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stranger-who-writes-fiction · 3 years

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Ya know what these self-indulgent Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow posts need? Self-indulgent banner art, that’s what.

Spoilers for issue #4!

Let’s start this off right with CREATOR CREDITS. Issue 4 of Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow is titled “Restraint, Endurance, and Passion.” Written by Tom King, Art by Bilquis Evely, Colors by Matheus Lopes, Letters by Clayton Cowles, and Edited by Brittany Holzherr. (w/ Assist. Editor: Bixie Mathieu & Senior Editor Mike Cotton)

THE STORY:

Right, so this? This issue? Best one yet.

Also the bleakest of the bunch thus far; even though we don’t always see the brutality of the space pirates that Kara and Ruthye are following, there’s...the suggestion of it. The aftermath. And how Kara responds to it.

Okay, getting a little ahead of myself. BASIC PLOT SUMMARY: Ruthye and Kara continue their pursuit of Krem, who has taken up with Barbond’s Brigands.

The Brigands basically just. Murder and terrorize people, for profit.

Each planet they visit brings new horrors, as well as people who need Supergirl’s help.

And help she does.

KARA-CTERIZATION:

I yell a lot about the art on this book, and have, in fact, openly admitted that I’m primarily here for Evely and Lopes.

Well, that wily son-of-a-gun King went and wrote some of the best ‘Super’ stuff I’ve ever read and dang it, dang it, now I gotta yell about the words too. XD

Specifically, I wanna yell (in a good way!) about some words that occur towards the very end of the book.

Kara and Ruthye have Seen Some Things; things like genocide and mass grave sites and horrible violence, and upon reaching a planet where peaceful monks were slaughtered, Kara’s had enough, and needs to leave because if she screams, she’ll destroy what little is left of the monks’ monastery.

Here’s the text in full, because my gosh. It’s so good:

“What I write next I write based on my observations in those long-ago days at the side of the greatest warrior in the history of this august reality we all call home. It is important to note that my assertions do not rely on anything Supergirl said. It was not a subject we ever discussed or even approached, but nonetheless I believe it to be as true as the turning of worlds. You see, what is not well understood about the daughter of Krypton is that her power was not one of action but one of restraint, endurance, and passion. She did not choose to fire a beam from her eyes, or have breath of ice, or run faster than a speeding bullet. Or any of her other well-documented miracles. No, she held back her heat vision to look you in the face. She warmed her breath to converse with you. She slowed herself to walk by your side. Ever moment of every day, she suppressed the forces churning inside of her. All of the energy of a dead world that strained against her many barriers, eternally demanded to be released. I believe this effort hurt her. I believe she lived her life in pain. But I reiterate again, for I think it important enough to repeat--These beliefs are based on my time at her side, watching her as she moved through strife and sorrow. If you were to have asked her, I have little doubt she would have claimed that such as assertion was absurd. She would say she felt fine and well and then she’d as you if you needed any help.”

A long chunk of words, I know (this comic is DENSE!) but like. This is it. This is one of the defining attributes of the Supers--all that raw power at their disposal and they choose to help people, to be kind, to suppress that power for the benefit and safety of others.

HNNNNNNNG.

Hope, Help, and Compassion for All.

Whole lotta folks claimed at the outset of this book that King did not understand Kara, that he was a bad fit. And that may be so, I suppose--there’s a whole other discussion about like. The violence and swearing and ‘does that belong in a Supergirl book?’ But the characterization? Getting that Kara and Clark are just good people?

King gets it. He got it in Superman: Up in the Sky and he gets it here, in Woman of Tomorrow.

Other things King gets! Kara is stubborn! Kara is passionate! Kara is going to fix things, even if the effort of doing so hurts her, physically, emotionally, and mentally!

(Fuuuuuuun fact for the crowd saying that Woman of Tomorrow is vastly superior to the CW show: TV Kara is ALSO all of those things! King isn’t pulling this stuff out of thin air. It’s almost like...gosh. I don’t know! Both the show and Tom King are pulling from the character’s comic history, or something!!!! HOW NOVEL.)

Like, seriously. There’s a lot of overlap. Stop pitting Karas against each other!

Anyways!

I promised art, so here is art!

Oh, right, forgot to mention, Kara literally THROWS HERSELF INTO THE SUN to express her grief and anger, so as to not cause that unnecessary destruction. She gives new meaning to the phrase: Set yourself on fire to keep someone else warm.

More art yelling: GOTTDAMN, the way Evely draws Kara just colliding with the surface of the sun and then the way Kara’s hair like...becomes the flames...

I am FEELING FEELINGS. HOW DARE.

Also, props to King and Cowles; King for deciding to have that initial scream, Cowles for the way the letters burst forth from the point of impact on the sun, and then back to King who decided that it would just be...devastating silent screaming from Kara, for the remainder of the scene.

Back to the characterization, I just wanted to highlight something I mentioned...earlier on, I think? In these posts? But haven’t brought up recently, and that is how this book has not once brought up Zor-El, and I think Superman only got a quick mention in issue 2.

Honestly, I think that’s gotta be some kind of record.

It’s so refreshing. Not because I think there should never be mentions of Clark, or anything--I love that boy--but because so much of modern Supergirl comic drama is mined from the same like, angsting over her place compared to Clark, or her crazy sometimes-a-supervillain dad.

There is no Clark and Kara drama here, no manufactured friction, because it’s just. A cool Supergirl story!

Gonna keep going, but let’s do it with some more...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTT!!!!

Once again, Mat Lopes is all over the dang place with his palettes, it’s marvelous.

Each new planet gives Evely the opportunity to go hog wild on the worldbuilding and design, and similarly! Each new locale is an opportunity for Lopes to set the tone with colors. Like, here, towards the beginning of the book, we’ve got a planet bathed in this warm, pale yellow/orange light.

(Quick note: “Sure, yeah, I get it. We all have our duties. And it’s mine as a neighbor to do what I can to help you with yours. Please.” A+ Kara content. We love to see it. And then locating the remains of the alien’s daughter, so that they can go visit the grave site and have some emotional closure???? It’s just. So. Touching.)

Anyways, back to colors.

Like!!!! LOOK AT THAT JUMP. From the soft, almost pastoral feel of the delicate oranges and yellows to HARD GREEN, PINK, AND PURPLE. (Difficult colors to pull off in print, I might add.)

(This is also an interesting scene, character-wise, because I think it helps re-contextualize some earlier stuff with Kara. Like, I’m mostly thinking that incident on the bus, where she was swearing at the passengers as the space dragon was about to destroy them. Here, we see Kara kind of...goad this alien woman into releasing her pent up emotions by yelling at her/getting her to fight, and you can clearly see at the end of it that Kara did not mean the things she said, because check this out:

She goes and gives her a hug once the woman is able to finally cry.

It’s not ‘Kara is being mean, Kara is swearing at her’, it’s, ‘Kara has an unorthodox solution to a problem, and she’s gonna FIX that problem, NO MATTER WHAT.’

Circling back to the bus thing--again, that could be an instance of ‘unorthodox approach to a weird situation that Kara is going to handle because lives are at stake.’)

But also, DIG THAT KIRBY KRACKLE, BAY-BEEEEE!

And a little Strange Adventures easter egg! The Pykkts!

(I think those guys are unique to the Black Label series, rather than deep Adam Strange lore, but don’t quote me on that.)

Moving on to YET ANOTHER PALETTE, one I’ve dubbed, ‘Treasure Planet Purple/Grey’

Love Ruthye’s snoozing against the door, waiting for Kara.

Also, just as striking as the colors of the environment, are the colors used on Kara.

If you compare this page with the previous one, Kara’s eyes are a paler shade of blue, and the red-rimmed look on her eyes here is not as intense as the red-rimmed look we saw back in issue one, when she was confronting Krem.

All of which to say! There’s a pale, haunted quality to both the linework and the colors. Like. We know Kara has Seen Some Things. But she’s shoving all that stuff down to protect Ruthye, to save Krypto, and to stop these monsters, and you get all of that WITH COLORS AND LINES ON A PAGE.

I love it, I love it so much.

OTHER BOOKS WISH THEY HAD THIS LEVEL OF CHARACTER ACTING, I TELL YA! THEY WISH THEY HAD THIS BEAUTIFUL ALCHEMY OF INKER, COLORIST, AND WRITER WORKING IN SUCH TIGHT TANDEM!

Ahem. XD

Alright, last bit of art, lest I just. Post the whole issue in here. (Which I’m honestly always tempted to do but Strong Feelings about Piracy hold me back.)

JUST HECKIN’ LOOK AT THAT BLUE, MAN. JUST LOOK AT IT. S’BEAUTIFUL.

And more stunning character acting from Evely. Like. Bottom middle panel. The expression, the tilt of her head and the shadows on her eyes...

*insert silent flailing here*

Oh, also, KRYPTO LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVESSSS (for now).

I’m never right about these things, so I’m glad the one time I’ve correctly read a thing is when it involves Krypto not, ya know. Being dead. XD

Also absolutely love that Kara’s instinct is to send Ruthye home to protect her--once more leaning into that whole, ‘I’m going to protect you, even at great cost to myself’, though of course we know that she can’t send her home, not here, not now, just halfway through our journey.

ERRRRRRGH, so mad we’re not getting twelve issues of this! CURSE YOU, POOR SUPERGIRL TRADE SALES! CURSE YOOOOOOU!

That said, King’s pacing? Has been phenomenal. I feel like Strange Adventures and even Mr. Miracle kinda...I’m not gonna say dragged, that’s not quite right. But it is more build up, I guess. Takes a while to get to the payoff.

Here, I think King is pushing things steadily along as he doesn’t have the benefit of an additional four issues, so he has to get to the point, so to speak. Keeps everything moving.

SOME FINAL, MISC. STUFF:

I’ve sort of glossed over the darker stuff from this issue, and I just wanna note that like. This is a book that features a bad guy getting stoned (in the death sentence way, not the drug way) on panel. Like. I can’t recommend this to children.

I can’t even really recommend it to some other Supergirl fans, because I know that the King elements will be too off-putting.

It never feels like the book is going too far, though. At least in like an...exploitative way? If that makes sense?

The violence is handled with discretion, I guess is what I’m trying to convey. This could very easily tip over into like, gross shock factor territory, if not handled well, but I think the creative team pulls it off.

...Still wouldn’t hand this book to kids, though. XD

As mentioned, we’re halfway through this series! Can’t wait to see where it goes--every time I think I have this book figured out, it surprises me. So, like. Bring on the Dinosaur planet! With no sunlight! I wanna see how Lopes handles THAT. XD

(But Oh, OooooOOooh, we gotta wait until NOVEMBER.)

(Hhhnnnnng!)

(Then again, maybe that’s good; we’ve got the TV show in the meantime, and then once it ends we can pick right up with new Supergirl content just a few weeks later.)

(...Aw. Made myself a little sad, thinking about the TV show coming to an end.)

So as not to end on that sad note, here once again is tiny, smushed Kara:

Give ‘em the ol razzle dazzle.

#stranger speaks #supergirl: woman of tomorrow #supergirl: woman of tomorrow spoilers #dc comics #comics talk #comics opinions #comics thoughts #long post #are those the right tags? I can never remember #gif

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mermaidsirennikita · 3 years

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I know I'm pretty late with this but I just want to thank you for all the no-bullshit answers over Siena stans. At first I was actually pretty sympathetic towards them and could understand people being weird about her because she's fucking Anthony, but the blatant tone-deaf comparisons between her and ANY of the black characters, only being interested in Simon as a character when Siena should fuck him because Anthony "needs to suffer ;)" or when he refers to his affair with her OR acting like shipping the only two black characters that are male and female on the show is somehow them being better than any of the other fans while deliberately ignoring Kate being a dark-skinned Indian woman now and the context that could likely come with that, not to mention the insane notion that somehow, a white woman like Siena suffers JUST AS MUCH AND EVEN MORE as these black characters who we see suffer 10 times more on this show just broke the camel's back to me. Like complaining about ~classism and comparing it to racist writing while erasing a woc and placing Siena as some would-be daughter of her parents (which in this context would literally be them wanting Indian immigrants to care for a British white woman in the 19th century....) is not y'all being Aware, it's being blatantly tone-deaf and racist. No amount of "you guys just hate sex workers :,(" is gonna erase this. I hate how they think they're being So Smart with calling out the classism issues in the show while conveniently buying into the bullshit "~racism doesn't exist anymore sweeties~" argument that the narrative TRIED to sell to us while at the same time having some obvious issues with the characters of color and how they're focused on and even framed against the white ones. And even now, thinking that them obsessing over this white female character and considering it them being Different and Better than the rest of the fans? Nah y'all are just being terrible at this point. It's only gonna get worse once season 2 comes out and they'll only enforce the whole "~racism doesn't exist sweeties~" excuse in order to be blatantly racist in any of the Kate hate and comparisons they'll likely make in order to tear her down as a love interest and wife to Anthony in order to prop their white fave up. No matter how much they wanna pretend otherwise, Siena's role as a sex worker doesn't erase the fact that she's a conveniently attractive white thin woman that fans will sooner flock to ship with Anthony than with Kate now, given the casting.

One final complaint, but I also find it ironic how they wanna pretend that Kate is apparently gonna be some carbon-copy of Siena just because her character description and moments with Anthony will include her 'calling him out on his bs'. As if the book where she is a legitimate character didn't exist a full DECADE before Siena was created. Literally all the specific traits for their fave can be traced back to Kate and how they were sooner inspired BY Kate as a character in creating Siena than the other way around. Like calling Anthony out on his shit? Anthony having a thing for her hair? Those are canon stuff in the book where Kate is introduced. Their fave is neither original nor going to be the Staple for Kate, but they'll never admit this.

Sorry it’s taken me a moment to respond, I wanted to give this my attention and I’ve had an exceptionally busy week.

I agree with all of this. To be honest, a lot of the obsession with Siena seems rooted in deep-seated racism and a preference for the precious white woman. They are using the show to back this up, as you said, because the show handled race horribly. But because the show handled race horribly and has widely been criticized by people of color on that front, it just reinforces my perception of the most intense stans as like.... deeply racist. Coupled, of course, with the idea that Kate’s family would LOOOOOVEEEEEEE PORCELAIN SKINNED SIENA!!!! WHOSE SKIN WE LOVE!!!!! MILKY WHITE BABES!!!!

These people of color, from Kate’s family (who by the way, most of these stans get wrong because they haven’t read the source material--I see a lot of references to Kate’s alive parents which uhhhhhhh not only are they both dead but they’re both dead in a PLOT IMPORTANT WAY lmao) to Simon to Kate herself are only used to prop up Siena. Simon is used to make Anthony jealous, because to many white women watching this show, some supposed Simon/Daphne stans included, Simon does not exist as anything other than a sex object because he’s a hot black man. Simon is literally reduced to a virtual sex toy or figure of animalistic sexual desire by so many people who watch this show, it’s INSANELY gross. Called out for racism? But we ship Simon and Marina together, so we can’t beeee!!!

I do disagree with you a bit on Siena’s personality, largely because I didn’t.... see much of one. I don’t think the writers intentionally took anything from Kate there, I think they just were like “ah yes, a low-class sex worker, she’s gonna say ‘ell guvna fancy a fuck luv” but also argue with him because we can’t think of anything else for her to do or any other way to mine humor out of her.

I also see a lot of conflation of racism and classism by these people, and... no. Regardless of your class, if you are a person of color in the western world, you have probably experienced racism. I mean, fuck, we just saw an entire expose about how you can enter the royal family in England and experience intense racism. Regardless of whether or not Siena is lower class, she will never experience the type of adversity that people experience with racism. There’s this desperate attempt to pretend that what Siena experiences is the same as racism, which is clearly an attempt to make an excuse to dog Kate.

But ultimately tbh none of this matters in terms of what will be ON THE SHOW (editing to clarify: of course it matters in terms of what it reflects re: racism and how harmful it is to people of color who have to see it). Season 2 is going to happen. I’ll hedge my bets now that it’ll be wildly popular. Kate will be loved by the vast majority of people watching. These people will have even less content than they do now and they’ll show their asses even more and get dog piled on or fade away. Kate and Anthony are about as canon as it gets. Anthony canonically says that she’s the best he’s ever had lmao, she is the love of his life, he marries her and she pops out several babies for him. So I’m just getting ready to drink my Kate Sharma Stan Juice when that season releases, because racists are gonna be racist especially when they have a white woman to worship. But I know what I know.

#bridgerton #siena rosso #Anonymous

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vaguely-gestures-to-the-void · 3 years

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Hindsight: My thoughts on Loki (2021)

Welcome back folks. Read the innocence dying inside me as I accept that this show eats my expectations for lunch and leaves me like it's going to buy milk.

As a side note from what I said in my first review, here’s an interesting article. Apparently I was clowning because the Gobi desert scene was filmed (probably? idk) with the tech from the Mandalorian. I think the studios were the same. Oh well. https://www.atlasofwonders.com/2021/06/loki-filming-locations.html

Episode 4: THE NEXUS EVENT

Pre-title scene

The new perspective of Asgard is incredible.

Oh baby Sylvie, what did they do to you. Also, RAVONNA??

The TVA through a child’s eyes is heartbreaking. The mixed use of shots that were familiar (the feet walking into the TVA) and new (the TVA logo on the floor) convey how though routine, this is an alien experience for Sylvie.

She too wants to help the man being dragged in. Maybe Sylvie was a better person than Loki, the TVA taking her away was what changed it.

We don’t see Casey, but iIt’s the same ‘sign here’ guy. The changing perspective and music really alters the mood created, contrasting the whimsical procedure we followed in episode one.

She hadn’t even said much in her life. They knew how to influence the audience’s emotions, that's for sure. Props to the actress, I felt genuine concern for her before I remembered that she’s acting.

TVA

Ravonna probably underestimated Sylvie as a Loki, a mistake that cost her greatly.

The golden doors.

Ravonna looks tense and a bit fearful.

Scattered throughout the episode are eyes watching. George Orwell’s 1984, anyone?

Big Brother is watching.

Mobius! He’s a good friend to Ravonna, but there’s a power imbalance.

Ravonna is shaken. Her past failure is haunting her.

Someone edit the “What? How?” into “Wow.” It’ll be a service.

Lamentis - 1

Loki’s apology and Sylvie reflecting on her childhood are the conclusion to the previous episode. Faced with death, Loki realises that her goals were hindered by his actions. His apology is the first time he acknowledges he had something to do with it. Sylvie’s offering her emotional vulnerability in the form of memories. Her mind and experiences are her most prized possession because they’re all she has of the person who she was as Loki, her childhood and what she was supposed to be. Her glorious purpose, what really makes a Loki a ‘Loki’ was her life.

THEY TRUST EACH OTHER. THIS WAS WHAT CAUSED THE NEXUS EVENT.

C H A R A C T E R D E V E L O P M E N T.

Ravonna pointed out that Loki will always be a “lying scourge” but they went against this. In any timeline, this could cause a nexus event. They found a middle ground.

“That should be setting off alarms if someone steps on the wrong leaf.” I had a whole idea about entropy and the timeline being an isolated system but I struggled to define an isolated system, and thus I couldn’t use the whole irreversible process causing entropy to grow causing a br- if you have a clue of what I’m going on about, or want to know more, I’ll explain my thoughts. I can understand why this isn’t scientifically accurate and I’m no physicist.

The unbranched timeline means all the things that were speculated - Wanda’s kids, what happened on Saakar, all of it - is gone.

“Any news on C - 20?”I called it! B-15 is having doubts! Her subtle unease building up throughout the ep is perfect!

Most settlements have a street design that can be from space. Sharru doesn’t.

“No. We may lose... ...you’re amazing!” Damn it literally took the end of a world for Loki to change as a person.

“Their smiles. If that isn’t people accepting their deaths I don’t know what is. Man, I just want both of them to be happy.

Please don’t let that be the love theme, it’s so pretty.

The music fading into the TVA theme as they get separated is so sad.

Time Theater 25

Back to square one in terms of trust with these two, but now they have history and hurt feelings too!

Oh Mobius.

Cycles are a part of who Loki is within Norse mythology (from what I know, correct me if I’m wrong). This scene is conflict.

Loki needs both Mobius and Sylvie to incite change. One can empathise whilst the other believes in him.

Mobius believes in Loki like no one else in the TVA. He treats him like an individual, they developed a bond in episode 2, so his disappointment and anger were genuine. This is reflected in their dialogue.

Even when Loki was going through all the Feels in ep 1, he didn’t shout at Mobius. It makes it more heartbreaking when Mobius laughs and dismisses him after the “TVA is lying to you” thing. His laugh was so bitter, it’s like his belief that Loki would be the variant to prove that variants were individuals had been shattered. What Mobius doesn’t realise is that Loki was genuinely trying to warn him. The trust between them was fragile but Mobius needed to come to his own conclusions before he could see that Loki had broken out of the mold the Time Keepers set for him.

“Just kind of an asshole and a bad friend.” Y’all, Mobius doesn’t rise to Loki’s baits. He’s so hurt.

I can’t be the only one that thought Loki was going to be brainwashed when they saw the red door. Turns out it’s just a time cell.

I love Mobius but he makes me feel so conflicted. Oh shit, he’s my problematic fave.

Watching Loki get his ass handed to him by Lady Sif shouldn’t be this funny.

This particular memory reflects what Mobius will talk about later, Loki being abandon by the people around him.

Putting Loki through a memory that was physically and emotionally painful was nasty. If you hear something horrible, over and over especially from a friend it would take a toll on your self-perception. Mobius was hurt by Loki leaving him, he’s getting revenge whilst doing his job and getting into Loki’s head.

Ravonna’s office

Ravonna has hang ups from failing with Sylvie. Who she is and what she knows is going to be interesting.

Heck I just realised are Mobius’ lapels not real? They look fake.

I wonder whether the “mastermind” thing was foreshadowing the next ep.

Am I the only one who thinks this isn’t the first Loki Mobius has dealt with? Could that mean there’s a reunion next ep?!

“Variant pet.” There’s a culture of dehumanising variants within the TVA.

The cuts showing both B-15 and Mobius’ faces reminds me of ep 1, but now there’s a new angle to things. B-15 certainly sees things differently.

Time Theatre 25

Lady Sif would kill with short hair. Or long hair. It’s Lady Sif, she’s a badass.

Loki’s exhale reminds me of how he tenses before a fight.

Notable things about this scene:

Heavy use of metaphors to trade jabs.

The lights are shifting in a consistent pattern, scanning the room almost.

Shots are constantly moving and cutting.

Loki’s speech pattern changes when he’s lying. Nice touch there.

When they start arguing in earnest, the shots are close ups of their faces, not circling around each other.

Loki was at first willing to talk to Mobius if he was treated with respect, the way they engaged in episode 2. He also wants to trust that Mobius won’t kill him. Mobius dismisses him (rightly so, his trust is gone) and Loki’s pride about ‘not working for anyone’ gets in the way rather than listening to each other. Loki’s behaviour is cyclic and his lying about Sylvie affirms Mobius’s understanding that Loki won’t (or maybe can’t) change. I wouldn’t be too surprised if Mobius is a Loki, the man’s uncannily good at reading him. He deduces that Loki and Sylvie have a bond and unsettles Loki to get answers out of him, because he knows that’s the only way he can force Loki to reveal his cards. He definitely wasn’t expecting Loki’s earlier admission to be the truth. What Mobius did was not right, but it sure was effective.

“No. Not partners.” I believe this. They had an understanding, but their goals differ. Maybe just give Sylvie her own show.

“Guess you don’t do partners.” MOBIUS WHY ARE YOU SO BUTT-HURT? Probably to make Loki feel bad ik, but it’s still funny to think Lightning McQueen is salty.

That memory really hurt Loki. He stuttered.

Loki fixates on Sylvie rather than his own freedom. This was the cue to Mobius to start interrogating.

Bruh, the feeling they were experiencing better be friendship.

This made me uncomfortable because I was so sure we weren’t gonna get a romantic subplot that I related the characters to my actual family relationships. Marvel. Why?

The music combined with Mobius’ subtle shift in demeanor from irritated to mockery was very unsettling to me. I never realised how good an actor Owen Wilson was.

“Our interests are aligned.” Once Mobius tells him the truth, Loki does the same. I really hope this is the extent of their relationship. Just let them recognise one another as equals. Please Marvel.

Mobius’ hands twitching, the slight swallow. Yeesh, he certainly doesn’t think Loki’s lying, but he’s not about to accept it.

Loki’s head shake is sad. He knows he can’t convince Mobius.

“That I can respect. I mean the lies you tell yourself.” This was the best writing imo. Loki doesn’t make any final attempts to connive his way out of the situation because telling the truth to someone he’d trusted had failed. He willingly walks into the Time Cell.

Time Theater 47

B-15 being unable to support herself, having to rely on the structures around her to stay upright. This woman deserves so much y’all.

WE NEED HER NAME MARVEL.

You better appreciate her beyond shipping her with Sylvie or istg.

The music is so mournful. It just emphasises how much everything changing is going to hurt not only the main characters. Lives change because of the TVA and the events of this episode, it’s not overlooked by the writing or music.

The poster and the 1984 parallels. Exquisite!

Sylvie not sitting straight made me snort.

Ravonna Renslayer’s office

More Theremin music! This time I’m pretty sure it’s Carnival of the Animals, XIII. Le Cygne (the Swan) : Le carnaval des animaux: No. 12, Le cygne (arr. For theremin and piano) by Clara Rockmore.

Fun fact! Clara Rockmore influenced theremin music and the instrument and was a virtuoso of the instrument. Give her a google, it’s worth it. Also look up Leon Theremin, he was (among other things) a Soviet spy. There’s a great Wiki spiral for anyone there.

Mobius was probably being lined up for a high position in the TVA. Damn.

TemPads are personal, or have different levels of clearance.

Mobius didn’t stop interrogating Ravonna throughout that scene. He knew that she wasn’t telling him the whole truth.

Sleight of hand wasn’t shown how Loki and Sylvie do it, they didn’t use misdirection.

Ravonna knows something is up with Mobius. Maybe he hasn’t been around for long if this is his ‘career case’.

The pacing becomes really fast like in the end of episode 2 as conflicts get resolved. Buckle up comrades.

2050 Roxxcart Disaster

I don’t have much to add, it’s a powerful scene.

They use close ups whenever a truth bombshell is dropped.

The music varies considerably between these scenes, each one has a different tone.

“We’re the same.” With what she knows of B-15, Sylvie knew not to be smug when delivering the news about B-15’s life.

B-15 crying in the rain hurts.

“I looked happy.”

TVA archives, Time Cell, Time Theater 25

The floor opposite Mobius is FE3, above it is 3FG.

Oh Mobius.

C-20 deserved better, I'd love to see her later in the series.

The music goes from mournful to harsh and we’re left in silence when it cuts to the Time Cell.

“You told me to shut up.” Loki can be salty sometimes.

“Do you really think you deserve to be alone?” Mobius is rattled, he wants to unsettle Loki.

The music starts to build somewhere between “...your connection... “ and Loki saying “‘WE?’”

The faint tinkling reminds me of the Avatar (blue people) score.

“How about the word of a friend?” This is Loki’s olive branch. When he admits Loki was right, their trust is tentatively reinstated.

The music is finally back to that chaotic theme we know. I think it’s the TVA’s theme.

“You can be whoever, whatever you wanna be, even someone good. I mean just in case anyone ever told you different.” Mobius corrects what he says in the first ep.

They are friends y’all I’m so sad.

Mobius can lie through his teeth like it’s nobody’s business.

Pruning hurts, Mobius’ face is in agony.

Loki’s tears. GIVE THEM ALL JETSKIS.

Ravonna takes a moment to compose herself.

Time Keepers (the final smackdown)

Why are the last 10 minutes always so insane?

Loki’s eyes only show hurt. I’ll leave.

Ravonna’s so sharp, she instantly catches Sylvie’s wet hair.

All of our expectations from the trailers always get yeeted out of a window because the scenes are never really what we think they are. I get that that should be expected but it’s refreshing that the writing is never what we think it is.

Did anyone else notice the egg timer/infinity sign murals on one of the hallways to the left of Sylvie?

Ravonna is so cold (and yet I’d simp for her).

The M.C. Escher staircases I see you set designers/CGI folks.

B-15 just gets knocked out. They better not kill her for no reason or I riot.

I’m pretty sure that Sylvie ripped off one of Ravonna’s TVA badges (or buttons) when she fought her.

Sylvie’s the better fighter, she’s had to use it more often though.

The elevator doors stay open.

It would be so funny if we get an elevator scene where Sylvie is just dragging Ravonna somewhere.

They really led us on with the Time Keepers, particularly the middle one. I was somewhat convinced there’d be something more to it. I’m interested to see where it goes.

Ep 4 review

I really don’t have much to add with these last two episodes. I’ve definitely come to appreciate that no matter whether you liked the writing of the show or not, it’s never what you expect. Is that a good thing? I guess that that remains to be seen. Nonetheless, I appreciate how much effort went into this series. It’s been a fun romp, I’ll be back with my reviews of the final episodes. I’ll also stop posting Loki content to my blog because the Gods know that my followers don’t read this lol.

I’m just going to survive until the season is over and then hopefully keep my sanity together until the next Marvel content or at least Dr. Strange.

Here's the link to my episode 3 review.

Thank you all for being here, you're wonderful my loves.

#loki #loki series #loki review #loki (2021)#loki spoilers #spoilers #man how is this fandom gonna cope? By fixating on other TV shows? Good luck lads.#I'm gonna go buy milk at this point #they better not mess with B-15 or istg #B-15 deserves none of this #give mobius a jetski #and give loki therapy #and Sylvie too pls my babies need rest.#boy if Mobius is a Loki variant I'm going to grab my popcorn because the circus that this fandom will turn into will be legendary

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ngame989 · 5 years

Text

“Drive” - TGG SVTFOE Fanfic Collection Ch. 8

Writing: @ngame989

Art: @toxicpsychox

Editing: @ubercelloczar, @toxicpsychox, @seddm

Alternate fic links - FFnet, AO3

Summary: It's back to school for Marco, and Star is left to face the specter of real world responsibility once more - with a bit of help from the adorable antics of Mariposa.

Comic Page

Masterpost

Finally, a new chapter! This one took a long time to put together in a way I was satisfied with, so sorry as always for the delay. Writing is a bit of a secondary hobby for me, and while I absolutely love Starco and love making this series, the actual act of putting words to a page is rather draining for me. I'd love to promise more or faster updates, and if the right creative inspirations strike that is still what I'd love to happen, but it's gonna come at whatever pace it comes at. If that means I'm here for years to come, so be it. See below for the text, hope you enjoy!

“Alright, next up is Wilhelm… Wund? Want? Wouldn’t? Marco, this name is weird.” Star waved the flash card around in the air.

“Wundt, but the Ws both sound like Vs. It’s German.”

“German… that’s the place where that guy who was basically mustache Mina came from, right?” Marco froze in his tracks as his eyes widened in complete incredulity. Star uncurled from the ball she was in on their bed and sat up, hair and nightgown all astray as she tilted her head to the side in befuddlement. “What, did I say something wrong?”

“No, that’s- it’s just- that’s one way to put it. Don’t worry about it.” No way he was touching that subject with a mile-long pole.

She crossed her arms proudly. “See, I did remember something from school, then! OK, so Wundt, what’d he do?”

“What didn’t he do? He basically invented psychology! Before him, everyone just kind of thought about thinking, but he was the first one to really study it with any sort of scientific method.” The first week of school had been going fairly well, Marco thought, but it was certainly busy. Maybe it was the fact that this was his first classroom education in two whole years, but it was way faster paced than anything he remembered. All the reading he’d done to prepare before the school year started helped, sure, but it was a sizable effort to keep on top of everything.

“Mhmm, I see.” Star tentatively raised her hand, nodding thoughtfully to his every word. “Tell me about his glasses.”

“What?”

“The glasses? For seeing someone’s problems really clearly? Come on, Marco, it wasn’t that hard to figure out. I bet they were ginormous.”

A few giggles escaped his lips and Star puffed her cheeks up in indignation. “No, Star, that’s not how glasses work. They just sorta- they make you look smarter, I guess?”

Star stuck her tongue out and pinched her fingers together to form two circles, aiming her hands carefully to position them over Marco’s eyes. “Nope, you seem just as smart without them. Anyway, let’s see here, next up is Pavlov.”

“Oh, you’ll love him. He studied stuff with his dogs.”

As if on cue, some of the laser puppies scrambled out from under the bed, jumping into Star and Marco’s arms. Star’s shout of “PUPPIES!” sounded like background noise behind the licking and panting invading his personal space, but it was a welcome change. With how big their yard was now, their pets were often gone for so long at a time that Marco felt like he barely saw them anymore, but they had a way of showing up randomly at oddly convenient times. Despite being laserless since magic had been destroyed, whatever dog breed the wand had concocted seemed to stay just as small and cute forever. Barko Diaz stayed in Marco’s arms while Star cuddled the rest and cooed over them one by one. “Anyway, his dogs drooled whenever food was placed in their mouths; that’s just the natural response. But Pavlov noticed that if he just held the food in front of them before feeding it to them, after a while they’d start to drool whenever they saw the food. That’s how he invented the name conditional reflex.”

“I, Star Butterfly, officially vote for puppy guy as the best- Sajak, hahaha, stop it!” The dogs pounced on her face and she fell backwards onto the sheets. “Marco, help! I’m being swallowed by a fur-ocious tidal wave! Get your jammies on and join the fun!”

Marco rolled his eyes as he pulled off his shirt and pants. Top drawer… nothing. Middle? Nope. Still only in his underwear, he quickly rummaged through both their sets of drawers in search of his usual blue pajamas to no avail. A frustrated groan rumbled in his throat as he bent over to check underneath the drawers.

“That’s it, mama like,” he could hear Star murmuring. He quickly glanced behind him to find… Star sitting up, his pajamas in hand. “Staaaaar,” his voice and brain both exasperatedly grumbled. Though he’d figured out that his own sense of sexuality was grounded in emotional intimacy more than anything, they’d still become quite comfortable with each other and themselves physically; normally he wouldn’t complain in the slightest about the attention, but he still had a job to do.

“Ooooone more second,” she drawled out while her half-lidded baby blues roamed his body.

“Alright, Star, let’s just pick one more card, OK? I need to make sure I’m ready for tomorrow.”

“Fiiiiine. The last one is… Freud. I’m probably saying that wrong, too. Wait a second, Janna talked about him once, after I told her about that psychology stuff we did years ago. She said he’d be really good at figuring out my mom issu-”

“Not the same thing. Come on, Janna…” Marco grumbled. Leave it to Janna to give the worst possible introduction to academic psychology. “Alright, that’s enough of that,” he stated decisively and snatched all the index cards out from under paws and tails before crawling onto the edge of the bed.

“Yay! Now scooty that booty, you cutie patootie!” Star gently cleared the space between them and the puppies all left the room except for Marco Jr. It wasn’t the best dog name, but it was at least better than it would’ve been for his sibling.

He propped himself up on his elbow and fluffed his pillow. “I’m honored to do my duty.”

“Hehe, you said doodie.” Before he’d even fully settled into his usual spot, Star had already climbed halfway on top of him and settled her head on his chest, prompting him to embrace her. Marco smiled and planted a soft, lingering kiss on her neck. Sometimes it was too warm, too cramped, and she’d strangle his limbs hard enough that it took him 10 extra minutes to stand up in the morning; despite all that, he couldn’t be happier to snuggle every night away.

“I-I know it’s been crazy this past week, so thanks for helping with this, even though you hate school.”

“Hey, I don’t hate it. I just don’t like classes, tests, homework, and having to ask to use the bathroom...” She paused and blinked a few times. “OK, maybe I do hate school.”

“If it makes you feel any better, in college you can just go whenever you need to.”

“You know, that actually kinda does. Anyway, learning can be fun, and you’re a good teacher. Keep it up and in a few years maybe I’ll have a secondhand degree,” she snickered. Her fingers started to fidget with his hands while her toes tangled themselves up in his pant legs. “Sorry I was so distracted. I guess it’s finally sinking in that you’re gonna be doing this for years and years and now I’m the one with no clue what I want to do. Sucks a little bit to think about.”

“Doesn’t mean we’re not still gonna be a team, but it- yeah, that kinda does suck. Maybe we can try looking through some more options, if you want? I know you didn’t like any programs at the college, but I’m sure there’s all kinds of jobs or volunteer work around town. We could-”

She squirmed in his grasp, tilting her head downwards and away from his. “Marco… I don’t know, I just really don’t think I’m even in a place where I can just point at something and say, ‘yep, that sounds like a great job to sign up for!’ Maybe I’m just not ready for that yet.”

It always saddened him when she had this little faith in herself because he knew firsthand how capable she was of the most amazing things. Whatever he could do to help get her self-confidence back and live up to her potential, he would. He brought his hand closer to her face, stroking her cheek gently - though not before clumsily misjudging distance and poking her in the mouth, which elicited a snort of laughter. “OK, whatever feels right. Besides, it’s not like I know what I want to do with my entire life right now either. We’ll figure it out whenever you’re ready. In the meantime, there’s a new season of Dude’s Food Feuds and a plate of nachos with our names on it this weekend! “Plus, I heard Mom and Dad say they might spend part of this weekend at Eclipsa’s…” he trailed off, nuzzling into her neck and pulling her closer.

She twisted herself to look at him as best as she could. “Oh yeah?” Her eyebrows wiggled suggestively.

“Yeaaaaaaahn.” His attempt to continue being flirty was foiled by a giant yawn, indicating once and for all that it was time to sleep, and her laugh at his expense was stifled by her own yawn indicating she was in the same position. “Let’s get some shuteye, I’ve got another early morning tomorrow. Night, Star.”

“Night, Marco.” After a good-night peck Star turned herself around and they resumed their embrace. Less than a minute later, slumber claimed him.

***

“Dangit, Tom, again? You’ve gotta be free to chill at some point!” Angie folded the corner of the poetry collection she was perusing and looked up at Star who had her phone sprawled across their couch. “But I wouldn’t even mind doing kingdom junk. It’s better than another day on the couch by myself!” With her free hand, Star absentmindedly dangled around a spare doll of Marco in the princess outfit, which a starry-eyed Mariposa was stumbling around on the floor trying to catch. “So I’m not ‘physically capable of sticking my arms into lava tar’, I don’t see what that has to do with-” Even from the other end of the phone, Angie could still pick up on the mounting frustration in the demon prince’s tone. Star suddenly sharply inhaled and took a moment before responding. “Sure, maaaaybe it would have something to do with clearing a toxic hellgae infestation from the depths of the lava tar pits. Ugh, fine, you’re right. Can I at least see you next week, then?” Only a split second went by before Star sat up suddenly. “JANNA? Hello? Dangit,” she groaned while tossing her phone to the other end of the couch.

“Is everything alright, Star?”

Star crossed her arms and huffed. “Tom’s super busy with Underworld stuff, and I guess Janna’s there too for some reason even though humans really shouldn’t be able to handle any of it. Ponyhead has some kinda interview with some production company or something, Eclipsa and my parents are on vacation, and even Ferguson and Alfonzo are too busy to hang out!” She flopped facedown into one of the cushions; her final cry of “stupid school” was barely intelligible.

Mariposa giggled and yanked the doll from Star’s now-limp hand. “Mago! Mago!” Mariposa babbled while waddling around. Her little foot got caught on the fabric of the doll’s dress, and like a tiny giant she slowly toppled to the ground. Angie moved to help her daughter, who let go of the doll to grasp for her mother’s hand. “Mama!” It had been only a few weeks since Mariposa began to put together words with any regularity, and she’d already taken a fierce liking to calling for her parents and brother.

“Mariposa, I’m trying to be grumpy here and that’s really hard when the cutest thing in the universe is talking about the other cutest thing in the universe, and that includes the entire Puppybunny Dimension!”

Suddenly, an idea came to Angie. “Why don’t you come with me to the community college and help watch Mariposa? I’ve missed spending time with her this week but I couldn’t take care of her all day, plus it’d be good to get her out of the house.”

“Marco said he was really busy today, though,” Star pouted.

“Well, then I guess it’ll just have to be a girls’ day. What do you say, Mariposa? Do you want to go with mommy and Star to school?”

She clapped her hands cheerfully. “Gool!”

“Who am I kidding, I can’t say no to you,” Star cooed, pinching the toddler’s cheeks. “So when are we going?”

“I have office hours in an hour, so the sooner the better. Come out to the car whenever you’re ready.”

“Just gotta get my purse!” Star bounded across the living room and up the stairs quickly enough that her voice trailed off even at full volume. Angie smirked as she went about gathering her usual toddler travel supplies. While all the reasons she’d given for their trip today were true, she had an ulterior motive. It was pretty obvious that Star was in a funk from life catching up to them, and a change of pace never hurt. Well, that, and Star drives everyone a bit crazy with nothing to do at home. Seriously, who knew one girl could spill so many gallons of pancake batter all over the counter in a day?

Once she had everything, she headed out to the faithful family minivan and strapped Mariposa into her carseat, tossing in her small satchel for work and the much larger bag of baby supplies. Right as she finished, she heard the front door shut and lock behind her as Star made her way to the car. “Can I take Mariposa around the college today? Marco’s baby carrier fits like a glove.” Star quickly strapped it on, tightened it, and did a little twirl before taking it back off and climbing into the backseat.

While Angie was driving, she barely had any ability to check how the girls were doing in the backseat - there’d been so much construction on the Earthni road system that she could never trust the routes she was used to - but there were little glimpses of Mariposa being enthralled with Star’s playful antics. Star’s classic yellow smiling star purse swung like a pendulum for Mariposa to catch and they both cheered when she finally succeeded. Before she even knew it, they arrived at the Echo Creek Commewnity College, which had expanded dramatically in both size and architectural diversity as a result of the Cleaving. Most places in town (and throughout the world, so she’d heard) had merged in ways that left individual communities intact, but for whatever reason the college campus had become completely intertwined with a Mewman campground. It was certainly more of a spectacle than the once-modest town college and did wonders for getting both halves of the Earthni community involved.

Star marveled at the seamlessly blended hybrid buildings and scenery while Mariposa did much the same with her own thumbs. Nondescript brick buildings mingled with medieval wood and stone and the occasional ornate decorations, which is why the quad had a marble dragon standing proud among the trees. “Woah, is that a cornball and football field at the same time?”

“That’s a good question. Honestly, I’m still not used to all the changes myself,” Angie laughed. “A few months ago I tried to use the swamp water machine for my coffee. I had lily pads in my teeth for days.” While they were walking, Mariposa had become noticeably fixated on Star. Her dress, her hair, her hands, anything that was available to gawk at and grasp was fair game.

“She’s such a wonderful little tot, isn’t she?” Angie asked as they stepped into the cool air of Bonner Hall. She walked slowly towards her office while Star flitted around poking at every plant in the hallway.

“Yeah. So much calmer than Meteora. Remember the birthday incident?” Angie lightly chuckled in response; how could anyone not remember that? It wasn’t every day that a one year old just spontaneously grew a full head of hair and then got her tail hopelessly caught in it at another one year old’s birthday party.

Once they’d arrived at her office, she pulled out her key and opened the door to invite Star in. “Bienvenue! I’m teaching Intro to French Literature this semester, so I’ve got this whole theme going on.” Quotes and pictures of authors hung all around the room alongside some images of major landmarks and a little French flag sat on her desk next to a miniature statue of the Eiffel Tower. Angie helped Star unstrap Mariposa and set her down on the floor where she began waddling and crawling around.

Star sat on the edge of Angie’s desk kicking her feet back and forth, careful to avoid the toddler. “Soooooooo… what’s the plan for today?”

“You’re more than welcome to stick around but if office hours get too hectic it may get pretty cramped in here.” She’d have liked to do more with a larger space, but given how infrequently other community college faculty even got offices to themselves it was a blessing to even have this. “Although I have to teach later so you won’t be able to get back into this room if you leave after that.”

“Marco’s not free until, like, 6, so…” She trailed off dejectedly. The vibrant enthusiasm that Star normally exuded was still lacking. Hmm, this might be more serious than I thought.

Angie gently laid a hand on Star’s shoulder until those big blue eyes finally met her own. “Star, honey, it’ll be fine. I know it can be hard not being able to spend all your time with someone anymore.”

The headband on Star’s head shifted and almost fell off from how hard she was tugging and frazzling her own hair absentmindedly, “It’s not that… well, it’s not just that. Everyone else is starting their big life dreams now, you know? Marco wants to be a psycho therapist or something, Tom’s actually kinda happy about being a prince for once, and even Janna seems like she’s figuring it out in her weird Jannaniganish way! I have no idea what I want to do! Even went through a big ole’ list of ideas with Marco and they all just seemed blegh.” Star threw her hands up in frustration before curling back into herself more than before. “And I want to find something too, you know? Ugh, where’s Mr. Candle when you need him...”

The words resonated very strongly with Angie but it was difficult to put into words. She backed away from Star, her gaze darting around the room until she had a realization. “Have I ever told you the story about my summer in France?”

“Don’t think so.”

“When I was about your age, I wanted to get away for a while, so I packed up all my things and went to France for a whole summer. The food, the music, the history… everything was better there. For months after I came home I tried desperately to hold on to all of that after it was over, and I still cherish that experience, but it was just a fun handful of weeks that I spent someplace else and it was better that I just dealt with the fact that it was over. But,” she forcefully interjected when Star raised an eyebrow in protest at the seemingly antithetical point being made, “I know now that it’s not a universally ideal handling of such events. All the excitement of the last few years made me think about that… people might sort these things out for themselves in very different ways.”

“Like how Jackie literally spent a summer in France too, but she and Chlóe are still together long distance.”

“Mhmm, I could see that.”

“Or how Ponyhead started wearing a prosthetic tail for a while after staying with Seahorse’s family.”

“Hang on, what-”

“Don’t ask.” Never a dull moment.

“Or what about when-”

Alright, I’ll just have to get to the point myself. “I was mainly thinking about Marco, Star. I told him this same story before he left for Mewni, and honestly, I didn’t know how important it was to him. But he grew into such a confident and capable young man there and I couldn’t be prouder.” Angie softly took both of Star’s cheeks into her hands. “Star, you’re a wonderful, caring, smart young woman. So what if you’re not following every step at the same time as your friends? Everyone goes through these sorts of crises at some point or another, but what’s important is that you take the time to make the decision that’s right for you.” Star’s gaze sunk to the ground while the gears in her mind were so obviously turning that they might as well have been visible and Angie gave her some space in turn. “So, with all that said, what are you thinking now?”

Star crossed her arms and furrowed her brow. “Even if I’m not rushing to figure everything out, I don’t want to just do nothing until I magically find my lifelong dream. And I know Marco and I aren’t gonna literally live the same lives; heck, I don’t want to do all his school junk anyway, but… whatever I end up doing, I still want it to be together. That’s why I left for Earth,” she finished with her voice dropping to a solemn whisper.

“Didn’t he do the exact same thing? You don’t need me to tell you that you two are something absolutely special. I may not know what all is going through his head, what mother of a teenage boy does, but I know he’d do anything for you, Star.”

Nodding more to herself than to Angie, Star took a deep breath before speaking. “Thanks, Mrs. Diaz.”

“You can call me Angie, if you’d like. Or Angelica, or maybe ‘The Coolest Mom in Town.’ I’m not picky,” she said with a smirk.

After a short pause, Star hopped off the desk and wrapped Angie in a bear hug so deceptively strong that it knocked the wind out of her, but she still managed to reciprocate. “Thanks… Angie.” A rumbling sound interrupted the moment. “Heh, well, seems like I’m also thinking about lunch.”

“That’s an excellent idea. Why don’t we-” The digital clock on the desk caught her attention. “Dammit, office hours already started a few minutes ago. Don’t think I’ll have time for a while. But there’s plenty of places around here to eat, and a few of them are actually good!” she chuckled. Just as she mentally ran through some places in the student union, a thought struck her. “Say, Star… there’s a lot of clubs and events and such that are open to non-students too. Maybe it’d be worth looking into some of them? It’d be something to do, you and Marco would be closer, and I could even drive you some days if you needed. Why don’t you take Mariposa with you and explore for a while? She seems pretty restless today.”

Taking a few deep breaths to center herself, Star nodded her head. “Yeah, that’s a good idea! Heck, it’d be good just to know my way around for any time I visit Marco anyway.” She bent down and beckoned for Mariposa, who’d been ogling a bronze baguette for some time now. Once the carrier was locked and loaded with a docile toddler and some of her supplies once more, Star skipped out of the office. Angie’s time alone, however, was cut short when a student skidded in and immediately started nervously rambling about homework questions and grading policies and the works of François Villon. Back to teacher mode. Angie afforded herself one last glance through the door at her young daughter gleefully riding along with the girl who might as well be her other daughter. Rafael had mentioned to Angie on more than a few occasions that Star and Marco reminded him of themselves in their youth, and Angie had agreed at the time but now she wasn’t so sure. Her teenage - and even young adult - years with Rafael, while wonderful, had been filled with many bouts of uncertainty and it’d taken them many, many years to get it right once and for all.

But Star and Marco? As far as she was concerned, they already had.

***

Boring classroom… Boring classroom… Boring restroom… Hey, wait a minute, is that a cornshake machine? A few minutes, a few dollars, and one cornshake (plus a sippy kid size) later, Star found herself not much better than she’d been when she set off an hour ago, but the surprisingly high quality of the vended drink did bolster her spirits. She resisted the urge to call Marco because it’d be waaaay more fun to surprise him later. And also because he might still be in class, that too. A tall rock creature walked in front of her, interrupting her thoughts, and she saw a nervous expression on his face as he feebly tried not to disrupt foot traffic too much. Looking around, she was a bit surprised to see just how much the cultures of her own world had been brought to the forefront and blended in despite humans comprising the majority of people she’d seen on campus. Some people who she guessed were Mewmans by their dress glanced back for a bit longer than most but otherwise went about their day without a fuss. Two guys, one human and one Septarian, were laughing and holding hands on a bench. All in all the atmosphere reminded her of high school, but was freer in a way that didn’t discomfort her as much as she’d anticipated.

A few of the passersby looked her way as she wandered, and one or two even said hi to her - not that uncommon, given that it was public knowledge that she and Marco were responsible for the Cleaving, though Eclipsa had tactfully phrased it as a consequence of the two working together to destroy magic - but it was just as likely that Mariposa was the one attracting attention for a multitude of reasons. She knew she shouldn’t have expected it, but part of her was disappointed that after going through four whole bustling buildings she hadn’t run into Marco, or even anyone she knew. Glum and tired, she was about to abandon her pursuits when a huge bulletin board around the corner caught her eye. As she jogged over to it, her hopes came true: it was a giant wall advertising all the clubs and events on campus for the start of the year.

Her eyes roved the board up and down, left and right scanning for anything that seemed interesting or had some sort of meeting today. There were some fliers that Star dismissed right away, including a woodworking workshop series, a community choir, a sketchy-looking “how to date a demon” seminar. The last one might have at least been good for a laugh, but it had a note scribbled on it that attendance was maxed out already. She noted some sort of upcoming school dance for all local teens, but it was months away and the poster was uninspiring since the theme was still listed as TBD. It made sense that most extracurricular activities didn’t happen in the middle of a school day, but she still frowned at how few options seemed available and potentially interesting. Once she’d perused the entire wall and selected those that were, she set out on her mission to find her purpose.

“You ready, Mariposa?”

“Gool!”

Chess Club

“Rook to G3.” Star’s opponent, whose nametag said Fred, positioned the black castle piece ahead of most of his pack.

“King to-” Her tongue stuck out as she concentrated on the board layout instructions, trying to find her place. “King to E3!”

“Um, first of all, the king piece is not allowed to move more than one square at a time. Second, since it is the most important piece, the singular goal of the game is to keep yours alive while defeating the enemy’s. Therefore it is ludicrously ill-advised to position your king into such immediate danger, and in most cases would automatically lose you the match” Star’s opponent responded matter-of-factly.

Star scratched her head in puzzlement, replacing the piece. “Why is the king so slow? My dad was literally a king and he can run at highway speeds.”

“Perhaps the Mewman traditions are different, but the Earthly ways of the monarchy are enshrined in a-

“Alright, whatever. Then I have my Queen ride the horse into combat! No, wait, can it be a warnicorn instead?” She ripped off a corner of the scoring sheet and deftly curled it into a cone before placing it on the top of the plastic figure with a satisfied grin.

“Although an intriguing concept, there is no precedent in the ancient tradition of the sport for-” Mariposa interrupted her tirade by kicking the edge of the table, which knocked over Fred’s black king. See, now this was the sort of thing she could see herself getting into!

“Checkmate!” Star shouted with a wide grin, one decidedly not mirrored by her opponent or any of the onlookers.

Cornball Tryouts

“Well, Mariposa, that was a bust. But cornball is a Mewni thing, so I’m gonna super nail it this time!” Star set Mariposa down and removed her from the baby carrier. “Stay right here, you little angel,” she cooed before jogging over to the group of hopefuls discussing strategy. “Hiya everyone!”

One of the girls who resembled a fox waved in welcome. “Sup, I’m Bleck, I was the Monster Cornball League’s ace stickler for a few years.”

“And I’m Jason, I was Mewni Cornball Alliance’s forward maizeman.”

Star shook both their hands. Did something seem familiar about them? “I’m-”

“Star Butterfly, we know,” Bleck responded. “You set up that integrated game on Mewni. Sorry about that, by the way. We were the captains and it, um, kinda got out of hand.” Ah, so that’s why Star recognized them.

“Yeah, that was our bad.” Jason rubbed the back of his neck shamefully with one hand with his other on Bleck’s shoulder. “I’ll be honest, this whole ‘monsters and Mewmans and Earth Mewmans all together’ thing is still new to me, but don’t wanna let some petty grudges get in the way of some good old fashioned cornball. These Earthers are crazy competitive, we’ll need the best team we can to have a chance of even making regionals.

“Speaking of which,” another Mewman spoke up warily. “Does anyone know anything about that new teenage husker that already made captain? CB Nation says she’s already poised to be hotter than Jispy Jenkins.”

“I heard she’s the reason the Cassidy bros quit moat guarding.”

“Well I heard she averaged 50 shucks per game in her rookie season.”

A hush fell over the group; as much as Star loved the sport she never really followed it, but it was still clear just how good this mystery player was.

“I think that’s her…” one of the monsters said, pointing at a shadow emerging from the clubhouse. “Oh corn, hold me!” He fainted on the spot.

“Star? Star!!!!!!!!” It was hard to make out details against the glaring sunlight, but there was a webbed hand waving at her. Wait, was that-

“KATRINA!” Star dashed as fast as her legs could carry her to meet her friend who was doing the same. Katrina scooped her up in a big slimy hug. “You’re so big now!” The girl was now taller than Star, with a stocky build, but her big sparkly eyes still had every bit of youthful wonder that she remembered. Given how much of a powerhouse Buff Frog was, Star could only imagine the athletic potential his kids could have.

“Yeah, I’m starting ECCC this year! I got a full ride scholarship as team captain! Sorry I haven’t been talking to you as much lately… I’ve been so busy working towards this, it’s a dream come true!” Katrina set her down and glanced over towards the sidelines. “Is that Mariposa over there! Hi, baby! Wow, humans age really slowly. You and Marco better not take too long getting your own kid, Auntie Katrina still wants to still be spry enough to play with ‘em.”

Star’s face heated up. “I- Katrina, you- We aren’t-” She stammered incoherently. This was going to take some getting used to.

“C’mon, Star, I’m kiddiiiiiing. I’m already four, I’m not a kid anymore. Anyway, are you here for the team? That’s so cool! You’re always so great at everything, you’ll definitely make the team.” She finally turned to the rest of the attendees to begin the session. “Alright, welcome to the ECCC cornball tryouts, I’m really happy you’re all here! Let’s go over some logistics. Practice is five days a week in the evenings until the league begins on Dartuk 30. That’s the 26th of September for all the Earth people here. We’ll have two regular matches each week and will be travelling most weekends. If we want to show who the real cornballers are, I’m going to need your complete dedication to this squad! School’s important too, but otherwise this will be your life while you’re on my team, so let’s talk drills-”

With each passing sentence, Star’s anxiously fidgeted more and more. It was… intense, more than she’d ever expected. She was ecstatic that Katrina was finding so much success and joy doing this and felt her heart swell with pride as the crowd hooted and hollered in support, but was this really what she wanted most for herself? While Star was zoned out, Katrina had apparently wrapped up her speech and everyone else had already dispersed. Katrina took Star’s hands and shook them up and down excitedly. “Are you as pumped as I am?”

“Yeeeeeeaaaaaah…” Star hesitantly cheered, casting a nervous glance back at Mariposa who now was booping Star’s purse repeatedly with her nose. “About that…”

Driver’s Ed

Maybe I should just learn to drive so I can visit Marco myself, Star pouted. “I could get us a pair of matching cool car driver sunglasses, so we can be rad Earth style,” Star whispered to Mariposa while Miss Skullnick (who was apparently working at the college now, and was human again) finished going over her slides.

“And that’s the introduction for this seminar series on automobile safety. Any questions?”

Star raised her hand and Skullnick sighed heavily before calling on her. “Is there a way I can start driving next week?”

“Get out!”

***

“Today sucked,” Star gloomily groaned. She was curled up sideways on a bench in one of the open quads while Mariposa was using her stomach as a pillow for her late afternoon nap, tuckered out after a recent diaper change. “I mean, it was so cool to see Katrina again, and in a weird way I almost missed Skullzy too, but I’m still completely stuck. But hey, at least I got to spend a day with you.” Star gently stroked Mariposa’s soft brown hair. Now that she thought about it, getting to spend hours a day with the adorable tot was one of the only consistently rewarding parts of the past week, it seemed. Even Meteora’s shenanigans were heartwarming in their own way, namely one that involved way more property damage. Her eyelids drooped shut, heavy with the weight of everything on her mind.

She couldn’t have been out for more than a minute when a child’s voice startled her. “Hello? Are you sleeping?” Was that Mariposa? No, it couldn’t have been, her mind concluded as she exited her half-conscious delirium. A small monster child, no older than the human equivalent of four or five with some features of an elephant, tugged on the sleeve of her dress with tears in his eyes. “I’m scared.”

Star rubbed her eyes and gathered everything into one corner of the bench so she could make room for the child. “What’s wrong, little guy? I’m Star.”

“My- my name’s Trevor but Mom and Dad call me Trev. I was playing on the slides but then everyone was gone,” Trevor began sobbing pitifully.

“OK, it’s OK. Let’s take a deeeeeeep breath, OK? Like this.” She inhaled as much air as she could, puffing up her cheeks and chest before blowing all of it out with an exaggerated flair. The boy nodded and took a small breath. “Again!” Star repeated, and he followed, back and forth until he had calmed down and was grinning at her absurdly over-the-top routine. “Feeling better?”

“A little.”

“How about we play a game? I’ll say one word, and you say whatever word comes to your mind. Ready?” He sniffled once, but nodded.

“Candy.”

“Tasty.”

“Dancing.”

“Fun.”

“Snuffleupagus.”

He cracked up a bit at that and she grinned back at him. “Silly.”

“School.”

“Sad.”

“Why does that make you sad?”

“My brother’s busy at school here all day now, so he has daycare watch me instead. My group was at the playground and Felipe bet I couldn’t go on the big slide so I did but I got stuck and when I got out, everyone was gone.”

“You poor thing,” Star responded. “I know how you feel. Tell ya what, let’s go try to find them together!”

“Can- can we stay here?” Her heart broke at how obviously terrified he was of the situation and the prospect of any more unfamiliarity wasn’t something he was ready to deal with at all.

“For a little bit, but then we really should get you back to the daycare.”

“OK,” he said somberly. “Who’s that?” He pointed at Mariposa who was crawling in circles around the bench.

“Oh, this is Mariposa! She’s my boyfriend’s sister.”

“What’s a boyfriend?”

Of all the conversations Star thought she might have today, this was far from one of them. “It’s like… boyfriend and girlfriend are like what a mom and dad are before they become a mom and dad.”

“My Uncle Matt is Mom’s brother but Dad calls him brother too. Does that mean she’s your sister too?”

Star met Mariposa’s eyes for a moment. It was weird to think about, but… was Trevor even wrong? She’d been living with the Diazes for almost all of Mariposa’s life, after all. There wasn’t a clear definitive answer in Star’s mind, but she needed one to sate the boy’s unending curiosity. “Yeah, I guess she is.”

“Cool! My big brother’s awesome. I miss when we used to play all the time. You’re really cool, too.”

“Thanks. I know change can be scary, but I’m sure your brother misses you a lot too. Sometimes big kids and grown-ups have to do grown-up things for a while, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t still love being your brother.”

A few voices echoed in the distance; once they were close enough for Star to make out the words, she realized they were calling Trevor’s name. “Over here!” she shouted back in their general direction. A large elephant monster with ripped jeans and ear piercings ran as fast as he could and gave Trevor a tight hug. “Hey, Trev, buddy, where’d you go? We’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

“It’s OK, Star took care of me.” It came out muffled from how his face was still buried in his brother’s arms.

“Woah, wait- Star? Like, the Rebel Princess Star Butterfly?”

“That’s me. Or was me,” she shrugged.

“I was your biggest fan for years! Remember the cave hideout? Don’t think I introduced myself then, I’m Geoff.”

“Oooooh yeah, you were with the ‘alternative monsters’! How have you been?”

“Pretty dope. Once that wicked Cleaving thing happened, we found a bunch of humans just like us! Being alternative is just, like, normal now. They even sell clothes with all the holes in them already so you don’t have to do any work! It’s nice to just get to be myself now, and I don’t think I’d ever get to do that without everything you did. You’re the best, Star. And thanks for taking care of lil’ Trev here. C’mon, buddy, let’s get you home.”

Trevor hopped up on his brother’s shoulders for a piggy back ride and waved. “Bye, Star! Bye Mariposa!”

“You must be a miracle worker with the kids,” the human man who had run up with Geoff finally spoke up. He had a thick beard and glasses and wore a red flannel shirt and jeans. “I’m Antonio, by the way, I run the ECCC Child Care Center. We just call it the Six Cs.”

“Nice to meet you,” Star responded. “I just did what anyone would, really.”

“No, you definitely made Trevor’s week. He just joined on Monday and he cries almost all the time from missing his family. We see that a lot, but it’s definitely hitting him harder than most, going from being at home all the time to being with a bunch of strangers for hours a day.”

Star unconsciously turned away and rubbed her arm. “Yeah, I… I know the feeling.” She shook it off and turned back towards him. “So, what happened with Trevor?”

“One of the girls got a splinter on the playground. Everyone was busy trying to keep her calm when we left the playground that we skipped headcount. I called Geoff right away, he was very understanding. It’s no excuse, but we’re way too short on people right now with all the new students.” His attention suddenly pivoted to Mariposa who was reaching up to grab at the fabric of his shirt. “This is Angie Diaz’s kid, no? May I?”

“Yeah,” Star dumbfoundedly responded after a moment’s hesitation. “You know her?”

Antonio hefted Mariposa up like she weighed nothing and gently rocked Mariposa back and forth in his burly arms. “Her older son, Marco, used to come here every now and then. Heard through the grapevine not too long ago that she had another kid, I asked if she’d be coming to the Six Cs but she said she already had someone at home. I take it I’m talking to her?”

Star’s eyes widened. Angie had said that? She was the only one who didn’t have plans most days, so… it had to be her. “Marco’s my boyfriend. I was their foreign exchange student for a year, then he came to live with me on Mewni for a year, and then… well, you’ve probably heard about how the Cleaving happened.”

“Afraid not, I don’t keep up with the news much these days. I just try to take care of all the kiddos as best I can, doesn’t much matter to me what goes on with the world. So what brings you to this humble campus?”

“Well, Marco’s going to school here now and I don’t have much else to do, so... yeah.”

“Ah.” His deep voice was laden with sympathy, and with that one word Star felt like he immediately understood her turmoil. “Well, if you’re ever looking for something to do, we could use someone like you on the team.”

“Really?”

“You’ve clearly got a big heart and a keen eye for how to take care of the younguns, that’s more than enough in my eyes. This one’s been staring at you almost since we started talking, she clearly trusts you more than you may know.” Huh, he was right; even while being rocked gently into slumber, Mariposa’s warm brown gaze remained firmly on Star’s face. “Well, I should get back to the staff. No rush if you’re unsure, but you can come with me to meet the crew before they leave for the night if you want.” He set Mariposa back down on the bench while Star reassembled the baby carrier and got Mariposa settled back in.

Star couldn’t say she was any clearer now on a life goal, but maybe that wasn’t what she needed right now. Looking back on the day and week thus far, even the most exceptionally crummy day in recent memory could be salvaged by Mariposa alone, so why should she be worried about more of that? Though she hadn’t really thought of herself as Mariposa’s caretaker until just a few minutes ago, her breath hitched with pride at the notion.

When she finally answered Antonio’s question, it was the least unsure she’d felt in a while.

***

Done. Finally. Marco swiftly stuffed his assignments into the binder in his backpack and hustled out the door of the student union. Cramming all his homework into one day had drained him, but it was worth it so he and Star could have the whole weekend to themselves. He liked all the things about school that Star hated, sure, but his life had changed so much and so many times that he worried he wasn’t even cut out for it anymore. ‘B’ on the pop quiz, really Diaz? The rational part of his brain knew it was fine, but the Marco of old was disappointed. He’d aced the questions he’d studied with Star, at least, so maybe the Marco of old wasn’t the one to follow.

Nachos, ever the talented dragoncycle, had founded a part-time rideshare service in the town and was busy tonight, so Marco navigated his way to his mom’s office for a ride home. “Hey Mom, hey Star, h- wait, Star?”

“Marcomarcomarcomarcomarco!” Star excitedly leapt into his arms with a barrage of cheek kisses and a crushing embrace.

“Missed you too, Star,” he chuckled, kissing her on the forehead in return before backing away to take off his backpack and slump into a chair. “What are you doing here?”

She sat sideways in his lap, hooking her arms around his neck. “Surprising you, goofhead!”

He closed his eyes for a moment and drank in her affection, letting it wash away his fatigue. “Well, color me surprised. Really glad you’re here.”

“Long day? Did you defeat the quizzards?”

“Yeah, and for the third time, it was just a regular quiz and not evil mystical quizzards giving me riddles. Besides, don’t they have a game show now?”

“Totally, totally, totally… I knew that.”

“I just kinda miss you, Star. It hasn’t been the same going all day without seeing you. I guess the last few years have made me realize I don’t want to be wherever you aren’t.”

“So cheesy,” Star cooed while pinching his cheek. His mom and Star exchanged excited glances. “But don’t worry about that anymore, Diaz, because I’ll be here now too!”

“Hubbawha?” Marco blurted out.

“Star’s going to volunteer for the Six Cs and take care of Mariposa there.”

She stood up and walked over to Mariposa, poking her nose just as she came out of a nap. “Yep, and they said I can make a schedule around yours so we can dragonpool to school and have lunch together or whatever! Plus I get to spend time with my other favorite person in the whole wide world.”

Mariposa fully opened her eyes and stared vacantly at Star for a second before smiling wide. “Ta.”

Star stopped in her tracks. “Wait, is she saying-”

“Tar. Tar. Tar!” Mariposa bobbed up and down on the desk, clearly as overjoyed about her words as everyone else was. Tears welled up in Star’s sapphire eyes as she leaned down to gently snuggle Mariposa. Marco walked over to join her and caught his mom absolutely beaming with as much pride as he’d ever seen her have. The wholesome moment was interrupted as his little sister, not content to stop, kept rambling on. “Tar! Mago! Tago! Tago!”

“Not you too!” Star sputtered out, still choked with emotion, and Marco couldn’t help but laugh.

And later that evening, after the four had gotten dinner and piled into the Diaz van for the trip home, Marco looked over to see that Star had fallen asleep on the other side of Mariposa’s carseat. He took her hand in his, yawning as he realized a nap wasn’t such a bad idea. Just before succumbing to the day, he swore he heard a soft, squeaky murmuring from the toddler next to him.

“Sihtah.”

#starco #svtfoe #star vs the forces of evil #fanfic #tgg svtfoe

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brumatifl · 3 years

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i couldn’t get this out of my head so i needed to write it. not sure about the length since i’m just going to keep writing till i run out. edit: ............idk how this got long and it’s jus t one simple thing i wow. am i going to proof read? probably not, might just queue it. hope it makes sense!!!! ijust really love them ; ;

today’s weather was no different than the previous few days with light showers of rain every now and then, filling the streets with a colorful range of umbrellas. yuki got held back at school with a few errands and she’d sent her friends away with a quick wave goodbye and a ‘be careful’. with the sound of raindrops against the glass windows keeping her company she was quick to finish, excusing herself with a nod to the seniors around and rushing out. yuki’s of the few who considers herself lucky for it to still be raining, and there’s already small puddles around? even better.

quietly she hums to herself on the way home, pulling her own umbrella away sometimes to feel the rain on her face and like a child she would giggle. today was going to be a good day. yuki continues like this until interrupted by a small ‘meow’, slowing down her pace to concentrate a there it comes again stopping her in her tracks. she looks around, paying extra attention to the bushes on the side of the street and sure enough a small black kitten was hidden beneath one.

“who left you out here all alone?” with caution yuki approaches, and notices the absence of a collar. “oh, nevermind. this isn’t a very good shelter, you know?” she carries on talking with the kitten, keeping a good distance between so not to frighten it. it’s so small it could probably fit in her hands, her heart strings tug when it’s clear the poor thing is shivering from the cold. a part of her says to take it home and care for it, another part tells her she already has one at home and can’t afford another. yuki scrunches her nose unamused with such thoughts and crouches down, back of her skirt touching the wet ground but paid no mind.

“yuki!” an unmistakable voice sings her name and this time her heart strings tug for a different reason. “what are you doing?” yuki barely had a moment to greet him before he’s right next to her, knocking their umbrellas together and all but beams at her. yuki avoids eye contact, fidgets with her hair a little bit and gestures at kitten. it seems more terrified than before having two humans in front of it now, and looks ready to take off.

“i was thinking of what to do with them..i can’t take them home, mini might bully them and try to stuff them under the couch.” this earns her a laugh from joey, this time knocking their knees together. yuki nearly loses balance but is quick to regain it, a little ungraceful with a squeak escaping the back of her throat. time for her face to catch fire. “um, sorry that, i,” stop. pause. try to relax.

the rain softens to a drizzle, making the world quiet around them. yuki is hyperconscious of their knees touching, their shoulders barely and the proximity of just joey as a whole, it’s silly she knows it is but she can’t help it! she decides it’s best if she doesn’t speak for now, waiting till she’s ready to formulate proper sentences. during this time joey acts on his own accord, gently coaxing the kitten closer and strangely it begins to purr at the head rubs it receives. does joey have that effect on everyone? everything? well, except for bruce bruce...

“i say we leave it under one of our umbrellas for now--” he begins,

“and i’ll ask a friend of mine if they’re willing to take it in.” yuki cuts in, leaning on her hand for leverage to prop her umbrella over the kitten, the bushes holding it in place. “i don’t mind the rain--”

“we can share mine! we can get some hot chocolate too, what do you think?”

wide eyed, both yuki and kitten, she blinks at him holding her arm and his umbrella over them both. suddenly her mouth is dry and her heart is stuck in her throat. yuki knows very well despite her answer he is going to be persistent, you know what? there’s nothing wrong with it, she finds herself wanting to be closer to him, wanting more time with him and the world is shoving an opportunity in her face so take it!

“okay, yeah, that sounds nice.” and that’s how yuki finds herself spending the rest of the afternoon with joey, arms linked together to fit so neither would get wet with warm cups of hot chocolate in their hands.

today was definitely a good day.

#xaconite #;drabble #;(yuki & joey) tag tbd #;the witch (ic)#how many times......did i mention umbrellas???#i did not proof read it #watch me cry about a typo later but you kno w what?? i'm known for throwing things out #and then finding out i could've done better but it's okay it's fine #it' s soft i love them and also #i wanted a cliche moment of them sharing an umbrella but yuki is always prepared #so i thought of this #;queue

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lesbianrobin · 4 years

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I’m not talking about the other boys, and sexuality or battle of the sexes as maturity, I’m specifically talking about Lucas. Mike has always needed to outgrow his view of El as “other,” from their first interaction in season one, and Lucas’s character wasn’t created as a prop to project Will’s adolescent struggles into, he has his own relationship with both El and Max. The boys being boys about girls is a narrative they’re telling, but they go from Lucas learning what he THOUGHT Max wanted

wasn’t what she wanted, modifying his behaviour, and connecting with her and listening to her in a way no one had bothered to do since she’d moved to Hawkins, to telling Mike girls like shiny things and he’s the victim of El’s emotions when she breaks up with him. Romance aside, we saw him do the same thing in season one, where he changed his opinion of El when he had the information to understand her, and he apologized, accepted her apology, and modified his behaviour accordingly.

I understand that your initial point wasn’t about sexuality or maturity, but that is what the storyline was about, so I thought that it was relevant to the discussion.

I do get what you’re saying now, though, that S3 feels like a regression for Lucas. I essentially agree that it does go back on what he learned in S2, but my belief is that the shift from friendship to an official romantic relationship changes things, and it feels believable to me that in the intermediary period between middle and high school, after beginning his first relationship, Lucas might struggle with viewing Max as his friend Max, as herself, rather than as his girlfriend. “Girlfriend” comes with strings, a list of things you’re supposed to do and not supposed to do, and Lucas is working off of the cultural template that he’s familiar with. Teenagers in relationships often behave this way in real life.

By the end of S3, we see that Lucas and Max are back to normal, goofing around with each other, and I think that his behavior in S3, while not the most flattering and not what we want to see from a character we love, makes sense for both Lucas as an individual and for the kids’ collective plotline. He relearns more or less the same thing he learned in S2, but with the added element of Max being his girlfriend rather than his crush, and it’s debatable how much that qualifies as being a new lesson versus an old one.

Everybody was acting immaturely this season, not just Lucas, and I guess that’s what I’ve been trying to say this whole time. Max, Mike, El, Dustin, they were all being pretty immature too, and so Lucas’s behavior never really stuck out to me. He got himself straightened out by the finale, so I guess I just kind of called it fair.

They got lazy with Lucas in S3, and I guess I’m guilty of doing the same in my analysis. They sidelined him, and that’s isn’t really in question. My issue with his portrayal this season was less in his conflict with Max, though, and more in the way that he was used primarily as comic relief and product placement for Coca-Cola. I do stand by my initial analysis, that ALL of the kids had a collective storyline of which Lucas was one element, and I think that it was more or less effective. I think the larger issue is that, because Lucas was sidelined and didn’t get much screentime, the arc wasn’t properly developed and it didn’t do him justice. Theoretically, I think that it’s sound, and I think that the Duffers were exploring a lot of interesting things in S3, but they just didn’t dig deeply enough to quite pull it off.

TL;DR You’re right, I think the Duffers bit off more than they could chew and didn’t give Lucas the screentime or development he deserved, but I feel the bigger issue is the way he was used for comedic relief and product placement.

EDIT: i literally didn’t see this third ask til AFTER i posted and you fuckin summarized everything i wrote in one sentence lmao

I’m not saying the boys didn’t act accordingly with the narrative they were trying to do, I’m saying they shoehorned it in instead or writing it so that it made sense with his character.

You hit the nail on the head, anon!

#thank u for sending these asks this is a really interesting conversation!!#asks #em talks #stranger things #lucas sinclair #lesbianrobin.canon

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despiteherself · 5 years

Text

somewhat spoiler-y thoughts under the cut. don’t keep reading if you don’t want to see stuff about httyd3

okay. so overall i actually enjoyed httyd3 (surprising; i know). i do have lots and lots of complaints but the stuff i liked was exciting and interesting enough that i sort of just blacked out the bad stuff. and i’m going to love picking that stuff apart bc boy was there some cringy shit. especially if you don’t like hiccstrid, their scenes with actual relationship talk were awkward and wooden and god. the ending was SO :/

actual spoilers from here on out. you’ve been warned.

grimmel was a lot more compelling as a villain. they sort of gave him a backstory thing and it kind of ruined it a bit for me bc it was basically “i killed a night fury as a boy and my village loved me for it so i killed all of them” but idk something about it was lacking and i was like. oh. did you guys not care enough to flesh this one out. actually, writing it down it sounds way better motivation than when he actually said it even tho it’s basically the same thing.

the deathgrippers were being controlled! grimmel was using their venom to mind control them, so any “alpha talk” didn’t get through to them and they did exactly what grimmel wanted.

and hiccup didn’t give a shit lol. these dragons were constantly being drugged via needles in their head/neck and being forced to hunt and attack and carry grimmel around and hiccup didn’t even feel a little bit sorry for them or express any pain. the whole movie was kinda “wow ppl don’t deserve dragons we need to save them” but he didn’t express any empathy for dragons being used? not many were shown in this movie to be used, and even less that hiccup saw, but idk the whole “let the things you love go!” didn’t congeal well.

further more, he made several terrible decisions for the entirety of berk, including running away to find the hidden world, which they had no proof even existed and absolutely kept walking exactly into everything grimmel wanted, but when ruff did it (after she was “captured” and let go she flies straight back the place they’ve settled leading grimmel back to new berk) it felt like it was being played as a WAY worse thing. like she was an idiot for doing it, and it was just! hiccup. every decision you’ve made has been panicked and blind and made your position worse and worse.

gobber, valka and eret all get a little screen time, and they all play the naysayer stoick part? like “hiccup this is dangerous” and hiccup completely ignores them. them: hiccup we have advice hiccup: ok cool im not listening and i don’t want to hear it. they don’t even get to really explain their points of view ???????

valka’s other stuff is “oh we might have been followed leaving berk” and then her being all “astrid do u still love and believe in my son?????” what “he’ll listen to u” uhm ??? and no one else i get? ?/ they literally do not talk except about hiccup

gobber’s scene where he tells hiccup to marry astrid is so weird and awkward and only tuffnut yelling “oh no not the m word!” had anything that made it better. noah fence but astrid was all “that’s weird and awkward of you” and tells hiccup she thinks they’re “not ready for marriage” and the idea is silly and it 100% sounds like she’s not interested in him at all. and he’s obviously super invested and he’s all “haha maybe you can have snotlout” she makes “jokes” about snotlout being into valka. it was....

also. he ONLY mentioned snotlout when saying there’s other guys and idk. it ..... idk now i think about it it maybe feels the “joke” is kinda who would want snotlout which :/ but i guess means tuff and fishlegs are valid suitors? i don’t know

hiccup in the whole was pretty weak tbh. like he didn’t stand out for me and most of his plot felt like it had a bunch of good ideas but they struggled putting it together. it’s like when u see a fic and u love the general idea but the execution is not how u would, and they go on and it’s like. i really really wouldn’t have

they weirdly anthropomorphise toothless and then also. have him act like a dog and i found it disconcerting

the light fury is genuinely super blobby and ugly and i cna’t believe they made me watch SO much of “uwuw sexy seductress” content and toothless being a complete airhead who licks a rock to “practice” for it. was weird and i was uncomfortable.

also astrid is all “wow toothless has a girlfriend its so cute !!!!!!!” and they watch him watch other dragons doing mating dances and hiccup is like ‘i never pegged you for a romantic, like never” like get a fuckign hint !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! she never kisses you on the cheek. astrid expressing sentiment cause she thinks something is romantic but never for your relationship is telling you A LOT about it

honestly. they don’t do anything to make me convinced in ANY WAY that astrid is actually into him and wants to marry him for real. at their wedding she is SO wooden and when they kiss hiccup brings his hand up but astrid is just STANDING there,,, and they look so blank. it’s so.

also. i was right astrid was mostly just a prop for hiccup’s story and she barely interacts with anyone that isn’t hiccup or valka, and when it’s valka it’s about hiccup.

aside from toothless, and a little bit of stormfly, the gang’s dragons are mostly just. in the background and don’t really have anything to do with anything

behind everything there were this warlords, i didn’t pick up names and apparently they were the ones who were funding drago or whatever? and they call grimmel in bc he cares about killing night furies and are hoping that it’ll mean they get all the dragons. it was kinda. i sort of liked the idea but i felt it was shoved in, and they just mentioned drago to make it seem like it was planned when they came out of nowhere. and idk not planned at all. like an idea that was good but they didn’t edit everything to make sure it fit. a lot of stuff felt kind retcon-y like apparently stoick was “obsessed with finding the hidden world” and he even mentions in a flash back that it’s not the nest they’re looking for in httyd1 so it’s so weird like. and there was this ~journals~ stoick had about it and it’s just! they never ever mentioned this before gfhsdfjhdfgjdfgfdg guys. that’s so fucking messy and kinda annoying. in the grand scheme this retconning isn’t too much, but it’s enough that it’s like. none of this was planned and i can tell and instead of making it match up you just bluster through like “actually this always happened” as if u think i’m a dumbass who will just blindly believe whatever you tell me instead of a long time fan with a personal involvement.i know some of u read my blog,,, come on

i didn’t cry at all like lol. i had fun but i wasn’t emotional.

no characters die don’t worry

ruff was PERFECT and everything she did was wnoderful and i LOVE her so much! she got to speak A LOT and she’s all “it’s so tough being this hot” i love you girl, and she’s over eret and is like “wow he missed out” and talks about snotlout and fishlegs which was :///// but the guys don’t do the whole fighting over her thing so that’s! and she’s like “i guess fishlegs but he’s a nerd” and at the end he cries at the wedding and she’s like “wow i guess the sensitive guy wins” so a lot of her stuff was kinda about men ://// but herself was PERFECT and she boops grimmel’s face with the bobble ends of her hair pretending they’re a zippleback. she makes jokes about why is grimmel’s face so long, and her’s is long but WOW does that take the cake. and she says “astrid round face” it was so !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! she’s so good i love her

rupple does a good job with tuff. the voice difference was noticeable and i kept thinking about it but i think he did well. tuff gets a bunch of speaking parts and he’s super involved with the whole wedding concept and he’s like “haha wow hiccy, a DOES NOT WANT to get married 2 u LOL. which is #tru cause like. she’s a viking warrior queen and you’re well you. you need to shape up. also. be more like me” which i will TAKE i cannot believe tuffstrid is REAL. also now im about 80% convinced hiccup and astrid took a break to see other ppl and tuffstrid fucked. tuff and astrid don’t really interact except for when they leave ruff behind but they KEEP on doing this whole, vibe thing that makes them seem like they’re good friends. like. tuff thinking he knows what astrids want or admires and he actually goes and all his advice/pep talk is like half leg jokes but it’s all good????? tuff has ear piercings, they’re SO on point they look so good, and he’s got rings all over his fingers i love this kid so much he’s so great. he calls his braid his beard and whenever anyone looks a little sad he like, shoves their face into his braid to comfort them.

also tuff says there’s no edge of the world cause actually it’s round like the sun and the moon and stars, even tho stars are dumb.

i was right fishlegs’ first sentence is basically them all going “wow a nerd” akdshgfkdjghfg. he doesn’t get as much screen time as the others, and most of it is focused on fishmeat, who is ADORABLE and PERFECT. that big moose dragon meets fishmeat at the start and they become bffs and he defends his lil buddy

snotlout’s also not as much screen time, and most of it is him following valka around and being impressed with her and wanting her to say nice things about him. the rest is him getting caught on his cape. valka says nice stuff about eret cause he’s actually good at this planning stuff (except one bit thats played for jokes where snotlout is like “we should spilt up cause *good reasons*” and then eret is like “we should spilt up cause i feel like it” and valka’s all “i trust your instincts!!!!”. it was weird bc it was the only really good tactical decision snotlout made and it gets ignored) and he keeps getting his ego pumped up when he takes what valka says wrong - like she’s being polite, or there’s double meanings and he takes it like he’s good but all he did was get caught on a cage and hung there until hookfang picked him up - and at the end she says “eret maybe brawn, but you’re the brains” and snotlout feels validated again but he doesn’t really deserve it? like idk i wish she said something meaningful. it’s not kind to make someone feel like they’re good at something they’re not. you should encourage him when he’s doing well.

eret is just kinda. around. doing things. and being like, snotlout’s “rival” for valka’s attention and eret is like. what are you on about lmao

also. i’ve seen some out of context spoilers and they mentioned something being gay but i don’t know where that’s from? snotlout kinda says some great things about eret but it’s a real squint and gobber says eret has the body of a norse god but then he says he does as well and then puts a crick in back when he’s stretching so it’s very clearly a joke and it’s definitely like ‘he’s fat and old and dirty its funny cause he thinks he’s attractive” rather than anything else

hmmMMmmMMMMM god ive forgotten what i’ve talked about and what i haven’t im sure i have more to say but this is already super long os. you can ask me questions if u like. send me an im or something

#httyd3 spoilers #httyd 3 spoilers #hidden world spoilers #spoilers #httyd3 #dot post

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chelseaartlab · 3 years

Text

Rāpare (9.2)

Discussion of independent - artists collected?

“Constructive Criticism” > I like this and I would do that differently...

Hanne Lippard

Performance artist? Reading… faux fur, tinsel, red lippy, a celebration? ‘cheap,’ trashy?, everyday.

Her rhythm of language came from typography - decided that spoken voice has more ‘persona’

Translating text to sound

“Taking words out of cold state”

Seeks spam mail as degenerate; ‘b-language’ > b-movies

Cheap and trashy language

Using film presents the sounds/actions of receiving SMS - communication that is neither what we hear or who we meet, but still an instant message

Methods:

Audio installations, writing books (typography), audio as live performance (reading) - with ‘music’ accompaniment - rhythms,

Body language in film - how you read faces etc

Collecting fragments of language (from all over the place)

Use of words - ‘tongue twisters’ (known phrases); individual words listed for rhythm/sound rather than meaning; but also translations of words based on meaning; repetition; degeneration of words.

Using found language (eg. online personality/stress tests) as the leaping off point…

Things “we” do… things I do…

Art an come from our habits/obsessions eg. writing lists

Comfort and discomfort - sibilance sssss’s - mouth noises - (misophonia - can’t tolerate mouth sounds) - “the tongue is warm in my mouth” - visceral qualities of speech.

What language do you think in? - what/who is the voice in your head?

George Dickie - definitions of art : limits of language and thought - see also Wittgenstein language games - basic principle is that words have meaning because of the context and the ways we use them. Art works have a meaning because of where we see/experience them eg. in an institutions (they might have a different meaning in another place); conversely words can change and/or lose meaning if we use them in ‘different’ ways.

Words = meaning : the hallucinogenic quality of words (test yourself on the ‘stroop effect’)

Words have meaning if there is someone to hear/read them (metaphysical question posed by George Berkeley - “If a tree falls in the forest with no one to hear, does it make a noise?)

Can words get in the way of thinking?!

When you ‘say’ things out loud you find out whether or not they mean anything/what you meant.

For Hanne speaking is an act of making

She doesn’t refer to her work as poems/poetry: is she appropriating poetry for ‘contemporary art’?

Hanne asks questions but not for you to answer - rhetorical questions.

Hanne makes eye contact through the screen - acknowledges a distant (mediated) audience. In theatre : “breaking the fourth wall”

Performance is ‘taking on a persona’ : she also ‘plays the role of artist’

Stress of being constantly ‘connected’ - constant tones of message arrival.

Contemporary icons (iconicism) iconoclastic

Her tone was distracting - there is a ‘blandness’ to her persona, shows up how hard it can be to attend/concentrate/hear.

Douglas Rushkoff : https://rushkoff.com/books/present-shock/ - now we commercialize people’s attention - “attention economy” - meta-data collecting

Media Studies / Spoken word poetry / Artist’s books / automatic text generating (https://app.inferkit.com/demo)

Task: using auto-text function of text message app. Start with a found text, add 5 words from auto-text suggestions, and one word of your own choosing - continue this sequence till your ‘done’ (task was given 10 minutes)

her set ups or stage props are usually common house hold items. ones that are reoccurring are fans and wires.

I think her work is sort of like white noise that we are meant to listen to.

she uses a soft voice when she speaks. sounds like she is hypnotizing us.

I found that the apple ringing tone although associated with stress was edited to sound more relaxing. I think this speaks to egnoleging your stress and changing your environment to de stress.

I also see a correlation between the feeling of zoning out to the sound of my alarm and listen to Lippards work.

Hakiar

sound in general, language, muilt lingual, coming together to listen to a person speak (the actual act of her work is taking you away from your phone), listening, appreciating communication,

Rebecca Ann Hobbs

New Zealand artist

I liked:

Measured the bridge - measuring by dance

But it wasn’t accurate enough to really say yr measuring the bridge

What is being measured? Does

Video is 2’48” - a whole 2” over.

Was the walk actually to measure because she didn’t start or finish at the beginning or end of the bridge

It takes 2’33” to ‘measure’ in her own time

There is a difference in experience/travel between dancer and camera - she might get left behind

Dance & walk - expressive motion

Appropriating dance culture > hip-hop; ‘dancehall’ - Jamaican origins now in Aotearoa.

Place: bridge over the Manukau - good place for fishing - between Onehunga and Mangere Bridge - ‘south Auckland’ - Māori and Pacifika neighbourhoods.

Dancer is wearing headphones - makes her isolated from other occupants of the space.

Removes items of clothes being stripped off

Part of a series - perhaps things become clearer if you watch more…

Is it “sexualised”? In some ways yes and other ways no…

Dancehall - night clubs etc. suggests sexualised environment

What is the relationship between removing (reducing) the sexualising aspects of Dancehall and the (objective, empirical act of) measuring.

Is this international black identity (politic) > overarching response of shared experience by people of colour - particularly the expression via hip-hop.

Maungataketake: efforts gone in vain to rebuild/replace Maungataketake - volcanic cone that was quarried (in the 1930s… i think)

Polystyrene is bad environmental material

Futile activity

Lack of communication

Why 15 minutes? - it’s so long and unedited - the effort takes a ‘long’ time - endurance performance.

Is 15 minutes a long time? - relative time - the average amount of time spent with an art work in a gallery is 6”.

Endurance: looked heavy and difficult, doing the same movements over and over.

Connections: isolated feeling - wide open space - not being noticed - location (Maungataketake is also south Auckland… near the airport - part of Ihumātao area) - the first is a journey (a to b) but the second is ‘pointless’, just keeps going in the one place - the camera angle is similar even though one moves like journeying, the second is still like sitting - both share a movement in and out of the frame (tension of miss framing) and wide angle landscape format - appearance and action in/on the landscape, it is segmented eg. broken by dance movements; sliced in polystyrene; what is the political implication?

Martin Awa Clarke Langdon & Qiane Matata-Sipu are both Māori. Rebecca calls herself a “mozzie” - Māori diaspora in Australia.

Performance and critique of colonial land practices - occupation and dispossession, land confiscation and surveying (subdivision into privately owned “unit title”)

measurement is such a strict action to do, it dose not rely on an individuals interpretation, it's even across the board

she personalizes measurement, the woman moves across the bridge in her own way another person would do it different, but they are both walking the same distance.... everyone lives the same day but each do something different with it.

hip hop is a dance discipline that doesn't have the same hard rules as styles such as ballet. it was created from people who didn't fee like they could express themselves in society. its a fitting style because it encourages individuality.

south auckland used to be one of the lower income parts of auckland, it represents the Maori and pacific people of an urbanized and westered country. She is encouraging self expression to these Maori and pacific.

in relation to Hakari:

she celebrates movement, culture, expression of self, expression of culture, being proud of who you are, not allowing yourself to be oppressed, recognizing the hard ships one can go through being part of minority, not caring what people think,

Independent:

Practice: Hanne Lippard

- make another text work

- make a new one

Practice reading/performing it. Film/record yourself (this is as documentation but also reflection - how could you say/perform differently - see “spoken word” )

Be ready to perform this in a breakout next class

Make a Rebecca Ann Hobbs related work

Copy these notes into your ‘workbook’ - add, extend, correct: append to each section ideas in relation to Hākari eg. what is being celebrated.

You have full access to the library - use a mask on-site please

Digital access to Google via library - tips on using Google well: https://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=1&sid=94140fe5-18e3-45ce-a0a5-05201d2ab91c%40sdc-v-sessmgr02&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWlwLGNvb2tpZSx1cmwsdWlkJnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN=100259629&db=ers

Referencing: please note Artists name, title of work, year, media… sometimes very useful to know where exhibitied/performed - website citation &/or book citation.

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khaptivated26 · 7 years

Text

Grey’s Anatomy 13x15 “Civil War” Review (Spoiler Alert)

*Put on my rapper voice* Aye yo, it’s me!

And I am back with another Grey’s review.

I’m sorry for not posting anything two weeks ago, about 13x14. I wrote it, but I was too lazy to edit and add gifs. But I had to make sure I came and give y’all a little something before 13x16’s review. Y’all know I’ll be a hot mess next week.

Let me stop before I really start freaking out about next week.

Anyway, this episode had me wanting to cuss somebody out. I know, it’s not very Christian of me, but I had a bad day on Thursday, and certain characters were just pushing it.

Let’s get into it.

PATIENT:

This was one of the situations that had me actually cussing at the TV. So, an elderly man came in with burns from a deep fryer that exploded. I think there was some family event and the son’s fiance (the son’s gay by the way), did something using a deep fryer and it exploded, hurting the father. The daughter was having a full blown fit, blaming the fiance and being mean to him. I instantly knew that I didn’t like her and thought that she was mean to him because one, she doesn’t like that her brother was gay, two, doesn’t like his partner, or three, was jealous that her brother got a man and she didn’t. The fiance apologized, but the sister was still acting up. Eventually, the son told his fiance to stop talking. I’m looking at the TV like “You should be telling your sister to shut up!”

Later on, Jackson and April went to them to give an update on the father. At the end, the fiance asked “When can we see him?”, and the sister was like “We?”.

That’s when I lost it and was like “Really bitch?” The fiance “corrected” himself and said “they”. I wanted him to tell her “Yes bitch, we. W.E. The three of us. You *points to her*, Me *points to himself* and him *points to the son*”.

April told them that they should get some food, and the fiance volunteered, saying that he would get “us” some food. And then the sister was like “Food?...Us?”. I’m sitting there thinking “You obviously got an issue with pronouns that involve other people”. What pissed me off was that the son didn’t stand up for him and told him to leave in the end. And the daughter didn’t even seem to care when he told him to leave.

And the thing is, at the end of it all, the one person he wanted to call when they found out his father was fine was the fiance. The sister was there for it, but whatever.

I get her being upset about what happened, but her attitude was too much. That was what had me thinking that it had more to do with what happened.

Even though I was pissed at the sister, I actually like this patient story. I can actually see a way how this could apply to Jackson and Catherine, but I’m not quite sure I can explain it yet.

ARIZONA & MINNICK:

I'm not really into this couple, so I don't really have anything to say about them.

All I know is that all they asses better start hating Arizona! If they can be mad at April for taking Meredith's job, then they should be mad at Arizona for fraternizing with the enemy. Webber walked in on them almost kissing, so I really want to see what happens next.

OMELIA:

I honestly have no idea what do think anymore when it some to these two. I just know that feel bad for Owen because he ended up in the same situation again, he wants kids, and his wife doesn't. Maybe he should have been with the Emma lady. Though like I've mentioned before, I don't think Amelia doesn't really want kids, I think she’s just afraid to have kids. So, I really need them to sit and talk this out.

MEREDITH, ALEX & RIGGS:

I’m wondering if I should even talk about this cause I’m starting to not care, and I don’t know if that’s bad or not. Maybe I’m not caring because Meredith pissed me off from the get-go.

So she’s back, and April comes to her, giving her some papers, saying she did this and that while she was gone, and that she felt the need to do it because she saw it as her borrowing a car and bringing it back with gas. Then Meredith said “But you stole the car”

I’m looking at her like “we still talking bout this stealing thing?”. Meredith got herself suspended, no one stole her job from her. It was something temporary, everyone knew that! I feel like she’s just doing this because it’s April. I don’t feel like if it was someone else, she or the others would be acting this way.

Anyway, Alex and Riggs had some patient, a baby to deal with. Riggs wanted to go one way while Alex wanted to go another. Alex was pissed and told Meredith about it and Meredith, in turn, approached Riggs about it, saying if he wanted to get anywhere with her, he shouldn’t mess with Alex. I’m sitting here, writing this, and thinking, why did Meredith even feel that she had to approach Riggs about this? This isn’t her case. I think she did it just to let Riggs know he has a shot without actually saying it.

Riggs went behind Alex’s back about the case, and things ended up working out in his favor. Alex, still pissed, called Maggie in because he didn’t want to work with Riggs. Maggie was actually an adult this episode and told them to work together and save that baby’s life.

At the end of the episode, Mer and Riggs are going back and forth about who thinks what and he said that he thought about her a lot and asked her what she thought...it was a bit confusing for me honestly, and I weirdly enough don’t care enough about them both to go into it.

I’m wondering, though, are they just going to forget about the whole Maggie having a crush on him thing? Alex mentioned that if they date, Maggie would get over it. I’m not too sure about that. Maggie will be over the crush thing, maybe she already is, but I don’t know if she would over get over Meredith not telling her.

The only thing I'm looking forward to in this whole thing is how Maggie reacts.

THE AVERY’S:

These suckas should have their own show! I don’t even know where to start.

Ok, let’s start with April and Catherine first. April felt all uncomfortable in the house and was avoiding Jackson because of how he is acting. She was also feeling demoted in a sense because Meredith is back and is being a bitch and she went to Catherine to talk. Apparently, they’re besties now.

But like always, I gotta give the woman props. She’s right, a title is only as good as the person who earned it. Think about it, if someone who didn’t earn a title, got it, would they get any respect from others? No. And even in April’s case, the others didn’t think she earned it, and that was part of why they acted the way they did too. And Catherine also mentioned that yes, Meredith is good, but they turned to April when she was gone. That had to mean something right?

So for the rest of the show, the two of them are being besties and April is talking about Jackson sudden interest in the foundation’s role in the hospital, showed her knowledge on some Avery stuff and talked about how she liked being Chief for a while. So Catherine, seeing her interest, wanted her to go to some hospital the foundation is associated with and see how things run in their trauma department, so SHE can give them tips.

Webber and Catherine, on the other hand, are not besties. Webber is actually sleeping in the on-call room every night. He even went to Bailey telling her that the beds in the room need better mattresses because attending need better rest.

I’m looking at Webber like “Dude, you are a man of a particular age, can’t be sleeping in them kind of conditions"

Now, it’s time to go on to Jackson. Now, everyone else seemed to be cooling down on the whole uprising against Minnick...except Jackson. He was not about to give up. He approached his mother and said he would get Minnick out. He believed that as the representative of the foundation on board, he has a say.

This had me thinking. Was Catherine right to overstep him? Well, as the one more in charge, then I guess she can, but was it right to do what she did and not tell Jackson? Wouldn’t she have to inform him of things like wanting to change the director of the residency program? I don’t know how things like that work, so I’m just asking.

Now, as fate should have it, the four of them, Richard, Catherine, Jackson and April, all have to work on the same patient. Poor Ben is the resident stuck with them. They all want these different approaches, and no one is letting up. It took Ben, the RESIDENT, to propose a plan that would work for everyone. And here’s the thing, it’s not like they couldn’t have come up with the idea themselves, but that they were just too stubborn and in their feelings to function like normal doctors.

They are in the OR, and they are still disagreeing. April had this one approach, and Webber said they shouldn’t do it and mentioned that she wasn’t head of General anymore. First of all, what does being head of general have to do with this? And like Catherine mentioned, she brought in the trauma and this was her department.

Catherine and April start talking about their trip to Chicago, where the trauma center she wants her to visit is, and said they are going to go visit this site, and going to see Hamilton, to which Webber replies “You’re going to see Hamilton without me?”. I’m looking at the TV saying “Yes Richard, she is. You can’t be mad at your wife, not want to talk to her and what not and then rip the benefits of seeing Hamilton, it doesn’t work that way!”

They started talking about Minnick and her program and of course April is praising it while Jackson isn’t. He started saying the reason he does things the way he does was is because Mark took the time to teach him and show him, and that the way Webber taught was an art, while Minnick is just making robots.

I agree with Jackson to some extent because I am one of those people who like learning that way. I rather watch and learn before I practice. I like making sure that I know what I’m doing well before I actually practice it. This was one of those things I recently learned about myself. The thing is, not everyone learns like me and you Jackson. There are others who learn from experience. They learn better by doing it and doing it until they get it right. Both Minnick and Webber’s approaches deal with both people, it’s just that Minnick’s way puts in more practical work than Webber’s way does.

Jackson also said that even though Minnick’s way was good, the way they went by implementing it was disrespectful to Webber. And I agree. I’ve mentioned before that I have no problem with them wanting to change up the teaching program, but them not telling Webber about it and just bringing Minnick in wasn’t right, to me at least. Why couldn’t they go to Webber and say they don’t think the way he’s teaching and doing things isn't working, and they want him to change things up a bit? I think Webber would have actually sought out ways to improve. Who knows, maybe he was already doing that.

Anyway, Jackson and his mother started kinda going at it. She started telling Jackson the same thing she told April, about how the title isn’t as important as the person who has it. She even goes on to show it by how both of them are different as Avery’s. Him just saying he’s an Avery, and not really doing anything to prove it, and her taking the Avery name and doing all that she’s doing with it. She even went on to say “You are an outstanding surgeon” like she was implementing that was all he was. I was looking at the TV saying...

The room literally went silent for a while! Jackson was looking at her like “Wow, you really just said that?”.

Later on, something happened with the patient, and Ben, being the only surgeon in the OR at the time, started trying to fix it. By the time the others got there, he had everything under control, and Webber, trusting that he could do it, allowed him to continue. Jackson was not too happy about that. After the surgery, Jackson told Webber was giving in to Minnick’s way and that they could still fight it. He told him that Catherine will fight him all the way until she wins. I could break down on this scene some more, but I want to leave it until next week.

Then there was the scene with Jackson and Catherine. He asked her about business and family and how she could do that to someone she loved. This, again, I could break down some more, but I’ll leave it for the next review too. Catherine went on to say that they were nothing alike and that she loved that he was his own person. She ended by saying she wished that he liked who he was too. I’m still trying to figure out what she meant by that, I guess I’ll have to leave it for the next review too.

I know you might be mad about me leaving it for the next review, but you all do know what’s happening in the next episode right?

I just thought that my explanation would fit in better there.

Anyway, both pairs were still at odds at the end of the episode. It seemed that what Jackson said stuck with Webber and he chose to spend another night at the hospital. At the house, Jackson mentioned that he had to go to an Avery hospital and April is trying to figure out why he is so into it now. They go back and forth about who could be jealous and who is being manipulated and then Jackson got up and left. That’s when April asked him what was going on with him, and he said nothing. I think April finally got to the point where the fans were a few weeks ago. She noticed that there was something more going on with him. And the Promo answered that question for us.

CONCLUSION:

I actually liked this episode. But I actually like the episode before this one more because that whole residency program rivalry wasn’t prominent. I’m at the point where I’m kind of tired of talking about it. But I don’t think this will be the last we hear of it. At least we’ll get a break next week.

Lesson of the Week:

“A title is only as good as the person who earned it” -Catherine Avery

Yes, she’s still not on my good side, but she spoke some wisdom when she said this.

13x16 PROMO:

That’s all I’m gonna say for now!

Until then!

#grey's anatomy #grey's anatomy review #grey's 13x15 #japril #catherine avery #richard webber #Meredith Grey #alex karev #nathan riggs #arizona robbins #eliza minnick #maggie pierce

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wellmeaningshutin · 7 years

Text

Short Story #70: Remember.

Written: 3/18/2017 Backwards Week

Avery had come home from work to find an envelope, with the word “REMEMBER” written on it, taped to her front door, but there was no form of contact information written on it. When she got inside, the first thing she did was she took off her wig, which she had worn ever since the accident that shaved off some of her scalp, and left a gaping blank spot in her memory, and even though that was some time ago her hair never healed back properly. It was always pleasant to let her scalp, which resembled the torn earth of a no man’s land. When she opened the envelope, she was surprised to find only an unmarked DVD, and nothing else. So, figuring this was the most interesting thing to happen to her since she woke up and was suddenly in her thirties, surrounded by worried family members, she poured herself a glass of wine and decided to watch the movie, whatever it may be.

She almost dropped her glass when she saw that her younger sister was in the movie, since the younger girl had been missing for quite some time, about a couple weeks after Avery had come to. What was stranger was that she was in a scene were she was drinking and hanging out with an older man, who kept calling her sister Avery. “Avery, I think I love you.”

The tile of the movie flashed onto the screen, thanks to the magic of a low quality heart wipe, and she was now staring at the words “Falling in Love, Falling Hard” which were written in simple, white font on top of a blank, rose red background. It seemed like the editing had been done on Windows movie maker, and when it cut back to the movie she had a suspicion that it was filmed off of a cell phone, or a very cheap camera. The low quality and budget of the movie, the fact that her sister was in it, and the way it was all targeted towards her felt like a threat, but a very bad one. Pausing the movie, Avery decided to go and get the whole bottle of wine, it seemed like the movie wasn’t going to be very entertaining, so it was best to make a drinking game out of it. Every time somebody said love, she would take a drink.

Half way through the thing she was already out of wine.

Hard to follow and poorly acted, the movie just kind of seemed to keep dragging on. After the title sequence, it started with her younger sister, who was playing her, coming over to some older guy’s house to just hang out or something, it wasn’t very clear because only a minute passes before the two are already drunk, and they begin to make out. Avery, the fake Avery, pushes him away and shouts, “I don’t think we should do this! We’re good friends and I don’t want to ruin a good thing! I don’t want you to wake up in the morning and hate me!”

Then he grabbed her face, the fake Avery tried hard to look enamored instead of uncomfortable, and the man shouts, “Avery, I think I love you!” However, when he says it, he does so in a way that is like he was trying to sing, but all say it very serious and dramatically, at the same time. Post-declaration, they both began to keep repeating the word love to each other, sometimes taking a break from repeating the words with a very unconvincing kiss, and she felt every time they did so, mainly because it was painfully clear that fake Avery was repulsed by it, but the man was trying to take advantage of the situation.

The word “REMEMBER” appears on the screen, white text behind a solid black background, and then the next scene was literally just the man dancing shirtless while somebody was pouring rose petals down in front of the camera, while some D’Angelo song plays in the background.

“REMEMBER”

The pair wake up together in bed, naked, or at least its supposed to seem like they’re naked, but its easy to see that fake Avery is wearing some sort of strapless clothing underneath the blanket. They turn to each other and try to say “I love you” to each other, and they say it at the same time, but its clear that it had to be dubbed over because their lips don’t match the words. By this time the real Avery is getting shit faced, and is starting to playfully scream, “Get out of there girl!” at her television.

“I think we should make passionate love again,” the man says in a monotone voice, “did you like the orgasms I gave you?”

“Yes,” says fake Avery, having trouble hiding her boredom, “I had a thousand of them, it was good. Super good.”

“I’m very good at sex.”

Again, the word: REMEMBER. This time the background keeps shifting between black and rose red, and then More than a Feeling, by Boston, begins to play in its entirety as the screen flashes like that, then the movie just kind of ends.

Although she knew she should probably tell her parents about it, her first instinct was to throw the movie in the trash and just forget about it. ———————————————————————————————————

Out in a field in the middle of nowhere, sitting in the backseat of a beat up, tan sedan, with the door open and her legs facing outside, the fake Avery, Avery’s younger sister, Ava, is trying to make sense of the script for the film’s second act. Turning to the director who is rifling through the trunk, she asks, “How the hell did this go from you two falling in love, to you two finding buried treasure in the middle of bumfuck nowhere?”

Exhaling smoke, the awful kind that comes from cigarettes that have been lying out for several years, the director grits his teeth and explains, “This is how it happened, this really happened.”

Attempting to waft the stale smoke away from her face, “Do you have to smoke those fucking things? Couldn’t you have bought a new pack or something?”

“I smoked these when Avery and I first met, I’ve kept them ever since, just for a special occasion. Why would I smoke anything else.” Spitting on the ground, “Are you stupid, do you not understand love?”

“Hey, don’t call me fucking stupid when you’re the one writing some script about you and my sister, finding buried treasure out in an empty-”

“Look, I told you this is how it happened.”

“I just think-”

“FUCK YOU!” Repeatedly punching the back license plate, causing the car to shake, “Are you saying I didn’t love her? Are you trying to lie to me right now? Fuck you, you don’t know love, you don’t know what we had.” Pulling his fist back, searching for a rag in the trunk so that he could stop the bleating, and maybe to clean the skin off of the license plate, he cooly said, “Do you want the money or what?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I want the money.”

“Then get that shovel, get in front of the camera, and fucking dig.”

“Did you bring a chest out here, or-”

“I’m going to digitally edit it in later, you know, editing magic. Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing, I know love.”

Figuring it was better to get paid than to be right, she walked out into that feild, in front of the camera, propped up on the tripod, that had been running, filming nothing for ten minutes straight, and began to dig. As she did this the older man mumbled to himself, planning on what he would say to Avery when they were reunited, as he searched for a rag, but one couldn’t be found, so he decided to remove his t-shirt and used that to clean his license plate, and then cover his hand. It was freezing out, he could see the sun getting low, and when he looked at Ava he could see her breath rise up to the sky. “How deep do you want me to dig? How long do you want me to keep this up for?”

“About…” thinking over how deep the hole would need to be, trying to scratch his head with his muffled hand, then having to switch to the other hand as he tried to coolly place the wrapped one on the top of the trunk, which he forgot was open, leading him to fall over into the trunk. Ava was unfazed by this, and decided to just keep digging. The man tried to think of a way that would make it look like he planned to stumble around like that, but it only caused him to focused more on his mishap, which caused him to become embarrassed, which led him to think, ‘I’ll just dig that fucker myself. Fuck her, she’s probably digging a no good hole. I can do it better than she could!”

Lifting himself up, he peered over at Ava out of spite, and then grabbed his hunting rifle out of his trunk. While she was focused on digging, he aimed at her, but his hands were very unsteady, especially the damaged one, and his first shot obliterated the camcorder, the second act being destroyed with it, but completely missed the fake Avery, who immediately dropped into the hole after hearing the shot, hoping that it would be good enough cover.Luckily, the man had terrible aim, especially since after the accident, and spend the whole clip without even being close to hitting her. The only non dirt objects that he struck were the camcorder, and a rock that caused a bullet to ricochet and shatter one of the side view mirrors on his car, making it shittier than it already was.

When she heard the click click click of the empty rifle, Ava decided to climb out of the hole and started running off into the horizon, hoping that something would work, that she would escape this lovestruck maniac, but she knew that it was futile, that he would eventually get her, because there was no way she could out run a car. The sunset was just so beautiful, and she just wanted to run towards it, so she could buy a couple extra seconds of life, so she could enjoy the view before it was gone. ———————————————————————————————————

“You want me to what?”

“Just get naked and lie in bed with me, its not like we’re going to actually have sex,” the man casually tried to explain, treating the 23 year old as if she was slow, “This is how they do it in the movie business, Hollywood. Do you know anything about movies?”

Trying to keep her anger and disgust in check, because she needed the money for rent, Ava tried to explain as reasonably as she could, “Kissing you was already too fucking much, and now you want me to lie in bed next to you, completely naked? The fuck is the point of this movie? Are you just trying to fuck me?”

“God damn it, how did you get that? What did I say to even remotely imply that?”

“For starters, when we kissed you said their would be no tongue, and you kept trying to slip it to me.”

“I was just being realistic! I’m sorry if I take movies very seriously! I’m just trying to fulfill my artistic vision!”

“Also, you clearly have an erection right now.”

“That’s not for you, don’t you get all high and mighty right now! You think that because you’re young and pretty that every guy wants to bang you, well this is for your sister, not you!”

“What the fuck is this, why did I agree to do this? You clearly aren’t right in the head.” Collecting her things, trying to not turn her back to the man, “I still can’t understand the point of this fucking thing anyways.”

Throwing his hands up in frustration, walking in a circle, amazed at how childish and unreasonable the dumb girl was being, “This movie is about how your sister and I met, right? So if she sees it, she’ll remember everything we did together, and then when her memory comes back she’ll live with me again, and we can be in love. She can do my dishes, clean my clothes, all of the things she used to do when she loved me! How can’t you understand how love works, are you emotionally retarded or something?”

Slipping on her flats, “First off, you in no way seem like you actually love her, you just want a maid.”

Appalled, having to step back when he heard this, “Have you never.. Do you not know how relationships work? Do you not know love?”

“Fine fine, whatever, lets just not get into this then! I’ll just get my shit and go, and if you really want to get back with my sister then just fucking talk to her, I don-”

“I can’t talk to her again, do you know how long it took me to get her to love me the first time around? Your sister is a real bitch, did you know that? But I guess it runs in the family.”

“Fuck you, I don’t need the money that bad.” And she began to storm out, not wanting to deal with this low life, realizing why her parents hated this guy so much.

Reaching out and latching onto her arm, preventing her from leaving, he had to tell his side of the story, he couldn’t let her think she was better than him, “Look here, I’m to old to go through that routine with your sister. If this movie works, then she’ll remember our love and we’ll be back together, and if it doesn’t then, well, I’ll just have to find somebody else. So don’t act all smug, you’re the one who is being unreasonable and stupid here. So will you do the movie or what?”

“If I do my price is going to go up.”

“How much?”

“$1,500 now.”

“That’s too much.”

“Too much for love?”

“Fine, whatever.”

“And I’m not getting naked, we can just fake that.”

“FINE! Whatever! God damn it.”

So they both agreed to deal with the other person and go through with the movie. Ava figured that she could just take the money and warn Avery about the movie, or destroy it before it came out, and the man figured that he could just not pay the stuck up girl and add a whole new layer of reality to his film, his testament of true love. ———————————————————————————————————

As her parents sat by Avery’s bedside, hoping that she would wake up, a nurse stepped into the doorway to tell them that there was another visitor. A little surprised and confused, the father left the room to go and see who it was, but he quickly became angry, his face went from pale to red, when he saw that piece of shit standing there, arm slung in a cast, grin on his facing, saying, “I just want to see Avery, I hope that she’s okay.”

His first instinct was to punch the man in the face, just a clean blow that would hopefully dislodge a tooth, or maybe his wedding ring would get caught somewhere, maybe under the man’s eye, but he decided to hold back. What if he was kicked out of the hospital, then his daughter came to without him there? He’d never forgive himself for that, and he could just rough up the dirt bag at any time, so he decided to calmly and reasonably tell the man to “Get the fuck out of here, and never show your face here again, or I’ll tell the cops.”

Smiling, the man put his one hand up in a sign of peace, and tried to explain, “I’m sorry but I don’t know what I did wrong here, I just want to see Avery. Can’t a man see his fiance? Its pretty unreasonable for you to keep me outside, waiting and worrying, and what if she died in there, what if she-”

“What if she died in the accident, you bald prick, what about that?”

“Well that’s hardly-”

“Look here, you can fucking bet that I will do everything to ensure that my daughter never marries you, you son of a bitch, and there is no way in hell that I’m going to let you anywhere near her as long as I’m still alive. Now if you-”

Turning to the nurse, “How is this fair? Why are you allowing him to-”

Not wanting to put up with this shit, the nurse firmly said, “Keep me out of this”, and then walked away. She had other patients to deal with.

Fed up, the man tried to force his way past the father, who turned out to be much stronger than the guy and did not budge at all. “Fuck this, this is bullshit”, the man shouted, and decided to march off and leave, deciding that he would figure out some other plan later, hoping that if Avery woke up, her parents wouldn’t fill her head with lies. As he was leaving, a nurse walked by him holding a small, paper cup with pills inside, and the man snatched them from her, downed them all, dry, and then shouted “I hope these kill me, I could never live in a world without her!” Eventually security came after him, then he actually left.

The nurse walked past the dad, upset that she had to get a refill, telling herself, “I can’t believe he would inconvenience me like that. Melodramatic jerk. At least he’s going to piss like crazy now. That will show him from snatching shit from me, making my job that much harder than it already is.” ———————————————————————————————————

Avery finally had enough, she was ready to leave, and nothing was going to stop her. Already having her stuff prepacked, stuffed into two large suitcases, just the essentials, she searched around the house for the spot where she hid all of her extra money, and her second set of car keys, waiting for this moment. When they were in her possession, she didn’t want to waste any time, who knows how long he was going to be out, so she grabbed her suit cases, and bolted for the front door. However, when she opened the door she was dismayed to find that he had been standing there, almost black out drunk, trying to figure out why she had the suitcases.

“Are, are you leaving me?” It was more of a threat than a question. “Do you think, do you not know what I do, every day, what I provide for you?”

“No, no, you’re just a little drunk, you’re just-” and then the first blow of that night came as he didn’t waste any time, and lodged a fist right in her gut, making sure to knock the wind out of her.

“Do you think I’m stupid? You think that, don’t you? You think I wouldn’t, do you think I couldn’t tell that you try to-”

“Honey, please-”

“Shut up! Let me think. Now, if you want to go, I can take you there. We’ll go together. Alright? I’m your fiance, aren’t I? Do you think you can just leave me, after all I, the things I did for you? Do you know how many women I didn’t sleep with, just because I loved you? Do you know how much it hurts to love you?” Sometimes if she went limp and quiet, he would get bored and leave her alone, but it wasn’t one of those times. “Do you know how much it hurts?” Then he stomped down onto her rib cage with enough force to fracture a rib. “Lets go, we’re leaving, together.”

Holding back tears, “Please, no, honey, you’re drunk, you can’t-”

He picked her up and threw her into the coffee table. “Don’t you tell me what I can’t do! Now get your shit, and get in the car!”

Feeling like she had no choice, feeling defeated, she grabbed her bags and marched in front of him, so that he could watch her, and got into the passenger seat of the car. Having some trouble, he got into the driver’s seat, started up the shitty, tan sedan, and began to leave the driveway, destination unknown. Avery hoped that they would stop at a red light in a crowded part of town, so she could jump out and try to escape, but she was unlucky enough for them to hit every green light, she was unlucky for no cops to be nearby to pull them over.

Taking her attempt to leave as the ultimate form of betrayal, her fiance decided that he was going to drive her out to an open field somewhere so that he could shoot her, and then shoot himself. It was a gesture, in his mind, of love and hate. Luckily for Avery, before they got to the field the abusive drunk ran a red light, and their car was hit by a pickup truck.

#Free Write #Short Story #Writers on Tumblr #Amnesia #Love

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16 Writers Reflect On The Magical Meaning Of Michelle Obama

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16 Writers Reflect On The Magical Meaning Of Michelle Obama

In her forward to Veronica Chambers The Meaning of Michelle, filmmaker Ava DuVernay describes a historic scene. In the center of her story is, of course, Michelle Obama, the first lady whos spent two terms standing beside and, in some ways, rocketing past her husband, President Barack Obama. On the particular day DuVernay chose to remember, Michelle in a deep red shift dress was touring her then-future home for the first time.

Damn being demure! The sight of her striding up the White House steps was a transformative image to behold, DuVernay writes. In one wardrobe choice, this stellar sister brought a breath of fresh air to the hallowed halls of the worlds most famous residence […] In that one photo op, Michelle infused the image of the First Lady with pride, panache and polish. Many of us saw a woman to be admired. A woman to be trusted.

Scratch that, she adds. Many of us saw a Black woman to be admired. A Black woman to be trusted. There it is.

St Martins Press

The Meaning of Michelle, edited by Mamas Girl author Chambers, is a collection of stories dedicated to the iconic first ladys legacy. With essays from Roxane Gay, Tanisha C. Ford, Marcus Samuelsson, Phillipa Soo, Rebecca Carroll, Sarah Lewis and more, the book is meant to stand as a parting gift to Michelle, set to leave office a mere weeks after the books publication in January. The 16 writers cover everything from representational justice to fashion to stereotypes related to race and marriage to the unapologetic power of blackness.

For many of these authors, the allure of Michelle is both academic and personal, a draw so intimately connected to identities of womanhood, motherhood, blackness and beyond that her influence is rarely described without the object us.She stirs us, provokes us, leads us, emboldens us, so many write. Her achievements can be our achievements, so many intone; she is both singular and a reflection of a rising tide of women leaders. Michelle! DuVernay proclaims. That name now carries a whole world of meaning.

In honor of Michelles birthday on Jan. 17, and the final week of her eight-year run as first lady, here are excerpts from the 16 authors in Chambers collection. Together, they make up an ever-evolving definition of Michelle Obama:

Leigh Vogel via Getty Images

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Veronica Chambers on Michelles intimacy:

Theres an intimacy we felt with her from the beginning. The mainstream media seemed flummoxed by her lack of political posturing: Is she on board with this whole political spouse thing? do the Obamas want it (meaning the presidency) badly enough? But it was that very same lack of fake warmth and glossed-over royal waves that let us, in the Black community, know that she was real, and this is what won our affection.

Shes given us permission to be ourselves, on a national stage, to be proud of our Blackness, our realness, our humble beginnings, our regular-ness, our greatness. Benilde Little

Benilde Little on Michelles pride:

Michelle resonates for us on a deeply personal level. Shes given us permission to be ourselves, on a national stage, to be proud of our Blackness, our realness, our humble beginnings, our regular-ness, our greatness. To not be perfect and to not even have that as a goal, because shes smart enough to understand that perfection is its own prison.

Bloomberg via Getty Images

Damon Young on Michelles acceptance:

I believe that defense of Michelle helped many of us acknowledge, accept, confront, and attempt to alter some of the more unsavory and unflattering latent beliefs and sub-conscious feelings we possessed about our skin and our noses and our eyes and our hair. Its a legacy Im amazed by when I think of kids like my 9-year-old niece and 11-year-old nephew.

It’s easier to be brave in our era when possibility is modeled the way that that couple has. Alicia Hall Moran

Alicia Hall Moran (in conversation with Jason Moran) on Michelles place in history:

She has achieved what we Black people have really taken personally, what Maya Angelou called the dream of the slave. It makes living in a contemporary society very easy. Its easier to be brave in our era when possibility is modeled the way that that couple has.

Drew Angerer via Getty Images

Brittney Cooper on Michelle and Beyoncs relationship:

Both Michelle and Beyoncare actively remixing the terms upon which Black womanhood has been cast. The denial of the right to ladyhood that has shaped Black womens lives since the advent of slavery can no longer proceed unchecked into the twenty-first century.

Why should [Michelle] be apologetic? Come to think of it, why should I? Ylonda Gault Caviness

Ylonda Gault Caviness on Michelles fearlessness:

Why should she be apologetic? Come to think of it, why should I? Michelle did not come to play. Yes, she is proud in her role as Mrs. Obama and, rightly so, she gives Barack his propers all day long, loving and supporting his candidacy. But she never set out to function as a mere prop to his or anyone elses agenda.

Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images

Chirlane McCray on Michelles self-definition:

When First Lady Obama said her top priority was to serve as mom-in-chief, she was telling us that her family comes first. […] I have tremendous respect for how she defined herself, right from the beginning, defined her role before there was too much speculation about what she would do.

I have tremendous respect for how she defined herself, right from the beginning. Chirlane McCray

Cathi Hanauer on identifying with Michelle:

I wouldnt be surprised if someone suggested Im about as unlike Michelle Obama as two women roughly the same age with two children can be. Yet in one way and its an important one I really identify with Michelle. And thats this: She and I have both had to learn to be The Wife.

NurPhoto via Getty Images

Tiffany Dufu on Michelles professional success:

Michelle Obama is only the third [First Lady] to have a professional or graduate degree, public evidence of intellectual prowess and independence, and to have balanced her own high-profile career with her private role as wife and mother. She, along with Hillary Clinton, charted a path that allows future first ladies to do it their way. Her polarity inspires all of us to break the mold.

She, along with Hillary Clinton, charted a path that allows future first ladies to do it their way. Tiffany Dufu

Tanisha C. Ford on Michelle as us:

We, as Black women, respected and admired how she lived between two tensions: the stature and visibility of the office of First Lady and the disturbing social responses to her Black womanness. […] Even though her platform was larger than ours, her daily routine with her team of secret service agents who clocked and coordinated her every move different than ours, she was us. Even if she was the First Lady, first and foremost, she was a Black woman.

Joe Raedle via Getty Images

Marcus Samuelsson on Michelles relevance:

Its an amazing achievement, for her to be so relevant in these conversations, whether its talking about Obamacare or talking about New York Fashion Week or kids food. Always aware that, no matter what she says, shes speaking to the world. She is putting something out there to the world that the world has never seen before.

Authenticity is not an achievement. Yet authenticity doest take effort if you are upending centuries of history with your mere presence. Sarah Lewis

Sarah Lewis on Michelles authenticity:

Authenticity is not an achievement. Yet authenticity does take effort if you are upending centuries of history with your mere presence. It takes work to let people stare, wonder, probe and prod to determine the veracity of your life.

Bloomberg via Getty Images

Karen Hill Anton on Michelles determination:

Michelle, what I really like about you is that you did not settle for an assigned role. I imagine you saw early on the potential of the position of First Lady, and determined to use it to full advantage. I guess you also saw the risks, but went for it anyhow. Wow.

She is a civil disruptor with a radical kind of benevolence. Rebecca Carroll

Rebecca Carroll on Michelle as a politician:

She is a civil disruptor with a radical kind of benevolence. She is focused and silly, compelling and humble. It would all be an act if it wasnt. And while some might argue that this is precisely what politicians do and who they are polished, well prepared, articulate, unflappable Michelle Obama is not so much a politician as she is a manifestor; the hyper spectacular incarnation of a Black woman unbound.

Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Phillipa Soo on Michelles ability to bring people together:

I could tell just from watching Mrs. Obama that she has such an awareness of what it means to bring people together, how important that is. We can all be doing our separate things amazingly, but when you bring groups together the ways she does, it can actually create something better than you could have imagined.

I hope Michelle Obama does whatever her heart most desires when her husband’s presidency ends, but I would love to see her make space for black girls and women in the public sphere. Roxane Gay

Roxane Gay on Michelles future:

I hope Michelle Obama does whatever her heart most desires when her husbands presidency ends, but I would love to see her make space for black girls and women in the public sphere and the public imagination. In a perfect world, she might create and lead a robust and well-funded organization dedicated to black girls and women, one that implements a set of initiatives that encourage black girls and women to flourish.

The Meaning of Michelle, published by St. Martins Press, is available onAmazon or at your local bookstore.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

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