and/or more meaningful. Sometimes the bare bones of a decent line is there but you have to work it a little.

In this harry/ginny thing where harry is apologising for all the attention and ginny brushes him off she says:

“It’s nothing,” her voice, all force, “Anyway, it’s more funny than annoying.”

The response went through a few drafts, all variations on the same thing:

(1) “You’re funnier.” [too short, doesn’t make sense, and not really that funny. unholy trinity]

(2) “You make it funny.” Harry said, looking at her for real, “It’s not– you make it like that.” [this could work! I have no idea why I cut this, I think I forgot abt it lmao]

(3) “You’re the funniest person I know, Harry said, sincerely, and Ginny felt her heartbeat all through her, “You make it funny.” [jumping from ‘its more funny than annoying’ to getting this sincere out of nowhere is a little much, even for harry who is famously whipped]

I ended up going with this:

“It’s nothing,” her voice, all force, “Anyway, it’s more funny than annoying.”

“You’re funny.” Harry said, looking at her for real, flustered, “I mean– you make it funny. That’s all you.”

It follows the flow of the conversation and I think the way he says it, ‘you’re funny’ like its obvious, and then being like oh fuck and over-explaining it stumbling a little “I mean– you make it funny. That’s all you.”. You know when you like someone and you say something that gives you away before you can stop yourself? I wanted it to sound like that. Just gotta keep in mind how people behave, we are so stupid a lot of the time, we give ourselves away.

The thing about short stuff i find is implying a lot of history without actually describing a lot of it. I normally do this by having memories come up as almost shards, one second of feeling. You know when you’re in a conversation with someone and they mention someone or a past event, and it rises to the top of your brain, but only for a second? i find sometimes when you’re reading stuff people will try and replay entire memories or events mid-conversation, which is not something you do when you think. You don’t need to replay it beat by beat, you were there! This sounds vague as hell so I’ll try and show you what I mean:

From good crimes: “Petunia is engaged.” Lily’s voice, raw and wrong, “To Vernon. Eliza Hunt told me at the supermarket.” Sudden flashes of Petunia, the only time he’d ever met her, sat in the back of Lily’s twenty-first, pinched and whispering. “Whose Eliza Hunt?” This seems as good a thing to say as any.

pretty on the nose (the phrase ‘sudden flashes’ is pretty so i'll allow it from past me). But see how you don’t need to know how Petunia didnt talk to anyone, how she left early, how she was the odd one out: you don’t need to read all that, you already know because she was sat in the back and because pinched is such a mean verb, spiteful and sharp, you can already imagine how the evening went without me saying so

From my proposal take, after Sirius finds out they’re engaged: Sirius’ grip on his shoulder tightened for one second, still grinning, and James knew what he meant. “I know.” He said, because only Sirius had been there for all of it, when they were fifteen, drunk on Firewhiskey for the first time and James had said I think I’ve fucked it, I think I’ve fucked it but I like her for real.

you don’t need a description of the whole night, what party they were at, who they were with, what they were talking about: the important bit is that Sirius was the first person he told, and that they’re both remembering that at the same moment because they’re soulmates lmao. You know when something big happens for a friend and you feel so full of pride & love that you feel like you’ll burst into confetti?? this needed to feel like that, and you only need a flash for it

I feel like I’ve sort of strayed off from what you asked me, which is really advice on how to start something. I normally start with a line, usually of dialogue, and then try and build from there because dialogue is my thing. You might have a different thing! Some people write from concepts or locations, or an image. i might start with one or a few lines of dialogue, write them down, and then try to build from there. For example for the proposal thing I started from james just saying “Marry me”, which I find more romantic than ‘will you marry me’, purely because it sounds like he simply couldn’t stop himself from saying it, like it rushed out. Another example, this thing started from just “don’t be mad at me” “okay” James agreed instantly, because he is such a sucker for her.

When I write I don’t normally know where I’m going! I normally set out to write something I think is vaguely funny and evokes An Emotion, and then I just play around with stuff until I get there. when I write certain stuff and I have scenes in mind, stuff I want to happen, but I find that if I try to plot it to tightly its not exciting to work on, because sometimes you write a good line by accident, that you hadn’t thought of when you sat down, and you surprise yourself. That is a really nice feeling! i want to maximise that feeling.

'What I mostly try to remember is that writing something down, anything down, is useful. Sometimes you write for a whole night and dont get anything useable, but its like clearing pipes. Sometimes you have to flush through shit to get to the good bits. All the rough stuff, the things you don’t like or didn’t work, you wrote to get you to the stuff that did work. All of the bad shit got you here! It wasn’t a waste, you were working to find the good thing

If I had any tips its just the usual stuff, read! It is annoying how much that helps. Also, and I know this may make you shudder, but reading poetry is useful just because in no other literary or media form is language so important. In comics you have pictures, in novels you have plot and character, in film you all that and cinematography, but in poetry you live and die by how good the words are. If you want recs here’s my poem roundup tag, that I do sometimes, or if you want something just now read this by Anne Carson, which uses words like ‘smashing’, ‘boatwash’, and ‘green’ in the best way possible. Also it has these lines: “Recently having learned to recognize the type of tree called sycamore, / I see them in any forest— / the ones that look harrowed, / in shreds, but / go also / straight up into life,”

I mean, think of a sharper image than that?? It’s not possible. Just try remember to stay true to your characters and that in real life, the little stuff is the big stuff. Little things the people around you do normally show they care more than big speeches, and if you want to show love that’s how to make it feel lived in. You want to build a world! the little stuff is usually the world. Take some from your own or dream the ones you wish you had.

This truly was a very kind message and I’m so grateful you like my stuff, I hope any of this was even half-useful, although now reading it back it is borderline nonsensical. I’m going to bed now, good luck with the writing, and don’t forget to send it to me!!

caro xoxo

#writing bitching #said it already but loved this message it was so thoughtful. seemed pretty articulate to me i think ur writing is gunna be just fine!!! #rooting for you & anyone trying to write something rn. words suck and are difficult! they are also better than drugs & sex. regretable #kindnesses

[sepublic]

Through the Looking Glass Ruins!!!!!

         …

         SO! Onto other things first…

         WRATH IS BRAXAS’ FATHER!??!!? HOLY SHIT, Wrath is a canonical dad, I’d always expressed my… OH MY GOD WRATH IS DAD! And of BRAXAS, that sweetie… How is Braxas such a sweetie with a father like HIM, also-

         Wrath was in casual wear? Either he has a day off, or he got fired by Belos/Kikimora after drawing Luz a map to Eda in Young Blood, Old Souls! Either way this guy has a sudden new level of NUANCE that I am reeling from, and yes I checked, that really is Wrath according to the credits! Dang this puts everything in a WHOLE new light…!

         AMITY HAIR OHMIGOD IT LOOKS SO ADORABLE SHE’S SELF-ACTUALIZING I AM FUCKING SCREAMING HOLY SHIT OH MY GOD!!! OH MY GOD OH MY GOD, it’s PINK and not green… They acknowledged it, Emira did! And they CHANGED IT I AM LOSING MY FUCKING MIND OVER THIS-

         She looks so BEAUTIFUL and I love the kind of foreshadowing with the bookends of our first shot of Amity having her hair down, and now it’s changed! And she looks adorable and EMIRA AND EDRIC BEING GREAT SIBLINGS I LOVE IT SO MUCH! This… THIS is everything I wanted! I was resigned to not much of them but HELL YEAH they’re being good siblings and we get a look at their rooms, we see them doing MAKEOVERS together this is everything from my favorite fanon content and MORE,

         Also Edric has a date?! Emira says ‘their’ mom… Unless the Golden Guard has a mom, DARN! Not gonna lie, I half-expected a big twist at the end that Edric was dating the Golden Guard, who was doing some sort of reconnaissance as his unrecognized normal self and/or screwing around with the Blights even further, but in a GENUINE sense… But then who knows Kikimora could be posing as GG’s ‘mom’, this is a stretch anyhow-

         JUST HELL YEAH Blight Twins! Blight Twins being sweet and mischievous and supportive of each other, Blight SIBLINGS being siblings, Emira being an older sister and giving advice! And AMITY, Amity mentioning how much Luz has changed stuff, I love that they acknowledge it openly how her life has completely shifted, and now… NOW…!

         No necklace! Red leggings! PINK HAIR?! Is this why Amity in the intro hasn’t been updated yet… She was getting TWO updates, so the animators decided to only animate a change after this final update?!

         King and Gus are also friends it seems, and they even recorded some fun together! I’m surprised at how much Bria and the others mock Gus’ illusion skills… Obviously Belos is kinda terrible but like; I don’t think he’d set aside an entire subset of magic into Illusions without reason! Also that nightmare trip… I LOVE IT, I love Gus applying the creativity of illusions in their ability to completely warp and distort someone’s sense of reality! And I called that dragon-thing being an illusion!

         A graveyard… I wonder if the Gallderstones (is that how it’s spelled) have any relevance or if they’re just neat? I hope Mattholomule and Gus help hide the Looking Glass Graveyard… Damn, that’s another Death reference with Gus, huh! Is it culminating in his respect for the dead, or will it continue further with Gus being a necromancer, or an Oracle who can commune with the deceased, and he has their respect as someone who treats them properly?!

         Also not to get dark but… What if all those Illusionists are dead because of Belos? I’m JUST SAYING…! And not gonna lie, every time someone insulted Illusions, I kept imagining the Illusion Head just suddenly waking up and feeling like there’s a disturbance in the force, as well as a weird compulsion to beat up some Glandus kids. It’d be even funnier if he had beef with the Construction, Plant, and Abomination Heads as well!

         Speaking of which, more confirmation on Construction Magic being related to earth! Glad to see Bria give us a look into that, which furthers my idea of Belos using construction magic… Also dang, Bria and the Glandus Kids really are the parallels/foils to the Detention kids! You’ve got the short ‘nice’ girl, the tall lanky kid, the furry… But the Glandus Kids start off looking nice and cool, but turn out to be rather nasty!

         Meanwhile the Detention Kids seem like bad news and delinquents, but no! They’re just demonized and actually very kind and chill! The Detention Kids are looked down upon, the Glandus Kids are appraised… The Detention Kids are dual-track, the Glandus Kids are singular; Glandus Kids from, well, GLANDUS, Detention Kids from Hexside… One’s ‘mischief’ is actually very neat and cool, the other’s is literal grave robbing.

         I guess that’s how the bleeding statues got past the censors- It’s technically just an illusion! Also more insight into how Glandus works with its Survival of the Fittest mentality, I wonder if we’ll get confirmation on which coven heads came from there, how that might influence them as adults…

         What is Glandus like, is it more whole-heartedly accepting of Belos’ rule, hence its harsh ideals? Was it made after Hexside? Does Bump hate it for being so cruel like that, or is it just school bias? And dang poor Mattholomule, I always had a feeling he sort of felt and knew that he wasn’t much, so he accepted and compensated by deliberately doing whatever he can for power…

         They confirmed he’s from Glandus, and I appreciate this new look at him! This new leaf turned… Hot take but he’s honestly not as bad as Boscha, his stint with Gus was a one-time thing that Gus was able to live with! And that seems pretty good to set them up as friends! Speaking of Boscha, Willow was injured by pixies? And the last time we heard of pixies, they belonged to Boscha and caused the school to get shut down… Did BOSCHA DO THIS I SWEAR SHE IS DEAD TO ME-

         (Also she’s mentioned in the credits for this episode but I don’t remember hearing her? I might’ve gotten distracted with so much other things.)

         Gus! I like the insight into his relationship with Illusions, and I appreciate how he’s considering other forms of magic… But this hesitation might just serve to reaffirm his believe in Illusions, which is okay! It’s all about choice… And yeah, it seems Gus also has a case of impostor syndrome like King, no wonder they get along so well! I love the glimpses into Gus’ house and the confirmation that he has a library card, no Perry though alas…!

         I appreciate how Gus feels overlooked, like he has no real substance, which is how his Illusions reflect a desire to draw attention, but also the idea that there’s nothing real beneath them… Again, very much like King! And Gus, he’s not a powerhouse like the rest, he’s SKILLED and smart, but strength isn’t his forte, it’s not brute force he operates on, but cleverness! Trickery, I like it…! It’s a nice callback to his last A-plot episode, SVSF, where instead of fighting Mattholomule physically, Gus’ solution is to think outside the box and pull the alarm!

         You go kid, not relying on brute strength but showing that some clever tricks and thinking are just as valid! Kinda wonder if this episode is lowkey a discussion on masculinity for young boys, especially with Gus growing older with puberty, though the latter is mostly because his actual VA grew… But maybe the writers rolled with that and incorporated it, or it’s just a very neat coincidence! Also, it is me or did Mattholomule’s voice change? And the gag that Gavin’s dad looks identical to him, even moreso because he’s NOT supposed to have a moustache… That’s great!

         Malphas! Love this reference to a classic demon, I wasn’t sure if Malphas was the librarian with glasses whom I’ve always headcanoned as a father figure to Amity… But maybe it’s actually this bird dude! He seems adept in Bard magic, and I love the reveal of his true crow appearance… Guess those theorists were right that the one-eyed figure is from the Forbidden Stacks! Also Malphas NOT COOL with Amity, but I’m glad Luz changed his mind, and I wonder how that adventure looked…

         Which- DAMN, the RSD with Luz! She looks so UTTERLY BROKEN when Amity mentions doing stupid things, and she didn’t mean it like that, but Luz just looks so completely shattered and you can tell she wants to cry but instead she bottles it up and tries to take it in stride, and that plays into her trying to overcompensate for her mistakes AGAIN… SOMEONE GET IT TO HER HEAD that she doesn’t need to! I’m scared for Luz, and I was SO scared this episode would end on a bad note…

         BUT DOAHLDdFAEONDKFHN LUMITY KISS LUMITY KISS! ONE-SIDED BUT THEY FINALLY FUCKING KNOW AND AMITY IS LIKE WHAAAAT AND I WAS WAITING FOR IT AND I COULD FEEL IT HAPPEN AND GAY KISS! GAY KISS ON-SCREEN!!! And the way Luz just FLOPS to the ground on her knees AAHJJFFKHGGK and no Alador nor Odalia to ruin this, UTTERLY PERFECT and the twins WATCHING OOOHHHHGGGG YYYEEAAAAHHH-

         This is EVERYTHING I ever wanted!

         What an AMAZING episode with wonderful characer beats and reveals! Again, Amity’s growth as a character, that brief insight into how Luz as a person is very chaotic and sometimes frustrating for Amity and forces her to reevaluate, but ultimately it’s good and Luz DOES try her best, and Amity clearly wanted to make things up for Luz and apologize, they’re BOTH doing things, just the little moments!

         Also, Alex Lawther voices Philip Wittebane! He has long hair and a vaguely british accent, he’s… He’s Belos isn’t he? And they got a new VA because having him voiced by Matthew Rhys would be really spoiler-y right? He’s got the long hair and he’s a nerd… And with how he talks of finding a way back home, maybe Belos really DOES just want to return home, after all? He talks of making a way back home…

         And we see a glimpse of the Portal, so it might’ve brought him there? Or did Philip succeed in making it, and that was his blueprint designs? Did he arrive by Titan’s Blood? What happened to the portal if it brought him there, or if he made it? Why the scar, why near Eda’s house, partially buried?

         Was it lost before he could finish his work, and Philip got side-tracked into something else… Perhaps going on a crusade, on behalf of a curse/demon that possessed him? A demon that killed King’s father…? Was the portal broken and he had to discard it, but then it naturally healed- Or did it just need to recharge, maybe Philip DID make it back home, WHAT IS THE ANSWER?! Is there some sort of doppelganger for Philip, is BELOS his doppelganger?! What is THIS WHAT-

         WHAT AN EPISODE!

#the owl house #lumity #the owl house gus #augustus porter #the owl house mattholomule #the owl house luz #luz noceda #the owl house amity #amity blight #the owl house bria #the owl house gavin #the owl house angmar #the owl house malphas #the owl house wrath #warden wrath #the owl house braxas #the owl house philip #philip wittebane #speculation #analysis #the owl house spoilers #spoilers #toh spoilers

[justasimptm]

The Bride C9

The next week goes by in a flurry, from random house calls from Mother Miranda, my sisters goading over me, and my mother watching every single one of my movements I hardly have a second to breathe. I managed to get one of the maids to help me repair my corsets, knowing full well that if my mother found out that I had done that she would not have been pleased. The whole time we’re sewing I can feel her stare at me, tense. The scars on her arms and face tells me exactly why she’s so nervous. Any one who’s had the pleasure of being alone with my sisters knows exactly why. They definitely set the precedent for crazy in my family, and I unfortunately do get looped in with them.

With my mother watching my every breath I find myself taking to her favorites as a way to appease her. Her favorite clothing, hair styles, her favorite ways to torture, to eat, anything I possibly can to convey that I’m not a threat. She grows further from me, despite my efforts, and my sisters move in closer. They’re in her company more often than not, whispering to her, watching me with dark looks in their eyes. I actually find myself around the maids more often. Like they knew something was happening and that they could get away from my sisters if they were near me. Their company is quiet, they work like ants, bustling in and out and around so softly if you weren’t looking you wouldn’t notice they were there at all. I get so used to them, that when they stop coming I noticeably feel a difference. The change is so swift it catches me off guard.

I can’t help but feel the stab of rejection when they start darting from the room when I enter it. It’s not entirely unfounded, afterall I know they whisper about what happens to them when we bring them to the basement. It doesn’t take long for me to realize why, after catching a glimpse of Cassandra standing over one of the girls dauntingly. I faintly hear her threatening the girl that if she doesn’t stop ‘bothering’ me, that I’ll do to her what they did to her sister. She makes it sound like friendly advice while also implying I’ll hurt her.

What’s even funnier to me is that I recognize the girl. Her name is Claire, her older sister, Janette worked for us for a few months before she started here, and Cassandra was the one who killed the poor thing. She had essentially made ribbons out of her skin. All the girl had done was open a window, which seemed harmless enough especially considering she didn’t know any better, but my sisters were furious, as was Mother. The girl didn’t make it past lights out, my sisters had dragged her from her room, silently weeping as she followed them down the stairs to the fate she knew was waiting for her. I’m convinced I could hear her screams from my room.

When I asked Cassandra why she had done it she simply smiled at me innocently and shrugged her shoulders, before stepping back and walking out of my sight. Small things like this happen for the next couple of days, I catch them saying something and then they laugh and walk off like it was nothing. I know we never really got along but honestly, this is a whole different level of obnoxious I wasn’t ready to deal with yet, but I do. Meeting each of their smirks with a snarl, each airy laugh with a growl. If they want to play that game, so be it. I was the first daughter and I will be damned if I let them run me out of my home.

My brilliant revenge plan consists of opening the windows of their favorite rooms, telling the maids if they shut it I would make their life hell. Being turned into the scary one had its perks, and so as I would listen to the enraged yells of my siblings I would smile, knowing it would take them ages to get someone to close the windows. Mother never stepped in, mostly resigned herself to watching us, and doing special tasks for Miranda.

I don’t see or hear from Heisenberg until Mother Miranda invites my mother and I to Donna’s house for the next meeting. My mother, of course, was disgusted by the idea of going there, but she was never one to deny Miranda, so she had a few of the maids hitch up our carriage for her to ride in, she was never one to walk, but allowed me to take my own horse and ride alongside. It was so refreshing to be back outside, especially riding. For ages I was too sick, and then she didn’t want me going out in case something might happen. After our transformations she became more paranoid than before, and that’s saying something.

The ride up to her home wasn’t very long, but it was still nice. Donna was welcoming as always, even though her doll was...odd. I could tell mother wasn’t thrilled to be there by the way she scrunched up her nose as she skimmed the room. Moreau had occupied himself in the corner, muttering to himself about something while occasionally glancing up at mother and I. Donna was skittering around, clearly not used to company as her passages kept making her other creations jolt slightly. Heisenberg was sprawled on her stairs, back leant against a post, one leg bent up on the landing he was sitting on, another a few steps down, looking comfortable as all hell. He made a clear effort in avoiding looking at me, issuing a wave at my mother when she cleared her throat impatiently. I try not to take the change personally, knowing I should be relieved, after all with his attention fixed elsewhere, it’s one less thing my mother will be looking for.

Mother Miranda arrives not too long later, and the meeting concludes nearly as soon as it begins. She only called us together to let us know of an incident she felt through the Metamycite that included a clone of her daughter. Simply warning us to be prepared because apparently someone was strong enough to defeat another family like ours, and deal with the clone. The news of this made my mother visibly tense, everyone seemed uncertain of how to process that. I could tell just by the look on Miranda’s face she’s already planning something, and judging by how vague she is I sincerely doubt I’ll like it.

Mother is relieved when the meeting concludes, all but pushing me out the door. I can tell she doesn’t want me to ride back, that she’d prefer I sit in the carriage with her, but there’s nobody else with us to bring my horse back. We make it back faster than we got there, the gates hardly closing behind us before she orders me off and back inside. The second her feet cross the threshold she’s bellowing for my sisters who rush into the foyer, never ones to keep her waiting.

She tells them there’s a threat and they need to start behaving better, training more. The urgency in her voice, the clear distress, is new to me, she typically sounds so put together. Not even in our other life did I ever hear her speak like this. She dismisses them moments later before whirling at me, her hands shaking. She makes me promise not to go outside without telling her, makes me swear if something happens to leave and get away. Her concern is touching, reminding me of when I was young and started showing symptoms. I very distinctly remember the first time I coughed up specks of blood into my handkerchief, the look of despair on her face as she dabbed the corner of my mouth.

I was 12 at the time. My life was ending and it had hardly begun. I can see in her eyes she thinks of this in the same way she thought of that, this time however, she thinks I can survive it.

@foggyturtleknightangel @beingviolentlyhappy

#karl heisenberg #Karl Heisenberg x reader #re8 karl heisenberg #lady dimitrescu #re8 #resident evil village

[madasrabbits]

okay so i promised my thoughts on the hbo angels production so here are my sort-of abridged thoughts. i might post something more organized later maybe but we will see.

but i would say - to anyone who has seen the play, i would recommend watching it if you really did enjoy it and the characters, because i think it offers an interesting meditation on the characters that i think might appeal differently/more to different people. it also has al pacino in it and like. thats enough 4 me tbh. altogether i didn't LOVE it, but i thought it was altogether pretty good and i think it's an enjoyable enough watch if you like the story/concept/characters.

however, if you want to get my impression before you decide to watch (because it is like 7hrs of television) then u can decide from my more detailed thoughts <3

MORE THOUGHTS UNDER THE CUT TO SPARE EVERYONE!

okay so i will make a little disclaimer that although i am an andrew garfield enjoyer, i tried to be as objective as possible, and not show my gay little homosexual bias <3 truly though, i really do love the character of prior beyond the fact that he plays him, so this is more about how i read the character than anything else.

but here's what i liked

- al pacino kills as roy cohn, obviously. this was very expected but he offers a very different take on the role compared to nathan lane's take, one which is more meditative and a little more subtle. his scenes with meryl streep as ethel rosenberg are very impactful and emotional and i think they do a great job. his relationship with joe is also very good.

- it maintains great closeness to the original script, which is great, because it maintains a lot of the style. angels is heavily styled so i think removing a lot or changing it massively wouldn't work very well. tony kushner wrote the screenplay, so i think he did a great job obviously since it's his own work. they also maintain the character doubling, which is important to me especially in the fact that the angels are people from prior's life -- very glad they didnt cut or change that.

- ben shenkman does a great job as louis. i also think he looks very nice so that's like a benefit. he brings a lot of sexiness and chemistry, especially to the joe and louis relationship which i enjoyed.

- i think there's obviously pros and cons to both theatre and film adaptions, so there are obviously sort of. attached positives to the fact that this is a film adaption. obviously we love set dressing, we love (some of) the special effects, we love closeup shots, so you can see reactions better (which in ways does enhance some of the depth between the characters, which i noticed especially in the relationship between joe and louis.)

- harper's main monologues were all delivered very well by mary-louise parker -- i think she does a really good job in the role.

- the original dream sequence between harper and prior has a really interesting set/special effects with these animated statues which is very interesting and i thought that was super cool. it doesnt add anything but i think its neat!

- i thought the visualization of heaven was very interesting, especially in the scene where it's prior with all the continental principalities, because they look so human, it's really beautiful, not in their resemblances to his friends and loved ones but in the way theyre dressed and in this shattered, greco-romanesque temple... yeah. very powerful. i could write more abt that but ill leave it there for now.

- the final monologue was done very well!

and in terms of what i don't like, mostly focusing around line delivery

- a lot of the line delivery, particularly from justin kirk (who plays prior) falls weirdly flat/awkward/off in a way that tends to kill the comedic nature of his funnier lines. while this doesn't seem like a huge issue because his character is much more than just comedic, it can make some of his scenes seem much, much sadder, which might appeal to some, i suppose - but i always have read and seen strength in prior's character. to me, despite the immense suffering and struggle he goes through, he is still incredibly strong, and exuberant, and bright, and funny! and i feel like that was lost.

- it also kills a lot of the cadence of his more emotional lines, somehow.

- also in terms of prior, i really feel like justin kirk's take on him seemed to specifically want to avoid being feminine/flamboyant, but prior is literally written that way.that is so much of the basis of his character. i don't know if it was a purposeful interpretation from justin kirk (trying to add his own spin on the role?) or maybe he was trying to avoid being too "stereotypical" (which i have problems with to say the least) or maybe he was just afraid of being too gay because he's straight (i don't know him, obviously, and that seems like an odd reason, thats all speculation.)

- i also feel like justin kirk's monologues - particularly the argument with louis (he asks if he's really bruised inside) and the more life monologue both fell super flat for me. they didn't feel supercharged with emotion, or drama, and maybe it's just the theatre-film switch that isn't clicking for me, but it feels very underwhelming and lacking.

- altogether there were moments i asked myself if these characters were able to be properly translated from theatre-film, and i still feel mixed on that. i think there is something to be said about how much they shine from the simplicity of theatre.

- i really didn't get anything from the actor who played belize. (jeffrey wright). i feel like he had little chemistry, and i really felt attached to their friendship and i feel like that's so lost here in a way that i felt really bummed out by. i also feel like Nathan stewart-jarret's belize has a beauty, sass, and flair to him that is just so delightfully loveable and also fits the character more. (the scene between him and joe in the courthouse did not feel the same at all in terms of comedy.) however, jeffrey wright did do a decent job with belize's main monologues (particularly his monologue to louis about America), but i really just was disappointed altogether as belize is one of my favorite characters.

- the depiction of the angel was ... mixed for me. she is depicted in all white, and a very greco-roman sort of robing in millennium, while in the play she's much grittier, dirtier, which in my opinion speaks much more to both the tone of the play and to this visualization of her as the principality of America. shes also much scarier in the play. i feel like shes a little too... sexy? traditional? but more on that some other time.

- also the sex scene between prior and the angel is just. its sure something. wasnt so crazy about that. its not even like good campy its just... its something! thats for sure.

- patrick wilson's realization of joe pitt is so lacking, lacking the emotion, the deep internalized homophobia, the pain, the anguish. russell tovey brings this much deeper, beautiful energy to him that is far more emotional that is far more personable to me.

- also, the scene where joe punches louis feels much more violent in the hbo adaption. he literally hits him and kicks him while hes lying on the ground, which followed up by the "ive never hit anyone before" really shifts the tone from mistaken backlash to something that feels really violent and hard to watch.

anyway, i have more thoughts dinging around in my head but this is getting dangerously long. altogether, i would say the comedy of the angels theatrical adaption is in many ways lost to the hbo series, which changes the tone (especially in priors scenes). i think angels walks the line between hopeful and painful, and in dealing with such tough topics the balance between humor and brightness and the awfulness of the subject material has to be carefully maintained, and thats not really kept here. i think that changes both the impactfulness of the emotional and sadder portions and changes how priors character comes across..

i really didnt hate it, and i think it had some really interesting parts. i think its worth a watch if you're an angels fan, but be prepared for a different experience, in my opinion. altogether, i think it just reminded me how much of a gem the theatrical production was.

#THIS GOT LONG IM SORRY #messages from the moon

[sketch--booked]

It's 6am, I just woke up from another dream--

--about Echo returning.

And it's another island adventure dream but FAR MORE OOOHHH OKAY THAN OWWIE OH NO. It had the same energy as Nya trying to figure out who Samurai X was. And Echo was not a villain this time.

Actually the dream had the S14 guy as the villain, the one with the mask, spoilers.

It started with a fight between masked man, who's name I neglect to remember, and the ninja. They barely even get a chance to fight him before someone in a hodded cape swoops in and kicks him clean off his thone/podeum. They guy lands poorly and his leg gets messed up but continues fighting while the ninja just s t a r e at them.

The ninja only make a real reaction when they see the mystery man use the element of wind, and they're all utterly bewildered.

The mystery man can't hold them all off and is knocked far into the forest, presumably dead considering how far he went, and the rest of the ninja are separated into groups (Kai and Cole, Nya and Zane, Jay and Lloyd with Wu and Misako).

It followed Kai and Cole mostly, just discussing the possibility of two elemental masters of wind (they recalled Krux and Acronix) and that this guy could be dangerous. While they're talking, they bump into the motionless body of that cloaked person and Kai literally nearly pukes. Cole manages to get close to the guy and with prompting from Kai, pulls back the hood to see, not a man, but a nindroid! And a nindroid that looked eerily like Zane.

.

That's when it cut to Lloyd and Jay, they're talking with Wu and Misako about the mystery man, and this is where Wu info dumps that, after an elemental master passes without any heirs, the elements will take an unknown amount of time to present itself in a new host. It depends on that persons destiny and whether or not they're fit to use it and yada yada.

Lloyd understands that this would mean morro would no longer be the elemental master of wind, since after the DotD, he legit died and is gone for good. Which resulted in the element passing on. Wu comments that this is the fastest he'd seen an element passing on and presenting itself, and says that whoever this person is, must have been picked for a very good reason.

Jay then starts making a ridiculous list of people that he thinks could be the new master of wind, despite Wu telling him the probability of Jay knowing this master, is near impossible (Jay gets a kick outta this r e a l soon).

.

Then we hop back to Cole and Kai, who are freaking out over the rusty version of their friend who somehow has elemental powers too??

Kai says they should leave him here, saying it could be an evil nindroid, since they were also based off of Zane's prints. Cole argues and says they should take him back for questioning, and that Cole would be very happy to carry him.

While they're arguing, the fake Zane starts to wake up, and in a comedic way, screams at Cole and Kai, who in turn also start screaming. The mystery nindroid awkwardly chuckles and remarks that this was not particularly how he wanted to introduce himself, but anything works...

Kai and Cole begin questioning him and he answers their questions, starting with his name, telling them his name was Zane, but upon seeing their reactions, he says they can call him Echo.

Echo tells them they need to get into shelter, since at night, the island becomes unbearable and deadly. Kai and Cole reluctantly follow, continuing to ask questions while the three of them walk away, Echo limping from his earlier fight.

.

"Why are you on a random island?" Kai asked

"My raft washed up in a lightning storm." Echo replied.

"So did Julien build you too?" Cole continued.

"Yes, I would reluctantly say he is, in essence, my Father"

"Reluctantly?"

Echo did not answer.

Cole broke the silence "Where did you come from?"

"There is a lighthouse, in the-"

"-middle of the ocean between ninjago and the dark islands. You were there?" Kai interrupts.

"You know of the lighthouse? You were there?" Echo wondered "How come you did not know of my presence?"

"Your father never said anything, neither did Zane." Cole answered his question, giving the earth ninja even more of his own.

"Oh, no. My brother would not know of me, I was built in the lighthouse, not--wherever he was built" Echo confirmed "How did you get past the leviathan?"

"Zane swam to the chains and broke them with those star thingys" kai shivered, recalling those star shaped demons--

"Oh, you mean the Starteeth!" Echo begins laughing lightly "You know, one time, a bunch of them washed up and ate through the window in the basement. The basement was flodded and made me all rusty. I couldn't move for a week!" He walked slightly ahead while laughing hard.

He suddenly stopped laughing and looked serious "Looking back on it now, it was probably not funny."

Kai and Cole shared a look before Cole jumped up, realising something, and whispered close to Kai.

"Hold on a second, we completely forgot about his powers!"

"Oohhh, you're right! Hold on, I'll ask 'em."

Cole was going to pull him back to explain how shouldn't just--ask--but Kai had already begun running to catch up.

"So how did you end up an elemental master?"

"An ele-mento-who-what?" Echo fumbled his words.

"An elemental master? Y'know, with the crazy wind powers."

Cole was ready to punch Kai out, the man couldn't be subtle to save his life, which it just might right now.

"Oh! Honestly, Red, I have no idea." Echo had called Kai, Red, as the other two masters had not given their names. "I just remember the lighthouse getting nearly blown into the sea after weeks of strong winds. I had not realised the strong winds were the cause of my emotions. It was--new and scary. Gizmo was there to help me."

"The little cleaning robot? You brought that little guy with you too?" Cole caught up with Kai and the second wind master.

"Of course, he is my only friend! I would not abandon him the way I was. That is too cruel of a punishment for any being, organic or metallic." Echo yelled, a breeze shook the trees. Cole stayed quiet, but silently apologised to the nindroid.

Their questions were ended as they came across a half-cave-half-hut-like shelter. Where the settled and only prayed for their respective brothers.

.

There was a lot more small talk in the dream but I cut it down to the funnier and more important parts.

The next bits of the dream is fuzzy, but I know it revolves around the ninja reuniting and accepting the mystery person into their group while they defeat the evil and escape the island.

Kai and Cole agree to Echo's pleas to not tell Zane for the time being, as he doesn't want Zane to see his brother for the first time looking like--how he looks.

Each of them get some interactions with Echo, with his identity hidden, remaining mute as to not throw them off with his voice. He even has an interaction with Zane where Zane politely asks Echo not to keep staring at him, as he's been doing that since they came together. Zane pegs his curiosity to "he's never seen a nindroid before" and Echo confirms that for him. (unknowing the truuuuth aaaaa)

I'll write Jay's interaction with Echo another time maybe, and how he figures it out, since hoooo boy it hurt. Echo didn't remember Skybound so Jay's just mentally torturing himself for the rest of the journey.

The ninja that find out its Echo is Nya, Jay, Cole and Kai.

.

I'm gonna jump to the end, because my dream also jumped to the end? Rip. But the end what what gave me the Nya and new Samurai X vibes, but less fighting and more chill chat.

.

.

He was on a real boat. Not a makeshift raft constructed out of his father's old bed, table, chairs and shelves, not pushed forward by his newly explained "elemental powers". A real boat, one that would take him away from tiny islands that kept him prisoner, away from the existential dread of loneliness. He'd be free. Free from fearing his last day would be solitary and sad. In one day alone, he'd made a literal boat load of friends. They wouldn't abandon him, not as his father once did.

He was happy, he felt really, truly happy. But he didn't smile. Yes he had friends, but what he wanted more than anything else, was his brother. He was right here on the boat, but Echo's own worries about how his brother would perceive him, how his brother would react to seeing him in such a state (Upon first meeting too! Talk about first impressions), persuaded him to otherwise say nothing.

Deep down, Echo knew he had nothing to fear, he'd heard stories from his father, before he'd locked him away, about Zane and about what it was like--just the two of them. Happy. And from what Echo had seen, Zane was more that strong. Not just physically, nindroid and all, but mentally and emotionally. Echo only wished he had that confidence, the ability to say nothing but be so loud at the same time.

It would make talking to him a lot easier, if he had to say so himself.

Echo, however, had his thoughts interrupted by the sound of footsteps he hadn't even registered, and a soft, yet firm, hand on his shoulder. He tensed just slightly, preparing himself to pull his hood down further.

"It's nice, is it not?" That voice, it was Echo's voice. No, Echo had his voice. His brother was standing right next to him. So close and yet so far, just one swipe of his hood would bring them together, finally. But he resigned himself to simply nod in response. He hadn't come this far to give up now.

A comfortable silence covered the two like a thin layer of snow, fitting considering who was standing next to him. It would almost make him laugh.

"You fought well, out there," Zane started, Echo had thought he was done and nodded again, a small smile forming on his face. Zane may not have known who he was complimenting, but Echo took every moment of it with pride. But then his world span at Zane's continuation.

"For a nindroid."

Zane looked down with a small smirk. Like he'd told the best joke in history. Echo tightened his grip on the wooden railing of the bounty, crushing the paint under his permanently short nails. Zane must've noticed, but didn't say anything. Either in respect for his privacy or because he wanted to hear the confession himself.

In Echo's mind, he was obviously panicking. He didn't want his brother, someone who he'd heard stories from his father, the bot he was built off of, his singular role-model, to find out who he was, like this?

Despite the fear in his ticking heart, he did something probably really stupid and something that would likely result in his downfall. He thanked him.

"Thank you... How- how did you know?" Though, he lowered the pitch oh his voice. It would not be difficult for Zane, or anyone really, to rase the pitch and find out who he was, it still calmed him down just a bit.

"A nindroid knows a nindroid. A brother knows a brother."

Oh I'm f*ucked...

There was only panic, in his systems. The ticking of his clockwork had never sounded louder in his ears. It'd drowned out the sounds of water, the automatic breathing he for some reason had, the cracking of wood underneath his palms was the only sign that ticking was not the lone sound in the world.

He fell out of his anxious trance when the hand left his shoulder and those footsteps came back. No. They were moving away. Echo looked back, moving his fingers to clutch his hood tight against the unintentional winds that now followed him and his emotions. He could see Zane walking towards the steps of the bounty, but halted at the top of them, his hand instead lazily laying on the banister.

"Don't worry, I won't tell them-" He called, just loud enough for Echo to hear over the breeze.

-about what? That he knows who I am? That he'd practically lied to them? That he knew everything all along, because of course he knew, this was Zane, how could he not know, he-

"-Cryptor."

Echo ceased all thoughts from his head. Cryptor? What was that? Was that some kind of fruit? Or a vegetable?

Echo turned his body in the direction of his brother to ask him or at least say goodbye, but he was gone. He'd walked off and down the stairs. Leaving behind not so much as a sheet of frost.

The clockwork child stayed standing there, pure surprise, fear, relief, confusion--actually a lof of emotions he didn't know how to process--flooding his brain. If it weren't for the distant voice of Nya yelling about the sudden gusts of wind changing their direction, he would likely not have moved from that position until they landed.

Cryptor. He thought, it must be a nickname. There was no way he couldn't have figured out Echo was his sibling. He'd said, "a brother knows a brother", they didn't have any other siblings. Right? No. It was just them, just the two of them. The only two nindroids in Ninjago.

His father had said so himself. Although, his father had also buried him under scrap metal and kept him hidden from his family.

Anything could be truth now.

Although Zane had left, and there was no one to hear him, he still felt it necessary to acknowledge what happened. Quietly and sadly, he spoke with a smile.

"Good guess, brother."

.

.

.

.

SO Uhh I'm gonna assume this was because i watched DotD last night,,, and so both Cryptor, and Morro were on my brain hense wind and Cryptor calling Zane "brother", but I always have Echo on the brain man,,, so uhh. Echo for the new master of wind? Anyone? I think it's cute,,,

I probably missed something, other than writing Jay and Echo's interaction, Jay was so sad throughout the rest of the dream, man. And Echo didn't even know why, it was heartbreaking---but it was also a dream and like all my dreams, they never get made into real things.

But I did like the Zane and Echo bit at the end though. There was a second ending, but it relied on the reveal of echo to the audience at the e n d of the dream. Zane still says Cryptor and Echo turns with the camera getting close to him. And as he turns his head to the camera, you see its Echo and then he says "good guess, brother" BUT NGL I THINK IT HURS MORE WHEN WE KNOW FROM THE BEGINNING SOOO.

My dreams are whack dudes,,,

Also this took nearly 3 hours to write its actually 8:50 now Soooo ilya

#ninjago #ninjago zane #zane julien #ninjago echo zane #echo zane #s14 spoilers #Probably? #I means some folks don't know it's a jungle adventure so #Yeah sure S14 spoilers #ninjago cole #ninjago kai #They were in there for a bit so I'll tag em #sketch has a dream